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political islam 335messengers (ß): ‘Say: “I am but a man like yourselves, (but) the inspirationhas come to me, that your god is one God…”,’ ( Al-Kahf18:110). Al-isl§m contains the highest forms of morality as exemplifiedin Noah’s call to respect our parents (“O my Lord! Forgive me, myparents…”, NåÈ 71:28) and in the noble Messenger’s (ß) admonitionto pay attention to the smallest details of everyday life (‘O you whobelieve! When you are told to make room in the assemblies, (spreadout and) make room: (ample) room will God provide for you…,’Al-Muj§dila 58:11).As its core value, al-isl§m promotes freedom of worship. It negatesslavish submission to a wrathful God. Human beings are free in theirworship; obedience or disobedience occurs from their own will. Theyare God’s affirmers, not His slaves. This is what #Umar b. al-Khaãã§b(r) meant when, in the famous narration of #Amr b. al-#$ß, he said,‘Why did you enslave people when their mothers had born themfree?" 2 #Umar said this in order to promote a strong sense of socialjustice among his companions, and this at a time when the son of aslave was still considered a slave! His words contain one of the mostimportant human rights, namely the right of individual freedom,because it is a gift from God, like His gift of life and His gift of intellect.No human society can live without it. Individual freedom is thefoundation of collective democracy; and democracy is the practiceof freedom that is backed up by the most influential civic authoritiesof a society.In spite of MuÈammad’s (ß) monumental efforts to establish a newpolitical culture in Medina, building upon the few traces of democraticrules that existed in ancient Arabia, most of his achievementswere destroyed by the political events that followed his death.Disregarding the Book’s injunction, people started to confuse hisprophethood with kingship, in spite of the fact that MuÈammad (ß)did not create his state as a king or statesman, but only as a prophet.After his death, politic al-theological measures of the companionsfilled the (political, not religious!) vacuum that caused a serious internalcrisis, as a result of which economic and tribal interests completelytook over the political agenda—and history took its ill-starredcourse in the seventh century. Fatally, the political measures taken2#Al§ al-DÊn al-MuttaqÊ, Kanz al-#umm§l fÊ sunan al-aqw§l wa’l-af #§l (Beirut:Mu"assasat #Ulåm al-Qur"§n, n.d.), vol. 12, 661 (Kit§b al-fa·§"il min qism al-af #§l; B§bfa·§"il al-F§råq).