This is no broadcast transmitted over the airwaves of radio or television; it is the faint whispering of souls at times, and the unburdening of tongues at others.
Such is the reality of those banished from the lands of oppression for long years. Assailed by detractors, betrayed by alarmists, and besieged by the nations of unfaith, they have had the knives of treachery sharpened against them—for no reason other than their desire for justice in their homeland, and their endeavor to lift tyranny from their people.
The bitterness of injustice grew ever fiercer, leaving a deeper scar upon their souls, as if the words of the Chosen One—peace and blessings be upon him—were taking shape as a tangible reality:
"Befalling the believing man and believing woman, trial shall not cease in their self, their child, and their wealth, until they meet God Almighty with no sin remaining upon them." (1)
Indeed, one cannot help but marvel at the state of today's Pharaohs: how persistently they hound the vulnerable, even after they have fled their homes defenseless and subdued, severed from all power, and stripped of any means to effect change. Yet, relentless pursuit, harassment, and character assassination remain the enduring hallmarks of these soul-baring regimes, which seem unable to validate their authority except by pursuing those who possess neither self-defense nor self-gain.
It is no longer as Pharaoh proclaimed: "Is not the kingdom of Egypt mine, and these rivers flowing beneath me?" For many of the spiritual rivers have run dry well before the physical ones, and the trappings of power in which they once took pride have dissolved. Nothing remains of the Almighty's words: "How many gardens and springs did they leave behind, and green crops and splendid dwellings" except memory and admonition; they left their people neither fruit-bearing gardens, nor overflowing springs, nor a noble abode wherein a person might feel secure in their faith and dignity.
Nor is there any among them left to say: "O Haman, build for me a tower," in pursuit of an illusory grandeur. For the towers that were built and the skyscrapers that ascended built neither civilization nor justice; rather, many were erected as a veil of fear, a rampart of anxiety, and a dread of the day when the exiled return to their homelands, or the vulnerable are granted victory after prolonged trial.
Or did you suppose?
What is this false supposition that settles within diseased souls, if not a affirmation of the Truth's statement, Exalted be He:
"Or did you suppose that you would be left alone, while God has not yet made evident those among you who strive, and who take no intimate confidant besides God, His Messenger, and the believers? And God is Fully Aware of what you do."
It is that false presumption residing within souls accustomed to ease, steeped in comfort, imagining that salvation lies in keeping silent before the truth, abandoning its people, or flattering falsehood and standing by as a mere spectator.
God's knowledge is antecedent, yet trials unveil what lies settled within the breast, establishing proof against souls by the choices they make. Neutrality in the face of tyranny is no path to deliverance; for as recorded in the tradition: "When people see an oppressor and do not restrain his hand, God will soon encompass them all with a punishment from Him." (2)
Perhaps the retribution upon those who sit back and falter is far more severe than the trial of the steadfast; for the former chose for themselves a false safety only to find no safety at all, whereas the latter chose the truth, no matter how heavy its cost.
Thus exile, displacement, captivity, torture, and death are but part of the narrowness of worldly life, and may well serve as gateways to the vastness of the Hereafter. For this worldly life, despite the length of its trials, is merely a passing phase; true loss lies not in what slips away from it, but in what is squandered of faith, principle, and dignity.
Exalted souls rise above the trivialities of the world, soaring toward noble heights. He whose soul is forged for grandeur finds whatever he encounters along the way a light burden; pain itself becomes part of the journey, and ordeal serves as testimony to the truth of his direction, never a reason to turn back.
They passed before you
Perhaps one of us mistakenly thinks this path has been emptied of supporters, stripped of tidings of victory, and that prolonged affliction signals the remoteness of relief. Yet the Quran rebuts this delusion, revealing that what we witness today is no anomaly, but an established Sunnah that played out among those who passed before us:
"Or did you suppose that you would enter Paradise while there has not yet come to you the likeness of those who passed before you? They were touched by adversity and hardship and were shaken until even the Messenger and those who believed with him said, 'When is the help of God?' Unquestionably, the help of God is near." [Al-Baqarah: 214].
This is the path of the Prophets and the righteous—a path whose soundness is not measured by a lack of wounds, nor its truth by the speed of victory. Adversity and hardship may reach such a degree within souls that a moment comes when the Messenger and those who believed with him cry out: "When is the help of God?"—not out of doubt in His promise, but from the sheer severity of the affliction. Then comes the decisive response to restore the soul's equilibrium: "Unquestionably, the help of God is near."
Those who passed before us are our exemplars; they traversed the path until death, severed ties with falsehood without compromise, conveyed what was entrusted to them, established the proof, and demonstrated that true victory does not always lie in what the eye beholds of shifting balances. Rather, it begins with steadfastness when souls tremble, with conviction when avenues narrow, and with continuing the march when the road appears deserted, while in truth it is filled with God's companionship and wisdom.
You are not alone on a path trodden by the Prophets, nor a stranger in an abode inhabited by the pious.
This diverse affliction shaking these souls is but a portion of the adversity and hardship that touched those who passed before us, culminating in the final promise: "Unquestionably, the help of God is near."
The Ascents of Arrival
Indeed, within exile lies a path of return; yet what manner of return is it to a homeland that begrudged its own children, narrowed its streets against them, and cast them out as the sea casts up its depths?!
True arrival is not for feet to return to the land from which they departed, but for the soul to reach a homeland free of tyrants, where people are not subjugated by blind obedience, and where foreheads bow to none but God.
It is a false presumption to imagine the land of sorrows a substitute for the homeland of joys, or to consider the end of the road a mere return to the soil where a person was denied security and dignity. The goal is further, the ascents higher, and the path is not merely one of reclaiming a place, but of reclaiming the self from fear, the heart from weakness, and the will from the captivity of tyranny.
The Almighty says:
"Or did you suppose that you would enter Paradise while God has not yet made evident those among you who strove, and made evident the patient?" [Ali 'Imran: 142].
It is a path forged between struggle and patience, and an unyielding conviction; high stations are not attained through wishful thinking, nor are the ascents of arrival traversed through ease. Souls are nurtured upon a path where hardship and steadfastness alternate, until what was initially a trial becomes, in the end, a refinement.
Here, God's way in fashioning leaders becomes manifest:
"And We made from among them leaders guiding by Our command when they were patient and were certain of Our signs." [As-Sajdah: 24].
Through patience and certainty leadership was granted; not through a life of ease, nor a path free of ordeals. The sweetness of life cannot be truly known except after the bitterness of patience, nor can the heights of distinction be reached except through the strain of the journey.
Perhaps this is the greatest fruit of exile: that its broadcast transforms from a sob of grief into a soothing balm, from the solitude of the road into an understanding of its purpose, and from ill presumption into good expectation of God.
If exile has broadcast its sorrows into souls, it also broadcasts within them the secrets of arrival; until the exile realizes that the greatest return was never the return of a body to a homeland, but the return of a heart to God, and the ascent of a soul through the stations of His pleasure.
You are the set free
O strangers, lighten the burden of your exile in faith, homeland, and language; lighten it, for how many a person lives as a stranger atop the soil of their own nation, and how many a complete nation lives within the heart of a stranger separated by time from his land!
Be patient; for "Glad tidings to the strangers" (3) was no mere word of solace to a passing traveler, but a glad tiding to him who held fast to the truth when faces turned away, remained upright when people corrupted, and rectified when corruption spread.
Be patient; for the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—suffered exile, though he was the most noble of creation to God, as did his companions, the elite of this nation. Islam itself became a stranger just as it began (4); yet exile was never a mark of defeat, but throughout history, the prelude to a new victory.
Sufficient for you is God's word:"And the final outcome is for righteousness."
Sufficient for you is His statement, Exalted be He:"The earth shall be inherited by My righteous servants."
Sufficient for you is knowing that victory comes with patience (5), and that with hardship comes ease.
Sufficient for you that the end of the road is to unpack your burdens in Paradise; for what has he lost whose exile ends in an abode where there is no estrangement, no fear, and no parting?
Sufficient for you is knowing that from the womb of oppression, free men are born; Pharaoh drowned while in the seat of his power, whereas Moses left it hunted, only to return supported by God's victory. No homeland ever protected a tyrant from God's decree, nor did exile ever prevent a saint from His promise.
Sufficient for you is Jacob—peace be upon him—when Joseph's absence grew long and his eyes turned white with grief, yet he opened his broadcast to none but God:
"I only complain of my distraction and my sorrow to God, and I know from God that which you do not know."
He knew from God what they did not know; he knew that behind loss lies a meeting, behind blindness lies sight, behind absence lies a return, and behind the pit lies empowerment.
Thus Joseph the absent returned, the lost was found, the captive became noble, and he who was once cast into the pit later declared:
"And thus We established Joseph in the land."
So proceeds God's decree among His servants; the path may be long, the trial may intensify, and a person may suppose that all the doors of the earth have been shut, only to find that the doors of heaven never close.
Be certain that the broadcast will arrive, that supplication is never lost, that heaven will open its gates when God permits, and that behind prolonged absence lies a noble return, and behind oppression, a day when chains are broken.
Do not render your judgment hostage to the moment; how many an outcast returned, how many a captive was liberated, and how many a vulnerable soul was granted the earth by God after people thought his memory had been extinguished.
So take heart, O strangers; exile is not the end of the road.
Perhaps the final broadcast, after all this sorrow, will be the long-awaited call:
You are the set free. (6)
Attribution:
(1) At-Tirmidhi (2399, graded Hasan Sahih); Ahmad (7859).
(2) Abu Dawud (4338); At-Tirmidhi (2168, Sahih).
(3) Muslim (145). The exposition "those who rectify when people corrupt" is in Ahmad (16690).
(4) Muslim (145).
(5) Ahmad (2803); Al-Hakim (3/623, Sahih).
(6) Al-Bayhaqi, Al-Kubra (18251, Mursal); employed here as a literary motif.
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