CALIPHATE & KINGSHIP BY ABUL A’LA MAUDUDI

The most controversial book on Islamic history ever written

DISCLAIMER

Before i start my review i must add that, as a Muslim, i find it difficult to write a review on a history book of Islam that triggered a barrage of responses when it came out, i can only wonder what it must have been like for Moulana Maududi, who penned down such controversial but mostly true facts. However controversial, Moulana Moududi made it his priority to support every statement with a source of reference. This post might be a little lengthy due to the complexity of the topic but i have discussed here, only the bones of contention

ABSTRACT

From the golden system of governance, left by the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), to the kingship that formed afterwards, ‘caliphate and kingship’ is a controversial book that explains in great details, the conversion from former to latter

THE ‘WORLDLY’ REASONS FOR THE DECLINE OF CALIPHATE SYSTEM:

It is important to note here that a Muslim’s belief is that this world is temporary. Therefore, everything in it follows the same concept. If i could write this down a bit more scientifically, i would say everything follows the law of entropy. Everything degrades and comes to an end. The reason for starting with law of entropy is because i am about to discuss the demise of the caliphate system under the light of worldly reasons. Anything that is worldly, tends to follow the law of entropy. However, discussing these worldly reasons does not and should not mean that one thinks any less of the great personalities involved in the events being discussed. As said before, this world is temporary, therefore this simulation has to run towards a particular end, and therefore mistakes have to be committed, no matter the greatness of the personality committing it. Like Maududi, i will discuss here, historic facts and leave the intentions of the persons involved up to God. I think this post will also give a unique perspective to neutral readers as well

HAZRAT USMAN (MAY ALLAH BE PLEASED WITH HIM)

Hazrat Usman (may Allah be pleased with him) was the third caliph. There is no conflict with regard to his legitimacy as a caliph and how he got elected. The first six years were as perfect as they could have been. However, the last six years were troublesome in terms of opposition that accused him of nepotism. On this issue, Maududi has taken a cautious stance. On one hand Maududi says it was not legally wrong for Hazrat Usman (may Allah be pleased with him) to appoint his family members in positions of power (since people of ummayad clan were good at warfare), but also says that politically, it was not the right move. These decisions coupled with Marwan’s (his son in law and his right hand at the time) manipulations, affected his popularity negatively and eventually led to his assassination.

HAZRAT ALI (MAY ALLAH BE PLEASED WITH HIM)

After Hazrat Usman’s (may Allah be pleased with him) assassination, Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) became the fourth caliph. Like his predecessor, Hazrat Ali’s (may Allah be pleased with him) right to the post of caliph had no disputes. He was the most worthy one for the position.

After coming into power, Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) changed all the governors and selected people based on merit. Though a right decision, this did not do well politically with the people of ummayad. But a bigger predicament that Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) had to face was to bring the killers of Hazrat Usman (may Allah be pleased with him) to justice. Since an entire mob had surrounded Hazrat Usman’s (may Allah be pleased with him) house before he was assassinated, no one knew who actually killed him. On this, Hazrat Ali’s (may Allah be pleased with him) stance was clear; wait and see until things become clear. However, this did not go well with some of the senior companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). What happened afterwards was regretted by everyone that stood against Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). But this was only the first of three civil wars that happened during Hazrat Ali’s (may Allah be pleased with him) tenure as a caliph.

The second civil war, although thought to be fought on Hazrat Usman’s (may Allah be pleased with him) assassination, was actually a consequence of some of the managerial mishandling that happened back in Hazrat Usman’s (may Allah be pleased with him) rein. Having said that, no one should have the right to revolt against government using its own resources. Hazrat Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) was in the wrong, both legally and politically. The author has refrained from saying anything about the intentions of Hazrat Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him), and so will i. After a ‘draw’ was accepted by both sides, this conclusion caused a third civil war against the people who came to be known as ‘renegades’ (khawarij). Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) fought the third war against these people to settle the dust.

Here, i must express the pain i feel for Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) was the man who accepted Islam when he was just 8 years old. Saw all the hardships along side Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the early days of Islam. Experienced all the good days when Islam was dominant. And now in the aftermath of Hazrat Usman’s (may Allah be pleased with him) assassination, had to witness the demise of the values that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had taught. Two years after the third civil war, Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) was assassinated by a renegade. His son Hazrat Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him) was selected by the people to become the next caliph.

THE SHIFT FROM CALIPHATE TO KINGSHIP:

After coming into power, Hazrat Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him) signed a treaty and Hazrat Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) became the caliph given certain conditions would be met. One of which was that he would not assign one of his relatives as a successor. Hazrat Hasan’s (may Allah be pleased with him) motive was clear; unite Muslims and end wars. After Hazrat Hasan’s (may Allah be pleased with him) death, the treaty was broken when Hazrat Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) chose his son yazid to become the successor. And thus all the chaos that had lead up to this moment culminated in the demise of the caliphate system. Looking back, the events that lead up to it were not difficult to understand but were random in nature. And that is just how it is in this uncertain world. Every thing has to come to an end. It is up to the creator that runs the simulation.

THE CONCLUSION:

History is generally a disputed subjected for the most part and the same can be said for Islamic history. The events discussed by Maududi in this book are no doubt controversial but written with as many references as possible. Having said that, there are just as many people who wrote their own books (also with references) in response to this book. Incorrect facts or not, Maududi definitely did a good job at exposing real world scenarios that caused the demise of the caliphate system. As history students, i think we should read as many books as possible to get a wholesome and neutral picture.

I would rate this book 5/5 stars . Its a must read!!

CRITICISMS BY ABUL A’LA MAUDUDI

A compilation of some the best writing on understanding the true impacts & causes of culture based domination along with its remedy.

SYNOPSIS

From breaking down the elements that create the mind of a slave to eloquently jotting down a system for freedom from that mental slavery, Maududi’s ‘Criticisms’ is with out a doubt, one of the best work on religion + social science in Urdu literature

DEATH OF RELIGION IN THE WEST

The main agenda Maududi has on his hands is not only to analyze all there is that causes the slave-like mentality of the sub-continental Muslim but also dissect the culture that causes it. For this purpose, he discusses in detail, how the disgust for God in the scientific community of the West came about.

Religious people, in Maududi’s opinion, are the biggest reason for the downfall of religion in the west. Their inability to understand the role religion in the light of new scientific findings caused them to think of science as the enemy. This gave rise to a war between science and religion. Thus, the tool (science) that was supposed to help humans understand the existence of God, took them astray. Their arguments for non-existence of God was not based on factual scientific findings rather they were based on an emotional sentiment against religious scholars who had badly represented their dogma

The author further discusses the current pitiful state of religion in the West, where it is perhaps, a small portion of an individual’s life but has nothing to do with the communal life of people. For any major religion that claims to be ‘international’, it must exist in both the communal and individual part of people’s lives. If it does not exist in the communal lives than it will not survive in any individual’s life either.

FATE OF RELIGION IN THE EAST

While discussing the state of religion in the East, particularly in the sub-continent, Maududi writes about the domination of western culture on the minds of sub-continental Muslims. He specifically critiques the education systems that convince people to view the world through the goggles of the West and thus robbing them of objectivity and with the ability of differentiating between right and wrong.

While criticizing the education systems, he also takes a shot at the religious scholars that seem to be out of touch. The very epicenter of Maududi’s argument is that he fears that religion might have the same fate in East, as it had in the West. And all of it could happen if the religious scholars did not update themselves with the modern times. Thinking of science as evil will only drive the Muslims backwards, rather using it as a tool to discover Allah in all His magnificence is the way forward. He calls for proper blending and integration of Islamic and other worldly sciences and critiques the sloppy syllabuses of the varsities where the two are merely put together.

THE REMEDY

The last three chapters are all about the practical approach towards the best possible integration of Islamic and worldly sciences. He explains this by emphasizing the importance of Arabic language. He further suggests that people with back ground in non-religious studies should take part in religious studies and vice versa. The purpose is to introduce an Islamic take on recent scientific findings, and consequently searching for signs of Allah in this universe full of mysteries. This cannot be achieved because of the current segregation between Islamic and non-religious studies. One has to be well versed in Arabic and other Islamic studies along with a sound knowledge of worldly science, in order to make a meaningful impact.

THE CONCLUSION

I think that the book on its own is great and thought provoking. Although, these writings didn’t exactly bring about the change Maududi might have desired. Some of the ideas might have been a little too idealistic, but for the most part, the book it self explains in great detail, the social impacts of the domination of Western culture and the role of religion.

I would rate this book 4/5.

THE GOAL BY ELIYAHU GOLDRATT

An informative business management book written with a nabokov-like finesse.

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SYNOPSIS

• A thrilling management book(weird to use those words together but that’s what it is) with an impeccable blend of production management tools and the story of an average man trying his best to keep his marriage from falling apart

THE THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS

The goal as a book is a very subtle introduction to the concept of ‘the theory of constraints’. It delineates the fact that any system will always have constraints. The trick to solving these constraints is to focus every resource towards getting rid of it. Only to have some other constraint pop up some place else

Challenging common practices is at the very heart of this book. Goldratt talks about productivity in a very novel manner

Anything that helps the organization achieve its goal is productive, anything that takes it away from its goal makes it unproductive.

Eliyahu Goldratt

The author than proceeds to give some fundamental key performance indicators (KPIs) regarding a business’s position in accordance to its ‘goal’; throughput, inventory and operational expense. Whats baffling is how such concepts of common sense seem unorthodox when viewed in a work environment where common practices of the contrary prevail.

A factory that operates 100% of the time is not an efficient factory!

Eliyahu Goldratt

The seamless blending of production tools and real world examples is awe-inspiring. I love how the concept of bottlenecks and non-bottlenecks is explained with the simple ‘fat Herbie’ analogy.

In the midst of all the chaos, every fourth or fifth chapter revolves back to the personal life of the protagonist; Alex Rogo. His struggle to keep his marriage from falling apart as well as keep his plant from closing is what kept me reading. This perfect balance between his personal life and professional struggles makes the book much more relatable to the audience.

After resolving all the issues with his bottlenecks, Alex learns at the end that constraints will always exist in a given system. Key is not only to identify and eliminate them but also predict where they might pop-up next!.

CONCLUSION

‘The goal’ is how a business management book should be. Core business concepts embedded in novel like stories filled with enough twists to keep you glued to the book through out the forty chapters.

I would rate this book a solid 5 out of 5 stars

MEDITATIONS BY MARCUS AURELIUS

A personal diary of a roman emperor turned into a self-help book

SYNOPSIS

• Meditations is essentially a book which was never meant to be a book.
• It comprises of personal writings of Marcus Aurelius, who wrote it as a means of reminder for himself. A reminder of all the things he is thankful for, all the prudence he ever learnt from his teachers and most importantly a reminder of his stoic ethics
• Marcus’s version of stoicism mainly revolves around ethics, since he always distanced him self from logic and physics
• Though Marcus wrote his diary as a means of reminder, ‘meditations’ still proves to be great self-book on life, since the central theme of the book is how to suffer less in life and thus, how to live a happy life!!

THE STOIC CREED

A part of philosophy has always dealt with the predicaments of life and how to best deal with them, whether its contemporary philosophy or medieval philosophy. No different it was for ancient Greek philosophers. A part of it meant figuring out life, the reason for human existence and its role, and most importantly, the key to happiness!. Stoicism addresses all these questions in a way which was considered novel at the time. But the most important question that stoicism answers is what is the key to happiness?. And this is essentially the definition of stoicism in the modern times; remaining steadfast among all the hardships of life

Earlier versions of stoicism were mainly based on three pillars; logic, physics and ethics. Logic was all about gaining insight on the nature of knowledge, physics was about understanding the physical world and ethics was about the role of human beings. Marcus’s version of stoicism was solely about ethics

Objective judgment, unselfish action and willing acceptance of all external events

Marcus Aurelius

This is the part where the personal diary of the roman emperor becomes a really good self-help book. Marcus talks about three things; objective judgment, unselfish action, willing acceptance of all external events, and deems them as the cornerstone of a stoic’s way of life.

HOW TO LIVE A HAPPIER LIFE?

This million dollar question, according to stoicism, can be answered by monitoring and taking control of three things

• Perception
• Action
• Will

Perception is important. Nothing can harm us unless we believe that it does. I hate using cliche aphorisms, but it is true when they say ‘most of life is just a mental game’. People who have positive outlook on life tend to live happier lives and even achieve feats like defeating something as deadly as cancer

Action is all about the art of acquiescence. Its about accepting our role in the grand scheme of things. Stoicism identifies the hopelessness of our kind and thus preaches towards having an undying trust on the goodness of the Being that runs the entire place. Thus, even if something feels harmful in the moment, in the grand scheme of things, it will always be good for the entire system, since it happened naturally.

Will is about our reaction to what happens to us. So if someone harms us in any way, what do we do?. Do we take revenge?. But if we do so we degrade ourselves, since every person contains a part of the logos. Stoic creed talks about every human being containing a fragment of the logos, thus degrading a person means to degrade yourself.

CONCLUSION

Meditations is an inadvertent self-help book, full of prudent train of thought. The author, Marcus Aurelius obviously wrote down his thoughts as a simple reminder for himself. Yet his outtake on life is helpful for all, not just for those with a privileged background like him. His views revolve around being truthful, accepting life as it comes and paying little attention to material things like money and fame.

I would give this book a rating of 3/5 stars

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

A novel take on history of human kind from an atheist misanthropic perspective.

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SYNOPSIS

The book comprises of four main parts, each being regarded as a revolution. The first part tells about an insignificant animal that lived 2.5 million years ago. We the humans; homo sapiens popped up in Africa some 150,000 years ago. The earliest dominance that the sapiens gained over their siblings was through communication and cooperation. This was regarded as the cognitive revolution

The ability to grow stuff from the ground brought about the second revolution: Agricultural revolution. This severely changed the efforts humans made towards life and also had an impact on their health.

The third revolution was further integration of the human kind. Humans managed to cooperate and connect with each other through mediums like religion and nationality.

The fourth and final revolution was the scientific revolution. The unhinged drive for knowledge that made an insignificant animal, the most advanced specie ever to live on the planet.

A DEEPER LOOK ON THE BOOK AND SOME ARGUMENTS

THE ‘OBJECTIVE’ ARGUMENT

Almost everybody claims and wants to be as ‘objective’ as possible when it comes to answering questions regarding the human existence. Whether its the ones that follow a mainstream creed or the ones that unequivocally deny the existence of a supreme deity or the the diplomatic ignoramuses that fail to form an opinion or are too scared to challenge the believes and norms of the time. But i find it inevitable that regardless of which ever one of the formerly discussed, you are, your opinion will never be 100% objective. A brain at the state of Tabula rasa is one that can only be possessed by a baby. Thus we’re all influenced by some creed or even by the mentality of soi-disant lack of creed or disapproval for creed or in popular terms; atheism. And since we are always influenced, we will look for what we want to look and we will believe in what we want to believe. Coming back to the book, the author in the beginning portion of the book, expresses his discontent for monogamous marriages. It seems to me that this assumption comes from his apathy for religions that mostly promote the concept of monogamous marriages. Further the author, at various points very conveniently uses certain scientific studies to validate his points but also very conveniently leaves out the ones that come into direct contradiction of his points. We all remember the famous Margret Mead, author of the ‘Samoan hoax’, the reason for bringing her up is to throw some light on the ‘not so old’ fact that us humans are the best rationalizers of our own transgressions. Using ‘scientific study’ to justify our dogma (or in this case, lack of dogma) is not new. The bottom line is ‘no one is 100% objective’

THE ‘BIOLOGY ENABLES’ ARGUMENT

The second most prominent argument in the book is the ever popular atheist argument, ‘biology enables’. According to this argument, one should consider biology when thinking about decisions pertaining to morality or what is considered natural and unnatural. Although i am a big fan of separating cultural norms from our decision making process, the biology enables argument when applied effectively, very easily justifies incest, as long as mutual consent and protection during coitus is employed. But i say, why stop here?. I am sure we’ll somehow find a way around the ‘consent’ argument and eventually justify bestiality and pedophilia as well.

THE ARGUMENT FOR MATRIARCHY

The thought of a superior society with a Utopian sound to it is not an old concept. We often contemplate about the inequalities of our society and go on to present what we consider to be the Utopia (or at least a better version of the society). But even these fantasies are built on our subjective view and sometimes even personal transgressions, as in the case of Margret Mead talking about a sexually liberated Samoan society. Similarly, the author, very predicatively, also takes jabs at the all evil patriarchy. I suppose this opinion is also formed with thanks to his apathy for mainstream creeds, since most mainstream religions are built around patriarchy. While i find his take on matriarchy rather interesting, especially the point about how elephants operate in a matriarchal society. But the author, again, very conveniently discusses the mammal groups with matriarchy in a positive light but forgets to mention his favorite bonobos (with matriarchal society), who are just as violent as the chimpanzees (with patriarchal society). As far as humans are concerned, European Queens were 27% more likely to rage wars, but since that study was done after the book was written, i suppose we should cut the author some slack.

CONCLUDING REMARKS AND MY RATING

You might be thinking that i view the book negatively, i don’t. I actually like the book for the reason that its a conversation starter and introduces a lot novel takes on questions pertaining to our history. But having said that, the book severely lacks proofs. How are mere assumptions regarding the supposed genocide of neanderthals any more believable than the mainstream religions. There will never be cold hard evidence as far as our journey from a bacteria is concerned, just like we will never know the GPS location of heaven and hell. There will however be assumptions which will always correlate with our personal belief system.

As for the rating, i would give this book a solid 3.5 stars out 5!

Better Late Than Never!!

Thanks for joining me!

Courage is all it took (also unemployment). — My self

So after years of procrastination, here i am. I am an engineer by profession and a writer by passion, who would like to define him self as, a stereotypical guy from Pakistan, who has lived his life with a blindfold on his eyes, floating around where ever the waves might take him. The norms of the culture allowed me to become an engineer but my interests or things i think of as my passion have always remained capricious over the 23 years i have spent on this planet.

Boy oh boy, judging from the paragraph above, i sound like the epitome of someone with a borderline personality disorder. I am not (very convincingly), But this is the first time i am actually taking a step towards what i believe to be my ‘in-born’ talent. There’s a long road ahead and i have a lot to learn. As of right now, i am going through rough patch in life but like time, that will pass. I don’t expect to make money from this but i definitely want to hone my skills, as far as writing is concerned. I want to write at least one best seller book before i die. And this right here is my first step towards that goal.

I hope to make a lot of friends here, i hope to meet people that will help me open up to a lot of things i might be benighted of and most importantly i hope to express my self here in the most exuberant way possible.