“Religious scholars are the trustees of prophets unless they crawl to the doors of tyrants.”“Justice is sweeter than cold water to a thirsty person.”
- Ja'far al-Sadiq RA
“To feel the pain of humanity is the essence of civilization.”
- Walid Daqqa, Palestinian novelist and philosopher who died in Israeli prisons in 2024. His body is still held by Israel to this day.
It was a fine summer day at the American University in Cairo. The heads of the university and Cairo’s top missionaries, diplomats and expatriates were all in attendance. It was graduation day. When his name was called, Abdul Qadir stood up, walked to the stage, and launched into a fiery speech about the university’s complicity as a tool for imperialism and accused the institution’s missionary-led vision of undermining Islam and Muslims.
He then proceeded to shred his diploma by saying, “Here, have your diploma. Take it! It has nothing to do with me.”
He was promptly kicked out of campus and even expelled from Egypt thereafter.
The audience was aghast. They never saw a display of protest so daring in nature, especially in a such a high brow Western institution in the heart of the bustling city upon the Nile. When I did my freshman year there in the early 2000s, the yuppie sons and daughters of Cairo’s wealthy elites would fling their car keys to the hardworking valets outside campus. The rows of flashy Ferraris, BMWs and Mercedes were an eyesore against the historic buildings of Tahrir Square. In Cairene society, an AUC degree is a status symbol. Their golden ticket to upward mobility, credentialism and access.
But not for Abdul Qadir. He had far greater aspirations in mind.
You might think this incident occured in 2024 at the heel of the global student movement for Palestinian human rights. When it fact, it took place close to a century ago, in 1932, more than a decade before the official creation of Israel and American expansionist policies in the so-called Middle East.
These were the early, prescient days of the revolutionary Palestinian leader, Abdul Qadir al-Husseini. Prior to arriving in King Farouq’s Cairo to study chemistry, mathematics, Islam, history and politics, he was kicked out of the American University in Beirut for his firebrand political activism. He was no embittered member of the working class with an axe to grind. Abdul Qadir was a member of the ruling elite of Ottoman Palestine. He belonged to the Husseini family, an age-old dynasty that has historically served as the religious and political symbol of Palestinian leadership in Jerusalem for centuries. As a Palestinian descendent of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ via Imam Hussein (hence the last name), Abdul Qadir witnessed firsthand the wanton cruelty and injustice of the British colonization of Palestine.
It awoke the spirit of Hussein within him.
Less than a year after his expulsion from Egypt, his father, Musa al-Kazim—a respected leader in his own right and the Mayor of Jerusalem since 1918—at the elderly age of 80-years old, led a mass demonstration in Yafa in 1933 to protest the Balfour Declaration and the transfer of Arab land into Zionist hands. At the Yafa demonstration, Musa al-Kazim suffered a grave fall after being hit on the forehead with a club by a mounted British policeman. He was taken to a hospital but died a little less than a year thereafter, having never having fully recovered from the blow he had suffered. The people of Palestine bid him farewell in a mass funeral.
Abdul Qadir was born in Istanbul in 1908 during the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire. As a descendent of “Jerusalemite royalty”, one could easily assume he was removed from reality and born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But taking cues from his father’s principled heroism till his final days, Abdul Qadir took that silver spoon and fashioned it into a dagger, deploying his privilege towards the service of his people, and casting it against the throats of traitors and the ever-growing tentacles of European and Zionist aspirations.
From his earliest days, he was a revolutionary. He did not hide behind his elite status to curry favor with the colonial elite, nor did he “keep the peace” by acting as a collaborator to gain favor and upward mobility in British Mandate Palestine, despite the significant material gain and comfort that came with that. After college, he was kicked out from job after job, too “radical” and “risky” for most Arabic newspapers which feared the retribution of British colonial officers. Rejected and dejected from most establishment institutions, he finally succumbed to the hand of destiny and understood his true calling on earth: to lead his people out of the abyss of darkness.
Abdul Qadir fought to preserve his soul in at a time when the campaign to destroy Muslim consciousness was first ignited. In the piercing words of Professor Ovamir Anjum, “the modern world is relentless in its assault on the Muslim soul.” Abdul Qadir witnessed the nascence of this century-long assault. Thus, Abdul Qadir’s true legacy was the ability to defy the ruse called the “post-colonial world order” before it even began. He immediately understood that the gravest loss anyone could face is not a loss in status, wealth, prestige or social standing, rather, it is the loss of one’s consciousness and soul. Identifying those who profited from stirring the cauldron of the looming theft of Palestine, Abdul Qadir took it upon himself to deploy his immense networks, access and privilege to sound the alarm bells against colonization and the betrayal and deceit of native informants decades before the pervasiveness of endemic mental and spiritual capitulation.
He was greatly inspired by the actions and spirit of Syrian cleric and Tijānī Shaykh Izzidin al-Qassam and even joined his Great Palestinian Rebellion of 1936 as a young man; the campaign that is considered the most cogent, organized and effective resistance to British-Zionist incursion in Palestinian history. In early October of 1936, the British army arrested Abdul Qadir who was wounded in al-Khudr battle in Bethlehem. He was put in chains and taken to the Jerusalem Military Hospital but he managed to escape to Damascus where he continued to receive treatment. He lived as an itinerant, lovestruck son of Jerusalem in exile, yearning for freedom. Yearning for a homeland ravaged by the meddling hands of outsiders, the British militias and Zionist gangs like the Ergun and Hagana.
Unlike many contemporary and later Arab nationalist elites and revolutionary figures, Abdul Qadir did not try to eschew his Islamic religious identity and commitments in favor of more socialist, secular ones, and formed an army called al-Jihad al-Muqaddas (the Holy Struggle). After being wounded in battle multiple times and various bouts of imprisonment, the time for his final act came when he traveled to Damascus to gain the support of the Military Committee of the Arab League in 1948. His goal was to defend the Palestinian village of al-Qastal from Zionist attacks, but he came back empty handed and deeply disappointed, for the Arab League refused his request for armed support.
The cyclical nature of history is truly astounding. Similar to Gaza today, despite the abandonment by Arab leaders, Abdul Qadir pressed on and charged to the battlefield alone with his men, where he led a vicious counter-attack to recover the village of al-Qastal. There, he was killed in battle on April 8th of 1948, at the age of 40. Hence, he spent his entire life and youth in the way of resistance. He did not covet the fancy diploma, the status, nor the positions. With his passage to the eternal realm, he literally and metaphysically reached the Prophetic age of wisdom of 40 as a resplendent shahid adorned. His funeral was attended by thousands of mourners and he earned the honor of being buried in the courtyard of his beloved al-Aqsa mosque. He foresaw the doom and humiliation of Arab leaders in a prescient and thunderous letter to the Arab League. His clairvoyant letter remains etched as a haunting reminder to the fate of those who abandon Palestine in its greatest hour of need:
Letter from Abdul Qadir to the Secretary General of the Arab League, dated 1948: “I hereby make you responsible for deserting me and my troops without aid or arms during their great victory.”
In a similar vein, he gave a sermon about the betrayal of Arab leaders in 1948, which recently went viral due to the genocide in Gaza: “I warn you that history will witness that you have betrayed the ummah and that you have sold Palestine. History will be merciless with likes of you.”
The rich legacy of a figure like Abdul Qadir al-Husseini points to a model of leadership based on the imperative of embodying the twin spirits of Emir Abdul Qadir and Imam Hussein: a model of principled rebellion against a relentless assault on the human soul. He represented a Qadirite x Husseini vision and ethos during the most calamitous era: the fall of Palestine. Colonizers tried to sow divisions in Palestinian and Arab societies, but like al-Qassam, Husseini stressed unity at all costs. More importantly, the great Husseini shahid of al-Quds did not yield to relentless efforts to fracture his consciousness during in a time of rampant colonization, secularization and materialism. Though he was by-all-means privileged and highly educated, he never strayed from being rooted in his Muslim consciousness and ethical formation. His sense of honor came about from placing more importance on defending his homeland and the oppressed rather than his own upward mobility.
When so many Arab elites today are mum about tyranny and genocide, joyriding in Amman, smoking shisha in Cairo, partying in Dubai or attending concerts in Riyadh, Abdul Qadir’s youth was characterized by a revolutionary impetus despite being someone who belonged to the highest echelons of Levantine Ottoman society. How many members of the Arab political elite today truly devote their talents, resources and access in service of those in need, in the way of justice and promoting unity? Instead, they conform to the status quo, fattened up with daddy’s money like cowardly sheep, turning a blind eye to the treachery, collusion and complacency of their masters—the Sidis and Majesties that lord over them. What a fickle calculus. They’ve sold their wretched souls a long time ago. In al-Husseini’s words, “history will be merciless with likes of you.”
Resisting the Modern Day Yazids
Restoring the lionhearted Husseini spirit is imperative in this time when the sheep in wolves clothing are working overtime to assert the Islam of Yazid as the mainstream religion. A neutered Islam in name only. The Islam of skyscrapers and mega malls. The Yazidi archetype that looms over today’s Cairo, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi is working overtime to quash the spirit of justice and subvert the Qur’anic and Prophetic narrative. This effort is not just figurative, it is literal: Saudi Arabia just spent $100 million dollars to produce a propagandist TV series on Mu’awiya bin Abi Sufyan, the man whose son, Yazid, was responsible for ordering the killing of Imam Hussein and his family members in the battle of Karbala in 61 AD. Thus, to those who asked formerly why bring up an event that happened more than a thousand years ago, it is sufficient to witness how the Karbala narrative is still important to the Yazids of our time. They are invested in disfiguring and appropriating it for the perniciousness aims of fueling sectarian rifts and neutering Islam.
Time and time again, Karbala has proven that it is the ultimate, living universal cause. Instead of allowing Karbala to be weaponized as a tool to divide-and-conquer Islam and Muslims, it has potential to unite all Muslims. Sunnis are unfortunately disconnected from this narrative because they think that Karbala is simply a “Shi’a” story. They think the name Musa al-Kazim is a Shi’i one, when Ja’far al-Sadiq and Musa al-Kazim are two of the greatest sages and scholars in Islamic history who embodied the highest levels of knowledge and Prophetic virtue. However, they need not look further than the 20th century history of Palestinian resistance to see living vestiges of the spirit of Imam Hussein in the likes of Abdul Qadir. Palestinian prisoners find great inspiration in the story of Karbala: Shaykh Khadr Adnan, who died after an 87-day hunger strike in Israel’s Ayalon Prison, was known to have been an avid reader of the Iranian revolutionary Ali Shari’ati and quoted him in one of his interviews saying, “Be Hussein-like on the path of shahada, then if not, be Zaynab-like on the path of truth-telling.”
Most Sunnis deprive themselves of the example of the valiant sister of Imam Hussein, Sayida Zaynab, whom they view as but a historical figure, when even a Gazan mother who lost 4 of her children frequently invokes the Zaynabian example to get through the pain of the genocide by recalling her thunderous words, “I have not seen anything from God except beauty.” Dr. Alaa Qatrawi, the exceptional Gazan writer, poetess and grieving mother whose evocative, harrowing work I translated in a prior Substack, wrote a piece last year about the imperative of loving the Prophetic household and the school of justice they represent, and how this prism will always be an enduring lens for Gaza and Palestinians, despite efforts to frame it as a sectarian topic:
So, after all this, what does it mean to be truly Muhammadan? I know many simple, humble people, average Muslims, who are not well known to most, yet they frequently see our master Muhammad ﷺ in their visions—and whoever sees the Prophet has truly seen him. They are deeply connected to his noble presence, as if their very breaths are infused with his spirit due to their constant prayers upon him and their sincere love for following his sunnah.
When I seek to understand their lives and uncover their secrets, I find that they have truly graduated from the Muhammadan School and the School of the Aal al Bayt, that of his blessed household. I have come to realize that no matter how much knowledge one attains or how many degrees one earns, if they have not graduated from the School of our Master Muhammad and his family, peace be upon them, then all they acquire in life holds no real value.
The greatest lesson this school has taught us is to reject ignorance and tribalist thinking. Any act that stirs sectarianism or fuels division is not Muhammadan conduct in any way. This is all the more true given that Zionist forces have been relentlessly attacking the people of Gaza for an entire year, only to be met with a devastating and sorrowful silence from both the Arab world and the so-called international community.
What Dr. Alaa’ is describing here is the difference between an imperialist, ethnocentric Ummayad Islam versus an Islam of mercy, justice, and Prophetic ethics enshrined in the Aal al Bayt ethic and the Husseini spirit. The difference between an Islam that lionizes the idol of “Ahl As-Sunnah” chauvinism versus an Islam of living, Prophetic ethics. An Islam of blind subservience to the rule, the wali al-amr no matter how crooked, versus the Islam of sacrifice and principled resistance to evil. The Islam of the likes of Imam Hussein and Abdul Qadir. An Islam that roars in the face of tyranny as Imam Hussein himself once roared to Yazid: “the likes of me will never obey the likes of you” and “we will never succumb to humiliation.”هيهات منا الذلة
With the the tempest of sectarian strife and bloodshed ravaging the ummah, remember who stands to benefit from the assault on a firmly united Muslim consciousness and quashing the Husseini spirit. Sunnis can no longer feign ignorance or look away from the lessons of early Islamic history and leave Islam prey to the corrupting, salivating forces of the modern-day Abu Sufyans and Abu Jahls of Arabia enshrined today in MBS, MBZ and their ilk. Taking cues from Abdul Qadir al-Husseini, the postcolonial elite in Arab and Muslim societies are well positioned to stand up to the structures of tyranny they so selfishly benefit from. They can still save themselves from the dustbin of history and use their privilege in service of the lowly, the disenfranchised and the oppressed. They need not comb through the history books to understand Karbala, the Umayyads and the modern day Yazids. It suffices to look at Palestine and its rich history of revolutionary figures and living exemplars. However much they try to look away, “every day is Ashura and everyday is Karbala” is not a sectarian calling cry, it is also the unseen manifesto of Palestinian resistance.
It suffices for them look to Gaza, to al-Quds, to revive the Husseini spirit.
“Gaza is the Karbala of the contemporary age”