بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Answer to Question
Betrayal and its Denotation
To: Raghib Abu Shamah
(Translated)
Question:
Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh, this is to our honorable Ameer:
Our Ameer and Sheikh, Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh, May Allah (swt) protect you, guard you and open the doors of blessings through your hands. We have learned and those on whom Allah has open the doors of blessings have taught us to explain the terms and understand their meanings and adjust them; and my words here are about betrayal/treachery and describing the existing regimes in Muslim countries as treacherous regimes.
And as you know - our honorable Sheikh - that betrayal requires that the one who is described with it had previously been upright and then betrayed, or was carrying the trust and then betrayed it, or was on a covenant then broke it and betrayed it, but these regimes have never been trustworthy and never observed a covenant with the Ummah and with Allah, and it never held or maintained a trust and then broke it. These regimes are created, a foreign Western production that has nothing to do with us, our religion, or our issues, except for the connection of conspiracy and employment and the implementation of the orders of their makers.
Our saying that they are betrayers means that they were on something, but they were never on anything. What your son and your student see is that we do not describe these regimes with betrayal, but rather with employment, initially and finally, originally and deep-rooted, in their foundation and continuity...
And may Allah bless you, our Sheikh.
Your son and your student and an arrow in your quiver, Raghib Abu Shamah (Saifuddin Abed), Palestine…
Wassalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh
Answer:
Wa Alaikum Assalam wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh,
In the beginning, I value your interest in the language, but I draw your attention to two things:
The first is that verb is related to time, so you say جاء (came) and يجيء (comes), حضر (attended), يحضر(attends) and أحضر(attend), all of this has to do with time in past, present or imperative tense... Accordingly, you say خان (betrayed), يخون (betrays) and خن (betray), all of which show الخيانة (betrayal) in the past, present or future in terms of the past, present, future and imperative tense...
The second is that Masdar (verbal noun) is the word denoting the action without giving information about the time of the event, and including the letters of its verb, in expression, such as علم علماً, or implicitly, such as قاتل قتالاً, or a compensation for something omitted by something else, such as وعد عدة, and سلم تسليماً…
Thus, the word ‘betrayal’ denotes betrayal as an action, but it does not denote the time, that is, when the betrayal took place or since when... it may be today and it may have been years ago... So, if you see something today that is governed on other than the provisions of the Sharia, you say this is betrayal, and it does not require that this matter was governed without treachery before the day you saw. It may have been a trust before today for example, as it came in your question, and it may have been betrayal before today as well... Therefore, your statement that betrayal means that it was a trust before and then became betrayal later on, i.e. that it is related to time, this is not accurate...and it needs an indication (qareenah) to show when the betrayal began...
Also, there seems to be confusion! You say at the end of the question that we should not say betrayal because it means that previously it was a trust with its owner, but at the same time you say that this traitor must be described with employment, so how is that? If you see that ‘betrayal’ was previously ‘not betrayal’, then so is the word ‘employment’, because both ‘betrayal’ and ‘employment’ are Masdar (verbal nouns) and what applies to one of them apply to the other in terms of occurrence and time...
In conclusion, Masdar (verbal noun) is related to occurrence and not to time... As for the verb, it is related to time...
It is clear from your message that you are interested in linguistic and its capacities, and whoever is like that he is, with the permission of Allah, walking into the depths of Fiqh (jurisprudence)... and I ask Allah to increase you in jurisprudence, knowledge, wisdom and understanding...
As for what you signed in your letter (your son and your student...), you are the best of son and student... May Allah guard you from all harm and protect you from all evil.
Wassalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh.
Your Brother,
Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah
23rd Dhul Qi’ddah 1442 AH
04/07/2021 CE