Islam Rediscovered
12. Islamic Fundamentalism
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House of God is a duty to God for all who can make
the journey” (3:97).
The wording of the command to perform Hajj
shows that it is not obligatory for all believers in
any absolute sense. It is obligatory rather for those
who have the means and the resources, and who are
in good enough health to reach the place of
pilgrimage. Neither does this injunction even imply
that those who do not have the means should make
superhuman efforts to find the wherewithal for the
journey, so that they may perform this ritual
worship. This injunction means that those who have
the means should perform the pilgrimage and those
who have not will not only be exempted, but will
not even be held to account for having failed to do
so.
The same is true of politics. That is, if a group of
Muslims find themselves in a position to establish
the political system of Islam by peaceful methods,
and without any violence, then the Shariah will
require them to do exactly that. But for those who
do not find themselves in such a position, it is not
their bounden duty to establish an Islamic political
