The betrayal of prophetic legacy, the inimical states and the autocracy of mercenaries

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

The pathology of failure

A Muslim and a kafir never live in the same way. Never do they live for the same mission, vision, and objective. There exist non-reconcilable differences between a Muslim and kafir at many levels. Likewise, they do not build states and institutions for the same purpose. Like Muslims’ place of worship (mosque), Muslims’ state also differs fundamentally from a state of kafirs. Muslims build a state not only to build schools, roads, hospitals, the Army, the judiciary, industries, and other welfare institutions but also to serve the agenda of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. For that, Muslims need to be an Army of that (hezbollah).The agenda of Almighty Allah has been revealed unequivocally in the Holy Qur’an. In His Own vocabulary, it is: “li’yuz hira’hu alad’dini kulli.’ It means, “His prescribed code of life (deen) must overwhelm over others,” Such a Divine agenda puts a clear emphasis that Islam must overwhelm over all brands of falsehoods and non-Islamic faiths. Nothing is more important and sacred than investing money, energy, time, intelligence, and even blood to serve such an agenda of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. It is indeed the greatest ibada in Islam. It is called jihad. And it is the prime responsibility of a Muslim state to protect people from all Shaitanic intrigues and politico-cultural engineering. None should be allowed to obstruct anyone’s journey towards paradise. On the first day of his rebellion, Shatan arrogantly declared his strategy that he will put hindrances at every step of people’s journey towards paradise. For a Muslim, it is his or her obligatory duty to frustrate such a Shaitanic strategy.

It is the core responsibility of a Muslim state to educate and train Muslims to help them grow up as the best people on the earth and ensure their social welfare and security. It is also an important state responsibility to organize, mobilize, and train the citizens to bring victory to this Divine agenda. No other agenda is more important than this. Eradication of wrongs (nehi anil munkar) and enjoining the rights (a’amaru bil ma’rul) –the key mission of Islam also become a mission of the state. This is why establishing an Islamic state is crucial in Muslims’ life. The Prophet (peace be upon him) of Islam and his companions raised such a state to fully materialize those Qur’anic agendas. Because of this state and its mighty institutions, the Muslims could stand as the most powerful civilizational force on earth. After the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him), khulafa-e-rashida carried out the same mission. Those who believe in Islam are required to obey this crucially important legacy of the Prophet (peace be upon him). But it is a pity that the Khilafa (Caliphate) –the global political institution of Islam and the legacy of the Prophet (peace be upon him) ceases to exist today. As a result, Muslims now stand like orphans. Now, there exists no institution to give them protection, security, and honour. Muslims now live on the mercy of the enemies.

The inimical state

Instead of becoming helpful to Islam and Muslims, a state may be very inimical. Then it becomes the most disastrous institution on the earth. Then, millions of mosques and madrasas do not make any real difference. Muslims have reached the current state of decline and disgrace because of their inimical states. Muslims now have more than 50 national, tribal, monarchical or secular states. Serving the Islamic cause is not their priority or objective. A passenger can’t decide the destination of a train, he or she has to go to the same destination as the train takes. Likewise, a citizen of a non-Muslim or un-Islamic state can’t serve any Islamic agenda as per his or her Islamic intention, rather becomes a servile agent of the state machinery. As a result, millions of citizens don’t get an opportunity to invest their strength, talent, wisdom, wealth, and other abilities for the highest cause. Thus, qualifying for paradise as well as paying the price for a place in paradise is made highly difficult for people. Instead, such a state takes towards hellfire.

A state is never a value-free construct. Instead, it works as a heavily value-loaded institution to rear up people with the added values, visions, concepts, and life styles that are desired by the ruling elites. Therefore, the state-run institutions and their policies impact deeply on citizens’ character, deeds, mission, and objectives. In fact, when a state goes under the occupation of evil forces, it becomes the most powerful criminal institution on the earth. Then, the crimes committed by the state and its affiliated machineries get more abundant and horrendous than all heinous crimes committed by all other criminals living in the state. All genocides, religious and ethnic cleansing, and occupational wars in history are the works of the states occupied by the evil forces. Hence the most important legacy of the Prophet (peace be upon him) is to free a state from the occupation of the evil powers. The evil rulers make people evil, too. Corruption spreads in a top-down way and also corrupts people’s Islamic faith. So, Muslims living under the occupation of evil rulers become non-functional, dysfunctional, or inimical towards the objectives of Islam. This is why more than 1.5 billion Muslims living in more than 50 non-Islamic Muslim states couldn’t add any victory to the agenda of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala

Every man or woman is endowed with incredible economic, intellectual, and scientific potentials. They can do miracles. Only in an Islamic state, such potentials can be used in the service of Islam and Muslims. Otherwise, Muslims with all those potentials can be used as mercenaries by the enemies to fight against Islam’s resurgence and to keep Muslims under the enemy occupation. Exactly that happened under colonial rule. In such a situation, even mosques, madrasas, schools and universities become the breeding grounds for Islam’s enemies. One can see the terrible failures of such institutions of the Muslim World to defend Muslims and promote the Islamic objectives. In most Muslim countries, both the government and the non-government institutions have proven to be massive industries to produce mercenaries. The products of these institutions work as political, cultural, economic, intellectual, and military mercenaries for the enemies both at home and abroad. Because of them, the most fundamental and the most obligatory tenants of Prophet (peace be upon him)’s Islam like Qur’anic literacy, khilafah, sharia, hudud, shura, jihad, and pan-Islamic Muslim unity stand defeated and ignored even in the Muslim majority countries. What a shame that the enemies could even recruit hundreds of thousands of such mercenaries to fight two World Wars! They could also deploy the new generations of mercenaries to fight their own wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Mali, and other parts of the world. Now, almost the whole Muslim World stands under the direct or indirect occupation of anti-Isalmic forces. Except Afghanistan, there exists not a single Islamic state. So, Prophet (peace be upon him)’s legacy of Islamic state building has no place in most Muslims’ life. Hence guns, tanks, and fighter bombers of the Muslim countries are not used against those who have occupied the Muslim lands of Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, or Arakan but against the Islam-loving men and women on the streets.

The dismal denial

The full meaning of Islam and Muslim can never be correctly understood in isolation. For that, it needs a full understanding of the Vision of the Almighty Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala vis-à-vis the creation of mankind on earth. Only with such a knowledge, one can understand the real importance of the Holy Qur’an and the mission of a Muslim’s life. Such an understanding is indeed the first and foremost requirement to become a true Muslim. Otherwise, an ignorant man or woman would embrace some racial, familial, or cultural practices as real Islam and badly fail to grow up as a true Muslim. In fact, such failure of todays’ Muslims has now reached a catastrophic proportion. The Qur’anic Islam and the true muslimness –as were the distinctive features of the early Muslims no more survive in any of more than 50 Muslim countries. The modern Muslims are far detached from the fundamentals of Islam like Qur’anic literacy, sharia, hudud, khelafa, jihad, and shura. Instead, they have incorporated kuffar laws, infidel lifestyles, riba-based economy, and secular paradigm of statecraft as their own. In the name of education, culture, and national pride or heritage, they have already built huge government and non-government infrastructures to enhance the detachment from Islam. They practice Islam without Islam.

There shouldn’t be the slightest ambiguity in Muslim’s mind vis-à-vis Islam as the only complete and comprehensive code of life given by Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala for mankind. The Holy Qur’an is the last and the final embodiment of that Divine code. Hence, Muslims do not need any legal, cultural or political graft for incorporation in the body of a Muslim state and its institutions. Any doubt in such completeness of Islam instantly nullifies a Muslim’s faith. In absence of such an uncompromised faith in Islam, no amount of religious rituals help save one from hellfire. The real distinctiveness of Muslims lies in the fact that they are the people who not only declare their full and unadulterated belief in the comprehensiveness of the Qur’anic code but also show their all-time readiness to implement that code. Any deliberate disobedience of any of the Qur’anic codes outrightly makes a person nonbeliever (kafir) –as occurred in the case of Iblis –the cursed Shaitan. Adherence to Islamic code is indeed the sure road to true success -both here and in the hereafter. Such adherence to Qur’anic guidance brings down the promised blessings of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala –as has been the case in the early days of Islam. On the other hand, any detachment from the Qur’anic roadmap invites the promised punishment –as reiterated in the Holy Qur’an. On this issue, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala has provided a lot of historical evidence in the Holy Qur’an. Even the ongoing calamities in the Muslim World give a testimony to that. Belief in Allah and jihad in His cause is the direct route to get help from Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. Because of relentless adherence to Islam and sacrifices for its cause, a few million of the early Muslims could receive enormous blessings from Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. As a result, they could add series of victories to Muslim history. Only this way, those poor Muslims could emerge as the most powerful global power on the earth. Whereas today, about 1.5 billion Muslims and more than 50 states –despite all the gas, oil, and other rich endowment could make history only in decadence, defeat, and disgrace. Thus, it continues to prove that any deviation from the Qur’anic roadmap is indeed a definite infrastructure of failure and humiliation. It can take people down the road only towards the hellfi

 The obligation

Iman (faith) of a Muslim is always intertwined with some obligations. Accepting Islam means fulfilling those obligations. Jihad in the way of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala is one of those obligations. Anyone has the full liberty to claim as a believer. But the truthful people in iman (belief) are only those who do jihad with their wealth and life in the way of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. Such a measuring scale of iman is revealed in surah Hujrat, verse 15. One can’t attain the Divine forgiveness or atonement only because of belief in Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala and His apostle. Even the infidels of the Arabian Peninsula used to believe in Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. They used to name their sons Abdullah (slave of Allah) before the birth of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The faith of a believer must get expressed through his or her political ambitions and practices, deeds, culture, behavior, and warfare. Otherwise he or she gets labelled as a hypocrite. While fulfilling the obligation, it isn’t an easy walkover. One needs to pass through assigned tests in every stage of life. In every step, he or she needs to show the unfaltering commitment to Islamic objective, mission, and vision. A believer’s own objective, mission, and vision are not his or her own inventions; these are fixed only by Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) demonstrated how to implement that. A Muslim’s assigned mission is to stand up with the full submission to His Qur’anic command. Such a stand-up (qi’am) of a Muslim shouldn’t be confined only within the five times prayer, month-long fasting, zakat, and hajj, rather must overwhelm all spheres of life with the spirit of enjoining the Truth and eradicating the falsehood (a’maru bil ma’ruf wa nehi’anil munker). This was indeed the life-long mission of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his rightly guided companions. Likewise, a Muslim’s vision must match perfectly with the Vision of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala which entails that Islam must prevail as a code of life over falsehood. Such a stand-up (qiam) for Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala is obligatory on all believing men and women. This way a Muslim qualifies for a place in heaven. So the Divine decree comes from Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala: “Tell (O’ Muhammad!): (O’ the believers), I urge you only in one thing, that rise up for Allah’s cause in two or singly..”–(Surah Saba, verse 46).

Therefore, a Muslim doesn’t need a huge army or party as a precondition to stand up for Islam, he must stand up even alone if fails to find a companion –as Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) stood alone in front of tyrant Nimrod and his tribe. For such an act of audacious steadfastness, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala made Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) the model for all believers of all ages to come -as mentioned in verse 4, Surah Mumtahanah. Prophet Musa (peace be upon him) did the same in the court of Pharaoh. The last prophet of Islam Muhammad (peace be upon him), too did the same against the wolves of the Arab tribes.

Muslims’ stand-up (qi’am) on a prayer mat has indeed a very important symbolic implication. It is to inculcate the habit of standing up for the cause of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala in all fields of life. Not only does it need the full audacity but also requires the readiness to sacrifice one’s life and wealth for the victory of His cause. In order to generate such an audacious dedication among the believers, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala makes a Holy pledge of recompense with the believers. So, it is revealed, “Surely Allah has purchased from the believers their life and their property for this that they shall have the paradise, and they fight in Allah’s way so that they kill and get killed; a promise which is binding on Him in Taurah, the Injeel and the Qur’an; and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? Rejoice therefore in the pledge which you have made (with Allah), and that is a great achievement.”– (Surah Taubah, verse 111). The companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) indeed made such a solemn pledge with Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. Hence, despite their numerical and financial inadequacies, they stood up against the huge armies of Roman and Roman empires –the contemporary world powers. More than 60 percent of them sacrificed their lives to fulfill the pledge.

The mercenary culture

After the full submission to the solemn pledge with Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala – as revealed in the above verse, how can a Muslim work for the known enemies of Islam? Hence a Muslim can never be a mercenary of others. Supporting or aligning with the agenda of imperialists, colonialists, autocrats, infidels, nationalists, secularists, socialists, monarchists, and other enemies of Islam is fully incompatible with the faith, culture, politics, and body chemistry of a true Muslim. Moreover, it is the ugly betrayal of the Prophet (peace be upon him)’s legacy. Such a mercenary culture grooms people for hellfire. Only a hypocrite can chase such a path of devilish deviation. The real faith or piety of a believer is not tested on prayer mats. Nor is it expressed in fasting or in pilgrimage. Hundreds of hypocrites and corrupt men took part in such rituals even in the Prophet (peace be upon him)’s time. Faith is tested in his role against the murderous enemies of Islam. Submission to the enemies and any cooperation with them instantly nullifies iman. In fact, it is indeed the bold stand-up against the enemies with all of his merits and abilities that testifies his faith.

Any act of submission to the enemy’s agenda and fighting shoulder to shoulder with them is a sign of a typical mercenary. A true believer can never sell or invest the greatest amana (entrusted endowment) of his Almighty Lord– his life, wealth, and abilities in the service of the enemies. It is a major betrayal cum sin in Islam. Hence, none of the Prophet (peace be upon him)’s companions joined the enemy army, neither did any Muslim during the Umaiyah and Abbasia Caliphate either. But later on, the Muslims made awful history by working as the mercenary of the enemies. This is why when Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, and many other Muslim countries were occupied in 1917 by the British colonial Army, the majority of its troops were non-British and hundreds of thousands of them were Muslims. More awfully, these remorseless mercenaries who made their livelihood by selling their souls to the enemies could hijack the Muslim states, too. For example, General Eskender Mirza, General Ayyub Khan, and General Yahiya Khan became the President of Pakistan in succession from 1958 to 1971. These three big icons of the Pakistan Army along with many thousands others started their career as the most obedient mercenary of the colonial British Army. By 1947, more than 200, 000 Indian Muslims served as mercenaries in the British colonial Army! They fought World Wars and many wars of occupation for the imperialists in different parts of the world and also strengthened the British occupation in India. Later on, they also occupied their own country Pakistan. Thus the dream of the South Asian Muslims for establishing a core Islamic civilizational state in the world was shattered by these home-grown mercenaries.

The picture in the Arab World is not different either. The Arab mercenaries are the people who under the leadership of Sherif Hussain of Makkah and his sons Faisal and Abdullah helped the British and the French to dismember Osmania Khilafah into 16 states and establish Israel. In World War I, more than 1 million Muslims from Egypt and other North African countries joined the British, French, Italian imperialists to fight against the Army of Osmania Caliphate. The same legacy of mercenary culture still survives with greater success. Hence the Americans, the Russians, and the Indians need not deploy their own foot soldiers to occupy the target Muslim lands. For them, the home-grown mercenaries are doing the job. As a result, most of the Muslim countries stand dominated by the US-led western coalition. Whereas, it is the consensus of the Islamic jurists that jihad becomes obligatory on Muslims if an enemy Army tries to occupy a Muslim land. Therefore, those who have an iota of iman and fear of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala, can they sell their souls to their enemies? But it is awful that selling souls to enemies and making alliances with them have become prevalent among millions of Muslims. These mercenaries are indeed the home-grown enemies of Islam.  The current downfall of 1.5 billion Muslims largely owes to the autocracy of these mercenaries. 25/05/2021.