Session has started. Please submit your questions. We apologize beforehand for not being able to answer all of your questions due to time limitation.
Answer
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Name
Amal
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Profession
Question
Salaam aleikum Dr. Adwan,
Allow me to offer my congratulations, not condolences, to you and to all the people of Palestine for the martyrdom of our beloved sheikh. He has indeed gained his Shahada, a martyr indeed in spite of them all. Muslims all over the world should rejoice for his martyrdom, and pray that they follow in his footsteps until they meet him in the afterlife inshaa Allah.
My question is, being on the ground now in Palestine, how has the departure of the Sheikh affected Palestinians and their resolve? Has it caused confusion or uncertainty? Has it produced chaos in the streets? Do you feel that the departure might have affected the organization of the resistance over there?
Answer
We actually feel rejoiced for the martyrdom of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. He really was seriously ill and God chose Shadah for him. A great prize for the Sheikh, for Hamas and for all the Palestinian people. Sheikh Yassin was an important symbol of resolve for the Palestinian people. He unified Palestinians in his life and unified them after his martyrdom.
As to confusion and uncertainty, the Palestinian people, after the mayrtrdom of the Sheikh, have in fact started to see things even clearer now to a degree that we would not actually go as Israel wants.
As to the resistance, Sheikh Yassin's martyrdom will not weaken it but on the contrary, it will strengthen and enhance it. Different Palestinian fighting organizations vowed that they will revenge, and this will actually increase the resistance.
Name
zahid
- Bangladesh
Profession
student
Question
As salamu alaikum wrt. wbt.
I am sure the death of Sheikh Yassin (May Allah swt place him in the highest level of Jannah amin) is the saddest news of this year for the Muslim Ummah. It is a great loss for the Ummah too.. Can u please tell me how did he start hamas movement? thanks a lot for joining us....
was salam
Answer
After the 1967 occupation, the Islamic Movement renewed its activities, but the circumstances at that time were not in favor of this movement. After 1973, the Islamic Movement increased its activities and the people of Palestine accepted them more.
Sheikh Yassin started to think how to resist the Israeli occupation, he organized small groups and he called them “Al-Jihad and Dawa organization” and started to train so many Muslim youths in how to use arms. He was arrested and imprisoned later in 1985. He was then freed and started to think again how to renew the military resistance.
After the beginning of the first Intifada, Sheikh Yassin declared the establishment of Hamas on December 14, 1987. After that, the Hamas movement participated in all sorts of resistance against the occupation, and at the same time its followers served the Palestinians in all fields which gave Hamas great popularity.
Name
abdulkarim
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Profession
Question
Tell us about the education of Shaikh Yassin. Did he have a good firm Islamic education to lead an Islamic movement. Did his disability get in the way of leading Hamas?
Answer
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin entered Cairo University, he received education in the college of arts. He studied 2 years, and then he was emprisoned by the Egyptian government and deported to Gaza.
Later he educated himself through his own readings in all fields, whether in Arabic history or religion. He became a great scholar and a big Sheikh.
As to his disability, it did not actually prevent him from leading Hamas, and it gave him a great appeal to the youth. People respected him as a disabled scholar leading an Islamic movement.
Name
tajudeen
- Nigeria
Profession
accountancy
Question
Asalamu Alaykum,
What was Sheik Yassin position or view about the US "peace" initiatives over years.
Answer
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin viewed the US initiatives as decisive ones and most of the time looked to American policies in the Middle East with a lot of doubts. The US has been against Arab causes, especially the Palestinian issue.
Name
Sara
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Profession
Question
Being a Palestinian, Sheikh Yassin probably dealt with Israelis (Israeli citizens/civilians) on a personal basis. How did the Sheikh deal with Israelies on a personal level?
Answer
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin as A Muslim was not against the Israelis as citizens or civilians, but he fought against the Israeli occupation.
I remember a story has been told to me by Dr. Rantissi, about a time when the the Sheikh and Dr. Rantissi were driving their car at night and found an Israeli who had had an accident. They took him to the hospital and helped him. He did not hate Israelis as Jews, or as civilians, but as occupiers.
Name
Jim
- United States
Profession
Question
As his biographer, has his life affected you on a personal level?
Answer
Indeed. I admired this person and felt so small and insignificant in front of him. He was a paralyzed person and unable to feed or protect himself from anything. Yet he devoted himself for the Islamic cause. He sometimes used to work for more than 16 hours a day continuously despite his illness.
At the same time, he was imprisoned many times for his resistance and made of himself a model for those who have a good health to give their cause more and more attention. I myself respected this personality and really loved him.
He treated me personally as a son of his, and he gave me so much information to help me in rewriting my biography of him.
Name
Nadima
- South Africa
Profession
Question
I understand it would be a little difficult to ask you to tell us everything on the kind of man that he was, but could you tell us a bit about the man… How could he have been so powerful when crippled?
Answer
Sheikh Yassin's strength came from his activities in two ways:
First, his faith as a Muslim, and his faith in the Palestinian cause. He taught his students and followers to be strong Muslims and at the same time faithful to their homeland Palestine.
If these two factors came together in a Palestinian, he would be a very powerful one. Sheikh Yassin's strength also comes from his followers, who have been brought up on faith and resistance.
Name
Nada
- Brazil
Profession
Question
I understand that he was crippled when he was at a very young age. Yet he still suffered from a lot of other illnesses that I heard were the result of the torture he received in Israeli prison. How is that?
Answer
Yes he has suffered a lot inside the Israeli prisons, he was emprisoned several times. In each one of them he was tortured by Israeli integrators.
Their interrogation took so many forms; by beating him with sticks all over his weak body, preventing him from sleeping for weeks, and preventing him from going to the toilet. They were pressing on the weak places on his body.
Sometimes also, they used to torture his sons in front of him and treathen to deport him from Palestine. This all added to the pain he had been suffering from even before imprisonment, due to his illness.
Name
Hatem
- Egypt
Profession
Question
How did the period he spent in prison affect him?
Answer
He spent more than 10 years in prison. It affected his eyes that he became unable to see things properly. He had so many infections in his chest. The nerving system was also weakened because his movement was limited.
There was also pain in his legs and arms. He was not properly fed and his body became less immune to illness.
When he got out of the Israeli prison, the Israelis expected him to die soon.
Name
JJ
- United States
Profession
Question
What was his philosophy over the killings of civilians? Did he find them justifiable?
Answer
Sheikh Yassin declared many times that if the Israelis would stop Palestinians civilians, Hamas would also stop its military activities inside Israel.
He was not in favor of it, did not like it, yet Israel gave Hamas no other way to react to Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians.
Name
Mike
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Profession
Question
As an academic observer, where do you see Palestinian resistance going after the departure of such an important spiritual head?
Answer
I believe that the Palestinian resistance will go head in fighting the Israeli occupation. I think that this resistance will be stronger than ever before, since Israel gave itself the permission to kill a harmless and paralyzed person.
Name
Ahmad
- Bahrain
Profession
Question
How was Sheikh Yassin as a leader? How did he manage the organization?
Answer
Sheikh Yassin was great. He was a wise man with a big heart and, at the same time, he was strong when the situation needed him to be.
I know that he sometimes sat for more than 12 hours dealing with problems, solving issues and building many things in his organization. This is what made people admire him... His disability did not prevent him from doing his best to build and guide such a big organization like Hamas.
Name
Hadia
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Profession
Question
Looking at the Sheikh's pictures with the children, I couldn't help but wonder what type of father and grandfather he was.
Answer
I have heard his daughter and his sons speaking about their father with great love. I know Sheikh Yassin, he was not just a father for his children, but was a father for all Palestinian children.
He treated them like his sons. I know that before his assassination, he was sitting with a small group of children in the mosque reading Qur’an. He was joking with them, making them laugh very hard, and they were pleased with his kindness. Two minutes after his departure, the Israeli rockets killed him.
I really wanted to be a small boy and to speak to you about my own feelings. If you ask any Palestinian small boy, he would say "I wish I were the one instead of my father Yassin," so that he'd stay alive for all the deprived boys and girls.
He provided them love; all what they really needed.
