بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Speech by Dr. Osman Bakhach, Director of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir, in the Annual Khilafah Conference-Lebanon
30 Rajab 1438 AH – 27/4/2017 CE
After the Kuffar destroyed the Khilafah state [Caliphate], and spread their authority over the Muslim lands, and suspended the application of the Deen and its rules, and imposed man-made laws and human constitutions, it was natural for the sincere Muslims to call for the work to resume the Islamic way of life, but they differed among themselves in the approaches and methods, although they wanted to uphold the word of Allah and to implement His Shariah.
Some of them saw that change is through the gradual change from within the existing man-made system by participating in the parliamentary elections and holding temporary political alliances with non-Islamic parties. Some of them went to correct the doctrine and fight against innovation and spread the Shariah sciences. Some of them saw jihad as the way to destroy the tyrannical systems and establish the Islamic state in its place. In my speech, I will focus on this last view, namely, that Jihad is the way to establish the Islamic state.
I will not dwell much on the details of the march of the jihadi movements in Egypt and what came of it (in 1997) of the “reviews” which led it to retreat from its previous approach, and even some of its leaders turned to advocate compromising solutions with the existing system in Egypt!
In fact, this diversity in the methods for the desired change reflects the multiplicity in understanding the nature of Islam and its political system.
We are not here to give detailed rules of Jihad in what is known as the defensive jihad, and offensive jihad, and the killing of transgressors and other details. But we limit our talk to show the lslamic (Shar’i) method to establish the Khilafah on the methodology of the Prophethood. It must first be noted that the State is an executive entity that looks after the affairs of society and the Ummah by implementing the Shariah rules derived from Islamic Shariah based on Islamic creed.
The Islamic creed is based on the testimony that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and that the Islamic message is the seal of the heavenly messages. It is dominant over the previous divine laws. It requires the followers of the former Messengers of the Jews and Christians to join the monotheism (Tawheed). Nothing else will be accepted from them in the Hereafter.
The power of Islam is necessary for its existence, and propagation and reassurance of its people of their creed, and to reassure those who want to embrace it themselves, and the establishment and protection of this good system. Islam must have a system, Islam must have power, and Islam must have jihad. This is its nature, without this Islam cannot live and lead. Islam has struggled (carried jihad) to establish this divine order in the earth and implement it and protect it. It is its right to carry jihad to destroy the tyrannical systems that are based on the enslavement of humans by humans, in which people claim the place of divinity and engage in the function of divinity – unjustly –.
قَاتِلُواْ الَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللّهِ وَلاَ بِالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَلاَ يُحَرِّمُونَ مَا حَرَّمَ اللّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَلاَ يَدِينُونَ دِينَ الْحَقِّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ الْكِتَابَ حَتَّى يُعْطُواْ الْجِزْيَةَ عَن يَدٍ وَهُمْ صَاغِرُونَ
“Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled”
(At-Tawba: 29)
This Jihad to establish this elevated system is still an obligation upon Muslims:
حَتَّى لَا تَكُونَ فِتْنَةٌ وَيَكُونَ الدِّينُ للهِ
“And fight them until there is no fitnah and [until] the religion, all of it, is for Allah”
(Al-Anfal: 39)
The sword in Islam was not carried therefore to force people to embrace its creed, but jihad was carried out to establish a secure system, that gives security to all people of the different creeds, and to live under this system, obeying its laws even if they do not embrace its creed.
لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِيْ الدِّينِ
“There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion”
(Al-Baqara: 256)
It is the right of Islam, but this is its mission, to bring people out of the worship of people to the worship of Allah alone and the liberation of all people. The worship of Allah alone cannot be realized – in Islamic perception and in practice – only under the Islamic system, it is the only the system where Allah legislates for all the people, for their rulers and their ruled, for their black and white, their far and their near, their poor and rich, one legislation that they are all equally subjected to… But in all the other systems, people worship people because other people legislate for them the laws of life; thus, it is imperative that Islam removes these systems as obstacles and restrictions that prevent people from recognizing the message of Islam. This is the meaning of “the entire Deen belongs to Allah”, there is no judgment or obedience to a slave (of Allah) himself for other people, as is the case in the man-made systems.
The issue here is that jihad has been legislated for a certain specific purpose; it is not an end in of itself.
And the observer of the history of Islamic legislation finds that the Prophet ﷺ was not authorized to fight in Mecca, that is, before the empowerment and establishment of the Islamic state in Medina, but jihad was legislated after the migration (Hijra) and after the existence of the Muslims’ entity with power and strength. Islam legislated jihad to destroy the material entities that prevent people from living under the Islamic law away from the constraints of repression and man-made systems that enslave people unjustly, as they put man in the place of the Lord, the Creator of the heavens and the Earth, and permits and forbids and legislates to serve the whims of its creators and the outcomes of their limited minds that are subject to disparity.
We find from our study of the Prophet’s purified biography (Seerah) that the Prophet ﷺ did not resort to fighting for the establishment of the Islamic state, and despite all the methods exercised by the Kuffar of Quraysh in repelling from the path of Allah and the oppression of Muslims and harming the Prophet ﷺ and his righteous companions, until he received the permission to allow some to migrate to the land of Abyssinia to escape in protection of their Deen. He ﷺ did not do more than the statement he gave to the Yasir family:
«صبرا آل ياسر فإن موعدكم الجنة»
“Be patient O family of Yasir, You have an appointment with Jannah.”
Thus, looking at his example ﷺ in carrying the call in Mecca Al-Mukarramah (dignified) one finds that he ﷺ did not pay attention to the insistence of the Quraysh to repel from the path of Allah and their infliction with the types of torment and the plots on the Muslims, but he ﷺ continued steadfast supported by the Wahi (revelation) of the Lord. He did not waver from it even in the slightest form, until the fruits of the call showed and was spread in the horizons and was embraced by the people of Yathrib who supported the Deen of Allah, and the first Islamic state in Medina was established.
And even in the second Bay’ah (pledge) of Aqaba, we find that Al-Abbas bin Nadhlah said to the Messenger: By the one who sent you with the truth, if you want we can fight the people of Mina tomorrow with our swords, his ﷺ answer was:
«لم نؤمر بذلك، ولكن ارجعوا إلى رحالكم»
“We were not ordered to do so, but go back to your tents”
As for those who call for jihad to establish the Islamic state, we find them contradicting each other and contradicting the Shari’a rules. The definition of Jihad in the Shari’a is to exert utmost effort to fight the Kuffar to make the word of Allah the highest. This does not include fighting Muslims. We find jihadist organizations resorting to issuing fatwas to legitimize the spilling of the blood of Muslims and non-Muslims, and to legitimize the destruction of private property, like what happened in Egypt, for example, or find some of them inventing theories to return to the fatwa of the Tartars by Ibn Taymiyah, may Allah have mercy on him, to allow the targeting of state employees.
After suffering and struggling, they admit that the method they followed was wrong and they abandoned it, after the blood had been spilled and sanctities are violated. The facts have shown how the intelligence services infiltrated many of these organizations whether in Algeria or in Egypt or others, the intelligence agents carry out the worst crimes and frame it as a terrorist act, which led many people to run away from the call to implement the Shariah when they saw that its implementation is through rivers of blood and carcasses and killing the innocent. Some of them rule that Muslims have committed apostasy (Rid’da) to justify their killing, and show creativity in methods of brutal killing in a way not known from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ nor his beloved companions, may Allah be pleased with them.
We find the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forgive the people of Mecca after Allah enabled him over them in the conquest of Mecca and he ﷺ freed them, and we see the instructions of the Khalifah Abu Bakr As-Siddiq to the soldiers of Islam before the opening of Ash-Sham, when he said:
(لا تخونوا ولا تَغُلُّوا، ولا تَغدِروا ولا تُمَثِّلوا، ولا تقتلوا طفلاً صغيرًا، ولا شيخًا كبيرًا، ولا امرأة، ولا تَعقِروا نخلاً ولا تحرقوه، ولا تقطعوا شجرة مُثمِرة، ولا تذبحوا شاةً ولا بقرة ولا بعيرًا إلا لمأكلة، وسوف تمرون بأقوام قد فرَّغوا أنفسَهم في الصوامع، فدَعُوهم وما فرَّغوا أنفسهم له).
“Do not betray and do not exceed the limits, do not become treacherous, and do not mutilate dead bodies, do not kill a small child, nor an elderly, nor a woman, do not cut down or burn a palm trees, and do not cut a fruiting tree, do not slaughter a sheep, nor a cow, nor a camel, unless you need to eat, you will pass by people who dedicated themselves to monasteries, leave them to that which they dedicated themselves to”
Then what about those people who do not hesitate to call many Muslims as Kuffar and consider them as apostates, and allow the spilling of their blood and plundering of their wealth and the violation of their sanctities? They did not stop at that, they even fought with each other, so they attacked with their weapons the “Brothers of the Method” after they allowed the shedding of their blood. Are such people fit for carrying Islam as a message of mercy and justice to the worlds?! Is it with such barbaric practices that people in the countries opened by Muslim armies were convinced of the justice of Islam and its mercy, an entered the Deen of Allah in droves?
And we see the following in this Sahih Hadith:
«عن أنس أن غلاما من اليهود كان مرض فأتاه النبي r يعوده فقعد عند رأسه فقال له أسلم فنظر إلى أبيه وهو عند رأسه فقال له أبوه أطع أبا القاسم فأسلم فقام النبي r وهو يقول الحمد لله الذي أنقذه بي من النار».
“On the authority of Anas, that a Jewish boy became ill, so the Prophet ﷺ came to visit. He ﷺ sat next to the boy’s head, and said to him enter Islam, the boy looked to his father, who was also standing by his head, the father said to him: “Obey Aba Al-Qasim.”
Thus the boy embraced Islam, the Prophet ﷺ got up while saying Alhamdulilah who saved him through me from Hellfire.”
The Prophet ﷺ was so pleased by saving the boy from Hellfire, where is the Prophet’s guidance in the actions of those people?
The history of the Muslims witness that the Khilafah State made a history brightly filled with pages of achievements in various fields, in leadership and looking after the affairs, and in science and civilization, and the land of Islam became the land of leaders and scholars, the land of justice and goodness, blessed with the justice of Islam and mercy under the Khilafah. Muslims and non-Muslims at a time when Europe was lost in the Dark Ages, where the sons of the same religion killed each other, they found no escape and sanctuary to enjoy the security, safety, welfare and charity except in the land of the Islamic Khilafah, amongst Muslims and under the rule of Islam! When the Church held the Inquisition in Andalusia, the Jews did not find a better safe haven than the Muslim countries, so they migrated to live among the Muslims.
In conclusion, barbaric blind violence is not based on a sound understanding of the message of Islam or its detailed Shariah rules. It is contrary to the guidance of the noble Prophet ﷺ in his Method to establish an Islamic state; that must be on the path of Prophethood. It is necessary to establish the rule on the Islamic idea, and this means to give the Ummah or the most powerful group in the people, the understanding of the idea that will bring revival to the Ummah and make them build their lives on it and move in the arena of life on the basis of the idea, and then the rule will be established through the Ummah on this idea, and the people of power (people of Nusra) are gained who are able to establish the state and protect them from the risks and threats to this idea. Therefore, the Ummah of Islam returns as the best nation brought to mankind and take over the role of being a witness over the people when it carries Islam as a message of justice and mercy, and the armies of Muslims march to bring the people out of the darkness of disbelief to the light of Islam.
When examining the Prophet’s methodology and its application in our reality today, we find that the nature of the states today is based on enormous material military forces, which cannot be overcome through the establishment of armed groups, no matter how genuine the determination and sincerity become. The resolution of material conflict requires physical forces that are not obtainable to individuals. The obvious facts proved that a jihadist movement did not succeed in its aim, as demonstrated by the ease with which the intelligence services penetrated these organizations and exploited them for their purposes. With the ease of accessibility of material strength of the righteous companions, we find that the Prophet ﷺ avoided recourse to material conflict and insisted on winning the decisive victory forces capable of protecting the entity of the newborn state.
I conclude by stating that all that I mentioned does not mean in any way our silence about the criminal campaign led by the Kuffar’s Alliance in the east and west, who have gathered against the Ummah of Islam, and controlled our countries, our airspace and our seas, under the pretext of fighting terrorism, which only means fighting Islam and Muslims. They are helped by rulers of the Muslims who are no less criminal than them. The ruler who is supposed to be a shepherd who is responsible for his flock, is a predatory wolf that is not ashamed of Allah nor of the worshipers of Allah when he openly allies himself with the forces of Kufr against his Ummah, to the extent that we see the rulers of Morocco and Algeria humiliate the refugees fleeing from the hell of the crusade in Syria. This is without talking about what the rulers of Jordan, Iran, Turkey and others are doing against our people in Ash-Sham.