Nitham - Ch 3 - Submission 01

Chapter 3

The Intellectual Leadership of Islam

Reference: Summary: Types of bonds between people: Patriotic / Nationalistic / Self-interest / Spiritual The correct bond is the ideological bond from which a system emanates. Source of the ideology can come from 2 sources 1) divinely inspired 2) man’s mind Ideology: comprehensive idea about life and run the affairs of the people according to this idea. Ideology applies on man so as a criteria its doctrine has to agree with man’s nature. Current ideologies in world are three: Islam / Capitalism / Communism Capitalism Doctrine: Separation of religion from life’s affairs (ie politics) It’s a man-made system and it recognizes existence of GOD but relegates GOD’s role to personal belief ONLY. Socialism (communism) Doctrine: Man and life are all matter. There is no creator. Matter is be-all and end-all. Islam’s Doctrine: Allah(swt) is the creator and Muhammad(saw) is his last messenger sent to mankind. It has both spiritual and political aspect. Islam agrees with man’s fitra because religious instinct is in-build in man. Capitalism does not agrees with man’s fitra because it build on a contradictory idea ie conflict between religion and thinkers. Communism/socialism denies the existence of GOD and therefore ignores the one of the fundamental instinct, which is in-build in man nature. Did Muslims implement Islam? The muslims implemented Islam starting from Rasul(saw) leadership in madinah to 1924 when khilafah was abolished by the western colonialists. The judges and the rulers implemented Islam rulings. There the bayah process was misapplied however this does mean that the whole khilafah system did not existed.

Islam opened up lands and implemented the Islamic system without forcing people to convert. There was misapplication of Islam in the past however that was due to muslims not adhering to the rules of the shara. History needs to be carefully examined when studying the Islamic rule in the past. Historical information should not be taken by the enemies of Islam. Also generalizations should not be applied to via pointing out the exceptions in the Islamic history. Sources of History: History books / Archaeological objects / Narrations History books are not a accurate source of historical information because those who wrote them according to their own agenda and perception of the past. Archaeological objects only tells us the facts about certain events so info gained through them is very limited. Narration: is the accurate source because the link is not broken and historical facts are established only through unbiased chains of narrations. Islam is the only system of life worthy to be implemented in the world today and throughout the ages of human beings. Our efforts as human beings can only bring about system/s which are biased and therefore not suitable to run the affairs of humans beings in a harmonious manner.