What Went Wrong With Caliphate?
By Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam
19 February 2021
Since the dawn of Prophethood which culminated and ended
with the revelation of the Last Testament i.e. Quran on Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh), the world witnessed emergence, evolution and now estrangement with a
civilization known as Muslim Civilization. As is held by the Muslim faith this
message enshrined in the Holy Quran is the final one till Doomsday hence
complete in every aspect and guidance in every sphere of life. It is in keeping
view with this Universal message of Islam and Quran that the first generation
of Muslims were able to dominate all the spheres of life whether social,
political, economic, cultural, literary and educational unlike its immediate
rival Christianity which believed in the doctrine of ‘Give God what is God’s
and Give Caesar what is Caesar’s’, Islam did not believe in such water tight
compartmentalization. The teachings, injunctions and commandments of Islam held
an upperhand in all the spheres of human activity and politics was no
exception.
Khilafat wa Malukiyat (Caliphate and Monarchy)
Author Maulana Abul Ala Maududi
Publisher - Markazi Maktaba Islami Publishers, New
Delhi India
Edition - 2018
Pages 344 Price Rs. 220
During the second half of Prophet’s Mission in Medina and
later on completed by the four righteous Caliphs, the mankind witnessed a
pious, accountable and transparent system of politics i.e. Caliphate which
compelled even the hostile historian like Arnold J Toynbee to state that
“Muhammad (pbuh) failed as a Prophet but succeeded as a Politician” though
politics was only an aspect of Prophet’s illustrious life. His legacy later
presented before the world a unique, practicable and dynamic system of
governance as an ideal which was not utopian. It was a Just, humane, tolerant
and unique system of politics while politics still is demeaned as a Dirty Game
of wicked minds.
What went wrong with this Just and Ideal system of Politics
and Governance i.e Caliphate and why it could not sustain for a long time is
the subject matter of the present book under review by the renowned scholar,
thinker and prolific writer on Islam Maulana Abul Ala Maududi. The title as is
self-evident traces the causes of retrograding Caliphate into monarchy and
describes the various reasons responsible for this phenomena, the stages
through which monarchy made a comeback, the ill effects of tussle between the
forces of monarchy and caliphate which ultimately gave birth to various new
deviant sects within Muslims, the bloodshed which followed the tussle, the
attempts to revive the caliphate to its pristine purity and their failure. The individual attempts at revival of Imam
Abu Hanifa and his student Imam Abu Yusuf to consolidate and put pace to the
further deteriorating conditions of Muslim masses and bind them once again as Ummah
were not successful. The book ends with a chapter rebutting the queries and
criticism raised by opponents of Maududi’s views as presented in the book.
Maududi opened up serious debate and gave birth to big
controversy which still has not reached its logical conclusion. Through a meticulous compilation of
historical data he has unleashed the fact which actually expounds the myth that
Companions of Prophet(Suhaba) being infallible, though Maududi never suspects
the intentions of the Suhaba, still he does not let them go free as he defends
vociferously his arguments by legitimate justifications and historical data
that they committed mistakes which ultimately led to the doom of caliphate
whose decline initiated during the tenure of third Caliph Usman(RA) by his meek
nature and loose administration whose undue advantage was taken by his selfish
relatives resulting in the growing resentment among the masses.
All this resentment at last erupted into violence first
leading to the martyrdom of Usman (RA), then Ali (RA) and later his son
Hussain(RA) at the battle of Karbala and many others like Abdullah bin
Zubair(RA) who all attempted to put the wheels of Caliphate back on its rails
but all in vain. During this whole period of chaos and confusion thousands of Suhaba
were killed or brutally massacred and numerous others suffered persecution at
the hands of tyrant rulers.
This period is first among the dark periods of Muslims after
Prophet(SAW) hence most muslim scholars try to keep these events in oblivion,
but Maududi opened the Pandora’s Box hence was the butt of ridicule, but he did
the pioneering job best suited for him as a scholar to lay threadbare all the
events and shortcomings within the Muslims thus calling them towards
introspection.
Maulana Maududi in chapter six of the book while debating
about the initiation of religious sectarianism among Muslims acknowledges that
not only political situation was responsible for the growth of these sects but
fails to enumerate the other factors responsible for this malice. These were
very cruel times: there were relentless persecutions and ruthless blood
shedding in the Muslim world for the Umayyad hegemony.
The growth of Mutazalism was also a result of the
translation of Greek philosophy books into Arabic which paved way for the new
discussions and growth of sects like mutazalism. Maulana is factual enough
while acknowledging the contribution of two stalwarts of Muslim Jurisprudence
who laid the foundation of Hanafi Madhab (School of thought) but seems to
ignore about the contributions made by the Sufis who revitalized and rekindled
the thirst and desire among the masses to follow, understand and spread Islamic
teachings. Sufis were the persons who after witnessing the failure of revival
attempts of Khilafa focused and concentrated only on the religious,
humane, pluralistic and universal teachings of Islam which laid the strong
foundation of Muslim civilization and paved way for millions to enter the fold
of Islam, which politics had reduced to a mere cult where attacks and counter
attacks had reduced Muslims to penury and there were grave implications that
the Muslims would retrograde to apostasy, but the strenuous, selfless and
dedicated efforts of Sufis turned the hostile tide in their favor.
It must be kept in mind that Sufis were unlike monastics of
Christianity or monks of Buddhism unconcerned with the mundane day to day
affairs but they were abreast with the developments around as well as socially
engaged and missed no opportunity to set the political system on the right
track, though they tried to remain aloof from the echelons of power.
Maududi very explicitly and lucidly describes all the
details vividly but fails to raise one brutally honest question for which he
formed Jamaat e Islami(JeI) in 1941 and which he defended and fought for all
his life i.e. Creation of an Islamic State. “If the Suhaba Trained and
benefited by the companionship, leadership, teaching and Tazkiya of
Prophet(SAW) could not sustain Caliphate and stop it from derailing into
monarchy, how can Maulana Maududi or his JeI first train, then establish and
after that sustain a similar Caliphate read Islamic State in Maududi’s terms?”.
Experience, efforts and events till now have proved that the
utopian dream of Maulana Maududi has not yet been realized and still no
apparent reasons make one believe and hopeful about the establishment of
Islamic state. Altogether the book is an adorable read and opens new vistas to
think on the less tread path and is indispensable for any student of Muslim
Politics or a serious reader who wants to know what went wrong with System of
Caliphate.
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M.H.A. Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar,
Kashmir.
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/went-wrong-with-caliphate/d/124347
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