A speech by Muhammad Ibrahim Shuqqa regarding al-Sham and its virtue.

The questioner : It is a speech, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : I would like to deliver a speech, may Allah preserve you, and then we will write the question on paper. One person asks so that there is some organization. So, Shaykh, let us make use of the time!

The Shaykh : I see that we should occupy our time with knowledge, if Allah wills, until the caller for this gathering arrives, and he is our brother Abu Malik. We should occupy our time until he brings some scientific issues that concern our brothers present. Perhaps it is permissible for me to draw attention to the fact that the questions chosen should be ones people are not accustomed to directing to such matters; I mean questions that may be rare and the audience may not be aware of the answer to, whereas you are honored by directing some important questions.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Then you honored us, and then I found this problem, unfortunately, and the time passed. What is your plan, in any case!

The questioner : Delivering a speech, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : In any case, perhaps you should begin with what is best?
Muhammad Ibrahim Shuqqa: Praise is to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the badness of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can misguide, and whom He misguides, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His messenger. As for what follows: The truest speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. My brothers, may Allah bless you and reward you with the best of what He rewards His righteous servants with. We ask Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) to grant us and you success and correctness in speech and action, and to make us among the best of His servants, and to assign us the stations of the righteous in the highest paradise, and to be truly among the followers of the Master of the Messengers, may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment. And I, as I stand among you speaking, do not wish to tell you something that is unknown to you, even if it may be clearer and more evident to some than to others. If anyone has knowledge of what I am saying, that is what we seek and desire. And if it is otherwise, then we remind, and the reminder benefits the believers. And it was—and I think it is a reminder, if Allah wills—a very great occasion for us to meet in this noble meeting, to meet on a meaning of the meanings that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has prescribed, and on a matter of the matters that Muslims rarely gather upon in such a time when the laws of Islam have disappeared from them and its landmarks have become hidden from them, and its light has diminished before them, so that only faint embers remain to light the path in a severe darkness spreading in a pitch-black night. And this is what we feel and we consider it to be the case, except that this time which we describe as we have described it has shown light in it from far and near, meeting at one point. This point where the light or two lights meet: the light of the Book and the light of the Sunnah, which the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and the generations that passed carried with the best of what a generation or century carried to those after them. I say these two lights met at one point that cannot be overlooked or forgotten or not mentioned in our present history. They met at one point, and in one region, and that is the lands of al-Sham. And the lands of al-Sham in the end of time are the best of the lands, the safest, and the most blessed, and people turn to them from every deep valley, despite that a period of time may pass over these lands about which Allah said: I say: These lands are the refuge of Muslims in the end of time, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says, among what he says: So al-Sham is the refuge of Islam, and there is no doubt in that and no ambiguity. And we do not count ourselves, nor do I mean those present in this place today, but rather I mean the people of the lands of al-Sham. I do not mean those who have strayed for a period into something of corruption or something of deficiency or something of weakness and flaw or something of severance and the like. I do not mean that they are the ones who will be the bearers of the message of Islam and the bearers of this light, this great light that met, and there is no doubt, in our land: the light of the Book and the light of the Sunnah. Rather, I mean that from this blessed region and in this time in which we live, the vanguard will be the ones who carry this light. Not to carry it to race with time, or to boast with it among people, or to rejoice with it without others, but rather I mean that this group is the vanguard that carries this light, even if it is weak, to the generations after them. And this is a matter to which one should be alert, and to know our status in this time in which the vanguards of light have appeared, or in which the meeting of the light of the Book with the light of the Sunnah has appeared in this blessed land. So what concerns us, the people of al-Sham and the people of these lands—and I mean by al-Sham the land extending from al-Arish to the Euphrates; this is the land of al-Sham, and it is the land in which He blessed and made the people therein the best of people, until the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says: So it is obligatory upon Muslims to know a fact in which there is no doubt, and that is that the lands of al-Sham are the refuge of all Muslims. I do not say that Muslims should gather from the corners of the earth to this region which does not accommodate the numbers that arrive in this land, but rather I mean it is obligatory upon Muslims wherever they are to be the support behind the people of these lands, and to extend to them the means of strength and steadfastness in this land, until when there are two camps: a camp of faith with no hypocrisy in it, and a camp of hypocrisy with no faith in it. Until when we reach this time, we have prepared the preparation, the preparation by psychological, spiritual, and intellectual readiness through knowledge, worship, faith, and mindfulness of Allah, and the preparation also by physical and material preparation, and that is by what is available to us of the means of this strength, in which Muslims become capable of protecting Muslims in all corners of the earth. And this is a fact, and unfortunately it is absent from the masses of Muslims in all the earth. And if Allah has granted us that we Muslims in these lands and in this time are the vanguards of Muslims who support the religion of Allah by carrying His Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet, and calling to them and announcing them and warning against deviation from them, if Allah has decreed for us to be so, and we praise Allah for making us so, then it is necessary also to mention that this religion or this light that met at one point from all the corners of the earth, and the faces of its seekers of knowledge and scholars from all horizons of the lands of Muslims turned to it, if it is necessary to mention that, then it is necessary also to mention the scientific reality that Muslims live in these lands, and which they have not valued at its true value. This knowledge they have not valued at its true value, neither in the person of its bearer, nor in the persons of those who claim it with zeal, activity, understanding, reflection, action, worship, and conduct that overflows their limbs and their minds with knowledge, etiquette, and morals, and the requirement of the saying "There is no deity but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." And what is this gathering, and I did not intend by this gathering—and Allah is witness—that we meet in this place except to adopt a Sunnah of the Sunnahs that Muslims have abandoned in such occasions, and they are occasions of marriage and nuptials. And if it is permissible for me to say something, I do not say it about myself, but rather I say it about all the brothers who took the initiative to understand this issue or this matter well, and they will not cease to make themselves an example of those who came before them and those who come after us. But rarely has such a number gathered in such a place on what we wish to clarify on the tongue of our Shaykh and our teacher, may Allah reward him with good, and he is the distinguished hadith scholarThe Shaykh : Al-Albani, and I say that among the blessings of Allah upon the land of Sham is that such a man was found after a long period of interruption, and after a gap that was not bridged between the Muslims and knowledge for a longer time than what has ever been, or than what was interposed between them and this knowledge. So Allah bestowed upon this land that He placed in it a hadith scholar to whom students of knowledge turned from every horizon of the earth, while his family and relatives in his homeland forgot him, except for a small, few number who recognized his worth and his standing with Allah, if Allah wills. His standing is higher than what our love for him, our sincerity to him, and our persistent effort to attend his gatherings to receive knowledge has placed him in. I say that if he has not attained this status or this position among the people in this land, and it is a blessing from Allah upon it, then Allah the Mighty and Majestic has reserved for him, if Allah wills, this position with Him to reward him fully on the Day of Resurrection. And I find myself in the greatest embarrassment while speaking before my Shaykh and my teacher with such a statement, but it is necessary to mention some of this so that we know that the favor of Allah upon us is immense and very immense, and that this favor is not attained by anyone except one who appreciates it with its true worth, or recognizes it for himself and for others. There is a beautiful word that, as I think, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "The favor of those who possess favor is not known except by those who possess favor." And the people of favor know themselves better than others regarding the favor of themselves, by what Allah the Mighty and Majestic has bestowed upon them of the blessing of knowledge, by which they discover themselves and stand upon the reality of their existence in this life. And I do not wish to speak more than that, except to say once again: May Allah reward you with good for your coming and your gathering. And I thank Allah, or I thank Allah for His favor and His blessing, that I came to know you and you came to know me. This acquaintance is a richness, or it is a blessing that suffices for every blessing, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentions, among the hadiths and his kind words, that Allah says on the Day of Resurrection: And now I invite our Shaykh, may Allah reward him with good, to speak to you about something, or issues, etiquettes, and rulings related to such a noble occasion, which I take great pride in, and my son 'Asim also has the right, and my entire family has the right, by right, to be proud and to praise Allah the Mighty and Majestic that our Shaykh was the cause of such a marriage, and that he was the one who contracted the marriage contract for my son and married him, and may Allah reward him with good. And this is a favor from him from beginning to end, and may Allah reward him with good, and bless in him, and prolong his life, and let the Muslims enjoy his knowledge, and turn back the plots of his enemies against him, and make him manifest in truth over them, if Allah wills. So let our Shaykh please proceed.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good, for you have not left me any room for speech. Professor 'Ali, perhaps you could delight us with a word, and you are the father of the bride!
'Ali Khushan: Shall we hear from you?

The Shaykh: Go ahead.
'Ali Khushan: It is enough that we hear!

The Shaykh : I have nothing now, so please proceed, and we will answer some of the questions. May Allah reward you with good, you have not left me any room for speech, and may Allah reward you with good.
Muhammad Ibrahim: Our Shaykh, this, this.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you, please proceed.