Umar Mukhtar - The Lion of the Desert

"I have witnessed the steady European encroachment on Muslim cultural life and political independence; and wherever Muslim people try to defend themselves against this encroachment, European public opinion invariably labels their resistance, with an air of hurt innocence, as ‘xenophobia’ … Forgetting that every direct, and even benevolent, intervention from outside cannot but disturb a nation’s development, Western students of Middle Eastern affairs have always been ready to swallow such claims. They see only the new railroads built by colonial powers, and not the destruction of a country’s social fabric; they count the kilowatts of new electricity, but not the blows to a nation’s pride. The same people who would never have accepted Imperial Austria’s ‘civilizing mission’ as a valid excuse for her interventions in the Balkans indulgently accept a similar plea in the case of the British in Egypt, the Russians in Central Asia, the French in Morocco or the Italians in Libya. And it never even crosses their minds that many of the social and economic ills from which the Middle East is suffering are a direct outcome of that very Western ‘interest’."

During his six years of stay in Saudi Arabia, Asad enjoyed close friendship of King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, and many years later of King Faisal. King Abdul Aziz at that time was still building his territories, fighting rivals, and trying to unite many Bedouin factions under his Kingdom. In Abdul Aziz, he saw signs of a promising leader who could stimulate an Islamic renaissance and unite the Muslim world under the true teachings of Islam. Though he highly admired the King who was a very pious Muslim (the King was so humble to his parents that he would not step in a room if his father was in the room below. “How can I allow myself to walk over my father’s head?”, he said), his expectation did not materialize. He, however, assisted the King sometimes. Once, he secretly visited Kuwait, which was then under the British influence and was the main base of Ad-Dawish, the chief rival of Abdul Aziz. Taking a risk on his life and traveling only by night through the desert, never lighting a fire, he reached Kuwait after many days and nights. There he collected first-hand evidence of what he was suspecting long before anyone did: that the British was providing both arms and money to Ad-Dawish to sustain the rivalry between him and Abdul Aziz in order to weaken both, and then exert pressure on a weak Abdul Aziz to cut the Arabian peninsula by building a railroad that was to go all the way to India and solidify the strength of the British empire. Asad’s article on this secret plan was published with sufficient evidence simultaneously in both Arab and European newspapers and caused a sensation. The British plan died before it could bud, for Abdul Aziz immediately took a harder stand on the British and forced them to stop aiding Ad-Dawish, who soon afterwards was totally defeated.

Asad had deep sympathy for the struggle that was going on in North Africa for liberation from the colonial yoke. He became a close friend and admirer of Sayyid Ahmad, the great Sanusi leader. He was living in Saudi Arabia while his people, under the leadership Umar Mukhtar – the Lion of the Desert – was desperately fighting against the Italian army which was equipped with modern weapons and an air force. Italians often led their convoy of armored carriers and tanks through Muslim villages, tearing apart tents and huts, crushing men, women, and children as punishment for “helping” the guerrilla fighters of Umar Mukhtar. One eyewitness who survived the fall of his village said,

They came upon us in three columns, from three sides, with many armored cars and heavy cannons. Their aeroplanes came down low and bombed houses and mosques and palm groves … Our rifles were useless against their armoured cars … I hid myself in the palm orchards waiting for a chance to make my way through the Italian lines .. the next day .. the Italian general … ordered the palm trees of the oasis to be cut down and the wells destroyed and all the books of Sayid Ahmad’s library burned. And on the next day he commanded that some of our elders and ulama be taken up in an aeroplane – and they were hurled out of the plane high above the ground to be smashed to death … And all through the second night I heard from my hiding place the cries of our women and the laughter of the soldiers ...

It was at that time that Sayyid Ahmad asked Asad if he could visit Mukhtar, analyze the situation, and advise him on what could be done to improve the situation. Asad readily agreed. “To me Islam was a way and not an end – and the desperate guerrillas of Umar al-Mukhtar were fighting with their lifeblood for the freedom to tread that way, just as the companions of the Prophet had done thirteen centuries ago. To be of help to them in their hard and bitter struggle, however uncertain the outcome, was as personally necessary to me as to pray ...”

And once again, as before, Asad took a risk on his life and started his secret long journey to meet Mukhtar in the Libyan desert. He nearly lost his life when he and his companions were spotted by an Italian reconnaissance plane. The plane circled and closed in - and below stood Asad and his companions on the empty desert totaly devoid of any cover - and started firing at them. They all lied on the ground and played dead, but the pilot apparently knew it well. He fled only when one of Asad’s companions – a guerrilla himself - took careful aim and started firing at the plane. After evading the Italians, he eventually reached his destination and met Mukhtar. The Lion was then 70 years old.

Asad knew that Umar Mukhtar was well aware that death awaited him there, but death held no terror for him. “We fight”, Umar Mukhtar told him, “because we have to fight for our faith and our freedom until we drive the invaders out or die ourselves. We have no other choice. To God we belong and unto Him do we return.”

And so Asad left after the meeting, and started on his way back. Once more, he nearly escaped death when he and his companions faced machine gun fire as they hurriedly cut barbed-wire fence to make an opening and flee to the other side. Asad and some of his companions escaped, while a few others lay dead behind.

A few months later, Italians captured Umar Mukhtar as he was visiting the grave of one of the companions of the Prophet in an Italian-controlled territory. When he was brought in front of General Graziani, he asked Umar Mukhar whether he would give up fighting if released. The Lion replied,

I shall not cease to fight against thee and thy people until either you leave my country or I leave my life. And I swear to thee by Him who knows what is in men’s heart that if my hands were not bound this very moment, I would fight thee with my bare hands, old and broken as I am ...