Islamic Retreat (Day Seven)

October 30, 12:19 AMSF Muslim ExaminerDavi Barker

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The final day of the retreat

Session One: Islam and it's Political Order

Today, at the end of the retreat, we returned to the subject of sovereignty. Imran Hosein describes the Islamic Caliphate, and the shirk of the modern secular claim to sovereignty. He also presents a very brief history of the fall of the Islamic Caliphate, and argues that secularism replaces sincere faith in God with nationalism.

The juxtaposition is demonstrated by the story of Dhul-Qarnayn, who has significance in two ages. The first is an age when power rests on the foundations of faith, and is used to protect the powerless. The second age is our age, when power rests on essentially godless foundations, and is used to oppress the powerless.

An example of the first age is the Holy State of Israel. In Biblical Israel prophets, like David and Solomon, were kings. The political order was built on four basic foundations.

1. The state was subservient to God
2. The state was ruled by a vicegerent of God
3. The state was subject to the law of God
4. Sovereignty belonged to God, not to the state

These are precisely the foundations on which Muhammad built the political order in Medina, with one exception. In Medina the political order accommodated many diverse tribes, many of which were nonbelievers. In this way pluralism was possible in society.

Ideal secularism accomplishes pluralism by affording equal status to each individual by placing the sovereignty of the state above the sovereignty of God. Western civilization saw the need for pluralism after suffering the predation of a church with a monopoly on power. And so, taking the monopoly away from the church and giving it to the state was fair seeming. Yet, today we still find power used to oppress the powerless.

The problem is monopoly. You cannot protect pluralism by creating a monopoly.

An ideal Islamic political order accomplishes pluralism differently. Keep in mind that not one modern "Islamic" country is run this way, but it is an ideal many hope to manifest in the world. Although it has been abandoned throughout the Muslim world, the exemplary model of an Islamic political order is the State, or Mithaq, of Medina in the time of Prophet Muhammad.

In Medina pluralism was accomplished by affording self determination to each tribe by respecting them as separate units of society. So, the Muslims in Medina made up one unit of society. Within that community Shariah law was enforced. But non-Muslims were not subject to Islamic law. Instead each of the Jewish tribes, and each of the pagan tribes were recognized as independent units of society, and to the extent that there was division within a community they created additional units. Each of these units were free to practice it's own religion, to form it's own judiciaries, and live by it’s own laws, not Islamic law.

These independent units formed a state only to the extent that they negotiated a constitutional agreement, the first written constitution in history, that outlined the basic rights and responsibilities of the individual units within society. This included a mutual protection pact to defend one another from outside attacks, a non aggression pact to prohibit attacks from within, and a system of arbitration, to impartially settle disputes between communities. The state only became involved when one unit of society commit aggression or fraud against another. In this way every community was free to place God’s sovereignty above the state, and free to live according to their conception of divine law without imposing it on others.

Within the Islamic unit of the State of Medina a Muslim from Medina and a Muslim from China has equal status. There are four basic rights that any Muslim from any land has in such a state.

1. The right enter
2. The right to reside
3. The right to earn a livelihood
4. The right to participate in the political process

No so-called "Islamic" government in the world provides these rights. Saudi Arabia abandoned this model of government long ago. The only state in the world where this model of government exists is the modern secular state of Israel, which provides these rights to Jews.

The Islamic conception of an international order is one in which a central state exists, as in the State of Medina or the Holy State of Israel, which is lead by a vicegerent of God, or Caliph in Arabic. Offers of peace treaties and non aggression pacts are extended to neighboring tribes and empires. State power should only be used to protect the powerless and to punish the oppressors, and fighting should only be as a last resort after all possible peaceful means to resolve conflict has been exhausted. In fact, Muhammad instructed the Muslims that even if a conflict came to the battlefield they were not to attack until the enemy had killed one of their men. This principle was exemplified by the Battle of Tabouk when the Arab tribes faced a Byzantine army. No actual fighting took place, and it resulted in a standoff and safe retreat for both sides. There is no conception of a preemptive strike in the Islamic conception of an international order.

Session Two: A brief history of the fall of the Islamic Caliphate

The modern age has produced a military power unprecedented in the history of mankind. A power which is used to oppress the powerless. Shaikh Imran argues that this power, which rests on godless foundations, is Gog and Magog. A unique alliance whose objective has been to seize control of the Holy Land, and preside over the creation of a secular state of Israel so that a man can appear to rule the world from Jerusalem and claim to be the Messiah. This man will be the Anti Christ, as the Prophet taught us 1430 years ago. In order for this objective to be achieved it was necessary for Gog and Magog to cut off the head of the Islamic Caliphate, and replace it with divided secular nations. Otherwise there would always be an international power in the world that would mobilize to protect the powerless and to punish the oppressor.

The Caliph was seated in Istanbul when the Ottoman Empire began to decline. The economy was penetrated by international bankers lending on interest, and by 1896 riba had so infested the Ottoman economy that the Caliphate could not maintain the payments. Sultan Abdulhamid II was visited by Theodor Herzl, today regarded as the father of the Zionist movement. Using the same financial blackmail described in "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins, Herzl offered to "negotiate" the loans of the Ottoman State in return for Palestine. Abdulhamid refused, but this death grip on the Ottoman economy allowed them to manipulate it's policies, and eventually pressure them to enter into World War I against the better judgment of the Caliph.

During the war the British established two clients in Arabia. Hussein bin Ali, who was the appointed Shareef of Mecca, assisted the British against the Ottoman Empire in exchange for seven million pounds sterling. His rival, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, who was allied with the Wahhabi movement in Riyadh, assisted the British for five thousand pounds sterling a month. The region of Arabia was not significant to the secular motivations of the war. Their aim was to undermine the credibility of Caliph by removing his control of the Hajj.

In 1917 when Edmund Allenby lead the British army into Jerusalem he said, "Today the Crusades have ended." So, it is clear that secular Britain was pursuing a religious objective. Palestine remained a British territory until the secular state of Israel was established.

By 1919 the war was over and the Ottoman Empire was carved up by the Western powers. Iraq was created, Transjordan was created, Syria was created, Lebanon was created, and a new model of government emerged as the Ottoman Empire was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The state no longer recognized divine sovereignty. Now Sovereignty was with the state. The state no longer recognized divine law. Now supreme law was with the parliament. And in 1924, on orders from London, The Turkish National Assembly, lead by Mustafa Ataturk, abolished the Caliphate. The state was no longer ruled by a vicegerent of God. In short, although the population was Muslim, the state was no longer built on foundations of faith.

It was not sufficient to abolish the Caliphate in Istanbul. It was necessary, before Israel could be established, to prevent the Muslims from reestablishing the Caliphate. In short it was necessary for Gog and Magog to maintain control of Arabia, because no Caliph would be accepted by the Muslims who could not control the Hajj. But Arabia could not be ruled directly by Western powers without a global uprising of Muslims. Instead it had to be ruled by a client state.

Four days after the Caliph in Istanbul was abolished, Hussein bin Ali, the Shareef of Mecca, declared himself Caliph. Even though he has helped the British during the war, now he'd crossed his British-Zionists handlers whose objective was to emasculate the Muslim world so that the secular state of Israel could be established. So, they put their support, both financial and military, behind Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, and the Wahhabi movement to attack Hussein and take control of Arabia. Although the Wahhabi movement claimed to represent the authentic teachings of Islam, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud did not claim the Caliphate. Instead they transformed the heartland of Islam into the modern state of Saudi Arabia, a European style monarchy, who's power rests on godless foundations. The Saudi-Wahhabi regime maintained the paraphernalia of an Islamic state, but was essencially a client of Western powers. Now no one can reestablish the Caliphate without gaining control of Mecca, and no one can control Mecca so long as the Saudis are supported militarily by Western powers. Further, the Saudis can't claim the Caliphate for themselves, because they are clients, and they know if they cross their American handlers they will be destroyed.

Today we live in an age when an Islamic political order is impossible to restore until Arabia is liberated. But this cannot be done, as most Islamic movements attempt, by forming Islamic parties and working within the political system. The system itself is infested with shirk, and essentially godless, because in order achieve any success in the political process you must bow the constitution of that system, which declairs the state sovereign, and by implication that God is not. To work within that system you agree to make halal what Allah made harram, and make harram what Allah made halal.

The Shaikh insists that the only viable strategy is to recognize that we live in that age when the barrier built by Dhul-Qarnayn has come down. He insists that we must take our strategy from Surah Kahf, which the prophet connected with the age of Dajjal, and emulate the people of the cave. We must withdraw ourselves from this godless society to preserve our faith. Since we can't establish an authentic Islamic order at the macro level, we must establish many authentic Islamic orders at the micro level, and that is the Muslim village.