Alad deeni Kulli hi The Objective & Goal of Muhammad (SAW)

The most distinctive characteristic of the mission of the Prophet (SAW) has been brought out by the Qur’an at three places thus:

(Al-Tawba 9:33; Al-Fath 48:28; Al-Saff 61:9)

Alad-deeni Kulli-hi

This expression of the Qur’anic verse has been variously translated as “over all false religions” and “over all Deen.” It is quite significant that the plural form of the noun Deen — which is Adiyyan — has not appeared in the whole of Qur’an even once. Moreover, the emphasis connoted by the expression kulli-hi, in addition to the verse already noted, appears at only one other place in the Qur’an, as follows:

And fight against them until there is no more oppression and all Deen belongs to Allah alone.

(Al-Anfal 8:39)

Here, to translate Deen in the plural as Adiyyan will be quite wrong; to say that all religions can belong to God is an utter travesty of truth, whereas directing and devoting all sincere worship and obedience to One Almighty is an important Qur’anic theme which has been expressed repeatedly in nearly identical words. With this significance of the locution Deen in mind the real import of the verse under discussion becomes very obvious; that is, the purpose of the advent of the Last Prophet (SAW) is that he should make the Deen of Allah dominant over the whole way of life and with regard to all collective institutions. One can therefore translate this part of the verse as “…to the end that he make it prevail over the entire Deen, i.e., over all aspects of living….”

It is important at this juncture to understand logically and rationally as to why establishing Deen or making it dominant was at all essential. This was for two reasons: First, Deen by its very nature demands its establishment and domination over all the spheres and institutions of life. A way of life — particularly one based on total submission to God Almighty — is meaningless and contradictory if it is not implemented and put in practice. This by itself makes Deen quite radically different from a mere religion in the contemporary Western sense of the word.

A religion is, in fact, a fragmentary or a partial affair and can exist under any Deen, which is identifiable with the dominant politico-socio-economic order of a given land. At the time when Islam was dominant as a Deen, we find that Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Buddhism survived under its domination as religions, and their followers were forced to accept the Qur’anic injunction “… they agree to pay the exemption tax (jizia), and remain humbled.” (Al-Tawba 9:29). Similarly, reduced and attenuated to the status of a private affair, Islam existed during the Colonial era as a mere religion.

Deen, on the other hand, is a total and integrated whole, and it has no reality or efficacy until it is practised in toto and held supreme over all spheres of life, including that of the political authority itself. As a matter of common sense, two different Deens — that is to say, two different politico-socio-economic systems — can never co-exist; thus, the co-existence of Monarchy and Democracy or Capitalism and Communism on a par with each other in the same country is just not possible. However, their co-existence is conceivable only in case one of them maintains its authority as the dominant system of the country, while the other yields and allows itself to be reduced to the level of a ritualistic and non-assertive religion.

In respect of the difference between religion and Deen, two points should be clearly borne in mind: 
(1) the Arabic word for religion is madhhab, which has not been used at all in the Qur’an, nor has it been used in the whole corpus of Hadith in its present commonly understood meaning. It came to be used much later quite rightly to connote various schools of juristic thinking, e.g., Hanbali madhab, Maleki madhab, Hanafi madhab, etc, which are in reality branches or developmental variants of that part of the faith of Islam that deals with law or Shari’ah. 
(2) Though, in matters of details, the revealed law or the Shari’ah given to Prophet Musa (AS) and Prophet Muhammad (SAW) shows numerous points of divergence, yet the essentials of Deen have remained identical right from Prophet Adam (AS) down to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). This point is elucidated by the following Qur’anic verse:

The same Deen has been ordained for you as that which He enjoined on Noah, the one which We have sent by inspiration to you (O Prophet), and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: namely, that they should establish this Deen and make no division therein.

(Al-Shura 42:13)

The second reason why the establishing of the Deen of Allah is so vital is this: irrespective of its excellence and intrinsic worth, a given system of life will never rise above the level of a fantacy or a daydream unless it is established in the world of reality so that everyone can see its merits, instead of just hearing and reading about them. For Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the actual establishment of Islam’s dominance over all social structures and institutions was essential to prove its viability and practicability; otherwise even this matchless and most outstanding system of life would have been taken as a mere utopia. And surely, utopias never convince people at large. 

The Prophet’s duty of furnishing a “Witness to the Truth” for people and leaving them no excuse of ignorance would have remained undischarged until the whole politico-socio-economic system of Islam — including its law or Shari’ah — were translated into concrete facts. That is why the Prophet (SAW) and his Companions (RAA) endeavoured to their fullest in their strenuous struggle to achieve the domination of Islam, which blossomed and flourished during the period of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

In this golden era of pristine Islam, the ideal moral values preached so far only in sermons — values like human freedom, fraternity and equality — were turned into real and objective facts, and this feat has been authentically recorded in history and acknowledged by world historians.

H. G. Wells, the eminent British author and historian who otherwise shows disrespect and insolence towards the personal life of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), acknowledges in his 'A Concise History of the World' - "...that although high-sounding and idealistic sermons were frequently delivered in favour of values like human freedom, fraternity and equality, no attempt was ever made to put them in practice; the moving sermons of Jesus of Nazareth being a case in point". According to Mr Wells, "it was Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who, for the first time in human history, established an actual social order based on these high moral values." Thus, we see that even an enemy of Islam is forced to acknowledge the marvellous superiority of the prophetic career of our  Prophet (SAW), not only in the capacity of a preacher and a sermonizer but also as the architect par excellence of the Islamic polity.

It was this success of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his devoted Companions (RAA) — in establishing Islam as a Deen — which proved the fact that all the higher abstract values can indeed be put into practice. In the family system, it was shown how women can have a status of high respect and dignity and enjoy their rights even though an administrative authority was given to the husband. In the political setup, it was proved that the individual’s complete freedom of speech and criticism can co-exist side by side with strict political regimentation and discipline, as well as with all the demands of justice. On top of this, it was shown that, in the economic sphere, private ownership and personal initiative are perfectly compatible with smooth circulation and equitable distribution of wealth. Without accomplishing all this in practice, a conclusive proof would not have been established in favour of the Islamic way of life for the men of the age that began with the advent of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

Just think of any good or social value, and you will find it realized supremely and in the most balanced form in the system of life established by the Prophet fourteen centuries ago. Indeed, one feels that in the realm of social justice and equity, human thought and endeavour has throughout only tried to reach near or approximate to the lofty ideals set by the Prophet’s revolutionary struggle, and in no sense surpass them. That is the reason why in the present century, during the freedom struggle for India, the Hindu leader Mr Gandhi asked his co-nationals to keep before themselves the models of the governance of Abu Bakr and Umar (and not those of Ramayana and Maha Bharata, or Bikrama Jeet and Chandra Gupt Moria). Gandhi expressed these thoughts in his own magazine Harijan in 1937 at the time when ministries were formed for the first time in British India, and since Muslim League had boycotted the 1936 elections, the Congress had formed ministerial cabinets throughout the Indian subcontinent.

The completion of Divine guidance and finality of Muhammad’s Prophethood logically necessitated that he, in addition to variegated missionary and soul-purifying and character-building activities, organize a revolutionary party of highly committed and dedicated men, and that, after defeating all forces of evil, actually establish and operationalize the Deen of Allah in its totality. This constitutes the summatory character of Prophet Muhammad’s mission which assigns to him a unique and privileged status in the galaxy of Divine messengers.

Source:The Objective and Goal of Muhammad (SAW)

To Be Continued ....