Brother Naveed Butt, official spokesman for Hizb ut Tahrir / Wilayah Pakistan and now aged 52, was abducted by the Pakistani regime agencies on 11th May 2012 from the streets of Lahore in front of his children whilst bringing them back from school. He has not been seen or heard of since nor has he been charged with any crime or produced in any court. He has simply been disappeared and remains so into the tenth year of his incarceration.
I write this open letter firstly glorifying our creator Allah (swt) and knowing that Allah (swt), the Most High, Most Supreme and worthy of all praise is indeed the One who is in charge of all affairs and in His infinite wisdom knows why matters take their course.
Naveed Butt is a highly educated and intelligent man. He was an outstanding engineering student from Lahore who had won a scholarship to study at a top educational institution abroad, where he then subsequently started a successful career in the lucrative corporate technology industry. But it was around this time that Naveed Butt came across the global work to re-establish the Khilafah (Caliphate) – Islam’s ruling system through which all of Allah’s (swt) laws, be they economic, social, ruling, judicial, internal, foreign policy, etc., regarding regulation of a society are applied, thus fulfilling Allah’s (swt) command in the Quran:
[فَاحْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللّهُ]
“So judge between them by what Allah has revealed” [TMQ Al Ma’idah, Verse 48].
Such was Naveed Butt’s sincerity to Islam and his eagerness to see the oppression and injustice – which come naturally when ruling by other than what Allah (swt) has decreed – removed from the Muslim Ummah within Pakistan and beyond, that he left his prosperous career abroad and returned to Pakistan to work to re-establish the Islamic Khilafah system through peaceful, strictly non-violent political activism as per the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), who himself first established an Islamic state in Medina after thirteen years of peaceful political struggle in Makkah.
I hope and pray to Allah (swt) that the message in this letter reaches Brother Naveed Butt, for layers of oppression separate him from his family, friends and fellow Islamic political activist brothers that hold him in high esteem. May this message be conveyed forward until it reaches Naveed bhai himself.
Dear Brother Naveed, we dearly look up to you and miss your presence amongst us, in particular your striving for the cause of Allah (swt) and the wisdom you imparted to us all in this great undertaking. We know you have not seen your family. Almost ten years of your life have gone by interned in a dungeon beyond our comprehension. You have not held your children. They have not seen your smile nor felt your loving embrace that every child longs to see and feel. These years nobody can bring back. No person can turn back time or replace for you what you and your family have lost. You are experiencing what the likes of the great Prophet Yusuf (as) faced when he was imprisoned on false charges. Your reward, insha’Allah, will be in this life and the next.
To his oppressors – to those that abducted him, to those that no doubt tortured him, to those who still keep him locked up away from his family without any relent, to those that stand opposed to fulfilling Allah’s commands – carry on in your crime of holding Naveed bhai prisoner for as long as you can endure placing your bare hands in a burning flame. Realise that this is what you will face in the Afterlife for your crimes, but multitude times more severe. And if you do not fear the Hereafter, nor the punishment of Allah (swt), then know that the coming Khilafah state will seize you and account you for your crimes. So avail this opportunity to release him now.
To the witnesses who knew Naveed bhai or those who know of his imprisonment yet remain silent over it and do not lift a finger against this injustice nor speak a word of truth to expose this. Know that Allah (swt) has placed upon you this test to establish which side you take; the haq or batil, because in Islam there is no middle ground. Those that see injustice and do nothing to counter it, when they have the means to do so, will inevitably in the eyes of Allah (swt) find themselves in the same league as the actual oppressors themselves and liable to the same punishment.
Final message to Naveed Butt bhai. We long to meet you. We simply pray and aim to unlock the door that imprisons you – for we strive day and night to re-establish the Islamic Khilafah state on the way of Prophethood (saw) as soon as possible that will fulfil the hukm of Allah (swt) and in the process liberate the people of Pakistan from the immense oppression they are subject to.
And Allah (swt) willing we aim to see you again not just as a political activist, but this time as an honoured and worthy leader of the Muslim Ummah in the position of Aml (Mayor) or Wazir (Governor) of the province of Hind or one day perhaps the Khaleefah himself. We aim for this since as Muslims we put our trust in Allah (swt) and we believe in His promise of victory and granting leadership to those that have real Iman and work righteous deeds, just as He granted it to those before us.
Mohamed Asif