Lessons for Us in History from Khilafa to Dynasties -I
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
Khalifa is a noble title which Allah has given to man and it means vicegerent who runs Allah’s’ writ in this universe and nurtures all His creation with a sense of care and responsibility with which Allah has created them (Ch2 V30).
Khilafa is the collective rule which mankind establishes on itself for this purpose, not by becoming spoiled sovereigns, but by remaining his obedient servants and accepting His sovereignty with the consciousness of accountability before Him. Even though man believes in One True God in the time of crisis, he creates several other gods (including himself) and dilutes the sovereignty of One True God to serve his own interest. This is the reason why it is difficult to establish true Khilafa. The most accursed people in human history are those who claim to be khalifas (Vicegerents) but run their writ in His name and mislead the people (Ch7 V35-36).
Sir Bertrand Russel writes in his book “History of Western Philosophy”: Christianity and Islam derive Monotheism from Jewish source and owe it to Maccabees who in 164 BC preserved it by defeating the Seleucid King Antiochus who was out to destroy Judaism. Russel’s view is based upon recorded history. But scriptures of almost all religions recognized Monotheism (submitting to One True God) since the origin of the world. Therefore, history of monotheism is much older than the time of Maccabees. Definitely the sacrifices which Maccabees and the people of his time made to restore monotheism from the assaults of its enemies are commendable and are a common heritage of mankind.
Whether we believe in Him or not, God has always existed and He continues to exist despite our denial of Him. Our denial of Him may remove Him from our lives and the disaster we face because of it brings people like Judas Maccabees to the fore to rekindle our lives with hope and faith. When Jesus and John the Baptist (PBUT) faced the worse treatment from people of their time, no prophet was sent to change the lot of the people for 500 years. With no one to remind people about God and their responsibilities to Him, and to each other, the world plunged into the era of Dark Age.
Monotheistic legacy of Abraham (PBUH) was polluted by interaction between the Children of Israel and Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Persian and Roman Civilizations in the course of history. Many prophets were sent amongst Children of Israel to rectify it (The Holy Bible). Children of Israel were divided into various groups on trivial matters and were denigrated as a result of it. They suffered exile twice and many of them were living in Medina as landlords and money lenders. They were waiting for the Messiah to be born to redeem them and take them back to Jerusalem. Destiny had written it at the beginning of time that Muhammad SA was to be born in the family of Ismael AS to restore the Abrahamic tradition of One True God (Qur’an Ch2 V127-129, Genesis Ch21 V18). This was not to the liking of the Jews as Muhammad SA was not from the lineage of Isaac to which they belonged (Peace be upon both of them).
The Arabian Peninsula was ruled by tribes without any central rule. Being on the trade route from Africa and India in the south to Europe in the north, it was vulnerable to attacks and occupation. As the city of Mecca offered relative peace due to the precincts of the Holy shrine of Kaaba no one wanted to disrupt this peace for no gain. Abraha, the governor of Ethiopia in Yemen, wanted to take over Mecca for its Christian king on the premise that Christians had a greater claim over it than the pagans of Arabia. But Kaaba was not only an Abrahamic legacy but also a legacy of Ismael AS to whom the Arab tribes claimed their lineage. Therefore, Arabs wanted to save Kaaba as their heritage as much as Abraha wanted to conquer it. This attack which happened in the year when Muhamad SA was to be born was mysteriously repelled and it was considered to be a miracle of Muhammad SA birth.
When Muhammad SA was sent as the last prophet of Islam, the world was in a palpable flux. People of Arabia were conscious of it because businessmen like Abi Sufyan, Osman, Abudl Rahman bin Awf RAA etc. took their trade caravans from Ethiopia in the south to Damascus in the north. They knew that the days of misrule in the empires of their neighborhood were numbered and they had to play a role to stabilize the situation in the interest of their business. Some of them wanted to replace the local tyranny with their rule. Nabi SA as true Messenger of God knew that a change of faces is no change. True change can be based on sound moral principles, not just in precepts but also in practice. He started his mission by instilling God consciousness through sound argument because it alone could produce those individuals who had the courage to stick to moral principles in running a good government. Honesty for the strong and powerful is a policy to be imposed on the weak through laws while they escape it through loopholes in it. Therefore, he put all his efforts in engendering faith and morality through sound arguments and persuasion.
At the age of forty when Nabi SA was anointed as a prophet and started to talk about the One God of Abraham, the polytheist Quraysh felt a threat to their unity which they were painfully building to meet the situation in their neighborhood. Nabi SA who was considered an honest and sincere person before his prophet-hood faced torture from his own people. He migrated to Medina, the land of his maternal grandmother, where he had some sincere followers who were willing to give protection to him and his companions.
He built the first secular city state in Medina under a covenant called “Meesakh e Medina”, not by excluding religion from collective life but by giving freedom to all to practice their religion while sharing the common goal of managing the affairs of the city together on the basis of shared responsibility.
This was a truly libertarian state in which God played the central role. This God-given liberty was shared by all. The goal of this society and this state was to protect the faith, life, property, pedigree, intellect and honor of every individual through common sense laws called Sharia. This has now become a dirty word because of the wrong actions of a few people who are the sworn enemies of religion but are operating under its garb. This city state had liberated people from all superstitions and fears. It liberated man from the delusion of greatness and infallibility. It also removed the sense of helplessness by giving him a true understanding of the reality of this world and their existence in it. This liberty was not a license for promiscuous behavior but a system for responsible life based upon accountability, not just before the mortals administering law but also before the Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent God. These people, imbued with God consciousness, did not make unjust laws to pamper either the powerful or the weaker sections. With honest and God fearing individuals administering these laws, the laws were applied justly even if it went against their own self (Ch4 V138 Ch5 V8, Ch 4 V58). People obeyed these just and common sense laws wholeheartedly because they helped them in enjoying their individual lives in a peaceful and just society. Unfortunately, this system lasted for a short time not because of the weakness of the concept of system but because of the deficiency of people by not measuring up to its requirement. Whatever period it lasted it was through good advice and perfect examples (Ch30 V44) and not under threat and coercion.
This new born society was not to the liking of the hypocrites in Medina who were expecting to anoint Abdullah bin Ubai as their leader. The incredulous masses who enjoyed the life of intoxication, gambling, sex, violence, greed felt a threat to their lifestyle in the practice of the moral code. Pagans of Mecca also felt a threat to their polytheistic way of life from such a society taking hold in Medina and were plotting against it. Migration of Nabi SA and his companions to Medina gave them safety but added several dimension of hostility against them. Nabi SA was expecting support from Jews as they were the believer in the same God of Abraham, but barring a few many of them kept away from him as they were expecting the prophets to be born amongst their tribes. This added another dimension to hostility against this city state of Medina (Ch2 V109).
Prophets have the toughest job of speaking the truth to those who do not want to listen to it and are happy living a life of their desires, no matter how it is going to affect them, their societies and the world at large. With all the problems enlisted earlier Nabi SA’s job was so difficult that he felt exhausted and cried out in anguish: If you don’t believe in what I have brought for the good of you in this world and in the hereafter at least show me the decency which is due to me as your clan member (Ch42 V22-23).
After suffering physical harm and economic boycott in Mecca, Nabi SA had to survive the conspiracies of hypocrites, hostility of the pagans of Mecca as he was establishing this new society in Medina based on faith and morals. To fail him in his effort, the enemies of this movement did not spare even the family of Nabi SA. His wife Ayesha RA was accused of immoral behavior. This dark chapter in his life is described in the chapter of light (Surah E Noor). This chapter is called light because it gave him an understanding of the reality of his mission and showed him the solutions to its problems.
