Eidul Adha Message
All praise is due to Allâh and may His choicest salutations continue to descend upon our Master and Leader Muhammad who freed man from the bondage of self worship.
“And who could be of better faith than he who surrenders his whole being unto Allâh and is a doer of good and follows the creed of Ibrahim who turned away from all that is false – And Allâh chose Ibrahim as His friend.” (4:125)

On the blessed day of Eid-ul-Adha, we relive the struggle and sacrifices of Ibrahim Alayhis-Salâm. The sacrifice of an animal and the spill of blood is a symbolic demonstration of our unreserved love for Allâh. It is our display of unquestioned obedience to the law of Allâh and a reminder that the closer one gets to Allâh the greater the struggles and sacrifices. Ibrahim’s Alayhis-Salâm legacy reassures the Believers that truth must prevail if we have conviction and commitment.

Unreserved Love:
“Say: ‘If your fathers and your sons and your brothers and your spouses and your clan, and the wealth that you have acquired, and the commerce
whereof you fear a decline and the dwellings in which you take pleasure (if
all these) are more beloved to you than Allâh, His Rasûl and the struggle in His cause, then wait until Allâh makes manifest the fulfilment of His Command – (Know that) Allâh does not guide those who are openly wicked.’” (9:24)

Those who are consumed by the love of Allâh find indescribable joy in placing the sword of denial on everything that impedes the true love of Allâh. Loving Allâh necessitates obeying, trusting, surrendering, adhering and yielding to all that pleases Him. Our families, our wealth, our properties and palatial abodes should not prevent us from striving in His path and searching for His love. Those whose hearts are immersed in the love of Allâh freely subjugate themselves to His pleasure. The Qurbani of Ibrahim Alayhis-Salâm was not
some kind of heartless compliance of a slave before His Master. It was the undying love of a slave seeking to win the love of his Master. “It is not the flesh, nor the blood that reaches Allâh, but it is your conscious awareness
of Him, that reaches Him.” To believe is to acknowledge His existence, to
love is deny
your own existence. “Muhabbah [love] is the erasure of the qualities of the lover, affirming the essential being of the Beloved.”

Unquestioned Obedience to Allâh:
Allâh instructed Ibrahim to sacrifice his son. He obeyed the command of Allâh without question. Ibrahim Alayhis-Salâm believed in “Divine Rights” and human obligations. He believed that Allâh’s law embraces the whole of man’s life- his individual, social, private and public life. Divine law was beyond the sanction
of his people, governments and politicians. The Holy Qur’ân says: “Have you seen those who claim that they believe in what was revealed to you and
what was revealed before your time (and yet) are willing to defer to the rule of the powers of evil- although they were bidden to deny it: … And when
they are told: ‘Come to that which Allâh has revealed and to His Prophet,’
you see the hypocrites turn away from you in aversion.” They instinctively draw back from Divine law when it conflicts with their personal interests or ideologies. To the secularist, Ibrahim Alayhis-Salâm was willing to murder, yet to the Believer this was unparalleled sacrifice of the friend of Allâh! The
beast of secularism is threatening to devour the very identity of man; same
sex marriages, prostitution and gambling have been legitimised under the
guise of ‘rights.’ The position of women, penal law and the character of Nabî Sallallâhu ‘alayhi wasallam have been besmirched. Only a nominal version of Islam is acceptable to the ‘secularists’… an Islam that is relegated to a private communion between man and God… Islam that is confined to the masjid and has no relevance when making law, or in settling our disputes… an Islam that has no place in our day-to-day living.
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“Israel must reconsider its position”
While it is fact that the internationally-backed roadmap peace plan demands
a halt to settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory and
the international community regards all Jewish settlements in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since the 1967 War, as illegal regardless of whether they have Israeli government authorization, the Israeli government has just
approved the building of a new settlement in the West Bank.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz approved the new settlement to be built on a land that previously housed an installation of occupation forces in the Jordan Valley region.

It must also be borne in mind that construction for the expansion of present settlements have been continuing unabated through the year. In fact, 543
new housing units were built in one area of the West Bank in 2006. In September, the Israeli authorities invited bids for construction of 864 new housing units in West Bank settlements.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat stressed that the decision to
approve this new settlement runs in the face of agreements reached
between President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during their meeting on Saturday.

At the same time, news reports state that, “Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert is to meet senior ministers later in the day to discuss a month-long
Gaza ceasefire after renewed rocket attacks, after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday injured two teenage Israeli boys in the southern town
of Sderot”.

Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel must reconsider its "restraint".

Iraq News
More than 40 Iraqis were killed yesterday alone. Seven US soldiers also died. December has been amongst the bloodiest in Iraq.
While the death toll mounts, Iraq's highest appeals court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence for the captured Iraqi President, Saddam Hussain and
said it must be carried out within 30 days. The sentence "must be
implemented within 30 days," chief judge Aref Shahin.

BBC reports that “The US has hailed the ruling by an Iraq court that Saddam Hussein be executed within 30 days, while the EU has urged Baghdad not to carry out the sentence”.

Human Rights groups are up in arms complaining about the entire manner
and method employed in the proceedings in a court regarded by locals to
be a court inspired, installed and protected by the US. The legality of the proceedings have been called to question by a number of groups, including
US-based Human Rights Watch, which said the Iraqi government had undermined the credibility of the trial.

In the meanwhile, the Pentagon is expected to send up to 3,300 soldiers to Kuwait in the New Year as Washington considers a policy shift in Iraq, officials say.

Somalia: Signs of a regional war
Several new developments unfolded in Somalia in the course of last weekend. After months of a growing battle of words between the Union of Islamic
Courts (UIC), and the transitional government backed by Ethiopia, Ethiopian military units, backed by tanks and fighter jets, launched a full military operation in Somalia.

UIC soldiers have been withdrawing from key positions, while unconfirmed reports state that many civilians have been injured and killed in the ground assault by Ethiopian troops. The situation in Somalia has reached a critical phase, with the hostile intervention of Ethiopia and the question must be asked as to what extent other regional powers like Uganda and Eritrea will react.

Somalia may become one of the ugliest conflicts on the African continent in 2007 if immediate steps aren’t taken to recognise the UIC as a player in
Somali politics and to bring it to negotiate with the transitional government.
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Summarized Jumu’ah Bayaan:

The Day of Eid a-Adha