The Forgotten Day!

By Dr. Tariq Momand

Today 3rd March, 90 years ago, the then British Foreign Minister Lord Curzon warned, “We must put an end to anything which brings about any Islamic unity between the sons of the Muslims. The situation now is that Turkey is dead and will never rise again, because we have destroyed its moral strength, the Caliphate and Islam.”

The 3rd of March is a date that is etched into the history of the Muslim Ummah as one of its darkest days ever. It was on this date in the fateful year of 1924 CE that the last vestige of legitimate Islamic rule was ended. The office of Caliphate was abolished by Mustafa Kamal and the Muslim Ummah has since then been plunged in to darkness and humiliation.
This was the beginning of the humiliation that the Muslim world has suffered to this very day. The Ummah was set to be subjected to numerous tragedies that would involve against it murderous wars, foreign occupation, economic strangulation, political manipulation as well as a cultural colonialism that sought to distance the Muslim world from the concept of Islamic ruling and the obligation of living under the Caliphate.

With the removal of the sole legitimate leadership of the Muslims, the Caliphate, the lands of Islam were divided into numerous statelets and disputed territories. These new entities were established along the lines of ethnicity, sectarianism and racism by the colonialist powers of the day in an attempt to ensure that the Muslim Ummah would never rise again. Nationalism that was nurtured by the colonialists in the run up to the destruction of the Caliphate helped to ensure that these new entities would remain at loggerheads, never to think of uniting again. Any attempts to replicate the power of a unitary leadership of the Muslim world were replaced by pathetic and impotent bodies such as Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC). These organizations were designed to perpetuate disunity and division as they preserved the borders and barriers between Muslims that the colonialists had established. These states have never had the interests of Islam and the Muslims at heart.

Western colonialism put in place a motley crew of dictators, monarchs, autocrats that have served them in a manner more loyal than their own populations. The Muslim world has indeed seen destruction, devastation and calamity for the past 90 years, despite the fact that the Muslim ummah is the richest in natural resources, manpower, army, land, technological capability, wealth and most importantly iman in Allah (swt).

Looking at the devastating performance of capitalism, the world is looking forward to an ideological change that could fill the vacuum created by Capitalism. Islam by having a track record of ruling the world successfully not for decades but for centuries, could replace and fill this vacuum expediently.

To know that Khilafah had been a great state for centuries and that it was a superpower on the world stage, the statement given by the father of modern economy is a great testimony.

Adam Smith, the 18th Century founder of modern economics whose picture is printed on the current UK £20 note, was exceedingly inspired by the Islamic method of governing. He proclaimed that:

“…the empire of the Caliphs seems to have been the first state under which the world enjoyed that degree of tranquility which the cultivation of the sciences requires. It was under the protection of those generous and magnificent princes, that the ancient philosophy and astronomy of the Greeks were restored and established in the East; that tranquility, which their mild, just and religious government diffused over their vast empire, revived the curiosity of mankind, to inquire into the connecting principles of nature.” *

(* Adam Smith, ‘History of Astronomy’, The Essays of Adam Smith (London, 1869), p. 353)

Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the 99th caliph and the last sultan to exert effective control over the Ottoman Empire.

Hence it was a leading state in economy, science, technology, commerce, architecture and jurisprudence. The Khilafah provided peace and security for its citizens, allowing them to live in harmony together as a single state. The Khilafah even provided sanctuary for those who were persecuted because of their beliefs.

3rd March is therefore an extremely significant day to remember because of its prominence and implications upon the world, specifically the Muslim world.

By Khaama Press

16-11