Just before former President Mohamed Morsi breathed his last!

And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of the Almighty are dead…(Qur’an 24: 54)
It was Ibn Taimiyyah (d. 1328) who once expressed the illogic and the futility of all earthly postures against the currents and advancement of faiths and ideologies across times and civilizations. During one of his numerous incarcerations, he said: “what else would my enemies do with me- my death is martyrdom, my incarceration is solitude with my Lord and my banishment from my land (spiritual) tourism”. The American philosopher and thinker, R. W Emerson says: “they who become martyrs cannot be dishonoured; every lash inflicted on their body becomes a tongue of fame, every prison an experience in luxury”.

Now years before his death, Hassan al-Bannah, the preceptor and founder of the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt wrote a treatise titled Tariq al-Dawah (Pathway of Proselytization). In it he said that those who chose to follow their path have one of two destinies awaiting them- either victory and, consequently, dominion on earth or death and, ultimately, martyrdom. Beginning with Ibn Taimiyyah and down to Muhammad Morsi, one of the most solemn lessons one could derive from their chequered life and biographies, itself a throw-back to the lives of Prophets sent by the Almighty to humanity across climes and times, is that the world loathes truthfulness and honesty; that to dare to effect a change in the world is to become an enemy; to attempt to be innovative and creative is to incur public ridicule and opprobrium.

For Hassan al-Bannah, the journey to martyrdom started in 1928 when he founded the Muslim Brotherhood on the desertland of Cairo. Ironically, the journey ended in 1948 when he was assassinated by the security apparatus of the Egyptian government. For Morsi, the journey ‘started’ in 2012 when he launched his presidential campaign under the Justice and Freedom Party in affiliation with the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt; the beat stopped for him on Monday, the 17th of June, 2019. Muhammad Morsi entered the Presidential Palace on the 20th of June 2012, on the 3rd of July, 2013, he was dethroned. The Islamic Brotherhood succeeded in gaining political authority; but they failed in their attempt to maintain their sovereignty. From the presidential palace, Muhammad Morsi was taken to the Scorpion Prison in Cairo. From the courthouse in Cairo where he breathed his last yesterday, he was taken to his grave for burial last night.

Before he breathed his last, Morsi was facing at least six trials. He had been behind bars for nearly six years. He was serving a 20-year prison sentence for a conviction arising from the killing of protesters during demonstrations in 2012. He was also serving a life sentence for espionage in a case related to the Gulf state of Qatar. Before he breathed his last, Morsi had become a prisoner to the super-structure that had held Egypt hostage for decades. While in prison, he requested for a copy of the Glorious Quran. The authorities denied that unto him. They did not that Morsi was a Hafiz – Quran memoriser. “I only wanted to touch the Glorious scripture”, he enthused.

Thus Morsi died as a martyr in defence of what he held dear. He died in the gulag constructed for his likes by authorities with affiliation not to Islam but the gods of secularism and Westernism.

While today’s sermon seeks to put the above in greater perspective, it is, however, and perhaps more importantly, meant to memorialize Morsi’s last speech; it is meant to prevent it from escaping the contemplation of men and women of discernment. Just before he fell down in the court and breathed his last, he said: “You accused me of communicating with Hamas, but here you are working with the same organization; you accused me of being responsible for the violence in Sinai peninsula, but all of you are witnesses to what has been happening there while I am in prison; you accused me of being behind violence in Cairo, but you have all being witnesses to what has been happening in the churches and mosques and the forceful removal of uncountable number of inhabitants of the villages and townships from there homes; you kept me in isolation and not only that everyday you subjected me to series of punishment inside the prison while you feign ignorance of what is happening; you desire to kill me by all means while you make light actions that would make that happen. Nobody knows when his life would come to an end but the Almighty; He is the one in-charge of all affairs and we shall say nothing but that He is sufficient for us and He is enough as an authority against every oppressor, traitor, criminal and coup-plotter. I have the complete certainty that I shall meet my Lord in patience, in full awareness of my actions and with the conviction that I shall meet with the criminals in front of the Almighty and in His presence all disputants shall congregate”.

He said further: “My message to my children and wife is this- the Almighty knows how deep my love for you is; I can’t picture how concerned I have been; I can’t describe the pain I have gone through; I can’t equally describe how I have lived inside the prison without cure (for my ailment) nor drug …; despite all of that I could not stop thinking about you all night and day. I do not know when we shall meet again; perhaps it might be that our meeting shall be in paradise; we ask the Almighty for that so that we can lay our complaints against the oppression of the oppressors to Him the Almighty…O youths of Egypt!…certainly, oppression would never last and as for the coup plotters, their day is imminent…nobody lasts forever but the Almighty…!

Moments after this speech, Muhammad Morsi fell than in the court and breathed his last. Now who was the first world power to express his sadness and condolences over the incident? It was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He was the first world leader to pay tribute to Morsi by calling him a “martyr.” May his soul meet the Ridwan of His Lord. Amin