HAMAS MILITARY WING WAS NAMED AFTER HIM- Despite the passage of nearly three quarters of a century since his death, the memory of Sheikh Izzedin al-Qassam still lives on in the collective conscience of many Muslims, especially in the Arab world.Hence, it is no coincidence that the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas liberation movement, the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, was named after him. Unlike many Ulamaa’ (Muslim scholars) of his time, Sheikh al-Qassam succeeded remarkably in combining religious enlightenment with political consciousness and armed resistance against the French occupation forces in Syria in the 1920s and later against the British mandate army in Palestine in the early 1930s. In his numerous sermons in both Syria and Palestine, the Sheikh taught that if Muslims did not help themselves, no one else would help them, and that Muslims ought to empower themselves in every possible way. He also taught that true unity could only be realized under the banner of Islam. Without Islam, he said, we are merely disconnected tribes, each preoccupied with its own narrow considerations. Biographers differ as to the exact date of his birth. However, it is widely assumed that he was born around 1880 at a small village called Jableh near the northern city of Latakia along the Syrian coast. At an early age, the young Izzedin joined the local religious school at the village, learning the basics of Arabic, as well as the Quran and Hadith (the traditions of the Prophet Muhammed peace be upon him). Then a few years later, probably at the age of 15 or 16, he went to Cairo to study the Shariah disciplines at al-Azhar University. He stayed in Egypt for nine years during which he broadened his horizons and became well-acquainted with contemporary conditions throughout the Muslim world. At the age of 25, he returned to Syria where he began teaching and preaching at local mosques. However, unlike many of his contemporary Ulamaa, the Sheikhs attention was not solely focused on teaching Shariah and fighting illiteracy. He also was preparing the Ummah for resisting and repulsing the onslaught of Western invasions and occupations, which no Arab country in the Middle East and North Africa was able to escape. In the early 1920s, when the Italian armies occupied Libya, the Sheikh instigated the people to rise up against Western colonialism.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 08:45:44 +0000
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