Sheikh Abu Abdullah Al-Kurdi is a Professor of Shariah at one of the universities in Iraq. He has been an active da’wa carrier with Hizb ut-Tahrir for the past 20 years. The Sheikh holds many academic degrees in the Islamic Sciences and also the traditional Ijaza’s (permissions).
The following is a translation of the Arabic interview.
Q. Can you throw some light on the work for the re-establishment of Khilafah in Iraq?
A. The people of Iraq are an enlightening people from the political aspect. When the colonization first came to the Arab first the people of this land fought back the colonialist. It is well known and well documented as the 20th revolution. The colonialists have held on to these people with a strong fist. Before the destruction of the Saddam regime there was a conference held in Iraq as to the future of Iraq. This conference brought all the influential and intellectual people concerned with the future of Iraq. All the people including the shia and the sunni they confirmed that the future of Iraq was the implementation of the rule of Allah (swt) except for certain secularists who are agents for the west and the kuffar.
Day after day the work of colonialists is becoming slow and failing since they don’t have nay agent who is able to convince the ummah about freedom and democracy.
Q. In this situation of occupation does the government harm the workers of the Khilafah?
A. As I said all the people in Iraq are talking about the implementation of shariah. Hizb ut-Tahrir has had a big role in the cultivation of its thought in the minds of the people. They also have two offices in Baghdad. The American forces have time and again have done damage to the office and its bearers. They even bombed it down once and once they killed the shabab in the office. Today the effort is very big and it can’t be stopped by the arrest of a few shabab and the call for the return of the Khilafah.
Q. Some people say that the work for the Khilafah is by few people only. Are there other people who are working for Khilafah?
A. First of all we need to understand one thing. This thought of Khilafah is not the thought of Hizb ut-Tahrir only rather it is accepted by all the ulema in the past and in the modern times. No person ever negated its existence except Asam the mutazili and in recent times Ali Abdul Raziq from al-Azhar in Egypt and this issue is an issue of the complete ummah and HT follows this path.
Q. Do you have ulema working for Khilafah in Iraq?
A. The first alim who can be remembered was Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Badri who was killed by the oppressive baathist regime and he was also from the shabab of Hizb ut-Tahrir. And many from the ulema and shabab are working for the reestablishing of the Khilafah
Q. There were many ulema and shabab working for Khilafah who were killed by the Iraqi regime. Do you know happen to know some of these shabab ?
Ans. Saddam hussain was an oppressive ruler who ruled the country with an iron fist and imposed the socialist system on them. He believed in Arab nationalism and rallied people behind the same emblem. He killed many ulema who were working for the reestablishment of the Khilafah as I told you the first one from them was Sheikh Abdul Aziz Badri (may allah be pleased with him) and Sheikh Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr. And my sheikh who cultured me in Hizb ut-Tahrir was killed in 1990. He was known as Anwar from Mosul.
Q. To what we know there is a constant struggle between the shias and sunnis. Is it true?
A. The Shias and sunnis and Arabs and non Arabs lived together all through the Khilafah until the agents of the British colonialists started infiltrating the Muslim ummah and corrupting their thoughts. One of the famous ones of them who also wrote some books was Hempher. As he writes in his book that there aim was to divide the people but they were not successful and this land has remained united from the days of the 20th revolution till date. Then after the destruction of Saddam’s regime came the new colonialist powers which is the American colonialism. America with the help of its agents from the Kurds and the Arabs and the non Arabs tried to instigate the ummah again but they were unsuccessful.
Allah says:
وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ
“They plot and plan, Allah too plans and Allah is the best of planners”. [TMQ 8:30]