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| "Full sails ahead" By Nadia Yassine |
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| Ali Lwazir explains that among the other factors that enabled despotism to establish its authority and subjugate people throughout all these centuries is an excessive idealization of the epoch of the Enlightened Caliphs. In a section entitled “The Impossible Example,” he writes : |
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| The first representations of the Enlightened Caliphs endowed them with consciences freed from worldly burdens that soared in the air, surpassing in practice all the standards established for managing power. Thus the achievements of that period were transformed into models radiant with light that hovers over reality, inaccessible and intangible. Rendering them unique created the feeling that it was impossible to relive their example, thus sustaining a reality beyond attainable standards. We can readily understand how such representations created a mentality that regarded the era of the Enlightened Califs as an ideal that cannot be reproduced, an inaccessible model. It was logical, then, to seek a model that was accessible. The alternative within reach was obviously the system of the Umayyads and the other forms of power that followed. |
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| Our love of the Companions of the Prophet (Grace and Peace be upon him) led us to regard them as infallible supermen whose faith and practice of justice cannot be imitated. We are inclined to see in each of their decisions a sacred action, a divine inspiration that is inaccessible to ordinary mortals. Loving and revering the holy Companions of the Prophet (Grace and Peace be upon him) is admittedly part of our faith; yet to regard their deeds and gestures as sacred—to the extent of forgetting that they are human has done a great disservice to the progress we ought to have made. |
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| Such idealizing runs counter to the teaching of the Prophet (Grace and Peace be upon him). It has contributed to encouraging tyrants and normalizing a political reality which acknowledges the rule of one over everyone else. Accepting what does not conform to the Prophet’s teaching has legitimized the aberrations of “the power of one.” The Ummayads were keen to exploit this argument. They hastened to pose an “accessible form” against the “impossible model” of the first holy caliphs. As no one could govern with the virtues of the Enlightened Caliphs, any prince could rule with the means of power at hand, namely violence and guile. |
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| The weakness inherent in this representation of things is appreciable. The first error is that the role of the Prophet (Grace and Peace be upon him) in our judgment is not given the importance it merits. His advent as Messenger, and his presence within the community his Message perpetuates are the sole, the first and the last credit it has. As a consequence, no Companion nor any other member of the umma may aspire to saintliness except to the extent that he remains close to the home of mercy, the teaching of the Prophet (Grace and Peace be upon him). |
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| The other consequence, related to the fact that the spiritual power of the Prophet (Grace and Peace be upon him) does not end with his death, is that each member of his umma is capable of attaining spiritual purity so long as he wholeheartedly and sincerely observes his path. It is even evident that the absence of physical contact with our beloved Prophet favors privileged relationships. That is attested by the hadith that announces the coming one day of the Brothers of the Messenger, those who would believe in him without having met him. |
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| Moreover, the idyllic view of the era of the Enlightened Caliphs owes to a misinterpretation of the nature of the society created and desired by the Prophet (Grace and Peace be upon him). His teaching includes a legacy of a spirit of group solidarity. The spiritual heritage he left to his Companions is a shared heritage, a force that can only be effective to the extent that unity takes precedence over disunity. At the level of government -and particularly here- the caliphate is in no way to be the expression of individualism but rather one of a communitarian choice animated by a communitarian conscience. |
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| Full Sails Ahead (avaible online at www.jspublishing.net) |
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