The Hussein-McMahon Correspondance
bismillah
assalamu alaikum
What follows is a letter the British High Commissioner in Cairo sent to the Sherif of Mecca back in 1915. Through T.E. Lawrence (also foolishly known as "Lawrence of Arabia") the Arabs and the English settled an agreement in that they will fight against the Ottoman Caliphate alongside the UK for the promise (as will be seen in the following letter) that they will get all the Arab territories that were ruled by the Ottomans for an "Arab" Caliphate. As history later proves, the Sykes-Picot agreement and the Balfour Declaration both show that the British never intended to keep their promise and instead, after the war was over, they turned against the Arabs and divided it with France and Italy into colonies.
October 24, 1915.
I have received your letter of the 29th Shawal, 1333, with much pleasure and your expression of friendliness and sincerity have given me the greatest satisfaction.
I regret that you should have received from my last letter the impression that I regarded the question of limits and boundaries with coldness and hesitation; such was not the case, but it appeared to me that the time had not yet come when that question could be discussed in a conclusive manner.
I have realised, however, from your last letter that you regard this question as one of vital and urgent importance. I have, therefore, lost no time in informing the Government of Great Britain of the contents of your letter, and it is with great pleasure that I communicate to you on their behalf the following statement, which I am confident you will receive with satisfaction.
The two districts of Mersina and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama.and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and should be excluded from the limits demanded.
With the above modification, and without prejudice to our existing treaties with Arab chiefs, we accept those limits.
As for those regions lying within those frontiers wherein Great Britain is free to act without detriment to the interests of her ally, France, I am empowered in the name of the Government of Great Britain to give the following assurances and make the following assurances and make the following reply to your letter:
(1) Subject to the above modifications, Great Britain is prepared to recognise and support the independence of the Arabs in all the regions within the limits demanded by the Sherif of Mecca.
(2) Great Britain will guarantee the Holy Places against all external aggression and will recognise their inviolability.
(3) When the situation admits, Great Britain will give to the Arabs her advice and will assist them to establish what may appear to be the most suitable forms of government those various territories.
(4) On the other hand, it is understood that the Arabs have decided to seek the advice and guidance of Great Britain only, and that such European advisers and officials as may be required for the formation of a sound form of administration will be British.
(5) With regard to the vilayets of Bagdad and Basra, the Arabs will recognise that the established position and interests of Great Britain necessitate special administrative arrangements in order to secure these territories from foreign aggression to promote the welfare of the local populations and to safeguard our mutual economic interests.
I am convinced that this declaration will assure you beyond all possible doubt of the sympathy of Great Britain towards the aspirations of her friends the Arabs and will result in a firm and lasting alliance, the immediate results of which will be the expulsion of the Turks from the Arab countries and the freeing of the Arab peoples from the Turkish yoke, which for so many years has pressed heavily upon them.
I have confined myself in this letter to the more vital and important questions, and if there are any other matters dealt with in your letters which I have omitted to mention, we may discuss them at some convenient date in the future.
It was with very great relief and satisfaction that I heard of the safe arrival of the Holy Carpet and the accompanying offerings which, thanks to the clearness of your directions and the excellence of your arrangements, were landed without trouble or mishap in spite of the dangers and difficulties occasioned by the present sad war. May God soon bring a lasting peace and freedom of all peoples.
I am sending this letter by the hand of your trusted and excellent messenger, Sheikh Mohammed ibn Arif ibn Uraifan, and he will inform you of the various matters of interest, but of less vital importance, which I have not mentioned in this letter.
(Compliments).
(Signed): A. HENRY MCMAHON
assalamu alaikum
What follows is a letter the British High Commissioner in Cairo sent to the Sherif of Mecca back in 1915. Through T.E. Lawrence (also foolishly known as "Lawrence of Arabia") the Arabs and the English settled an agreement in that they will fight against the Ottoman Caliphate alongside the UK for the promise (as will be seen in the following letter) that they will get all the Arab territories that were ruled by the Ottomans for an "Arab" Caliphate. As history later proves, the Sykes-Picot agreement and the Balfour Declaration both show that the British never intended to keep their promise and instead, after the war was over, they turned against the Arabs and divided it with France and Italy into colonies.
October 24, 1915.
I have received your letter of the 29th Shawal, 1333, with much pleasure and your expression of friendliness and sincerity have given me the greatest satisfaction.
I regret that you should have received from my last letter the impression that I regarded the question of limits and boundaries with coldness and hesitation; such was not the case, but it appeared to me that the time had not yet come when that question could be discussed in a conclusive manner.
I have realised, however, from your last letter that you regard this question as one of vital and urgent importance. I have, therefore, lost no time in informing the Government of Great Britain of the contents of your letter, and it is with great pleasure that I communicate to you on their behalf the following statement, which I am confident you will receive with satisfaction.
The two districts of Mersina and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama.and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and should be excluded from the limits demanded.
With the above modification, and without prejudice to our existing treaties with Arab chiefs, we accept those limits.
As for those regions lying within those frontiers wherein Great Britain is free to act without detriment to the interests of her ally, France, I am empowered in the name of the Government of Great Britain to give the following assurances and make the following assurances and make the following reply to your letter:
(1) Subject to the above modifications, Great Britain is prepared to recognise and support the independence of the Arabs in all the regions within the limits demanded by the Sherif of Mecca.
(2) Great Britain will guarantee the Holy Places against all external aggression and will recognise their inviolability.
(3) When the situation admits, Great Britain will give to the Arabs her advice and will assist them to establish what may appear to be the most suitable forms of government those various territories.
(4) On the other hand, it is understood that the Arabs have decided to seek the advice and guidance of Great Britain only, and that such European advisers and officials as may be required for the formation of a sound form of administration will be British.
(5) With regard to the vilayets of Bagdad and Basra, the Arabs will recognise that the established position and interests of Great Britain necessitate special administrative arrangements in order to secure these territories from foreign aggression to promote the welfare of the local populations and to safeguard our mutual economic interests.
I am convinced that this declaration will assure you beyond all possible doubt of the sympathy of Great Britain towards the aspirations of her friends the Arabs and will result in a firm and lasting alliance, the immediate results of which will be the expulsion of the Turks from the Arab countries and the freeing of the Arab peoples from the Turkish yoke, which for so many years has pressed heavily upon them.
I have confined myself in this letter to the more vital and important questions, and if there are any other matters dealt with in your letters which I have omitted to mention, we may discuss them at some convenient date in the future.
It was with very great relief and satisfaction that I heard of the safe arrival of the Holy Carpet and the accompanying offerings which, thanks to the clearness of your directions and the excellence of your arrangements, were landed without trouble or mishap in spite of the dangers and difficulties occasioned by the present sad war. May God soon bring a lasting peace and freedom of all peoples.
I am sending this letter by the hand of your trusted and excellent messenger, Sheikh Mohammed ibn Arif ibn Uraifan, and he will inform you of the various matters of interest, but of less vital importance, which I have not mentioned in this letter.
(Compliments).
(Signed): A. HENRY MCMAHON
posted by Abdul Rahman Hilmi at 4/01/2007 09:03:00 AM
8 Comments:
This post has been removed by the author.
wa alaikum al salaam
In which case I apologise for assuming you are one of them. As for your question, to a degree, yes.
1) Because you see the problem being caused by "white people" and not non-Muslims and thus you're either claiming Islam is a "black man" religion or that white Muslims aren't good enough for you.
2) Because in the post where I left a comment on your blog, you showed surprise that a black man was in that anti-Islam demonstration. Even though you knew he was a Rasta, you still showed surprise. This showed me that to you you expect better things off black people than white, even putting aside the faith.
3) The way you speak shows nothing but pride in being black to a degree that if it was a white man I would have assumed he was a fascist. If everyone mentions his skin colour as much as you do the world will be very different now and believe you me, the "black man" would not be better off. Putting aside justice, the West (which has a white majority) is currently the most materially powerful in the world. Your saviour is not the black man, it is Allah (swt) and the Muslims be they black or white.
4) Instead of dividing people into "black" and "white" the prophet (saaws) said "An Arab has nothing over a non-Arab nor does a non-Arab have anything over an Arab. A white man has nothing over a black man nor does a black man have anything over a white except in piety and good actions."
I did just read the post you referred to, and although all what you said is good and true, it means little when you don't practice it. It is not enough to know what is true and what is false, alot of us do but not all of us follow what we know due to weakness of heart. What I think is going on with you is that your knowledge is good but your heart and emotions still have remains of your jahilee past wallahu aalam on what is in the hearts.
Is there racism amongst several white men against the black people? Certainly yes and even within Muslim circles. However, there is also racism amongst some black men against white people which you yourself slightly touched upon in your post "me and race...". Although I do agree due to the material supremacy of the West over the world a racist white man can indeed do more damage than a racist black man, in the end, put the instruments in a racist black man's hands and he would react in the exact same way a racist white man does. However, you seem to satisfy yourself with, as you just said in your comment here, to have a "...stance against white supremacy" and "willingness to especially call out Muslims for their white supremacist stances". This is ofcourse because you're a black man and not because you want general non-biased justice (else your stance would be against racism and not white racism).
And then, comes nationalism. In your post again "me and race..." you claimed not to be a nationalist or tribalist. That is very good, however you call yourself an "African Lion" and your favorite movies and music also falls down into "anything" African as par your profile. This leads me to think that you see yourself more as a black African than a Muslim - no matter what you say. The heart and the mind are not always in agreement and although you hold the correct concepts, you don't seem to listen to them when you act.
I realise I sometimes tend to go very strong on people I criticize and I apologise for my comment on your blog.
Anyway, Allah yahdee al jamee3.
assalamu alaikum
Salam brother
In your sidebar there is a recent comment section. It would be jolly useful to me to know wether I've got any new comments. How do you get a recent comments section on to your sidebar?
wa alaikum al salaam
Brother African Lion, Jazakallahu khairan and we have no problem since now you clarified things. I apologise in being too hasty in judgement.
Brother apex;
I am not being allowed to paste html codes into the comment, but (although i cannot remember the exact link) I do remember I found out with searching in here:
http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help
Just type in 'comments' or something related into the search box at the top right corner.
wassalam
Kashgari says:
I am comenting on "traditions" here because my brouser won't open or crashes if I try to open the link for traditions... interesting!
Asalam'ualeikum brother Hilmi. I like the topic, but was a little disapointed in the substance. I found something you said to be off. Please don't be offended. You are my brother and I used to enjoy reading your column when I had time.
You say:
" However, what if traditions deal with issues that are not mubaah and thus Allah or his prophet gave an opinion about already. And we all know that the opinions of Allah and the prophet (whom of which Allah said in the Quraan, does not speak of his own whim but it is all a revelation) are above all other opinions and thus invalidates everything else that clashes with them. Such traditions then become haraam."
This is 100% wrong.
Opinions of the prophet PBUH may be uninspired opinions of a great man, or they may be the truth as discerned by wisdom, understanding, or study-observation-meditation on that which has been revealed. In any case, they may be true, half true, true in certain circumstances, not applicable, or even wrong. This has to be discerned in a case by case way. Truth is not dictated by the opinions of man or doctrine on such and Islam is not about man's trends of doctrine or sheepish following of a religious dogma based kind of false Islam. Opinion of any man prophet or not must be highly regarded, but nevertheless analized in lue of the fact that any man may be mistaken. One of the early believers questioned the prophet whether he recieved the military plan from God or from his own (opinion), he said it was his own reasoning. The brother said well then let me suggest something different. In the end the prophet accepted the superiority of the others plan. This methodology is Sunnah and still applies to us today. Prophets are fallible people, but they recieve what Allah wills to give as the infallible recitation and inspiration. Take nothing more than Allah's words as Allah's words, all others are the words of man. Mohammad pegambar PBUH has instructed us to live in this way by the will of Allah and we must not stray as we are the submitters to Allah's will forever!
Second point; Allah has no opinions; Allahuakbar! Allah knows. If Allah gives a choice it is by his will, may we choose wisely and through the inspired revelations, wisdom, worship, ziker, sunnah,and help from our brethren, by the help of Allah.
This is why Islam civilization has accepted more wide variety of tradition without weakening, than any other of the inferior religions ever did or ever will. God is great! Allah made man in such variety just as the beauty of all the creation. He requires that man not pervert his place in creation with that which is haram, and this is always quite easily and logically undertood by the talib.
Don't make it senceless and illogical! Don't do that my good brother, opinion means opinion, and revealed means revealed, period!
http://radicalmuslim.blogsome.com/2007/05/30/the-mega-mosque/
49,981 signatures have now been received on a terrible petition against the London 'Mega mosque' based on incorrect and inciteful information. This shows the existence of the intolerance and Islamophobia in Britain.
The mosque would provide a place of worship and show Britains tolerance and multiculturalism. It is now the duty of Muslims and evey citizen to sign the counter-petition to BUILD the ‘Mega Mosque’. Please sign at the link below, email it to your friends, post it in forums you visit and promote this on your site/blog.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/buildmosque/
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