Is God punishing Gaza’s population because of its sinful life and allowing the genocide to purify the ‘Ummah’ and bring about transformation through collective piety and repentance?
This question, or more like a “theological position,” is articulated to rationalize inaction and possibly create a diversion on the moral question confronting the world community, not only Muslims.
The question and framing is an attempt to speak for God and provide the answer behind what is taking place in Gaza. Here, the assumption is that the Gaza population is sinful and God is deciding to punish them for these sins. Some posit that Gaza’s population before the genocide is “documented” to have accessed pornography at levels that surely may bring God’s anger upon them. The data on this comes from Israeli sources, which control much of the internet and information access, and this is fed to “Muslim” leaders to make the argument of why God is punishing the population. I am not going to dignify this argument or cause of the genocide with a response, for it only points to the worldview and the interlocutors of a segment of the “Muslim leadership” that is far more ready to find an excuse to justify the genocide rather than confront and work to stop it.
Critically, anyone can look at and speak of Gaza and make the argument that the sinfulness of the people is the cause of genocide is a sure indication of the lack of mental, moral, and ethical capacity to deal with what is unfolding in Palestine today. How do we know what God’s action or inaction is in relation to Gaza today? Did God call you on your new iPhone 17 with a golden case to inform you of his actions and why He is allowing the genocide to take place! Did God or the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) visit your dreams to inform you of the cause behind the genocide, then ask you to have an interfaith gathering to express outrage, not at the perpetrators of the genocide, but the victims of the genocide!
What is offered as a pure self-constructed argument and a pacifying “interpretation” of narrowly selected texts and historical examples to justify inaction on Gaza, for some, and defamation of the Palestinians, for others. No one, and I do mean no one, knows what God’s intentions are for what is taking place in Gaza, but I am sure that God does not sanction genocide and the murder of innocent men, women, and children. Permitting something to happen is not the same as sanctioning or ordering it. Yes, God knows all things. Still, the human being is endowed with free will, which means the responsibility for the genocide rests on those who are ordering the bombing and killing of civilians, as well as all those who assist them, be it with material, logistical, or propaganda that blames the victims and absolves the genocidal war criminals.
A further inaction framing is that piety is missing in the ‘Ummah,’ and the genocide is intended to bring about the purification of the Ummah. Once this purification occurs, then we will be able to bring about liberation. Indeed, due to our ‘piety,” the world will witness how “spiritually” pure we are, that they will come to recognize the veracity and righteousness of our cause, and the war will come to an end. This makes a mockery of the struggle between good and evil by arguing that one must be absolutely good or pious to confront or challenge it. This is a grand scheme of inaction and blaming oneself for the ascendancy of evil or wrong in the world. God asks all to take action according to our capacity and circumstances, without assigning the precondition of being absolutely pure before taking action to remove harm from the world. If piety is the precondition, when has this been fulfilled across all segments of society in history, and do we have a critical mass or threshold to achieve this goal: 5%, 10%, 25%, or 100% of the population? Assuming such a goal is the precondition, then who will be the judge that such a condition is met? Will it be the current leaders of the 55 Muslim majority states, the religious authorities in them, those who can reach millions on social media, muftis, or do we need an ‘Ijma’ of the ummah on it through some parliament?
The piety precondition is a trap used to justify inaction because it assigns blame to the regular Muslims or those who are active in challenging the genocide. It is not saying to everyone, do as much as you can in whichever capacity you can to help bring an end to the genocide; Instead, it is propagating a message that faults those who are speaking and acting by implying deficiencies in their spiritual path and state of piety. Yes, everyone needs to have God consciousness at all times and deepen their piety, but it can’t be on the assumption of inaction or silence when ability and resources are at hand to make a difference, even if it is an inch. We are asked to act and rewarded for our words and actions, but the results are with God alone. The time to speak and act is now, which is the only theologically defensible position in accordance with the sound articulation of Islamic law and theology. Anything else is vanity masquerading as theology!
