Rebellion and Civil Disobedience in Islam The Need for a Paradigm ...

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am not condoning here the ideas and doctrines of the Muslim Brothers but their plightshows how the unjust regimes fight for keeping the status quo.Criteria for the Required Planning:Before embarking on civil disobedience or any act of rebellion, we as Muslimsshould have full-fledged plans about what we should do next. We are not living invacuum. We are living in a world of nation states, each with its own agendas andinterests. The economies of different countries are linked. Powerful countries work forperpetuating their supremacy and hegemony over weak countries 42 .In our planning, Islam should be the only and ultimate point of reference. Theachievements of other civilizations, such as the Western civilization, should be invokedonly in procedures and logistics. Since the beginning of the colonial era, many Muslimshave been infatuated by the West exactly as Ibn Khaldoun argues in his Muqademah 43 .Many leading Muslim scholars, like Muhammad Abduh, thought that Islam is compatiblewith the West. Islam could be adapted to modernity. Under the influence of Westernhegemony, they forgot that it is not Islam that needs to be relevant to modern knowledge.It is modern knowledge that needs to be made relevant to Islam. Islam is a priori relevantfor all times. You can easily discern this infatuation by the West in a field like economy.When you read about Islamic economy, you feel Islam is just capitalism minus riba pluszakah, or Islam is communism minus strict state control plus Allah. You do not feel theideals or higher objectives of Islam implemented. Why? Because Muslims, consciouslyor unconsciously, lost confidence in their religion. Muslims lost confidence in theircivilization. We are satisfied ogling at the Western technological advancements. We arehappy gasping at the Western scientific achievements. We became a group of re-actingpeople incapable of taking initiatives, original thinking, or planned action. Our highestobjective became catching up with the West, a task that is surely doomed to failure.We should always remember that the reconstruction of the Islamic civilizationrequires the effort of a multitude of scholars, coming from different educationalbackground and disciplines, all focusing and concentrating their talents on theinterdisciplinary endeavor of reconstructing the Islamic civilization. A global questrequires, naturally, a global effort. A problem facing Muslims is that they think that‘working alone’ is sufficient. If everyone works without any attempt at co-ordination andco-operation, we will be like a Brownian motion 44 . Our efforts will sum to zero. We needto orient our efforts towards the top priority of the era: getting rid of tyranny andestablishing the state of justice. At the same time, each one, according to his knowledgeand capacity, should prepare for the coming moment. We should have plans derived form42 Brzezinski, the former US national security advisor said in his book “the Grand Chessboard” that the USshould make preventing “the barbarians from coming together” one of its top national security priorities.43 “Al-Maghloub mulaùn abadan beleqtada’ belghaleb fee sheàreh wa-zayyehe wa nahlatehe wa sa’er‘ahwalehe wa àwa’edeh.” In English, the vanquished always want to imitate the victor in his distinctivecharacteristics, his dress, his occupation, and all his other conditions and customs.44 The peculiar, rapid, vibratory movement exhibited by the particles of substances when suspended inwater, air, or other fluids.24
a deep belief and conviction in and about Islam. Of course, this does not mean creating agroup of identical people. In fact, we need diversity to have the whole greater than thesum of its parts 45 .Another challenge facing those thinking about the Islamic state is that Islam isuncompromisingly universal while the state is unquestionably parochial. Mindsdominated by the European idea of the nation-state will find it so hard to think of a formof a state urging its citizens to be loyal to Allah (swt) and His messenger first. A state thatcarries the flag of da‘wah and works hard to serve the worldly and over-worldly affairs ofits citizens. A state that tolerates different interpretations espoused by some of its citizensbecause they feel that they are closer to Allah (swt) by adopting such interpretations.So we should restore our confidence in our Islam. Islam is a comprehensive, holistic,and multi-dimensional world-view. We should realize that the West is not the Westbecause of their ideas or values. And we are not what we are because of our religion. Thisextremely important point requires further investigation.Culture, Power and Material Success:Why power and material success? Islam regards our life as a temporary state thatshould not make the Muslim oblivious of the everlasting afterlife. A very superficialunderstanding of this matter may lead to the conclusion that material power and successare not to be sought by Muslims. In fact, some believe that the more powerless andhelpless the Muslim, the better he is. The message of Islam, according to many, is simpleand direct: be good and virtuous and you do not need to do anything else. However,serious investigation of the Quran and the Sunnah reveals without any shred of doubt theutmost importance of acquiring material power. Humans are considered the agents ofAllah (swt) as mentioned explicitly in the Quran. Discharging the obligations ofvicegerency requires power. In fact, the Muslim is required to “construct” till the veryend of this life. The Prophet (saw) said that if the Day of Judgment were to come andsomeone has a shoot in his hand, he should plant it if he can. The Prophet (saw) here isnot talking about prayer, he (saw) is talking agriculture and, hence, the continuousprocess of work and construction. Not only agency requires power, the whole array ofobligations of realizing justice, fighting injustice, enjoining the good, and forbidding theevil requires power to be implemented. The Quran and the Sunnah, as emphasizedthroughout this booklet, are replete with verses and sayings explicating these obligations.The issue of agency and establishing justice may be an indirect indicator to therequirement of power. But, in addition to these concepts, the Quran mentions powerexplicitly, “And prepare against them what force you can and horses tied at the frontier,”(8:60). The servants of Allah (swt) are praised when they combine power with insight,“And remember Our servants Ibrahim and Ishaq and Yaqoub, men of power and vision,”45 The members of the Islamic party Hizb al-Tahrir are proud that if you ask a member in India about acertain opinion and a member in the US, we will get exactly the same answer. I do not think this is good.There should be a degree of doctrinal unity but diversity is the sine qua non of success.25
Page 1 and 2: Rebellion and Civil Disobedience in
Page 3 and 4: 3) Knowledge of cases of indisputab
Page 5 and 6: Prophet about how honesty can be lo
Page 7 and 8: enactments of Allah (swt). The seco
Page 9 and 10: The second point about this Hadith
Page 11 and 12: so long as they, themselves, adhere
Page 13 and 14: point is that if revolution compris
Page 15 and 16: 5) There are some scholars among va
Page 17 and 18: the authentic saying of the Prophet
Page 19 and 20: The juristic culture relies on prio
Page 21 and 22: Hajjaj and many rebels were killed.
Page 23: importance of justice in Islam and
Page 27 and 28: (19:25). As is evident from the ver
Page 29 and 30: 1) Tyranny is the worst of all sins
Page 31 and 32: elievers. Do they seek dignity from

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