Article: The Falling World Trade Center Towers and Islam

Since the Islamist al-Qaeda terrorists orchestrated a daring attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York on the September 11th in 2001, the vocal Muslim community have been in aggressive denial that the crashing WTC towers has nothing to do with Islam. They claim that it was an act of a few deviants who have strayed far from the central ideal of Islam, which is peace. This denial goes on despite al-Qaeda's much-publicized repeated claims that their actions are meant for saving the pride and integrity of Islam.

Does the falling WTC tower have any relevance to Islam? I will examine this question in the midst of these claims and denials.

The WTC towers of New York, that came down crashing on the 9/11 (2001), were the prime symbol of capitalism which is an innovation of the infidel west and of the US, in particular. WTC symbolizes the trades and commerce, involving usury or interest, which prohibited in Islam.

"Those who devour usury (Riba) will not stand except as stand one whom the Evil one by his touch Hath driven to madness. That is because they say: "Trade is like usury," but Allah hath permitted trade and forbidden usury. Those who after receiving direction from their Lord, desist, shall be pardoned for the past; their case is for Allah (to judge); but those who repeat (The offence) are companions of the Fire: They will abide therein (for ever)." [Quran 2:275]

"Allah will deprive usury of all blessing, but will give increase for deeds of charity: For He loveth not creatures ungrateful and wicked." [Quran 2:276]

Apart from symbolizing the evil and wicked capitalism, the WTC was also the central symbol of American power and wealth. In Islam, Allah wishes all people and entities of the universe submit to the feet of Islam by hook or crook. The infidel America is not only dominated by the disbelieving worst beasts, the Christians and atheists but also controlled by the Jews, who are the vilest of all creatures in the eyes of Allah.

"Surely those who disbelieve from among the followers of the Book (Christians and Jews) and the polytheists shall be in the fire of hell, abiding therein; they are the worst of creatures." [Quran 8:55]

"The worst beasts in Allah's sight are the disbelievers." [Quran 98:6]

"Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews." [Sahih Muslim, Book 041, Number 6985]

So, the Americans are the worst people who have formed alliance with Islam's worst enemy, the Jews. They have also supported the most unjust occupation and creation of the Jewish state of Israel in the Muslim land. It is only because of America that Muslims cannot destroy the Jewish state. The American CIA, in collusion with the Mossad of Israel, is engaged in all kinds of the conspiracy and plots against the Islamic world; thus, keeping the Muslims poor and with all sorts of problem. The US is keeping a hold on the oil production of the Islamic world and stealing it away, which is Allah's most precious gift to His sole votaries.

How could the infidel America wield such indomitable power? Where does power of America's affront to Allah and his community on earth come from? It all comes from the America's power of capitalism. Thus the towers of WTC, symbolizing the American capitalism, were a peg in Allah's scheme of establishing the dominance of His power on the face of the earth.

So, for the most valid and pressing cause of Islam, Osama bin Laden orchestrated an incredible attack on the WTC to teach the satanic United States a lesson, which Osama claims, 'he did for the sake of Islam'. The White House and the Pentagon, which are the other two centers of American power, were also rightly included as the targets. Islam's greatest enemy, the America's highest symbol of power and pride, the World Trade Centre, came down crashing on 9/11 with the wailing and cries of those caught in the middle. However, despite the fact that the Islamic Ummah was overly delighted on the day of 9/11 attack, this courageous and selfless adventure of Osama bin Laden in the cause of Islam is vehemently rejected by many deceptive or ignorant Muslims, calling it anti-Islamic.

Let us go back in history to January, 630 CE, the holy month of Ramadan. The greatest symbol of piety and pride of the pagans of the Arabian Peninsula was the Ka'ba located in the city of Mecca. The reverence of Ka'ba reached up to the idolaters of India. A monolith from the Ka'ba was carried to Somnath in India and was revered with great piety by the Hindu idolaters. Such was the piety and pride, which the Ka'ba, the Arab pagans' sacred house of God, used to command.

The Prophet of Islam discarded a 10-year-long treaty of Hudaybiyah of nonaggression just after two years' of its signing and marched against Mecca. He stormed into the city and first rushed to the greatest symbol of the Arabian religious piety and pride, the Ka'ba. All power, pride and piety belong to Allah alone. So there came down the pagan's sacred house of Ka'ba crashing onto the feet of Islam. Standing in the middle, the Prophet pointed to the 360 idols one after another and his henchmen smash them into dust. As the great idol of Hubal came down crashing, the Prophet yelled in the words of the Koran:

"Truth has (now) arrived, and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is (by its nature) bound to perish." [17:81]

The symbol of the Arabian idolaters' pride and piety came down crashing in the midst of immense grief and suppressed wailing of the citizens who have revered the Ka'ba and the devoted to the idols therein for ages. The greatest symbol of the false piety of the Arabia thus was converted into what remains the greatest symbol of the Islamic piety for all time. All piety and pride is Allah's alone and the truth has prevailed.

Apart from the Ka'ba, there were three great goddesses, the daughters of God in the Arabia belief, namely al-Uzza, al-Lat and al-Manat. Once the Ka'ba has been restored to the feet of Allah, the Prophet sent forth the barbarian Khalid al-Walid to destroy the icon of al-Uzza at Nakhla. When heard of Khalid's advance, the guardian of al-Uzza hung a sword on her and said [Ibn Ishaq, p565]:

"O Uzza, make an annihilating attack on Khalid,
Throw aside your veil and gird up your train.
O Uzza, if you do not kill this man Khalid
Then bear a swift punishment or become a Christian."

Khalid arrived and brought the temple of al-Uzza down to the ground. The second greatest symbol of the piety, devotion and pride of the Arabian pagans came down crashing at the command of the apostle.

The Prophet then headed towards at-Taif, the home of another great goddess of Arabia, the al-Lat. Hearing of the prophet's advance, the Taif residents fortified their enclave and shower of arrows from inside repulsed the Muslims. Muhammad laid seize on at-Taif for twenty days and tried every strategy and weapon available to overrun the city but failed. Finally he gave up and ordered to cut down far-famed vineyards surrounding the At-Taif enclave and burn them to their roots.

However, it did not take long for the At-Taif citizens to realize that they could not resist Prophet Muhammad much longer. About ten months later, they sent a deputation for submission to Islam to Medina in order to avoid butchery at the hand of the Prophet. While settling the terms for submission to Islam, they pleaded the Prophet to spare the idol of goddess al-Lat, greatly venerated by their people. But Muhammad firmly refused to accept the plea and sent Abu Sufyan and Al-Moghira to destroy the idol. In the midst of great wailing and cries of the residents, al-Moghira hewed down the goddess of al-Lat. There came down the last great symbol of pride and piety of the Arabian pagans. Praise and piety to Allah alone prevailed with the falsehood annihilated.

The Prophet of Islam had successfully annihilated all signs of idolatry from the Ka'ba on the day of capture of Mecca in 630 AD. However, deceiving the attention and knowledge of Allah and his messenger, a vestige of the Ka'ba idolatry still survived for another five centuries in an Indian Hindu temple in Somnath. The famous goddess of al-Manat (God's 3rd daughter) had disappeared from Arabia and found a revered place in Somnath. It came to the knowledge of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. Historian Ibn Asir writes: "When Yamin-ud-Daulah (Sultan Mahmud) heard this, he resolved upon making a campaign to destroy this idol; believing that when the Hindus saw their prayers and imprecations to be false and futile, they would embrace the faith (Islam)" [Jaffar, p76]. Ibn Khaldun confirms the same: "From some sources Mahmud received this information and with a view to extirpate idolatry to prove the helplessness of man-made gods and to belie the claims of the Hindus, he mobilized his forces against Somnath" [Jaffar, p77]. Describes Ibn Asir, "Band after band of defenders (Hindus) entered the temple of Somnath, and with their hands clasped round their necks, wept and passionately entreated him. Then again, they issued forth to fight until they were slain but few were left alive... The number of the slain exceeded fifty thousand" [Elliot & Dawson, p470-71].

Once overcame the resistance, Mahmud captured great booty from Somnath and moved onto destroy the sacred idol temple. The people of Somnath proposed that 'they would pay several crores (crore = 10 millions) of gold coins into his treasury' if he would spare the mutilation of the idols. Some of his nobles tempted Mahmud to accept the offer but the devoted fighter of Allah thoroughly rejected it: "I know this, but I desire that on the day of resurrection I should be summoned with the words, 'where is Mahmud who broke the greatest of the heathen idols?' rather than these: 'Where is that Mahmud who sold the greatest of the idols to the infidels for golds'" [Elliot & Dawson, p472].
The last vestige of the Arabian idolatry and the greatest symbol of the Somnath Hindus' pious devotion, pride and power came down crashing in accordance with the examples set by the apostle of Allah five centuries earlier.

In continuation of this legacy of bringing down the symbols and centers of infidel's power, pride and piety to the feet of Islam, world's second greatest power, the Sassanian Persian empire, came down crashing at the feet of Islam in 636 CE. The same year, the greatest power in the world, the Byzantine empire's pride and glory got a beating when Heraclius lost major part of the Palestine and Syria to the Muslims. Christian Byzantine glory and pride suffered a terrible blow in 637, when their greatest prize, the holy city of Jerusalem, fell to the conquering army of caliph Omar. In 642, the great ancient civilization of Egypt fell on to the feet of Islam.

Each of these conquests accompanied with great pillage and looting of wealth, sacking of great palaces and destruction of churches and temples of non-Islamic piety. For an example, Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem (634-638), who surrender Jerusalem to the Muslims, described the Muslim invaders as "godless barbarians" who "burnt churches, destroyed monasteries, profaned the Crosses and blasphemed against Christ and the church." The following year, thousands died of famine resulting from the destruction and pillage by the Muslim conquerors of Jerusalem. [Ibn Warraq, p. 219]

In the days of Prophet Muhammad, there were no such sky-touching towers like the WTC of New York, neither were there airplanes to bring them down. But prophet Muhammad brought down every symbol of pride, power and piety of the infidels of his time that came within his power. This legacy of the Prophet was perpetuated by his trusted companions and later Muslim conquerors and rulers. Striking at the heart of the infidels' great symbols of power, pride and piety has been a ceaseless legacy of Islam since its inception. The United States of America is not only a great infidel power, similar to the Persian and the Byzantine empires of the time of Prophet Muhammad, but also, in alliance with the vile Jews and Israel, constitutes the greatest enemy of Islam in today's world. The destruction of America's symbol of pride and power, the Word Trade Center, by Osama bin Laden falls perfectly into the iconoclastic scheme set forth by the Prophet of Islam in the early 7th century.

Hence, the falling WTC towers of New York is not at all alien to Islam but is a part and parcel of Islam's iconoclastic legacy. And definitely, this is not the last.

References
1. Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah (trs A Guillaume), Oxford, Karachi (2004)
2. Ibn Warraq, Why I am not a Muslim, Prometheus Books, New York (1995)
3. SM Jaffar, The Ghaznawids, Delhi (1972)
4. HM Elliot & John Dawson, The History of India, Vol 1, Kitab Mahal; Lukhnow (1964)