published on November 18, 2005
(missed sending the Note for Friday, November 11, 2005)
The first Islamic state founded in Madinah came into existence through a process that had deep historical roots in the Prophetic tradition; every Prophet before Muhammad—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—had followed the same procedure. This procedure involved an initial invitation to the people, especially the high and the mighty of the land, to accept the revealed message, follow the mode of behavior and code of conduct that enjoined the establishment of justice in the social, economic, and political domains. This procedure does not establish an Islamic state merely by issuing decrees or by imposing measures such as the length of one’s beard; rather, it creates conditions for the emergence of a state organically through the transformation of men and women who constitute a polity. This inner transformation is automatically accompanied by dramatic changes in outward appearance, behavior, conduct and inter-personal relationships. Once a person transforms existentially, through the opening of the heart to the call of Islam, life-goals, ideals and desires all transform and this re-orientation affects the entire spectrum of life—from the way one earns living to the way one dresses, makes friends, does commerce, and does hundred and one other activities.
When sufficient number of individuals have been transformed in a society, an Islamic state emerges automatically. The first Islamic state that came into existence in Madinah emerged in this manner; it was an event in real time, a veritable historical process that can be revisited by any objective historian. This state did not come into existence overnight; it took almost a decade for its formation, but once it had emerged, it was so strong that within the short span of fifty years after the death of the Prophet—upon whom be peace—its borders had expanded to include Central Asia on the one hand and much of Africa on the other.
This expansion was not without its own problems and turmoil, and most Western historians and Islam-bashers find nothing but internal strife and disharmony in the era subsequent to the Prophet of Islam, but such analyses overlook the human condition which by its very nature cannot be free from strife, conflicts and disharmonies. What remains a well-established historical reality, however, is the fact that the Islamic state which emerged in Madinah within a short period of one decade created a polity in which the reorientation of individual lives was toward the Creator and this state transformed the lives of millions of human beings by making them part of a new social, political, and economic order in which the consciousness of the Hereafter was the supreme reality. Since our focus here is on the procedure through which an Islamic state emerges, we will not discuss the multiple ways in which the various institutions of this first Islamic state supported this supreme concern with the Hereafter, but suffice it to say that every state supports a certain vision of life for its populace and an Islamic state, by definition, is a state that promotes and encourages an Islamic vision of life, based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the most Noble Prophet.
Our main question is: how can an Islamic state come into existence in our own times? Based on what has already been said, it must be clear that an Islamic state cannot be established; it must emerge through a guided process on the pattern of the Prophetic model. This is such an obvious and clear procedure that every Muslim thinker concerned with the matter has been led to the same conclusion over the last fourteen hundred years. The procedure adopted by the Prophet of Islam—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—involved the transformation of a small number of men and women to a life completely dedicated to the Creator, followed by the spread of this new vision of life to a (still not too large) community of believers. Once this core group has emerged, it acts positively under the command of its leader to alter the larger social, political, and economic realities. This process inevitably leads to a confrontation with the existing social, political, and economic order. This is the most critical stage in the emergence of an Islamic state. It is at this stage that the mettle of the leader of the Islamic movement as well as that of the small core community is tested. Whenever and wherever the leadership has remained certain of the truth of the message of Islam and has behaved with patience and perseverance, an Islamic state has emerged.
Almost all Muslim thinkers of the last century have clearly spelled out this procedure for the emergence of an Islamic state in our times, but none has been able to lead the process to a successful end except for Imam Khomeini. His success, and the failure of leaders like Sayyid Abu’l-A`la Mawdudi and the movements such as the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, provide an excellent source for understanding the procedure for the emergence of an Islamic state. These will be explored in subsequent columns, but it must remain perpetually clear that the Islamic state that comes into existence through this procedure is not a state that enforces Islam, rather, it is a state in which Islam is lived. Of course this state establishes laws according to Divine Writ and it promotes good and prohibits evil—but all states establish some kind of laws and promote some kind of values they deem to be good and prohibit others that they deem to be evil, the difference is in the origin of these laws and values. In an Islamic state, the principles for legislation originate in the Book of Allah and the practice of His most Noble Messenger.
(To be continued)
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