Under the brunt of the severe freezing conditions and the absence of the State and all its institutions to care for its guests of the displaced people of Syria, and even their absence to care for the people of Lebanon themselves, the Lebanese authorities are still determined to clamp down on our people fleeing from the tyranny of the Baathist regime and his raging killings. Its latest chapters was this restriction imposed by the Interior Ministry when it issued new “standards” for the entry of those arriving from Syria with the beginning of the year 2015. The standards equates the close neighbours to the foreigner who cannot enter the country except for “tourism, or on a working visit, or for being the owner of the property, or coming for study, or medical treatment, or to review a foreign embassy, or under a prior commitment from a Lebanese citizen of responsibility.” This consolidates that the two regimes: the Syrian and Lebanese are the byproducts of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and that they were mandated to maintain division and fragmentation, contrary to what they both alleged for years.
The blessed Syrian Revolution revealed with its steadfastness the reality of the regimes in these countries and the reality of the weak bonds it had established and sang about for many years, and it turns out to be
كَسَرَابٍ بِقِيعَةٍ يَحْسَبُهُ الظَّمْآَنُ مَاءً حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَهُ لَمْ يَجِدْهُ شَيْئًا
“…like a mirage in the desert. A thirsty man thinks it is water but when he reaches it, he finds it to be nothing…”
(An-Nur: 39)
It’s those bonds of patriotism and nationalism and the saying “one people in two countries” and other lies that formed the basis for agreements, and now it goes unheeded at the first bend restoring visas and border drawn by colonialist and consecrated by the rulers and their followers from the secular and nationalist and sectarian.
Adding to the wonder that while in such cases, states conduct reciprocity treatment, we see the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon turns in front of this aggressive measures into a tame lamb, describing them as organizational matters pertaining to Lebanon, indicating the satisfaction of Bashar’s regime towards this step because of the pressure, it imposes on the people of Syria who are revolting and making their condition harsher to subjugate them under the brunt of explosive barrels and systematic murder…
Lebanese authorities have ignored what unites the people of Ash-Sham, including the people of Lebanon and Syria, from the links of brotherhood and intermarriage and lineage before the establishment of this cursed borders and regimes made to measure for them. And families in Lebanon and Syria were united in intermarriage relationships, until the names of families in Lebanon, included Al-Homsi, Ash-Shami, Damashqiyyah, Al-Halabi, and Al-Hamawi names, and the same in Syria: Al-Tarabulsi, Al-Bairouti, As-Seedawi, Al- Baalbaki and Al-Halbawi, who moved between the two countries and lived and settled in and were famous for the names of the countries or towns from which they came from. Indeed, this is almost the picture in all Ash-Sham countries before they were governed by the servants of colonialism and their agents who worked to divide and separate them.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
«بِحَسْبِ امْرِئٍ مِنْ الشَّرِّ أَنْ يَحْقِرَ أَخَاهُ الْمُسْلِمَ كُلُّ الْمُسْلِمِ عَلَى الْمُسْلِمِ حَرَامٌ دَمُهُ وَمَالُهُ وَعِرْضُهُ»
“It is evil enough for a man to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. The whole of a Muslim for another Muslim is inviolable; his blood, his property, and his honour.”
O people of Lebanon!
We remind you that our people in Syria today are paying the price for standing against a tyrant who oppressed both you and them. Were not the people of Lebanon also kidnapped and killed and displaced by this criminal regime?! Is it not true that there are still missing people and unaccounted for in the cellars of Bashar’s regime?! So, you O people of Lebanon are not distant from their cause. As it is not permissible for you to forget how you were welcomed by the people of Syria during successive civil wars; the war in July 2006, is a recent example.
O Muslims in Lebanon, the core of the people of Ash-Sham!
Do you remember how the Ansar (supporters) of the past in Medina received the Muhajireen (immigrants) of Mecca with jubilation and joy from the oppression and torture of Quraish who fled with only their Deen, souls, and families, and how they shared their livelihoods and their businesses and their homes, until Allah سبحانه وتعالى praised them, saying:
وَالَّذِينَ تَبَوَّءُوا الدَّارَ وَالْإِيمَانَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ يُحِبُّونَ مَنْ هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِمْ وَلَا يَجِدُونَ فِي صُدُورِهِمْ حَاجَةً مِمَّا أُوتُوا وَيُؤْثِرُونَ عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ وَلَوْ كَانَ بِهِمْ خَصَاصَةٌ وَمَنْ يُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
“Those who were already settled in the abode, and in iman, before they came, love those who have made hijra to them and do not find in their hearts any need for what they have been given and prefer them to themselves even if they themselves are needy. It is the people who are safe-guarded from the avarice of their own selves who are successful.”
(Al-Hashr: 9)
Thus Allah blessed Medina and it became the first capital of the Islamic State, it ruled the Arabian Peninsula and then took over the rule of Caesar and the Chosroes after a few years, and they were blessed with provisions from unexpected sources and by the leadership of those who migrated to them.
Fear Allah in your brothers the distressed immigrants from Syria, and do not close your doors in their faces, as Allah سبحانه وتعالى will ask you about them on the Day of Resurrection. The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
»الْمُسْلِمُ أَخُو الْمُسْلِمِ، لَا يَظْلِمُهُ وَلَا يُسْلِمُهُ، وَمَنْ كَانَ فِي حَاجَةِ أَخِيهِ كَانَ اللهُ فِي حَاجَتِهِ، وَمَنْ فَرَّجَ عَنْ مُسْلِمٍ كُرْبَةً فَرَّجَ اللهُ عَنْهُ كُرْبَةً مِنْ كُرُبَاتِ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ، وَمَنْ سَتَرَ مُسْلِمًا سَتَرَهُ اللهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ»
“A Muslim is a brother of a Muslim, he does not oppress him, nor hand him over to an oppressor. Whoever fulfilled the need of his brother, Allah will fulfill his need; whoever brought his brother out of discomfort, Allah will bring him out of the discomforts of the Day of resurrection, and whoever hides the faults of a Muslim, Allah will hide his faults on the Day of Resurrection.”
And He صلى الله عليه وسلم:
»المسلم أخو المسلم يسعهما الماء والشجر ويتعاونان على الفتّان»
“The Muslim is a brother of a Muslim, water and trees are abundant for them to share and they cooperate against al-fattan (the devil).”
Therefore reject these oppressive decisions with all your power, so may Allah then increase your provision, for you are from the same womb, the womb of the Islamic Ummah, which is characterized by relief for the distressed and sheltering the wayfarer. How then should the brothers, parents and relatives be treated and their faces are hit by the snow today in their tents and even more their children die from the freeze and cold near you and on the borders drawn by your enemy?
وَلَوْ أَنَّ أَهْلَ الْقُرَى آمَنُواْ وَاتَّقَواْ لَفَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِم بَرَكَاتٍ مِّنَ السَّمَاء وَالأَرْضِ وَلَـكِن كَذَّبُواْ فَأَخَذْنَاهُم بِمَا كَانُواْ يَكْسِبُونَ
“If only the people of the cities had had iman and taqwa, We would have opened up to them blessings from heaven and earth. But they denied the truth so We seized them for what they earned.”
(Al-A’raaf, 96)
Hizb ut Tahrir Wilayah Lebanon
17 Rabii’ I 1436 AH
8/1/2015 CE