How do we look at history  

I entered the first year class to complete what I had started with the students in the morning and found the blackboard filled with Mr Sardi's handwriting. The title of the lesson was "The role of the mosque in building the nation and in making history". Under these elements were the political role, the social role, the educational role and the religious role. Each main component has its own sub-elements. Sardi does not admit that the educational role of the mosque has been taken over by schools, institutes and universities. The political parties took the political role and the civil societies were in charge of the social role. It remained the most important role that the mosque can play, namely the moral role. This role is at the root of all those because it awakens the conscience of the individual and protects the integrity and behaviour of society. Sardi was concerned to revive the political role of the mosque for a personal purpose and religion was just a pretext.

Abdul Rahman Sardi took advantage of the first lesson to learn about the trends and opinions of students in order to choose those who wanted to recruit and organize. I heard about him during my studies in Cairo. Graduated from the History Department of the Faculty of letters before me because he is older than I am. He remained in Egypt, where the terrorist group Takfir and Hijra recruited him. He participated in secret training on various types of weapons. Someone who knew him well assured me that he had been ambitious since his childhood, that he liked to draw attention to him and that he found in the organization a place conducive to the realization of his political ambitions. On the other hand, the organization saw him as an important element because of his intelligence and his skills in French. I saw him once in the Algerian Student Club. I avoided him because of what I had heard about his extremism and his tendency to dominate others and violence. According to rumours, he spent two years in prison in Egypt and his limping was the result of jumping from a wall during a police chase. Expelled from Cairo two years ago, he began teaching at high schools in Algiers. The first lesson he teaches his students rests on three pillars: first, great work needs an iron heart and its disciples must draw from their hearts sympathy, compassion, and mercy, and leave them to women in order to reach their grand goal of jihad. Second, the rebirth of the nation must be accomplished even if two-thirds of the population will be sacrificed to reform the remaining third. Third, absolute obedience to the emir of the group in all areas is an essential rule for achieving the prescribed goal.

History for him was the history of Islam and the Islamic State, which is limited to the period of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless and salute him, and the just caliphs. The purpose of its study is to restore the glories of the past and to inspire new generations to rebuild the Islamic State. Regarding the history of the Umayyad’s and Abbasids, and after them, the Caliphate was violated: the state was civil and not religious, deviating from the true path of Islam. The existence of history before Islam is that of idolatry, does not deserve to be studied. The history of non-Muslim nations is also that of infidelity and atheism.

I compared his vision of history with the vision of my uncle Laroussi, seen by Ibn Khaldun, Toynbee, and all great historians, as a history of successive human civilizations for the entire human race. The student therefore studies the reasons that led to the emergence and prosperity of civilizations and the factors that led to its collapse. A study of civilizations with an objective evaluation that highlights its benefits and contribution in the areas of human progress. This objective study shows their weaknesses, including the Arab-Islamic civilization, because it is necessary to mention the advantages and disadvantages to learn from the past, so that history does not repeat itself stupidly.

 

Abdellah Khammar

First day: Temperaments and tendencies

An extract taken from the novel: Entry bell to class