The Conception of the Sahaba's Ultimate Decency and the Political Authority in Islam

Part 4 - Chapter 1

Regulations of the Society Movement

Like any other political society, the Islamic is bound by two main regulations:

The first regulation is the divine jurisprudential formulation. It is the doctrine that represents the law efficacious in the Islamic society. It is the general and the detailed outlining that totally covers the entire fields of the Islamic society. Namely, it is the central pharmacy that contains the curative remedy of every ailment that may act upon that society. This formulation comprises the hypothetical, as well as the applicable, bases of every malady and remedy, and provides a proved guarantee of the potency and the effectuality of this treatment. Moreover, this formulation is so highly designed that it covers the lives of individuals, families, societies, countries and the world as a whole. It is also designed to line up societies, lead them to cooperation and harmony and satisfy their material and mental needs.

The second regulation is the political leadership decided by the doctrine. Pursuant to the rules of the divine political formulation, this authority is empowered to submit the movement of the Islamic society to these rules. To wit, the authority stands for the engineer who is fully acquainted of the detailed and the general outlining of the divine doctrine, or the physician who supplies physical services, prescribes the remedy and the way of taking it and, finally, watches how the unhealthy takes it till the achievement of recovery. He is, also, the hypothesizer of the divine political formulation and the general supervisor on the applications and the authority to whom people should refer in understanding the ruling and their aims. This is by the reason that that authority is being the most familiar with the rulings and the aims of the divine formulation, the most favorable and the fittest for leading the followers of that doctrine.

It is to add that that authority is the explicator, of the formulation, whose mission is communicating and conveying it as exactly as he has received

from his Lord, and applying its texts into factuality. He is the witness on the process of the hypothetical and applicable explication of the formulation. He is the foreteller of the individuals loyal to the doctrine, and the warner of those impeding it. He is the solicitor to Allah and the illuminated lamp that lights up the course of the society during its movements.

Harmony and Perfection Between the Divine Doctrine and the Political Leadership

The Islamic divine doctrine is, totally and fundamentally, relied upon two basic pillars; the revealed Book of Allah - the Holy Quran - and Allah's Apostle, Mohammed (peace be upon him and his family). He is the political leader whom is divinely authorized of leading the solicitation of the advocacy and designated for leading the government derived from that solicitation. This means that the political leadership of the solicitation and the government established on its basis are inseparable parts of the doctrine. In the same way, the political leadership of Saul was an inseparable part of the doctrine operative at that time. The same thing can be said about the leadership of David and Solomon, the prophets.

Pursuant to the natural criteria, it is impractical to solicit the divine doctrine and explicate and implement its rulings without the political leadership of Mohammed. He is the only individual authorized to interpret the texts of that doctrine into application. Thus, he himself did this job through the solicitation he called for and the government established as a result of that solicitation. He was the pivot and base of the political leadership to whom position of authority of both solicitation and government had been designated.

This pertinent and constitutive dependence and perfection is sustained by the fact that God, the Exalted, had never revealed a - divine - missive to mankind without an apostle, and had never revealed a - divine - book without the existence of an individual the mission of whom was guiding the believers with respect to the rulings of that book. Had it been useful to disunite the interrelated bind between the divine doctrine and the political leadership - the missive and the apostle, it would have been elementary for God to reveal copies of the divine book to each sane individual through which He, the Elevated, would have enjoined of applying the rulings given. By the same token, there would not have been need for selecting thousands

of apostles, prophets and guides.

On the intellectual, logical, religious and natural criteria, the disunity of the interrelation and perfection between the divine doctrine and the political leadership is inapplicable. Similarly, adherence to the Quran and neglecting the political leadership is a matter out of the circle of reasoning. Unanimously, those who believe in Quran and disbelieve in Mohammed as a political and religious leader, are decided as disbelievers. Those who believe in Mohammed as the political leadership and neglect the Quran are, correspondingly decided as disbelievers. Giving credence to the divine doctrine as the effective law, and Mohammed as the religious and political leader whose mission is guiding the believers through that effective law, is among the fundamental bases of faith.

The political leadership, consequently, is the instituting body whose responsibility is explicating the doctrine and guiding the followers according to the rulings of that doctrine. Like doctoring, atomics and engineering, the approaches of explicating the doctrine and guiding the followers are completely procedures of specialization. It is unfeasible to leave such missions to fancies and individual hypotheses.

Qualifications of the Doctrinal Political Leadership

Mohammed (peace be upon him and his family), as being the first political and religious leader of Islam, should be taken as the guide and the exemplar of that political leadership. Those who take the position of leadership were characterized as the Prophet's successors. Hence, being the most knowledgeable, the keenest of the divine doctrine and its rulings, the most favorable and the fittest, politically and religiously, have been the qualifications of the Prophet's political and religious leadership. Our evidence is that it was God, the Elevated, Who nominated him for joining political leadership to the religious. No single Muslim can protest against this fact.

Thereupon, any political or religious leadership succeeding the Prophet should be carrying the same qualifications. Hence, the leader succeeding the Prophet should be:

1. The most knowledgeable of the divine doctrine.

2. The keenest to the rulings of the divine doctrine.

3. The most favorable among the followers of that divine doctrine, and

4. The fittest for guiding the followers.

These are positive criteria, orderly prospects and finite purposes of every individual intending but the right and disdaining humors. It is for the good of believers - in Islam - entirely that the most knowledgeable, the keenest, the most favorable and the fittest should guide them. In a like manner, it is for none's good that any unqualified individual leads the nation.

Adept At Assuring Availability of the Qualifications Involved

There is no single individual, group or nation can assure in a way of certitude and conviction, the availability of the qualifications involved in a certain person. As those individuals, groups and nations enjoy natural, logical and systematic capacities and competencies too short to assure, in ways of certitude and conviction, any fact, and that they realize the manifestation only, they are not adept at assuring availability of the qualifications involved at any individual. As a matter of fact, the hiddens are unknown. The results attained after the utmost endeavors of elicitation and scrutinizing the most knowledgeable, the keenest, the most favorable and the fittest, shall be indisputably grounded upon conjecture and surmise. These results may be right and may be wrong. The most unquestionable fact is that these endeavors of elicitation and scrutiny, which are the fruit of learnedness, are suffocated by whims.

Since everyone's actual demand is certitude and conviction, not conjecture and surmise, the qualified and competent of providing the secure information based upon certitude and conviction is none but Allah, the elevated. It was He Who introduced Mohammed for us and positively informed of his being the most knowledgeable, the keenest, the most favorable and the fittest. It is Allah Who is the Owner of the doctrine and the Most Observant of its interest. Conformably, it is Allah Who is the One intended to introduce the qualified individual, on bases of certitude and conviction, every time commencing with the day of Mohammed's decease till the Resurrection Day.

Striving for carrying out his Lord's mandate, Mohammed worked for introducing the one elected for the political and religious leadership after him since the earliest hours of his solicitation. He also showed the course according to which the process of scrutinizing the one bearing the qualifications involved shall be adopted.

As an abstract, we can brief this study by saying that it is Allah, the Glorious, the Elevated, Who is in charge of assuring the availability of the qualifications of the political and religious leader.

The Acceptingness of the Divine Volition

Swearing allegiance is the procedure through which people can express their acceptingness of the divine volition and their admissibility of so­and­so's being elected as the most qualified for guiding the nation. Thus, people's will and purpose shall be concordant to God's will and purpose. Accordingly, the one elected shall be acquiring the legality of his position from two sources; God, Who identified the qualifications and designated as the leader due to which, and people, who accepted God's identification of the most qualified and declared their fealty to the political and religious leader.

In due course, the entire affairs of the nation, as well as the doctrine and the political leadership, shall be amenable, and everyone shall be cropping the sweetest fruits of that government. The solicitation and the government shall be sailing towards God in a peaceful climate and, finally, the shadows of the divine grace shall be covering every body.

The Refusal of the Divine Volition

In case people disagree with the divine volition of the most knowledgeable, the keenest, the most favorable and the fittest based upon certitude and conviction, and they name someone else for succeeding the Prophet, this conceivably means that they refuse the divine volition based upon certitude and conviction, and substitute it for another earthly one based upon conjecture and surmise.

As a matter of fact, this process of refusal and substitution does not change the reality in any way. It does never make the substitute more fitter than the

one divinely elected. Conversely, this process acts such a categorical disunity that political and religious leadership is held by an individual other than the one divinely appointed. Considering the political and religious leadership is an approach of specialty and that the substitute is unqualified for this position, the occurrence of consecutive collapses shall certainly be befalling and continuing till disunion and degradation occupy the whole state of Islam. The nation, as well, shall be progressively moving out of the circle of the divine jurisprudential formulation to that of intellect, surmise, craving or a mixture of these three circles. When this falls, the divine doctrine shall be refraining from any more bestowal, and God's ire shall ceaselessly be chasing this nation. These deadfalls shall never be evaded unless affairs, including the leadership appointed and conformed by God, take their proper places anew.

Without a doubt, God does never coerce the diseased to take the curing remedy, nor does He drive the deviate compulsorily to the right path. God only prescribes and provides the remedy and urges the diseased to take it. In the same way, He shows the deviate the right path and encourages them to take. It is, then, the diseased's fault if they abstain from taking the remedy, and the deviate's fault if they desist to take that right path. The same thing is said about those who repel both the divine doctrines and the loyalty to the apostles of God, or any of them singly.

Varieties of Refusal of the Divine Volition

First: Accepting the divine doctrine and rejecting being loyal to the political leadership. An example on this variety is the Israelites' believing in their prophet and rejecting the leadership of Saul. They surmised that he had been unqualified for leadership. God, then, notified that He had (increased him abundantly in knowledge and physique) and backed him with clear evidences. So, they had to accept him, and their refusal was changed into recognition.

Second: Accepting the divine doctrine and rejecting being loyal to the political leadership succeeding the prophet. The rejectors claim that the successive leadership had been arisen by the prophet's own inference, not God's mandate. Since the prophet, according to the rejectors' opinion, is not more than an ordinary person that may make errors, there should be no blame if they violate his inference and substitute the appointed leader for another. Applying this variety on Mohammed's companions, it is to

say that the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) nominated a man from the Hashemites, whom had been gifted the divine prophesy, as his successor, and it is more appropriate for everybody in the Muslim society that a non­Hashemite occupies the position of leadership. In addition, the one nominated by the Prophet had been enjoying good­humoredness and a sort of self-esteem. There were many individuals, who were the celebrities of Quraish, older than that young­aged man elected by the Prophet. For the previous reasons, the Prophet's society believed in the divine doctrine, but rejected being loyal to the man God had prepared and the Prophet had contrived and introduced as his successor. This man was Ali­bn­Abi­Talib.

Third: Rejecting the divine doctrine being the effective law in the society and rejecting declaring loyalty to the individual identified by God. This sort of rejection takes its embracers to atheism directly. God protect us against atheism.