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The question:

The legal ruling concerning one who assists Jews in taking possession of Palestine by selling its land or otherwise

(Question 7) From the undersigned to the proprietor of al-Manār, following a long letter:

Conditions in Palestine have reached one of their worst states. This Arab Islamic territory is now threatened with extinction and disappearance because some of the holy lands have slipped into the hands of the country’s enemies. Those lands are rightly regarded as fortresses that every Muslim must defend to the final breath of his life.

Jews have repeatedly declared that they seek complete and perpetual possession of this holy country and that they will make it Jewish, just as England is English. The results of their invasion have begun to appear plainly and clearly. A large number of Muslims have become homeless wanderers; this is the prelude to displacing the rest of the inhabitants and driving them from their country. They have also taken control of the country’s economic utilities, and Muslims retain only a little of their land. Unless they preserve it, holy Palestine will in fact become Jewish after a short time.

The country’s enemies want to conquer and possess it with money. Had they sought to conquer it by war, and one of its sons held back from jihad or helped the adversaries possess it, we would say that he had rebelled against his religion and his people. What, then, is your view of someone who helps them possess the country? This is no less dangerous than sitting out jihad or helping the adversary.

Is it permissible for someone who believes in God and the Last Day, God’s Book and law, and His Messenger to sell his land to Jews after knowing that, by doing so, he enables them to take control of Muslim sacred places, assists them in eliminating Islam, and drives his brethren from their country? What is Islam’s ruling concerning such people?

Chairman of the executive committee of the Congress of Young Arabs in Palestine

Muḥammad Yaʿqūb al-Ghuṣayn