After the West colonized the Muslim world, it utilized many means and styles to distance the Muslims away from the Islamic State in order to prevent its reemergence as a global power. Chief among these styles was to incorporate cultural and educational curricula into the Muslim lands, which had the net effect of creating personalities loyal to the Western culture and outlook among the Muslims, particularly among the educated class and elite. One of the most potent features of these curricula was the manner in which it presented the Islamic history. The Islamic State was depicted as being characterized by turmoil, bloody wars and internal strife, where the Khalifah was a ruthless tyrant who indulged in womanizing, drinking, and all sorts of vices. This type of history has been passed down through the generations and is now firmly entrenched, to the point that many Muslims ardently believe that the Islamic history is indeed a bloody history that should be put behind them and forgotten. When the Muslims do refer to their history, they do so with an eye of shame and regret, as something that should never be repeated or relived. And since the Islamic State was a part of this history, then the Islamic State, according to many Muslims, is a relic of history which the people can gloss over as historians but should be disregarded as a practical solution to the problems that Muslims face.
One extremely vital issue that Muslims cannot overlook is that history is simply an account of the actions of people. Therefore, history cannot be used as a standard to determine the correctness of the Islamic ideology or system, nor can it be used as a source for determining the obligations that Islam mandated upon the Muslims. Today, one witnesses that there is a gap between Islam and the behaviour of Muslims; however, the fact remains that the behavior of Muslims cannot be used to determine the correctness of Islam. Similarly, the behaviour of Muslims of the past -- which is what history essentially is -- cannot be used to determine whether or not Islam is correct. The correctness of the Islamic Aqeedah proves the correctness of Islam, in addition to everything that is built upon Islam, and this includes the political system that is designated with the task of implementing the system and conveying the message to the world. Therefore, the Islamic system, because it emanates from this correct Aqeedah, is the correct system for humanity. If there exists a gap between Islam and its application, then the fault lay in the mistakes that were made by those who applied Islam and not in the ideology itself.
Then the question remains: What kind of history does characterize the Islamic State? If history is the account of human beings, then the history of the Islamic State is an account of human beings who implemented Islam. Therefore, the Islamic State's history is not a ''bloody history'' but a human history, with all the characteristic features that a historical record of human beings would have.
One tactic that the Western-style educational curricula relied upon was to portray the application of Islam as a ruthless, bloody application that created civil unrest and problems. At the same time, they glorified the individual Muslim to such an extreme that many Muslims believed that the ideal Muslim individual should be almost angelic in character. What the Muslims did NOT realize was that this hypothetical angelic character - which was flawless and, therefore, unattainable by any human being - was incompatible with a system that was designed for human beings, because any system that is applied by human being will invariably result in mistakes being committed and, as a result, the emergence of problems of various sorts. As a result, this had the effect of keeping the Muslims attached to Islam as an individualistic religion while simultaneously distancing the Muslims away from the implementation of Islam as a system.
Therefore, it is incumbent for the Muslims to realize that the Islamic State will be applied by human beings and not by angels. The Islamic society will be a human society and not a hypothetical utopian society. Similarly, the Islamic State will be a state administered by human beings where the Khalifah is just another man who will implement the Shariah in a human manner and not in a godly manner. The mere fact that the Islamic system has a penal code to punish those who transgress the law and a judicial system to settle disputes is indicative that Allah (swt) created the Islamic system to accommodate the imperfect nature of human beings. If human beings were sinless, and the Islamic State were a utopian society, then there would be no crime and no disputes, and hence no need for a penal code and a court system.
In conclusion, one should not expect for the history of the Islamic State to be a perfect history without problems. Otherwise, if this were the case, then one would question: If the Islamic State's history were problem-free, then is the Islamic State truly compatible with the imperfect nature of human beings and human societies? The fact that problems did occur during the Islamic State's history indicates that the Islamic State was a human history and is very much compatible with the nature of human beings. At the same time, the Islamic State's problems were not as epidemic and widespread as depicted in the history that is administered to Muslims. The amount of faulty information and exaggerated accounts which surround the Islamic history is so tremendous that an extensive amount of filtering must take place in order to reach the truth. The Muslims should be intelligent enough to realize this and should approach their history in a careful manner in order to avoid being misled. Therefore, the Muslims should have in place some framework by which to study history. The details of this framework are beyond the scope of this article, but certain points should be mentioned.
First, history should not be taken from the non-Muslims because those non-Muslims, in particular the Orientalists, who have devoted themselves to writing about Islam and Islamic history, have demonstrated that they harbour hatred towards Islam. It would not be expected for Capitalists to view the history of Western civilization from the accounts of Communists. Therefore, it should not be expected for Muslims to depend upon non-Muslims for their history. Secondly, even when examining history written my Muslims, the quality and accuracy of the information must be scrutinized. It is a common misconception that by questioning the information transmitted by Muslims, one is doubting their sincerity or good intentions. However, the clear distinction between sincerity and accuracy must be maintained. The qualities of sincerity are different than the qualities which make an individual accurate. A person can be the most sincere Muslim and have the purest of intentions; however, this does not guarantee that he is accurate. A person who has the fear of Allah and the willingness to obey the rules of Allah makes that individual a sincere Muslim. Yet if this same individual is unable to sort information clearly, or he is not careful in verifying the information that he receives from others, or he has a tendency to forget easily, then this will affect his accuracy.
Lastly, when analyzing history, the Muslims should also incorporate some common sense, which can at times be a very powerful tool in filtering the historical information. An example which illustrates this is the description of many of the Khulafah, in particular those who existed during the Umayyad Era. The Ummayyad rulers are often depicted as the most ruthless, bloodthirsty, and tyrannical collection of rulers that ever presided over the Muslim world. And the society that is described is one of constant turmoil, strife, and chaos. However, at the same time, it is also known that most of the expansion of Islam occurred during the Ummayyad Era. It is also known that the Islamic State at the time of the Ummayyad Era was the superpower of the world, and it was leading the other nations in all aspects of life. People in general would not be attracted to ruthless, bloodthirsty tyrants. If the Ummayyad rulers were so tyrannical, then why did so many nations willingly embrace Islam and accept for themselves to be part of the Islamic State? Furthermore, how could the leading state of the world at the time maintain such a status and be plagued with internal strife and turmoil of such epidemic proportions? Therefore, common sense and some knowledge of certain basic realities is sufficient to rule out such stories as gross exaggerations of both the rulers and the society which existed at the time.
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