The Road to Revolution

It is self-evident on both rational and spiritual grounds that the establishment of a universal form of Islamic government is a necessity for the Muslim Ummah. It is also self-evident that we are furthest away from the implementation of this obligation than any other generation and future generations will continue to degenerate unless we awaken ourselves from the slumber that has paralyzed us and take direct action now. Unfortunately, the Ummah has several major obstacles towards achieving the necessary momentum that is required to establish such a government. One major obstacle preventing the unification of our states is the imposition and sustained support of the nation-state system. The nation-state system, unlike other obstacles towards unification which are largely intellectual in nature, is also a physical boundary that prevents the allocation of resources, movement of troops, and other valuable processes that could potentially be developed by the consensual decision making that would occur under a revolutionary Islamic government. It is imperative then, for all of the activist movements that are currently operating in the Ummah to make it an open objective to do everything in their power to eliminate this system and replace it with Islamic international order.

The method of bringing down the international nation-state system has two components since the system itself has two components. The first component is the intellectual justification for the creation and maintenance of this system through the ideology of nationalism. The second component of this system is the overt and covert support that these states and their respective governments are provided by Western governments. The only way of removing the intellectual roots of the nation-state system are by attacking the ideology of nationalism and the only way to expose the actions of Western governments who support the nation-state system is for intellectuals and historians to work together to create an extensive study of the history and effects of colonialism on the Muslim Ummah. Thus, it is inherently obvious that the first step towards a unified Islamic government is through an intellectual revolution. Since intellectual revolution has been discussed in previous articles, it will suffice to review that there are four components that are necessary to instigate a massive paradigm shift within the hearts and minds of the Ummah: 1. Reconstruction of Islamic knowledge from traditional sources, 2. the Deconstruction of Western power systems, 3. The Refutation of Deviant groups whose goals and objectives are antithetical to the establishment of a Universal Islamic Government, and 4. The formation of Islamic power systems.

Now the query may be posed: what is the relationship between an intellectual revolution and a political revolution? Any true political revolution, if it is to besuccessful, must be grounded on firm political concepts, material objectives, and within the boundaries of certain morals. A revolution without clear objectives and a precise methodology to carry out such a program of change, will ultimately flounder and dissolve into anarchy and chaos. We as Muslims are prohibited by our Shariah from rebelling against rulers if they have not threatened the implementation of the Divine Injunctions and if we lack an alternative to the existing order. No matter how tyrannical a government may be, tyranny is still better than anarchy. Furthermore, if our objective is to establish a universal form of Islamic government, then we must recognize that it is not one or two governments that must be overthrown, but many governments of various social, economic, cultural, and sectarian backgrounds. Does this render revolution impossible? No, on the contrary, Islamic revolution is not impossible, it is inevitable. The way to address the momentous task of bringing about change throughout the entirety of the Muslim Ummah is to focus on those states that, if they underwent an Islamic revolution, would have a powerful effect on states and populations beyond their borders. In other words, we ought to ask ourselves: which states would be absolutely fundamental to the formation of a Universal Islamic Government? There are five such states: Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and Malaysia. These five states have not been arbitrarily chosen but by critical analysis can be shown to be the five most dominant states within the Ummah today. If any one of these states underwent an Islamic revolution, they would have an immediate impact on their neighbors. The goal is not to create revolutions in these five states and forget about the rest of the Ummah, but rather, it is through the instigation of Islamic revolutions in these 5 states simultaneously that we hope to bring about a domino effect in other Muslim states and governments. If Kuwait or Nigeria or Tajikistan underwent Islamic revolutions, they would have little or no effect on their surrounding territories, let alone the Ummah which means that foreign governments that are opposed to a unified Ummah will be able to step in rather easily and quell these rebellions to their hegemony. However, if a revolution occurs in a country that has close intellectual, financial, and cultural ties with many other countries, it will undoubtedly have an effect on the surrounding territories as well. In order to instigate such a revolution and preventing it from rampaging out of control into either tyranny or anarchy, it is absolutely essential that a cadre of intellectuals that are well-trained and equipped in the traditional sciences as well the Western ideologies that provide the moral and rational basis for their power systems, must be formed.

The only location where potential revolutionaries from these five states can meet is in the very place where the battle of ideas is raging within the Ummah: in the West. If articles by RAND corporation and the Nixon Institute have not made it apparent, the heart of intellectual warfare is occurring right here in places like America where certain governments are desperately attempting to formulate a model of Islam that is compatible with Western ideologies in hopes of exporting it to the rest of the Ummah. Recent events like women giving Jumaah khutbahs or openly espousing the permissibility of homosexuality in Islam or the recent phenomenon of think tanks like the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy hosting workshops and conferences in Muslim countries are to be expected given the expectation that the only way to subdue Islam to Western hegemony is through the formation of a ‘civil democratic Islam’. Thus, whether we as Western Muslims choose to or not, the responsibility of developing an intellectual revolution falls squarely on our shoulders. Unlike other communities, however, we do have the minds, the monies, and the manpower to achieve this. For example, the first component of intellectual revolution, the reconstruction of Islamic knowledge, can occur through developing Islamic schools that are, in essence, a fusion between the maddrasseh-style education that one receives under the Ulema and the private school model of the West. The end product of a child who goes through such a system will attain the spiritual benefit of acquiring knowledge from unadulterated sources while also attaining the necessary vocational skills required to function in society resulting in individuals who are not only intellectual liberated, but financially as well so that they can actually carry out a program of change. In other words, graduates from such an educational system will become natural activists. Furthermore, the MSA’s and other Islamic youth organizations at the Collegiate level can play a pivotal role in instigating Islamic revolutions by providing the manpower for propagating the ideas of Islamic revolution as well as by taking active steps to instigate such a revolution by participating in the intellectual debates that are occurring in the Ummah today. Instead of sitting idly and allowing the Modernist school of thought to parade across the US and the rest of the Ummah, MSA activists can stop and take a direct role in challenging the moral, intellectual, political, and Islamically legal foundations of the justifications of Modernists who attempt to ‘hijack’ the shariah. Furthermore, after the College level, the formations of Think Tanks dedicated solely to the deconstruction of Western ideologies and construction of Islamic power systems can utilize the experience of these activists to create works that can provide future fuel for the upcoming Islamic revolution. Lastly, the American Muslim community has many resources at its disposal to communicate with the other communities within the Ummah through the internet, radio, television, and educational programs.

Whether we like it or not, the American Muslim community is going to be used as a model for the rest of the Ummah. Either it will be a ‘civil democratic Islam’ or it can be a ‘revolutionary Islam’. The choice is up to you, as an individual, what you want it to be. You can choose, through your actions, to help unite the Ummah or through your inaction, help propagate its defeat.

I apologize if the series of articles on this topic have come off as vague or unclear since they are a summary of a much longer series of articles. May Allah (swt) grant us taufiq. Ameen.