Vatican Model

According to a tradition of the Prophet of Islam, God will provide support by other nations to the believers (Al-Mojam Al-Kabir of Tabarani, Hadith No.14640). One aspect of this tradition is that God will provide models by other nations or secular people to guide the Muslims in their religious mission.  Such events have occurred repeatedly in human history. One of these can be called the Vatican model.

In ancient Europe, the Christian Pope had acquired the status of an uncrowned King of the entire continent. But the situation changed in the 17^th century, when gradually the Pope lost his power. Now the Pope had to choose between two courses of actions: either the office of the Pope in terms of his political role come to an end or the title of the Pope remain intact at some non-political level. After much deliberation, the Christian authorities agreed on accepting this second position. This took place when Mussolini was in power. In 1929, an agreement called the Lateran Treaty was reached between the Christian Pope and the government of Italy. According to this treaty, the Pope was given a small area of just about 110 acres in Rome, the capital of Italy. This area which was already in possession of the Christians was now accorded the position of a State invested with political power. The Pope developed this land and now this is functioning successfully as Christianity’s spiritual kingdom.

With this Lateran treaty, the Christian nations found this opportunity to keep the title of the Pope despite the end of the papacy.  In the name of the Pope, they organized and established religious organizations under a central authority all over the world. They are working in an organized manner for their religion all over the world. This is the wisdom which has been called in the Quran ‘Ihdal Husnayain’ or ‘one of the two goods’ that is, one of the two bests (The Quran, 9:52). I call this the availing of the ‘second-best’ opportunity.

In present times, the Muslims complain of their deprivation, but the truth is that this is not a case of deprivation, but rather of unawareness of the realities of the time or the prevailing situation. In present times, Muslims have repeatedly found an opportunity to secure the second-best, like the Vatican model. But owing to their lack of wisdom, the Muslim leaders have failed to avail of this opportunity. For instance, in the first quarter of the 20^th century, when it became clear that the political institution of the Ottoman Caliphate could not survive, the Muslim leaders had the opportunity to accept the second best after negotiations like that of the Pope. In the name of the Khilafat, they could have found an area suited to their purposes in Constantinople or in any other part of Turkey, and by developing an institution like that of the Vatican, could have kept intact the title of the Caliphate. This was an opportunity for the Muslim leaders to engage in re-planning. But the Muslim leaders of the time failed to prove to be realistic in this matter. As a result, the title of the Caliph came to an end forever.

Similarly, in 1952, when the government of Shah Farooq of Egypt was replaced by military rule in Egypt, President Jamal Abdul Nasir had at that time been offered the ministry of education to Al Ikhwanul-Muslimun of Egypt. But their leaders rejected this offer. Similarly, President Mohammad Ayub Khan of Pakistan had offered the Jamaat-e-Islami complete charge of an international university in Pakistan in 1962. But the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan rejected this offer. All this was a case of failure to re-plan. Such failure is to be blamed for all the problems of the Muslims in modern times.