Headlines:
- Quit US Alliance for the Sake of Islam and Muslims
- There is no need for CPEC to Fix our Agriculture, the Khilafah Will
- Only Khilafah on the Method of Prophethood will Ensure Protection of Non-Muslims
Quit US Alliance for the Sake of Islam and Muslims
On 3rd April 2018, Dawn Newspaper reported that the Adviser on Finance Miftah Ismail has said that Pakistan will not compromise on its security interests even if the United States (US) cancels all its aid to the country. In an interview to the Financial Times, Mr. Ismail, however, said such pressures cannot force Islamabad to abandon its security interests. Islamabad fears that the United States is purposely giving India a larger role in Afghanistan, enabling it to use the Afghan territory for stirring troubles in Pakistan. “We are the sixth or seventh-largest country in the world and have the seventh-largest standing army in the world,” he added.
It is the habit of the political and military leadership to promote an impression that they will uphold national interests at all costs whilst engaging with the United States. If this has been true than the political and military leadership of Pakistan would have abandoned alliance with the US sometime ago. This alliance is maintained despite the complete disregard by the US of Pakistan’s security concerns. The US opened the doors of Afghanistan for India and is still persisting on this policy, asking India to help her to keep an eye on Pakistan. Yet, the political and military leadership of Pakistan continues supporting the US political and military efforts to consolidate her occupation in Afghanistan. What has been described as the “Bajwa Doctrine” is not about saying ‘no more’ to US demands for ‘do more.’ Instead the doctrine is about crushing whatever resistance has been left in Pakistan, especially in the tribal areas, against US occupation. Pakistan’s political and military leadership tries to conceal its treachery behind the vague notion of national interest, which is used to secure US foreign policy objectives. In reality it does not care about the interests of Pakistan, even if it is upon the basis of nationalism.
A sincere Islamic leadership cares about the interest of Islam and Muslims, not so-called “national interest.” A sincere leadership would have not made alliance with the US in the first place or taken aid to kill those who resist the US occupation. Instead, a sincere leadership would have supported the Afghan Muslim brothers against the US aggression and occupation. A sincere leadership would not take have subjected Pakistan to humiliation by the US and instead would have worked to force US to a complete humiliating withdrawal from our region. As Mr. Ismail acknowledged, we are the sixth or seventh-largest country in the world and have the seventh-largest standing army in the world, so we can easily achieve this objective, if we re-establish the Khilafah on the Method of Prophethood, which secures interests solely on the basis of Islam. Allah (swt) said, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا عَدُوِّي وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَاء “O you who believe! Take not My enemies and your enemies (i.e. disbelievers and polytheists, etc.) as friends” [Surah Al-Mumtahina 60:1]
There is no need for CPEC to Fix our Agriculture, the Khilafah Will
Some members of the federal cabinet on 3 April 2018 raised concern over the fact that agriculture had been totally ignored in the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), sources told Dawn. The government neglects its own responsibilities and looks to China as a cure-all. This confirms the lack of vision of the government in looking after the affairs of Muslims, which is due to their neglect of ruling by Islam.
It is known that the Muslim Lands under the laws revealed by Allah (swt) were the agricultural marvel of the world. At a time when Europe was stricken by starvation and famine, one of the factors that drew the crusaders to attack the blessed lands of Ash-Sham was their immense agricultural wealth to the point that the crusaders conceived they are going to the “land of milk and honey.” Moreover, during Europe’s Dark Ages, the Muslim Lands were an essential nexus for introducing essential crops as well as the concept of summer irrigation to the West. As for the Indian Subcontinent, under Islam, it was an agricultural powerhouse, which contributed to it producing 23% of the world’s GDP in the eighteenth century, with a formidable export profile, inciting the greed of the British colonialists over the vast wealth in agriculture, particularly spices and condiments. However, when these revealed laws were replaced during the British occupation by man-made laws, there was a wide-scale famine within the same lands under this British Raj, leading to the deaths of hundreds and thousands through starvation. Until now man-made laws are implemented in the field of agriculture, denying Pakistan its true potential as an agricultural powerhouse.
The return of the Khilafah will boost agricultural production and rural employment, thus increasing Pakistan’s food security and prosperity by restoring the Islamic land laws in the Indian Subcontinent. Uniquely, Islam strongly links the issue of ownership of the land with its cultivation. So regardless of whether the land-owner has large tracts of lands, or small tracts of it, he must supervise its cultivation personally. And the state will assist the owners in cultivation, whether through grants or through interest-free loans. In its Introduction to the Constitution, Hizb ut Tahrir has adopted in Article 136, “Everyone that owns land is compelled to use it, and those that require financial help are given money from the Bayt Al-Mal to enable them to utilise their land. If anyone neglects utilising the land for three years continuously, it is taken from them and given to someone else.” If the owner of land is unwilling or unable to cultivate his agricultural land despite assistance being offered, he is not allowed to hire it to another to cultivate it. RasulAllah ﷺ said, «ازرعها أو امنحها أخاك» “Cultivate it or give it to your brother.” In its Introduction to the Constitution, Hizb ut Tahrir has adopted in Article 135, “It is completely prohibited to rent land for agriculture, irrespective of whether the land was Kharajiyyah or ‘Ushriyyah. Likewise, temporary share-cropping is also prohibited. Musaaqa (renting trees for a portion of their yields) is permitted without restriction.” And Islam encourages the revival of uncultivated agricultural land by granting ownership to the one who revives dead land to agricultural productivity. RasulAllah ﷺ said, «من أحيا أرضا ميتة فهي له» “whoever revives a dead land, it belongs to him” [Tirmidhi] Thus, in its Introduction to the Constitution, Hizb ut Tahrir has adopted Article 134, “Dead land is possessed through its revival and fencing.”
Only Khilafah on the Method of Prophethood will Ensure Protection of Non-Muslims
In the evening of 2 April, four members of the Christian community travelling in a rickshaw were killed in a firing incident on Quetta’s Shah Zaman Road. This is not the first time when such an incident has taken place on minorities in Pakistan. Previously in the same city of Quetta a church was attacked on December 17th, 2017 killing nine. Several similar condemnable acts have occurred throughout major cities in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s rulers condemn such attacks but they never address the root cause. It is Democracy that has failed to secure the life and property of minorities in Pakistan for decades. Indeed, the life and properties of minorities are undermined all over the world in democracies. Since it is majority who decides on all matters in democracy, it naturally leads to the importance of the majority and insignificance of minorities. The majority legislates as per its wishes with little regards for minority aspirations, as we can see today within the champions of democracy in the West. In all Democracies, legislation is at the mercy of the majority wishes and they are amended whenever majority wishes to change them. So keeping Muslims locked for years in Guantanamo Bay without any prosecution, sending an accused to jail without informing him of his crime using the excuse of national security, and not letting him appoint a defense lawyer according to his wishes, have become norms of justice in the so called “civilized” American society. Similarly, wearing Hijab in schools of some democracies of Europe has become a crime because the public representatives of the majority are unable to tolerate that additional piece of clothing. And the situation is as bad in the largest Democracy in the world, India, where Muslims and other minorities are brutally oppressed and denied fundamental rights. Thus, Democracy has completely failed to secure the minorities because of its concept of majority rule.
As for Islam, in origin the concept of minorities is rejected as a whole and in its details. Islam does not accept rule according to the wishes of the majority, rather everyone conforms to the ruling by the Quran and Sunnah. Dividing the people into followers of different religions has no place within the subject of citizenship and the definition of the state. Despite the concept of the Islamic Ummah holds a great deal of importance in Islam, Islam did not however make this the basis for citizenship (At-Taabi’iyyah) within the Islamic State. Islam only stipulated as a condition loyalty to the state for the one holding citizenship. Everyone possessing the Taabi’iyyah, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, is from the subjects of the Islamic State and they are those whom the State is not permitted to discriminate between, in matters of ruling and looking after the affairs. In the previous era of the Khilafah, non-Muslims lived for centuries under Islamic rule with their lives and properties secured. It will be the Khilafah on the Method of the Prophethood again which will grant protection to non-Muslims living in its state as it is a duty to protect the life of the People of Dhimmah (Non-Muslim citizens in the Islamic State). RasulAllah ﷺ said, «أَلَا مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا مُعَاهِدًا لَهُ ذِمَّةُ اللَّهِ وَذِمَّةُ رَسُولِهِ فَقَدْ أَخْفَرَ بِذِمَّةِ اللَّهِ فَلَا يُرَحْ رَائِحَةَ الْجَنَّةِ وَإِنَّ رِيحَهَا لَيُوجَدُ مِنْ مَسِيرَةِ سَبْعِينَ خَرِيفًا» “He who kills a covenanted person unjustly shall not find the scent of heaven; and indeed its scent is found at a distance of a seventy year march” (Tirmidhi).