The Complete Caliphate Series 23

And today, with the conclusion.

We set off on a long journey through the ages to look at the system of "the caliphate".. and what it is.. what its definition is and what happened to it.. and as every time, we reached the end.

And today I want to ask the young people who join the Brotherhood or go off to ISIS or search for the dream of the caliphate.. "what exactly does caliphate mean?". What do you want?

We saw the Companions one by one.. and "Abu Bakr al-Siddiq" and how "the commanders from us and the viziers from you" was divided.. and how he entered the wars that were called the wars of apostasy.. and he was fighting in them against monotheist Muslims.. but they "went out against the system of the state".. just like you are doing.

And we saw "Omar" bringing people of competence close to him.. and the crime of murder his son committed in a moment of anger. And we saw "Uthman ibn Affan" substituting blood money for the legal punishment here.. and unlike "Omar".. bringing people of trust close to him.. and we saw young people like you.. who dream of the caliphate.. going out against him for these two reasons.. and killing him over his copy of the Quran. And then we saw them going out against "Ali ibn Abi Talib", may God be pleased with them all.. and we saw what he did with those who sat in protest against the system of the state in "Harura".. and then we saw them killing him with the phrase "judgment belongs to God, not to you, Ali".

And we saw "al-Hasan" son of "Ali", may God be pleased with them.. staunching the blood and leaving the caliphate quietly.. so he is assassinated by poison. And we saw "Muawiya".. going out with his army raising the stick of Sharia.. wanting to implement God's judgment regarding the blood and demanding retribution.. and we saw "Ammar ibn Yasir" die at the hands of "Muawiya's" men.. then "Muawiya" takes over the caliphate.. and he closes that file and ignores the matter completely, contrary to what Sharia decreed.. and contrary to what he had bound himself to. So young people like you go out against him too, saying to him "Judgment belongs only to God".. so he sets his strong commander "Amr ibn al-As" on them.. to tear them to pieces.

And we saw "al-Hussein", may God be pleased with him, slaughtered at the hands of "Ibn Ziyad", and then "Ibn Ziyad" himself slaughtered at the hands of "Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar al-Nakha'i".

And we saw "Omar ibn Abd al-Aziz", may God be pleased with him.. suspending the jizya on the citizens of the state.. and halting the conquests and the expeditions that you go to sleep dreaming of.. and turning to agriculture and fishing and industry as a source of income.. and we saw him killed under the slogan "judgment belongs to God".. while the matter was the seat and nothing more.

I wonder, "Abu Bakr", when he fought those who withheld the zakat while they were Muslims.. and "Omar", when he added "the Omarite case" to matters of inheritance.. and "Uthman", when he substituted blood money for retribution.. and "Ali", when he postponed retribution.. and "Omar ibn Abd al-Aziz", when he halted the conquests.. and "Muawiya", when he contravened the Book and suspended consultation.. and resorted to hereditary succession.. did they not understand Sharia.. and you understand more than they do?

If you say yes, they did not understand.. then you are demolishing the idea of the caliphate from its very foundation.. so then who exactly do you want to rule like, and which caliphate are you going to bring back? The caliphate of people who did not understand, ruling wrongly?

And if you say no, those were great Companions and they did understand, and these were merely eras of strife.. then you are admitting that the model of governance is not politically fixed.. each one rules as he sees fit. And according to the circumstances of his era.

Why did that happen.. and why did God allow it? So that God makes us understand several things.. firstly.. that no one is too great for strife and error.. so always hold yourself to account and verify with precision and beware of falling into strife.. especially the strife of blood.

And secondly.. so that God tells us that governance is not a fixed system and has no fixed methods.. and you cannot take a system of governance from some years ago and apply it today.. and here is "Abu Bakr" dividing the authorities: "the commanders from Quraysh and the viziers from Medina".. and "Omar" choosing people of competence.. and "Uthman" doing the opposite.. excluding them and choosing people of trust.. and "Ali" blending the two.. and "Muawiya" abolishing consultation and installing a system of hereditary succession.

So God wanted to tell us that "the table of politics" is varied and mixed.. and you may pick from it whatever you wish. And He shows us that the only ones.. who raised the slogan "Judgment belongs only to God" rigidly and inflexibly.. were Kharijite killers.

We entered the Great Strife, and God knows the intention behind it.. and we presented it in a neutral and fair manner while verifying with as much precision as possible.. and we went on from it until "Abu al-Misk Kafur al-Ikhshidi", whom most of us had never heard of and whom history wronged.

And these strifes were delicate and gentle compared to what came after them.. we saw how in the Umayyad and Abbasid courts.. poison was like soda pop.. and every so often one would kill his brother and assassinate his father and be assassinated by his mother. And then the killer comes along and rules in the very same way as the killed one, under the slogan of "the caliphate". If we had told each one of these stories in detail, with its conspiracies and intrigues and adventures.. this series would have become more than 100 episodes.. that is why the last 3 episodes were fast-paced and breathless.. and at the same time they open the door for whoever wants to go deeper and research.

God also wanted to show us.. that repeating the same matter with the same premises leads to the same results.. and we saw Caliph "al-Walid ibn Yazid", walking through the halls of his besieged palace bewildered and terrified.. and then sitting before his copy of the Quran and saying to his wife himself, in bitterness, "a day like the day of Uthman".. and indeed.. the day ends with the same bloody ending.

It seems to me that the real caliphate is the very caliphate God meant when He decided to place a caliph on earth.. the caliphate of building.. of construction.. of eradicating poverty and disease and want and ignorance and hunger.. and not the caliphate in the sense of a particular political system.. it is right there before our eyes.. every Companion had a different system of governance.. and every caliph ruled in a different way and form and colour.

My position on all of the above I have declared before.. I do not condemn anyone.. nor any one of these eras.. these are people from the sixth century, and what they did and the mistakes they fell into were fallen into by the whole world. And that was the method of the age and the language of the age, even in Europe.. killing.. intrigues.. poison.. an invasion followed by a conquest.. etc.. so it is not acceptable for me to measure their way of life by my way of life in the twenty-first century.. nor the reverse.. it is not acceptable for me to take their life from the sixth century and apply it to people today...

We passed through many eras.. and states rose and states fell.. and the Fatimid caliphate rose.. and the Fatimid caliphate fell.. and the Abbasid caliphate rose.. and the Abbasid caliphate fell.. even the honorary one that "al-Zahir Baybars" set up in Cairo.

But fate had decreed that seven years after the birth of "al-Zahir Baybars", a child be born in Asia from tribes of unknown origin.. Mongols upon Indians upon Persians upon Arabs upon Berbers.. and this child, in his youth, has his father killed on a mysterious hunting trip with his uncle.. and then one night he witnesses his mother in the arms of his uncle.. and then his mother tries to tell him that he was originally not the son of the deceased.. and that in fact he is the son of the man he believes to be his uncle.. so the boy is stunted and struck by panic and a psychological complex and he flees.. and he starts to form a small gang, for petty thefts.. and then he grows a little and discovers that the tribes he lives among never stop doing two things.. eating and sex.. so he begins to move as a broker between these tribes.. bringing them prostitutes and harlots in exchange for a commission.. and he professionalises pimping.. so a large income comes in to him and he becomes wealthy.. and he begins, on the basis of his great wealth, to form a clan and to have soldiers and followers.

And this child's name was "Ertugrul".

"Ertugrul", who will father a son named "Osman".. and this boy will grow up and decide to conquer what is around him under the cloak of religion.. so he will revive the caliphate anew.. and it will bear the name "the Ottoman Caliphate".

And the story of "Ertugrul" and his son and the caliphate he established, talking about them would take long and will bring us once again to "Muhammad Ali" Pasha.. but with greater detail.. so we will postpone it to a later time with a new series.

And there will be time for the talk then, God willing.. A beginning.