Islam Rediscovered
21. Islam in History
~ 365 ~
Let them worship me and serve no other gods
besides me. Wicked indeed are they who after
this deny Me (24:55).
The same point has been made in a tradition of the
Prophet: Just as you will be, so will be your rulers.
(
Mishkat al-Masabih
).
In actual fact this tradition tells us of a law of
nature. The political power of a country depends
upon its people. Any system which has the
acceptance of the public will perpetuate itself, while
a system which is anathema to the people will
prove unsustainable. In a truly Islamic society, an
un-Islamic political regime cannot take root, and
cannot therefore be self-perpetuating. That is why
Islam has enjoined the targeting of individuals for
Islamic reform. If in any society a large number of
people follow Islam, both in the letter and in the
spirit, such a society will on its own come under the
direction of political power based on Islam.
This separation of
da’wah
activism and political
confrontation was crucial. It was by virtue of this
separation that the propagation of Islam continued
unhampered for a period of a thousand years after
