THE CONCEPT OF THE CALIPHATE

The journey of civilization is a journey of divine civilization. It is taking man to that stage where he can have a high experience of praise for God and gratitude to Him, where he can reach the higher stages of Godrealization. ended at the political level through the democratic revolution. In the Hereafter, the wrongs of the monarchical system of rule will become clearly manifest. A part of the Hadith report refers to this in these words: “God, the Exalted and Glorious, on the Day of Judgment would say: ‘I am the Lord; where are the lords of the earth?’” (Sahih Muslim) Three Periods of the Caliphate In the Quran, the word ‘khilafat’ is not used in the sense of ‘Islamic Caliphate’. According to the Quran (10: 14), all those people were ‘khalaif fi al-arz’ who, in different ages, were given the role of ruler, irrespective of whether, in terms of belief, they were religious or non-religious. Throughout history those who received the opportunity to play the role of ruler (khilafat-e-arzi), can be classed into three groups: The rulers who used religion as the basis of their rule: It lasted from ancient times to the 7th century CE. The rule of monotheists: This was the age of Muslim Sultans. It lasted from around the 8th century to the 18th century. The rule of secular people: This period began in the 19th century, and continues today. In the first period people did not enjoy religious freedom. It was an age of religious persecution and coercion. During such an age people lost their right to think freely. And so, the process of intellectual development came to a complete halt. It was impossible for intellectual progress to continue. God wanted man to discover the laws hidden in nature so that he could discover the Creator of these laws, and so that such means be developed that the task of inviting people to God could be carried out more effectively. This process had been completely blocked in the age of persecution and coercion. God sent a large number of prophets to the world to tell people that by misusing their freedom they were placing a hurdle in His plan. However, the peaceful efforts of the prophets to call people to God were ineffective in preventing man from continuing on the course he had adopted.