Understanding Islamic Governance

Leadership in Islam requires God-consciousness, righteousness, and upholding justice. It also requires knowledge of revelation and the use of reason, to understand the relationships between causes and effects. Apart from the sterling example of the prophet, good governance was not always evident in Muslim history. Rulers did not always meet the expectations articulated in the Book of Allah and practiced by the prophet. In fact, influenced by politics and hawkish ulama, parts of the umma neglected the Book of Allah. Prodded by rulers endeavouring to enlarge the realm and ulama that assisted them, the umma turned from revelation to tradition. The re-orientation of the umma from the Book of Allah to traditions was a catastrophe of epic proportions. It tore Islam from its anchor in revelation and anchored it firmly in tradition. Muslims began to follow the paths of the predecessors rather than the path of Allah. Mystics rendered parts of the umma that followed them bereft of reason. The umma refrains from using reason to understand revelation under the delusion that this would make it better. Recourse to reason to understand revelation was equated with kufr. Refraining from engaging reason to understand revelation was justified by recourse to a tradition biased against reason. But refraining from using reason enfeebled the umma. Refraining from reasoning prevented the umma from understanding revelation. Reduced capacity to understand revelation resulting from the reticence to use reason hampered the umma in following revelation. The rejection of reason distanced the umma from its faith. This "intellectual suicide" made it hard for the umma to understand and therefore to follow the Book of Allah. This plunged the umma into darkness. The umma also fell behinds in the empirical sciences and technology. This left the umma at the mercy of its adversaries, that evolved better technology. In desperation, the umma turned to tradition. They disregarded the Book of Allah that teaches that persons who do not use their reason are worse than cattle (8:22). They disregarded the verse that says that says that Allah will place confusion on people who do not use reason (10:100). When Muslims rejected rationality, they rejected knowledge. They became bereft of reason. "Intellectual suicide" triggered "political suicide." Prodded by hawkish rulers and their allies, Muslims embarked upon a warpath against the rest of humanity. But the Umayyads were turned back in France, the Abbasids were obliterated by the Mongols, and the Ottomans were scattered at the Gates of Vienna, twice. Recently Muslims were bombed in Afghanistan, Iraq and are being assaulted elsewhere. They still suffer. They were propelled by the perception of the perpetual war between the dar al-Islam and the dar al-harb. The umma embraced the Hobbesian perspective that the "state of nature" is a "war of all against all." This resulted from poor leadership. To this day misguided ulama teach that suicide missions are "martyrdom operations," in a defiance of the teaching of revelation. They tuned war into a pillar of Islam, transforming the teaching of reconciliation into a religion of war. This transformation was triggered by politics. Hawkish rulers aspired to enlarge the empire by "any means necessary." This encompassed wars of aggression. But revelation prohibits aggression. Accordingly, the justification of wars of aggression required a reinterpretation of revelation. It required rendering permissible what Allah prohibited. It is time to return to the path of peace from the path of war. The umma requires a re-education. Responding to the "war on terror" necessitates a "war on error." The epistemology of Islam requires purification from "unwarranted accretions" and the corruption of knowledge. This should be accomplished by the affirmation of the pre-eminence of revelation in relation to all tradition, the rehabilitation and re-engagement of reason, and the desacralization of tradition.