The Muslim Ummah Between Revelation and History
We are the Muslim Ummah whom God has chosen from among all nations, addressing them with great praise, saying: ﴿You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah﴾. This goodness is not a hereditary trait nor a historical grant, but a major function, a great message, and a mandatory duty; enjoining good, forbidding evil, and faith and jihad. If the Ummah fulfills its function, it becomes the best Ummah, and if it falls short, it is no longer so.
The Messenger ﷺ embodied this reality from the beginning of his mission. He did not stop at the limits of preaching or asceticism, but established a complete civilizational project, confronting the corrupt beliefs of Quraish, demolishing their false systems, and providing a comprehensive divine alternative. And in Medina, he established the Islamic state that cared for the affairs of its subjects with revelation, and carried Islam to the people through da’wah and jihad.
After him ﷺ, the Rightly Guided Caliphs, may God be pleased with them, and those who followed them, conquered Persia and Rome, and established justice in the conquered lands. Then the banner of Islam extended east and west under the Umayyad state, and reached the peak of prosperity in the Abbasid era, then the Ottomans preserved the core of Islam for four centuries, and conquered Constantinople in fulfillment of the Messenger’s ﷺ good tidings: «Constantinople will surely be conquered, so what a wonderful leader its leader will be, and what a wonderful army that army will be».
Thus, the Ummah lived under the Caliphate, dignified and leading, until the infidel colonizer, led by Britain, conspired and overthrew the Caliphate in 1924 AD, so the Ummah was torn apart, lost its power, and the colonizer controlled its land, wealth, and armies.
Today, we see Palestine occupied by Jews supported by the West, and we see Iraq and Syria plundered by invaders, Afghanistan an arena for wars, Africa a prey to modern colonialism, the Gulf mortgaged to Western companies and armies, and Muslim armies turned into tools to protect client regimes, instead of being shields for the Ummah and spears against its enemies.
This reality is not inevitable, but a natural result of the demolition of the Caliphate and the loss of the unifying entity. We are today only fragmented peoples, ruled by treacherous regimes, applying Western systems and laws, and subject to the colonizing West.
So who are we then? Are we the Ummah of goodness that God described, or peoples who have lost their identity, banner, and message?
Our goodness will only return with our return to our original function: resuming the Islamic way of life by establishing the Rightly Guided Caliphate on the method of Prophethood, which applies Islam internally, and carries it to the world through da’wah and jihad, a message of guidance, light, and mercy to the worlds. The Prophet ﷺ said: «Indeed, God has folded the earth for me, and I have seen its east and west, and the dominion of my Ummah will reach what was folded for me from it». This is a promise that will not fail, but it is linked to our work.
The path to change is not invented by minds or extracted from Western experiences, but is derived from the biography of the Messenger ﷺ who changed the reality of mankind: where the Prophet ﷺ raised the Companions as a believing group on the basis of the Islamic creed, until they developed a pure awareness and sincere devotion, so they became carriers of the da’wah who do not know compromise. Then the Companions descended with this awareness and with the culture of Islam and its ideas into the squares of Mecca, confronting idols, ideas, and customs, proclaiming the truth, and engaging in intellectual struggle and political struggle, until they formed a public opinion aware of Islam, and people saw that Islam is not only a religion of worship, but a comprehensive way of life, and an integrated way of living.
Simultaneously with this, the Messenger ﷺ turned to the people of power and protection from the tribes, presenting them with the project of Islam and asking them for their support and the establishment of his state, so some rejected him and some made conditions, until God prepared for him the Ansar from the people of Yathrib, so they pledged allegiance to him at the Second Pledge of Aqaba, which was the major turning point, then the Islamic state was established. This is how the Prophet ﷺ proceeded, and this is how we must proceed if we want to fulfill our duty and deserve victory and empowerment.
Working to establish the Caliphate is not just an individual act of worship or a charitable activity, but an intellectual struggle with the ideas of disbelief, such as democracy, secularism, nationalism, and patriotism, to expose their falsehood and show their inability, and to clarify the suitability of Islam alone to lead humanity. It is also a political struggle against the client regimes that rule the Muslim countries, to expose their loyalty to the West, expose their crimes against the Ummah, and lead the Muslims to hold them accountable and work to uproot them.
When a public opinion aware of Islam and the necessity of implementing it is formed in the Ummah, the role of support comes from the people of power and protection, from the armies, tribes, or influential leaders, to give Hizb ut-Tahrir complete and unconditional support, as the Ansar gave it to the Messenger of God ﷺ, so the Islamic state is established anew.
O Muslim Ummah, today we are not facing a luxury choice or a secondary issue, but a fateful issue: either we return to our role as the best Ummah leading humanity, or we remain scum for the nations to prey upon.
It is the duty of every Muslim to make the issue of the Caliphate his first and fateful issue, and to work with us to establish it, according to the method of the Messenger ﷺ, through intellectual struggle, political struggle, and seeking the help of the people of power and protection who are able to enable the sincere ones to establish it and implement Islam through it, until the Ummah rises again.
The Caliphate is not just a rule, but the complete and comprehensive application of Islam without deficiency, and the liberation of the Ummah and its holy sites from Western hegemony and the termination of decades of dependency that shackle it, and the restoration of sovereignty over the wealth that the West plunders in the care and protection of the regimes, and then leading humanity with the light of Islam, and saving it from the injustice of capitalism and the brutality of colonialism.
O Muslim Ummah, we possess God's promise and the good tidings of His Messenger ﷺ, we possess a glorious history that was witnessed by enemies before friends, and we possess immense wealth and millions of people. All that remains is for us to rise to serious work, and follow our Messenger ﷺ in the path of change, until we establish the second Rightly Guided Caliphate on the method of Prophethood, so we return as the best nation brought forth for mankind.
﴿This is a message to the people, so that they may be warned thereby﴾
Written for the broadcast of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir
Saad Muaz - Wilayah of Egypt
