Does an Islamic State really exist?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Makah (Mecca or Mekah) of the pre-Muhammad era can be considered as most cosmopolitan and tolerant as far as religious beliefs and persuasions go. The black stone cube known as the Ka‘bah was home to 360 gods. Hubal, the Syrian god of the moon; al-Uzza, the Egyptian goddess; al-Kutba, the Nabatean god; Jesus, the Christian god; Jesus’ mother, Mary; and many more were all represented in the Ka‘bah. Basically, every known god in the form of idols was present within (some around) the four walls of the Ka’bah and they all lived peacefully, side by side, in one home, the black-stoned cube.

Allah was originally an ancient sky or rain god who eventually got elevated to the position of supreme god. Since Allah was a high god, the Makah Arabs would not call upon him in time of need but would instead speak to the smaller gods who would act as a go-between to carry their prayers to Allah. Allah had three daughters -- Allat the goddess, al-Uzza the mighty, and Manat the goddess of fate. It was to these three daughters of Allah whom the Arabs prayed.

There were no priests or written scriptures. However, though Allah may have been the King of all the Gods or the Lord of the Ka’bah, Allah was not the main deity in the Ka’bah. This honour went to Hubal, the Syrian god. Allah therefore played a very low-key role though he was the King of Gods. This was basically the ‘secular’ system practiced by the Arabs where Allah, the King, was merely a sort of ‘Constitutional Monarchy’; for want of a better phrase.

Invariably, the Ka’bah became the centre for all religions practiced in the entire Arabian Peninsular and every year devotees would make their annual pilgrimage to the Ka’bah to pay homage and worship whichever of the 360 gods that they happen to believe in.

The Jews of Arabia, in particular in Makah, were heavily ‘Arabised’, as were the Arabs heavily influenced by Jewish beliefs and customs. There was a lot of cross-pollination between the Arab Allah and the Jewish Yahweh, which made sense since both regard themselves as children of Abraham. The same can be said about Christianity. Arabia was surrounded by the Syrian Christians in the northwest, Mesopotamian Christians in the northeast and the Abyssinians in the south, so the Christian influence was also very strong. The Arabs were actually quite sophisticated and knowledgeable in matters of religion and they borrowed a lot of practices and rituals from both the Jews and Christians.

The Jews and Christians themselves had many different variations of their religion (now called sects) and it was not just one form of Judaism or Christianity -- so it was quite a mixed bag indeed. For example, the Romans, who in 451 declared Jesus to be fully God and fully man, viewed all those Christians from Arabia as heretics. The Modalist Christians however considered the Trinity as representing three successive modes -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nestorian Christians argued that Jesus had two distinct natures -- one human and the other divine. The Gnostic Christians in turn claimed that Jesus only appeared human but is in fact God. On the other end of the scale, the Arians rejected the Trinity altogether.

Nevertheless, as much as the Christians and Jews may differ in doctrine, in the Ka’bah all cohabited peacefully and were accepted by the Arabs alongside the idols of the 360 other gods and deities. What therefore were the Arabs? It is difficult to define the Arab religion as it may be to explain it. Those unable to explain this unique situation would just call the Arabs pagans. Pagan is a word invented by the Christians during the Inquisition to classify all those who are not Christians -- in fact, not only not Christians but not from their brand of Christianity who would be considered deviants. But the Arabs were far from pagans. They in fact had a very complex and well-organised religion that encompassed every known religion from the beginning of time and they did not require priests or holy books to guide them to the ‘right path’. In that sense, the Arabs were protected from manipulation by ‘holy’ people, avoided corruption or distortion of their religion, and spared disputes due to misinterpretation of what the holy book says or meant to say (since they had no holy books and no priests to interpret or misinterpret them).

It must be remembered, Muhammad was raised in this environment. His father died before he was born and his mother died soon after. He was then raised by his uncle from the very prominent Quraysh clan and grew up with his cousin Ali, who never left his side (Ali was his first convert after his wife Khatijah). Invariably, Muhammad not only followed but believed in their generations-old religion -- which was not only influenced by the different variations of Judaism and Christianity but Zoroastrian as well, an ancient religion from Persia that made its appearance 1,000 years before Christianity (some say 6,000 years). It is no surprise therefore that Judaism and Christianity, as well as Islam, borrowed heavily many of the rituals and practices from this ancient Zoroastrian religion.

Muhammad never claimed he was introducing a new religion. In fact, he did not introduce a religion at all, as the Quran (Koran) itself says that one must follow the ‘religion’ of Abraham -- the word ‘religion’ here being loosely used merely because mankind subscribes to the concept of religion and the use of the word allows man to better understand the issue. What Muhammad introduced was the doctrine of the one God -- “There is no God but God”. Everything else down to the rituals was inherited from pre-Islamic days. In fact, many were inherited from pre-Christianity and pre-Judaism days (such as the Haj). And that is why some Jewish and Christian sects share the same method of praying as the Muslims and which are consistent with the earlier Zoroastrian method.

We must remember that the doctrine introduced by Muhammad was that of submission. There was no Shariah or Islamic laws during the time of Muhammad, as all these came later, long after Muhammad had left the scene. Muhammad was of the Quraysh clan, the most powerful clan in Makah, and tribal laws were the order of the day. These laws were mostly based on the concept of retribution; an eye for an eye. If someone hit you on the head, then the punishment would be you are to hit him back on exactly the same spot and with exactly the same force, nothing more than that. If someone from a certain clan steals your camel, then the clan must replace it with a camel of exactly the same age, weight, etc.

In short, submission and the acceptance of the one God was what were demanded of one. Laws were based on ancestral tribal traditions. And punishment was based on the decision of the ‘court’ headed by clan chieftains who would decide what the punishment would be; and in most instances the punishment would comply to old traditions and based on you get back what you give out (retribution).

There were instances when traitors and spies from amongst the Medina Jews were discovered during the many wars between the Makah and Medina forces. The punishment for treason according to tribal traditions was that all the men would be put to death, their women and children became slaves, and their property would be confiscated. When Muhammad pardoned the criminals but exiled them from Medina while allowing them to take all their property with them, there was an outcry because this went against tribal traditions. Subsequently, when a minor Medina Jewish clan was found to have collaborated with the Makah Quraysh (who the Jews were doing business with and therefore had links with them), Muhammad was forced to hand them over to a bigger Jewish clan to deal with. The judgement delivered was according to tribal tradition. History would of course judge Muhammad as cruel but in actual fact he had no choice in the matter. Tribal laws came first and even Muhammad was not able to go against this.

The argument that Muhammad set up an Islamic State and introduced Islamic laws is certainly not true. The laws were pre-Muhammad and even Muhammad was forced to honour them. There was no Shariah like that we know of today. Later, after the period of the four Caliphates who ruled after Muhammad had died --Abu Bakar, Umar, Uthman and Ali -- the rulers began to lose their powers and the theocrats took over and introduced the Shariah which bound all Muslims. In fact, Medina itself lost its place as the centre of Islam.

Islam was still in the process of trying to define itself right up to the time of Muhammad’s death. Before Muhammad died he did not name a successor and while Ali (his close companion, cousin, and son-in-law, all in one) bathed his body and prepared it for burial, Abu Bakar ‘grabbed’ power, so to speak, and became the First Caliphate (Caliph or Khalifah) after Muhammad. The pro-Ali movement, now known as the Shi‘ah, claim till this very day that Ali was ‘robbed’ of this right. Abu Bakar then appointed Umar as his number two and disinherited Ali and his wife Fatimah, who was also Muhammad’s daughter, and put them on state welfare.

Abu Bakar gave himself the title of Khalifah Rasul Allah or ‘the successor to the Messenger of God’. This was actually a very vague title and no one really knew what it meant. Basically, Abu Bakar would replace Muhammad as the leader of the ummah (community) but would have no prophetic (religious) authority. For all intents and purposes, the Caliphate was a secular position. Nevertheless, his secular authority was extremely limited as all decisions were made by a council based on collective consultation (shurah), thereby still maintaining the tribal traditions of the olden days.

It must be noted that Abu Bakar’s selection as the Caliphate was not unanimously agreed as it was done in a closed-door meeting attended by only a handful of Muhammad’s prominent companions. They justified by-passing Ali on the excuse that he was too young. The Banu Hashim and Ansar clans both protested bitterly and refused to swear allegiance to the new Caliphate.

Umar succeeded Abu Bakar on his death two and a half years later. Umar attempted to make his peace with the Banu Hashim though he refused to reinstate Ali’s and Fatimah’s inheritance. Umar believed in the concept of separation of the prophethood and the Caliphate, thereby still maintaining the secular status of the Caliphate. Meanwhile, Ali’s popularity was increasing but Umar refused to endorse him as his successor, preferring instead to allow the clan to decide the successor based on the traditional shurah or collective consultation method.

As Umar lay on his deathbed (due to a stab wound inflicted by a deranged assassin), he summoned the six possible candidates who would succeed him; Ali included; and told them to decide within three days who would succeed him as the Third Caliphate. The candidates were eventually short-listed to two, Ali and Uthman, who were then asked a simple question by the interviewer, who also happened to be Uthman’s brother-in-law. The question was: if they were appointed the Caliphate, would they continue with Abu Bakar’s and Umar’s traditions? Uthman replied that he would while Ali replied that he would only follow God and his own judgement. And with that Uthman got the job and Ali was yet again bypassed.

The decline started to set in thereon. Uthman replaced all the existing Amirs (Emirs) throughout the Muslim land with his own family members. He then gave himself the title of Khalifah Allah or ‘Successor to God’, a title that Abu Bakar had rejected, plus he dipped into the state treasury to hand over large sums of money to his family members. Eventually, all the clans turned against him, including his own brother-in-law who had given him the Caliphate job in the first place.

Now, one very significant thing that Uthman did in his time was that he compiled the Quran into a book. Before this, the Quran that we know of today did not exist. In Muhammad’s time it was never compiled but was scattered here and there and mostly committed to memory. In 650, Uthman, as the ‘Successor to God’, authorised a single universally-binding text of the Quran. However, in doing so, he antagonised many other Muslim communities who considered their version of the Quran as the more accurate version. Uthman then instructed that all the different variations of the Quran be brought to Medina where he had them burned. And anyone who questioned this or disputed it was branded an unbeliever or Kafir.

Five years later there was a revolt and Uthman was assassinated as he sat reading the very Quran that he had compiled into a book. Civil war broke out and Ali was asked to take over but he refused. The Muslim world was in turmoil with revolts not only in Medina but also in Iraq and Egypt. The prominent clans -- such as the Quraysh, Ansar and Banu Hashim -- plus a few companions of the Prophet got together to form the ‘Party of Ali’ or Shi‘atu Ali; Shi‘ah for short.

Only after he obtained unanimous support and pledges of allegiance from the many rival clans did Ali agree to take over as the Fourth Caliphate. He then called for a period of reconciliation and declared an amnesty on all those involved in the death of Uthman. But he refused the title of Caliphate which he believed had been tainted by Uthman.

Ali was eventually assassinated as well. After Ali’s death, the Umayyad Dynasty of Iraq began to grow and took control of the Muslim lands and the Caliphate was transformed into a King with the ummah or various clans united under a single empire. It was during the Umayyad Dynasty that an attempt was made to revive the Ali succession but Ali’s son, Husyan -- Muhammad’s grandson -- was brutally killed at Karbala (they cut off his head). Husyan’s brother, Hasan, had earlier been poisoned to death (two violent deaths involving Muhammad’s grandsons). Until today, the Shi‘ah commemorate this tragic event by holding mass public processions of mourners complete with wailing and beating of the chest almost similar to the Hindu Thaipusam tradition. And this was one of the reasons for the nine-year Iran-Iraq War that took one million lives. It was basically the Shi’ah taking their long overdue revenge, 1,000 years later, on the Karbala massacre.

The Umayyad Dynasty lasted less than 100 years and was replaced by the Abassid Dynasty in 750. No doubt this dynasty lasted until the 11th century but the Caliphates had very little power and were mere figureheads. It was during this dynasty that the various Caliphates unsuccessfully attempted to wrest control of religion from the ulama (religious leaders or scholars) so that the Caliphate could be both head of state and head of religion.

The instant Muhammad died and before his body could even be buried, the Muslim world was embroiled in power struggles, intrigue, conspiracies and assassinations; in short, anything and everything that modern politics is about. Even the many so-called holy wars were not really holy wars as such but wars to dominate trade and commerce. Makah was then the centre of trade and commerce while Medina, then called Yathrib, was a poor agricultural community whose main produce was dates. But the dates had to be sold to the rich Makah merchants and the business was monopolised by the Medina Jews. To compete with Makah, Muhammad proclaimed Yathrib a city, ‘The City of the Prophet’ (Medinat an-Nabi) or Medina for short.

The Makah leaders were not too worried about Muhammad’s new ‘religion’ as Makah had 360 Gods representing all known religions anyway, and one more God did not make any difference. But when Yathrib was turned into a city to rival Makah as the centre for trade and commerce, then this became a threat to Makah and Muhammad now had to be defeated.

It must be remembered that in pre-Islamic Arabia, caravan raiding was not considered robbery but a legitimate means for the poor to benefit from the rich -- as long as there was no bloodshed or else the tribal law of retribution would apply. These raids allowed Muhammad’s followers, who had lost everything when they emigrated from Makah, to earn a living. Furthermore, these raids would help cripple Makah’s economy and allow Medina to compete with it.

In 624, Muhammad received information that a large caravan from Makah would be travelling to Palestine. Muhammad made his way to Badar with about 300 men to lay in wait but a spy had leaked this plan to the Makah people who arranged an escort of about 1,000 men. Both sides did not actually want to fight and for two days it was a stalemate when all they did was eyeball each other, no one wanting to start the fight. It is not clear who fired the first shot but by the time the fierce fighting ended, Muhammad lost about a dozen men while the Quraysh, who lost more, admitted defeat. This famous war, the Badar War, a caravan raid turned awry, was the turning point and is marked by Muslims as the first holy war and the defeat of the infidels at the hands of the believers.

The following year, however, at the Uhud War, the Medina force was defeated while Muhammad was injured and lost a tooth. The Uhud War was initially in Muhammad’s favour until the archers atop the hill decided to break ranks and come down to collect their bounty whereby the Makah forces regrouped and counterattacked leaving Muhammad and his people caught in the open without the protection of the archers.

These two famous wars plus the dozens thereafter have been touted as the Jihad or holy wars which the Muslims were supposed to have launched against the disbelievers with the aspiration of setting up an Islamic State. Actually there were no holy wars, only conflicts over economic domination -- and there was no State, Islamic or otherwise, in existence yet. The State or Nation State, in the real sense of the word, did not come about until long after the death of Muhammad and the four Caliphates. Even then, the dynasties created thereafter, outside Makah and Medina, were secular in nature with the Caliphate having very little power and hardly any say over religious matters. It was the religious leaders or ulama, who most times were in conflict with the Caliphates of the Abassid Dynasty (Hanbal of the Hanbali sect being one), who introduced the Muslim code of conduct called the Shariah, hundreds of years after the death of Muhammad.

You must remember that the Arabs were fiercely protective of their tribal customs and traditions to the point even the Prophet of God (Rasul Allah) could not circumvent them but had to include them as part of Islamic rituals, though these practices may have dated 1,000 years before Islam or Christianity. Muhammad applied the tribal laws of retribution as the form of punishment, as did the four Caliphates after him -- most who met violent deaths at the hands of rival clans that did not endorse their leadership and refused to pledge allegiance to them. Umar, for example, brought back the tribal custom of death by stoning for adulteresses and imposed segregation of the sexes so that men and women could not mix freely in the mosques like they did in the time of Muhammad. There was of course an outcry from the much-liberated women of that time who had grown accustomed to the equality of the sexes they had enjoyed under Muhammad. However, since it was men and not women who made these laws, women were very much at a disadvantaged position and soon enough lost their place alongside men (who before this even fought wars alongside the men) and again got relegated to ‘second-class’ citizens.

ADDENDUM

There are many variations of history and the history or story of Muhammad is no less spared these variations. For example, many believe Muhammad to be illiterate and they argue that the revelations he received must have come from God since he could neither read or write. Others, however, dispute this and they quote the following verses from the Quran to support their contention that Muhammad was in fact learned.

44.14
PICKTHAL: And they had turned away from him and said: One taught, a madman?

25:5
PICKTHAL: And they say: Fables of the men of old which he hath had written down so that they are dictated to him morn and evening.

They also argue that Muhammad was a successful businessman so he could not have been illiterate and at least knew arithmetic and how to write to be able to record his transactions.

Then we have the matter of the first four ‘disciples’ or converts -- Khatijah (his wife), Abu Bakar (the first Caliphate after Muhammad), Ali (his cousin and son-in-law) and Zayd (some say in that order). But there are others who say that Ali was the second convert while Abu Bakar was the third. Then again, others relate it as all four having converted at the same time.

On Ali’s age when he converted, some say he was 10 and others say he was 13.

There is also the matter of the ‘early converts’ which puts the figure at 130. However, the dates of their conversion (they did not convert all at once) plus their names, except for a few, are not clear.

The matter of Muhammad’s birthday is also not clear and different dates have been quoted by different writers and historians.

As for Muhammad’s ignorance of other religions, this is also in dispute, as his wife Khatijah’s cousin was a learned Christian who knew the scriptures well. That is why she consulted him to seek advice about Muhammad’s dreams and to interpret what they meant. On the first revelation that he received, Muhammad ran home shivering with fright and there are two accounts as to what happened next. Some say Khatijah went to see her cousin while others say that she brought Muhammad to see him.

As you can see, history is not an exact science and variations do occur. Who is reporting the more accurate account may never be known and until today experts dispute the many versions of history, not only that of Muhammad.

These are but just some of the variations and you are free to believe in whichever version you are most comfortable with.