They Are Calling for Ribat

The term ribāt  in Arabic means a course of action whose purpose is to persevere with patience so as to outlast the enemy at what is considered a front-line location of conflict.

In the Hadith we find: "Muhammad Ibn Ka’b al-Quradhī (رحمه الله) said, “(And perform ribāt) against My enemy and your enemy until he abandons his religion for your religion” [Tafsīr Ibn al-Mundhir]."

And here is how it is used in response to the news of the dramatic increase in numbers of Jews observing the ritual stringency who ascend to the Temple Mount:

الرباط الكثيف والمواظبة عليه داخل الاقصى هو الحل الوحيد لمنع هذه الزيادة الخطيرة جدا...

which translates as 

intensive and diligent ribat is the only solution to prevent this very dangerous increase...

As explained at my source, the linguistic root of ribāt stems from the term used for the binding (irtibāt) of horses in preparation for the enemy just as their enemy binds their horses in preparation for them. The word then was extended to describe those stationed at frontier posts defending those behind them whom the enemy desires to harm with evil, whether the enemy has horses he has bounded or is on foot without a riding animal for himself.

Males performing this duty are murābitīn and the females are murābitun because

“A day of ribāt for Allah’s cause is better than the world and everything it contains. [Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim from Sahl Ibn Sa’d]."

It's a serious business:

"Since the revival of jihād more than thirty years ago, mujāhid leaders have stated that jihād – on the personal level – consists of strides on a roadmap towards shahādah. One first performs hijrah to the lands of jihād (now, dārul -Islām), then gives bay’ah, pledging what it entails of obedience (sam’ and tā’ah) to the amīr (now, the Khalīfah)...then trains (i’dād) for the purpose of jihād, then patiently spends months of rībat, serves countless hours of guard duty (hirāsah), then fights (qitāl) in battles and kills (qatl) whom he can from amongst the kāfir enemy, and finally achieves shahādah."

which leads us back to a decision taken by Internal Security Minister Gilad Ardan to proscribe them two years ago.


P.S.

The Grand Shaikh of Al-Azhar, the oldest university in the Muslim world, said on Friday that the battle with the Zionists is not only about Al-Aqsa Mosque, but also the rest of the 35 acre sanctuary around it, Quds News Agency has reported.

“Al-Aqsa Mosque is not a small area of land,” explained Shaikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb. “The sanctuary also includes the Dome of the Rock Mosque, wells and corridors.” All of them, he pointed out, make up Al-Aqsa Mosque.  The Zionists want to take over Al-Aqsa. Referring to the Dome of the Rock as Al-Aqsa Mosque is a deceitful Zionist plan.

The Grand Shaikh’s comments came just days ahead of Al-Azhar’s International Conference about Jerusalem, which is scheduled to be held in Cairo on 17 and 18 January.

But the fuller version is worse:

Sheikh al-Tayyib said that the West's intention to grant Palestine to the Jews was to gather them in a place and expel them from Europe, to deny some of the Holocaust it had committed against the Jews, and because the antagonism of the Christian traditions of Judaism is traditional and inherited in the blood of many Western Christians, whether they are rulers or ruled.
 
Dr. al-Tayeb responded to the claim of some of them that the Aqsa Mosque mentioned in the Koran is not the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which we know in Palestine but it is a mosque on the road to Taif, saying: 


Whoever claims that it is trumpet of the horns of the Zionists in the East, which is not based on evidence or evidence of evidence; it is attributed to this talk to the realist, and reference to the writings of this world, Al-Waqqadi says in al-Maghazi (3 / 958-959): The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) ended up on the night of Thursday for five nights from Khu`l al-Qa'dah, and he lived in al-Jaranah thirteen. When he wanted to leave for the city, I stayed the night at night, I was deprived of the Aqsa Mosque, which is under the valley of the maximum enemy, and was a chapel The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was not allowed to enter the valley except for a mahram. He still did not meet until he received the pillar. What is the connection between this? Al-Aqsa Mosque, in which Allah said: "Al-Aqsa Mosque, which we have surrounded." Al-Jawqadi speaks about two mosques, one near and the other after him. He described them as the maximum and the lowest on what is used by the scholars. He did not mean that this mosque is named al-Aqsa and the other is its lower name. Who does not distinguish between the name and description. 

Sheikh al-Tayeb said that Al-Azhar is keeping pace with the Palestinian issue with its conferences, scientists and authors. He said: "We have the works of the world about Jerusalem, including what is printed and what is a manuscript, and on this occasion I emphasize the importance of having a course on Jerusalem in primary, The history of the three mosques, the history of the holy mosque (the Kaaba), the history of the mosque and its developments, and also the history of Al-Aqsa Mosque, because the Arab mind is free of the culture of Jerusalem or the culture of Palestine in general. We face a strong "Israel" that has k One womb has a single frame with a people divided on itself.

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A Ben-Gurion Academic on the Muribatat

On November 18, I attended a conference sponsored by Search for Common Ground's (SFCG) Jerusalem office at the Konrad Adenauer Conference Centre.  Entitled "Addressing Interreligious Tensions: Holy Sites in the Holy Land", funding was also provided by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. 

The conference took place within the framework of a pilot being implemented "in the Holy Land" (sic) to gauge the practical effectiveness of a Universal Code of Conduct on Holy Sites. This code of theirs 

endeavors to safeguard holy places and promote interreligious reconciliation worldwide by demonstrating that dialogue between relevant religious and governmental bodies leading to common action is a significant tool for building relationships and reducing tensions around holy places.

Some of my snaps:

At the conference, Salwa Alenalt, a PhD candidate in the Middle East Department in Ben Gurion University, provided 

insights into the Islamic concept of ribat, which refers to pious behavior and the call to Muslims to protect Islamic holy sites.

and earlier, she was quoted in the media, saying

“The members of the Murabitat see coming to al-Aqsa, and studying there as a religious duty and experience, They are not willing to give up this experience.”

If only that was their purpose. 

The groups of men and women, murabitun and murabatat, are quite a recent phenomenon, perhaps four years old at the most (although I did find similar behavior in 1911!).  They at first sat around in study circles, then they moved to sit in the pathway of the Jews walking about the Temple Mount courtyard, forcing a detour.  After that, they started yelling and finally, the pushing, shoving, screaming, spitting and hitting.  They are paid to do that, from the coffers of the Islamic Movement-North.

They are provocateurs.  Instigators of violence.  Nothing is being done to the area than what other non-Jewish tourists are doing.  The police are very stringent and restrictive.

And as I pointed out to Ms. Alenalt, as I have already blogged, the Jews demand no less than what Muslims themselves request at such a site as the Cordoba Cathedral.

But at this public human rights program, that went unmentioned by the "scholar" from Ben-Gurion University, an objective and neutral academic.

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