An-Nawawi Quotes
A sinning, oppressive Caliph should be removed by the Majlis-ash-Shura Council. However, if much bloodshed among the Muslims is forthcoming, then the ummah should avoid the fighting and bear him.
Ummah is the community of Muslims. There is historical reluctance to engage in civil war even if rulers are terrible. The unwillingness to depose the Taliban in Afghanistan or Sadam Hussein in Iraq is more comprehensible to those of the Islamic tradition than to Westerners who are more accustomed to and comfortable with revolutions, impeachments, and regime changes. Many Muslims feel that it is their religious duty to put up with a poor leader rather than bring instability and produce conflict amongst Muslims. The only exception is the case where the leader does not fulfill his religious obligations and follow the laws of God and the Prophet. This is great part explains the extreme efforts of dictatorial regimes like Saudi Arabia to support its religious establishment. As long as they do not offend the clerics, their regime is safe regardless of how undemocratic or how unfair. An-Nawawi was not just a Muslim scholar stating his own views, but he compiled his 40 Hadiths which are the views of the Prophet and carry great religious and cultural weight.
An-Nawawi, 1233-1277, Islamic Cleric & Source of Hadith, 40 Hadiths, Quoted in Lecture Series, Muslim Student Association at the University of Southern California, 1991-1992
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
“Disbelievers” are non Muslims. The “Ummah” is the Arabic term for the Muslim Community as a whole. Note that this fundamentalist religious party is not only against the non-Muslim West, but it also opposes most of the leaders of the Muslim countries of the world on the grounds that they are nationalist and do not represent the Ummah of the Muslim world. So ironically, this party is not only opposed by the democracies of the world (Islamic and not) but also the Muslim Dictatorships such as Syria who arrest all members of the party periodically.
The last Caliph of the Muslims was removed in 1924 as part of the Turkish Reform. The position has had attraction for many Muslim leaders who saw themselves in the role, but since 1924, nationalism and modernism and the lack of an effective international Muslim leader has precluded it. This anti-revolutionary sentiment of the Islamic political state that is so traditional, may in part account for the Islamic tolerance of autocratic regimes. Note that the distinction between religious responsibilities and civil are important. Tyranny must be tolerated but not blasphemy or heresy. Traditional Muslims provide more tolerance and forbearance for a leader’s civil failings than religious. But Muslims were not the only people to do this. A British prime minister had a view with the same conservative logic. See {639130}. The ancient Jewish Macabean revolt against the Jewish king was all based on failure to perform required religious duties of sacrifice as opposed to tyranny and poor government which also existed. Popes excommunicated Kings for religious reasons, not because of their civil failures at governing. Holding rulers accountable for civil performance is a relatively new concept yet is indispensible in a modern democracy.
The last Caliph of the Muslims was removed in 1924 as part of the Turkish Reform. The position has had attraction for many Muslim leaders who saw themselves in the role, but since 1924, nationalism and modernism and the lack of an effective international Muslim leader has precluded it.
Here Khomeini takes the classic Islamic view of the Koran that leaders should be obeyed unless they do not follow Islam. To the leaders of Islamic nations, this means that even if the state is not a theocracy, the Muslim clergy has the final say as to whether a ruler may justly remain in power since they are the ones who determine if a ruler is properly following Islam.
This is one of the early calls for a partition of India which was to be so disastrous after the Second World War. The “free Muslim state of states” turned out to be Pakistan where they have been fighting amongst themselves about how much Sharia would prevail.
Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī (Arabic: أبو زكريا يحيى بن شرف النووي; 1233–1277), popularly known as al-Nawawī or Imam Nawawī (631–676 A.H./1234–1277), was a Sunni Shafi'ite jurist and hadith scholar. He authored numerous and lengthy works ranging from hadith, to theology, biography, and jurisprudence. Al-Nawawi never married.
