Can Muslims Vote in Elections of the Modern Secular State?
THE WORLD-ORDER TODAY
THE MYSTERY OF THE MODERN SECULAR
STATE
MERITS
OF THE MODERN SECULAR STATE
SHIRK
AND KUFR IN THE MODERN SECULAR STATE
THE
CALIPHATE AND THE MODERN SECULAR STATE
The Islamic Caliphate was a
conception of a state and political system that recognized Allah’s Sovereignty,
Supreme Authority and Law, and enforced Haram (i.e., that which is divinely
prohibited) as Haram and Halal (i.e., that which is divinely permitted) as
Halal. The Caliphate emerged as a consequence of the divine imperative
demanding obedience of Allah, His Messenger (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam), and
‘those in authority amongst the Muslims’. “Oh you who believe, obey
Allah, and obey the Messenger, and (obey) those from amongst yourselves who are
in (positions of) authority. . . “(Qur’an, al-Nisa, 4:59)
Islam refused to recognize divided
loyalties – that one could deliver supreme loyalty to the state and yet, also
deliver supreme loyalty to Allah, Most High. The two worlds (the worlds of
religion and of politics) were not to be separated from each other since the
Qur’an proclaimed that “Allah is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the
Hidden” (Qur’an, al-Hadid, 57:3). Supreme loyalty must be delivered to Allah,
not to the state, since the Qur’an asked the believers to proclaim: “Say: Verily my prayer, and my
service of sacrifice, and my very living and my very dying are all for Allah
the Lord of all the worlds . . .”(Qur’an, al-An’am, 6:162)
Europe destroyed that Islamic model
of a state and political system when the Ottoman Caliphate was targeted and
destroyed. Europe went on to ensure that the Islamic Caliphate could never be
restored. It did so when it assisted in the creation of the secular State of
Saudi Arabia in the Hejaz (i.e., that province in the Arabian peninsular in
which Makkah and Madina are located), and then went on to ensure the survival
of that state by guaranteeing its security. The Caliphate could never be
restored because of two reasons. Firstly, the Saudi-Wahhabi regime that
controlled the Haramain (the sacred territories of Makkah and Madina in which
are located the Ka’aba and the Masjid of the Prophet), the Hejaz and Hajj
(pilgrimage) could never claim the Caliphate. Secondly, so long as they
controlled the Haramain, the Hejaz, and the Hajj, no one else could claim the
Caliphate. (For an explanation please see our book: ‘The Caliphate the Hejaz
and the Saudi-Wahhabi Nation-State’.)
There are a number of reasons that
explain why Europe targeted and destroyed the Islamic Caliphate. The first, of
course, was to facilitate the achievement of the goal of liberating the Holy
Land and returning the Jews to that land. But the second reason was to make it
possible for the new European model of a secular state to corrupt all mankind
with Shirk. When the Caliphate was destroyed, the modern secular State of
Turkey replaced it at the very seat of the Caliphate. Then emerged a similar
‘state’ in Iran, in the heartland of Shia Islam, and a similar ‘state’ in Saudi
Arabia in the Arabian heartland of Sunni Islam. Finally Indian Muslims were
exquisitely deceived into accepting the secular Republic of Pakistan. Thirdly,
the Caliphate had to be destroyed because it obstructed the realization of the
ultimate goal in the new godless European agenda. That European goal was to
establish Jewish Israel as the ‘ruling state’ of the world, ruling the world
from Jerusalem.
Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam) prophesied that the Caliphate would disappear. He did so in the
following Hadith: “How will you be at that time when the son of Mary descends amongst you and
your Imam (i.e., Amirul M’umineen or Khalifah) would be from within your midst
(i.e., he would be a Muslim)”? (Sahih, Bukhari)
This Hadith revealed three things:
Firstly, it informed us that the
Caliphate would be present in the world in the ‘End Time’. This amounted to a
prophecy that the Caliphate would disappear from the world but would one day be
restored. Secondly, prior to the restoration of the Caliphate, Muslims would
live for a period of time under the authority, control and rule of those who
would not be Muslims. That is precisely the world in which we live today.
Thirdly, the return of the Caliphate would be an event that would be
contemporaneous with the return of the son of Mary.
And since we know that when Jesus
(‘alaihi al-Salam) returns he will rule the world from Jerusalem as a just
ruler enforcing Allah’s Law, the implication is that the modern secular State
of Israel would be replaced in the Holy Land by the authentic Islamic state
which would be free from the Shirk of secular Israel.
Those who adamantly defend the status
quo of secular Islamic nation-states should pause to reflect over the prophecy
of Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) concerning the restoration of
the Caliphate. By our calculation that prophesy is most likely to be fulfilled
shortly.
QUR’ANIC
EXPLANATION FOR THE UNIVERSAL SHIRK OF THE MODERN SECULAR STATE
ALTERNATIVE
TO ELECTORAL POLITICS OF THE MODERN SECULAR STATE
Have courtesy with God, the High and the Majestic,
by practicing modesty and humility—
dejected out of shame and humility
humbled in awe, imploring Him—
by giving up your designs for His,
emptied of covetousness for what His servants have,
by hastening to fulfill His commands, and by being wary of
the subtle encroachment of bad manners.
If you—the spiritual aspirant—realize your attributes of
servitude, you will then be assisted with something of the
attributes of the Eternally Besought.
Realize your abject character and impoverishment, and you
will gain dignity and wealth from the All-Powerful.
There is no salvation like the heart’s salvation,
given that all the limbs respond to its desires.
Courtesy: The
Heart of Purification
Imam Mawlüd begins with a play on words that is lost in
translation. The word for beginning in Arabic is bad’u, and the word for heart
(qalb) also means to reverse something. If one were to literally reverse the
word bad’u in Arabic, the word adab would result, which is the term for
courtesy—where this treatise begins, since courtesy is the portal to the
purification of the heart.
Adab in Arabic means a combination of things, in addition to
courtesy. Adib (a derivative of adab), for example, has come to mean an erudite
person, someone who is learned, for high manners and courtesy are associated
with learning and erudition. But at the root of the word adab, the idea of
courtesy is firmly established. Imam Mawlud starts his treatise with courtesy,
since excellent behavior and comportment are the doorkeepers to the science of
spiritual purification. One must have courtesy with regard to God—behave
properly with respect to His presence—if he or she wishes to purify the heart.
But how does one achieve this courtesy? Imam Mawlud mentions two requisite
qualities associated with courtesy: modesty (ḥaya’) and humility
(dhul).
Haya’, in Arabic, conveys the meaning of shame, though the root
word of ḥaya’ is closely associated with life and living. The Prophet pbuh
stated, “Every religion has a quality that is characteristic of that religion.
And the characteristic of my religion is ḥaya’,” an internal sense
of shame, which includes bashfulness and modesty.
Most adults alive today have heard it said when they were
children, “Shame on you!” Unfortunately, shame has come to be viewed as a
negative word, as if it were a pejorative. Parents are now advised never to
“shame a child,” never correct a child’s behavior by causing an emotional
response. Instead, the current wisdom suggests that people always make the
child feel good regardless of his or her behavior. Eventually, what this does
is disable naturally occurring deterrents to misbehavior.
Some anthropologists divide cultures into shame and guilt
cultures. They say that guilt is an inward mechanism and shame an outward one.
With regard to this discussion, guilt alludes to a human mechanism that produces
strong feelings of remorse when someone has done something wrong, to the point
that he or she needs to rectify the matter.
Most primitive cultures are not guilt-based, but shame-based,
which is rooted in the fear of bringing shame upon oneself and the larger
family. What Islam does is honor the concept of shame and take it to another
level altogether—to a rank in which one feels a sense of shame before God. When
a person acknowledges and realizes that God is fully aware of all that one
does, says, or thinks, shame is elevated to a higher plane, to the unseen world
from which there is no cover. In fact, one feels a sense of shame even before
the angels. So while Muslims comprise a shame-based culture, this notion
transcends shame before one’s family—whether one’s elders or parents— and admits
a mechanism that is not subject to the changing norms of human cultures. It is
associated with the knowledge and active awareness that God is all-seeing of
what one does—a reality that is permanent. The nurturing of this realization
deters one from engaging in acts that are displeasing and vulgar. This is the
essence of the noble prophetic teachings.
Imam Mawlud mentions that one should also have dhul, which
literally refers to being lowly, abject, or humbled. The Quran mentions that
people who incur the anger of God have this state of humiliation thrust upon them.
But what is meant here is something different; it is humility or humbleness
voluntarily assumed before God, which is required for courtesy.
Interestingly, the word munkasiran is translated as dejected,
though literally it means broken. It conveys a sense of being humbled in the
majestic presence of God. It refers to the awesome realization that each of us,
at every moment, lives and acts before the august presence of the Creator of
the heavens and the earth, the one God besides whom there is no power or might
in all the universe. When one seriously reflects on God’s perfect watch over
His creation, the countless blessings He sends down, and then considers the
kind of deeds one brings before Him—what possible feelings can one generate
except humility and degrees of shame? With these strong feelings, one implores God
to change one’s state, make one’s desires consonant with His pleasure—giving up
one’s designs for God’s designs. This is pure courtesy with respect to God, a
requisite for spiritual purification.
The Prophet pbuh said, “None
of you [fully] believes until his desires are in accordance with what I have brought,”
aligned and at peace with the teachings of the Prophet pbuh, which embody the
legacy of the prophetic teachings of Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (pbut). This
entails striving to free oneself of greed and refusing the ethic of doing
something for an ulterior motive that is essentially selfish and dissonant with
the teachings of God’s prophets. One seeks nothing from God’s servants, that
is, human beings. If one seeks something, he or she should seek it from God,
the Sovereign of the heavens and the earth. The basic rule is: ask God and then
work, that is, take the means (asbab) that one must use to achieve something in
this world.
Imam Mawlud says one should hasten “to fulfill [God’s] command” and
be “wary of the subtle encroachment of bad manners,” namely, faults that one is
unaware of. A hadith states, “One of you will say a word and give it no
consideration, though it will drag the person [who uttered it] through Hellfire
for 70 years.” A person can be so disconnected from prophetic teachings he or
she may easily be careless about something that in reality invites great harm.
It is comparable to a heedless person who finds himself in diplomatic circles
laden with protocol, though he makes horrendous breaches of protocol without
realizing it. With regard to God, the matter is obviously much more serious, in
which case one’s soul may be harmed by one’s own breaches. The protocol here
involves knowledge of God and what He has enjoined and proscribed.
Freedom and Purification
Imam Mawlud speaks next about freedom, which is achieved when
one realizes the qualities of shame and humility, and empties oneself of their
opposites (shamelessness and arrogance). With these qualities come true
freedom, wealth, and dignity, which require manumission from the bonds of one’s
whims. People may claim to be “free,” yet they cannot control themselves from
gluttony in the presence of food or from illicit sexual relations when the opportunity
presents itself. Such a notion of freedom is devoid of content. Freedom has
real meaning, for example, when a situation of temptation arises and one
remains God-fearing, steadfast, and in control of one’s actions. This holds
true even when the temptation produces flickers of desire in a person who
nonetheless refrains from indulging. Imam al-Ghazali speaks at length about the
stomach and the genitals as the two “dominant ones”; if they are under control,
all other aspects of desire are kept in check. One may also include in this the
tongue, which can be a formidable obstacle. There are people, for example, who
appear incapable of refraining from backbiting and speaking ill of others, and
they often do so without realizing it.
It is common for people to dislike impoverishment or humility
because they perceive in these qualities abjectness. Yet the Prophet chose
poverty over wealth: he did not have money in his home, and he slept on the
floor upon a bed made out of leather stuffed with palm fibers; he did not have
jewelry; he had two pillows in his room for guests. In much of today’s culture,
living this way would be considered extreme poverty. What Imam Mawlud stresses
is the following: dignity with God comes to those who are humble before Him;
who place prime value on how they are received by their Maker and not by how
they will be judged by the ephemeral norms of people. Dignity and honor are
gifts: “[O God], You exalt whomever You will, and You debase whomever You will”
(QURAN, 3:26). Proofs of this Divine law abound. There are many accounts, for
example, of people who were once in positions of authority and wealth, who then
find themselves paupers completely stripped of their former glory, reduced, in
many instances, to wards of the state. God is powerful over all things, and all
good, authority, and provision are in His hand, not ours.
From this, we derive an important principle: if one ignobly
pursues an attribute, he or she will be adorned by its opposite. If one is
humble before God, He will render him or her honorable. Conversely, God humbles
and humiliates the haughty ones, those who arrogantly seek out rank and glory
before the eyes of people. The Quran gives the examples of Pharaoh and Korah
and their abject fall and disgrace.
Imam Mawlud says next that there is no salvation “like the
heart’s salvation, given that all the limbs respond to its desires,” If one’s
heart is safe, so too are the limbs, for they carry out the deeds inspired by
the heart, The limbs of the corrupt become instruments through which corruption
is spread: Today, We shall set a seal upon their mouths; and their hands will
speak to Us and their fret shall bear witness to what they have earned (QURAN, 36:65);
And spend [on the needy] in the way of God. And do not throw yourselves into
ruin by your own hands (QURAN, 2:195); And We shall say, “Taste the
chastisement of burning! That is for what your hands have forwarded [for
yourselves]. And God never wrongs [His] servants” (QURAN, 3:181-82); They shall
have immense torment on the day when their tongues and their hands and their
legs bear witness against them for what they had been doing (QURAN, 24:23-24).
A hadith implies that the tongue is the “interpreter of the
heart,” Hypocrisy is wretched because the hypocrite says with his tongue what
is not in his heart. He wrongs his tongue and oppresses his heart. But if the
heart is sound, the condition of the tongue follows suit. We are commanded to
be upright in our speech, which is a gauge of the heart. According to a
prophetic tradition, each morning, when the limbs awaken in the spiritual
world, they shudder and say to the tongue, “Fear God concerning us! For if you
are straight, then we are straight; and if you deviate, we too deviate.”
Engaging in the regular remembrance of God (dhikr) safeguards the tongue and
replaces idle talk with words and phrases that raise one in honor. The tongue
is essential in developing courtesy with God, which is the whole point of
existence.
POEM VERSES 9—15
After firmly grasping
this foundation,
then mastering the heart’s infirmities is the second stage.
Knowledge of the heart’s ailments, what causes each of them
and what removes them, is an obligation on everyone.
This is the ruling of al-Ghazali, However, this does not
apply to one who was already granted a sound heart,
as scholars other than al-Ghazali opine,
for al-Ghazali reckoned the heart’s illnesses as inherent
to humanity. Others deemed them predominant in man— not
qualities necessarily inherent to his nature,
But know that obliteration of these diseases until no trace
remains is beyond the capacity of human beings.
Nonetheless, here I give you what you need to know of
their definitions, etiologies, and cures.
The Purification Process
Purifying the heart is a process. First, one must understand the
necessity of having courtesy with God and the importance of fulfilling its
requirements, as they have just been stated. Second, one must be aware of the
diseases of the heart—aware of their existence, of their ailments, and of the
deleterious complications and troubles that ensue from them, and recognize that
these diseases prevent one from attaining this courtesy. Knowledge of the
diseases of the heart, their causes, and how to remove them is an obligation on
every sane adult human being.
Imam Mawlud cites Imam al-Ghazali (an 11th-century master
scholar of the science of purification), holding the position that it is indeed
an obligation on everyone to learn of the ailments of the heart and their
cures. Imam Mawlud then states that some scholars hold that this is not an
obligation per se for everyone, particularly for a person who has already been
blessed with a sound heart and has been spared these maladies. Imam al-Ghazali dissents
and says that these diseases are inherent to the human condition. One can
observe, for example, greed, jealousy, hatred, and the like in children, though
the diseases do not necessarily endure. But how does this compare with
“Original Sin,” the Christian concept that states that people are corrupt by
nature?
In short, though Muslim scholars of the caliber of Imam
al-Ghazali do say that diseases of the heart are related to human nature, they
would also say that this manifests itself as human inclination. Also, Muslims
do not believe that this inclination is a result of Adam’s wrongdoing or that
Adam brought upon himself (and his children) a permanent state of sin that can
only be lifted by sacrificial blood. Adam and Eve erred, but they also turned
in penitence to God, and God accepted their repentance and forgave them both.
This is the nature of God’s forgiveness. There was no blemish passed on to
their progeny. The Quran declares that no soul bears the burden of sin of
another soul (6:564). But this fact does not negate the existence of base
instincts among humans.
This whole matter points to the heart as a spiritual organ. The
unseen aspect of the heart contains a seed that has the potential of becoming
like a cancer that can metastasize and overtake the heart. The bacterium responsible
for tuberculosis, for example, lives latent in the lungs of millions of people.
When its carriers age or succumb to another disease that weakens their immune
system, tuberculosis may start to emerge. The analogy is that there is a
dormant element in the human heart that, if nurtured and allowed to grow, can
damage the soul and eventually destroy it. The Prophet stated, “If the son of
Adam sins, a black spot appears in the heart. And if the person repents, it is
erased. But if he does not, it continues to grow until the whole heart becomes
pitch black.” (Incidentally, this notion of associating the color black with
sin is not racist in its origins. The attribution has been long used even among
black Africans who refer to a person who is wretched as “black-hearted.” The
Quran says about successful people on the Day of Judgment that their faces
become white (QURAN, 3:506). This does not mean white as a hue of skin; rather
it refers to light and brightness, which are spiritual descriptions not
associated with actual color. A black person can have spiritual light in his
face and a white person can have darkness and vice versa, depending on one’s
spiritual and moral condition.) Imam al-Ghazali considers ailments of the heart
to be part of the Adamic potential. He believes one is obliged to know this
about human nature in order to be protected. Other scholars simply consider
these ailments to be predominant in man; that is, most people have these
qualities, but not necessarily everybody.
It is interesting that Imam Mawlud says it is impossible to rid
oneself of these diseases completely. This implies that purification is a
life-long process, not something that is applied once and then forgotten.
Purity of heart never survives a passive relationship. One must always guard
his or her heart.
There is a well-known hadith that states that every child is
born in the state of fitra. For some reason, Muslims often translate this into
English as, “Every child is born a Muslim,” But the hadith says fitra, which
means that people are born inclined to faith—born with an intuitive awareness
of divine purpose and a nature built to receive the prophetic message. What
remains then is to nurture one’s fitra and cultivate this inclination to faith
and purity of heart.
