What is the Soumoud (which means steadfastness) Convoy?
Around 300 vehicles with around 1,000 people mostly from Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, and Morocco departed from Tunis on June 9, 2025, crossing into Libya en route to Egypt’s border at Sallum, aiming for Rafah to highlight Gaza’s crisis, and to deliver some basic aid. But as expected they are detained in Egypt.
SubhanAllah! The Samoud convoy is a living, breathing symbol of One Ummah. It is not just a convoy of aid, it is a caravan of conscience, proof that despite borders, regimes, and betrayals, the spirit of unity in the Ummah is not dead. It has no state-sponsored banner. No ethnic superiority. Only solidarity. As if breaking the artificial borders Sykes-Picot created to divide us.
SubhanAllah! While thinking about Egypt, and other muslim regimes, I was reminded how in the Holy Qur’an, Fir’awn (Pharaoh) is not just a tyrant, but a symbol of oppressive nationalism and statecraft that crushes the weak under the guise of “national unity and control.”
“Pharaoh said: ‘Leave me to kill Moses, and let him call upon his Lord! I fear he may change your religion or cause corruption to appear in the land.’”
Holy Quran Surah Ghafir (40:26)
Pharaoh framed truth as a threat to “national order,” using religion and nationalism to justify oppression, like
Killing newborn boys for fear of rebellion (Surah Al-Qasas 28:4).
Claiming ownership over Egypt, “Is not the kingdom of Egypt mine…?” (Holy Qur’an 43:51)
Today, we see echoes of that Egypt claiming to be Gaza’s “brother” yet blocking aid, detaining peaceful protesters, and silencing dissent.
Nationalism is used to justify silence and complicity.
Egypt positions itself as a stabilizer, while facilitating a siege against a besieged people. Like Pharaoh, today’s rulers fear that truth and resistance might inspire the people, so they repress it in the name of “national order.”
This is “Fir‘awnism” in the age of flags and borders, nationalism that exalts the state over the suffering of innocent Muslims, especially in Gaza.
Gaza bleeds today, not just from Zionist bombs but because of cowardice in muslim regimes.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “The destruction of the Kaaba is lighter in the sight of Allah than the killing of a single believer unjustly.”
(Ibn Majah)
What then of a hundreds and thousands of believers?
The Rabaa massacre in August 14, 2013 in Egypt has shattered the illusion for those who used to think that Egypt’s regime stood for the Ummah. It showed, how easily taghoot regimes that quote Islam will slaughter common people if they protest even peacefully. The brutality is masked in nationalism, as Pharaoh once did.
In our time, Gaza is a test, not just for Egypt, but for all of us.
Do we stand with the oppressed, or do we rationalize tyranny as “stability”, “maslehat”?
The nationalism of today’s pharaohs, be they in Egypt or in other muslim countries, dressed in flags and borders, remains the same disease Holy Qur’an warned us about. The Rabaa massacre was its blood-written signature. And Gaza’s suffocation is its daily proof. Islam calls us not to worship nations, but to stand with truth, justice, and the oppressed even when Pharaoh wears a modern suit.
When Muslim rulers actively block aid to Gaza, normalize relations with oppressors, imprison the voices of resistance, Or even support tyrants behind the scenes, and now even openly,
…then silence becomes complicity.
And when “islamic scholars or preachers” tell people, “Don’t speak against the rulers”, understand well, they are not preserving Islam they are distorting it.
The often-quoted hadith
“Hear and obey the ruler, even if he lashes your back..”
(Sahih Muslim)
This has conditions. It applies only to rulers who uphold Islam as a complete nidham, not tyrants who are ruling by taghoot, or wage war against Islam and the Muslims.
Also, when rulers lead the Ummah in Islam, they are to be obeyed in what is not sinful. If they command oppression or kufr, we do not obey, as per the Prophet ﷺ
“There is no obedience to the creation in disobedience to The Creator.”
(Ahmad, Sahih)
“The best jihad is speaking a word of truth before a tyrant ruler.”
(Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi – Hasan)
So when scholars, quote obedience hadith out of context to silence accountability,
Or fear losing funding, position, or visa privileges from tyrant states…
They are turning Islam into a shield for injustice, when Islam came to break the shackles of Pharaohs.
May Allah expose all oppressors and elevate the steadfast (الصامدون) whoever or wherever they are be they in the convoy or outside of it!
May Allah Al-Ma’ani (The Shielder) bless us with His shield, His shade.
Ameen.