In the name of Allah, the beneficent the merciful'We narrate to you the story of Moses and Pharaoh in truth for the guidance of the believers. Pharaoh elevated himself in the land and divided its citizens into groups: he persecuted a group, put their sons to death and spared only their females'' (Quran 28: 1-5)'A grief at the hour of deathIs more than a hundredfoldOf joy at the hour of birth' ' Abul Alaa al-MaariEXACTLY twenty years ago, what hitherto had been impossible became possible when Muammar Qadhafi (MQ) launched Phase I of the largest civil engineering venture in the world - a project, which was dubbed the Great Man-Made River. It was designed to provide water to the desert lands of Libya, to provide succour to those Arab-Africans.Libyans had in Qadhafi a leader who had vision and was ready to deploy the wealth of the nation to the promotion of the good of all. Thus from an enormous ancient aquifer, deep below the Sahara Desert, fresh water began to flow north through 1,200 kilometres of pipeline to the coastal areas where 90 per cent of Libyan people live, delivering around one million cubic metres of pure water per day to the cities of Benghazi and Sirte. Thus Libya, under MQ, succeeded in producing what it thought it did not have; Nigeria, under the PDP, continues to import what it has in abundance!But that is not all. The Libya MQ left behind, or rather the Libya he 'produced,' is one that is free of NEPA bills. In other words, Libyan citizens do not pay electricity bills; they do not pay interests on loans since all banks are state-owned. Ownership of homes is equally deemed a human right under MQ. Thus since ownership of decent accommodation is fundamental to the establishment of new families, Libya under Qadhafi usually handed out a princely sum of 60,000 Dinar ($50,000) to the newly wed to assist them purchase their first apartment!Before Qadhafi, only 25 per cent of Libyans were literate; the day he got the only bullet in his head, he left behind 83 per cent of literate Libyans to 'celebrate' his death. Let me add this to the MQ's heritage: the price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 (N22) per 10 litres, the country has no external debt and its reserves is not less than $150 billion!If, indeed, the above represents some of the Qadhafi's heritage, why did he become a villain' Why would a leader who pays an unemployed graduate the average salary he would receive as a professional until employment suddenly became an enemy of his people' How did Libyans come to hate MQ even though he ensured that a portion of Libyan oil sales was credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens' Why did Libyans shout 'freedom' at the death of a man who gave every new mother $5,000 upon the delivery of a new baby'Brethren, Qadhafi became a villain probably because he appropriated unto himself and his family more of the wealth of his nation than the people would have loved. He also became a villain probably because his 'madness' had reached a stage, which the West could no longer put up with.Brethren in Islam, perhaps the real reason for the tragedy, which befell MQ, is inhered in the spiritual not the physical after all. Sometimes last year, he described himself as the 'king of kings.' He succumbed to the iniquitous and perfidious suggestions of the Shaytan, which goaded him to see himself as a tin god; MQ suffered from his own hamartia.By referring to himself as the king of kings, he retrieved the history of Fir'awn and Nimrud for our contemplation. The greatest sin Fir'awn committed against Allah was his arrogation unto himself an attribute of Allah. He claimed divinity; he forgot that he was an expirable entity. Thus he warned his people: 'If you serve any other god besides me, I shall have you thrown into prison' (Q 26: 29).Whenever a mortal claims immortality, he commits a combination of infractions against the Divine. These include fisq, kufr, and tughyan (wrongdoing, disbelief, and rebellion) against Allah. Thus Fir'awn did not only disobey Allah, he also called to disbelief and rebellion against the Almighty. He established himself as a ruler in a system of governance where he himself enjoyed the unconditional and absolute right of political sovereignty in complete disregard of the authority of the Creator-Allah. Eventually Fir'awn expired in the sea; his body had to be preserved as a signifier to the inimitable powers of Allah.While it is arguable to say that the former Libyan strongman did not intend to posture as a new Fir'awn in the desert, the refusal of most Arab rulers to vacate office and their assumption that nobody else other than themselves or their sons and immediate families are fit to be rulers of their respective countries, compels the retrieval of the Fir'awnic patrimony as a foil with which the current negative trend in the Arab world may be understood.Indeed, the refusal of MQ to leave office after 40 years and the on-going progrom being carried out by Baashir Asad against defenseless Syrians is a testimony to the emergence of new Farainah (Pharaohs) in the Arabian Peninsula.But the greatest challenge confronting the Arabs is not that of stopping the emergence of these new Pharaohs. Rather the challenge consists of how to confront the monster of dictatorship without becoming dictators; how to confront an evil without producing devils. Such was the case with the way MQ was killed.The latter calls to mind the Islamic ethical precepts, which appeared lacking in this instance. Our leader, Prophet Muhammad (saw) reminds us that: 'Allah adorned Islam with good character and beautiful actions; good company, good manners, modest talk, doing good to others, feeding the poor, spreading peace, visiting the ill -pious or sinner, good treatment of the neighbour- believer or non-believer, giving in charity, greeting people first, pardoning the faults of others, giving up bad treatment of the enemy, pride, indecencies, oppression' all these are the attributes of a believer.'Brethren in Islam, while I was writing this sermon I strove to answer the following questions without success: if MQ deserved a bullet in the head despite the prosperity he bequeathed to Libya, how many bullets do the Nigerian leaders deserve for the perpetual poverty they continue to inflict on the Nigerian masses' If the National Transition Council (NTC) in Libya has to offer explanations on why MQ had to be shot after having been caught, should the U.S. not offer an explanation on the circumstance that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden too'Brethren let us pray that Allah forgives Qadhafi; let those who intend to sacrifice rams during the coming Id al-Adha festival refrain from cutting the hair on their bodies and the nails in their fingers beginning from today until after the Id- this is part of the Sunnah; let us pray that Allah turns the seemingly calamitous realities of our existence to that of peace and Paradise. Let us ponder the following: 'Does it not teach them a lesson, how many generations we destroyed before them, in whose dwellings they (now) go to and fro' Verily in that are signs; do they not then listen' (Sura Al-Sajdah 32:26)(guardianfridayworship@gmail.com)
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