The Ruling on Individuals Supporting Iraq

The Shaykh : As for the jurisprudential issue, it draws attention to the fact that a Muslim must be realistic and not have rigid thinking, just as in some other jurisprudential matters. When khamr is khamr, we prohibit it because the Lawgiver has forbidden it in His verses and in the hadiths of His Prophet. However, if this khamr were to transform and ferment into vinegar, it is not permissible for a Muslim to remain with his previous statement that drinking this beverage is forbidden, because it has developed and become something other than the previous reality; it was khamr and became vinegar, it was forbidden and became lawful. And so, measure from yourselves many, many issues, the most famous of which is that water is divided into three categories: purifying, pure, and impure. But these types may be subjected to things that take them out of their ruling. For example, purifying water, which in its reality is pure, may cease to be purifying while remaining pure, and then in some cases it may cease to be pure and become impure. This water that has become impure may develop and transform by the addition of much water, that is, by being mixed with pure water, and it reverts to being pure after it was impure. And so, the Muslim jurist must give every ruling its due, and not remain with the initial ruling when something has entered it that necessitates a change. I said, among other things I said earlier, that it is obligatory for Islamic states to support the Iraqi people, and I held back and said: and it is not obligatory for individuals. By that, I mean that the enthusiasm of the individuals that we witnessed at the beginning of the fitnah, and especially now, these people should not think about supporting Iraq individually, but rather they must urge their states to be with them in supporting Iraq against their enemies who are called the allies. The reason for this goes back to two things: the first is a religious matter, and the second is the reality that necessitates it. As for the religious aspect, we know from the authentic Sunnah that the Muslims who were fighting the disbelievers in the early periods, even in the Prophetic era, every tribe’s individuals would fight with their tribe; so the Muhajireen with the Muhajireen, and the Ansar with the Ansar, united by the circle of Islam. Why was this? Because every tribe has its customs and traditions that do not conflict with Islam, such as understanding, language, and the like, all of which relate to the organization of Islamic jihad. So if a state goes with its people to jihad, they have their own banner, and the individuals of their people understand their methods and understand their language and the like. This is the first reason, which is the religious one. As for the matter necessitated by reality, when individuals go there, they will join a system; first, they have no covenant with it and no knowledge of it, and second, it may prevent them from performing many individual obligatory duties because they are not accustomed to that system, which does not live in the system of Islam that obligates Muslims to maintain the Shari'ah and the rulings of the religion, even in times of hardship and even in times of war. For example, perhaps you all know from the books of fiqh and the books of hadith a prayer called the Prayer of Fear. This Prayer of Fear has a special type and a special characteristic, and I do not think that most Muslim individuals truly know this prayer called the Prayer of Fear. And in my opinion, if these individuals go to fight to achieve this support, which is now an individual obligation (fard 'ayn) for everyone who is able to carry a weapon.