He said: "O my Lord! the prison is more to my liking than that to which they invite me: Unless Thou turn away their snare from me, I should (in my youthful folly) feel inclined towards them and join the ranks of the ignorant." (Yusuf, 33)

Smidley Butler is the most decorated military officer in U.S. history. He has two Congressional Medal of Honors, the highest award that can be given in America, and has served in the Marines his entire adult life. Yet the opening lines of his manifesto, written in his final years are:

"WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”

Today, that profit can be found flowing into the pockets of the current administration and their buddies. The president gets paid in Carlyle group stocks, the defense secretary own shares in Northrup-Grumman, the Secretary of State is the former director of Chevron, the Vice-President is the former CEO of Halliburton. By whose lives are these pockets being filled?

If you watch Jim Lehrer's nightly news show you will see the answer to that question. You will see the eighteen and nineteen year old soldiers dead after fighting a war I dare say they were to young to fully understand. You will see the Iraqi mothers crying over the bodies of their lifeless children and the children crying over the bodes of their lifeless parents. All for what?

So the question is, what would you do if you were called to serve when conscription is reinstated? Ask yourself what are you fighting for…or better yet…what are you taking the lives of other people for? The blood of how many people will be on your hands? What wil be your recompense in the Hereafter.

For me, I would rather go to prison for what I believe in than go to war for what I don’t believe in....even if that role is non-combatant

Like the prophet Yusuf (peace and blessings be upon him), we should trust in Allah in the dispatching of our affairs….and fear not the punishment of men when our conviction is for Allah.

May Allah grant us Sincerity.