In Ramadhan, Saudi gave France $12 billion while Children Die in Yemen

News:

In a TV news report, the father was sitting on the hospital bed next to his daughter, Amal, trying to distract her from the pain. Her mother and two brothers had been killed in the fighting in Yemen and she had horrible burns on her arms and legs. The hospitals in Yemen were complaining of lack of medicine to treat such patients and reports say nearly 20 million Yemenis are in need of humanitarian aid. In the same week, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited France and was due to sign $12 billion worth of defence contracts.

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Comment:

Ramadhan is a time where one witnesses the unity of this noble Ummah in our ibadat and worship of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. Muslims everywhere performing the same actions; fasting, filling the masajid and praying for forgiveness. Muslims empathising with one another and donating generously to the poor amongst us as the Prophet ﷺ was most generous in Ramadhan. A few days ago, I watched a news report of the young Yemeni girl Amal, with her badly burned body, as well as news that the Saudi government was signing a $12 billion defence deal with France. I thought of the Rohingya’s fleeing persecution, the poverty in Somalia, the medicine Amal and others need and I imagine that all that will cost a fraction of the $12 billion dollar Ramadhan present the French will receive from the Saudi government.

In the Qur’an, in Surah Quraish, Allah سبحانه وتعالى reminds the Quraish that despite living in a barren place, they have wealth and prestige and their caravans travel untroubled to Yemen and Ash-Sham in winter and summer because they are seen as people of the House, the Kaabah. So shouldn’t they worship the Lord of this House, who gives them all these blessings?

فَلْيَعْبُدُوا رَبَّ هَٰذَا الْبَيْتِ

“Let them worship the Lord of this House”

(Quraish 106:3)

Shouldn’t they follow His Prophet ﷺ and the revelation from this Lord? Thinking of this ayah, I think of the governments of Iran and Saudi Arabia’s role in Yemen where they are causing mischief and killing – aided by foreign powers. Like Quraish, these two government’s sit in lands blessed with oil, gas and other immense wealth, yet have abandoned the Sunnah and ruling by what the Lord of the Kaabah sent. Instead, they are busy shedding the blood of the Ummah, fostering a deadly Sunni-Shia division and watching as Amal and others suffer while they play games with the body of this noble ummah. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى aid the ummah to re-establish the Khilafah Rashidah that follows the Prophetic model so we are once again ruled by a caretaker who unites us, and rules us by Allah’s Book in every aspect hence following the command of Allah سبحانه وتعالى when He says,

فَلْيَعْبُدُوا رَبَّ هَٰذَا الْبَيْتِ

“Let them worship the Lord of this House”

(Quraish 106:3)

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Taji Mustafa

Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain