كوسوفا الجريحة

 

Summary

1)    Kosova exposed the great hatred that the Christians harbour toward the Muslims

2)   Defining the region of Kosova

3)   Kosova under the fire of Communism, then Christianity

4)   The sanctity of Muslim blood in the sight of Allaah

5)   Examples of the savage assault by the Serbs on the Kosovars

6)   The tragedy of Kosovan refugees

7)   Supporting the Muslims of Kosova

 

First Khutbah

 

Servants of Allaah! Fear Allaah and repent to Him. As days and years pass, events accumulate and pages after pages increase in the records of history, and one must reflect on what is occurring.

 

The crises of the Muslim Nation increase, events follow in succession, and more wounds are opened, and this is indeed an indication of our humiliation. The Muslim Nation continues to be afflicted by trials and tribulations, the latest of which make us forget the one that it superseded. The new ones overweigh the old and the enemy continues to humiliate us, yet we continue to drop our weapons and surrender.

 

We open the record of the wound of Kosova – Kosova, which exposed Christianity, the hatred that the Christians harbour toward the Muslims and the extent of savagery that they practice in modern times.

 

Kosova, which cries over its people, refugees, the dead and the displaced. Kosova, which showed the weakness of the Muslim Nation, Muslim regimes, and how the Muslim states could not support their brothers, nor extend a hand of help until they were permitted to do so.

 

Kosova, which exposed just how much hatred there is in the hearts of our enemies - and that they bite their fingers in fury against us. They wish to extract our religion from its roots so that we lose our strength and start following our desires and are thus overwhelmed by adversities. They do not want Islaam to have any might, or that certainty strengthens in the hearts of the Muslims; nor do they wish that the Muslims become firmly established or acquire power. They insist, through their wars and bombardments, on tearing up the Muslim nation into groups, alienated in different parts of the earth, unable to provide, protect or shelter each other.

 

Kosova unveiled the reality of human rights institutes and organisations, which dealt with Kosovars as slaves who were to be given no rights unless they begged for them; they are always therefore displaced and injured. Kosova the wounded was and continues to be afflicted.

 

Servants of Allaah! The region of Kosova is more than ten thousand square kilometres, populated by more than two million people, ninety-three percent of which are Muslim. It has much wealth, which has made its enemies greedy. Its population is comprised of Albanians, who had settled there from the distant past, or Serbs, who were brought in from Eastern Europe.

 

A historical battle took place in Kosova in the year 1389CE, which was during the era of the Ottoman Empire, between the Muslims and the Christians. The Muslims had a decisive victory that freed the Albanians from the rule of the Christian Serbs. The Serbs continue to remember this battle, so much so that the Serbian President announced twenty years ago, in commemoration of that battle, that he was cancelling the autonomy of the Kosovan Muslims. He said in his famous statement: "The battle of Kosovo started six centuries ago, and it concludes today. We are ready to sacrifice three hundred thousand Serbian fighters to extract Islaam from its roots, from Sarajevo all the way to Makkah."

 

From that time, the crisis started and it increased and intensified until the present time. Despite the pleadings of the Muslims of Kosova to their Muslim brothers at the time of the Bosnian war that their turn was next, the Muslims did not pay attention until the crisis occurred and things became extremely grim.

 

Brothers in faith! The Serbs, may Allaah disgrace them, were not satisfied with what the Muslims had to endure during eighty years of Communist rule in Yugoslavia when they were tortured, humiliated, and stripped of their freedom and religion. After the Communist system collapsed, the Serbs revived the role of the Church in their war against Muslims. Supported by all priests and Churches to make this a war of faith and to spread their corrupted religion, they initiated the genocide in Kosova by the use of different methods. The following are some of them, as per the reports that were broadcasted by some Islaamic organisations - the few that started work in that area.

 

Brothers in faith! The Messenger of Allaah sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam said: "Demolishing the Ka'bah to bricks is less weighty in the sight of Allaah than the shedding of blood of a single Muslim." In another narration he sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam said: "It is less in the sight of Allaah for this world to vanish than for one Muslim to be killed." (Tirmithi & Nasaa'i)

 

Although Muslim blood is precious, massacres of Muslims take place everywhere. The cheapest blood to be shed nowadays is that of the Muslims because nobody gives any weight to it. Reports from inside Kosova state that the death toll of Muslims is in the thousands; violation of human rights has peaked inside the cities under curfew; some Muslims are burnt alive in front of their families, as happened in the city of Bijaa last week; the situation worsened when thirty Muslims were executed in a horrific and gruesome manner in Sohart province and twenty teachers were executed in front of their students in the village of Gordan, which lies in the bordering area between Albania and Kosova.

 

The people of the village of Greezi, about twenty thousand men, women and children, have been put in a concentration camp. This camp is surrounded with tanks and militia and the people inside it are not provided with any food, medicine or clothing. As for the rest of the villages and cities, they are bombarded with showers of bullets so that nobody can approach and assist them.

 

Eyewitnesses, who were able to escape, mentioned that dead bodies are scattered in the streets and many mosques have been demolished in the above mentioned cities and this is besides the vicious rape of women that has become a trademark of the Serbs when dealing with Muslim women.

 

It is enough, brothers in faith, for us to remember what happened to the Muslims of Bosnia, to realise what might happen to the Muslim men and women of Kosova, just because they are Muslims.

 

More than a thousand young Muslim women are detained in concentration camps along with a number of Muslim men, older women and children, who are all used as human shields to protect the Serbs from shelling. Aside from the extreme hunger that they are made to go through which is manifest on their bodies, they live in a crisis; a painful catastrophe has befallen them. They are barehanded people who are deprived of everything, including the right to defend themselves – a disaster and genocide in which oppression and torture has reigned unchallenged.

 

Brothers! Inform me about followers of any other religion that have been humiliated to this extent; tell me of any other nation that sees and hears all that happens to its followers and then issues a pathetic and belated condemnation. Tell me how our force and treasures are incapacitated and how the Arabic Television channels are utilised for sports and entertainment, concealing or distorting the circumstances that the Muslims are living in. Compare this to the past when one of the Muslim Khaleefahs took up arms and dispatched a huge army to rescue just one woman who cried out for his support saying. "Waa Mu'tasimaah!" (i.e., "O Mu'tasim! Help me!").

 

The last page in the record of the wound of Kosova relates to a different aspect of the crisis, namely the forced displacement of women, children and men from their homes at a very rapid pace, such that the number of refugees has reached a million in only two weeks.

 

There is no doubt that it will be extremely difficult for such a huge number of people to return to their homes, especially when we look at what has happened to the refugees of Bosnia, who have still not returned to the places they were originally driven out from. The disaster of the refugees of Kosova is great in itself and perhaps their predicament and destiny may be even worse than those inside Kosova.

 

Displacement has become an objective of the Christians so that they can separate and disunite the Muslims of Europe. Allaah says that which means: "…They will not spare you [any] ruin. They wish you would have hardship. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater." (Aal 'Imraan: 118).

 

The Muslim refugees of Kosova, who are suffering from all kinds of atrocities at the hands of the Serbs, are now subject to hunger, thirst, and various diseases with nobody to help them or any place to seek shelter in from the severe cold weather. They wander about aimlessly, waiting for death. They have nothing to sleep on but the ground full of snow and their only cover is the sky.

 

We raise our complaint to Allaah of the weakness of our power and the humiliation we are living through. Muslims are distinguished by being refugees and orphans, you see them sharing a loaf of bread, hungry, while disbelieving organisations receive them in order to displace them to their countries and change their religion, or at least weaken it in their hearts and souls.

 

What is our reaction, brothers, to the pictures that show children taken out from refugee camps looking puzzled and confused? Astonishment fills their eyes after they have lost their fathers; pictures that make one's heart quiver and break. One of them depicts a father, a Muslim father, tears pouring out of his eyes while kissing his children goodbye. Where are they taking them? When will they meet again?  What will they face? He does not know and neither do we. Their children peer from behind the windows of buses that will take them to different countries; they will grow up knowing nothing about the Islaam that they were born with. Some will live in missionary centres or churches where they will forget Islaam, the religion that they grew up with.

 

Brothers! This is the issue and this is the situation, it is not ambiguous, nor is it difficult to understand, but to truly grasp its seriousness one must have some understanding of Islaam and know the nature of things and the ways of Allaah.

 

Removing the causes of betrayal and degradation is more important and of a higher priority than removing their effects. This tyranny will not be stopped except through Islaam, the solution is clear and the truth is obvious. It is an ideological struggle and a battle against those who disbelieve in Allaah and ascribe to Him a wife and a son - exalted is Allaah above what they say. The Qur'aan rules in this manner with no confusion, but certainty from our Lord. Allaah says that which means: "…Never will the Jews and the Christians approve of you until you follow their religion..." (Al-Baqarah: 120); this is Qur'aanic speech addressing the Muslim mind and soul, saying that they will never stop fighting until they turn you back from your religion, if they can. It is a battle against them and against the Jews; a battle of survival that our very existence depends on - victory or extermination.

 

Allaah says regarding this battle that which means: "…Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allaah extinguished it. And they strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allaah does not like corrupters." (Al-Maa'idah: 64).

 

Brothers! We must be certain that all that we see from hardship that befalls the Muslim world is from Allaah. These are signs of a comprehensive Islaamic growth that encompasses all aspects of life, so our hearts must not feel despair, the promise of victory by Allaah will be fulfilled.

 

We ask Allaah to bring victory to our Muslim brothers and sisters in Kosova. Allaah says that which means: "…And Allaah will surely support those who support Him [i.e., His cause]. Indeed, Allaah is Powerful and Exalted in Might." (Al-Hajj: 40)

 

Second Khutbah

 

Servants of Allaah! Fear Allaah and know that supporting our Muslim brothers in Kosova is mandatory upon all of us and is something that demonstrates our feelings towards the issues of the Muslims. The feeling of brotherhood based on faith and the connection of Islaam goes beyond the boundaries of colour, sex, and nationality.

 

We ask all Muslims to sympathise with them, sharing their feelings and emotions. We are required, brothers in faith, to feel as one body does. We must share their feelings of hunger when they are hungry, and poverty while they are naked, barefoot and sleeping on the earth with only the sky as their cover.

 

Did you not see that old woman losing her breath, trying to escape from the Serbian bombardment and shelling until she reached the border, and then, instead of resting, she collapsed and died? She died only after having conveyed her message to the Muslims, who are heedless to her predicament and negligent of her screams, because their main concern is watching and cheering soccer games and indulging in other forms of vain entertainment and music. How often does a Muslim woman who is living with her husband peacefully and happily think about and remember other women who undergo hardship, lose their families after having lived with them, and become victims and hostages to the disbelievers who assault and rape them.

 

Brothers in faith! When you look at your children remember their children; there are many orphans who are longing for the compassion and love of a father, looking for the sympathy of a mother, and searching for someone to relieve them of their misery.

 

We must feel like one body like the one the Prophet sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam informed us of when he said: "If one part of it aches, the rest of it rushes in harmony to shed tears" and crying for them is nothing but a sign of your commitment to this religion. Rather, it is an act of worship that you will be rewarded for, as this translates ones intention into sacrifice, support, and solidarity with them.

 

The Messenger of Allaah sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam said: "He who relieves a believer from a calamity of the calamities of this life, Allaah will relieve him from a calamity of the calamities of the Day of Resurrection." ( Muslim).

 

He sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam also said:  "The most beloved of the people to Allaah are the most beneficial to others, whose beloved deeds to Allaah cause happiness and joy to a Muslim, or drive away his worry and grief, or pay his debts or satisfy his hunger" then he sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam said: "To accompany a Muslim helping him fulfil a need is more beloved to me than to reside in my mosque for a full month; he who assists his Muslim brother in fulfilling a need until it is finished will have Allaah making him steadfast on the Day of Judgment." (Tabaraani).

 

We must extend a helping hand to financially and emotionally support the Muslims of Kosova and we must also remember them in our du'aa', or supplications, so that Allaah may lift this hardship from them.