Essentially the most outstanding Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a uncommon, highly effective fatwa condemning Hamas’s 7 October 2023 assault on Israel, which triggered the devastating conflict within the Palestinian territory.
Professor Dr Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the College of Sharia and Legislation on the Hamas-affiliated Islamic College of Gaza, is without doubt one of the area’s most revered spiritual authorities, so his authorized opinion carries vital weight amongst Gaza’s two million inhabitants, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim.
A fatwa is a non-binding Islamic authorized ruling from a revered spiritual scholar normally primarily based on the Quran or the Sunnah – the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.
Dr Dayah’s fatwa, which was printed in an in depth six-page doc, criticises Hamas for what he calls “violating Islamic rules governing jihad”.
Jihad means “battle” in Arabic and in Islam it may be a private battle for non secular enchancment or a army battle in opposition to unbelievers.
Dr Dayah provides: “If the pillars, causes, or circumstances of jihad usually are not met, it should be averted with a purpose to keep away from destroying individuals’s lives. That is one thing that’s simple to guess for our nation’s politicians, so the assault will need to have been averted.”
For Hamas, the fatwa represents an embarrassing and probably damaging critique, significantly because the group usually justifies its assaults on Israel by spiritual arguments to garner assist from Arab and Muslim communities.
The 7 October assault noticed a whole bunch of Hamas gunmen from Gaza invade southern Israel. About 1,200 individuals had been killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Israel responded by launching a army marketing campaign to destroy Hamas, throughout which greater than 43,400 individuals have been killed in Gaza, based on the Hamas-run well being ministry.
Dr Dayah argues that the numerous civilian casualties in Gaza, along with the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and humanitarian catastrophe which have adopted the 7 October assault, implies that it was in direct contradiction to the teachings of Islam.
Hamas, he says, has failed in its obligations of “preserving fighters away from the properties of defenceless [Palestinian] civilians and their shelters, and offering safety and security as a lot as potential within the varied features of life… safety, financial, well being, and schooling, and saving sufficient provides for them.”
Dr Dayah factors to Quranic verses and the Sunnah that set strict circumstances for the conduct of jihad, together with the need of avoiding actions that provoke an extreme and disproportionate response by an opponent.
His fatwa highlights that, based on Islamic regulation, a army raid shouldn’t set off a response that exceeds the supposed advantages of the motion.
He additionally stresses that Muslim leaders are obligated to make sure the protection and well-being of non-combatants, together with by offering meals, drugs, and refuge to these not concerned within the preventing.
“Human life is extra valuable to God than Mecca,” Dr Dayah states.
His opposition to the 7 October assault is particularly vital given his deep affect in Gaza, the place he’s seen as a key spiritual determine and a vocal critic of Islamist actions, together with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
His reasonable Salafist beliefs place him in direct opposition to Hamas’s strategy to armed resistance and its ties to Shia-ruled Iran.
Salafists are fundamentalists who search to stick the instance of the Prophet Muhammad and the primary generations who adopted him.
Dr Dayah has constantly argued for the institution of an Islamic caliphate that adheres strictly to Islamic regulation, fairly than the political party-based methods that Hamas and different teams advocate.
“Our function mannequin is the Prophet Muhammad, who based a nation and didn’t set up political events that divide the nation. Subsequently, events in Islam are forbidden,” he stated in a sermon he gave at a mosque a number of years in the past.
He has additionally condemned extremism, opposing jihadist teams like Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and has used all of his platforms to difficulty fatwas on varied social and political points, starting from business transactions, social disputes over marriage and divorce, to the conduct of political violence.
The fatwa provides to the rising inside debate inside Gaza and the broader Arab world over the ethical and authorized implications of Hamas’s actions, and it’s more likely to gasoline additional divisions inside Palestinian society relating to the usage of armed resistance within the ongoing battle with Israel.
Sheikh Ashraf Ahmed, one in all Dr Dayah’s college students who was compelled to depart his home in Gaza Metropolis final 12 months and flee to the south of Gaza along with his spouse and 9 kids, informed the BBC: “Our scholar [Dr Dayah] refused to depart his house in northern Gaza regardless of the fears of Israeli air strikes. He selected to fulfil his spiritual obligation by issuing his authorized opinion on the assault”.
Ahmed described the fatwa as probably the most highly effective authorized judgment of a historic second. “It’s a deeply effectively researched doc, reflecting Dayah’s dedication to Islamic jurisprudence,” he stated.
