Islam IS an Ideology in 10 Points
Bismillah
A few days ago I found a log by a brother who was asking whether Islam was compatible with Democracy. After replying to his article, the brother wrote yet another log, this time refering to yet another article which claims Islam is not an ideology.
I wrote a long reply which after posting it, I realised it actually deserves a topic of its own. So the following is my reply as to whether Islam is an ideology. The first two points are directed to specific comments the brother made namely saying that the word 'ideology' didn't exist at the time of the prophet (to say the truth, this was the only argument he presented in his article). The rest is my proof as to why Islam is an ideology.
---------------------------------
Assalamu alaikum
We'll go through this a small step at a time.
1)The definition of an ideology as can be seen, is generally accepted to be the system that includes social, political and economic views. Now by your way of thinking, because no such term technically existed in the English language, there never were any economic, political or social systems in the world.
2)Islam is not an English religion. You're sources are English authors, English words and English references. I think if you want to discuss whether Islam is an ideology or not, whether Islam has a social system, an economic system and a political system, then try bringing something more Islamic than that.
>Now I will start my arguments on why Islam IS an ideology and why we should implement it.
3)Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah said:
“The prophets ruled over the children of Israel. Whenever a prophet died, another prophet succeeded him, but there will be no prophet after me. There will soon be Khulafaa’ and they will number many. They asked: What then do you order us? He said: Fulfil your pledge to them one after the other, and give them their dues, for verily Allah will ask them about what He entrusted them with.”
First of all, we can disagree on how Islamic the Abbasides, Umayyads, Muwahydoon, Ottomans, etc. were. Although at the same time the prophet (pbuh) refered to them as khulafah non the less, not only in this hadith, but several other hadiths. But for ease of argument, I will leave them temporarilly out of the picture and only consider the khulafaah al rashideen which as from ahlul sunnah, we agree by definition that they were righteous Islamic rulers.
Now my first question to you is, what did they rule with? Did they implement Western Democracy? ie, did they allow people to vote on absolutly everything, whether Allah made it halal or haram? No, they did not. Ok, so what did they rule with? I take it as we can agree that they did not implement haram and forbid the halal (at least not intentionally and in their own knowledge). Let's put that aside as that is fixed and not a single scholar disagree with it. So that leaves nothing more in their ruling except what Allah made mubaah.
For the mubaah, there is something in Islam called ijtihaad. It is reasoning taking the circumstances and the environment in the lights of the Quraan and the sunnah and bringing out rules that solves the problem. I believe one khaleef (I think it was Omar (raa)) who brought in a Persian law into the state, but this was only after he saw that it does not disagree with any Islamic concept from the Quraan and the Sunnah.
I think until now we agree in everything in point (3) as what I said is only historic fact that all the ulamaa agree with whether past or present (personally I don't put too much stress on the present ulamaa, but that's another story). It is how the khulafaah al rashidoon managed the state. All in all, everything they ruled with was looked upon in the light of the Quran and Sunnah.
4)So we know how the khulafaah al rashidoon ruled, they ruled purely by Islam. Now the question is, is social rules, politics, and economics part of their ruling? Well if not then what exactly are they ruling?? By definition a ruler or the ruling party is the manager of the social, political and economic affairs of the country. So yes, all these issues are obviously part of the state management and they are part of what the khulafah took to consideration in their every day lives as rulers. And they ruled by nothing except what Islam allows through the Quraan and Sunnah and their ijtihaad.
The above two points should be sufficient for any Muslim, but I will go further.
5) Tell me about the Papist rule in Europe. Why did it fail? Why was a tyranny and a dictatorship? Well, because the Pope had nothing to rule with except for his own mind. Christianity has absolutly no or very little guidance on how to rule, it is simply put, not an ideology. Therefor, in a position of leadership, the pope will have absolute authority, not the Bible because the Bible holds very little the Pope could use. And so, with what will the people hold him to account?
So the reformation came and the Renaissance started and Church lost all its powers. Several years later, what exactly is left of the Church? Do you honestly tell me that the Church holds as much authority on the Christian's lives as it used to? Even close? How about absolutly ANY authority? How many Christians actually don't have sex outside of marriage? No, how many Christians belive in marriage? Actually, how many Christians, when you come up to ask them about their deen, they reply by saying "I'm Christian, but I have my own thoughts about god"? This is a religion that was never intended to last. This is a religion that Allah revealed to Jesus (as) and his followers that was void of any thing except of simply ibaddaat and guidance on who your god is. It was not meant to last as there will be another warning after it. The warning of Muhammad (pbuh).
6)Islam came to rule. Muhammad (pbuh) was not only a prophet, he was a ruler who created a state and fortold the khulafah and ordered the Muslims to obey them. He said the children of Israel were ruled by prophets but after Muhammad there will be only khulafah and we should obey them. This is in the sahih Bukhari I mentioned earlier in this post. And as we mentioned in point (3) the khulafah rule by Islam.
Awf Ibnu Malik Al-Ashja’i said; "I heard the Messenger of Allah say;
‘The best of your Imams are those whom you love and they love you and whom you pray for and they pray for you, and the worst of your Imams are those whom you hate and they hate you and you curse them and they curse you.’ We asked: ‘O Messenger of Allah, shall we not then declare war on them?’ He said; ‘No, as long as they establish Salah among you’, narrated by Muslim.
The imam in Arabic is also a term used for a ruler, just as khilafah could be called imamat. Salah also in this hadith refers to the whole of Islam. This can be easily seen in surah Hud:87 in the Quraan;
"They said: "O Shu'aib! Does your Salat command that we leave off what our fathers used to worship, or that we leave off doing what we like with our property? Truely you are the rightly guided!"
7)So why should Islam rule? Well in point (5) I showed you why the Pope was a dictator. The fact that Islam is the last warning Allah will send to man, it should be a message that will last. To last, Islam should not be ruled by other systems or else its fate will be like that of the Christians who lost their Christianity.
We have a shariah law. This shariah law tells us how to punish criminals. On what basis do we have treaties and for how long. It tells us about the shuraa and forbiding of interests and other forms of businesses (for example the unlimited liability companies (agumentative)). With all this in mind, I have yet another question.
Why did Allah reveal the shariah laws? For example, when Allah says in the Quraan that we should cut the hand of the theif, why did Allah reveal this verse? Is it not, that in his wisdom subhaanuh wa taala, he knows that the best punishment of the theif is the cutting of his hand? And what is the purpose of laws and punishments? Is it not to stop crimes from happening? So in other words, is it not true that punishing a theif the way Allah told us will be the best solution to the problem of theft? It might not completely solve it, but it will bring us the closest as it is the law that Allah, who created man and knows man better than any other creature, told us off? Did Allah (swt) reveal this verse so that we read it and then put it back on the shelf? Or did he reveal it so that we implement it?
8) If you think Islam should not be put in a position of rule, then you're ignoring all the shariah rules which cannot (and should not) be used by citizens of any state, like for example, the criminal punishments in Islam. Not only are you doing that, but by saying that Islam can survive and the Muslims can live happily away from the implementation of shariah, you are saying that there is no point of those shariah laws, astaghfurullah. What you are saying is that even though Allah said that the cure for theft is cutting the hand of the theif, we can cure theft through other means, which is in some Muslims' case, ofcourse, growing a beard and rolling up your trousers. What you're saying is that we can create the model Muslim without the need of Allah's advice on how to create the model society.
9)For the model society, it cannot be created by individuals. To create a model society you need to have governmental authority, you need to determine what is sold in the market, what the TV broadcasts, the criminal laws, the societal and social rules, the education curriculem, etc etc etc. You cannot close yourself inside your own mosque and try to seclude yourself from the outside world. If you are able to do that, not only is it haram, but also, what about your brothers and sisters who fell prey to the corrupt society? Who will help them? You? What will you do? Gather a group and start preaching to every door? But I have an alternative I'm offering you. What if instead of running around trying to pick up every single Muslim who falls prey to a society that you yourself live in, why not create and Islamic society that will not prey on anyone and get it over with? Now I'm not saying we establish Islam in the US or France or UK or Germany. No, that's just silly. We have countries with a more than 90% population of Muslims, it makes more sense there than anywhere else.
10)My last point to you is this. Islam came as a final message of Allah. Abu Bakr (raa) said, "Muhammad has indeed died. This Deen needs some one to maintain it." You, as a Muslim, simply cannot live properly while living in a society that implement rules that are clearly against the rules of Islam. You cannot do so, and it is even more dangerous to raise your child in such a system. Each generation will slowly loose step until, as in the example of Christianity, nothing will be left of Islam in the minds of the Muslims. Personally, this prophecy the prophet (pbuh) said, I believe we have reached. And I believe that the we are in dire need of a khaleefah to bring us together under the shade of Islam. Umar Ibn Al-Khatab said: "There can be no Islam without Jama'a; no Jama'a without an Ameer (leader); and no leadership without obedience."
Here were 10 points that really are very simple to understand. I have a couple of article in my blog about ideology and what it means and how it effects people that go much more indepth.
The Ideology
The Ideology II
I would also envite you to read or at least scan through the following books by the Tahrireen.
Economic System of Islam
Social System in Islam
Funds in the State
Wa barakallahu feek and may Allah keep Islam the main subject amongst Muslims and guide his ummah into what is khair for her.
wassalamu alaikum
A few days ago I found a log by a brother who was asking whether Islam was compatible with Democracy. After replying to his article, the brother wrote yet another log, this time refering to yet another article which claims Islam is not an ideology.
I wrote a long reply which after posting it, I realised it actually deserves a topic of its own. So the following is my reply as to whether Islam is an ideology. The first two points are directed to specific comments the brother made namely saying that the word 'ideology' didn't exist at the time of the prophet (to say the truth, this was the only argument he presented in his article). The rest is my proof as to why Islam is an ideology.
---------------------------------
Assalamu alaikum
We'll go through this a small step at a time.
1)The definition of an ideology as can be seen, is generally accepted to be the system that includes social, political and economic views. Now by your way of thinking, because no such term technically existed in the English language, there never were any economic, political or social systems in the world.
2)Islam is not an English religion. You're sources are English authors, English words and English references. I think if you want to discuss whether Islam is an ideology or not, whether Islam has a social system, an economic system and a political system, then try bringing something more Islamic than that.
>Now I will start my arguments on why Islam IS an ideology and why we should implement it.
3)Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah said:
“The prophets ruled over the children of Israel. Whenever a prophet died, another prophet succeeded him, but there will be no prophet after me. There will soon be Khulafaa’ and they will number many. They asked: What then do you order us? He said: Fulfil your pledge to them one after the other, and give them their dues, for verily Allah will ask them about what He entrusted them with.”
First of all, we can disagree on how Islamic the Abbasides, Umayyads, Muwahydoon, Ottomans, etc. were. Although at the same time the prophet (pbuh) refered to them as khulafah non the less, not only in this hadith, but several other hadiths. But for ease of argument, I will leave them temporarilly out of the picture and only consider the khulafaah al rashideen which as from ahlul sunnah, we agree by definition that they were righteous Islamic rulers.
Now my first question to you is, what did they rule with? Did they implement Western Democracy? ie, did they allow people to vote on absolutly everything, whether Allah made it halal or haram? No, they did not. Ok, so what did they rule with? I take it as we can agree that they did not implement haram and forbid the halal (at least not intentionally and in their own knowledge). Let's put that aside as that is fixed and not a single scholar disagree with it. So that leaves nothing more in their ruling except what Allah made mubaah.
For the mubaah, there is something in Islam called ijtihaad. It is reasoning taking the circumstances and the environment in the lights of the Quraan and the sunnah and bringing out rules that solves the problem. I believe one khaleef (I think it was Omar (raa)) who brought in a Persian law into the state, but this was only after he saw that it does not disagree with any Islamic concept from the Quraan and the Sunnah.
I think until now we agree in everything in point (3) as what I said is only historic fact that all the ulamaa agree with whether past or present (personally I don't put too much stress on the present ulamaa, but that's another story). It is how the khulafaah al rashidoon managed the state. All in all, everything they ruled with was looked upon in the light of the Quran and Sunnah.
4)So we know how the khulafaah al rashidoon ruled, they ruled purely by Islam. Now the question is, is social rules, politics, and economics part of their ruling? Well if not then what exactly are they ruling?? By definition a ruler or the ruling party is the manager of the social, political and economic affairs of the country. So yes, all these issues are obviously part of the state management and they are part of what the khulafah took to consideration in their every day lives as rulers. And they ruled by nothing except what Islam allows through the Quraan and Sunnah and their ijtihaad.
The above two points should be sufficient for any Muslim, but I will go further.
5) Tell me about the Papist rule in Europe. Why did it fail? Why was a tyranny and a dictatorship? Well, because the Pope had nothing to rule with except for his own mind. Christianity has absolutly no or very little guidance on how to rule, it is simply put, not an ideology. Therefor, in a position of leadership, the pope will have absolute authority, not the Bible because the Bible holds very little the Pope could use. And so, with what will the people hold him to account?
So the reformation came and the Renaissance started and Church lost all its powers. Several years later, what exactly is left of the Church? Do you honestly tell me that the Church holds as much authority on the Christian's lives as it used to? Even close? How about absolutly ANY authority? How many Christians actually don't have sex outside of marriage? No, how many Christians belive in marriage? Actually, how many Christians, when you come up to ask them about their deen, they reply by saying "I'm Christian, but I have my own thoughts about god"? This is a religion that was never intended to last. This is a religion that Allah revealed to Jesus (as) and his followers that was void of any thing except of simply ibaddaat and guidance on who your god is. It was not meant to last as there will be another warning after it. The warning of Muhammad (pbuh).
6)Islam came to rule. Muhammad (pbuh) was not only a prophet, he was a ruler who created a state and fortold the khulafah and ordered the Muslims to obey them. He said the children of Israel were ruled by prophets but after Muhammad there will be only khulafah and we should obey them. This is in the sahih Bukhari I mentioned earlier in this post. And as we mentioned in point (3) the khulafah rule by Islam.
Awf Ibnu Malik Al-Ashja’i said; "I heard the Messenger of Allah say;
‘The best of your Imams are those whom you love and they love you and whom you pray for and they pray for you, and the worst of your Imams are those whom you hate and they hate you and you curse them and they curse you.’ We asked: ‘O Messenger of Allah, shall we not then declare war on them?’ He said; ‘No, as long as they establish Salah among you’, narrated by Muslim.
The imam in Arabic is also a term used for a ruler, just as khilafah could be called imamat. Salah also in this hadith refers to the whole of Islam. This can be easily seen in surah Hud:87 in the Quraan;
"They said: "O Shu'aib! Does your Salat command that we leave off what our fathers used to worship, or that we leave off doing what we like with our property? Truely you are the rightly guided!"
7)So why should Islam rule? Well in point (5) I showed you why the Pope was a dictator. The fact that Islam is the last warning Allah will send to man, it should be a message that will last. To last, Islam should not be ruled by other systems or else its fate will be like that of the Christians who lost their Christianity.
We have a shariah law. This shariah law tells us how to punish criminals. On what basis do we have treaties and for how long. It tells us about the shuraa and forbiding of interests and other forms of businesses (for example the unlimited liability companies (agumentative)). With all this in mind, I have yet another question.
Why did Allah reveal the shariah laws? For example, when Allah says in the Quraan that we should cut the hand of the theif, why did Allah reveal this verse? Is it not, that in his wisdom subhaanuh wa taala, he knows that the best punishment of the theif is the cutting of his hand? And what is the purpose of laws and punishments? Is it not to stop crimes from happening? So in other words, is it not true that punishing a theif the way Allah told us will be the best solution to the problem of theft? It might not completely solve it, but it will bring us the closest as it is the law that Allah, who created man and knows man better than any other creature, told us off? Did Allah (swt) reveal this verse so that we read it and then put it back on the shelf? Or did he reveal it so that we implement it?
8) If you think Islam should not be put in a position of rule, then you're ignoring all the shariah rules which cannot (and should not) be used by citizens of any state, like for example, the criminal punishments in Islam. Not only are you doing that, but by saying that Islam can survive and the Muslims can live happily away from the implementation of shariah, you are saying that there is no point of those shariah laws, astaghfurullah. What you are saying is that even though Allah said that the cure for theft is cutting the hand of the theif, we can cure theft through other means, which is in some Muslims' case, ofcourse, growing a beard and rolling up your trousers. What you're saying is that we can create the model Muslim without the need of Allah's advice on how to create the model society.
9)For the model society, it cannot be created by individuals. To create a model society you need to have governmental authority, you need to determine what is sold in the market, what the TV broadcasts, the criminal laws, the societal and social rules, the education curriculem, etc etc etc. You cannot close yourself inside your own mosque and try to seclude yourself from the outside world. If you are able to do that, not only is it haram, but also, what about your brothers and sisters who fell prey to the corrupt society? Who will help them? You? What will you do? Gather a group and start preaching to every door? But I have an alternative I'm offering you. What if instead of running around trying to pick up every single Muslim who falls prey to a society that you yourself live in, why not create and Islamic society that will not prey on anyone and get it over with? Now I'm not saying we establish Islam in the US or France or UK or Germany. No, that's just silly. We have countries with a more than 90% population of Muslims, it makes more sense there than anywhere else.
10)My last point to you is this. Islam came as a final message of Allah. Abu Bakr (raa) said, "Muhammad has indeed died. This Deen needs some one to maintain it." You, as a Muslim, simply cannot live properly while living in a society that implement rules that are clearly against the rules of Islam. You cannot do so, and it is even more dangerous to raise your child in such a system. Each generation will slowly loose step until, as in the example of Christianity, nothing will be left of Islam in the minds of the Muslims. Personally, this prophecy the prophet (pbuh) said, I believe we have reached. And I believe that the we are in dire need of a khaleefah to bring us together under the shade of Islam. Umar Ibn Al-Khatab said: "There can be no Islam without Jama'a; no Jama'a without an Ameer (leader); and no leadership without obedience."
Here were 10 points that really are very simple to understand. I have a couple of article in my blog about ideology and what it means and how it effects people that go much more indepth.
The Ideology
The Ideology II
I would also envite you to read or at least scan through the following books by the Tahrireen.
Economic System of Islam
Social System in Islam
Funds in the State
Wa barakallahu feek and may Allah keep Islam the main subject amongst Muslims and guide his ummah into what is khair for her.
wassalamu alaikum
posted by Abdul Rahman Hilmi at 6/06/2006 05:13:00 PM
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