What is the legitimacy of the modern secular state when judged according to the religion of Islam? Is it Halal (permissible) or Haram (prohibited) for Muslims to vote in elections of the modern secular state? This essay attempts to answer those questions.
A US-based Egyptian Islamic scholar declared in a widely circulated Fatwa (legal opinion) that it is Wajib (compulsory) for Muslims to vote in elections of the modern secular state such as USA. The preposterous implication of that Fatwa would be such that if Muslims were to refrain from voting in such elections they would have committed a sin!
On the other hand the outstanding Pakistani Islamic scholar, Dr. Israr Ahmad, has categorically declared that it is Haram for a Muslim to participate in the electoral politics of the modern secular state (i.e., the state which is established on the basis of a secular constitution). He has prohibited all members of Tanzeem-e-Islami, the Jama’at (community) of which he is the Amir (leader), from voting in elections of the secular state. He also disclosed that Maulana Maududi (rahimahullah), who took a stand in favor of participating in electoral politics, subsequently changed his position before his death and opposed such participation.
Our view is that the opinion of the US-based Egyptian Islamic Scholar is false and that he is dangerously misguided. We pray that Allah, Most Kind, may guide our learned brother to the right path. Amin! Millions of Muslims in USA accepted his Fatwa, reassured themselves that they were rightly guided, and then went out and voted for George Bush. But by September 11th (2001) they were wringing their hands in anguish and grief over the fact that their own government (the Bush Administration), which they had themselves had constituted by their votes, was now waging undisguised war on Islam! (See my analysis in ‘A Muslim Response to the Attack on America’ on the website: www.imranhosein.org .)
In my own native land, Trinidad and Tobago, the system of electoral politics has consistently polarized the people racially. In 1956 a secular People’s National Movement (PNM) emerged with nothing more profound to offer than ‘black’ nationalism. It polluted the country. It created a stench far worse than the corruption which it spawned and which led to an epitaph on a 1986 tombstone which read: “All ah we tief” (All of us stole). I myself suffered professionally from the racism of the PNM, and so did my father. In fact it drove my father to his grave.
In time the PNM’s ‘black’ nationalism produced its corollary in the form of ‘Indian’ nationalism. When Indians won political power the racial stench that the ‘Indian’ nationalism of the United National Congress (UNC) spawned was no different from that of the previous ‘black’ nationalism. But the one thing that remained consistent throughout this long dark night of political Jahiliyyah was that Muslims participated in the electoral politics of race without any consciousness that Islam had something significantly different to offer to mankind. How else can we explain the phenomenon of African Muslims supporting the PNM and Indian Muslims supporting the UNC?
Many Trinidadian Muslims are probably going to be surprised by this essay since it would appear that since 1956, when the first real general election took place, few learned Muslims in Trinidad and Tobago have ever seriously questioned the Halal or Haram of elections. There have been frivolous responses that have sought to dismiss Islamic objections to voting in elections based on the inconsistency involved in also having, for example, “a dollar bill in one’s wallet”, “a driving license”, “owning a car or a house”, etc. When distinguished Islamic scholars equate “Shirk” with a “driving license” we know that we are truly in grave danger. The distinguished US-based Indian Islamic Scholar who engaged in that unpardonable frivolity went on to declare that it was Fard (compulsory) for Muslims in Trinidad and Tobago to vote in elections.
But Trinidadian Muslims should pause to consider that there are so many other strange things that also cry out for a response. For example, we have been singing the National Anthem of the State of Trinidad and Tobago in which we have declared, time and again, “This our native land, we pledge our lives to thee,” (i.e., to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago), when the Qur’an has specifically asked us to pledge our lives totally to Allah, Most High:
“Say! Verily my prayer, and my service of sacrifice, and my very living, and my very dying, are all for Allah the Rabb (i.e., Lord, Creator, Sustainer) of all the worlds . . .”
(Qur’an, al-An’am, 6:162)
Indeed, in pledging his life to the state, or his native land, or a mango tree, rather than to Allah, Most High, the Muslim would commit an act of Shirk. The Muslim would also be repudiating the Hijrah (migration) of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam) who left his native land because of Islam, and the Hijrah of Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) who did the same.
Again, the Inter-Religious Organization of Trinidad and Tobago, which includes Muslims, has adopted as its motto the slogan of the fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. But the Qur’an has categorically declared that God is not a father (lam yalid). Anyone who is a member of the Inter-Religious Organization of Trinidad and Tobago has ipso facto recognized Allah to be father and has thus committed Shirk!
This essay commences with a description of the world order today, including an introduction to the modern secular state and a description of its origins. We discover that the foundations of that state are firmly rooted in Kufr (disbelief) and Shirk (blasphemy) – terms that are defined in the essay. Shirk, or blasphemy, is one of the major signs of the Last Day, and it is connected to Dajjal the false Messiah or Anti-Christ.
Muslims are reminded that Islam gave to the world a conception of political organization and of state in which there was no Kufr and Shirk. That was the Islamic Caliphate. It was destroyed by Europe because it constituted an obstacle to Europe in its quest to force all of mankind into Kufr and Shirk.
We admit that there are obvious merits of the secular state and we go on to examine, from an Islamic perspective, the status of the modern secular state. This includes a Qur’anic explanation for the universal Shirk of the modern secular state. We conclude by offering to Muslims an alternative to electoral politics of the modern secular state. In presenting that alternative we call believers back to the political Sunnah (example) of the blessed Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam).
THE WORLD-ORDER TODAY
An essentially godless medieval Europe, which had conveniently cloaked itself in the garb of Christianity and which subsequently and mysteriously discarded that Christianity for materialism in the modern age, was strangely armed with a scientific and technological power that appeared to be irresistible and indestructible. Europe used that power to take such military and political control of the Muslim world that the Islamic Caliphate was destroyed. Europe then proceeded to render it impossible for Muslims to liberate any of their territories and to establish authentic Islam anywhere on earth. A relentless and merciless European attack on Islamic civilization that has continued uninterrupted for more than a thousand years, and which witnessed the destruction of the Caliphate in 1924, has finally resulted in the subjugation of Muslims to European political control. This control commenced with Europe and then continued with the new Europe in America. Not only is Islamic civilization in a state of utter political and cultural disarray, but also it is fast approaching a state of total economic enslavement through European Riba disguised as ‘Capitalism’.
The result of this attack is that large numbers of Muslims have essentially left Islam and have become part of the new secular world that Europe created. This is emphatically so in respect of governments in the new world of Muslim nation states. Such Muslims are busy creating a new Islam (i.e. Islamic modernism) that can be accommodated in the modern godless world. The late outstanding Islamic scholar, Maulana Dr. Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari, denounced this Islamic modernism and urged Muslims to grasp dynamic orthodoxy in which they would turn to the Qur’an to locate both the explanation of the modern world as well as the way to respond to its great challenges.
In the midst of all of this Europe succeeded in first ‘liberating’ the Holy Land of Muslim rule and then in ‘restoring’ a State of Israel in the Holy Land. After that the Israelite Jews were brought back to the Holy Land by European Jews in the strangest and most mysterious ‘return’ of a people history has ever witnessed. Indeed it has become clear that godless European control over the whole world was meant to make possible the return of the Israelite Jews to the Holy Land. The fact that Israelite Jews accepted this road back to Jerusalem, and interpreted it as an act of fulfillment of a divine promise concerning the return of the golden age and the advent of the Messiah, is indicative of their spiritual blindness. In fact Dajjal, the False Messiah (i.e., the Anti-Christ), deceived them.
How should Muslims respond to this drama that is still unfolding? How should Muslims extricate themselves from their present predicament? The answer is that nothing can possibly explain the strange world of today and nothing can save Muslims from its perils except the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the blessed Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). Salvation depends upon the reconstruction of Muslim society as authentically as is possible. Authenticity depends upon fidelity to the Qur’an, and to the one who was sent to teach the Qur’an and to establish its guidance in a concrete model.
It is not possible at this time for Muslims to take such control over territory anywhere in the world in order to establish Islam as a ‘public order’ or ‘state’ (i.e., Dar al-Islam). Any effort to do so would result in the entire godless world ‘ganging-up’ to prevent the emergence of Islamic control over the state. Those Muslims who do not recognize this are a people who do not understand the Gog and Magog World Order that now controls the world. The only exception to this appears to be the territory of Khorasan (of the time of the Prophet) i.e., territory located within the East of the Euphrates. It is significant that modern godless Europe never succeeded in conquering the heart of this territory. The British tried to conquer Afghanistan and failed. Then the Russians tried and they also failed. The present American effort represents the most sophisticated ever launched by European civilization to subdue and control that territory. But this effort is also doomed to fail as Islam slowly reasserts itself. Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) prophesied that Islam will reemerge from precisely that part of the world when a Muslim army proceeds to liberate every occupied territory from Khorasan all the way to Jerusalem:
“Abu Hurairah reported that the Prophet said: Black banners shall emerge from Khorasan and no force would be able to stop them until they are inserted in Aelia (Jerusalem).” (Sunan, Tirmidhi)
The world may not have to wait for long before that event takes place.
How should Muslims respond to the relentlessly increasing attacks on Islam and on Muslim society in the immediate future? How can they survive this remaining period of time (before freedom and victory) if they cannot establish macro-Islam anywhere since nowhere can they take control of the state? We will attempt to answer that question when we deal with the alternative for Muslims to the electoral politics of the modern secular state.
It is strange that in a world that still comprises many great non-European civilizations, some of which are thousands of years old, none today has control over territory. Everywhere in the world today mankind is subjected to the rule of European civilization. Everywhere in the world mankind is imprisoned by the European model of a secular state. This political globalization of the European model of a secular state is something absolutely unique in human history. It is also something mysterious and ominous. The European system of secular states eventually produced a novel international political institution called (initially) the ‘League of Nations’ and then resurrected it as the ‘United Nations’. In the name itself, ‘United Nations’, was enshrined the goal of the New World Order created by Europe. That goal was to unite the world under European political influence and control so that Europe could eventually rule the world as world government. At the time this essay is being written, Europe (i.e., the white world order) stands at the very verge of final and complete success of that political goal. All the non-European civilizations in the world appear helpless to liberate themselves from the secular European strangle hold.
Arnold Toynbee, the well-known British historian, has responded to this unique phenomenon with the view that all previous civilizations (i.e., previous to modern western civilization) are either ‘dead’ or ‘moribund’, and that “it is not inevitable that western civilization would suffer the fate which attended all previous civilizations.” (Toynbee: Civilization on Trial, Ox. Univ. Press, London, 1957: p.38). The European goal was clear, mysterious and ominous. Europe’s goal was to establish European rule over the whole world. But that was not all. The rule of Europe was supposed to mark the ‘End of History’ since there was nothing that could possibly replace Europe’s rule over the world! Toynbee made an amazingly candid statement in his famous book, “Civilization on Trial”:
“Western civilization is aiming at nothing less than the incorporation of all of mankind in a single great society and the control of everything in the earth, air and sea … ” (Ibid. p.166).
The ultimate European goal, however, was to make possible the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and to deliver the rule of the world to the Jews so that they could rule the world from Jerusalem. My recent book, Jerusalem in the Qur’an explains that otherwise inexplicable fact which even Toynbee did not understand! The return of the Jews to the Holy Land and the establishment of the State of Israel some 2000 years after Allah, Most High, had Himself destroyed Israel and expelled the Jews, is the strangest event ever to have occurred in history. Only the Qur’an has explained it. And only the Qur’an can describe the destiny that now awaits Jerusalem and the Jews.
The Qur’an (al-Anbiyah, 21:96) has very plainly declared that when Y’ajuj (Gog) and M’ajuj (Magog) were released into the world by Allah, Most High, they would eventually “descend from every height, or spread out in every direction”. The Qur’an declared that in consequence of this, a people who had been expelled from a ‘town’ which was destroyed by Allah, Most High, and whose return was prohibited, would now return to that ‘town’ to reclaim it. My book has argued that the ‘town’ is Jerusalem. But when Gog and Magog descend from every height, or spread out in every direction, it would be impossible for the rest of mankind to resist them because of the divine declaration:
“I have brought forth from among My servants such people (i.e. Gog and Magog) against whom none will be able to fight . . .” (Sahih, Muslim)
It is clear from the above that modern European civilization is the civilization of Gog and Magog. And so, the World Order that now controls the world in its iron grip and which is waging war on Islam, is the World Order of Gog and Magog. It is Gog and Magog that explain the indestructible power of the ruthlessly oppressive, corrupt, decadent and essentially godless rulers of the modern world. Gog and Magog also explain the strange phenomenon of globalization in the modern world.
My book, ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an’, also explains the phenomenon of Dajjal, the False Messiah. He constitutes, with Gog and Magog, one of the major signs of the Last Age. Since it is his mission to impersonate the Messiah who must rule the world from Jerusalem, it follows that he, too, must rule the world from Jerusalem. My book has explained the famous Hadith of Tamim Dari in Sahih Muslim. It is this Hadith that made it possible for us to identify Dajjal’s initial location, from which he embarked upon his mission, to be the island of Britain. From Britain, the ruling state, he relocated in USA, the second ruling state, and he is soon to relocate in Israel. The Jewish State would then replace USA as the new ruling state in the world. We anticipate that event to take place soon. Thus the ultimate European goal was to not only make possible the return of the Jews to the Holy Land but also to deliver to them the rule of the world so that they could rule the world from Jerusalem!
The reader should understand that the modern secular state formed an essential part of the overall political strategy through which Europe sought to achieve political rule over the world. In other words, the modern secular state was specifically designed to function as the instrument of political globalization that would deliver to the white world order political rule over the whole world. That process of political globalization was, in turn, linked to Euro-Jewish Israel becoming the ruling state in the world.
THE MYSTERY OF THE MODERN SECULAR STATE
The modern secular state emerged in consequence of the application of secularism to political philosophy and political theory. The secular state then universalized itself in the modern age in a new secular world order. This did not happen by accident. Secularism emerged in Europe after European civilization was mysteriously attacked from within and was subjected to ominous and revolutionary change. That revolution caused a civilization that was ostensibly based on faith in Christianity and Judaism (since one emerged from the other) to be strangely transformed into one with a terrifying combination of characteristics. Here are just some of those characteristics (there are many more not mentioned here):
• A scientific and technological revolution deliverd unprecendented power to Europe. That power was then used to take control of the world. No people in human history had ever previously succeeded in imposing their total control over the whole world;
• Power was used to oppress all those who resisted the new masters of the world;
• Religion bereft of its internal spiritual substance suffered constant decline until society became essentially godless. The external form of religion survived in a state of such pathetic weakness that eventually men were legally permitted to marry men;
• The godless way of life caused a collapse of morals to such an extent that society descended into a state of decadence;
• Greed and lust provoked society to self-destruction; • Deception was used to steal mankind’s wealth and reduce the masses of humanity to poverty. It was also used to lure mankind into copying the new godless European way of life;
• Globalisation is taking the whole world into the grip of Israel’s new messianic dictatorship. This was one of the most unique and momentous events ever to have occurred in both European and world history. Yet so many so-called educated people never seem concerned about understanding how and why all of the above happened. They see nothing mysterious in it. Let us therefore explain some more.
The godlessness of modern European civilization was plainly apparent in its choice of ‘materialism’ to replace religion’s spiritual interpretation of reality. What this meant was that Europe no longer recognized the existence of any reality beyond material reality. The resort to materialism was itself the logical culmination of the adoption of a new ‘one-eyed’ epistemology (Dajjal sees with one eye) that adamantly insisted that knowledge was derived from only one source, i.e., external observation and experimentation. The other ‘eye’, i.e., internal intuitive spiritual insight that comes from the heart, was rejected as a means through which knowledge could be acquired.
The godless European revolution was an even more mysterious phenomenon since it was accompanied by a scientific and technological revolution that empowered godless Europe with a ‘power’ that seemed invincible, and gave it such ‘glamour’ that made it irresistible. The steam engine, trains, motorcars, trucks, mechanized tanks for warfare, ships powered by steam and oil, airplanes, etc., completely changed the way the world traveled and waged war, and that, in turn, changed the way people lived. Electricity produced power and this changed peoples lives. Telephones and telegraph made instantaneous communication over long distances possible and this, in turn, changed the way people lived and behaved. And a feminist revolution took the ‘night’ and made it ‘day’ and, in doing so, gave to woman the freedom to adopt the functional role of men in society. This was done in defiance of the functional difference established and ordained by Allah, Most High. (See Qur’an, al-Lail, 92:4, where an analogy is established between the functions of the ‘night’ and the ‘day’ on the one hand, and the creation of the ‘male’ and the ‘female’ on the other.) That was heralded as women’s liberation! It resulted in the most momentous and ominous change of all in the way people lived.
The new Europe directed a sustained attack on mankind by appealing to base instincts of greed and lust. A sexual revolution promised to make sex – natural and unnatural – as readily and freely available as sunshine. Pornography, homosexuality, lesbianism, public nudity and public sex of the white world now inundated the rest of the world. Marriage was increasingly considered to be redundant and people could choose to live together without being married and yet be considered as respectable. Jacqueline Kennedy, the wife of former President John F. Kennedy and an American icon of the days of Camelot, lived the last years of her life cohabiting out of wedlock.
When she died, her Jewish ‘partner’ in life was introduced to the world as her ‘companion’. Homosexuality and lesbianism were defended as alternate sexuality and became so acceptable in the popular consciousness that a homosexual or lesbian priest or Rabbi could emerge out of the closet to claim respectability and continue to function as a priest or Rabbi. Indeed, even the word ‘homosexuality’ was secularized in order to remove the social repugnance attached to unnatural sex. It was replaced with the word ‘gay’. An unsuspecting public accepted the apparently innocent change of name. Those who opposed homosexuality were accused of something called ‘homophobia’.
A consumer revolution gave to mankind an insatiable appetite for acquiring more and more of the new consumer goods that dazzle the eye. The consumer goods revolution penetrated mankind to such an extent that even the kitchens, bathrooms and toilets of all but the most primitive of homes were totally transformed.
The new godless Europe proceeded to use ‘power’ to conquer the rest of the world and to colonize it, and then to use ‘glamour’ to seduce all of mankind into imitating the godless decadent European way of life and new consumer culture. The godless European revolution witnessed its political turning point in the American, French and Bolshevik revolutions in 1776, 1787-1800, and 1917. The economic turning point was the emergence of the usurious economic system based on Riba, (borrowing and lending money on interest, and the replacement of real money – having intrinsic value – with paper money whose value could be manipulated and changed so that it constantly decreased), and it was fully achieved through the Protestant revolution. (See R. W. Tawney’s classic work: ‘Religion and the Rise of Capitalism’.) The cultural turning point was the emergence of the feminist revolution with its struggle for women’s liberation. But none of these revolutions would have been possible without the accompanying scientific and technological revolutions.
MERITS OF THE MODERN SECULAR STATE
The secular state could not have won acceptance amongst Euro-Christian and Euro-Jewish people, or amongst Muslims, had it not camouflaged its Kufr and Shirk with certain obvious merits. What were those merits? The modern secular state emerged in Europe in response to a dominant and oppressive Euro-Christian theocracy and in order to challenge the ‘temporal’ power of the Euro-Christian Church. It challenged the Church when it proclaimed a fresh and exciting new gospel of complete and unfettered intellectual and religious freedom, human rights and religious tolerance for all. It also established the political conditions that preserved peaceful coexistence amongst different religions within the same territory. It thus put an end to all the bloody religious warfare that had plagued Europe for so many centuries.
It also skillfully bribed its way into the bellies and the hearts of mankind through its inventive creativity. It discovered or produced most of that which has been joyfully accepted by mankind, regardless of religious beliefs, as an indispensable necessity of modern life, e.g., electricity, radio, telephone and hand phone, television, computer, aircraft, automobile, fax machine, photocopying technology, etc. etc. Whenever anyone accepted modernity with all its wondrous inventions one also accepted the secular state and the secular way of life. That was no mean achievement!
But these obvious merits of the secular state, some of which also existed in the city-state of Madina established by Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam), did not change its basic foundation of Kufr and Shirk. Indeed the modern secular state slowly began to reveal its real hidden agenda of rivalry when it began to wage a relentless war on the religious way of life. As society became secular, fewer and fewer people went to church, and empty churches and synagogues were put on sale to become ‘bingo’ halls. Indeed, religion slowly became a receding force in the new essentially godless secular world.
The democracy of the modern secular state turned out to be a sugar-coated pill of poison. The ‘political’ democracy worked in such a way as to sustain a usurious system of economic oppression and exploitation of the masses (since the economy was based on Riba). Economic oppression was oft-times supplemented by racial and ethnic oppression. The impoverished masses could never wrest real political power from the rich predatory elite, and hence, could never have the power with which to end economic oppression. This was because it was the wealth of precisely that predatory elite that increasingly made the difference between success and failure in expensive electoral campaigns. The new gospel of the modern secular society was that the rich shall inherit the earth. And that is precisely what has happened.
The new Europe proceeded to use its invincible military power and awesome powers of deception to dominate and brainwash non-European humanity. The new godless political philosophy with its godless conception of a sovereign state, exploitative economic system, and corruptive culture, eventually globalised itself. That was no mean achievement!
Western colonial rule was now imposed upon the rest of mankind, including the Muslims, and through this means the new godless political system, based on Kufr and Shirk, was deceptively and subtly introduced. The Ottoman Islamic Caliphate was destroyed. From its ashes emerged the modern godless secular Turkish state. The Dar al-Islam which was established by the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) himself in the Arabian peninsula was destroyed, and from its ashes emerged the modern secular State of Saudi Arabia (complete with all the trappings of territorial sovereignty, citizenship etc.) as a client-state of the godless West. Thus the ominous prophecy of Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) was fulfilled. He prophesied that his community (of Muslims) would imitate and follow the Jews and Christians to such an extent that even if they were to go down into a lizard’s hole, his community would do the same.
The result was that the world of Jews, Christians and Muslims entered into a collective trial of all trials (fitnah) and failed miserably in obeying Allah’s command when He ordered:
“Follow what has been sent down unto you by your Lord-God, and follow no Master other than Him. How seldom do you keep this in mind!”
(Qur’an, al-’Araf, 7:3)
The new modern secular state devised a system of electoral politics for constituting Parliament, Government and (sometimes) for electing Judges. Citizens of the secular state, regardless of their religious beliefs, voted in democratic elections. Even if the elected government were to be constituted of those who worshipped Satan himself as their Lord and Master, the principle of democratic elections required that Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc., who voted in such elections, were obliged to accept such a government as lawful, legitimate and authorized to rule over them. They were also obliged to submit to its authority and be obedient to it. If the elections were to produce a government dominated by idol-worshipping Hindus who were openly hostile to those who worshipped the God of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam), or a government which declared to be Halal (permissible) everything which Allah Most High had declared to be Haram (prohibited), then the principle of democratic elections required that Jews, Christians, Muslims etc., who were citizens of that secular state, must recognize that government as their lawful government, submit to its authority, and be obedient to it.
There is nothing in the revealed scriptures (Torah, Gospel, Qur’an) or the Sunnah (example or way of life) of the Prophets that can be used to justify Jews, Christians, Muslims, etc., participating in such elections in which they freely vote for such a government as lawful to govern over them. On the contrary, there is very clear prohibition of such conduct!
“… nor does He share His Command (i.e., His Sovereignty, Supreme Authority, Governance, Rule, etc.) with anyone whatsoever.”
(Qur’an, al-Kahf, 18:26)
“Praise be to Allah (Who) has no partner in His Sovereignty … ”
(Qur’an, Banu Israil, 17:111; al-Furqan, 25:2)
The Qur’an also warns those who help in an evil deed that they will share in its burden:
“Whoever recommends and helps a good cause becomes a partner therein: and whoever recommends and helps an evil cause shares in its burden: and Allah hath power over all things.”
(Qur’an, al-Nisa, 4:85)
SHIRK AND KUFR IN THE MODERN SECULAR STATE
Euro-Christian and Euro-Jewish civilization used to be based on faith in God and in His Sovereignty and Supremacy. In Euro-Christianity this was done through the theory of the Divine Rights of Kings administered by ‘God’s representative on earth’ in the institution of the Church of Rome. But in consequence of revolutionary change, that civilization no longer recognized the God of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam) as Sovereign, and no longer recognized His Authority and His Law as Supreme. The ‘modern secular state’ was now recognized as ‘sovereign’, and that was Shirk! (Shirk is the worship of any other than the God of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam). Any corruption of that worship of that one God is also Shirk. Kufr is the rejection of Truth.) The authority and law of the ‘modern secular state’ were now recognized as ‘supreme’, and that, also, was Shirk. The state had the authority to declare Halal (i.e. legal and permissible) that which the God of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam) had declared to be Haram (illegal and prohibited) – and it proceeded to do so – and that, also, was Shirk. The Qur’an declared Shirk to be the only sin that Allah would never forgive.
The Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) prophesied that Muslims would betray Islam by imitating and following the Jews and Christians (i.e., the Jewish-Christian alliance) to such an extent that even if they were to go down a lizard’s hole, Muslims would follow them down the hole:
“Narrated Abu Said al-Khudri: The Prophet said, You will follow the ways of those nations who were before you, span by span and cubit by cubit (i.e., inch by inch) so much so that even if they entered a lizard’s hole, you would follow them. We asked, O Messenger of Allah (Do you mean) the Jews and the Christians? He responded, Whom else?” (Sahih, Bukhari)
Then he warned that when Muslims would imitate the Jews and Christians (i.e., the Jewish-Christian alliance) there would be frightful consequences:
“Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr, Allah’s Messenger said: There will befall my Ummah exactly (all those) evils which befell the people of Isra’il, to the extent that if one amongst them openly committed fornication with his mother there will be among my Ummah one who will do so. And if the people of Isra’il were to fragment into seventy-two sects my Ummah would fragment into seventy-three. All of them will be in Hell Fire except one sect. They (the Companions) asked: Allah’s Messenger, which one is that? Whereupon he said: It is one to which I and my companions belong.”
(Sunan, Tirmidhi)
Muslims who pledge allegiance to the modern secular state, or vote in the elections of that state, cannot expect to be recognized as belonging to the one group that would escape the hellfire! Shirk is a very great sin. Indeed it is the greatest of all sins. It is the one sin that Allah, Most High, does not forgive:
“Surely Allah does not (or will not) forgive Shirk. But He (can) forgive everything else to whomsoever He wishes. And whoever commits Shirk has committed an awesome sin.”
(Qur’an, al-Nisa, 4:48)
Whoever commits Shirk, and dies in that state, can never enter into heaven:
“… Allah has made it Haram for whoever commits Shirk to ever enter into heaven. Such (people) will dwell in hell.”
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:72)
The worship of idols is the most overt form of Shirk. This form of Shirk has largely disappeared from the world today. But the Hindu world has clung stubbornly to it. And so a believer can never be excused if he fails to recognize the Shirk of the Hindus! The Qur’an has clearly warned the believers that they would find, time and again, that Jews and those who commit Shirk (such as the worship of idols) would treat them with the greatest hatred and hostility:
“You will find Jews and those who commit Shirk to have the greatest hatred and enmity (time and again) for the believers . . .”
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:82)
But there are other forms of Shirk that are also described in the Qur’an. Pharaoh, for example, declared to Moses (‘alaihi al-Salam): “I am your Lord-God the Most High”, and he declared to the Chiefs of his people: “Oh Chiefs! No God do I know for you but myself . . .” That was Shirk. The worship of Pharaoh by the Egyptian people required them to submit to his authority as the supreme authority, and his law as the supreme law, in the land of Egypt.
The Qur’an has repeatedly admonished those who, like Pharaoh, establish Hukum, i.e., government, law and justice, on the basis of ‘other than’ or ‘contrary to’ Allah’s authority and Allah’s law. However, when the divine guidance reaches a people (such as Jews, Christians, Muslims), and they accept that guidance, then the situation is quite different. If such people have an opportunity to establish their control over territory, as the Muslims of India did when they established Pakistan, and they then fail to establish law and authority on the basis of the revealed Divine Law, then the Qur’an unequivocally condemns them and accuses them of Kufr (disbelief), Dhulm (injustice) and Fisq (enormous sin):
“ . . . And whoever fails to govern (judge, etc.) on the basis of that which Allah revealed has committed Kufr (disbelief).”
“ . . . And whoever fails to govern (judge, etc.) on the basis of that which Allah revealed has committed Dhulm (injustice and oppression).”
“. . . And whoever fails to govern (judge, etc.) on the basis of that which Allah has revealed, has committed Fisq (enormous sin).”
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:44 – 47)
Since the declaration by Pharaoh and its concrete application in the land of Egypt were acts of Shirk, it follows that the same declaration by the modern secular state is also an act of Shirk. Since the God of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam) declared that: “Whoever fails to judge on the basis of that which Allah revealed has committed Kufr (disbelief), Dhulm (injustice and oppression) and Fisq (enormous sin)”, and the modern secular state has done precisely that, it follows that Jews, Christians and Muslims who establish the secular state after having received the Divine Law through the Torah, Psalms, Gospel and Qur’an, would be guilty of having committed Kufr, Dhulm and Fisq!
If a Jew, Christian, or Muslim, were to cast a vote in a national election in a modern secular state, that vote would imply that he considered that party he voted for to be fit to govern over him. And if that party as government committed or commits Shirk, Kufr, Dhulm and Fisq, then the implication would be that the Jew, Christian, or Muslim, would follow his party and his government into Shirk, Kufr, Dhulm and Fisq! (The same would be true for Hindus, Buddhists, etc.) The Qur’an has also denounced as Shirk the act of making Halal whatever Allah had made Haram (and vice-versa). Thus revelation came down from the Allah, Most High, in which He denounced Jews and Christians of precisely such a sin:
“They took their Priests and Rabbis as Lord-Gods beside Allah; and (they did this in respect of) the Messiah, the son of Mary (as well). But they were not ordered other than to worship and serve one God. Glory is to Him. He is far and above the Shirk which they commit.”
(Qur’an, al-Taubah, 9:31)
When this verse of the Qur’an was revealed a man came to the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) and protested that the Jews and Christians did not worship their priests and rabbis. How then, he asked, could the Allah, Most High, accuse them of such? The Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) responded by asking rhetorically: Did they not make Halal that which Allah had made Haram? That, he declared, was Shirk. Then he asked: Did the people (i.e. Jews and Christians) not follow them in it? That, he declared, was their Shirk! Among the Haram things which were declared to be Halal were gambling and lottery, the consumption of alcohol and the consumption of Riba (interest on loans). In some cases the Torah itself was rewritten in order to make them Halal. (See my books: ‘The Religion of Abraham and the State of Israel – A View from the Qur’an’, and ‘The Prohibition of Riba in the Qur’an and Sunnah’.)
When the Jews acted in this way, David (‘alaihi al-Salam) and Jesus (‘alaihi al-Salam) cursed them:
“Curses were pronounced on those among Banu Israil who rejected Faith, by the tongue of David and of Jesus, the son of Mary, because they disobeyed and persisted in excesses. They did not enforce the prohibition of that which was sinful and evil which they committed: evil indeed were the deeds which they did.”
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:78-9)
Whoever dies with a curse of a Prophet upon them have no chance whatsoever of ever escaping from the burning flames of the hellfire! In fact, it is the height of hypocrisy for a people to declare that they worship the God of Abraham and to then proceed to legalize that which He had made illegal and to prohibit that which He had made permissible:
“The Hypocrites, men and women, (have an understanding) with each other: they enjoin evil, and forbid what is just, and they withhold their hands (from doing good). They have forgotten Allah; so He hath forgotten them. Verily the Hypocrites are rebellious and perverse.”
(Qur’an, al-Taubah, 9:67)
If it was an act of Shirk when priests and rabbis made Halal that which Allah declared to be Haram, then it would also be an act of Shirk when a government does the same thing now. If it was an act of hypocrisy at that time, it would be the same now. And if it earned the curses of Prophets at that time, it would do the same now.
The usual method of approach for studying this subject is to weigh the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of participation by believers in the electoral politics of the modern secular state. The defenders of the secular state wax eloquent about its merits. They argue that it is the most advanced and progressive model of a ‘political order’ and of a ‘state’ ever to have emerged in history. Some argue: “If we do not participate in electoral politics then we will have no political representation, and no one to struggle for our rights.” At a more serious level of thought another argument is raised: “Participation in electoral politics is the necessary condition for any successful struggle to change the godless political system.” The matter of Shirk is addressed by way of a subterfuge (i.e., a deceptive stratagem or device): “We will participate in elections but will do so on the basis of a public stand that we do not accept the secular constitution and the secular state which it preserves. This escape clause will protect us from Shirk.”
Our response is to point out that participation in electoral politics in a secular state, ipso facto, signifies acceptance of the secular character of the state. The secular state makes the same declaration that Pharaoh made to Moses (‘alaihi al-Salam). That declaration is: The state is sovereign! Its authority is supreme! Its law is supreme! That is Shirk. When people vote in elections in a secular state they thereby accept the claim of the state to be sovereign, its authority to be supreme, and its law to be the highest law. When believers vote in such elections, therefore, they cannot escape from committing Shirk. Even if the above does not convince a Muslim reader there should at least be doubt in the heart that one might be committing Shirk.
Secondly, when believers vote in elections in a secular state they have to vote for a political party. If that party, as government, declared to be Halal what Allah, Most High, made Haram, or enforced laws as such, then that government committed Shirk. A few years ago right here in Trinidad an attempt was made by a Muslim Minister in the Hindu-dominated government to organize the Muslim youth of the country. Had the effort succeeded there would have been significant political benefit for the government and the ruling party. Some 600 Muslim youths were provided with free transportation to a convention center. They were also provided with free meals. It was later discovered that a grant for $25,000 from the National Lotteries Board was used to fund the meals provided for the Muslim youth at that Convention. Apparently, the Muslim Minister must have considered it Halal (legal and permissible) to use Lottery money to fund transportation costs and meals. If he did, and still does, then he in effect declared Halal (legal and permissible) that which Allah declared Haram (illegal and prohibited).
Around the world today governments and parliaments of secular states have already declared Halal nearly everything that Allah has declared to be Haram. When believers cast their votes for such political parties and governments that have already committed Shirk upon Shirk, such votes would imply acceptance of such people as fit to govern over them. Thus believers follow them into Shirk, Kufr, Dhulm and Fisq.
Thirdly, this method constitutes a violation and an abandonment of the Sunnah of the blessed Prophet of Islam (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam).
Political parties and governments around the world today are comprised of those who disdainfully persist in declaring Halal that which Allah has declared to be Haram. This essay has provided numerous examples of such. When believers vote for such parties in national elections and then recognize such parties as fit to govern over them, believers should pause to consider the practical implication of such an act. When a people disdainfully persist in Haram they pay a dreadful price. It is as plain as daylight that the modern secular world is already paying precisely that price. What is it?
“ . . . and then, when they disdainfully persisted in doing what they had been forbidden to do, We said to them (i.e., We ordained for them) Be as apes despicable!” (What this implies is that they would now live like apes, so incapable of exercising any restraint over their gross appetites and passions that, by the ‘End Time’, they would be showing a distinct preference for sex in public.) (Qur’an, al’Araf, 7:166)
The modern secular state legalized the lending of money on interest (Riba). Around the world today an ever-increasing number of modern secular states have already legalized gambling (and lottery), the consumption and sale of intoxicants (e.g. alcohol) and pork and the use of paper money that constantly loses value. (When it does, the masses are ripped-off and are eventually imprisoned in ‘slave labor’.) Abortion, homosexuality, lesbianism, adultery and fornication are all legal today. There are businesses in USA that advertise to those willing to sell their babies. They even have mobile ‘condom delivery service’ for those who wish to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity, and condoms are available in High Schools in USA. School girls are increasingly becoming pregnant and having abortions which, by law, can be concealed from parents. Yet it is illegal for a girl less than 16 years of age to marry.
Around the world today most modern secular states no longer recognize Allah’s law that a son must inherit twice as much as a daughter. They declare such a law to be discriminatory against women, and they establish their own laws that, they claim, are more just than Allah’s laws. In fact their law is no law. A man can leave his entire estate to a pet and leave nothing for his wife and children! The modern secular state has prohibited a man from marrying more than one woman at a time since it claims that such would be discriminatory against women. Rather the state has made it mandatory for a man to have no more than one wife at a time, and such, it claims, removes the injustice against women that is present in Allah’s law. This strict monogamous alternative has resulted in a sexual revolution that is making a mockery of marriage itself since a man can have as many mistresses as he wants so long as he does not marry them. The secular state declares that a wife no longer has an obligation, legal or moral, to be obedient to her husband since such would discriminate against the equality of the male and female.
This writer warns that the sun has never risen on a stranger world than the modern, godless, and glamorous Euro-world. That is surely an ominous sign.
The defining characteristic of the religion of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam) is that there is no place whatsoever for Kufr (disbelief) and Shirk (corruption of, or rejection of the worship of One True God) in it. Yet, the secular political system of the new essentially godless Euro-Christian civilization, now known as modern western civilization, is based on Kufr and Shirk. The United Nations Organization was founded on precisely the same Shirk. The UN Charter declared that Allah, Most High, is not al-Akbar (the Supreme)! Articles 24 and 25 of the Charter declared that the Security Council has supreme authority in the world in all matters pertaining to international peace and security. In other words, the authority of the Security Council is higher than the authority of Allah Most High and of His Messenger (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). That is Shirk.
How then do we explain the acceptance by Muslims around the world of the modern secular state, such as the Republic of Turkey, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Republic of Pakistan, State of Malaysia, etc., as a valid substitute for the Caliphate)? And how do we explain Indian Muslims in Trinidad consistently identifying themselves racially and politically with the Indian political party, and African Muslims doing likewise with the African political party? Perhaps this is the right moment for us to explain the political system of Islam and the Islamic conception of a state, i.e., the Caliphate, and then compare it with the modern secular state. The ignorance of the world today is such that even Muslims are unaware of the subject.
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
Only the Qur’an can explain, and has explained, the momentous political change that overtook the Euro-Christian and Euro-Jewish world, and then overtook the rest of mankind. What is that explanation? The Qur’an has taught that the historical process would one day come to an end when Allah, Most High, ordains that the ‘Last Day’ should come upon mankind and the world. Before that ‘Last Day’ can occur, however, there would be a Last Age that would be filled with numerous Signs from Allah indicating that it is the ‘Last Age’. Among those events that would take place in the Last Age would be the advent of the Last Prophet, Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). The release into the world of Dajjal, the False Messiah, and of Gog and Magog took place in his lifetime (see my book ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an’). When they were released into the world they eventually became the dominant actors in the historical process, and it is they who are the masterminds orchestrating this unique and ominous transformation of mankind and the world. The Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) declared that the age of Dajjal, the False Messiah (i.e., the Anti-Christ), would witness the universal appearance of Riba with its extreme economic oppression. It would also be an age of Kufr since Dajjal has ‘Kafir’ written between his eyes. And it would be an age of Shirk since Dajjal will ‘play’ the role of God and deceive mankind into accepting him as such. It is as plain as daylight to this writer that Dajjal is the mastermind behind the creation of the modern essentially godless secular state and its system of electoral politics.
ALTERNATIVE TO ELECTORAL POLITICS OF THE MODERN SECULAR STATE
The Jewish, Christian or Muslim reader is likely to ask: Is there an alternative (for believers) to electoral politics in the secular state? Yes, there is! The alternative is to struggle to restore the sovereignty of the One God in the political system – to struggle for recognition of His Authority as Supreme Authority – and to struggle for recognition of His Law as the Supreme Law. That is the highest and noblest of all political struggles any one can ever wage, and it is a struggle that must be pursued until the end of time. Indeed Allah, Most High, has guaranteed that time cannot end before that struggle ultimately succeeds.
The alternative for believers is to uphold whatever Allah made Halal as Halal, and whatever Allah made Haram as Haram, regardless of the price they may have to pay. Also, when a people commit Shirk, Kufr, Dhulm and Fisq, then believers should condemn such conduct, oppose it, struggle against it, and turn to Allah and ask Him to separate them from such people:
“ . . . So separate us from this sinful rebellious people!”
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:28)
The Qur’an refers to this mission of believers as “amr bil ma’aruf” (enjoining the right) and “nahi ‘an al-munkar” (opposing the wrong). If the struggle to restore the sovereignty of Allah Most High and the supremacy of His Authority and Law (in any territory) were to succeed, then that territory would become Dar al-Islam. Muslims would rule over that territory. But there is an alternative model of a plural state in which Muslims would share control over a territory with non-Muslims on the basis of political equality and through a constitutional agreement that would allow Muslims to recognize the sovereignty of Allah and the supremacy of His Authority and Law over ‘them’. Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) established that model of state in the city-state of Madina wherein Muslims, Jews and pagan Arabs shared control over territory and over the state on the basis of political equality.
Mankind has the freedom of choice to accept or to reject the religion of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam). However, once the religion of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam) is accepted, believers do not have the freedom to choose between a government of believers or a non-believing government. So long as believers have the freedom to do so, they must choose fellow-believers to rule over them. When they are denied that freedom in any territory they must search for some place where that freedom exists and then migrate to such a territory! Thus the God of Abraham, Most High, has commanded believers to: “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)
When they no longer have the freedom to establish their own government anywhere, and they have to live under non-believing rule, believers in the religion of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam) ‘submit’ to that rule until such time as they can once again choose fellow-believers to rule over them. But ‘submission’ to such non-believing rule cannot involve their participation in establishing that non-believing government. Secondly, believers submit to such rule on the condition of religious freedom, i.e., that nothing is forced upon them that violates the Law of the God of Abraham. Such a law would be, for example the religious obligation to fight (al-Qital) and hence to receive military training!
While such a government will not be ‘their’ government, they can advise and assist the government in all that is true, good and virtuous, while warning, resisting and abstaining from all that is false, evil and harmful. Herein lies the most important political role of Muslims in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago.
It is in the very nature of the modern secular state that it would never allow elections to be used to transform it into a different model of a state – such as a state that would recognize the Sovereignty of the God of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam) and the supremacy of His Authority and His Law. Electoral politics must function subservient to the godless secular state.
The Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) declared that the world of Kufr constituted an essential unity (al-kufru millatun wahidah). This is precisely what has now emerged in the world. The Jews and the Christians should ponder over the fact that when the Muslims of Algeria used ‘electoral politics’ to seek to restore the religion of Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salam) in Algeria and won 85% of the votes in the national elections, the godless world all came together to ruthlessly punish that 85% of the electorate which dared to seek to transform the godless secular foundation of the state. The merciless and shameless rape of Algeria by the entire godless secular world still continues even years after that unfortunate election.
Thus, rather than voting in elections and legitimizing the secular model of a state based on Shirk, Muslims should protect themselves from Shirk by disconnecting from the secular state. They should also respond to it by arguing that the model of a state established by Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) is a superior model when compared with the godless secular state. The alternative to the political Shirk of the secular state and its electoral politics must also be an alternative that would save Muslims from the Riba of the modern economy. That Riba is bringing upon all of mankind a new sophisticated slavery. Muslims also need an alternative to the moral corruption that is descending upon all of mankind. Perhaps the most dangerous of all evils from which Muslims must flee is an educational system that secularizes knowledge and education and, in so doing, produces people who are internally, spiritually blind.
There is only one road through which Muslims can preserve their faith in the world today and that road is given in Surah al-Kahf of the Qur’an (the Surah which protects from Dajjal). It is to disconnect from the godless world, i.e., to ‘drop out’.
The Qur’an itself directs the Muslim to disconnect from the godless world:
“ . . . So separate us from this sinful rebellious people!”
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:28)
The method through which Muslims in Trinidad and Tobago can effectively disconnect themselves from the Shirk that now surrounds them is given in the Qur’an in the story of the young men in Surah al-Kahf. That method is to establish Muslim Villages that are detached from the nation.
THE MUSLIM VILLAGE
Muslims must concentrate on establishing micro-Islamic communities wherever they can. But let me at once enter into the record my admiration for the effort made by Br. Nazim Mohammed in establishing a Muslim Village at the Boos Settlement Jama’at in Rio Claro, Trinidad. I visited the Muslim Village and found to my happiness that he succeeded in bringing the races together in a racial fraternity. This essay is written for the specific purpose of encouraging readers to take the initiative in establishing wherever possible multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual villages that would be united in the fraternity of faith in Islam.
If an authentic Muslim Village is to be established, and if it is to provide Muslims with the means of preserving their faith in today’s increasingly godless world, then, in addition to abstaining from voting in elections of the modern secular state, it must fulfill the following conditions:
• The public life of the Muslim Village must be established on the firm foundations of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Whatever is not based on the Qur’an and Sunnah cannot be recognized as essential for survival. If a Muslim religious practice cannot be so established then, regardless of how beneficial it may be, or how long Muslims may have observed it, it should not be brought into the Masjid and into the public life of the Muslim Village, nor should it be allowed to become the grounds for division and conflict between Muslims. Only thus would the Muslim Village survive the sinister contemporary effort directed at purging Muslim communities of all practices (both harmless and harmful) that are not based on the Qur’an and Sunnah and the way of the Aslaf (plural of Salaf, i.e., early Muslims). One implication of the above would be that the Halaqa of Zikr of the Qaderiyyah Sufi Order to which I belong, or other such Sufi Orders, would be held in private locations within the village.
• The Muslim Village must be self-sufficient in food production and in energy. Surah al-Kahf of the Qur’an points to solar energy as the solution for energy. The Surah also warns concerning absolute purity in food, hence abstinence from chemical fertilizers,genetically re-engineered food, hormones in milk and meat, etc. Surplus production of this organic food of the Muslim Village can be marketed out of the Village and this would form part of the foundation of the Village economy. An effective marketing strategy can include, for example, an explanation of the link between food, sexuality and sexual virility. In the process of producing food that is pure and healthy, the Muslim Village would be demonstrating a capacity to do that which the rest of the people are increasingly incapable of doing. The same would be true for the capacity of the Muslim Village to cure alcoholism and drug addiction, to reverse the decline in sexual morality, to preserve the family unit at a time when it is collapsing around the world, to establish peace and security and thus eliminate violence and crime, etc. All of these achievements would make an effective political impact upon the politics of Trinidad and Tobago in the sense that they would demonstrate Islam’s capacity to solve problems that governments and secular political parties cannot solve.
• The Muslim Village would also have to establish a micro-market which would be independent from the macro-market, and which would use real money (i.e. gold and silver) rather than the artificial paper money of the macro-market. In this way the micro-market would survive when the fraudulent international monetary system based on paper money collapses. I expect the international monetary system based on paper money to collapse at that time when Israel wages her great war of territorial expansion to occupy the entire area from ‘the river of Egypt’ (Nile?) to the river ‘Euphrates’ in Iraq. That war is likely to take place very soon.
One of the most important characteristics of the micro-market of the Muslim Village is that it would ensure that wealth circulates throughout the village economy. So the poor of the village would not remain permanently poor and the rich would not remain permanently rich. Since all forms of Riba would be prohibited in the village — both ‘front door’ and ‘back door’ — the Muslim Credit Union would not be allowed to do business in the Muslim Village.
• The Muslim Village would have to make a determined effort to pursue al-Ihsan (or Tasawwuf) in order to achieve internal spiritual insight. Thus the village life would have to be one of great simplicity, austerity and piety. There will have to be a strict enforcement of the Shariah. In addition, the Muslim Village would have to ensure that it takes complete control over education. The Qur’an must remain at the center of the system of education throughout all stages of education. The Muslim school in the Muslim Village would have one great advantage over the Muslim school located outside. The children of such a Muslim school would be supported by a Muslim community that would be living Islam! Only such children can truly be trained and educated as Muslims! • All those Muslims who reside in the Muslim Village must collectively constitute One Jama’at under the leadership of One Amir. The Amir must be someone who knows the Din (religion) and lives the Din. He must also know the world today. Regardless of whether he is African or Indian or ‘Dougla’, etc., he must enforce the Din on the members of the Jama’at and they must respond with as-Sam’u wa at-Ta’atu (listening and obeying). This will preserve the internal integrity and discipline of the Muslim Village. It will also bring the races of Trinidad and Tobago together in a racial fraternity and in so doing it would make an eloquent political statement to a racially polarized Trinidad and Tobago as well as to a racially polarized world.
• The Muslim Village cannot be, and must not be, a stepping-stone for the eventual control over the state. The only purpose of the Muslim Village is to preserve the faith of the believers. Thus, the Village would not be armed except with the weapons needed to defend it against robbers, rapists and thieves! It would have no capacity to defend itself if attacked by the state or by enemies of Islam. In addition, the Village would encourage Hindus, Christians and others to reside with Muslims in the Village on the condition that they are not hostile to Islam and they agree to abide by the public norms of conduct of the Village. In this way, non-Muslims would themselves be able to dispel the rumor-monger and the ‘doubting Thomas’ concerning the peaceful nonthreatening nature of the Muslim Village. But the Muslim Village, despite not being armed, would still have to develop the means of ensuring the safety and collective security of all villagers. This cannot be a Village in which people have to live like prisoners with iron bars on every window of their homes, and with expensive security and burglar-alarm systems installed in every home. Security in the Village should be such that even a woman can walk in and around the Village at night in complete safety and security. This security of the Muslim Village would make a tremendous political statement to the rest of the beleaguered nation.
• The entire guidance which emerges from the Qur’an and Sunnah and which must be applied to the task of establishing the micro-Muslim communities in Muslim Villages, needs to be extracted and classified. And this is precisely the task that Maulana Dr. Ansari has accomplished in his magnificent work entitled ‘The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society’. He has also articulated the concept of Islamic spirituality with great care and with quite some detail, and in so doing he has answered critics who had not even emerged at the time that the book was written. But ‘spirituality’ cannot be achieved unless there is a prior moral struggle for purity. One of the major achievements of his book is its detailed exposition and classification of the Islamic moral code and the beautiful explanation and guidance that it provides of the methodology of Tazkiyah (i.e., moral purification) and of Zikr (i.e., the fragrance which only true love can deliver when it embraces the heart and provokes, in the privacy of the heart, a constant remembrance of the beloved). • “The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society” constitutes a textbook, workbook and a veritable manual for the survival of Muslims of the present age. I intend to use this book as my manual for establishing the authentic Muslim community in Muslim Villages wherever I can. I pray that the reader will also be inspired to do the same. Amin!
Before this essay ends there is a warning that must be entered into the record. It is this. The secular state and secular political system that Muslims have inherited from Britain and Europe is one which requires an essential homogeneity of godlessness in the polity in order for it to work. European civilization achieved that homogeneity in the emergence of an essentially godless secular way of life. The rest of the world does not yet possess that essential homogeneity. And so it was hardly surprising that racially and tribally divisive politics should have plagued non-European polities from the very beginning of self-rule. Indeed it has now reached dead-end and there is a distinct possibility that it can lead to racial riots. If Muslims remain a part of the system of electoral politics and identify themselves politically with the party of their race, they will remain the most vulnerable of all groups to be targeted when racial riots begin. When they raise their hands in prayer at that time of bloodshed and killing, and find to their dismay that they receive no help from above, they may then understand the verse of the Qur’an which warns that Allah will not change the condition of a people until they (the people) take the initiative, using Allah’s guidance, to change their own condition (Qur’an, ar-R’ad, 13:11). That is the basic function this essay seeks to perform.
CONCLUSION
This writer has based his arguments on the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Sunnah of the blessed Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam), to the effect that participation in electoral politics in the modern secular state constitutes Shirk and Kufr. In the event of disagreement with the view expressed in this essay, scholars should respond with arguments based on the Qur’an, Hadith and the Sunnah of the blessed Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). They should declare the specific conditions in which it would be Halal for believers to vote in national elections. For example, can a believer vote for an idol-worshipping Hindu, or for an enemy of Islam, a liar, a drunkard, a thief, an adulterer, a moneylender, who owns shares in a bank or is a bank director etc.? Can he vote in elections on the basis of racial solidarity or on the basis of a trade: “We will vote for you on the condition that we get such and such from you.” Can he vote for a political party that is committed to supporting the Zionist State of Israel in its continuing occupation of, and oppression in, the Holy Land and Masjid al-Aqsa? Can he vote for a political party that supports the legalization of the lending of money on interest, lottery, homosexuality and abortion?
The blessed Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) declared: What is Halal (permissible) is clear! And what is Haram (prohibited) is clear! Abstain from whatever is doubtful! It now remains for the Islamic scholars, who are the guides of the believers, to declare whether it is Halal for Muslims to participate in electoral politics in the modern secular state. In order to deliver an unambiguously positive answer the scholars must demonstrate, firstly, that it is not Haram to do so, and secondly, that it is not ‘doubtful’ to do so. And they must establish their response on the authoritative foundations of the Qur’an and the authentic Hadith. If they do not do so, and still insist that Muslims can vote in elections, then such scholars are very dangerous people and should be avoided like a plague. Those who insist on following such scholars should pause to reflect over the terror of the Day of Judgment: “Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, The people would sweat so profusely on the Day of Resurrection that their sweat would sink seventy cubits deep into the earth, and it will rise up till it reaches the people’s mouths and ears.”
(Sahih, Bukhari)