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.
May 13, 2008 at 7:48 pm
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.
May 13, 2008 at 8:44 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.
May 13, 2008 at 8:52 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..
May 13, 2008 at 11:15 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.
May 14, 2008 at 7:21 am
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!
May 14, 2008 at 11:17 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
May 16, 2008 at 1:34 pm
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)
May 16, 2008 at 2:34 pm
[...] Reply to Usama Hassan Original letter can be found here - with the initial response here [...]
May 19, 2008 at 9:20 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?