The Islamic State is based on the Islamic ideology and derives its strength solely from that ideology. It is its main cause of progress and prosperity and the basis of its existence. The Islamic State came into existence and established itself in a powerful fashion due to the strength of Islam. It consolidated large areas of the world in the space of less than a century despite the fact that horses and camels were its only means of transportation, and all its conquered peoples, and nations embraced Islam within a short period of time despite the fact that its means of communication were limited to the word of mouth and pen. Islam made all this possible by being the driving force behind the State.
The enemies of Islam realized this and knew that the weakening of the Islamic State would be impossible as long as Islam remained strong and deeply rooted within the hearts and minds of the Muslims, and as long as the understanding of Islam remained sound and its implementation accurate and comprehensive. Therefore, the Kuffar resorted to finding the means which would weaken the Muslims’ understanding of Islam and their implementation of its rules.
The methods which the enemies of Islam used to weaken its understanding were numerous. Some were related to the text and others to the language used in conveying and teaching it, still other methods used were related to Islam’s relevance with reality. They set about adding false narrations to the Ahadeeth of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) which were never said, and they managed to fabricate and include in them non-Islamic meanings and concepts that contradicted Islam in the hope that these would be adopted by the Muslims and thus deviate them and alienate them from Islam. Indeed, they managed to do just that, and they spread these false Ahadeeth among the people. The Muslims came to be alarmed by this and they in turn divulged the evil schemes of those Zanadiqah (heretics). The Muslims smashed their evil ring and aborted their conspiracy. Scholars and Ahadeeth experts then rose to the challenge and began gathering and listing the Ahadeeth by relating each Ahadeeth to the narrator, his qualification, and the date each Ahadeeth was narrated, underlining each Ahadeeth and classifying it. The Ahadeeth was either classified as Sahih (genuine) and Da’if (weak) and were protected. The narrations of the Ahadeeth were restricted to the three generations after the Sahabah and no other narration reported after them was accepted. The narrators were all individually identified and the books of Ahadeeth were also classified accordingly until the Muslims were able to relate the authenticity of any Ahadeeth by relating its text and chain of narrators. The Islamic State dealt harshly with those Zanadiqah and most of them were actually executed for their part in falsifying and fabricating the Ahadeeth of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh). Overall, the conspiracy did not have any damaging effect on Islam nor the State.
The enemies of Islam then resorted to attacking the Arabic language as this is the language2 by which Islam and its rules are conveyed and they attempted to divorce it from Islam. They did not succeed at first because the Muslims went forward in their conquests armed with the Book, the Sunnah and the Arabic language and they would teach the people all three. The people embraced Islam and became fluent in Arabic and some of the non Arabs actually became distinguished Mujtahideen like Imam Abu Hanifah. Others became exceptional poets like Bashar ibn Burd and some became eloquent writers like Ibn al-Muqaffa’. The Muslims devoted a great deal of attention to the Arabic language. Imam Shafi’i disallowed the translation of Qur’an and disallowed praying other than in Arabic. Those who did endorse the translation of Qur’an, like Imam Abu Hanifah, in any case did not call the translated text Qur’an at all. Arabic remained the focus of attention because it is the fundamental part of Islam and a necessary prerequisite of Ijtihad. The understanding of Islam from its sources does not come about but in Arabic and the extraction of the Shari’yah cannot be accomplished except in Arabic. However, the attention, care and importance given to the Arabic language diminished by the end of the sixth century Hijri when the rulers, who did not appreciate and realize the importance of the Arabic language, came to power. They, therefore, neglected that area and as a result Ijtihad was stalled due to the lack of fluency in the Arabic language, one of the main ingredients in deducing the Shari’yah. At this stage, the Arabic language became separated from Islam and the State’s understanding of the Shari’yah became blurred and as a consequence the implementation of the rules also became blurred. This contributed a great deal towards the ailing of the State. It became diminished in its ability to understand and tackle new issues, thus leading to its failure to solve the problems that arose or to solving them in an erroneous way. As a result, problems accumulated in the face of the State and this caused it to become overwhelmed.
2Translator - Muslims witnessed during their history atempts of Shu’ubiyyah (anti-Arabism and Arabic language sentiments) in the days of Ummayds and Abbasids and attempts of some Persians to take over the State in the days of Abbasids. These movements left their effects on the Arabic language. Later on, in the modern history, the onslaught against Arabic language started having different shapes and it was fuelled by European nations.
This was as far as the Islamic texts and the language were concerned. As for the applicability of Islam to the realities of life, the dangerous trend of reconciling Indian philosophy with Islam emerged. The seeking of the Hereafter was achieved through asceticism and self deprivation and this led many people to turn away from life’s pleasures and to adopt a passive life. They renounced their role of being active members of society and consequently this resulted in a big loss to the Islamic State and Muslims in general. As a result of this, the State lost many talented young men who could have devoted themselves to the Message of Islam, instead of resorting to asceticism and self deprivation.
Later, the cultural invasion by the West brought with it a culture alien to Islam, the West duped the Muslims by claiming that they took this culture from them and that the systems which it brought did not contradict the Islamic rules. The West had brought legislation which contravened the Shari’yah. This affected the Muslims to a great extent and led to the encroachment of Western culture and influenced the Muslims. The Muslims began to see life as being based on benefit. During the ‘Uthmani Khilafah’s rule, some Western laws were adopted, a Western banking system was established, Riba justified, and the penal code stalled and replaced by Western penal codes. Despite the fact that Fatawa were issued to justify such acts they had a disastrous effect on the State and led her astray from the Islamic rule. This deviation from Islam extinguished the strong Iman Muslims once had, took the State away from the right path, and subsequently led to its weakness and disintegration.
This was as far as understanding Islam was concerned, as for its implementation, many factors contributed to the misapplication of the Shari’yah. One such factor was the political parties, each one wanting to impose their own opinion and resorting to military means in order to seize authority and rule. The Abbasids did just that by seizing Persia and Iraq and using them as a platform until they had managed to capture total power and restrict the function of ruling to the clan of Banu Hashim. Then came the Fatimids. They took over the Wilayah of Egypt and established a state there so as to use it as a support point with the ultimate aim of transferring the rule of the Islamic State to the sons of Fatimah, daughter of Allah’s Messenger (pbuh). Their action caused a setback to the Islamic State and stalled the Jihad, while it resulted in the establishment of a second power vying for control over the Khilafah despite the fact that the Islamic State is a state of unity and it is forbidden for the Muslims to have more than one Khaleefah at the same time. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said in reference to this, “If a pledge of allegiance is taken for two Khulafah, kill the latter of them.”
These factors contributed greatly to the weakening of the State, as well as leading to a suspension of the conquests and thereby resulting in neglect towards conveying the Message of Islam.
However, what in fact led those political parties to resort to that type of methodology in order to seize power, was as a result of what took place during the rule of the Ummayads. The Ummayads introduced the method of handing over the Khilafah to the heir apparent, who was then given the Ba’yah. This turned the Ba’yah into a mere protocol and killed the hope of reaching the position of ruling by its means. Mu’awiyah for instance passed on the authority to his son and took the Ba’yah for him later. Subsequently, every Khalifah followed the same trend, taking an oath for their heirs and then asking the people to give them the Ba’yah. The people were restricted to giving the Ba’yah to whoever the Khalifah had nominated, and rarely giving the Ba’yah to anyone else. This method pushed those political parties to resort to force in order to seize power. Despite the fact that Abu Bakr adopted the method of nomination, its misapplication by the Ummayads led to those problems arising. Abu Bakr had in fact consulted the Muslims over this issue and as a result ‘Umar and ‘Ali emerged as the two candidates. Nomination was then given to ‘Umar and he was elected as Khalifah after the death of Abu Bakr. ‘Umar took the Ba’yah from the Ummah. This was actually in accordance with the Shari’yah. The Khulafah of Bani Umayyah misapplied this rule and nominated their sons, brothers or relatives. In some cases, they even nominated more than one person. Such misapplication led to the deprivation of the Muslims from giving the Ba’yah to whoever they wished and this in turn led to the weakening of the State. At first, this did not have much effect on the State because it was so powerful, but the signs of cracking soon emerged.
Misapplication was not simply confined to the State. The Wilayat came to be infected by the same malaise. The Abbasids’ silence over the action of ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil in Andalus ensured this. His action led to the amputation of a big part of the State when he ruled Andalus independently, as did the governors who succeeded him, some of them even acquired the title of Amir al-Mu’mineen. Although, Andalus did not declare total independence from the Islamic State. It was, nevertheless, ruled separately and this resulted in weakness creeping into the State’s structure.
Eventually this facilitated its seizure by the disbelievers while the Islamic State was at the height of its glory and at its most formidable strength. The State could do little to save Andalus’ downfall and this was due to the disintegration of Andalus’ administration. That occurred on the Western front. In the East, the Wulaa’ were given general and wide mandatory powers which triggered their ego. They began to operate their Wilayat according to their own way and the Khaleefah agreed to this state of affairs. He was content with the praise which he received from their pulpit and by the mention that decisions were taken on his behalf or by the issuance of currency bearing his name or with the continued receipt of Kharaj revenues from them. These Wilayat became small independent entity. This was the case with the Wilayat of Saljuqiyyeen and Hamdaniyyeen and many others. This too became a contributory factor in the weakening of the State.
Following this period came the ‘Uthmanis and the power shifted to them. The ‘Uthmani Khilafah united most of the Muslim lands under its leadership. They initiated Jihad throughout Europe and resumed the conveyance of the Message of Islam. However, this outburst in activity was only backed by the solid Iman of the first ‘Uthmani Khulafah and the military might of the army, and not on a clear understanding of the Islamic concepts and comprehensive implementation of Islam. Therefore, these conquests did not achieve what the conquests of old had achieved, and the strength of the rulers did not embrace all areas of the Islamic State. Consequently, the State soon waned, eventually collapsing until it finally ceased to function. This was as a direct result of the factors mentioned coupled with the many conspiracies brewing against the State.
The factors which contributed to the weakness of the State can be summarized into two main reasons: the weak and defocused understanding of Islam and the resultant misapplication of its Divine rules. Therefore, only a clear understanding of Islam would bring back the Islamic State. The maintenance of the State would rely on its strength of safeguarding such a clear understanding, and the proper implementation of its Shari’yah at home and the conveyance of its Message of Islam to the world.