“I have been given the authority over you, although I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Truth consists in loyalty and disregard for truth is treachery. The weak among you shall be strong in my eyes until I have secured his rights, if God wills it: and the strong among you shall be weak with me until I have wrested from him the rights of others, if God wills it. Obey me for so long as I obey God and His Messenger. But if I disobey God and His Messenger, you owe me no obedience. Arise from your prayer, God have mercy upon you!”
These were the first words addressed to the believers by Hazrat Abu Bakr after he had been acknowledged as the first Caliph or Khalifa of Islam by the Muslims. After the passing of the Prophet (PBUH), the Muslims were like sheep without a shepherd. Islam was immediately faced with a number of issues including the declarations of false prophets and the backing out of a number of Bedoiun tribes from their promise to Islam.
As confusion reigned over who was to be the new governor of the growing empire of Islam, Hazrat Omar famously proclaimed “Who will willingly take precedence over the man who the Prophet ordered to lead the prayer?” with reference to the Prophets’ illness before his death.
This speech brilliantly shows how the relationship between the governor and the governed should be in an Islamic state. How sad is it that not a single Islamic country can claim to have a leader who may rule by the example set by the first Caliph of Islam.
The Caliphs achieved great things for Islam. The empire spread across Arabia and it was only due to their extreme sincerity in governing the muslims were they able to achieve great victories over the Persian and Byzantine empires. However that is not the case now. Be it a monarchy,democracy, or military rule, the situation is quite pathetic.
In Pakistan alone, bribery, extortion, murders and “encounters” are not rare occurences but expected of the government by the general public.
The truth never sees light and treachery is abound. Judges and lawyers are bought like mere commodities. The poor and weak are further trudged upon whereas the strong and the rich only grow in power; exterminating those that stand between them and greater wealth. They are free of questioning and the law does not apply to them…even if some policeman were to dare enforce it upon them, a few phone calls and a few lakh rupees would solve the problem…The heads of this country repeatedly encourage acts prohibited in Islam; the hoarding of wealth, alcohol, prostitution (and the more uncouth “mujras”), etc. while simultaneously shutting down Islamic centres of learning claiming them to be terrorist “strong-holds”. And this is only Pakistan-the “Islamic” republic of Pakistan that I am referring to.
We just sit and watch…we do not dare to take a stand…and indeed to take a stand we must have a suitable alternative to take charge. But who will do so? All our current politicians have shown abslolutely zero potential to be true leaders for the betterment of the country and the religion…
Like a hopeless fool I wait…Wait for a true leader to emerge…And for a new day to dawn upon us-the nation of Pakistan, and the empire of Islam…
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