Thirdly, due to the waning authority of the Islamic State from many of the Islamic countries, its subjugation to the authority of kufr and later due to the collapse of the Islamic State and its termination, the existence of the Islamic State in the minds of many Muslims became an impossibility, as well as the improbability of ruling with Islam alone. Therefore they came to accept being governed by other than what Allah had revealed. They did not see any harm in this as long as the name of Islam was kept, though there was no ruling by it. They started to call for the obligation of utilising other schools of thought (mazhabs) and ideologies to enable the application of Islam in life’s affairs. This resulted in abstaining from actions to restore the Islamic State and the silence about the application of the rules of kufr on Muslims by their own hands.

Accordingly all the reformist movements established to revive Muslims and to restore the glory of Islam failed. It was expected that such movements would fail, because though they were Islamic movements, they created even more complex issues, complicated the problems and distanced the society from Islam instead of working to implement Islam in it due to their misunderstanding of Islam.

It thus became necessary to have an Islamic movement that understands Islam as a fikrah and Tareeqah, to make the link between them and work to resume the Islamic way of life in any country of the Islamic world. This country would then become the starting point (nuqTat ibtidaa), from which the Islamic call springs, and then becomes the departure point (nuqTat inTilaq) for the call to Islam.

On this basis Hizb ut-Tahrir was established, and started to work for the resumption of the Islamic way of life in the Arab lands. This will result in the resumption of the Islamic way of life in the Islamic World by establishing the Islamic State in one or more of its countries as a support point (nuqTat irtikaz) for Islam. It would become a nucleus for the great Islamic State that resumes the Islamic way of life by the application of Islam completely in all Islamic lands and conveys the Islamic Da’wah to the entire world.

After study, thought and investigation, Hizb ut-Tahrir adopted rules (AHkam Shara’iah), some of which relate to the treatment of individual problems that occur among individuals and in their relationship with each other, such as the prohibition of leasing land for farming. Some are relevant to the general opinions that are prevalent among Muslims and others (non Muslims), and others related to the relationship of Muslims with others (non Muslims), such as the permissibility of concluding emergency treaties (Mu’ahudat idtirariyyah) and the Da’wah for Islam before starting the fight etc. Some are related to the thoughts, which are rules (AHkam Sharai’ah) like the generally known rules such as collective principles and definitions, for example, the principle which says; “That which is necessary to accomplish a duty (wajib) is itself a duty (wajib)”.

And the definition of Hukm Shara’i as being,

“the speech of the Legislator related to man’s actions” and so on.

The Hizb has adopted certain rules in every category and started advocating them in the process of calling to Islam. These are merely Islamic opinions, thoughts and rules, none of which are non-Islamic, nor affected by any non-Islamic thing; they are purely Islamic, depending only on Islamic sources and texts. The Hizb when adopting, depends on the thought, and considers the call for Islam to be based on thought, and that it should be delivered as an intellectual leadership. This is because life is based on the enlightened thought and man then progresses in accordance with it. Enlightened thought also shows the reality of things and issues in a way enabling their correct comprehension. Thought must be deep in order to be enlightened. The deep thought is the profound view of things, whilst the enlightened thought is the profound view of things, their conditions and everything which is related to them and drawing conclusion from this so as to reach sound judgements. In other words, it is a deep enlightened look towards things (and issues). Therefore it is necessary to have a deep enlightened view about man, life and the universe, and about human beings and their actions, so as to understand the rules assigned to them.

The deep enlightened thought about man, life and the universe, produces the collective thought about them, resolves the greatest problem of human beings, establishes the ‘aqeedah for them and defines for them the purpose of life and the objective of the actions which they undertake in the life of this world. This is because human beings live in the universe; and unless the greatest problem about man, the life existent in them, and the universe, which is the location of their life and their existence, is solved, they will not be able to know the manner in which they have to behave. Hence, the ‘aqeedah is the basis of everything.

The deep enlightened thought of man, life and the universe leads to the Islamic ‘aqeedah. It explains clearly that a Creator creates them, and this Creator is He alone who directs them, preserves them and guides them according to a specific system; and that the life of this world is not eternal (azali) nor everlasting. Hence before this life there is its Creator and Sovereign, and then there is the Day of Judgement after this life. Consequently the actions of human beings in this life must proceed in accordance with the commands and prohibitions of Allah (swt) for we will be questioned about them on the Day of judgement. Therefore it is compulsory on human’s to abide by the Shar’a of Allah, which the Messenger Muhammad (saw) has conveyed to us.

The deep enlightened view of man, life and the universe shows that they are only material and not spirit, nor composed of material and spirit. By material we mean the thing that is tangible and can be comprehended, whether defined as that which occupies a space and has a weight, or defined as the overt or covert charged energy, be it visible or not. This is because the discussion here is not about the nature of the material, but rather about man, life and the universe - these tangible comprehended things - which the Creator has created. By spirit we mean here the realisation of the relationship with Allah, and not the ‘secret of life’. This is because the discussion is not about the spirit in the sense of the secret of life; rather it is about the relationship of man, life and the universe with the unseen, i.e. with the Creator, and the realisation of such a relationship. In other words; is the realisation of the relationship between man, life and the universe with their Creator, a part of them or not?

As a matter of fact the deep enlightened view of man, life and the universe - concerning the meaning of the spirit as being the realisation of the relationship with Allah, not in regard of the spirit as being the secret of life - reveals that they are material only, not spirit, nor composed of material and spirit. As for being material; this means they are visible and not concealed because they are sensed and tangible. As for not being spirit, this is because the spirit is man’s realisation of his relationship with Allah (swt). This realisation of man of his relationship with Allah is neither man, life nor the universe; rather it is different from them. As for not being composed of material and spirit, this is clear in the reality of life and the universe. As for man, his realisation of his relationship with Allah (swt) is not part of his structure, but an extraneous attribute, with the evidence being that the unbeliever denying the existence of Allah does not realise his relationship with Allah even though he is a human being.

What some people claim, that man is composed of material and spirit, so if the material in him dominates over the spirit he would become evil and if the spirit in him dominates over the material he would become good; and that he has to make the spirit dominate over the material in order to become good, is an incorrect claim. Man is not composed of material and spirit, because the spirit discussed in this chapter according to the view of all people who believe in the existence of a God is either the effect of the Creator, the effects of the unseen witnessed by them, or the realisation that the thing contains a matter which cannot exist save by Allah or the like i.e. the sense of spirituality or the spiritual aspect. The spirit, in the sense of spirituality or the spiritual aspect existent in man, is neither the secret of life nor resulting from it or related to it. It is completely different to that, with the evidence that an animal has the secret of life, and yet it has no spirituality or spiritual aspect, and nobody claims that an animal is composed of material and spirit. This confirms definitely that the spirit, in this context, is not the secret of life nor does it result from the secret of life and it has no relationship with the secret of life. As the animal is not composed of material and spirit though it has the secret of life, man is similar. This is because the spirit by which man is distinguished and which he possesses, is not connected with the secret of life and nor results from it, rather it is the realisation of the relationship with Allah. Accordingly it is not true to say that spirit is a part of man’s structure, just because man has in himself the secret of life.

Since spirit discussed in this context is the realisation of man’s relationship with Allah and has no relationship with the secret of life, it cannot be a part of man’s structure. The realisation of the relationship is not a part of his structure but rather an external attribute, with the evidence being that the non-believer who denies the existence of Allah, does not realise his relationship with Allah even though he is a human being.

Although man, life and the universe are material and not spirit, they do have a spiritual aspect in them; which is the fact they are created by Allah (swt), their Creator. That is, the universe is material, and being created by a Creator is the spiritual aspect which man realises. Likewise man is material, and being created by a Creator is the spiritual aspect which man realises. Life is also material, and being created by a creator is the spiritual aspect which man realises. Thus, the spiritual aspect does not result from man, life and the universe, but from their being created by a Creator, by Allah (swt). This relationship is the spiritual aspect.

The origin of the meaning of spirit is that people who believe in the existence of a God frequently use the words of spirit, spirituality, and spiritual aspect, to articulate the effect of the creator in a particular place, or what is witnessed of the effects of the unseen, or to comprehend in the thing an aspect that can not exist save by Allah. These meanings, which they call spirit, spirituality and the spiritual aspect and that which has a similar meaning, are general, ambiguous and are not crystallised meanings. They have a reality in their mind and a reality outside their mind, which is the unseen whose existence is realised and whose identity is not, and the effect of this unseen in things. However this reality they can sense but cannot really define it nor is it crystallised for them. Due to the lack of crystallisation of these meanings, their understanding of these terms were confused. This confusion led to understanding the spirit, as the secret of life. Thus due to their sensation of the existence of spirit in man, which is the secret of life as well as the existence of spirituality and spiritual aspect, they came to say that man is composed of spirit and material. Hence they thought the spirit is the same as that or results from it, and they did not turn their attention to the fact that the animal has a spirit, i.e. the secret of life but it neither has spirituality nor the spiritual aspect. Moreover due to this ambiguity, man started to call what he feels in himself of stimulation as spirituality. Thus the individual would say about himself that he felt an incredible spirituality or that a certain person had a great spirituality. Also due to its ambiguity, a person would enter a place and feel a delight or elevation, so that place was described as having a spiritual aspect or spirituality. Because of its ambiguity, a person would starve himself, torment and weaken his body claiming that he wanted to strengthen his spirit. All this is a result of the ambiguity in understanding the meaning of spirit, spirituality and the spiritual aspect. A similar confusion occurred in the past when people tried to conceive the reality of the ‘intellect’ or the ‘mind’ (thinking). Mind is a word which means the comprehension and judgement upon a thing etc. However those of ancient times perceived comprehension and the like as effects of the ‘mind’ not the mind itself. The mind in their view had a reality which they felt but they were unable to comprehend its reality and was ambiguous to them. As a result of this ambiguity their perception of it differed, their perception of its location and their comprehension of its reality became more confused. Some of them claimed that it was located in the heart, to others it was in the head, to others it was in the brain, whilst another group held different opinions. In recent times some thinkers have proceeded to identify the meaning of the mind and define it, but they in turn were confused because they failed to comprehend its reality. Some of them said it is the reflection of material on the brain, while others claimed it is the reflection of brain on the material. A correct definition was in the end elaborated, by defining the ‘mind’ as the transmission of the reality to the brain via the senses together with previous information through which this reality is interpreted (or understood). By this definition the mind is correctly comprehended. Likewise, it is necessary that some thinkers proceed to crystallise the meaning of spirit, spirituality and the spiritual aspect in order that the mind comprehends them and their reality. This is because there is a reality for spirit, spirituality and spiritual aspect. For it is witnessed and sensed by man that there are materialistic (tangible) things which man senses and touches, such as a loaf of bread and others that he may sense but do not touch, such as the service rendered by a doctor. There are moral things that man senses but does not touch, such as pride and praise; or spiritual things which man senses but does not touch, such as the fear of Allah and the submission to Him during times of calamity. These are three meanings, each has a reality which man can sense and each is distinct from the other. Accordingly, the spirit or the spiritual aspect or the spirituality has a specific reality, felt by the senses. It is then necessary to define this reality and crystallise it to the people, as the mind was defined and crystallised.

A close examination of the reality of the spirit, spirituality and the spiritual aspect reveals that they are not existent in the atheist who denies the existence of Allah, but only in those who believe in the existence of a God. This means that they are related to the belief in Allah, whenever faith exists they exist and they are absent whenever faith is absent. Belief in the existence of Allah means the conclusive conviction that a Creator, who definitely created them, creates things. Thus the subject of discussion is that a Creator creates things. The acknowledgement that a Creator creates them is belief, and the denial that a Creator creates them is disbelief. Once acknowledgement and definite belief is established the spiritual aspect is found, and what brought it into existence is the belief. In case of non-acknowledgement and denial, the spiritual aspect does not exist, for denial made it non-existent. Accordingly the spiritual aspect is the fact that things are created by a Creator, i.e. the relationship of things to their Creator in respect of being created out of nothingness. If the mind comprehends that relationship of the things being created by a Creator, it will occur due to this appreciation of the might of the Creator, feeling fear of Him and feeling of His sanctification. So the realisation of this relationship, which yields such a feeling, is the spirituality. Thus the spirit is the realisation of the relationship with Allah, and the meaning of the spiritual aspect and that of the spirit becomes crystallised. Spiritual aspect and spirit are not merely terms that have linguistic connotations for which references are made to linguistics, nor are they technical terms set up by each people to mean what they like. They are rather expressions which have a precise reality regardless of whatever terms they are given. So the discussion is about the reality of these meanings not about the meaning of certain linguistic words. The reality of these meanings is that the spirit, in respect to the spiritual aspect in man, is the realisation of the relationship with Allah; and the spiritual aspect in man, life and the universe is the fact of being created by a Creator. Whenever these terms are mentioned they indicate these meanings because it is these meanings that have a sensed reality which can be proved. This sensed reality is also the rational and external reality to the people believing in God, i.e. in the existence of a Creator of things.

As for the secret of life (rooh), it definitely exists and is proven in the definite Qur’anic texts so we must believe in it. However it is not the subject of this discussion.

The term spirit ‘rooh’ is a common term like the word ‘ein’ in Arabic – that has more than one meaning; such as ‘water source’, ‘eye’, ‘spy’, ‘gold’, ‘silver’ and others. The term rooh came in the Qur’an with numerous meanings, such as the secret of life; “They will ask you concerning the spirit ; say, ‘the spirit is by command of my Lord, of knowledge it is only a little that is communicated to you, (O men!).’” [TMQ Isra’a:85]

Or as Gibreel,

“Which the true spirit have brought down. Upon your heart, that you be (one) of the warners.” [TMQ Ash-Shura:193-194]

Or as the Shari’ah of Allah,

“And thus have We inspired to you (Mohammed) a spirit of Our command.” [TMQ Ash- Shura:52]

All those meanings are not intended when saying there is in it a spiritual aspect or this is a spiritual thing or detachment of the material from the spirit etc... There is no relationship between this statement about the spirit and the meanings of spirit (rooh) mentioned in the Qur’an. What is meant by the spirit in the usage explained earlier is the meaning related to the creation of the material, i.e. in respect of things being created by a Creator who is Allah (swt), and man’s realisation of the relationship of things with their Creator.