THE CONCEPT OF THE CALIPHATE

The democratic revolution and the scientific revolution in modern times are fully favourable to Islam. The modern age is completely in Islam’s favour. religious freedom, openness, global travel and communications, the printing press and much more. These new conditions were an indication that the role of the Muslim ummah (community) had now changed. This new role of the Muslim ummah was predicted in a Hadith in the following words: “There shall not remain on the face of earth any house, big or small, in which the word of God will not have reached.” Muslims’ role now was to use modern opportunities to convey the universal message of Islam to the whole of humankind. But strangely, almost the whole of the Muslim ummah remained unaware of this fundamental reality. They did not understand this change in their role. Instead they sought to regain their lost political glory by fighting against their supposed enemies. This action was against the divine plan. That is why it did not receive God’s help, and failed miserably and completely. Change of Role The 19th and 20th centuries have taken the Muslim ummah into a new age. The conditions of this new age show us that the role of the Muslim ummah has now changed. And this role is just one: global dawah. However, Muslim leaders remained completely unaware of today’s age. As a result, they could not even tell the Muslim ummah about their new role. A major tragedy of the Muslim ummah in this age is its unawareness of the role that it should play at this time. That is why the whole ummah seems to have no knowledge of the direction in which it should head. This age is a period of the degeneration of the ummah. In this age, almost all Muslim leaders, through their rhetoric and writings, fed to the degenerated psyche that Muslims had come to develop. But this was definitely against God’s creation plan. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Muslims witnessed many efforts and struggles—but these were based on a self-created communal role that Muslims saw for themselves, and not for the role that God wanted. Because of this, the ummah remained bereft of God’s help in all of this. The aims that the Muslims devised in this period for themselves were all communal aims, devised in line with the degenerate mindset that they had developed. Therefore, they failed to achieve what they wanted.