78 Years Since the Nakba (Calamity): What Next?!
(Translated)
Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 602 - 03/06/2026
By: Ustadh Abdul Rahim Khalil

The Nakba (the Calamity) is a phrase that, whenever mentioned, brings to the minds of Muslims the issue of Palestine. In 1948, the Jews moved to occupy Palestine and displace its people from their lands, shedding blood and killing children and women. When the Arab states heard the news, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria mobilized their armies towards Palestine. The fighting intensified against the Jews, with the sincere soldiers in the armies fighting on all fronts, until the cries of the Jews reached the disbelieving West, led by the United Nations. It was here that the betrayal began. All parties agreed to a humanitarian truce for a month! How could the Arab armies agree to a truce when they were victorious and on the verge of annihilating the Jews?! However, what is even more astonishing is learning that the commander of the Arab Jordanian Army was the British officer “Glubb Pasha,” John Bagot Glubb!

Likewise, the other Arab army commanders and presidents issued orders to withdraw from certain areas, even though they were victorious. Yet, their Shariah obligation was to advance towards the enemy, not retreat! Before the agreed-upon truce expired, the Jews violated it. For 26 days, military supplies from the West continued unabated, enabling the Jews to besiege and fight the Arab armies, forcing them to withdraw.

As events and years passed, in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was declared in Egypt as the sole official representative of the people of Palestine. Its aim was to hand over what remained of Palestine to the usurping entity, thereby legitimizing the forbidden. The PLO’s major “achievement” was the Oslo Accords, which recognized the existence of the Jewish entity on 78% of the land of Palestine and negotiated over the remaining 22%. Of that remaining territory, only 14% remains, thanks to the Palestinian Authority, which emerged from the treacherous Oslo Accords. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas described the Oslo Accords as “treason” during his speech at the Eighth General Conference of Fatah, adding, “The Oslo Accords are treason, but we want them... we want to preserve them!” So, what is the purpose of preserving an agreement that is itself treasonous? Indeed, who bears responsibility for the protection it afforded the Jewish entity? More than 32 years have passed since this agreement, yet nothing has changed in the actions of the Jews: killing, displacement, siege, house demolitions, and arrests. In fact, the Jewish entity has escalated its despicable acts by attacking sanctities in Al-Quds, Al-Khalil, and elsewhere. Just recently, Jews performed Talmudic prayers in the courtyards of Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, provoking every Muslim on earth. Then, what of the settlers in the West Bank, assaulting defenseless people, stealing their money, land, and livestock, and the beatings, humiliation, kidnappings, and killings suffered by the residents? Women, children, the elderly, and young people have not been spared. All of this is happening in full view of the signatories of the Oslo Accords, a document of humiliation, corruption, and betrayal. Why should we maintain an agreement that has nothing left but to entrench the power of a select group within the Palestinian Authority, allowing them to drain the people's resources through taxes and fees? Or is it to implement the policies of the Jewish entity, America, and Europe in their war against Islam and Muslims, their dismantling of Islamic concepts, and their removal from educational curricula?

The liberation (تحرير tahrir) of Jerusalem would not have been delayed for 78 years were it not for the criminal Sykes-Picot Agreement, which carved up the lands of the Muslims on the ruins of the Uthmani Khilafah (Ottoman Caliphate), creating small states ruled by Western agents. Every Muslim within these states became bound by a nationalistic allegiance, and Muslims no longer viewed this Blessed Land as anything more than a source of Islamic sentiment, eliciting a few tears at its mention. The more the concepts of nationalism and patriotism became entrenched in the Muslim World, the more the disbelievers succeeded in buying time to delay the march towards Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa for its liberation.

For over 78 years, the Jewish entity has continued its operations at the same pace, even intensifying its killing, starvation, land confiscation, and Judaization of sanctities. Thanks to Sykes-Picot and the Arab rulers who succeeded in shifting the equation from the necessity of uprooting this entity and the means of eliminating it, to how to coexist with it through agreements and normalization of relations that anger both heaven and earth.

For us Muslims, our greatest calamity was the day our Khilafah (Caliphate) was destroyed, our lands were torn apart, and everyone, near and far, began to transgress against us. Palestine is but one issue in this larger conflict. The vision of the Khaleefah (Caliph) Abdul Hamid II, may Allah (swt) have mercy on him, was realized when he said to Herzl, “It is easier for me to have my body cut to pieces than to relinquish an inch of Palestinian land. It is not my personal property, but belongs to the Islamic Ummah. I cannot agree to the dissection of our bodies while we are still alive... Let the Jews keep their wealth, for if the(Caliphate) is destroyed, you will take Palestine for nothing.” And that is precisely what happened.

The solution to the issue of the Blessed Land of Palestine lies in returning it to its true path as the cause of the Muslims, and away from the national and nationalist nonsense and the international institutions that the years have proven to be a mirage, a deception, and a waste of time. The beginning of the solution to the calamity of the Muslims will be their unity under one Rayah banner, striving with those striving to establish the Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly Guided Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood, and to restore the usurped authority of the Ummah. Then the armies will move towards Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and destroy the Jewish entity, so that the Ummah will regain its glory, pride, and entity. Certainly, that is not difficult for Allah (swt).