Political Activism and Muslims’ Failures

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

Political Islam is true Islam

Political activism is known as politics for the people of other faiths. But for a Muslim, it has a different meaning and implication. It is an indispensable part of Muslim’s life. It is indeed the inherent expression of his iman in Allah SWT and the concomitant commitment in the practice of Qur’anic code of life that has been prescribed by Him. Political activism is so crucial in Muslim’s life that its absence indicates absence of iman. Aristotle -the great Greek philosopher defined human as a political animal. It means, a man without political activism lives only with animal instincts and is disqualified to be a proper human. Such a man possesses no higher aspiration like state building. Since Islam has state building objectives -as shown by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the early Muslims, such politically inactive people with animal instinct stand as obstinate obstacles in Islam’s revolutionary path. In every Muslim country, they are the people who stand against the establishment of an Islamic state.  

Since Islam has well proclaimed political ambitions, Islam is always political Islam. Hece, if deprived of political activism, it is something else but surely not true Islam. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was not only the messenger of Allah SWT, but was the best state builder in the whole human history and was also the head of the state for the last 10 ten years of his life. The state that he built from scratch became the number one global super power only in decades; and defeated the concurrent super powers -the Roman and the Persian Empires. Hence, political activism is the most important legacy of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Those who do not engage in political activism, they indeed do not follow the Prophet (peace be upon him). Whatever they claim, they are the de facto disbelievers.

Political activism is jihad -the highest Ibadah

In Islam, political activism is jihad -the highest Ibadah that integrates a Muslim with Allah SWT’s agenda to bring triumph to His prescribed Deen (Islam). It is fought in 4 fronts like intellectual, political, cultural arenas and in the battle fields. Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) engaged in all fronts. A Muslim invests his wealth, energy, intellect and even his life to bring success to the revealed agenda of Allah SWT that entails “a’amaru bil marur” (enactment of the right deeds) and “nehi anil munkar” (annulment of the wrongs). But today, most of the Muslims engage in none. They are  politically deactivated; in fact, de-Islamised. Such de-politicisation cum de-Islamisation of Muslims is indeed the cause of Muslims’ decline in modern days. Only Iran shows some brilliant success because of its people’s return to the Prophet’s political legacy. It is the spirit of jihad that could help them sustain the combined attacks of the US and Israel.

In Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and other religions, priests perform the rituals on behalf of the followers. But in Islam, every Muslim needs to perform his own rituals. The same is true in war. Fighting the enemies is the obligatory duty of every Muslim. This is why when the Muslims defeated the Roman and the Persian empires, didn’t have regular Army or cantonment, the whole Muslim Ummah was mobilised enmasse. To encounter the enemy, the war engagement of the Muslim was complete. Every Muslim needed to go to the war fronts. Those that remained disengaged or aloof were labelled as munifiq -as seen in Uhud expedition. Their 5 times prayer, month long fasting and charity could make these disengaged people Muslim.  

Every Muslim needs to be a watchdog and a warrior  

A Muslim’s job is all time, whole time and multifaceted. He needs to work as a whole time watchdogs on the state executives. If anyone does anything unlawful, undesirable and unethical needs to be cautioned and protested. It is every Muslim’s duty. Otherwise the whole statecraft became captive in the hands of wrong people -as currently seen in most Muslim countries. In Islam, silence or inaction is also a crime; it is incompatible with a true Muslim’s faith. That helps only the wrong and criminal rulers like Yazid. In the golden days of Islam, even khalifas were not spared. Once some clothes were distributed among the people of Medina from the treasury. On a Jummah day, Khalifa Omar (R) stood up to deliver a sermon with a new dress made up with the cloth that was recently distributed among the Medinites. A common man stood up and asked, “O commander of the believers, could you kindly answer before starting the sermon, how could you make such a big size dress that you are wearing? The cloth that we got, is not enough to make such a dress?” Khalifa Omar (R) had to clarify the issue. His son said that he gave his share to his father to make the dress.  

De facto disbelievers are the rulers                    

A believer’s iman must show his full commitment to the cause of Islam. If there is no political activism or engagement, then it validates that the man has no iman. Such a man is indeed a nonbeliever in his practical life. Absence of political activism confirms that such a man has no concern on the current decline of Muslims and the absence of Islamic state in the world. It also proves that he doesn’t bother to practice sharia and other socio-economic, educational and cultural policies of Islam. The Muslims those who do not run the judiciary and other private and public decisions as per sharia they are de facto non believers -as announced in sura Al Imran verse 44. His Islam may be confined only within some rituals. In Islam, there is no place for such part time Muslims. 

Islam means submission to full Islam. And practice of full Islam is impossible without the establishment of an Islamic state. This is why the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him), on the first day of arrival to Medina, started to build an Islamic state, instead building his own house. It shows his sense of priority. He took only a room of the mosque as his residence. Today’s Muslims are busy in building palaces and ignoring building an Islamic state. This is the criminal neglect of Islam’s prime issue. 

A de-Islamised man is known for his distaste for an Islamic state. Such a man loves a secular state; because it suits his secular taste. And because of his secular instinct, he also hates political Islam. If such a man claims to be a Muslim, then he is indeed a munafiq. He only pretends to be Muslim to hide his animosity to Islam. The Muslim World is now inundated with such fake Muslims. Unfortunately,  they constitute the ruling class of the Muslim World. Here indeed lies the real pathology of the Ummah. 12/07/2026