The Ink & Blood of the Scholar

 

Indeed nations are only brought to life by their beliefs and their concepts, and they die only with their desires and their lusts.

The extent to which righteous convictions and correct beliefs spread within a nation, is the extent to which it plants its roots in the depths of the earth and sends forth orchards of trunks with their flourishing leaves so that man can take shade by it from the troubles of life, its financial fever and from the flame of hatred, envy and competition for cheap thrills and temporary enjoyment.

As for the Muslim Ummah, it does continue to exist in the course of history of humankind, except by a divine ideology and the blood which flows as a result of spreading this divine ideology and implanting it into the real world.

The life of the Muslim Ummah is solely dependent on the ink of its scholars and the blood of its martyrs. What is more beautiful than the writing of the Ummah's history with both the ink of a scholar and his blood, such that the map of Islamic history becomes coloured with two lines: one of them black, and that is what the scholar wrote with the ink of his pen; and the other one red, and that is what the martyr wrote with his blood. And something more beautiful than this is when the blood is one and the pen is one, so that the hand of the scholar which expends the ink and moves the pen, is the same as the hand which expends its blood and moves the Ummah. The extent to which the number of martyred scholars increases is the extent to which nations are delivered from their slumber, rescued from their decline and awoken from their sleep.

History does not write its lines except with blood. Glory does not build its loft edifice except with skulls, honour and respect cannot be established except on a foundation of cripples and corpses. Empires, distinguished peoples, states and societies cannot be established except with examples.

Indeed those who think that they can change reality, or change societies, without blood, and sacrifices, without pure, innocent souls, then they do not understand the essence of this Deen and they do not know the method of the best of the Messengers ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam.

As for those who build nations, they are few in number. Sometimes the Ummah can be built by a single individual who makes a stand by means of which Allah rescues this Deen, just like Sayyidunā Abū Bakr raḍiyallāhu ‘anhu made a stand of the Day of Apostasy; and the day when Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal raḥimahullāh made a stand when the entire world was speechless at the innovation that the Qur’an had been created, so Allāh saved the Ummah with him.

A small group: they are the ones who carry convictions and ambitions. And an even smaller group from this small group, are the ones who flee from the worldly life in order to spread and act upon these ambitions. And an even smaller group from this elite group, are the ones who sacrifice their souls and their blood in order to bring victory to these ambitions and principles. So, they are the cream of the cream of the cream. It is not possible to reach glory except by traversing this Path. It is not possible for the structures of this Deen to be established, nor for its banner to be raised, nor for its vessel to be launched, except by traversing this Path. This Path is one. In fact, there is no Paradise without this Path: "Do you really think that you will enter Paradise, before Allah has decided from amongst you, those who fight in His Way and those who are patient?" [Quran 3:142]

Shaykh Abdullāh Azzam raḥimahullāh