The Outdated Concept Of Darul Harb And Darul Islam: Is It Time For A New Political Language In Islam?
By
Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef, New Age Islam
15 August
2022
Al-Marwerdy,
Abu Yala, Ibn Taqtaqi, Farabi, Nasiri, Zia Barni, And Other Thinkers Are Cited
By Our Academics And Political Theorists, Their Theories And Opinions Were
Pertinent At The Time They Were Made, But They Are No Longer Relevant
Main
Points:
1. The concept
of Darul Harb and Darul Islam has become outdated now, so Muslim scholars must
also forsake this outlook.
2. There should
be differentiation between principles and actual historical events.
3. And
therefore, Islamic history must not be treated as a Shariah source at par with
other textual basic Shariah ideals.
4. A new
political language of Islam is the need of the hour.
----
Jafer bin
Abitalib stood up and recited a few verses from the holy Quran's chapter Merry
(19) in a persuasive and illuminating manner. The entire court became silent
and was fascinated by the majestic Divine words. King Najashi eventually broke
the serene and profound silence and addressed Jafar and his colleagues, the
asylum seekers, saying, " vow! What magnificent and amazing words you
spoke! Naturally, the source of both these verses and the holy Bible is the
same. I'm happy to have you and your friends in my realm. Nobody can touch you
here. Then he turned to Makkan emissary Amr and his delegation members and told
them to return to Makka and not think of harming the Muslim migrants.
The
persecuted Muslim migrants to Abyssinia (Habsha) lived peacefully and freely in
this welcoming land for an extended period of time under the blissful shadow of
a Christian kingdom. The then king himself is reported to have become a Muslim,
yet the kingdom by and large remained a Christian country. During the Muslim
stay, it also once happened that a neighbourly country invaded Abyssinia. At
this point of time the Muslim refugee minority not only made prayers and
supplications for the Abyssinian army to be victorious but also physically
joined the Abyssinian army, defended the country, and defeated the enemy.
It is also
to be noted that this Muslim minority stayed in Abyssinia for years and
returned to Madinah after the conquest of Khyber. In the meantime, the Prophet
(PBUH) did not tell them to start Jihad there and try to take over the country
or to gain political influence in the Abyssinian court. This is setting a model
for Muslim minorities around the world today. These Muslim minorities should
try their best to prove beneficial to the respective countries and not become a
political rivals posing a threat to majority community like the refugees of
Abyssinia did. They stayed there for a long time, yet they were not ordered to
engage in any fight with their hosts for capturing political power or some other
mileage.
So this was
the first Muslim encounter with a major world religion, Christianity. It was an
exceptionally positive cohabitation between the two big Abrahamic religions and
unparalleled interfaith understanding between the two great cultures and two
world civilizations.
The prophet
was encouraged by Divine massage to do that when it says: قل
يااهل الكتاب تعالواإلى كلمة
سواء بيننا وبينكم
“O
people of the book, come with us on a common platform between you and us.”
(Quran,3:64)
In Makkah,
the prophet and his companions had been victims of severe religious persecution
for 13 years. When they eventually migrated to Madina, the prophet did not
leave any stone unturned to make positive contacts with the major faction of
the people of the book; the Jewish community there. As a result, he engaged
them into a negotiated fraternal agreement known as Meesaq e Madinah in Sirah
literature. It was the earliest written charter of any state in human history,
according to a prominent Islamic scholar like Dr. Hameedullah. It was the
charter of a common city-state. With this charter, the citizens of Madinan city
state invested final political authority in the hands of Prophet Mohammad
(PBUH) as the sole representative of the newly fast emerging Muslim majority community.
However, safeguarding all the religious freedoms of Jews and giving them the
status of the equal citizenry of that city-state. Ibn Hisham reported that the
pact clearly declared that:
وإن يهود بني عوف
أمة مع المؤمنين،للمسلمين دينهم
ولليهود دينهم
ولهم ماعليهم
“And the Jews of Bani Auf are a componential
part of this Muslim nation. Muslims are free in their religion, likewise Jews
are also free in their religion. As for responsibilities, it will be shared by
both”.
This
generous handling of events and the friendly atmosphere did not persist for
long, because on the one hand Makkan pagans attacked the fledgling Madinan
state, and on the other, unanticipated Jewish defection, betrayal and
hostilities at home. Soon, the blessed prophet was compelled to take action and
take sword in his hand to defend his faith, community, and state. In the last
phase of his life, the prophet faced a sustained foreign armed intervention in
Arabia by the two big neighbouring empires; the Sasanids of Persia and the
Byzantine of Rome. This resulted in hectic warfare with both empires
immediately after his death.
In the
beginning, it was limited to defensive operations, but the best defence is
considered a proactive attack on the advancing enemy. According to this
principle, the Arab Muslims soon moved from defence to action. Small but
enthusiastic and religiously fervent Bedouin Arab armies suddenly went out on a
conquest spree. They were setting new rules, new parameters of morality, and a new
cultural and civilizational bearing on the world. This is a concise summary of
the political history of Islam, its effects and implications, as well as a
history of political domination of it. In this regard, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
states: "Islam came for love and peace, but was met with hostilities and
imposed battles; therefore, when it was assaulted, it retaliated back and did
not retreat from the battlefield."
The point
that whether Islam's political norms and principles are drawn from its moral
teachings and spiritual essence or from its political history is now the one
that is asked most frequently. Scholars and Ulama have varying opinions on
that. The consensus among all jurists and traditional Ulama is that Islamic
Dawah history should be regarded as an unchanging source of Shariah in
questions of politics. However, a select handful of modernist reformers,
including Maulana Waheeduddin Khan and Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, seem to believe
that we should make a distinction between Islam as a whole and its checkered
history too. Anyway, the question arises here, had Islamic history been
different from what it turned out to be, what would be the net result?
Whenever
Muslim jurists, Ulama, and scholars in contemporary times discuss Muslim
non-Muslim relations or write on Islamic political thoughts, they in this
regard always start by dividing the world into two categories. Darul Harb
(adobe of Kufr or fighting) and Darul Islam (adobe of peace). Along with
some other sub-categories as Darul Ahd, Darul Aman, Darul Kufr, etc.
Their treatment of the discussion and using these old terms have no relevance
in contemporary times. Now the world has changed drastically. There is no
caliphate, no Darul Harb no Darul Islam etc. All these things went to the
dustbin of history with no possibility of return. Now only nation-states
remain. Furthermore, this is also departing from parochial nationalism to a
broader internationalism. This is why I think a new Islamic political theory
should be evolved now. And as an essential part of the discourse a new
political language is also needed to be invented and evolved. As the concepts
of Darul Harb and Darul Islam etc., are not based on Quranic texts or derived
from Hadees directly, they were the result of the fertile imagination of our jurists
during the Abbasid period and a product of political circumstances in those
times. One can’t deny that all the Islamic sciences were influenced naturally
by the hegemonic Muslim mindset developed During Abbasid Caliphate.
Similarly,
the altered political landscape of today necessitates a fresh look at this
issue. The point is that Muslim minorities around the world comprise nearly 40%
of total world Muslim population. So in postulating any political principle
this huge number cannot be ignored outrightly.
Al-Marwerdy,
Abu Yala, Ibn Taqtaqi, Farabi, Nasiri, Zia Barni, and other thinkers are cited
by our academics and political theorists. Their theories and opinions were
pertinent at the time they were made, but they are no longer relevant. So why
do we persist in using those outdated theorems?
-----
A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef is a Research
Associate with the Centre for Promotion of Educational and Cultural Advancement
of Muslims of India, AMU Aligarh.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/darul-harb-political-language-islam/d/127715
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