Political Authority in Islamic Communities in Ibn Taymiyyan Discourse: A Hot Recipe for Islamic Terrorism

By Grace Mubashir, New Age Islam 26 September 2023 The major motive of Islamic terrorism and radicalism is the underwhelming concept of the Muslim community as a political authority. The political ideologies of Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and Taliban support this concept. The terrorist groups operating in India are also intoxicated with the concept of political authority for Muslims which inadvertently lead to clashes with secular societies. In modern times, this concept is contributed by the works of Ibn Taymiyyah and later adopted by Islamist/ Salafi leaders like Ibn Abdul Wahab, and Ikhwanul Muslimun. The ideology is based on the flawed notion of a legitimate Muslim political power is compulsory for Muslims in order to implement Islamic Sharia. The proponents of the idea vehemently attack secular plural society because it fails to protect and uphold the political and legal premises of Islam. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: How Did The Extremist, Supremacist, Xenophobic And Violent Theology Of Ibn Taymiyya And Mohammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab Spread In India ------------------------------------------------------------------- Islam As a Faith Community The fundamental sore point while discussing music society revolves around whether Muslims are a political community or a faith community. The distinction between the two concepts is about the relation of Islam with polity. The advocates of Muslims as a political community argue that Islam has no identity without political power. Political power is indispensable with Islam as a religious ideology. Maududi in India advocated this argument following the lines of the Muslim Brotherhood. The scholars who support Muslims as a faith community strongly refute the political ambitions of religion and assert that if Islam is free to practice, even in individual terms, Muslims are duty-bound to follow any such political setup. For example, in India, the constitution protects Muslims' social and religious rights and hence to seek Islamic polity in India is prohibited. Terrorist organizations often target Muslims abiding Indian constitution as radical Muslims cannot agree Indian constitution instead of Sharia. The reference to the Muslim community as a faith group could be found in the Medinan Charter promulgated by the Prophet. The fundamental intention of the prophet was just to establish a religious community tolerant of diversity and responsivity political problems but not a sovereign political authority. From the terms of the Charter, the political form of Islam is crystal clear. Islam is a religion that brings together Muslims as a faith community. Islam as a religion could be accommodated in any political form as long as secular and objective freedom for worship is given. Ibn Taymiyyah and Islam as Political Power Ibn Taymiyyah was a great scholar of his time. His scholarship of Islam is matchless in its zeal to reform and reinvigorate religion during his time. The problems arise when his ideas are adopted into modernity without the least care for changed environments and geo-political situations. Like any medieval scholar, he was the perfect solution to his times, not to modernity. His ideas have faded into irrelevance due to the changed nature of global conditions. But radical groups still, use his scholarship to bolster their positions. Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328) is one of the most controversial thinkers in Islamic history. Today he is revered by what is called the Wahhabi movement and championed by Salafi groups who demand a return to the pristine golden age of the Prophet. His writings have been a source of inspiration for radical groups to justify acts of violence and armed struggle. He lived at a critical historical juncture when Muslims were crushed under the might of Mongols. His political ideas developed as a response to the degeneration set in the Muslim community and the resultant collapse. In 1258 Bagdad fell to the Mongol army who laid waste in the city striping the city of its fabled status as capital of the Islamic caliphate. His earliest writing on Muslim politics came in 1293. In a treatise published that year he advocated ‘any exercise of authority, political or religious, must be based on the law of Allah’. He took upon the mantle of Islamic reform in the aftermath of the Mongol invasion. In 1315 he produced a comprehensive book on Islamic politics while he was arrested in Cairo. His major arguments were: 1. Islam cannot survive without Islamic politics 2. Implementation of Islamic law is compulsory 3. The legitimate political authority of Muslims should be based on the Quran and Hadeeth. 4. He elaborated the concepts of Darul Islam and Darul Harb as signified all lands without Muslim politics as Darul Harb 5. The belief in the sovereignty of Allah should be the basis for political exercises in the Muslim community In short, he was pioneering the arguments of modern-day Islamicists. He vehemently objected to the new ideas which crept into Islam and rejected them because they were un-Islamic. He also opposed Sufi Islam and supported political Islam in order to gain political hegemony for Muslims in the world. his arguments were relevant in that historical context when Muslims were politically defeated by the hands of Mongols. Besides he wanted the Muslim community to reconstruct on the basis of teachings of Quran and Sunna. According to him all creatures must leave for Allah the ultimate mystery of things and must submit voluntarily. He was also against innovations (Bida’h) and he weighed against the cultural addition to the Islamic society. he tried to make Islam a puritanical society which was later taken by the Salafi movements. He supported defensive jihad and called for all Muslims to defend the Mongol invasion. According to him the application of the law of Allah and his Prophet was the foundation for political and religious authority and reformation of Muslim societies. Modern-Day Implications of His Political Views He is considered to be the intellectual fountainhead of many Islamic terrorist groups. Usama bin Laden used his fatwas to declare war on America. The ideologies of Boko Haram are still rooted in Ibn Taymiyyan political ideas. The modern-day Muslim terror groups reject the validity of secular polity and plural society and demand the implementation of Islamic Sharia, as demanded by Ibn Taymiyyah in the thirteenth century. His ideas reject the legitimacy of democracy where human beings legislate as per their demands. He also supported religious dictatorship to implement Islamic Sharia, an idea courted by many Muslim terrorist groups. The ‘Theocracy’ advocated by Maududi is the modern-day explanation of Ibn Taymiyyah. The terrorist groups support the abolition of state and religion separation theory as it is against the things of Ibn Taymiyyah. According to many scholars, the ideology of Al Qaeda is a complete servile to Ibn Taymiyyan ideology. This is manifested in the way most Islamists see it as a religious duty to enforce not just the implementation of Islamic law but also to force others to accept it by whatever means, including the use of violence. The problem is the reading of a scholar of the medieval period without critical study in the modern era. The situations have totally undergone changes as the medieval polity is no longer relevant in the modern day. According to Islamic jurisprudence, the fatwas of a scholar have no relevance when the conditions of the fatwa change. In this respect, the political views of Ibn Taymiyyah are no longer valid and legitimate. The problem with Muslim terrorist organizations is that they dream of the medieval golden age of Muslim political power. They are not comfortable with the modern ideas of political and social changes. By invoking the middle-aged scholar in the modern era without analysing its contemporary importance. The reinterpretation of middle-Muslim scholarship is overdue to blunt its abusive usages by militant groups. ----- A regular columnist for NewAgeIslam.com, Mubashir V.P is a PhD scholar in Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia and freelance journalist. 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