Response from Usama Hassan to Open Letter
We have received a response from Usama Hassan to the open letter we had published earlier.
The original letter can be found here
We encourage all readers to re-read the original and the reply, and welcome any comments below.
To be clear, I did not write the letter. Rather, it was sent to me by a brother in an anonymous fashion and I decided to put it up on the blog and also send it directly to Usama by email so that he was made aware that I had done so.
As for the reasons of the public nature of the letter, the original states “Your recent comments have compelled us to write this short letter of advice to you, as our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم mentioned that our deen is naseeha. We have made this letter open, since your opinions and comments have been made openly, and are available via various media”
Usama’s reply
“Dear “ibn Adam”
wa ‘alaykum as-salam. Who are you? Are you the same person who writes an open letter to me and circulates it in public yet does not have the courage to sign his real name?
If you are, you are guilty of serious bad adab (especially in writing anonymous nonsense), su’ al-zann and misquotation, may Allah forgive me and you. If you are sincere, let’s meet up after mid-June (I have urgent work deadlines until then) and discuss these matters in person.
I never saw your original letter, until an ill-mannered young man thrust it in my face at a public meeting on Sunday. Did you bother to request a read receipt to any email that you might have sent? I have hundreds of unread email in my inbox, so you can’t just assume things.
On secularism: My view is based on Ibn Khaldun, my own grandfather’s commentary on the cross-pollination, and the statement of Dr. Mustafa Ceric at the Lancaster House conference in 2007, “Muslims have no problem with political secularism. But we reject a metaphysical secularism that says or pretends that God does not exist.” It is an Islamic *political* secularism that I’m talking about.
And I, of course, support a just Caliphate based on the Prophetic model, and I mentioned that in my BBC Hard Talk interview – please watch that, if you haven’t done so already, before wasting your time and my time and that of potentially thousands of others in negative nonsense and fitnah. Therefore, your charge that I reject the Caliphate is a lie and slander, may Allah preserve us.
If you have a sense of justice, please post this note at the websites and blogs where you put your “Open Letter.”
And your actions are only strengthening the extremists such as HT and al-Muhajiroun, if only you’d understand.
May Allah bless us all with understanding and wisdom, was-salam.
—”
We have also sent the response to the brother Abdullah bin Abdullah in the meantime.
Salaams
He calls for political secularism and yet believes in the khilafah…. lol oxymoronic or what. Unless he believes the khilafah is some secular rule that ironically looks and administers just like western liberal democracies.
Pls Usama make a choice either khilafah OR secularism you cant have both.
Ibn Khsldun
May 13, 2008 at 7:48 pm
It is interesting that Shaykh Usama refers to Ibn Khaldun for justifying secularism. In the Muqaddimah, in the section on ‘The Meaning of Imamah and Khilafah’, Ibn Khaldun clearly argues against seperating din from politics. In fact he promotes what he calls ’siyasah diniyyah’ or ‘religious politics’ as opposed to politics which is derived purely from the intellect or ’siyasah aqliyyah’.
It would be good if this section could be translated and put up on the site, as the translation by Franz Rosenthal which is available on the net does not do it justice.
Abdul Malik
May 13, 2008 at 8:44 pm
He says that his understanding is based on ibn khaldoun, but the ibn abdullah demonstrated how his understanding is a wrong representation of ibn khaldoun, with no attempt of countering it. Then he argues his understanding is based from the teaching of his grandfather, all due respect to his grandfather, but he aint sharee daleel and 2nd imam nawawi and the classical ulema carry much more wait and legitmacy in their understanding of the hadith on cross pollination.
I think dr hasan needs to define what he means by secularism, as he rejects metaphyiscal secularism,but does he reject the secularism of england? of egypt? of jordan? of pakistan? i think dr hassan has not responded one bit to the issues raised and just given an ambigious response.
He is classing HT and al muhajiroun as extremists, well that is neo con jargon, pls dr hassan give textual refutations if you have, refute textually the central claims of these movements ie non separation btw islam and politics, the khilafah, one khaleef, unification of the ummah etc……we await your response..
abdullah
May 13, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Salaam,
Usama Hassans response was typical of those who have no substance to their argument and instead base their evidence on an innovative reading of a paragraph of ONE scholar (Ibn Khaldun) and a one-off remark from one speaker (Mustafa Ceric)… i.e. realising he has no legal or Islamic cover for his statements, he first tries the tried-and-trusted complaints about how the accusation was made or the fact that person writing the letter is anonymous. Lack of adab should be the least of his worries, or “extremely ill mannered young men” but instead his reply is replete with accusations that people who disagree with his viewpoint are wasting his time and doing so in a highly ill mannered and adab-lacking way.
The reality is that it is us that are wasting our time trying to rectify the wildly irresponsible actions of individuals who we raise to prominence due to their promise of becoming leaders to the Muslim community, but instead these same rising stars have a conversion on the road to damascus and suddenly prefer the holy company of such individuals as Ed and Maajid to pious hardworking Muslims who don’t go clubbing to change their name from MohammEd to Ed because they “feel like an Ed” these days.
Verbal gymnastics are not going to cut it… you cannot say that you have the same views as everyone else when the litany of complaints against the organisation you are a leading member of “City Circle” and a group that you are an adviser to “Quilliam Foundation” have repeatedly made statements that are as shockingly ignorant as they are abhorrent. Entire websites have been produced as evidence of this.
The Naseeha has been given and if Usama Hassan wants to cavort with the hormonally led Muslim yuppies of City Circle and the liberal extremists, then he can be raised up with them on the day of Judgement and quite far away from us simple, regressive and stupid folk who just want to follow Islam the way the Prophet (SAW) taught it… and not reinvented for the consumption of a secular and liberal audience.
We all make mistakes, but when someone who was supposed to be a leader does so then the responsibility is greater upon them to rectify themselves and the people to point out this mistake. If the tone of this message sounds harsh then remember that this is the anguish of a younger brother reminding his older brother, nothing more. Listen to why, and if you still cannot accept or understand why we are feeling this way, then we can both go away and make duaa that Allah brings truth to the fore and always shows us all Haqq as Haqq and Baatil as Baatil.
Sigh
May 13, 2008 at 11:15 pm
The accusation of “bad adab” seems to be a standard escape tactic of these “half-baked experts”. This is how it works: First, showing no adab themselves, they attack thousands of great scholars in our history as “failing to understand the Quran”, like Usama did on the BBC discussion with Shiraz Maher recently. Then as soon as someone challenges their nonsense ideas they quickly seek refuge in the “bad adab” accusation.
Dear Usama, If you are following your grandfather then I suggest you show some adab and read his works properly in full. Misquoting your own grandfather is the worst kind of “bad adab” for a grandson. REMEMBER, YOUR VERBAL ACROBATICS WILL DO YOU NO FAVORS ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT!
Lahyatul Asad
May 14, 2008 at 7:21 am
It is interesting to note that this is not the first time that a young scholar who gained fame and prestige from a powerful name has turned his face away from the noble direction of his forefathers.
One thinks of Tariq Ramadan, who has near universal sympathy for being the grandson of Hassan Al Banna and the son of Said Ramadan… but instead of using it, decided to come up with his own theories such as his:
Campaign to suspend the Huddud indefinitely
Statements that there has never been and never will be one ummah and that islam should be remade for each locality they live in
part deux
May 14, 2008 at 11:17 am
Usama Hasan the Bosnian Mufti. I doubt whether the Mufti made any statement like, “Muslims have no problem with political secularism. But we reject a metaphysical secularism that says or pretends that God does not exist.”
This statement has got built-in kufr too. Accordingly – Secularism is ok, but not the atheistic secularism. So, rule by whatever law you wish as long as you say the unseen exists (implying God). A clear cut kufr and as he is persisting on his view (even in this reply), (MESSAGE EDITED)
Muhammad Shaheen
May 16, 2008 at 1:34 pm
[...] Reply to Usama Hassan Original letter can be found here – with the initial response here [...]
Reply to Usama Hassan « WELCOME TO TRADITIONAL ISLAMISM
May 16, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I wonder what his views are on Kamal Attaturk? Not calling kafir those are as such is in itself kufr. As far as Ed and Maajid go; they have insulted the practice of the Prophet and thus are automatically deemed outside the fold of Islam right?
Abu Dawud
May 19, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Thanks to the illustrious Usama Hassan for giving us hope that Islam has a future beyond the political instrumentalisation, beyond the same mistakes that Christianity committed during the Dark Ages and the Inquisition.
We shall never gather more followers by force, but by appealing to their hearts. For this we must first accept these three verses in the Koran:
“Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion”
“Whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve”;
“There is no compulsion in religion.”
Tarik
July 25, 2008 at 5:11 pm
as selamu alaikum,
I really cannot begin to even make an excuse for such deluded utterances from a “scholar”. Usama Hassan is one of many deluded individuals whom expects to say what he would like and assume the Iman of one is the same as the other. Arguing about secular ism or not the issue as nothing is going to change . The danger is the other deluded ideologies that attack the purity of Islam which will inevitably, if it has not already, desensitise the minds and hearts of new Muslims and/or weak ones at that, adding to the already increasing confusion. My heart twists at the thought that anyone can say Islam, implying Allah ta’ala accepts SODOMY, or HALAL CLUBS or HIJAB not being fard. implications are what is being ignored.
Our brothers and sisters are already weak and weakening at the onslaught of kufr yet alone now having “scholars” saying what is HARAM is HALAL and vice versa.
Usama’s comment regarding encouraging HT or Al Muhaajuroon, as a general statement, will attack the very essence of the DEEN.
We may not accept things they both say but we do accept what they say regarding the book AL QURAN, and what it makes haram and halal.
I wish to add that instead we should have an academic podium and this is the responsibility of scholars such as his father, Sheikh Hatham and others to openly declare a statement as to the state of USAMA HASSAN ED HUSSEIN and the QUILLIAM foundation. This is not the time to become sedate and ignore the true facts that reign upon this ummah and which are, having amongst us now some who have been led by the hand and opiated by whatever is in their heart.
The real question is WHAT IS THEIR INTENTION? ARE WHAT THEY SAY BACKED BY QURAN AND SUNNAH NOT OPINIONS? WILL THEY NOW WLAK HAND IN HAND WITH SODOMITES THAT PROFESS ISLAM?
I hurt as I write this, and Allah knows best.
Ramiz Ibrahim
August 3, 2008 at 7:52 pm
As salaamu alaykum wa RahmatAllah,
Whilst I cannot agree with Usama Hasan on some of his views, I would suggest may be Ibn Adam does meet him and discuss these issues face to face with him. If Usama is insincere he will not meet,a nd if he is then it gives Ibn Adam an opportunity to advise him correctly.Surely it is better that he changes his view then be the the focus of such disdain?
Having read some of these comments, unfortunately all they do is play into peoples’ hands. If people use intellect to break down this deen, then it is with intellect that they should be challenged.
And Allah knows best.
Umer Suleman
September 29, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Usama Hasan is NOT a scholar, he is young and has much to learn yet. I would not put ‘Shaykh’ before his name either.
1. Punishment(s) is ordained by God, in the Qur’an. Therefore there is no possible room for change in Islam. Much of the Had punishments are outlined and detailed through different madhabs etc.
2. Homosexuality is forbidden by God, in the Qur’an (Story of Lut). Therefore there is no possible room for change in Islam on this matter.
Anything that contradicts the Qur’an and the Sunnah is not of Islam. These people are out to change Islam in the UK (not the world, they only care for ‘British Islam’) to suit their masters, the British Establishment (whatever that is made up of). They will use everything in their means to corner the disunited Muslim community and bring the Muslims to succumb to the pressure. They will try both tabloid press as well as scholarly text.
They will NEVER accept you or your religion as it was exemplified by the Prophet. So do not be fooled by them. Remain patiant and steadfast, good citizens, and your good actions and peaceful example will remain your hallmark.
Ahmadi
October 1, 2008 at 1:44 am
I know Brother Usama, and I respect him as a kind man. He comes from a good Muslim family, which is very knowledgeable.
However, I worry sometimes that while a sincere Muslim, Brother Usama is sometimes very easily led by whichever company he keeps at the time, and is very strongly tempted due to his public profile to say what people want to hear — even if he does not hold that view himself, in his heart of hearts.
This is the price you pay for becoming excessively a public talking head, being liked by government, church and other people, and tempted to be invited back
There are some Muslims, like Imam AbdulJalil Sajid from Brighton, who shamelessly just sell themselves in order to get on the conference circuit, get invited back to more high profile meetings, and so on. For example, this guy gave speeches to Christians saying that homosexuality is not prohibited in Islam, and has given speeches to Jews saying that the Noble Quran says that the Land of Israel is promised to the Jews. Then at the same time, on the other hand he signs petitions with the Muslim Council of Britain against homosexuality in the newspaper. This man has no sincere morals or convictions, and has just whored his views to the highest bidder.
I do not think Brother Usama is like that, but I fear there is a risk that one day if he is not careful, he may end up facing the same accusation. I hope Brother Usama will have the courage always act in accordance with his iman, and knowledge and understanding of the Holy Quran and Sunnah, and not just try to be friends with everyone all of the time. A man can sell his soul very easily that way — the Quilliam Foundation is proof of that.
Well Wisher for Brother Usama
January 6, 2009 at 4:54 am
Unfortunately a scholar or Islamic expert should never align himself with the government. Once he does that, he is compromised. Traditionaly scholars have specificaly mentioned this, even Imam Ghazali, that the Islamic teacher or scholar must remain independant, not accept money or gifts.
Ahmadi
January 6, 2009 at 11:33 am