— Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky (H)
"After the event, it became clear that only few people were able to come out and describe it as injustice and showed us words of sympathy. Only a few people were able to do that. Majority of people either supported it or kept quiet. Majority of people just kept their mouths shut without saying anything.
"While some openly claimed this was the right response (from the authorities). In response, our stance is as far as religion is concerned, we are sure that this is not the religion that the Messenger of Allah brought. There is a prophetic tradition that talked about a woman condemned to hellfire for detaining a cat and denied her food. That was for a cat.
"There was another instance that Prophet of Allah saw a man living large in paradise for feeding a thirsty dog. He got inside the wall, drank water and came out only to see a thirsty dog wandering around the well (in search of water), the man said what happened to me is similar to what happened to the dog. He removed his shoe, used it as a container to fetch the water and fed the dog. Allah rewarded him with paradise. For the religion of Allah which bans killing a cat and rewards a Good Samaritan for helping a dog, is not the religion that would condone the killings of people as if it is not a religion.
"Yes, there are wars that are fought face to face between two warring factions every side carrying a weapon; this is what is called a war. If Muslims were to fight, the Muslim sides don’t initiate it, they defend themselves. If you look at it carefully, the Battle of Badr was self-defense, the Battle of Uhud was self-defense, and so are so many different battles. Even the Battle of Khaibar was self-defense: the Prophet launched an offensive targeting root source of the troubles. He went there and fought them. They were given all opportunities to comply with them for peace to reign or that if they were not accepting Islam, they would agree to pay taxes and practice their religion. The last resort is war and they chose the war, Allah gave victory to the Prophet.
"The war has rules. A person should not kill an unarmed civilian, a person should not be killed while running away, and a wounded fighter is not being killed. These are the rules that guide a war. There is an accord they called Geneva Convention that stipulate rules of engagements, however, we have these rules in place for long. If you look at the Commander of the Faithful’s sermon he delivered after the Battle of Camels, he enumerated rules of engagements some of which include not killing a runaway fighter or a person who surrendered.
"You fight a person if he carries a firearm and he intends to kill you, but this time innocent people were attacked and killed and you call it a war? How did it become a war? This is a massacre. Even at the battlefield, killing a fighter who lay down his weapon is a culpable homicide, and killing a person who recites Kalimatush-Shahada is illegal even at a battlefield.
"There was a man who was at a battlefield. He was an infidel and everybody knew him as such, and he was found to have inflicted serious damages to the Muslims, but when one fighter pursued him, he hid behind a tree and recited Kalimatush-Shahada. The fighter killed him anyway. The Messenger of Allah was very furious, saying what could you do with his Kalimatush-Shahada? You killed him after reciting the Kalimatush-Shahada? The fighter wished he had not accepted Islam till that day in order to be able to do what the man had done.
"People were being killed as they chanted Allah Akbar, they were reciting Kalimatush-Shahada while the soldiers were laughing and responding with abusive remarks. They abused Allah, they abused the Prophet (SAW), they abused Imam Ali, they abused Sayyida Fatima, they abused the purified progenies (AS) as they massacred people. They even challenged them to beg Allah to come and save them. A soldier was seen using an axe to attack a brother in Gyallesu and that brother was chanting Allah Akbar but the soldier was just laughing at him, challenging him to call for the Allah to come and save him. He cut him into piece the way a person cut down firewood."
— Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H)
(In his Speech on the 6th Year Anniversary of the Zaria Massacre. From his Abuja residence, 14/12/2021).
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Shaikh Zakzaky