International Politics:

 

Islamic Caliphate: Are We Ready Yet?

By Javed Ahmad

 

The idea of re-establishing Islamic Caliphate is growing among the Muslim scholars around the world. But, to tell you the truth, majority of the Muslims around the world are not ready for it yet. Their level of faith and knowledge of Islamic history is so low that they can hardly understand the concept of Islamic rule. To many of them, Islam is just a 'personal thing', just like any other religions.

 

This generation never lived under Islamic rule or in any true Islamic state. So they are unable to comprehend the meaning of it. Therefore, they don’t realize the need for it. And that's exactly why we see the Turkish Army chief, even being a Muslim himself, shows concern for showing of concession by the present Turkish government toward Islamic principles. We also see, the Pakistan military supporting and helping the killing of Muslims without any remorse. Where as, Pakistan itself was originally created to re-establish the Islamic Caliphate!

 

On the other hand, we see our so-called Muslims brothers are fighting a war of ignorance at many different fronts. And what are their objectives? To free "Palestine", or "Chechnya", or "Kashmir", etc.

 

No one is truly fighting for "Islam", except for Afghanistan. Even in Afghanistan, we see different groups. Maybe, just a small fraction of them are truly fighting for Islam. But most them just intend to free Afghanistan from occupying foreign forces.

 

When USA was preparing for an attack on Afghanistan without any proof of their allegations, not a single Muslim country opposed the invasion plan. When India was butchering and openly burning innocent Muslims alive in broad daylight, not a single Muslim country tried to stop them. Kashmir- the second Palestine, is crying for help and support for how many years now? Still they are suffering. And Palestine, it is still trying to adjust with Israel that is sitting on its chest for almost 50 years now.

 

You see, we claim to be Muslims, but we are actually not. We do not respond to the cries of the other Muslims around the world. Whenever we do, we do so naively that we limit ourselves with some monetary donations and we think it is enough for us to do. Majority of the Muslims today do not know Islam, nor do they understand it properly. And like it or not, this was meant to be like this.

 

If we pay a close attention to the following sayings of our Prophet (peace be upon him), we will see that this situation of the Muslim world was predicted and is not really matter of surprise.

 

1. "Allah will take away Caliphate, only to bring it back later."

2. "A time will come, when Islam will appear to be something new."

3. "...My Ummah will be divided into 73 groups, and only one among them will be successful. The group that would strictly follow the Qur'an and Sunnah."

4. "Arabs will face a threat of war from the Christians. The war would last for about 7 years. On the 2^nd year of the war, the world would face drought, which would intensify in the 3^rd year resulting into worldwide famine."

5. "Mehdi will fight Dajjal, and Dajjal will fight Mehdi..."

6. “..Muslims will die like ants..”

 

Etc.

 

The persecution of Muslims by Dajjal (Anti-Christ) was predicted. Although the Muslims around the world are still unaware of this fact, but the process has actually already begun. What we're witnessing today is the 'system' of Dajjal. Soon the 'person' Dajjal will also appear, who would be a one-eyed Jew with magical powers.

 

What the Muslims do not understand is that, the Dajjal system will stay longer than the person Dajjal. The person Dajjal will appear at the end of the trial and tribulation to call an end to the 'sorting process'. The Mehdi of Islam (Osama? Mulla Omar?) would be fighting the 'system' Dajjal already at the time the 'person' Dajjal will arrive. It is not Mehdi's job to finish off the Dajjal, but the responsibility lies to Prophet Isa (peace be upon him). He is the one who has been given the power over Dajjal. Dajjal literally means Anti-Christ. Therefore, only the real Christ has the right to deal with the Anti-Christ.

 

But what will the anti-Christ do? Why is it necessary for us to face him? Ironically, anti-Christ will do a tremendous job for the true Muslims. He will 'sort out' the hypocrites from among us. He will roam around the world with his army/followers to challenge the faithful or believers, to test their true faith in Allah. Many will run away from him, and will seek refuge in Mecca and Medina, where anti-Christ would not be able to enter. Therefore, when we hear the threats of Israeli officers of nuking Mecca and Medina, we have no need to fear. Those two cities will continue to stand no matter what they attempt to do. Many will fall victim of anti-Christ 's tricks. Many so-called Muslims will leave Islam to join the anti-Christ. At the end, when Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) will defeat anti-Christ and his army, will destroy the cross, and kill all the pigs. No mercy will be shown to any of his followers. Even the trees and stones will cry out calling out loud to Muslims to finish off all the followers of anti-Christ.

 

It is necessary that all the evil be rooted out from the surface of the earth in order to re-establish ‘Peace’ and 'Caliphate' again. The 'Kingdom of God' cannot come into existence until all the predictions come to pass. The Kingdom of God will remain strong for about another 1000 years. Then gradually, it would begin to rot again. And then the signs and symptoms of the ‘Last Days’ will begin to appear. Finally leading to the 'Dooms Day'.

 

I know, the whole thing sounds like a fairy tale. But, I guess, they will all come to pass no matter how much doubt we cast upon them. So, is this a 'blessing in disguise' for the true Muslims? Maybe.

 

The ideas of nationalism, sovereign nations, and independent countries are Western. The ‘enemies of Islam’ had to introduce these ideas on Muslim minds in order to 'divide and conquer' them as well as their resources. Muslims totally forgot the advice of our Prophet (peace be upon him) when he was asked about nationalism, "It stinks! Leave it!"

 

After the demise of the Islamic government, Muslims disintegrated into independent nations influenced by the differences of their so called culture, language, sect, tribes, nationalism, etc. As a result, Islam got a blend of 'culture' on top of it and took new forms in different part of the world. Many of the practices of Islam got modified and re-modeled according to the tastes of the people based on their cultural likings. Altogether, that was the beginning of disunity of the Muslims.

 

The unity of Islam that you we are calling for, would eventually come, but with a high price tag. The war that has just begun, is ‘the’ war our Prophet (peace be upon him) was referring to. This war would continue to escalate into a worldwide war. Followed by the shortage of food and more suffering. And the person Dajjal would appear at a time when people around the world would not only be fighting, but also be starving to death. Dajjal will take this situation as an opportunity to deceive people to join him. Many, including Muslims, will fall into his traps.

 

Now let’s stop for a moment, and ask ourselves, are we ready for all this? And the answer that comes out quite naturally is, no we aren’t. So, what do we need to do to prepare ourselves for this predicted calamity that will soon knock on our doors?

 

Frankly, there isn’t much we could do, except for educating ourselves with the true knowledge of Islam. We need to understand the predictions appropriately and as meaningfully as possible, so that we could act accordingly at the appropriate time. After all, as per the prediction, the oppression would continue until Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) returns.

 

Our primary concern should be to re-learn Islam strictly from the Qur’an and Sunnah as directed by our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Shia, Sunni, Ahmedia, Qadiani, Ansari, Naqasbandi, Hyderabadi, Farakhanism, Ismaili, Nubiani, Sufism, Wahabi, Agakhani, (who knows what else!) and differences in different ‘schools of thought’, etc., all are just full of crap. We have created divisions among ourselves with all these whimsical ideologies that have no base in Islam. Islam is just one religion, and Muslims are just one nation, under the banner, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Period. Is it so difficult to understand?

 

The bottom line is, Muslims would not be able to unify under the banner of “Khilafah” (Caliphate) until they clearly understands what it means. Like the non-Muslims, many Muslims reacts negatively when they hear about the Islamic rule. They immediately perceive the concept the same way the non-Muslims perceive. They think they would lose many of their existing freedom they currently enjoy under secular systems. They think it would bring fear and oppression under the strict control of some ‘religious fanatics’. Who would flog them in public, bar women from driving cars, cut their hands off, or stone them to death for crimes that can be pardoned.

 

The key thing here is ‘proper education of the correct version of Islam’. And it is truly quite different than the one we know and practice today. As a result, all these concepts of Muslim unity ‘appear to be something new’.

 

80% of the total Muslim populations around the world today are non-Arabs. Only 20% percent are Arabic speaking people. One cannot expect to understand Islam properly without understanding the language of the Qur’an it is written in. The official Islamic language of Islam is ‘Arabic’. We just have to learn to accept it. And then, have to learn it. We should not just depend on learning Islam only from translations. Translations are just a segment of some interpretations of the Islamic knowledge. Learning based on translations would never be complete. In fact, many of the whimsical ideologies have developed due to this very reason. Due to limitations of translated Islamic materials, many understanding of Islamic teachings and interpretations are incomplete. And that resulted in many wrong conclusions and practices.

 

We cannot expect to implement Islam as a ‘State Constitution’ until we truly understand how the ‘system’ used to work and should work. Many Muslims are totally unaware of the past glories of the Islamic Empire. They have no knowledge of Islamic history, and how an Islamic state (Khilafah) worked. Many aren’t ever aware that the Islamic Caliphate officially ended only in 1924 in Turkey!

 

Yes, we need a lot to learn before even begin to think of “Islam” again. Or else, it would only be ‘trial and error’, as we have already witnessed with “Islamic Republic of Iran”. Iran is struggling with Islam and Shariah, and not getting anywhere. As per as my understanding goes, it is mainly due the very reason that Iran follows their own cultural version of Islam (Shiai) that is different from the original Islam in many ways. They will never succeed until they revert to original Islam. They’ll have to come out of their “Persian” mentality and become just “Muslims”, if they wish to succeed.

 

Comparatively, Afghanistan came pretty close to being a true Islamic state under the Taliban rule headed by Mulla Omar. But, the Western world ridiculed it and portrayed them as ‘demons’, as the British journalist Yvonne Ridley puts it. Otherwise, they were quite successful in establishing true Islamic brotherhood by welcoming Muslims from around the world to immigrate and settle under the new Islamic rule. As a result, we see ‘Talibans’ from many different countries, including the United States!

 

The Taliban fighters took active part in support of Bosnian Muslims, Chechen Muslims, Kashmiri Muslims, and Palestinian Muslims. They showed the true meaning of Islamic unity or ummah. Even after 10 years of constant struggle against Russia, they didn’t hesitate to stand up against the United States. No wonder why rest of the world saw them as a ‘threat’. They were actually succeeding to unify the Muslim world! They could have probably avoided the war if they handed over Osama Bin Laden to the US. But, Mullah Omar came to the conclusion that the US would attack Afghanistan even if they handed over Osama.

 

The fact remains, if the entire Muslim world stood up together against the US, US would not have dared to invade Afghanistan. Instead, what we are witnessing is that, the so-called ‘Muslim governments’ are more than eager to aid the Americans in their staged ‘War on Terror’, without any proof, evidence, trials or diplomacy (http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/). And one of the main reasons being, the puppet governments in the Middle East are also afraid that they would lose their powers if the Talibans and Al-Qaeda were allowed to flourish. But what these hypocrites do not know is, according to another predictions of our Prophet (peace be upon him), these governments will be over-thrown by the people and the borders will be lifted allowing the Muslims world to unify and share military resources against a common enemy almost over night! But, quite frankly, I do not see that happening anytime soon, mainly because, majority of us are still living under illusion and doubts about Islam. Our faith is weak, and that’s exactly why we are not ready for the Caliphate yet. In other words, if we are slow in returning to Islam, our suffering would only linger.