Responsibilities of the Ruler


It is inevitable that any society, Muslim or non-Muslim, would seek to appoint those into leadership that would undertake the responsibility of leadership i.e. the protection of their interests and the regulation of their internal and external relationships premised upon the core concepts and values that the society believes in. This has been true for any civilisation at any point in history and at any level of socio-political development. Moreover this will always remain true for it is the very nature of human beings that when they establish social organisation and seek to regulate their affairs, that they appoint an authority to govern their affairs by agreed upon core base values that shape and define them and their direction.

One sees this clearly in the western world where the societies are established upon secularism. Protection of secular concepts, the implementation and propagation of secular ideas and capitalism that is borne out of secularism, the protection of national interests, resources and its people are all reflective of the behaviour of western leaderships. Though signs today show western societies increasingly becoming temperamental over with the social, economic and political corruption, immorality and injustices both nationally and internationally that capitalism inherently breeds, the western societies have leaderships that practically secure their ideology and interests defined by their ideology whether these interests are financial, security or linked to the survival and protection of its people and lands. Also one can see how the western leaderships seek to extend the influence of the ideology that their society is structured upon into other societies around the world. This is evident as capitalism scourges the world from west to the east with no country escaping its direct influence and control.

The Muslim Ummah demand no less than this from the rulers that govern over her, not primarily because it is the inevitable and inherent make-up of any human society, but because it is what Islam demands and obligates upon the ruler. Muhammad (Sallalahu Alaihi Wa sallam) said,

“Each one of you is made responsible and each one of you is responsible for his matters. The Imam is responsible and he is made responsible for his matters.”

These responsibilities have been indicated by the Hadith, where Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) said, “Verily the Imam is a shield from behind which you fight and behind which you are protected” and also by other ahadith, ayaat and from the example of Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) and the Khulafaa’ Al-Rashidoon when they discharged their responsibilities as rulers over the Muslims.

But when one turns to the leaderships that have claimed ruling for the interests of the Muslims societies in the Muslim world – one witnesses the clear wilful neglect of what Islam has obligated from those that seek to govern the affairs of the Muslims.

Islam has obligated the ruler to implement, protect and propagate Islam and the Islamic Aqeedah and to protect the blood, honour, wealth and lands of the Muslims.

Abu Bakr Siddiq (Radiallahu Anhu) was asked by Zainab, from the people of Ahmas, “Until when will we stay on this good matter (Islam) which Allah has brought us after the times of ignorance?” Abu Bakr (Radiallahu Anhu) replied, “As long as your rulers straighten on it.” (Jami’al Usul, Ibn Al-Atheer)

But a quick glance at the situation in the Muslim world, particularly what has transpired during the calamity that has befallen the Muslims of Afghanistan and Iraq at the hands of the US coalition terrorist aggression, demonstrates how detached and crooked the rulers are from Islam, from the Muslims and the interests of Islam and the Muslims.

This situation is not unique to Afghanistan or Iraq. Rather Iraq represents the most recent of events where the Muslims have been betrayed by their rulers since the destruction of the Khilafah in 1924. History until this day shows how the rulers have betrayed the Muslims of Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kashmir, and Indonesia in addition to the Muslims they rule over. How they have conducted the affairs of the Muslims such that the noblest of the Ummah are characterised by weakness, political division, military humiliation, dishonour, poverty and under the subjugation of immense oppression by the rulers directly, from the political control of the western colonialist nations and from the international colonial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. More than this how they have made treachery against Islam and the Muslims by securing the interests of their colonial masters at the expense of Islam and the interests of the Muslims. Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said, “The treason of treasons is when the ruler betrays his people.”

The treachery of each and every ruler would read volumes and by now it is clear for all to see the loyalty which the rulers align themselves to. Likewise the examples from the life of Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) and the Khulafaa Ar-Rashidoon speak with greater volumes of the resulting glory and expansion of Islam and the accomplishment of fulfilling the protection and interests of the Mulims.

The matter is that the treachery of these rulers cannot be permitted to continue, for Islam prohibits their munkar and their authority over the Ummah. Many ahadith have been narrated to this effect and linked the matter to enjoining the good and forbidding the evil. It was narrated by Abdullah ibn Masud (Radiallahu Anhu) that the Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa sallam) said, “The first corruption to enter into the children of Banu Israel was when one man approached another man and told him to stop what he was doing because it exceeded the limits that Allah had commanded. The very next day, the man approached the same man and but did not refrain from sitting, eating and drinking with him from his excesses and, so Allah clashed their hearts.” Then Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa sallam) recited the ayaat from Surah al-Ma’idah verses 78-82, which begins with: “Those who disbelieved from the Children of Israel were cursed by the tongue of Dawood and Isa ibn Maryum due to their disobedience and transgression. They did not stop each other from the evil that they committed. Verily evil is what they used to do…” Then Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa sallam) said, “By Allah you must enjoin the good and forbid the evil and hold tightly the hand of the unjust ruler and force him to the truth.”

It is the Muslim Ummah that must respond to the duty that Islam has placed upon her to remove the corruption of the rulers that govern her and replace them with a leadership that will unify the body, wealth, lands and armies of the Muslim under its leadership through the Islamic system. This Islamic leadership and its system is distinguished. It is the Khilafah Ruling System. It is a system that the western leaderships are well aware of, and academics, think tanks and politicians alike have discussed about political scenarios when (and not ‘if’) the Khilafah is re-established.

Is it not time that the thinking and acting on this matter is not left to the western leaderships? Surely it is the Muslim Ummah that must act tirelessly to overcome the obstacles that the western colonialists have placed in the path to establishing the Khilafah, one of which are these treacherous rulers and the oppressive systems that they implement over us.
 

Hanif