Bismillah [hidayahnet] (unknown)

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 18:03:16 -0700

The Ummah

 

Let there arise out of you an Ummah inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: They are the successful. (3:104)

Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in God. [3:110] 

 

Muhammad () 622-632

The early Ummah guidelines were provided by the revelations in the Quran, as well as by Muhammad himself, as God’s prophet.  

 

 Rightly guided successors (Khulafa al-Rashidun)

Muhammad died in 632 and the succeeding four caliphs were selected by council of Muslims.  With Muhammad gone, administrative matters that could not be settled by the Qur'an were resolved according to examples from the prophet’s life, as reflections of God’s will. The caliphs came under harsh criticism any time they acted on their own judgment. The voice of any member of the community is heard and considered for the community meeting normally held in the Mosque as everyone is expected to gather for the five daily ritual prayers.

 

Caliph Abu Bakr (632-634)

Most of Abu Bakr’s short reign was spent putting down series of local rebellions against Islamic rule, known as the Wars of Apostasy or the Riddah wars. Many Arab tribes started forming their own local prophets hence the need for Abu Bakr to uphold the message that Muhammad was the last and seal of all Prophets.  The Riddah wars established Medina’s authority over all of Arabia. Abu Bakr died late in August 634.

 

Caliph Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (634-644)

Umar took the title “commander of the believers” signifying readiness to play in the field of the competing powers, the Sassanids and the Byzantine Empires.   Defeat of both signaled the rule of Islam in the Fertile Crescent. Jerusalem, which would become the third important Islamic city after Medina and Mecca, was taken in 638.  Umar martyred in November 644 after securing practically the Middle East.

 

Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan (644-656)

The paper industry from China reached their knowledge so the copies of the Qura'n was transferred and printed in one book.  Uthman gave more attention to strengthening Islam rather than expanding territories to the dismay of the soldiers.  Un swayed by pressures and harassments, Uthman stood on his belief of the importance of Islam which he felt beginning to fade in lieu of the greed for expansion and war booty.  On June 656, group of dissatisfied soldiers broke into Uthman’s house and murdered him. They then prevailed upon Ali to accept the caliphate.

 

Caliph Ali bin Abi Talib (656-661)

Ali moved to Iraq pioneering the departure of the Ummah from its birthplace Medina, sheltered from the ensuing wars.  Muawiyah, the governor of Syria and cousin of Uthman engaged Ali’s forces in a battle. The battle was turning in Ali’s favor when he agreed to Muawiyah’s request to submit to arbitration the issue of Uthman’s death.  Meanwhile, a number of Ali’s supporters had deserted him with a charge that by agreeing to arbitration he had gone against the Qur'an. Ali was murdered by a Kharijite (dissident) in January 661. Like Uthman, he risked his life to what he believed is the best for Islam based on his sound judgment and close association with the Prophet.  His son Hasan was pressured by Muawiyah not to push his claim to the caliphate.

 

Ummayad Dynasty (661-750) Damascus, Syria

After the civil war and the death of Ali, the Ummah was split into three factions. The smallest group of dissidents Kharijites, the Shia (partisans of Ali), and the Sunni.  Ummayad collapsed in 750 but survived in Spain for the next 300 years developing Córdoba into one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities in the Mediterranean world. Muslim cities in Spain disintegrate after the death of the last Ummayad caliph in 1036, finally defeated by re conquerors in 1492, ending Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula. 

 

Abassid Dynasty (750-1258) Bagdad, Iraq

The center of power returned to Iraq, a place that served to be the battle ground for power struggle with the Buwayhids Dynasty (945-1055), an Iranian Shia.  The Fatimid Dynasty ((969-1171) another Shia, was established in Egypt as rival dynasty. Morocco, Tripoli, and Sicily became provinces of the Fatimids.  Saladin and his descendants Ayyubid Dynasty (1171-1250) succeeded the Fatimids but consolidated the dynasty with the Abassids, strengthening the Sunni Muslims. 

 

It was during the Abassids that the Ulama or religious scholars became powerful than the rulers.  There was a period of power struggle and the Ulamas were persecuted.  However the steadfastness and loyalty of the Ulama to what they believe is the real message of Islam prevailed. Examples are:  Imam Abu Hanifa (767) was imprisoned, tortured and died in custody.  After burial, his remain were reportedly exhumed and burnt. Muhammad Ismael al-Bukhari (870) collected hadith.  Imam Ahmad Hanbal (855) suffered for resisting pressures. 

 

The Caliphs honored only as symbols of the unity of Sunni Islam. The caliphate may be seen in retrospect as the golden age of Islamic civilization which Bernard Lewis (1993) calls a "momentous intellectual awakening".  Muslims maintained supremacy in nearly all fields of science and technology for almost six centuries while the West was plunged into the “Dark Ages” under the shackle of the Church.  The translation of the Hellenistic science and philosophy into Arabic was encouraged by the Abbasid who founded the so-called House of Wisdom. 

 

The Crusades

1.       First Crusade (1096-1099).  Pope Urban II called for a great Christian Expedition to free Jerusalem from the Muslims.

2.       Muslims recaptured Edessa on the Euphrates River in 1144 prompting Pope Eugenius III to call for a new crusade.  Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III and France’s King Louis VII responded to the call.  Both suffered serious casualties.  

3.       Jerusalem recaptured by Saladin in 1187 igniting the third crusade.  This time three kings responded to the Church.  Richard I of England, Philip II of France and Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire, all ended unsuccessful.

4.       Pope Innocent III called for another crusade in 1204, also failed. 

5.       On June 5, 1249, Louis IX of France launched another crusade but was captured in Egypt and released only upon payment of ransom.

 

Mamluks, (1250-1517) Egypt,  

The Crusades led to the overthrow of the Ayyubid dynasty by the Mamluks who regarded the Ayyubid rulers as weak and corrupt by establishing diplomatic and commercial ties with the invading crusaders stationed in Palestine. The Ottoman annexed Egypt in 1517 but allowed the Mamluks to stay in power.  The Mamluks finally lost power in 1811, as Muhammad Ali gained control of Egypt.

 

Ottoman Empire (1299-1922) Turkey, Sunni

The Ummah expanded in Europe securing most of the Balkan Peninsula including Greece, Albania, Serbia and Bosnia. Annexed Hungarian held Belgrade in 1440, defeated European army at Bulgaria in 1444 and conquest of Constantinople from the Greek Byzantine in 1453 clearing the East of the remaining Christian power.  Islam also spread in the far regions of the Southeast Asia through commercial exchanges. The Safavid Dynasty (1501-1514) an Iranian Shia, was established as rival dynasty but later conquered and annexed by the Ottoman Empire.

 

19th and 20th Centuries colonial powers

The gap between Islam and the state began to widen as the governments became more absolute and arbitrary with the passage of time.  Rulers no longer represent the Model State set forth even though lip service continued to be paid to Islam.

 

In 1876, the Ottoman replaced the Sharia or Islamic law with a new constitution. Europe took advantage of the weakening Empire.  France got Algeria (1830), Tunisia (1881), and Morocco (1912).  Italy got Libya (1911) and Britain got Egypt (1882).   In 1909, the Ottoman was reduced to a mere symbolic sultan when Enver Pasha who was openly against the Islamic Law was in command of the empire.  In January 1916 the British government and the grand sheriff of Mecca agreed on the Arabs support against the Ottoman in return for a British guarantee of independence for all Arab lands. In May of the same year, however, the United Kingdom and France secretly concluded a separate accord, known as the Sykes-Picot agreement, by which most of the Arab lands under Turkish rule were to be divided into British and French spheres of influence.

 

The Arabs complying with the agreement revolted and aided the British in capturing Palestine from the Ottomans in 1917 and 1918. After the war, only Saudi Arabia, North Yemen, Turkey and Iran were independent. With a promise to stamp out Islam and abolish the Caliphate, Turkey was given to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk after a portion of it was included in Iraq.  The rest of the Arab lands were divided by France and Britain betraying the agreement with the Arabs.  But the lasting conflict in these deceptions was another promised made under the Balfour Declaration of 1917 where in Britain promised the Jews “national home” in Palestine.  This promise was subsequently incorporated in the mandate conferred on Britain by the League of Nations in 1922. The struggle for Palestine resumed after the World War II (1939-1945) but despite of the protest, the state of Israel emerged on May 14, 1948.

 

It was not until after World War II where slowly the Muslims gaining independence from the colonial powers, never in easy way but a struggle where once again the threat of Jihad played well.  Some had late independence like, Libya 1952, Morocco 1956, Tunisia 1959 and Algeria 1963 after million of death casualty.  The colonial powers drew demarcation lines mostly resented, leaving decades of internal conflicts. One example is the flight of the Kurds who were not given a country although they comprise a large number in the Kurdish area which was later torn into four pieces distributed among Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria.  The Kurds legend Saladin and his Kurdish soldiers were largely responsible for the defeats of the Crusaders. 

 

Recent developments

The ongoing war in Iraq resulting to several death called as "collateral damage" and civil unrest in Afghanistan.  Both were supposed to be liberated countries.  Who is counting the bodies of the "collateral damages"?

Erbakan, the first Islamist prime minister of Turkey was forced to tender resignation in 1997 allegedly for violating the article on secularism.  In February 1998, a new law was passed preventing children to study the Qur’an before finishing 8 years of secular education in addition to the banning of the Veil. In Algeria, the army intervened at the final round of the parliamentary election and ruthlessly suppressed the Islamic Salvation Front who is winning the election .  Muslims in the Philippines, Thailand, Kashmir, Chechnya, Bosnia, Serbia all have stories to share about attempted “ethnic cleansing”.  Uzbekistan recently surprised the world in the brutal shooting of the women and children who where labeled as Islamic Fundamentalists .Uzbekistan illustrates the larger picture happening around the Muslim populated countries where outside maneuvering have resulted into alienating the government from the governed. 

 

Is it because the Ummah worship THE ONE TRUE GOD who begets not nor was he begotten?

The God referred to by Moses when he said:  “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord (Deut:6:4)

 

 repeated 1500 years later exactly same words by Jesus when he said: "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord." (Mark 12:29)

 

was the same God preached by Muhammad () 600 years later, "And your God is One God: There is no God but He" (2:163). 

 

Major difference

 

1.  Original sin = Every child is born without sin as God made everything He created of most good (32:7).  No need to redeem mankind from the sin of Adam and Eve who happened to be the first victim of Satan because God, the Most Merciful and Oft-Returning Lord forgave them when they repent and prayed:  "Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls: If thou forgive us not and bestow not upon us Thy Mercy, we shall certainly be lost."(7:23). God’s forgiveness obliterates sins.

 

2.  Trinity (father, son and holy spirity) = Although the Ummah do not subscribe to the doctrine of trinity, it does however believe in Jesus and his original teachings as messenger of God.  It also believes in the return of Jesus before the end of the world to establish peace and justice according to the law of the Qura'n.  Like all human being, he has to pass death before resurrection.

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