This is the text of my lecture, plus a few important links, that I gave last weekend during the "Lost Virtues" conference organised by Prophetic Guidance.
I was really impressed by the whole affair, which was very well organised. I also got to meet Yahya, the most frequent comment contributer to this blog! Which was great.
Some more pictures of the Imam
There are a few reasons that I chose Imam Shamil, the leader for twenty five years of Chechen and Dagestani resistance against Imperial Russia in the 1850’s.
The first is because when Abu Esa phone me about the conference he told me it was going to be based around outstanding Muslim personalities. So Imam Shamil came to mind. I have recently being doing a lot of reading about Chechnia ever since I was asked to become a supporter of the save Chechnia campaign, and the first book I read was the epic work of Lesley Blanch, The Sabres of Paradise: conquest and Vengeance in the Caucasus. It is a book just as much about Tsarist Russia under Nicholas I as it is about Shamil, but her sympathies are with the Imam, even if it is with the Orientalist’s view of him as the “Noble Savage”. She based her account of the Imam and his life on the accounts written by one of the Imams close followers, Muhammed Tahir of Karahi.
The second reason I chose the Imam was in no small part
because he was a Sufi from the Naqshabandi tariqa. In these days when Jihad has
become synonymous with terrorism, Wahabism and Salafist some Sufi’s have
unashamedly used this atmosphere of confusion and fear to lay all the blame at the
Wahabist door and to portray the Sufi
path as entirely peaceful and pacifist, and the internal and spiritual Jihad
espoused by themselves as the only authentic and valid Jihad. It seemed a perfect
opportunity to remind them, ourselves and others how short sighted, shameless
and ultimately false such sectarian opportunism is. It certainly hasn’t fooled Robert Spencer of
Jihad watch. Most of the great Mujahids resisting European Imperialism were
Sufis. Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al Jeziri, who actually met Imam Shamyl on hajj, and
discussed guerrilla warfare tactics together. Sheikh Abdul Qair fought the
French for ten years, until the sheer brutality of the French army massacring
civilians forced him to give in. Shah
Waliullah in
Differences, I suspect, we will always have, by these should kept between us. Whatever differences we have as Muslims, we can and must present to those who are ready to destroy us a united front.
There is no doubt that this unity, presenting a solid
structure, is one of the lost virtues. Imam Shamyl understood the importance of
this, and it is one of remarkable qualities of the Imam how was able to unite
the dazzling mosaic of enthnic groups and rival clans of the
Shamyl combined diplomacy, mauitha (Islamic enoucragements) and harsh punishments for dissenters to maintain this unity. He made it clear that that would be and must no talk of compromise with the Russians. Victory needed total commitment. Anyone dissenting could receive a hundred lashes as punishment. In one famous incident, and at a time when Muslims were particularly hard pressed and suffering many physical hardships, and were in so hard pressed fighting the Russians that they were on the point of surrender. But no such thing was allowed by the Imam. Shamyls mother was persuaded to approach him to encourage a compromise, but when he came to hear of this his order was that anyone who even suggested such surrender was to to be lashed 100 times! The order was carried out, but after only several lashes Shamyl threw himself across his mother and ordered the rest of the lashes to be carried out on himself, and threatened death to the administrator of the punishment if the lashes were not hard enough. After this he called for those who had talked of surrender and thus caused such a punishment to befall his mother.
You can imagine their terror and what punishment might fall on them.
“Return to your homes, and depart in peace, and hold fast to the Rope of Allah.”
No more talk of surrender was heard.
Shamyl’s Murids where know for fighting to the death, and even, it seemed beyond.
They lay there, mangled, pierced,
and bled white: they drank the herbal brews, submitted to torturing
treatments-and generally recovered. The Russians found them a most stubborn
enemy. Killed-or so it seemed they still lived. One Murid, or holy warrior,
would rush out of a beleaguered aoul brandishing his shashka in one hand, a
pistol in the other, his kindjal between his teeth, and hurl himself on the
astounded Russians, firing rapidly in all directions, then, dropping his gun,
begin to thrust and slash with his steel, so that five or six enemy were
accounted for before he too fell; and even in the dying he would usually
contrive another deadly thrust. 'They don't seem to know when they ought to
die, sir,' says a Russian soldier in one of Lermontov's Caucasian tales.
'Indeed, sir, these villains can hardly ever be killed. They are a people without
the slightest idea of propriety.'
Shamyls struggle was part of a larger and longer gazwat (as
they called it) that started in the time of Catherine the Great who invaded the
Caucusus and was opposed by the forces of Sheikh Mansor. The fight was taken up again by Khazi Mullah,
who was a friend of Shamyl. But Khazi
Mullah’s rebellion was ill timed and short lived. It all ended in the siege of
the fortified mountain
This is the account of a Russian soldier:
It was dark: by the light of the
burning thatch we saw a man standing in the doorway of saklia, which stood on raised
ground, rather above us. This man, who was very tall and powerfully built stood
quite still, as if giving us time to'take aim. Then, suddenly, with the spring
of a wild beast, he leapt clean over the heads of the very line of soldiers
about to fire on him, 'and landing beliind them, whirling his sword in his left
hand [Shamyl, it will be recalled, was left-handed] he cut down three of them,
but was bayoneted by the fourth, the steel plunging deep into his chest. His
face still extraordinary in its immobility, he seized the bayonet, pulled it
out of his own flesh, cut down the man and, with another superhuman leap,
cleared the wall and vanished into the darkness. We were left absolutely
dumbfounded. The whole business had taken, perhaps, a minute and a half.
Two
things have always shocked me about many Muslims since I embraced Islam. The
first is how could a Muslim be illiterate when the first word revealed was read? The second was how physically feeble and unfit so many Muslims are. I recall
one of my early trips up North as a new Muslim and was shocked that Muslims
boys didn’t play rugby because their parents considered it too rough! There is
a truth in the saying that the
“The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, while there is good in both.” Muslim
Salih al-Fawzaan had the following to say about physical strength and its relation to our belief and actions:
“The believer who is strong in his belief, body, and actions is better than the weak believer, the one who has weak belief, or a weak body or weak actions. That is because the strong believer is productive and accomplishes things for the Muslims, and thus they benefit from his physical strength, actions, and his strong belief.
“So this hadith is an encouragement to have strength, as Islam is the Religion on strength, the Religion of honor, the Religion of prestige!
“So the strength that is sought from us in Islam is strength in belief and its tenets, as well as strength in our actions and bodies, because all of this brings forth good things for the Muslims.
“The believer who has strong belief is more likely to be fit and in shape. This is because he understands the importance of striving and staying in shape in preparation for it, while the weak believer may easily get fat and out of shape, from his overeating and laziness. Physical strength is a direct result of strength in belief.”
It is not to belittle the many qualities of Imam Shamyl that I have chosen him to represent this lost virtue of physical strength and toughness, but he exemplifies this virtue so admirably.
When young it seems Shamyl was very
sure of himself but without the physical sature to match it. Some young boys
from his village took a dislike to this and stabbed him in the stomach and left
him for dead. Returning to consciousness Shamyl's first instinct was to hide from
both taunts and sympathy. He dragged himself back to the mountains, contrived
to bind up his own wounds and obtain those herbal concoctions for which the
mountaineers were famous. The methods used for treating wounds with herbs (a
skill which was given plenty of opportunities to perfect itself in this part of
the world) were known and respected by even the Russian army surgeons.
Sometimes the village doctors succeeded in clamping shut the torn arteries by
means of applying a large, ferocious species of local ant. Once the pincer-like
mandibles had fastened on the arteries, the rest of the ant's body was snipped
off-the pincers remained in place. The gaping wound was bound up, herbs were
applied, and no blood poisoning followed.
So the stoical young Shamyl hid his
wounds and his humiliation, and did not return to Ghimri until he was not only
recovered, but toughened by an implacable, self-imposed regime of physical
culture. From that moment on, he forced himself to feats of endurance, changing
himself into a lean, iron-hard athlete.
The Prophet (peace and blessings
be upon him) commands us saying: “Teach your children swimming, archery and
horse-riding.”
Shamyl could out-fight, out-ride,
out-swim and out-run all the rest of the mountain people; just as they had
their own methods of curing wounds, so they had their jealously guarded methods
of training and hardening both themselves and their horses (usually bred in the
plains, or from Kabarda) to be able to cover the enormous distances and endure
the violent changes of climate their raiding tactics and the country demanded.
And likewise, the
Caucasian... mountaineers, trained themselves to an
extraordinary stamina.
They ate very sparingly, as a race,
but the fighting men ate least of all: thus, in the Caucasian wars, they were
better able to withstand the rigours of long marches in barren country,
unfettered by the cumbersome supply-wagons which hampered Russian columns on
the move and included such unmanageable objects as five-foot-high brass
samovars, to hold fifty gallons of tea, without which the humblest recruit
would have mutinied. Wine was forbidden….Meat was a rarity at their tables, and
then only lamb, goat or chicken. Their magnificent physique was generally
maintained on a few cakes of rough-ground millet, and a little goats' cheese.
During a campaign, these virile creatures were often seen to eat, and appear well
nourished by a few leaves, or even flowers-rhododendrons being considered
particularly sustaining. They trained themselves to run great distances,
swiftly, at a level speed, without panting, by carrying a bullet, or a pebble,
in their mouths. Their lives were a mixture of personal austerity and heroic
excess.
Shamyl lashed himself to their
strenuous pattern until, at twenty, he was famous for his feats. He could sever
the butt of a rifle with one blow of his kindjal, and was once seen to cleave a
Cossack horseman almost to the saddle in one cut. He could clear a seven-foot
wall at a leap, or, as they said in local idiom, 'stride a Khevsour'. (This
tribe, strangely blond giants, were believed to be descendants of the
Crusaders; they wore chain mail decorated with Maltese crosses, while their
swords, handed down from father to son, often bore the Crusaders' device: Ave Mater Dei. Shamyl's horsemanship was
remarkable. The mountaineers' equestrian acrobatics had the same brilliance as
the Arabs'. Perhaps it was a legacy from their Arab conquerors in the eighth
century. At any rate Caucasian djighitovkas
-festivals of
horsemanship and daring-were similar, and equal to, the Arab fantasia and made
even the Cossack riders seem inept by comparison; trick-riding, circus stuff,
all of it in daily use in their violent raiding warfare. Shamyl was speaking to
the people in a language they understood best when he flung himself into the
saddle at one bound, cleared the high gates of the aoul in another, and
scorning the path, leapt a precipice, hanging head-downwards under his horse's
belly, swinging up the other side to stand in the saddle and, at the gallop,
shoot a coin spun high in the air. Later, when he called them to battle, when
he preached the Shariat-the Law, and the Tarikat-the Way, they knew the mettle
of their new leader, and followed blindly. Perhaps, when the young Shamyl was
outpacing the fieriest djighits, he was, even unconsciously fostering his
legend, the legend that surrounded him by both circumstance and design all his
life, and which was, even in its more theatrical aspects, to strengthen his
other, mystical aura of leadership.
There is no avoiding the fact that one of the greatest reasons for physical strength and toughness is for jihad. It at this juncture I am forced by the reality of the state of confusion prevalent in these times to reiterate that we as Muslims do not seek confrontation or desire to initiate hostilities. Despite the many virtues of jihad we should not imagine that this means we seek physical conflict, or that in desperation we can resort to means like terrorism that is so far removed from the nobility of this religion. We want and should desire to live a peaceful life and coexistence, but we have the right, and no one can take this away from us, to defend ourselves individually and collectively against attack and aggression. We also have the right and duty to prepare ourselves against such attack. The Quran teaches this and international law affirms that also. Jihad is not something we should be embarrassed about, or made to feel embarrassed about, but it is a noble principle that no reasonable person could disagree with.
The Imam had mistakes, like all humans, but the ghazwat of Shamyl was without doubt in essance just and fair and right, and in the striving of this great Muslim personality there is an example for us all.
For an excellent short bio of the Imam read this.
Interesting reading.
I knew many Chechnyan sisters while staying in Egypt and lived with some too. And they would tell stories of what was happening in Chechnya. One of my friends in Egypt was an American businesswoman who lived in Russia. She was a real communist activist too. Amazingly she fell in love with the idea of the Chechnyan resistance and went there to see what was happening. She told me it was the Chechnyans that brought her to Islam, due to their strength of character and because she felt she saw something in their faces that attracted her.
Posted by: Fatima Barkatulla | Wednesday, 21 June 2006 at 11:43
I see you didn't fall asleep at the wheel on the way home, then. It was really great to meet you. Im glad I got the chance to ask you those questions, and the descusion we had was very insightful, if a little unballancing. I have remembered a few things since that I had hoped to ask you but forgot, so inshallah ill email them to you (if I remember them again, that is...). I think it was a pretty smart idea to use notes, considering the other lectures, not that they weren't good, but I now fully apreaciate what you said about them struggling to fit all the speakers in, not forgetting the fact that they had the extra time from the brother who wasn't able to show. Isn't it ironic, that you, the only one who didn't seem pushed for time, was the one asked to continue on after your time was up? Dont get me wrong, the whole event was great, alhamdullilah. I hope another comes along soon! Oh, if you see the photo of me on AE's blog, im not staring out the camera, I was caught of guard! =P
Posted by: Yahya | Wednesday, 21 June 2006 at 14:48
What a hero!! Masha Allah, it's great learning Islamic history and entering a world which many people including muslims don't know exists (i'm definately guilty of that!)
My favourite point you made was on how some people have this airy fairy notion that sufism is a 100% peaceful path, i've heard stories of sufis who were just like Shamyl, one of them was riding his horse in battle and when he came near a cliff, he blindfolded his horse, so that he would jump over the cliff, without being scared and turning back! There was another sufi who was going to do his wudhu, but he became a bit disappointed that there was only cold water, do you know what he did to 'discipline' his nafs; he lay in a tub of cold water with his clothes on, so that it would never put him off making wudhu again!
This is the history of sufism, some may even consider it kinda extreme (gasp!).
Waranga
ARG comment: Yes, but we should beware of extremism in all its forms. Islam is the balanced middle way, and we could never do better than to follow our beloved Prophet's Sunnah (saws).
Posted by: Waranga | Thursday, 06 July 2006 at 15:40
As-Salaamu 'aleykum
I found out that he is revered by the Jews as well and they actually composed a song about him (the song is on an Orthodox Jewish website). They didnt, however, mention that his goal was for the Shari'ah to be implemented.
Posted by: Hamdy | Tuesday, 02 January 2007 at 17:18
Asalaamualaikum,
JazakAllah khair for sharing this.
Would you mind if I blogged this (will source inshAllah)?
Walaikumsalaam
ARGcomment: please do!
Posted by: Insomniac | Friday, 05 January 2007 at 23:20
Asalaamualaikum
Brother Abdur raheem green I am in need of help. Please answer this question on the light of Islam:
I am 23 years old, but i am only 5 feet 4 inch tall, short even compared to average bangladeshi hight. I am also much heavier than i should be and growing .I am a student,although i have interest in games but my parents woun't let me take part in any type of games because they are rough. Ok i have no problem with that because i have to obey my Allah , Propheat (saos) even sacrificing my will.
The problem is all my relatives and my parents also are used to over feed me so i am growing fatter, heavier, uglier and above all leazier; but it seems no one really care.
I know that, our prophet (saos)told us to keep our waist/hips light/thin.
So what should i do, can i refuse to eat (politely) and stick to it, whoever tries to over feed me with lots of rice ( the staple food of bangladesh) and other things.
Please advise me, help me and Allah will help you.
ARGcomment: no one is allowed, even your parents to make you disobey Allah or kill yourself, quickly or slowly, or to make you ill. You should treat them kindly, but if they order you with something wrong you should ignore that, and Allah knows best.
Posted by: Shyed Shahriar | Saturday, 08 December 2007 at 15:04
Asalaamualaikum
Brother ARG do you have any Q & A section here , Because i am in need of help on a very important question.
ARGcomment: no, but you can email me on [email protected]
Posted by: Shyed Shahriar | Saturday, 08 December 2007 at 15:14
As-sala-mu-alaicum
Brother , thank you very much for that advice. I was being puzzled about eating a lot of food almost by force, 3/2 times a day ,360 days a year. Also over eating makes me lazy and then I even feel very tired to go to the mosque. I think this is the excuse that I should take up and deal with my parents politely.
Allah helps us all.
Posted by: Shyed Shahriar | Sunday, 09 December 2007 at 01:19
Assalamu alykom w rahmatullahy w barakatoh.
Jazak allhu khayran.
I'm asking:
"Teach your children swimming, archery and horse-riding."
I've read before that it was said by OMAR EBNOL KHATAAAB may Allah be pleased with him and it's commonly known that's said by the prophet peace and blessing be upon him.
I just want to know if it's true or wrong.
May Allah bless you and all your deeds.
ARGcomment: I'n not sure of the reference, but as far as I know it is a hadith.
Posted by: maryam | Monday, 15 September 2008 at 22:38
i think shamyl is SEXY ;)
Posted by: Account Deleted | Wednesday, 19 August 2009 at 06:53
Assalmo Alaikum,
Can any one give the meaning of shamil, what does name shamyl mean?
I tried on net but it is not available.
Jazak Allah
Posted by: Shaamyl | Saturday, 28 August 2010 at 09:01
i think shamyl is taken from samuel which is taken from Ismael
ARG comment: Perhaps!
Posted by: borz | Sunday, 05 May 2013 at 18:06