The Importance of Possessing Correct Political Concepts for the Revival of the Muslim Ummah

(وَإِذا قيلَ لَهُم لا تُفسِدوا فِي الأَرضِ قالوا إِنَّما نَحنُ مُصلِحونَ)

“When they are told, “Do not spread corruption in the land,” they reply, “We are only peace-makers!” [Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:11]

Allah (swt) revealed this verse in Madina addressing the actions of the hypocrites where they were making problems for the Muslims living in the Islamic State. The Quran was revealed for the mankind until the Day of Judgment, and we look at the general meaning of verses without restricting to the specific cause for which the verse was revealed. Although the hypocrites in Madinah were the reason behind revealing this verse, the application of its message is the general in meaning. According to the famous usuli qaidah (maxim) العِبرةُ بعموم اللفظ لا بخصوص السبب meaning, “Consideration is given to the generality of the expression, not to the specificity of the cause for revelation”, this verse is general in meaning and applies to all who cause trouble to Muslims. Allah (swt) is telling us some very important messages about the world in this very short verse. 1) In this world, there will be people who make trouble for other people. 2) Some people will try to stop them. 3) But the aggressors will deny their aggression and in fact cover their acts of aggression with nice words to try and deceive the people. 4) Allah (swt) does not like aggression against people; hence, He exposes these aggressors and their aggression.

In light of this verse and with these meanings, here we discuss the important political concepts that the Ummah must possess in order for it to achieve the revival.

Why the Ummah should possess correct political concepts?

There are three important reasons to address this subject.

Firstly, the theme of international relations is important in Islam because Allah (swt) revealed a Surah in Makkah to show its importance for Muslims.

(الم غُلِبَتِ ٱلرُّومُ فِى أَدْنَى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَهُم مِّن بَعْدِ غَلَبِهِمْ سَيَغْلِبُونَ فِى بِضْعِ سِنِينَ لِلَّهِ ٱلْأَمْرُ مِن قَبْلُ وَمِن بَعْدُ وَيَوْمَئِذٍ يَفْرَحُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ)

“Alif-Lãm-Mĩm. The Romans have been defeated. In a nearby land. Yet following their defeat, they will triumph within three to nine years. The ˹whole˺ matter rests with Allah before and after ˹victory˺. And on that day the believers will rejoice.” [Surah Ar-Rum, 30:1-4]

As we know that the Quran was revealed over 23 years and it is generally agreed by the scholars that the first part of revelation, especially in Makkah, was dedicated to shaping the beliefs of the new Muslims. However, it is interesting to note that this Surah and these versus, which talk about international relations, were revealed only 5 years after the revelation started quiet early. In these verses, Allah (swt) clearly shows that our belief is comprehensive, i.e., spiritual, political and global.

The second reason to discuss the importance of political concepts is that this subject is absolutely relevant to our current situation as Muslims. Currently, we have become the direct victims of the way the international relations are being conducted currently by Nation States in the world. States, strong and weak, take turns to trouble, oppress, harm, harass the Muslims as described:

(وَإِذا قيلَ لَهُم لا تُفسِدوا فِي الأَرضِ قالوا إِنَّما نَحنُ مُصلِحونَ) “When they are told, “Do not spread corruption in the land,” they reply, “We are only peace-makers!” [Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:11]. The Jewish entity oppresses the Muslims in Palestine; the State of India oppresses and harms the Muslims in Kashmir and across India; the State of China oppresses and harms the Muslims in Uyghur; the State of Burma oppresses and harm the Rohingyan Muslims; the State of Saudi oppresses and harms the Muslims of Yemen and the list goes on.

The third important reason is that the Muslim Ummah had been given the important duty and responsibility to carry Islam to the whole world, and that means that we must deliver Islam to all of the people on this planet.

(وَما أَرسَلناكَ إِلّا رَحمَةً لِلعالَمينَ) “We did not send you but as a mercy to all the nations” [Surah Al-Anbiya, 21:107]
 Ibn Abbas said ‘aalameen’ means mercy to both Muslims and disbelievers. Ibn Masoud says, Islam will reach the whole world. To fulfill this obligation, it necessitates that we understand how the world is organized and how it operates, so that we are able deliver Islam to the world.

In summary the study and understanding of international relation are important because Allah (swt) signified its importance in the Quran; we are victims of the way the international relations are currently being conducted and we also have a duty to carry Islam to the world.

In this context, the important five political concepts that the Muslim Ummah need to be aware of in order for it to achieve the revival are as follows,

1. Politics. 2. Motivation for foreign policy, 3. International relation 4. Political plans, 5. Political styles.

1. Politics

Politics is defined as “taking care of the affairs of the ummah - internally and externally”. It is practically undertaken by a state, whilst the Ummah accounts the state to task over that. Taking care of the affairs of the Ummah internally is done by implementing the Islamic ideology. This represents the domestic policy of the Islamic state and covers the aspects like judiciary, taxation, security, social aspects, health, education, etc. Taking care of the affairs of the Ummah externally is done by establishing relations with other nations and carrying the Islamic ideology to the world, and this represents the foreign policy of the Islamic states.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said,

«كَانَتْ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ تَسُوسُهُمْ الْأَنْبِيَاءُ كُلَّمَا هَلَكَ نَبِيٌّ خَلَفَهُ نَبِيٌّ وَإِنَّهُ لَا نَبِيَّ بَعْدِي وَسَيَكُونُ خُلَفَاءُ فَيَكْثُرُونَ»

“The affairs of the Bani Isreal were taken care of by the Prophets. Whenever a Prophet died, he was succeeded by a Prophet. There is no Prophet after me. There will by Khulafaa in large numbers.”

The Prophet was then asked,

«فَمَا تأمرنا؟» “What do you order us?” He (saw) said,

«فُوا بِبَيْعَةِ الْأَوَّلِ فَالْأَوَّلِ أَعْطُوهُمْ حَقَّهُمْ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ سَائِلُهُمْ عَمَّا اسْتَرْعَاهُمْ» “Give the bayyah one after another and give them their right, for Allah will ask them about all He gave them in their guardianship.” [Bukhari and Muslim].

Imam An-Nawawi states in his explanation (sharh) of this
Prophetic Hadith, «يَتَوَلَّوْنَ أُمُورهمْ كَمَا تَفْعَل الْأُمَرَاء وَالْوُلَاة بِالرَّعِيَّةِ» “They were guardians in their affairs, as the Islamic Ameers and Walis are in guardianship.” So just as the Prophets (as) arbitrated the affairs by divine Revelation, so must the Islamic ameers and walis. He further stated, وَالسِّيَاسَة الْقِيَام عَلَى الشَّيْء بِمَا يُصْلِحهُ “Politics: Execution over a matter, by that which reforms it.” Hence, looking after the affairs of the people by shari’ah is a command from Allah (swt) upon which we will be accounted if we neglect, when we are gathered before Him (swt).

In summary, it is essential to understand and implement the political concept of politics and understand that the individuals organize themselves into nations. These nations will naturally form a state/government that should/will take care the internal and external affairs of the nations. Currently, the nations have organized themselves on the nation state model and these nation states will interact with one another through foreign policy.

2. Motivation for foreign policy:

All nations practice politics, but some are better than others. Why do nations develop foreign policies? What motivates a nation to go beyond its borders and interact with other nations. Nations will go beyond their borders and interact and complete with other nations to achieve their own interests. There are two types of interests that motivate all nations to interact and compete with one another 1) Non material interests: nations seek to interact and compete because they love their own people or they love their own ideology, their way of life, culture and civilization so much, that they feel their people or their ideology should be number one in the world. This love and desire to be number one in the world pushes them to dominate other nations and other ideologies. This is one major reason why some nations seek to harm Muslims, because they consider Islam and the Muslims as a threat to their ideology or their way of life and this motivates them to attack the ideas of Islam and carry out intellectual and cultural crusade against Islam and thereby harming Muslims.

Allah (swt) reminds this fact in the Quran:

(يَـٰأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا بِطَانَةً مِّن دُونِكُمْ لَا يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالًا وَدُّوا مَا عَنِتُّمْ قَدْ بَدَتِ ٱلْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَٰهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِى صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ ٱلْـَٔايَـٰتِ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ)

“O you who have believed, do not take as intimates those other than yourselves [i.e., believers], for they will not spare you [any] ruin. They wish you would have hardship. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater. We have certainly made clear to you the signs, if you will use reason.” [Surah Ali ‘Imran, 3:118].

This is the first reason that motivates some nations to establish foreign policy. They seek non-material interests.

The second reasons why nations establish foreign policy is because of a material interests they seek beyond their borders. This could be controlling resources like oil, accessing labour (like slave trade), opening markets for their goods and services, securing trade routes, or even to weaken other nations that seek to harm them. There is no doubt that Allah (swt) has blessed the Muslims lands with immense resources and He has given us the strategic locations in the world. Some Non-Muslim nations seek to steal these resources and take control of our locations for their own selfish needs.

These two motivations make us as Muslims and our lands a direct target in the sight of some nation states and we become the object of their foreign policies.

The insight to motivation is important because it will give a better understanding of the political actions that occur in the world in a way close to truth and in agreement with the reality as much as possible. We will be able to see beyond stated lies of the politicians and will come to know the true intentions behind the foreign policies. Weapons of war on terror, weapons of mass destruction, peace, stability, prosperity, restoring democracy, giving people freedom, protecting the environment, intervening for humanitarian reasons are some of the slogans that have been used to justify aggression against Muslims even against Non-Muslims. But these are merely words that cover their evil intentions.

In summary, nations will establish foreign policies to interact and compete with one another to achieve material and non-material interests. Islam, Muslims and our lands have become the object of their interests. It is these interactions through the foreign policy of these nation states that create the international situation that Muslims must study and correctly understand if we are to safeguard ourselves and to carry this ideology to the world.

3. International Situation:

The definition of the international situation is “the structure of the effective international relations between states”.

Given that the world is organized into a nation state, do we know how many nation states are in the world today? According to the UN, there are 206 nation states. But here is the key point to understand, that all these 206 nation states are not equal when it comes to their foreign policy, interacting and competing one another for their own interests. The truth is that some nation states have greater power to influence events beyond their borders to achieve their own interests. To help understand this critical concept of international situation, a model for classifying states according to their ability to influence events beyond their borders and achieve their interests is necessary.

Different types of states

Through this model, we say that understanding the international situation, i.e., the interaction and relation between nation states through their foreign policy really, comes down to focusing on those nation states who exert the biggest amount of influence over the other nations when it comes to foreign policy and these nations are termed as great powers / Super powers and the nation that can exert the biggest influence in its foreign policy. These states were classified as the leading state. In other words, the international situation is to understand the foreign policy of the leading state and those states that compete with the great powers, because these great powers will largely shape what happens in the world and not all 206 nations in the world. The former French foreign minister Hubert Védrine, in his book France in an Age of Globalization, made his own classification for the states in terms of power and influence, saying in his opinion. ‘USA represents the 1st ranking in the world without a rival. In the second rank comes, the seven states that have global influence which are France, Britain, Germany, Russia, China, Japan and India on the condition that they widen their vision which is still regional’.

It is necessary to know that the influence that these nations exert within their foreign policy over other nations to achieve their interests is not fixed; meaning it can shift and change. So great powers can weak, decline and become independent states or subordinate states. Similarly, a state which is called as subordinates, i.e., which does not control its foreign policy, can actually become a great power eventually. So the situation is very fluid. Hence, from this model, we can sense that there is a leading state, which we feel is the United States of America right now. When it comes to foreign policies, the USA has the most amount of influence over other nations and the states that compete with it of great power including Britain, France, Russia and China etc.

Then you have independent states which run their own foreign and domestic policies according to its own wishes and its own interests, such as, Switzerland, Spain, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Japan, India (currently) and most of the European countries.

And then you have the subordinate states which are linked to other states in their foreign policy and even in some of their domestic issues. These are the weakest nations in the world in terms of power and influence when it comes to the international situation and the foreign policy and unfortunately you can see most of the Muslim countries if not all, as well as Africa and South America fall under this category.

To understand this model, let’s take Saudi’s recent military attack on Yemen killing thousands of Muslims. Saudi Arabia stated that it carried out these actions in its foreign policy to defend itself from the ‘terrorists’ in Yemen. The question we must ask upon this reality is, does Saudi Arabia view and take these actions when it came to its foreign policy as a great power, or as independent power or as a subordinate state? In other words, did Saudi Arabia carried out this attack beyond its borders, because it has the power to determine its own interest when it comes to foreign policy or did it carry out these attacks in its foreign policy for the interest of the greater power? Do we think that Saudi Arabia has a power to determine its own foreign policy? Using this framework will help us to understand what is going on in Yemen and why it is happening.

In summary, this concept and model of different types of states will help us understand that few powerful nations are the one who will be responsible for most of the international events that happen in the world. Majority of the international events that happen are often caused by few powerful countries. So, as Muslims, we should seek to focus on the foreign policy of those nation states which possess great powers, as they are more likely to be responsible for what’s happening generally in the world and specifically to the Muslims. And no doubt, they will likely be biggest obstacle, when we try to carry Islam to rest of the world.

Political Plans

The next important political concept is political plans. As mentioned before, foreign policy is developed by nations to achieve its interest beyond its own borders. There are many parts of foreign policy. The most important parts of foreign policy are political plans and political styles. Nations develop political plans. It is defined as “a general policy which is devised by a nation state for realizing one of its interests”. Hence, having identified its interests, these nation states will develop political plans to achieve these interests beyond its borders. Political plans developed by a nation state will take time to achieve its interest. Hence, often it will be a long term and do not change often. Most of the political plans are kept confidential. The powerful nations rarely review the political plans in public. Nation states, especially the great powers, normally have numerous interests beyond their borders. Hence, they will develop numerous political plans. Given that we should focus on the foreign policy of the great powers, it goes out without saying that we seek to identify the political plans of nations like America. No doubt that America has interests all over the world. So, it will have specific political plans for regions such as Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Far East and Africa. So, what might be the America’s political plans for these regions given that it tries to keep them secret? Some of the general examples of political plans that have been developed by nations historically to achieve their interests are. 1) The physical occupation of another country or annexing a part of its land; 2) Taking the resources of a nation; 3) Creating an axis of countries; 4) Changing the state of a nation from independent to a subordinate etc. 5) Containing and restricting the influence of other leading or independent nations in an area or region of the world; 6) Supporting another nation to increase its influence to achieve its own nation’s interest. These are some of the examples of political plans.

Political Styles:

The next important aspect of foreign policy is political styles. “It is a specific policy related to one of the details that help in accomplishing and strengthening a plan”. In other words, it is a specific action a nation would carry to achieve a political plan. Many states are pragmatic; therefore, they will follow political styles that can often violate their own principles if the style achieves the objective [End justifies the means]. Some of the examples of political styles are 1) Wars; 2) Installing or removing the agent rulers; 3) Military coups; 4) Influencing election; 5) Economic aid-loans, development projects using experts; 6) Military solutions, drones, and occupation; 7) Military alliances, treaties and Military bases 8) Economic agreements 9) Arms deals 10) Ceasefires; 11) Initiating, encouraging and supporting revolution in countries etc.

The general point to remember about political plans and political styles is that both are used to achieve the interests of nations and they form a key part of the country's foreign policy. Political plans and styles are devised for immediate actions. The styles may change when they become exposed or unsuitable, while political plans may also change if they become useless or cause unnecessary trouble to the nation state. The nation state, especially the great powers, will never stop creating, devising, or reviewing, changing its political plans and styles until it becomes weak and decline from its level at international situation, like what happened to Japan, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, who historically were great powers.

These five political concepts are part of a framework which will help to understand the international relations and actual foreign policy of existing great powers; to help us formulate the foreign policy of an Islamic state that will protect and safeguard the Ummah’s interests; to enable us to carry the Islam to rest of the world currently living as nation states.

In order to understand these political concepts which here are provided as just abstract, here we mention a two case studies to understand it in better way and how they are used practically.

Case study 01

International relations with Arab tribes in Arabian Peninsula by the first Islamic State in Madinah with Prophet (saw) as its ruler

 

Arabian Peninsula during 1AH

During the time of migration of the prophet (saw) to Madinah, most of the Arab tribes were Non-Muslims. They were worshipping idols in territories within Arabia that they politically and economically controlled. The matter of the fact is that within 10 years of migrating to Madinah, Prophet Muhammad (saw), changed the entire political landscape of Arabia. Most if not all of these Arab tribes on this map and their territories became part of Darul Islam, i.e. the territory of Islam, with Madinah as its capital city and Muhammad (saw) as the head of the state. And they all paid zakat, which was paid into a single fund and was kept in Madinah.

How did our Prophet (saw) achieve such a radical change in such a short period of time? Remember, for 13 years the Prophet (saw) was unable to convert one single tribe of Quraysh in one city of Makkah to Islam. But within 10 years, he (saw) not only achieved the Quraysh, but all of the Arab tribes to Islam. How did he (saw) achieve this?

Did the Prophet (saw) travel to each tribe, speak to them individually, smile at them, live with them, show them his beautiful morals and character, and they were so touched by his (saw) personality that they simply packed away their idols, became Muslims, gave up control of their lands and paid zakat? It is no doubt that our prophet (saw) had the best personality, best morals and the best character but it is simply naïve and factually wrong to believe that this transformation in Arabia occurred simply through a display of spirituality and morals.

In reality, if we correctly understand the Sunnah of his (saw) dawah, it will reveal that the Prophet (saw) was able to achieve this transformation not through spiritual or moral concepts but by acting on the political concepts guided by the shara’. From him (saw) we understand the political concepts of ‘politics’; the only way to take care of the affairs of the people was to establish an Islamic state. And it is for this reason that the Prophet (saw) and his Companions migrated to Madinah, where he (saw) established the first Islamic state.

He (saw) immediately surveyed the landscape and he identified the various tribes that he had to interact with and compete with in Arabia. For this, he (saw) developed the foreign policy. Having established the Islamic state in Madinah, the Prophet (saw) identified his key interests. His key interests were to carry Islam as a thought and method to all these Arab tribes and bring them under the rule of Islam.

His motivation to interact and to go beyond the walls of Madinah and to compete with these tribes was primarily a non-material interests; his interests were for the ideology. He wanted to carry Islam to all of these tribes. And he also realized that these tribes would consider his new Islamic state and his new way of life as a threat to their own material interests and to their idol worshipping way of life and this would motivate these Arab tribes to seek to harm the Muslims. So he (saw) developed a foreign policy that would 1) protect the Muslims living in Madinah from being harmed by other tribes; 2) carry Islam to all the idol worshipping Arabs who were organized in to a tribal structure. So he (saw) classified the surroundings tribes in to different categories i.e., those that had the greatest influence in the region and he (saw) determined that the Quraysh in Makkah was one of the leading tribes. He also identified that the B.Thaqeef, B.Najran, B.Tamim, were also significant Arab tribes in Arabia. He identified that some tribes were closely linked and subordinate to Quraysh like the tribes of B.Kinana and B.Al-Akhdhari and hence they could do actions against the Muslims under the influence of Quraysh. He also identified tribes that are independent and in close proximity to Madinah, the Jewish tribes of B.Nadhir, B.Qaynuqa, B.Quraydha. Having categorized these tribes in different types, he (saw) identified that the Quraysh was the tribe that he felt, which posed the greatest obstacle to his central interest of carrying Islam to all these Arab tribes. So he (saw) developed a political plan to defeat the Quraysh and bring the city of Makkah under the control of Islamic state. This plan took him 8 years to achieve and this plan never changed. To achieve this political plan, he (saw) developed and implemented numerous innovative political styles. For the Quraysh, he (saw) conducted no less than 3 rage on the Qurayshi caravan that were carrying expensive merchandise from Syria to Makkah. Within a few years after the hijrah, he (saw) sought to build alliances and he made treaties with various Arab tribes like B.Dhamrah and B.Mudlij. He would send spies and surveillance mission to keep him and to provide with intelligence on the Quraysh and their activities. He carried out battles and wars with Quraysh; Some he won and some he did not. He (saw) sometimes actively dismantle the alliances made between the Arab tribes that were threatening the Islamic state. He offered the tribe of B.Ghatafan, 1/3rd of the crops of Madinah if they agreed to break their alliances with the Quraysh during the battle of Khandaq (trench). He was even able to sign a temporary ceasefire with the Quraysh, so that he could neutralize the Jewish tribe of Khaybar (North of Madinah) without worrying about a surprise attack from the Quraysh from the south of Madinah. The prophet’s styles began to bear the fruits and he was able to wear down the strength of Quraysh and increase his own strength. His alliance with different Arab tribes enabled him to increase his army from 313 soldiers to 10,000 soldiers in just five years. It was through a combination of alliances, raids, expeditions, treaties, wars, ceasefires that he was eventually able to achieve his political plan and after 8 years, the city of Makkah became part of Islamic state and after two further years, most of the tribes in the Arabian Peninsula itself were giving zakat to Muhammad (saw) or they were paying Jizya. During these 10 years, his Sahaba (ra) learned and practiced these same political concepts that their master Muhammad (saw) used to bring these Arab tribes under the Islamic state. The Sahaba (ra) went on to use the same political concept to carry on the Islamic state and they successfully bought Empires under the Islamic state. The Persian and the Roman empires fell as the Islamic state under the leadership of Khulafaa ar-Rashidoon (rightly guided Caliphs) expanded into current day Iraq, Syria and Egypt etc.

Case study 02:

The invasion of Iraq by America in 2003

The American nation understood the concept of politics, so they established an independent state to take care of their affairs internally and externally in 1776. In 2003 the USA was the leading nation in the world having seen of communist Russia more than a decade. Its motivation to interact with the world was both ideological and material interests; however, when it came to the Iraq war, it is of a material interest. One of Americans’ interests was to dominate and control the international oil market. In light of this and its material interest, America identified other states that could challenge its interests. So they identified France, UK, Russia, Germany states that compete with it and other independent states like China and India etc. So to fulfill its interest in oil, it developed a critical plan to directly occupy Iraq and divide it. And the political style that America used to achieve this plan was to create an imaginary threat of weapons of mass destruction to justify the occupation of Iraq. It used the United Nations as a cover. It wanted to prevent other nations from interfering with the US plan. It wanted to ignore the United Nations Security Council and the need for a resolution for the occupation. It created a coalition of the willing. It incited sectarian divisions, so Muslims will fight each other in Iraq instead of engaging in removing the occupier. It formed a locally elected government that would give the American occupation legitimacy by asking help from the US forces. So America had an interest, has a foreign policy, had a plan for Iraq and it utilized different styles to achieve the plan. However, other great powers also had interest in relation to oil and Middle East.

France as a great power responded to this US plan and it developed its own political plan to achieve its interest in relation to the oil and Middle East. The French plan for Iraq was to form under its leadership and access of countries to obstruct American plan for occupying Iraq. The style that the French used was to try to use the United Nations Security Council to stop the occupation. This style worked, as the UN failed in the Security Council. France sought to win over other nations to frustrate the US plan. France managed to win over Russia and Germany to its side and this made US look like a tyrannical power and it made France look like an upholder of international law.

Britain also has an interest as a great power in the Middle East. So it had its own plan which was to gain some benefits and at the same time restrict the US control of Iraq. The styles that Britain used were to publicly support the US, so as to gain some benefits from it, but also secretly to undermine its control. It agreed with America publicly about the weapons of mass destruction lie, but it sought to push the US into the Security Council together with France. Despite knowing, it was impossible to gain a resolution it worked to support opposition to the US secretly by backing the US publicly for all its benefits and to undermine the use at the same time.

Lessons for the Muslims:

1. Reflections

We have to reflect on our response as Muslim to the Iraq war 2003 where we see the foreign policies were implemented by other nations on our land. Our internal affairs as Muslims were directly affected. In Iraq we became victims of this aggression but with no response. The French had a response, the French had a plan, the British had a plan, America had a plan, but we the Muslims had no plan. Why? Because when it comes to the concept of politics we do not have an Islamic state that protects us from the foreign policy of these nation states. The states that we have, all without exception, are subordinate to those great powers that seek to harm us. When we look at our interest in the world sadly as Muslims we have no interest in the world. We have been convinced that we should only be interested in the Aakhirah and we should not chase this world (dunya); hence, we have no interest in oil, strategic locations, defense etc. Our role in the world is simply to secure the interests of either US, France, Britain, Russia or China by following and supporting them and implementing their styles for their plans, so they can achieve their own interests and we get severely harmed in the process.

2. Causes for our weakness

The main causes for our weakness are, 1) We do not have any political concepts because we have restricted Islam and the Sunnah of Muhammad (saw) to a set of beliefs, rituals and morals or we have adopted the political concepts from the West. 2) We understand the international relations using critical concepts that the West gives us; concepts like nation states, international law, international norms. 3) Our belief that the only way to influence international relations is by helping the great powers to safeguard and secure their interests is our weak understanding of political concepts that maintain the current world order in which we are victims.

Finally, we lack the most important mechanism to implement these political concepts, i.e., our own Islamic state, and our own independent foreign policy. Without these political concepts, without our own state and our own foreign policy, we will never be able to impact the world in any significant manner, only drifting from one crisis to another. As a result, we will always be caught up in the traps set by the great powers.

Allah reminds (وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ ٱللَّهُ وَٱللَّهُ خَيْرُ ٱلْمَـٰكِرِينَ) “They planned, but Allah also planned. And Allah is the best of planners” [Surah Al-Anfal, 8:30].

3. Need for having political concepts

To address this weakness, we must seek to influence the international situation by studying, crystallizing and practically using these political concepts mentioned in this article which show the great necessity and value of political concepts for the Muslims. Using these political concepts will not only successfully defend ourselves from the harmful plans devised by the great powers but we will Insha Allah be able to shape the world event according to our interests and our plans.

It is essential that we try and use these political concepts to know the political plans of every major state and to be able to correctly identify their styles. We must try and expose their political plans publicly. We must also aim to destroy their political plans by frustrating their political styles. Our political struggle as Muslims has to be directed against the political plans and styles by exposing and resisting them.

Conclusion

To conclude, nation states seek to achieve their interests and this forces them to interact and have relationship with other countries. Sometimes these interests are the same but mostly these interests are in conflict. Hence, these nation states are in constant competition with one another to achieve their own interests. In doing so, they will try to compete one another. This creates a constant race between these nation states as they struggle and compete with one another over these interests. As Muslims, whether we like it not, this is how Allah (swt) created the world. Whether we like it or not, we are part of this world and we are part of this competition and struggle. The question we have to answer is, do we want to be the losers and the victims of the struggle? Or do we want to be the winners and the victors of the struggle? We must recognize that, in this constant struggle, the strongest will survive and the weakest will die and right now we are dying but as Muslims we are not allowed to die because our Aqedah tells us that we have a very special mission in this world (dunya). It is true that we do not chase this dunya but we must carry Islam to the whole world and that means that we have to become a leading nation in the world.

(كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَلَوْ ءَامَنَ أَهْلُ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَّهُم مِّنْهُمُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمُ ٱلْفَـٰسِقُونَ)

“You are the best community ever raised for humanity, you encourage good, forbid evil, and believe in Allah. Had the People of the Book believed, it would have been better for them. Some of them are faithful, but most are rebellious.” [Surah Aali ‘Imran, 3:110]

So, as Muslims, we must enter this competition; we must enter this game of nations and we have to win. The prophet (saw) took on idol worshipping powerful tribes and defeated them only by adopting these political concepts. The Sahaba (ra), using these same political concepts, took on pagan worshipping powerful empires and defeated them. We today have to use these same political concepts to take on these powerful capitalist nation states and we have to defeat them. We have to worship the creator of this world by making this ayah a reality. Finally, we ask Allah (swt) to help us understand and act on these political concepts. We ask Allah (swt) to help us establish an Islamic State that will implement these political concepts and its foreign policy. I ask Allah (swt) to help us with the re-establishment of the Islamic state, the vehicle by which we carry Islam to the whole world.

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Hameed Bin Ahmed