Minimum Qualifications for a Government to Be Called Islamic Caliphate
By Aftab Ahmad, New Age Islam
4 August 2014
According to the Quran and Hadith, an Islamic government should be based on the following principles:
1) The ruler should be elected by a council of the elders of the society and accepted by the common people.
2) The ruler should be a pious, God-fearing person and a follower of the Quran and Sunnah.
3) He should not have a dubious past as a murderer or criminal.
4) All the subjects should be treated equally and justly. There should be no discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, religion, race etc.
5) The places of worship of the minorities should not be destroyed. The minorities will have the right to repair or build their places of worship and manage and govern them.
6) Minorities should not be forced to accept Islam and their women and girls should not be forcefully taken into marriage by Muslims.
7) No group of Muslims should be killed by Muslims or the Islamic government on the basis of sectarian ideologies.
8) There should be no ban on education branding them modern or western as the Quran does not categorise education as Islamic or un-Islamic. In fact, Islam encourages scientific education.
9) Purdah is not imposed on women forcefully though there should be a model dress code for dressing of men and women. The Quran makes some relaxation for old women and the girls who do not hope of getting married as they have become old in terms of Purdah. So imposing a universal Purdah is against the principles of the Quran.
10) There should not be any violation of religious rights of the minorities related to the food habits, lifestyle and business rights as long as they do not impinge on the human rights of other communities in the country.
11) Minorities should not be discriminated against in government jobs as one of the office secretaries of Prophet Muhammad pbuh was a Jew.
12) There should be no ban on girls’ education as the holy Prophet pbuh encouraged education among both men and women.
In light of the above-mentioned points, we can look at the so-called caliphate of Abu Bakr Baghdadi and find out if it qualifies to be accepted as the legitimate caliphate of the Muslims.
1) Abu Bakr Baghdadi had been associated with Al Qaida, a terrorist organisation, and has taken part or supported the suicide bombings and indiscriminate explosions in market-places and residential areas killing innocent, non-combatant people including children and women.
2) He has not been elected as the caliph in a democratic process and does not have acceptance from all the sections of Iraq. He calls himself as the caliph of only the Sunnis.
3) In his caliphate, Christians, Shias and political and ideological opponents are summarily executed after being branded Kafirs. Their places of worship have either been destroyed or turned into the government offices of ISIS. Christians and Shias are fleeing the area captured by them and taking shelter in other parts of Iraq.
4) Christians in their captured territories are being forced to accept Islam.
5) Universal Purdah has been imposed on women in their territory and women are told not to venture out without a Mahram which was not the norm at the time of the Prophet pbuh. The Quran also does not impose Purdah on female children, old women and girls who do not hope of getting married.
Therefore, it can be concluded that Abu Bakr Baghdadi’s so called caliphate is not in accordance with the Quran and the Sunnah and, therefore, does not qualify to be recognised as a true Islamic caliphate.
Aftab Ahmad is a columnist for New Age Islam. He has been studying the Holy Quran for some time
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