All praise be due to Allah, Who rescued us from being servants of other servants, and peace and blessings be upon His Prophet, who worked day and night to make humankind reach servanthood and civilisation, and peace be upon all Muslims who struggle to resurrect the civilisation that our Prophet saws. built…
In the last two articles, we discussed two reasons why our ummah fell sick and declined, and I stated as the first reason, that our ummah left their duties, such as spreading Islam on earth and establishing justice, that they became lazy and strayed from the essentials of the Islamic Civilisation. In fact, it is necessary to see straying from the essentials of the Islamic Civilisation as one separate reason and approach this reason separately. In this article, we will explain this reason further.
As it is known or must be known, the most fundamental essence of the Islamic Civilisation is Tawhid. Tawhid does not only express the existence and oneness of Allah but goes even beyond and states, that there is no Ilah but Allah and that He has no partner. The word Ilah is Arabic and means ‘ma’bud’ (God), i.e. the one who is worshipped, whom ibadah is directed to. Ibadah means obedience and submission. I.e. Ilah is the one whom obedience, love and submission are directed to. So, when the fundamental doctrine of Islam, ‘La Ilaha Illallah’, says, there is no Ilah but Allah, it expresses, ‘There is no one to show obedience except Allah’. Thus, only Allah (swt.) defines the laws and the fundaments of civilisation that humankind shall adhere to. No one else owns the right to define laws and principals and make the people adhere to them and no one else owns the right to rule over their lives. Those, who do this, treat the people as their own servants and see themselves like their Ilah. This way they cross the line. They forget, that they were created of clay and sperm and they forget about their servanthood. This makes a person become like Fir’aun (Pharaoh) and play God. This is a person falling into shirk and seeing themselves entitled to rule over people like Allah.
So, when a person says ‘La Ilaha Illallah’, they actually say, ‘Just as Allah rules over the whole universe, He shall rule over my life, as well. Just as there is no authority in the whole universe except Allah, there shall not be any authority except Him in my life, neither’. This belief was not only given to our Prophet Muhammad (saws.), but to all prophets. Because all prophets were given the same religion. And that religion is Islam, i.e. submission to Allah only. And in order to fulfil this submission to Allah only, rejecting all others, who play God. All prophets proclaimed the same truth. In Surah Al-A’raf the Holy Qur’an states:
Noah said, “O my people, worship Allah, you have no Ilah other than Him.”1
Hud said, “O my people, worship Allah, you have no Ilah other than Him.”2
Salih said, “O my people, worship Allah, you have no Ilah other than Him.”3
Shu’ayb said, “O my people, worship Allah, you have no Ilah other than Him.”4
As we can see, the prophets Nuh, Hud, Salih, and Shu’ayb (as.) all proclaimed the same truth with the same words and they all called their people to La Ilaha Illallah.
Although Christian scholars changed the religion, that was sent to Prophet Isa (as.), i.e. the religion of Islam into Christianity, and although they abolished all laws concerning life, i.e. the sharia, and created a religion, that only consists of rules about ahlaq (morals) and which does not interfere in life but stays outside of it, still, it is possible to see some of the true teachings of Isa (as.) remaining in the Bible. In the Gospel of Matthew it states, “Your kingdom shall come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”5. So, the fight and struggle of Isa (as.) were against the understanding that does not give Allah the right to intervene on earth and in people’s lives but only gives Him the rule over the heavens and nature. Isa (as.) rejects this understanding. By saying, “My Lord, not only in heaven and nature but also over humankind shall be your rule”, Isa (as.) proclaimed, that humans do not have the right to rule over humans. But due to the pressure of the leaders of church and state the religion of Tawhid, that Isa (as.) brought, was distorted and transformed into a religion, that does not exceed the walls of the church, that does not enact any laws concerning life, and does not interfere in the rule of the kings. A secular religion that only consists of a set of rites and moral principles.
Allah (awj.) tells us, that the People of the Book left the Tawhid, took others besides Allah as lords, and worshipped them. When Allah (awj.) stated in Surah At-Taubah, “They have taken their scholars and monks as lords besides Allah, and [also] the Messiah, the son of Mary. And they were not commanded except to worship one God; there is no deity except Him. Exalted is He above whatever they associate with Him”6, Adi Ibn Hatim could not understand this and objected to the verse by saying, “We did not worship our scholars and monks, we did not prostrate to them (take them as lords)”. The Messenger of Allah (saws.) stated, “Did your monks and scholars not make haram, what Allah made halal, and make halal, what Allah made haram? And did you not call halal, what they called halal, and call haram, what they called haram?”. When Adi Ibn Hatim replied with “Yes”, our Prophet (saws.) stated, “This, indeed, is worship”, and by doing so he explained the meaning of worship. According to our Prophet’s tafsir of this verse, a person or organisation, that makes haram, i.e. prohibits, what Allah has made halal, i.e. allowed, or on the contrary, allows, what Allah prohibited, they claim to be Rabb (lord). Those, who obey these exorbitant, are their servants and the obedience, they show them, is worship. Even if they do not prostrate to them…
The belief of Tawhid is not only a belief, that gives Allah His rights, but at the same time, it is a belief, that protects the dignity and honour of the people by preventing them from being servants of other servants. When a person obeys Allah, Who created them and provides for them, and when they adhere to His laws, they escape facing several problems and at the same time, this does not harm their dignity and honour. But when they obey other servants, they will face the problem of thousands of civilisations, a problem, that whole humankind faces at the present time and will face in the future, and at the same time, they will lose their dignity and honour because they became the servants of other servants.
The belief of Tawhid is not only a belief but also a way of life as a necessity of this belief in which only Allah rules and only His word counts. Consequently, a society, which does only adhere to the principles of Allah, gains strength and becomes a world state. Because the laws of Allah are suitable for the individual and society and they do not only uplift them spiritually but also in the material sphere. Our history is witness to this. In those centuries, in which we did not obey anyone except Allah and lived according to His principles only, did we not become a world power at those times? And did not decline and fitna arise when we left these principles?
When our Prophet Muhammad (saws.) stated, that Tawhid does not only make a person win the akhira but also the dunya, he said, “I am inviting them to such a word, that when they accept it, all Arabs and Non-Arabs will submit to them”. When they said, “What is this word? Tell us, so that we can say it”, he answered, “You have to say La Ilaha Illallah”. Say this and you will gain strength and become a world state. If this was only a word and a belief, this would of course not bear such huge results. In fact, it also expressed a way of life and the polytheists, who did not want to change their lives, especially the big shots, who exploited their society, rejected the Tawhid. If Tawhid was only a belief, they would not oppose it so severely. In that time there were many other people who rejected their belief. But they did not treat them with such an enmity. Don’t we see, that the enemies of Islam today do not treat the Muslims, who only understand Islam as a set of principles regarding morals and worship, i.e. who do not understand Islam, with such an enmity, but that they treat the Muslims, who understand Islam as a way of life and want Islam to rule in life, with a severe enmity?
Tawhid is right and true because:
1.Since it is Allah, Who created everything, provides for everything, and governs everything, and then His word must rule. It is Allah’s right. This is also what a pure conscious accepts and even says. Whoever does not accept this, does either not have a conscious, or does not want to hear its voice. No one except Allah has the right and will ever have the right to say, “What I say, must be done”.
2.Since it is Allah, Who knows best and there is no one, who knows better than Him, then He must rule. This is a reality that the mind does also accept and has to accept. Whoever does not accept this, does either not have a mind or does not want to hear its voice.
3.Since all humans are equal and there is no scale to weigh mind and knowledge, then who shall rule? When one person says, “I will rule”, the other will object against it. Therefore, the rule must belong to someone, whom no one can object and to whom no one can say, “We are equal”, and that is Allah (awj.).
4.Since whoever makes laws, will primarily calculate their own profits, then someone, who does not have any profits and who does not think of themselves but of us, must rule. And that is Allah (awj.). He is the One, Who does not have any profits, Who always gives, Who owns limitless wealth and countless creatures, and Who always wants our best. Therefore, He must rule.
5.Since people do not know the unseen (ghaib) and they do not know, which consequences the laws they make will entail in the future, someone, who knows the unseen and knows exactly the consequences of their laws, must rule and make laws and this is Allah (awj.). This is why you cannot find any mistake in the laws of Allah and no need to change them. Whereas the laws, that people make, have mistakes and need to be changed every five to ten years. Those, who do not know the human just as they do not know the unseen, who use society as a laboratory rat, experimenting by making a new law every day, and who harm society, will not be able to give account for this on the Day of Judgement.
From the day when the Muslims forgot the meaning of Tawhid or did not learn it, they did not see a problem in taking the laws of their life and the principles of their civilisation from others. First, they took the customs and tradition of the West, later on, they took their culture and art, later their laws and moral norms, and finally their beliefs and systems. Because since they became lazy and did not fulfil their duty, they fell behind the Western world. They fell into a fear of loss and an inferiority complex. Instead of finding the real reason for their decline and take precautions, they took the easy way out and forgot, that the belief of Tawhid does not allow them to do this. They forgot, that this means leaving the system of Allah (awj.), deifying people, giving people the authority of Allah (awj.) and that at the end of this they will be punished by Allah. By slapping us with the hand of the West, that we ran after, Allah (awj.) woke our ummah up.
With the hope to continue with this topic… May Allah protect you. *
1.Al-A’raf, 59
2.Al-A’raf, 65
3.Al-A’raf, 73
4.Al-A’raf, 85
5.Gospel of Matthew, 6/9-10
6.At-Taubah, 31
