When our Kufan jurists sought to define the concept of what our relations between centres of power, should look like, they hit upon a terminology that defined not just their political concerns, but that can also be used as a foundation stone for us in realising what our society should look like, and how it should operate.
They did not qualify those politcal and spatial areas in terms of Darul Imaan (the land of Belief) and Darul Kufr (the land of disbelief).
For this being simply a descriptive they knew lacked both in insight and power. And so they defined those relations in an active, prescriptive, sense.
So instead they postulated these:
Darul Islam- the land of peace
Darul Harb- the land of war
Darul Ahdi- the land of reciprocal treaty
Today, there is no Political Islam and so in our World we cannot classify any place as being Darul Islam.
But that does not mean that the concept of Darul Islam, and its consequent reality, is dead and buried.
For its seed lives on.
Especially so since Islam, the political idea, never was born into a power vacuum, but had always to contend with threats.
From it's conception in the late Meccan revelations that talk about God's sovreignty and ownership extending both over the Heavens and then to our Earthly domain, to the Early Medinian revelations that talk of the creation of our father, Adam (as), and the investment by God to us all with the mission to be His stewards on Earth.
To the latter Medinan revelations that talk about us being a justly balanced, middling Nation, that provides an exemplary behavioural pattern amogst all the Nations of this Earth.
This conception of our soceital history is defined within the narrative of the glorious recitation of our Quran.
That provides the framework that fleshes out that mission in wonderful detail:
That God created man, empowered him with words and vested within him the job of stewardship over this our Earth.
That He took from the loins of Adam, all of the Childen of Adam, as dhurrah (atoms) and took from us all a sacred oath that we would only ever serve and worship Him.
That if God wished then He could have made all mankind one Nation, with a singular and true belief in Him. But instead He provided us with the tools of intelligence to realise our true Nature.
That moral action is each our own individual, and then collective, responsibility. And is the pinacle of knowledge.
That He created that He might be known, and that we can only know Him when we act to right, and oppose wrong- that He is the most moral who hates wrong and oppressions. And this nature of His can only be known, and truly appreciated, by moral agents exercising free will.
And so when He raises one true person, He will raise in acclaim one false liar- so that the choice of who you really are is aways there ready for you to make. (S Mizaan)
That He wishes for you freedom to choose.
And so He balances your choices, and allows differences, so that He might come to know the truth of who you are (S Talaq).
And He hates oppressions whereby your freedom is eroded.
And so He sent Prophets to fight for our freedom from oppression (S Taha), to remind us of Him and our most sacred oath taken.
And He sent Messengers with books informing us of His will and ways, that we might surrender to Him and act to remove oppression according to His wish.
That true Societal and Political Islam was the greatest expression of freedom of consicence that this World has ever witnessed. Where not even the judgment of a Qadi (*1) carried any legal weight, if your conscience did not accord with it. (See Hadith literature)
That any other system of living apart from it is struggle, heartache and trouble. Where people do not help, nor care for one another.
That we live in a land, and society, of war.
That makes war on each of our souls, on all of our morals, individual and collective, on our families and happiness.
And God calls you to a land, and society, of peace and freedom.
Where you are free to choose to act morally, or imnmorally, as is your God given right but as individuals not as collectives of people where one man uses his power to oppress another, wholesale.
As God so succinctly declares in the Quran-
The devil calls you to poverty (by making you selfish) and indecency, whereas God, He calls you to forgiveness and wealth (by making you generous).
That here He makes clear the choice to you, but does not compel you.
This is the society that God calls you too, where freedom of conscience is paramount, where generosity is sought for, and where His forgiveness is guaranteed.
Thus is the land and society of Peace, that we as Muslims aspire to.
And this polity that we all live under now, is a land of war, which makes war on each our individual and familial rights, wants, souls and morals.
As God so succinctly declares after the powerful verse of the Kursi in Baqara:
God is the Trustee of those who believe, He takes them out of the darkness of one man oppressing another. The disbelievers are the Trustees and enablers of those who oppress them. They take them out from the light of freedom, and into the darkness of oppressions where one man oppresses another.
CONTEMPLATE WELL.
KNOWLEDGE IS SOUGHT THROUGH ACTION.
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