Absence of an Islamic State & the Civilizational Catastrophe

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

The core concept and the obligation

A state is the most powerful institution on the planet. In the past, both the best and the worst could be done by the state institutions. But an institution can’t work on its own, it needs an ideology and methodology to excel in its works. The ideology decides which way the state should go: good or bad. In this regard, all other religions do not prescribe any roadmap for state-building. Nor did prescribe any law for societal justice. The founding fathers of these religions were not state-builder either. Therefore, they couldn’t present themselves as a role model in politics -the most important aspect as well as the most defining characteristic of the humans that differentiate them from other species. (The Greek philosopher defined humans as a political animal).

Of all religions, Islam is the only exception that made taking part in politics and state-building a religious obligation. And it is the most sacred jihad –a life-long holy struggle. A Muslim is faith-bound to invest his talent, time, wealth and even his life in it. How can a man with an iota of responsibility and civic sense withdraw from making a contribution for the betterment of the most important and powerful institution on earth like a state? Moreover, one can’t think of any Islamic polity like an Islamic state, Divine judiciary, sharia, hudud, Islamic education, Islamic society and borderless pan-Islamic brotherhood without engaging in jihad. In fact, whenever jihad disappears from Muslims’ life, all other indispensable elements of Islam also disappear. Then, Muslim life without Prophet (peace be upon him)’s full Islam –as is happening today. Islam then gets confined only within the rituals like five-time prayer, month-long fasting, charity and hajj. That didn’t happen for a single day in the golden days of Islam.

Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) -the last prophet of Islam is a role model both in politics and state-building. He fought wars, made negotiations, signed treaties, execute the judiciary, sent emissaries, punished enemies and ruled as the Head of the State for 10 years. Hence, he is unique and exemplary for the whole of mankind. A Muslim has no other way but to follow his model. And it is a Qur’anic dictate that whoever follows the Prophet (peace be upon him), obeys Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. And whoever disobeys him, indeed takes the satanic path towards the hellfire. The absence of the Islamic state, sharia, hudud, shura, unity and Jihad in the Muslim life clearly demonstrates that they are not following the Prophet (peace be upon him). So, Satan has a lot to celebrate his victory in the Muslim lands.

Islam has been designed and assigned by Allah Subhana wa Ta’la for the betterment of the whole of mankind. It prescribes all the necessary guidelines not only for individuals but also for the good governance of families, societies and a state. In this regard, Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) worked under the direct guidance of Allah Sub’hana wa ta’la and thereby became the perfect model for the whole of mankind. He set examples not only in the field of worshipping the Almighty Lord, but also in running complex statecraft. Having been in the driving seat of the state for long years, he could present himself as the best role model for a ruler. He worked as the mentor for his companions. In fact, all the successes of the early Muslims owe to his teachings and mentoring.

A powerful tool: both for crimes and good deeds

If a state becomes a tool in the hand of devils, then it becomes a tool for committing terrible crimes. Such a usurped state then turns to be a punishing hell. And the state institutions like its army, police, bureaucracy and judiciary are used as the tool of violence, oppression, exploitation, genocide and other dreadful atrocities. In fact, most of the brutal crimes in human history have been done by the criminals sponsored by the states and not by beasts, bugs or natural disasters. In the past, lethal ideologies like racism, colonialism, imperialism, supremacism, communism, and fascism could execute ethnic cleansing, class wars, genocides and global terrorism only because of the state power. More than 75 million people are killed by state institutions only in two World Wars.

On the other hand, if a state is run by a group of Allah-fearing people adhering to the Qur’anic guidance and the prophetic methodology, can do miracles. The early Muslims are examples. They could achieve wonders by eradicating crimes, enjoining justice and ensuring equality between race, colour and gender. They could bring immense human, moral and social development. They could emancipate the women, eliminate slavery, and ensure security to human lives and chastity. In those days, the Whites, the Blacks, the Arabs, the non-Arabs, the Muslims, the Non-Muslims, the Asians, the Africans and the Europeans could enjoy an unfettered opportunity to roam over the vastest state in the contemporary world and could settle anywhere they liked. Because of Islam’s social welfare policy, vast areas of Asia, Africa and Europe were relieved of endemic genocidal wars, inter-tribal feuds and atrocities of the brutal autocrats. As a result, the local people were attracted to Islam. They also opened safe intercontinental trade routes. For the first time in human history, people could enjoy the real cosmopolitan life. Others could build Pyramids, Great Walls, hanging gardens, monumental churches and temples, but the Muslims are only the people who could add humanitarian and social dimensions to mankind. Even the Jews who were persecuted throughout their whole history, not only enjoyed full security but also flourished as the valued citizens of the Islamic khilafa. In cities like Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Granada, Cordova, Marrakesh, Istanbul and many other cities, prosperous Jewish communities developed.

 Absence of caliphate and the calamity

One can feel the importance of oxygen only when he runs out of it. The same is true with an Islamic caliphate. In its absence, the Muslims now suffer from a chain of relentless calamities. Such an institutional collapse and the division of the Muslim World into 57 tribal or national states have indeed generated a perfect recipe for enemy aggression, occupation and an unending catastrophe. The imperialists’ exploitation, genocides, mass rape, evictions, destructions of cities and villages are now common in the Muslim lands. The demographic surge of the Muslims, the huge number of mosques and madrasas around the world, the bulging per capita income in some oil-reach Muslim states and even nuclear bombs couldn’t work as the substitute for the Islamic khilafa.

The collapse of khelafa has indeed precipitated the collapse of the Muslims as a civilizational force. The fall-out of such a collapse has been so awful that it made almost 1.6 billion Muslims the real orphans. The Hindus have India, the Christians have the USA and the EU, the Chinese have China and the Jews have Israel. But the Muslims have none. A tribal or national state can’t bear the responsibility of a civilizational state. Such a state has no moral and legal acceptance globally either. In absence of such a civilizational core state, the Muslims in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Palestine, Xinxiang and many other parts of the world now suffer from unending persecution, humiliation and deaths. Nobody in the world stage raise any voice or take any step to stop the ongoing atrocities against the Muslims. They are deprived of any voice in the most powerful body of the world –the UNO’s Security Council. A country like the UK or France of about 75 million can block any UNO move, but 1.6 billion Muslims have to beg permission to say something in the UNO. This is indeed a definitive expression of the powerlessness of the Muslims.

Muslims without Islam!

A fish can’t survive without water. Likewise, a Muslim can’t live as a full or true Muslim in a non-Muslim state. It is equally impossible even in a Muslim state under the occupation of anti-Islamic forces. The ruling clique of the non-Muslim states as well as of the un-Islamic Muslim countries permit practising rituals like five times prayer, fasting, charity and hajj, but never offer any space for practising other Islamic obligations like Qur’anic education in schools and colleges, sharia and hudud in courts, interest-free economy, jihad against persecution and many other basics. They even put a ban on wearing hejab. How one can be a true Muslim without practising such Islamic fundamentals? Enjoining the right (a’maru bil ma’ruf) and eradicating the wrongs (nehi anil mukar) are the two-prong Islamic mission. A Muslim is faith-bound to work as His Lord’s viceroy to carry out this mission; otherwise gets labelled as a rebel. The Muslims are honoured as the best people (khaira ummah) only because of pursuing the divinely assigned mission –as revealed in Sura al-Imran, verse 110. Only this way a Muslim registers himself as a helper unto Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la (ansaerullah). Thus he works as a khalifa (viceroy) to fulfil His vision that entails Islam as the overwhelming belief over the fake religions and ideologies (li’yuzhira’hud’dini kullihi).

Under the occupation of anti-Islamic forces, it is allowed only to be the helper of the occupying forces. Any visible pursuance of an Islamic mission is considered a punishable crime. Standing for the agenda of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la is labelled as terrorism. Innocent people are brutally tortured and killed even for raising their voice for religious freedom, let alone practising full Islam. While the people in Gaza was being bombed by Israel, protesting rallies were not allowed in neighbouring Egypt and in most Arab countries. More than a million Muslims in China are taken to concentration camps to delink them from the Islamic faith and practices. It has been very endemic to burn down mosques, religious schools and Muslim businesses in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, India and many other countries. But while all these atrocities go on, the Muslim World continues to keep its conspicuous silence.

The last Prophet (peace be upon him) had to face the same brutal hostility; Islam wasn’t acceptable to the enemies. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) had to establish an Islamic state to provide Muslims with a safe haven. Building such a state was made a religious obligation. It is a holy jihad in Islam. Other people fight the war and get killed in the name of race, land, monarch, language and economic interest; and at the end go to the hellfire. But the Muslims fight wars and make sacrifices to live with full Islam, and at the end enter into the paradise. Because of an Islamic state, the Muslims could practise full Islam and showcase its beauty to others. It was indeed the most significant event in the whole human history and opened floodgates of conversion to Islam. Because of the supportive state infrastructure, Islam could be the fastest-growing religion in human history. Even today, it is the only option.

Even a plant needs a conducive climate, soil and protection to show its full potentials. Islam too, needs supportive state institutions to deliver its full potentials as the most powerful humanising force in human history. In fact, all the civilizational excellence of the Muslims in the past owes to the infrastructural backings of an Islamic state. The enemies know that. This is why all the anti-Islamic forces are deadly against the creation of an Islamic state in any part of the world. They want that the state’s organisational power shouldn’t be in the hand of the Islamists and Islam must be confined within the walls of mosques and madrasas. It is known to the enemies that the emergence of the first Islamic State in the Arabic Peninsula caused the collapse of two contemporary world powers -the Persian and Roman empires. The history can repeat again. This is indeed the basis of Islamophobia hype in the psyche of the anti-Islamic forces. Because of that, former US President Donald Trump told in public that the US Army will bomb to the ground any Islamic state anywhere in the world.

For sustenance as a civilizational force, an ideological backbone is crucial. Ideology makes people the fighting force for an ideology. The military and economic might can’t be the substitute. The USA spends one million dollars per soldier to keep them on the battlefield of Afghanistan and Iraq. But Islam makes people whole time fighter at their own cost. But none of the contemporary world powers owns such energising ideology. The communist world has already collapsed because of its ideological fallacy. The capitalist world survives only on wealth, technology and global terrorism; its ideology has already flawed. Only the Muslims stand with a strong ideological backbone that could defeat Soviet Russia in Afghanistan and now defeat the USA Army in the same battlefield. Along with armies from 40 partner states, the USA spends more than 20 years, but couldn’t win against the Mujahideen. So, wealth and weapon do not work against a solid ideology.