The final witness of Saddam Hussein
By Abdel Aziz Dimapunong
Imam, Masjid Alkhairi, Manila, Philippines
Praise is to God-Alone. Praise to Him who revealed the books of guidance for mankind, including the original Holy Bible, and the Holy Quran. Peace is to Muhammad and his companions.
Friday, January 12, 2007. As Sunday is to Christendom, Friday is to Islam. Every Imam delivers a sermon to the Friday congregational prayer. In addition to preaching the Islamic Faith, the Imam may include in his sermon the religious concerns of his community. Our Shariah Council in Masjid Alkhairi suggested that I speak about the relation of the Holy Quran and the man who constantly read it. This topic came about during our Kapihan, a gathering of members of our congregation where the group talks about Islam. Somehow the discussion touches on the Holy Quran being held by Saddam Hussein just before his execution.
May I preface this article by saying that this is really for Muslims. There is no harm if it is peruse by non-Muslims, especially those interested to know about Islam and its beliefs. I suggest that it be read by prospective converts and reverts to Islam.
In the last few weeks, I had written about Islamic holiness. Last December, I wrote a blog about “Eidul Adha, a global Muslim holiday”. My previous blog was about the Holy Kaaba in Masjid al Haram that is the holiest place on earth for Muslims. This article is about the Holy Quran, the holiest thing for Muslims. It is Most Revered because it is the word of Allah (swt), the One Almighty God.
At predawn Last December 30, 2006, a day of Eidul Adha, Saddam Hussein was hanged. In Islamic reckoning based on the Hijrah lunar calendar, any day begins not after midnight as in the Western world but after sundown of a previous day. The day that Saddam Hussein was hanged was exactly the day that begins the Eid al Adha even though the sun was to rise in Baghdad at 7:06 on that Saturday morning of December 30, 2006. That day was sacred. It was Eidul Adha. It was not merely a national holiday of any Muslim country like Iraq, or Saudi Arabia, or Pakistan. It was a holiday of Muslims in U.S.A., Canada, Britain, Australia and elsewhere. It was not merely a global Muslim holiday. According to Islam, it was a sacred universal holiday for all Muslims of all times to come.
During that great Day of Sacrifice, which is the true meaning of Eid al Adha, the whole world has witness the execution of Saddam Hussein after having received a death sentence. The execution was witnessed by unauthorized video coverage. It has been leaked to the media. And now it is available for download from many websites including YouTube. According to the website at Google, the video on Saddam has been viewed by 13,257,935 as of this writing.
On his way to the gallows, Saddam Hussein brought with him his last trusted companion and FINAL WITNESS, the Holy Quran. The original copy of all available Quran on earth is the Glorious Quran that is “Inscribed in a Tablet Preserved” (Quran: 85:21-22). The original is preserved and guarded from corruption. It is located somewhere in outer space.
For twenty years during the life of Muhammad as a Prophet, peace on him, a copy of the Holy Quran was downloaded to him piece by piece in the form of Revelations through an Angel Server known as Jibreel, the messenger of Allah (swt). For two decades, this was committed to memory by Prophet Muhammad; peace on him, and some of his companions, the first community of Muslims that began the Muslim Ummah (the World of Muslim). Until today it is a practice of every Muslim to memorize the whole of the Quran. Usually, memorizing the holy book begins at an early age of seven. There are known boys who succeeded memorizing it by the age of twelve. In our Alkahiriya Madrasah (Islamic school) that used to be financed by the government of Kuwait, we had 120 boys, aged seven to 15, who were enrolled exclusively (live-in students) for memorizing the holy book. Some Muslims are still trying, yet most would have only a part of it.
Presumably as a Muslim, Saddam Hussein also had an image file or a fraction of the Holy Quran that was saved in his memory.
In the cerebrum of every Muslim resides a verbatim copy of the Holy Quran which maybe the whole of it, most of it, part of it, or a chapter. A Muslim is known as a Hafidh if he has fully memorized the Holy Quran. One could be a doubtful Muslim if one does not even know the opening chapter known as Al Fatiha. The daily Islamic prayer consists mainly of a reading of the Fatiha followed by any verses or chapter of the Quran. In his minimum of five daily prayers, he recollects from his memory some verses or a whole chapter and recites them aloud in the morning during Subuh prayer, at about 5:00 A.M. and in the evening during the Magrib prayer at around 6:00 P.M. and the Isha prayer at around 7:30 P.M. During every month of Ramadhan, a Muslim devotes his time to reading the whole of the Holy Quran. Prophet Muhammad, peace on him, reviewed the Holy Quran once a year and twice in the last year of his life.
In his regular Tarawih and Tahajud, the nightly prayers of Ramadhan, a Muslim recollects whatever verses or chapters he has stored in his memory and read them aloud and correctly while standing in prayer. If he is a member of a congregation he will listen intently to the reading of the Imam who leads the prayer. When in distress anywhere, be it in the middle of the ocean or a mountain, a Muslim will read the Quran even without a printed book because he always has a copy of it in his memory. He will read it silently, in soliloquy or aloud.
The Holy Quran contains applicable verses suitable to any particular situation; in war and in peace; in making a fight or in making love; in celebration or in distress, in famine or harvest; in the hospital or in captivity, in the face of death and everything. While in jail, Saddam Hussein had more time to read the Holy Quran in his cell even without a printed copy. He could download verses from his memory and then say it in soliloquy or aloud. He may have actually prepared himself for the submission of his life to Allah (swt). He may have followed the routine many times during his 14 months of trial, knowing that the court was only a formality. Evidently he did surrender his life to Allah in all dignity, while dressed in black overcoat, wearing a haircut, looking straight without fear in the presence of people not in sympathy to him. Thanks to YouTube and all the cellphone videos.
From the Holy Quran, the verse for the surrender of life to God-Allah (swt) can be said in less than a heartbeat, thus:
“INNA LILLAH, WA INNA ILAIHI RAJION”.
This does not have to be said aloud. It could be said in soliloquy. In a complete personalized statement, this could be said thus: “YA ALLAH, INNA LILLAH WA INNA ILAIHI RAJION. This means, Oh My Lord Allah, “surely I am Yours, and surely to You is my return’. In the case of Saddam Hussein, it is audible from the video that he had said “YA ALLAH”… then presumably, he engaged in soliloquy, addressing the verse of surrender to himself and to his lord.
It is reasonable to presume that Saddam already read the verse of surrender of his life not only on the gallows but when he was in captivity. When the death sentence was read to him, he knew the execution would soon follow. I strongly feel that, during the invasion of the Allied Forces, Saddam Hussein already made a plan for his death in his own preference. When captured, he made no resistance. No shot was fired from his side. There was neither fight nor flight from his end. He preferred to be captured. He later said in public that he preferred to be executed by a firing squad. Perhaps, he planned for a grandstanding way of death (the Islamic way).
In the same way as the Verse of Surrender, to die as a Muslim, one can say the appropriate verse in less than a heartbeat by saying:
“LAILAHAILLALLAH, MUHAMMAD RASULLOLLAH.”
This phrase is known as Sahada. Of course, when there is time, a Muslim may engage in redundancy by reciting the Sahada as many times as possible; maybe ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, or more. This is known as Dikr, the remembrance of Allah (swt).
In the video of Saddam Hussein, it was audible that Saddam pronounced clearly the Sahada. In his last minute on the gallows, Saddam had been chanting the most appropriate words in Islam, such as Allaho Akbar, and the Sahada (There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet). According to a witness, his last word was “Muhammad” in the verse of Sahada.
The video on the execution of Saddam Hussein says it all in Cyberspace. No one can pluto the fact surrounding the last minute of Saddam Hussein. Now it can be seen on video. It can be heard. Now it can be told unedited. Men, women, and children had witnessed what on earth man can do to another. According to Anna Johnson of the Associated Press, in “Several boys die copying Saddam hanging”, there were boys who died copying the hanging of Saddam Hussein. Johnson said, “The boys' deaths — scattered in the United States, in Yemen, in Turkey and elsewhere in seemingly isolated horror — had one thing in common: They hanged themselves after watching televised images of Saddam Hussein's execution.”
The Internet is always accessible. The video on Saddam can be viewed anytime. He is still on the spotlight even after his life on earth.
A decision of death sentence to a deposed ruler has always been a political issue. When it is followed by an execution, it is usually claimed to have been done in the name of justice. In the case of Saddam Hussein, the trial that led to a death sentence lent a veneer of formality, perhaps to the credit of American coaching on civility. In my previous blog, “Saddam Hussein on the spotlight”, I have said that the trial was at least colorable even if it was plausible. The video clips show them all.
In history, the trial and execution of a deposed ruler become the talk of the town and secrets come to the open as witnesses, jailers, even yeomen and nannies eventually relate their own accounts. In the case of Saddam Hussein, stories are now unfolding. According to John F. Burns: “In Days Before Hanging, a Push for Revenge and a Push Back From the U.S”, “the story of how American commanders and diplomats fought to halt the execution until midnight on Friday, only six hours before Mr. Hussein was hanged, is only now coming into focus, as Iraqi and American officials, in the glare of international outrage over the hanging, compete with their versions of what happened.”
In our age of technology, subterranean motives surface awhile with the use of cell phones and the Internet. But these are other stories that do not belong in this article.
Many rulers of history were hanged or assassinated, living behind unending political controversies about their death. Among those executed were: Charles I of England, 1649; Maximilian of Mexico, 1867; Nicholas II of Russia, 1917; Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan, 1979; and Nicolas of Romania, 1989. The issues involved in those executions belong to politics. They never cease to amuse historians and political pundits.
This article is not about political issues. It is about certain Islamic belief which may be applicable to Saddam Hussein – not while he was alive but after execution. It is about trial after death.
In this connection, I am now quoting a Hadith of Prophet Muhammad, peace on him, which in my opinion, may apply to Saddam Hussein. Prophet Muhammad, peace is on him, had said:
"On the Day of Judgment, before Allah, no other intercessor will have a greater status than the Holy Quran, neither a Prophet nor an angel."
That, in my opinion, is the final relation between man and the Holy Quran. And the final witness of Saddam Hussein that he died as a Muslim, as a Muslim must die as a Muslim, as prescribed by the Holy Quran, is the Holy Quran itself.