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Readers' column
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| Caliphate, Monarchy and the Republic | |
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| By Mohamed Benabdellah, Meknes |
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| In these few lines, I intend to shed light on key concepts underlining Imam Abdessalam Yassine’s conception of political power in light of the School of the Prophetic Method, a school of thought and action of which he is the founder. Let us first dissect the two intrinsically antinomic concepts of Caliphate and Monarchy and then see which of them is closer to the ideal democratic and republican system advocated by the West. |
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| It is befitting to notice that the concept “Monarchy” has a pejorative connotation in the original conception of political power in Islam. “Monarchy” and “Monarchs” were stigmatized by the Prophet (God’s peace and blessings be upon him) in several hadiths . Let us first state the hadith that Imam Yassine names “hadith al-Bishâra” (that is, the hadith that announces the advent of a second caliphate following the model of the Prophet (God’s peace and blessings be upon him) after centuries of despotic rule, of monarchical rule. |
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| The Prophet Mohammad (God’s blessings and peace be upon him) said: “The reign of Prophecy shall remain amongst you so long as God wills. Then God shall raise it if He so wills. Then shall come the reign of Caliphate following the Prophetic Model. It shall endure so long as God wills. Then He shall raise it if He so wills. Then shall come the rule of Mordacious Monarchy . It shall last so long as God wills. Then He shall raise it when He so wills. Then shall come the rule of Coercive Monarchy . It shall continue so long as God wills. Then He shall raise it if He so wills. Then shall come the reign of Caliphate following the Prophetic Model. Then he (the Prophet Mohammad (God’s blessings and peace be upon him) fell silent” . Guided by Revelation, the Messenger (God’s blessings and peace be upon him) disclosed to us the historical phases through which the Muslim community will go until the original system based on shûra and mubâya’a comes back to rule again. |
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| Abu Dâwûd reported: “God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) said: “The Caliphate of the Prophet will last thirty years. Then God shall give power to whom He predestines.” Sa’îd said: “Safîna told me: Count, Abu Bakr’s rule lasted two years, ‘Umar’s ten, ‘Uthmân’s twelve, ‘Ali’s six. Thus said Sa’îd: I told Safîna: those guys (the Umayyads) claim that ‘Ali was not a caliph! He replied: Those bad guys are liars! He means the sons of Mu’âwiyya” . Al-Tirmidhî reported on the authority of Safîna, the servant of God’s Messenger (God’s blessings and peace be upon him): Caliphate shall last in my community for thirty years. Then will come [the rule of] monarchy. Sa’îd Ibn Jumhân (the reporter on the authority of Safîna) said: And then he (Safîna) said: “Count! The Caliphate of Abu Bakr, then the Caliphate of ‘Umar, then the Caliphate of ‘Uthmân, then he said: Count! The Caliphate of ‘Ali. We have found it thirty years. Sa’îd said: “I told him: The Umayyads claim they are caliphs! He replied: Those bad guys are telling lies! No, they are the worst of kings”. |
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| We may also note that the epithet “Rightly-Guided Caliphs” names exclusively the first four successors of the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace): Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali (God bless them all). They are named as such because they were elected and accepted by the community through the process of shûra, however various may have been its forms in their election. In contrast, the “bad guys” or “kings” who followed them arbitrarily called themselves “caliphs” to maintain the illusion that they have been elected by the community. Therefore, the title “king” in Islam refers to one who has usurped power without yielding to the principle of shûra, the most deciding agent of which is the free choice of the community. |
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| In parallel, Caliphate is praised in the above-mentioned hadiths as the legitimate heir of the Prophetic rule. “Khilâfa” (Caliphate) literally means succession. A caliph, literally a successor or deputy, is an individual to whom the community entrusts the charge of ruling its affairs and whom the community calls to account should his acts be at variance with its will. Let us give illustration of such concept through examining the case of the first caliph of Islam. The first act of Abu Bakr (God bless him), when the community elected him as Successor of the Prophet, was to remind in a public speech of the essence and the sense of power: |
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| “You have charged me with running your affairs, but I am not the best of you. If I go in the right direction, support me. If I take a wrong path, redirect me…. The weakest among you will count most for me until I restore to him his due. The strongest among you will be worth nothing in my sight until I get him to agree to fulfill his obligations…. Obey me so long as I obey God and His Messenger. If I do not, you are absolved from obedience to me”. |
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| In a few sentences, Abu Bakr (God bless him) defined the concept of power in Islam. In this brief and apparently insignificant speech resides the philosophy of shûra. Its core ideas contain very modern political inflections. The first idea that emerges is that the person of the ruler—the caliph in this case—is not sacred as such, but owes his sacred status to the sole fact that he has been elected by the community. That is his first and last merit, his sole legitimacy. It is the community that is sacred, not the person of the elected imam. This is the famous principle of popular sovereignty. |
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| Abu Bakr invited the community to dismiss him if he failed to obey the fundamental principles on which his nomination was based. Here indeed we have one of the essential elements of a constitutional system. The social bond that links the Muslim nation, or the community of the faithful, is neither the race, the tribe, customs, nor territory. It is rather the recognition of God as Sole Sovereign and of our brotherhood in Him. This faith that creates freedom is the basic foundation of what is to be any Islamic Constitution. |
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| Translating these great principles of faith to daily life and adapting them to the changing nature of the world created by God remains the task of ijtihad: tireless ijtihad, sensible and intelligent ijtihad, as it must ever be since it entails a constant effort to adapt the Qur’anic text to the social context. |
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| Abu Bakr (God bless him) established the system of the community’s sovereignty which delegates power to the caliph. The idea is clear that power emanates from a mutually binding contract based on obedience to the great principles of Islam, faith in God and in His Prophet, and the establishment of justice on earth. The practice of such power is in no way relinquished to the arbitrariness of the caliph, but remains the everyone’s duty. The community neither resigns during the delegation nor during the exercise of power. It is a partner, not a helpless spectator. Likewise, the Caliph or Commander of the Faithful is an individual who is called to account, not a sacrosanct ruler whose person is not to be violated. |
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| If the system of caliphate is based on the principle of popular sovereignty, is it not then the Islamic counterpart of the western republican and democratic system? Is the caliph-deputy-successor then not the president of a federal state –- a state comprising all the Islamic countries that are now unfortunately confined in the prisons of nation-states? Will the Islamic countries be united one day in one entity to be called, for instance, the United States of Islam? Will Muslims have one day one federal administration and several state governments, one caliph-president and several state governors? |
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| The second Caliphate or Union of Islamic Countries is a true promise. The onus is upon us to contribute in its establishment and earn the honor of having been a brick in this divine edifice. |
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| Notes: |
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| 1- Plural of hadith, a Saying of the Prophet (God’s peace and blessings be upon him). 2- Mordacious Monarchy symbolizes the rule of those despotic kings who came after the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs – Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali (May God be pleased with them) – and who transformed the system of government from Caliphate according to which the Caliph is elected by the community to monarchy whereby the king forcibly commands allegiance from the community. Such rule was represented by the reign of the Umayyads, the Abbasids and the subsequent dynasties. 3- Mandatory Monarchy is similar in principle to mordacious monarchy. What differentiates it from the former system of government is that while mordacious monarchy – notwithstanding its illegitimacy – partook effectively in Islam’s expansion and, more or less, preserved the unity of the Muslim community, mandatory monarchy chased out Islam from all spheres of the Muslims life and today works diligently with foreign powers to maintain and further the disunity of the Muslim community. It is represented by the current illegitimate secular governments in power in almost all the Muslim countries. 4- The hadith is reported by Imam Ahmad with a hierarchy of trustworthy reporters arriving at the Companion Hudhaifah (God be pleased with him). 5- Mutual consultation between rulers and citizens over their mutual rights, duties and all affairs of common interest. 6- Mutually-binding pact whereby rulers and citizens pledge allegiance to each other in the performance of their rights and the observance of their duties. 7- The hadith grades with authentic hadiths. In his “Fath Al-Bâri”, Ibn Hajar said: “The hadith is reported by the authors of al-Sunan [the Prophet’s traditions] and authenticated by Ibn Hibbân.” |
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