Lessons for Us in History from Khilafa to Dynasties - 2
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan Garden Grove, CA
After the incident of slander against his wife Ayesha RA, Nabi SA understood that people could go to any length to discredit anybody, even a prophet, if he was coming in the way of their power, and pleasure. Therefore, he kept his family away from power and dedicated them to the job of inculcating faith and good morals and manners without which no power could advance the wholesome development of society which was the ultimate goal of prophetic mission. He denied his uncle Abbas the keys of Kaaba when Mecca fell to his control (Raheeq). His mission was to restore Kaaba to the worship of One True God for which Abraham and his son Ismael had built it (Ch2 V127- 29). His mission was not to take over its possession for his family to amass power, perks and prestige
Nabi SA was highly appreciative of the knowledge and judicial sense of his cousin and son-in-law, Ali RA. Nabi SA said about Ali RA: Ali is the door to knowledge of which I am the house. And yet he spared Ali RA from the responsibility of governance and kept him free to impart knowledge to the people managing the affairs of the government. Ali RA did it so well in this role that Omar RA attributed the success of his Khilafa to his superb advisory role. Nabi SA gave his ascent to Abu-Bakr RA to be his successor because of his maturity, his understanding of the people and surrounding, and his commitment to faith which he demonstrated by his generosity all through his life.
Nabi SA had sent letters to the neighboring rulers inviting them to set the affairs of their states on the right course through faith and morals (Raheeq). These invitations are wrongly interpreted as a threat and a warning to the neighbors to embrace Islam or face war. This lie is repeated not just by the enemies of Islam but also by a section of Muslim society to this day to justify their “jihad”. When some of these emissaries were ill-treated and even killed, Nabi SA decided to take action against these rulers. He made an army ready for this, but he breathed his last before dispatching it. Abubakar RA had to undertake this responsibility at a time when the situation was deteriorating by claims of false prophet and mischiefs of the apostates.
When Muslims got victories against the crumbling empires in the neighborhood, which had lost the confidence of their people due to their misrule, every one joined the bandwagon of success. The spirit of Islam was diluted, if not lost by the people of the conquered lands, who joined the Islamic forces in great numbers. It was difficult to train them to become honest and efficient functionaries to administer the vast areas under their rule. The few well trained companions of the prophet were sidelined. A nexus was formed between the warring army and the elites of the vanquished empires to fill this vacuum. The discredited elite of the vanquished empires succeeded in staying in power despite the change of government to continue their old game and discredit Islam for their follies. The disenfranchised people who got power wrote their own laws and made their own rules to benefit themselves. As that change came in the name of Islam, they misinterpreted the Islamic teachings to suit their convenience.
Through strange rules of semantics and logic they justified these changes. The common sense laws under which Nabi SA ruled over Medina were polluted in order to run the writ of the rulers in God’s name (Ch3 V78). The name of the Caesar was replaced by the name of Khalifa on the pulpit by the appointed Khateeb (one who delivers sermon). Religion and Liberty are a blessing in an honest society, and they become a curse in a society with dishonest and corrupt individuals holding on to power. Corruption of the powerful and the unjust demands of the disenfranchised created a chaos beyond control except through brute force unworthy of any human being.
To continue their misrule the second Khalifa Omar RA was martyred. His crime was his unwavering commitment for establishing a just rule in the lands under his control. Osman RA was martyred for being lenient towards his governors and failing to stop them from living an ostentatious life. Ali RA took over the Khilafa after a lot of hesitation (Al Badaya, and Nehjul Balagha) to prevent the areas under Muslim rule from slipping into Dark Age which was imminent with the un-Islamic behavior of these rulers (Tareekh e Dawath vol 1 by Ali Miyan). Ali RA moved the seat of Khilafa from Medina to Koofa to be in control of this important cantonment. But the people in Koofa, who were worried about their power and pleasures, failed him by their dirty machinations and martyred him ultimately.
After the martyrdom of Ali RA, neither the abdication of claim to Khilafa in favor of Muawia RA by the grandson of Nabi SA, Hassan RA, nor the martyrdom of his younger brother Hussain RA through a conspiracy at Karbala stopped the confusion and mayhem in the nascent Islamic State. Abdullah bin Zubair RA had a chance to continue the Khilafa on the line of Abu Bakr, Omar and Osman RA, but like them he wanted to rule from Medina. His decision was based on his disillusionment with the people of the camp at Koofa. The presence of many sincere companions of the prophet living in Medina on whom he could rely for advice and support were also a motivation for it. Marwan Bin Hakam who was the Chief Secretary to Osman RA and who was then in Syria got a chance to take over the reign of government in Syria. He established the Umayyad dynasty for his son Abdul Malik. He sent Hajjaj bin Yusuf to Medina as governor to crush the voices of descent. He consolidated the Umayyad rule with an iron hand (History of Islam by Najibabadi Vol 2). Volumes have been written about the good and the bad which the Umayyad rule had given to Islam and to the world. The question of stability over liberty which started then is haunting the world to this day to benefit the camp leaders of both the camps of Liberty and Stability at the expense of life, honor and property of the common man in the region and the peace of the world.
What happened in these conquests then is what we see happening now in the Middle East after the removal of Saddam and Qaddafi. With practically no government in Iraq and Libya the ousted thugs who participated in these “revolutions” and armed with the armories of these regimes are carrying out mayhem in the name of Islam to establish their power.
The rule of Muslims over the world continued to expand under Umayyad and other dynasties that succeeded them. Many of the practicing Jews and Christians in these lands found a hope for their survival, and revival of Abrahamic tradition in the enthusiasm of this fresh batch of Muslim conquerors, and they joined them. Muslims were asked to learn from the people of the book the things that they did not know (Ch16 V43). This led to the entry of Jewish and Christian thought into Islamic teachings and practices. Islam is the age-old Abrahamic tradition revealed one last time on Nabi SA in a pure and simple form to guide the unlettered Arab Bedouins by removing all far-fetched interpretation and superfluous practices (Ch22 V78, Ch4 V26 onwards). With the baggage of their understanding and interpretation which the Jewish and Christian converts brought to Islamic vocabulary and library, the simple teachings of Islam were corrupted once again; Muslims embraced this baggage for the convenience of the ruling elite.
Companions of Nabi SA and their followers who were well rooted in the tenets and practices of true Islam did their best to keep the religion safe and pure by keeping themselves away from the politics and wars or sharing responsibilities in the corrupt governments that were going on in the name of Islam. While the true Islam is inthe books written by these sincere
Muslims and their biographies, the
Islam practiced by the rulers defies
this image because of the distorted
practices in its name. InshaAllah I
will write an article about what were
the problems which Muslims faced as
a minority ruling over big areas with
huge populations with diverse faiths
and cultures, and how and where they
failed or succeeded in various areas in
responding to them.
The problems faced by early Jews and Christians are well described by Sir Bertrand Russel in his book, “History of Western Philosophy”. Muslims under the Umayyad rule and thereafter were facing the same precarious situation which the early Jews and Christians faced and they responded in the same way. Muslims did not get just monotheism from the Jewish tradition as is reported by Sir Russell; Muslims also got a lot of their political philosophy, semantics and logic from the Judeo-Christian tradition which they had acquired during their interaction with the Roman Civilization.
It is unfortunate that the comparative studies of the religions of Abrahamic faiths are not made with a view to understanding the truth of how and where we all committed the mistakes to become three religions despite their source being one. On the contrary this study is most often made to find weaknesess in each other and malign each other and to establish the superiority of one over the other. It is also a pity that while mankind is spending all its resources to understand the reality of everything, it is paying no attention to understand the reality of religion. The result is that we are practicing bigotry in the name of religion or we have discarded religion altogether and are trying to live a life of our desires, deceit, diseases, drugs and destruction. We are oblivious to the dangers which this negligence is causing to us and to our world. This is because we are deceived by the delay in seeing the consequences of our wrong actions immediately due to the mercy of Merciful God who is giving us respite (Ch3 V178) to understand the reality and to rectify and reform. We are deceived by Satan to believe that we are pursuing correct course (Ch43 V36-38).
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