Muslims today have abandoned the Quran as a book of guidance and this is the root cause of all their problems. For the present Muslims, Quran has become a book of pride, not of universal message. Pride arouses superiority complex and develops the mentality of “we and they.” Such a mentality leads to hatred for others. This is because living in pride makes a person emotional; one loses introspection, modesty and revision. That is why it is observed that be it the Arabs and the non-Arabs, both consider the Quran as a complete book (mukkamal kitab) and are very emotional in matters relating to it.

However, when the Quran is taken as a book of universal message, it inspires well-wishing for others. This can be understood by considering the case of a businessman. A businessman has to sell his goods to the customers and therefore, he must have a customer-friendly nature. Similarly, if a person has a universal message to spread to all mankind then it would naturally cause him to become a well-wisher of others; he will try his utmost to present the message to others such that it addresses them. The Quran gives a person a universal outlook by giving a universal message to spread but unfortunately the Muslims of today have forgotten it – both the mission and the behaviour it desires.

Erroneous Interpretation

Concept of Khalifatullah

A study of the life and times of Prophet Muhammad and his companions suffices to explain the mission they lived for During his Last Sermon, Prophet Muhammad addressed the Companions thus,

Those who are present here should spread the message to those who are not here.

 (Ibn Hisham)

Upon hearing this, the Companions passionately undertook journeys to spread the message of God. The message was spread to Asia, Africa and even Europe. It was this missionary zeal that kept the spirit of dawah alive. But in later times, Muslims began to interpret God’s word differently. For example, they started considering themselves as khalifa of God on earth, a concept that was totally unfounded and baseless. The literal meaning of the phrase khalifat-ullah is ‘the successor of God.’

Ibn Taimiyya, a famous scholar, said that it is unlawful (haram) to consider man as successor of God. Now, a new interpretation emerged. The word khalifa was given to mean the “vice-gerent” of God on earth. Presenting such an interpretation was nothing but bidat or innovation in the religion of God.

Concept of Mukammal Islam

This theory that propagated Islam as a complete religion came into being as a result of several Arab and non-Arab movements. Despite having no base in Quran and Hadith, this idea became dangerously popular as it made Islam a religion that had to be necessarily imposed on the society. Now, Muslims began considering Islam as a subject of enforcement; a system which had to be imposed upon the people. At first, this concept was propagated peacefully, when it yielded no result, its propagators attempted to spread it through violence but when they met failure yet again, Muslims began resorting to suicide bombing.

It is only in the light of such events that I was able to fully understand why Prophet Muhammad had strictly denounced any kind of rebellion (Sahih Muslim). As per another Hadith, the Prophet predicted that,

“If once, sword enters my ummah (community), it will remain in it forever” (Musnad Ahmad)

I often wondered why the Prophet said that the sword or violence once started would continue forever. I realized that this was because, at first, violence manifests itself in the form of an “emotional outburst” but if continued unchecked, it becomes “justified violence.”

Let me take an example to explain it further. Today, Shirk in India is based on philosophy; however shirk or idolatry came first and the philosophy or ideology justifying it came later over a period of thousand years. Therefore, eliminating idolatry in India is an impossible task as it is based on a whole philosophy of thousand years. The idolatry in Arabia at the time of the Prophet was only superficial, it had no justified base and hence ending it was possible. Similarly, violence is, at first, a consequence of emotions, without any justification. Later this emotional violence takes the form of justified violence, which is difficult to end, as is the justified philosophy of shirk in India, is difficult to eliminate.

Peaceful activism

According to a Hadith,

“Peaceful activism against the rulers is allowed but not violent activism.” (Sahih Muslim)

It means that if you dislike something about the ruler, then meet him and speak to him person-to-person, but don’t try unseating him. Unseating the ruler is unlawful in Islam.

Sword entered in the Muslim society at the time of Caliph Usman. At that time, violence was justified by the Muslims in the name of caliphate. Today, violence is justified in the name of mukammal Islam or complete Islam. Now, to impose a system, power is required and therefore Muslims are indulging in violence to acquire power.

This is the age of justified violence. The concept of mukammal Islam is same as the communist ideology. Stalin, a proponent of communism said, “We need 3 things for success arms, arms and arms.” What Muslims are doing today against their own governments is in sync with the communist ideology. The entire Muslim community is stuck in a swamp, a quagmire.

The two groups

Hadith bears a mention of two groups:  Ashab-e-rasul (Companions of the Prophet) and Ikhwan-e-rasul (Brothers of the Prophet). The Companions of the Prophet were the contemporaries of the Prophet and the Brothers of the Prophet will come after the Prophet. Muslims today understand the Ikhwan or the Brothers of the Prophet as sacrosanct entities and are afraid to talk about them.

But in actual fact, Ikhwan-e-rasul is not anything mysterious, it is rather a goal. The Prophet once said of the Ashab, “Those who want to become a part of this group should fulfil its prerequisites.” Just as Ashab-e-rasul was a target or a goal and those who fulfil the criteria are included in this group, similarly Ikhwan-e-rasul is a target. Both these groups are based on dawah activities and not milli or community oriented activities. The only target of Islam is to give universal warning and everything else is secondary, for example, milli activities are not the goal of Islam.

The goal of Islam is to spread the message of God to entire mankind. The Companions of the Prophet travelled far and wide with the message of Islam. Today in the modern electronic world, the Ikhwan-e-rasul have to do the same by utilising the modern technology. The Ashab-e-rasul made the Prophet’s dawah mission their own and propagated it by using all available means for this purpose. The Ikhwan-e-rasul have to do the same by using new opportunities available today. The following Hadith sets the target for Ikhwan-e-rasul. According to it,

“No house on Earth – big or small – will remain but God’s Word shall enter into it..”(Musnad Ahmad)

Earlier Muslims were givers; they had a mission which they spread in the world. But today Muslims have become usurpers. The concept of mukammal Islam is viewed as something which would snatch way the land, property etc of people, hence Muslims are considered usurpers.

Muslims earlier had a mission to spread and therefore, had the dawah spirit. This spirit is not anything small; the thrilling experience which results when someone has a mission is equivalent to no other thing. Dawah work leads to all positive qualities, while political target spoils everything. Today the Muslims have a reduced understanding of dawah. They do not realize that they can impart that to the world which will be beneficial for the society. Instead, political target has been set as the goal of the Muslims when such a target does nothing except that it destroys the quam (community).

Dawah work brings all positive qualities such as modesty, well-wishing, positive thinking etc in people. Dawah work is positive mission in the extreme sense of the word. Hence this mission should be emphasised upon rather than pride. Pride develops negativity.

Lesson from the Quran

Quran is a Book that makes a mention of selective items from history. For example, there is a mention of the story of Prophet Jonah who was sent for dawah in the town of Nainva, Iraq. Prophet Jonah left the place without doing itmam-e-hujjat. He was then swallowed by a whale. God released him from the stomach of the whale when he repented. Quran states this as,

“Had he not been one of those who acknowledge the glory of god, he would certainly have remained inside the fish till the Day of Resurrection.”(37:143-144)

Today, Muslims are in this stomach of problems. This is because they have declared their madu (addressee) as their enemy. Muslims are doing wrong at an even greater scale than that committed by Prophet Jonah when he left his people without addressing them totally.

A dai has no right to declare madu as addressee even when the madu is engaged in conspiracy against him. If the Muslims want to come out from the problems, they must accept their mistakes and reassess the situation. They should declare that they were wrong in taking their madu as enemy and should do dawah work, that is, to make man aware of the Creation Plan of God.

The following verse of the Quran suffices to give man enough conviction to carry out his dawah activities wholeheartedly. It states,

“God will surely help him who help His cause.”(22:40)

God completes the worldly needs of those who do dawah work. Hence one should do dawah and leave the rest on God. This is the two-point formula that man must follow in his life and remember that “A believer has only duties and no rights!”

May God give us the strength to fulfill our duties!