The series "The Caliphate and the Imamate in Islamic Thought"
By the writer and thinker Thaer Salama – Abu Malik
Episode Thirty-Seven: The Importance of God's Appointing the Islamic Nation as Successors and the Strength of the Caliphate as a Fundamental Reason for Preserving the Religion - Part 1
God Almighty enabled His Messenger during his lifetime and his nation after him on earth, and the Caliphate was strong and mighty. Muslims used this power, might, and empowerment to serve the Qur’an and Sunnah. The Qur’an was compiled immediately after the death of the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, and it was copied and distributed in the regions during the era of our master Uthman, and all copies of the Qur’an in the Islamic world at that time were copied from the Imam’s Qur’an written during the time of our master Uthman, and the copies of the Qur’an spread.
Then, in the Umayyad and Abbasid eras, sciences, tools, and means developed that helped in serving the religion: the Qur’an and Sunnah, including the discovery of paper, the presence of paper makers, scribes, and bookbinders, the presence of libraries, the spread of knowledge, the presence of students of Islamic sciences, and the state’s guaranteeing them and their expenses, encouraging them, caring for them, and building schools for them. The most brilliant intelligent minds among Muslims devoted themselves to serving the Qur’anic sciences, the Sunnah, and all that is necessary for them in terms of jurisprudence principles, jurisprudence, and theology, as well as language, linguistic sciences, and the science of Arabic calligraphy, etc.
The existence of different jurisprudential and doctrinal schools in the first era of codification was not a coincidence, but rather due to a need, and necessity is the mother of invention. The need required the collection and codification of these sciences, the most important of which were the sciences of the Qur’an, Sunnah, jurisprudence, principles, and language.
The existence of the intellectual renaissance, the Caliphate being the first state in the world, the caliphs' interest in science and scientists, the presence of brilliant scientists and students of knowledge, the discovery of paper, codification, and libraries all helped in collecting the Sunnah and the language, and copying tens of thousands of copies of the Qur’an in the Islamic world, and preserving the Qur’an in hearts, which led to the preservation of the Qur’an. Likewise, the Sunnah was codified, and the sciences of the Sunnah existed, such as the terminology of Hadith, the science of men, and the science of biographies, and the Sunnah was purified from fabrication, lies, and delusion, and thus the Sunnah was preserved by codifying it and distinguishing the authentic and weak from it.
Compare these matters with what happened to previous religions, such as Judaism and Christianity, of the loss of their books, as their followers were tortured, killed, and displaced in the land, and the Torah and the Gospel and the accounts of our masters Moses and Jesus, peace be upon them, were lost. The process of transmission, writing, and documentation of what these prophets brought became doubtful in its authenticity, both in writing and orally, even among the followers and adherents of these religions. They are skeptical and differ among themselves in beliefs and rulings, and they quarreled and separated into different sects because of that. The main reason is that God did not prepare for these religions and books those who would preserve them and transmit them to those after them because there was no state to protect them and raise and encourage scholars and preachers of these religions!
But what happened to Muslims and Islam is something completely different, as God made easy the reasons and tools for this preservation from the generation of the Companions, the Followers, and those after them until this day. This is the difference between the Qur’an and Sunnah and other books of previous religions, and this is something that many scholars, thinkers, and authors overlook, and you do not find anyone among them drawing attention to it and to the importance of the state as a way to preserve the religion and the Islamic principle.
Praise be to God for His preservation of His Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet by the Companions and those after them under the umbrella of the mighty Caliphate, empowered in the land, so that the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and their sciences remain preserved and transmitted until the Day of Judgment without doubts.
