Muslims generally divide Ramadan into three sections — one for mercy, the second for divine forgiveness and the third for being released from hell. However, the source of this saying by Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) has not been confirmed by religious investigators in the theology of the Hadith.

Despite this fact, we find that all Egyptians — Copts and Muslims — celebrate Ramadan in a wonderful manner. Visitors to Egypt will not be able to tell the difference between Copts and Muslims in this month. Both religious groups become very close and supportive of each other during this time as the true essence of compassion, tolerance and unity in a nation that over many decades taught them to stand as one in the face of many aggressors, is projected.

All Egyptians are indebted to Amr Ibn Al As for liberating them. Amr was the Arab commander who was received by the people of Egypt as their liberator. He freed them from their Roman conquerors and their rule, which extended from 30BC to 641AD. The Roman rule in Egypt followed the Greek rule, which began in 331BC when Alexander invaded the country and demanded that he be made Egypt’s pharaoh inside the Temple of Amun. The priests at the temple had no other choice, but to proclaim him ‘Son of the deity’. Hence the rule of the Ptolemies started and extended for around three centuries.

History proves that Egypt throughout all its stages has provided its occupiers with baskets of harvest, which is why it was chosen by Alexander to be his important station. He did not listen to his advisers and decided on Egypt, and from there he set out — with Egyptian soldiers and fighters — to conquer Persia and after that the world! Egypt’s history also tells us that it was occupied by foreign invaders most of the time and that the Egyptians normally used to become allies with the forces that supported them against their despotic rulers.

Edward Gibbon, the renowned British historian said in his book The Fall of the Roman Empire, that one of the reasons the Islamic armies were successful in defeating the Byzantines is that the Egyptian Christians received the Arab armies as their saviours from the Roman’s persecution and racism. That is why the wise Egyptians told their priests: “This is no good, O Egypt”.

For the same reasons, the road was paved for the Islamic army led by Amr Bin Al As in the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 640AD during the era of Caliph Omar Bin Al Khattab. Amr Bin Al As constructed mosques there and set out to repair and mend churches and other religious temples after they were destroyed by the Romans and the Greeks. He also brought back Egypt’s Patriarch Benjamin who had fled to the desert, escaping the despotic Romans and their oppression against the papal chair’s establishment in Egypt for Christians there. He also redug the canal known by the Egyptians as the Commander of the Faithful’s Canal. And despite the fact that most of Egypt’s people are religious and pious, the first part of Ramadan in Egypt this year did not reflect their usual characteristics.

The second part of the month in Egypt was also devoid of compassion, mercy and cooperation between its people who are of three types: Islamic religious, liberals, and some who are still affiliated to the former regime, called “remnants and bullies”. The people of Egypt carried their differences a few steps further than verbal disagreement. They fought each other in public for all the world to see and they committed the ugliest sins against humanity — they killed one another and they assassinated people they disagreed with. No one deterred them.

Regrettably, Egypt’s current leadership is not as wise as before, and hence is not qualified to lead Egypt. Egyptians are used to historical leaderships with a regional and international dimension such as the leadership of Ahmad Orabi, Sa’ad Zagloul, Jamal Abdul Nasser and Hassan Al Banna, and religious leaders in Al Azhar such as Al Sharqawi, Shaltout and Al Fahham. That is why the world says to Egypt today: “ O mother of the world, this is no good.”

Mayinfaesh (‘this is no good’ in the Egyptian dialect) is originally an ancient Egyptian-Greek and Arabic phrase. It is said in objection to the conduct of who is called upon.

These are not your ethics, O people of Egypt. Egypt deserves better from you. The hearts of Arabs and Muslims are with you, O people of Egypt. So if you do not choose better leadership, you shall witness the rule of those that do not have the fear of Allah in their hearts and He will not have mercy on you. Moreover, if you do not tread the divine laws, you shall be ruled by the grandchildren of the Romans, the Greeks, and the followers of evil and then it will be goodbye to Egypt.

 

Dr Khalifa Rashid Al Shaali is an Emirati writer who specialises in legal affairs.