Six Constitutional Imperatives of the Muslim States

What The Evil Rulers Demonstrated?
It is really unfortunate that instead we could make the world understand the distinctive features of political system of Islam, we have to caution the rulers of the Muslim countries how many of them from South Asia to North Africa have been crossing the limits of their mandate and infringing the rights of their people by establishing their authoritative rule for last about half of the century. How they forced the people to believe that the power was their right, the countries were their estates, the political parties they lead were their properties and the workers of the parties were their slaves. Assuming themselves to be wisest of all they have subdued their people.

How they may think themselves the prime intellect, dastardly acts of these fascist minded rulers reveal they are in fact mentally a serious case. The cruelty they resort to, for making the heads bow to them, itself is a manifestation of their psychological disorder. Their greed for possessing piles of wealth entails lust of power as an assurance of being protected. Still feeling insecure, on one hand, they seek protection from the foreign powers at the cost of national prestige and honor and on the other hand domestically they raise a wall of horror between them and their people by encroachment on civil liberties and human rights.

After having a let in on the internal matters and guarantees of unusual control on the policies of the Muslim countries the super powers care a little about how mercilessly the rulers crush the human rights in their countries. Most of the time during the Cold War, Sukarno of Indonesia, Jamal Abdul Nasir of Egypt, Qaddafi of Libya, Houri Boumediene of Algeria, Saddam of Iraq, Hafiz Al Asad of Syria, Southern leadership of divided Yemen and in Pakistan Z ulfiqar Ali Bhuto, were either directly under the umbrella of Soviet Union (which herself had the worst record of human rights then) or had clear ideological inclinations towards socialist ideology. All of them were fascists and had autocratic faces. On the other side Raza Shah Pehlvi of Iran was playing the role of an American policeman in the East, particularly in the Gulf region. Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia since 1957 and after he was overthrown, his successor Zain El Abidin Ben Ali, both were henchmen of France. In some other Middle Eastern countries the kingdoms and Amiris resorted to take backing of America for their survival, which never objected on trampling of freedom and human rights by these authoritative rulers. Pervez Musharaf, the military dictator of Pakistan, also have been the worst example of American servitude.

Though personal life and thoughts of the most of the arbitrary rulers in the Muslim countries show almost a zero level understanding of and practical touch with Islam, but being the heads of the Muslim states their dictatorial attitude has been a serious setback for Islam to lacking a healthy and vibrant political system.

What They Forget?

The rulers forget that the sovereignty, for which they show too much hunger and try to grab it through foxy tricks, is a sacred trust, which needs a lot of courage and competence for fulfillment. It is not the right of some particular political parties, clans and families but a heavy duty to defend the Muslim state on both ideological and geographical fronts. The territories and also the faith of the people and moral values of the society are to be guarded against the ideological and cultural intrusion by the enemies of Islam and bring a security to the lives, properties and honors. It is a task to lead the people to the fruitful reforms and possibilities bringing peace and prosperity. It is a matter of sacrifices and not of making gains.

Constitutional Imperatives

The rulers from the last half of the twentieth and even till the end of first decade of the twenty first century forgot their past and brushed aside the golden teachings and traditions left by the Prophet, be peace and blessings of Allah upon him, and his four Guided Caliphs. The ideal era of the Muslim rule after Muhammad, be peace and blessings of Allah upon him, was the time of the Four Guided Caliphs, particularly of Abu Bakr and Omer, Be Allah pleased with both of them. Here just to trace the constitutional basics, we will have a swift look on the principles laid down by Abu Bakr, RA in his very first public address after getting elected as the first Guided Caliph.

The man, who was the closest companion of the Messenger of Allah, be peace and blessings upon him, won appreciation from Allah and His Prophet, SAW, for his tremendous services and sacrifices for the noble Cause of Islam, he was naturally at the top of the merit list but he did not assume his person to be better than all.

(a) Only the very first sentence of his speech as the Guided Caliph deserves to be made the foundation stone of the constitution of every Muslim country. It endorses the principle of public will as the basic for electing the rulers. He said: “I have been appointed caliph on you while the fact is that I am not better than all of you.”

(b) He also has the opinion that the people have the right to guard over and keep sharp scrutinizing eyes on how the head of the state exercises his duties. The people have the power to check and correct the ruler, if he makes any mistake in discharging his duties. “If I do good then help me and if I waver from the righteousness then correct me.”

(c) Another very important point is about ideological grounds of the state. The ruling authority has to abide by the ideology of the Muslim state. Abu Bakr, RA, in his first address after taking charge as the first Guided Caliph pointed to a golden principle of a responsible Muslim ruler. “Obedience to me is conditional to my obedience to the commandments of Allah and teachings of His Messenger, SAW. If I show any disaffiliation and disregard to the commandments of Allah and His Prophet, SAW, then you are free from my obedience.”

(d) Justice is the core of a political and economic system. In the absence of justice the social balance gets immensely disturbed. In result the society is badly disintegrated and the state becomes unstable. Safeguarding the rights of the deprived and downtrodden classes of the society, and put a check on the willfulness, waywardness and arrogance of the influential and privileged classes, is the very first duty of a ruler. Exploitation, manipulation and robbing the resources of life from the lower classes give way to great wrong-doings and evil practices in the rule. Abu Bakr, be Allah pleased with him, laid a hard and tough criteria in this case. He very clearly warned: “The weak among you is powerful in my sight until I get him back his rights from the powerful, and your powerful is weaker in my sight until I get the rights of the powers grabbed by him to return to the poor.”

(e) In the light of famous saying that get ready for war if you want peace, one of the prime duties of the rulers is to make the defence of the country impregnable and undefeatable. The only way for this purpose is to keep the spirit of Jehad high and defence forces ready to combat if the enemies advance with their evil designs. Failure in keeping ready for war is a serious danger for the peace. Alertness of the armed forces depends on how much the ruler of the country is vigilant and wakeful. Abu Bakr, RA, reminded the Muslim community of this fact saying: ‘When a community gives up readiness for the war in the way of Allah, it is destined to face the disgrace and humility.”

(f) The defence has to be made unbreakable on both the internal and external fronts. Internally the moral debasement and hollowness proves to be the great hazard, making the Muslim community a good catch in face of the foreign aggression. Due to the moral lowness not only the society goes in loss of the qualities of manliness and courage, nature also gives blows and calamities and disasters hit it severely. The rulers have to protect their people from moral evils. Abu Bakr, RA, gave a strict warning and said: “When the trends of lewdness and obscenity become popular in a community, Allah makes it subject to afflictions and tribulations.”

Six points of the inaugural speech of Abu Bakr, be Allah pleased with him, mentioned above, are of great worth to be documented in the constitutions of the Muslim states and the Muslim rulers make them the part of their political charters.