Daily Times: Mehboob Qadir.
The Umayyid genius for a reasonably decentralised rule unshackled the Islamic state system and Muslim society, opening them to evolution, expansion and absorption of ideas from neighbouring civilizations. Thus began the enrichment and rise of Islamic civilisation. Arts and crafts, architecture, music, sciences, medicine, literature, industry, state institutions, the art of warfare and state building progressed admirably. Islam spread from Turkey to Sinkiang overland and along the rim of the Indian Ocean to India, Malaysia and Indonesia, this time propelled by the winds of trade.
The peak of the Islamic state and paradoxically its epilogue too, was the Ottoman Caliphate.
Categories: Asia, Islam: A Religion of Peace, Muslim Leaders, Muslim World, Pakistan
What the writer does not touch is ‘Allah’s plan’. Could it not be that all the efforts of Muslims to establish a ‘Emirate’ or ‘Caliphate’ failed, because Allah had a different plan? (The plan with the Promised Messiah and Mahdi and his Khalifas!)
I sent this letter to the author:
Dear Brigadier Qadir,
Assalamo Alaikum !
Thank you very much for your interesting article.
May be we could (and should) look at the whole issue from another angle? The angle of what Allah has planned for us.
It is reported that King Faisal was toying with the idea of having himself declared Khalifa. Z.A. Bhuto helped him to raise the question at the Islamic Summit (through our Ugandan brother).
Well, Allah seemed to have other plans. King Feisal met his end at the hand of a deranged nephew. We know what happened to Z.A. Bhutto and Idi Amin. (Due to the minor role of Idi Amin at least he got a sort of ‘golden retirement’).
Of course you may not agree, but the members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at belief that Allah’s plan was the arrival of the Imam Mahdi and the subsequent Khalifas of that movement. We have already reached the 5th Khalifa (may Allah protect him and guide him).
Best regards,
Haji Mohammad Rafiq Ahmad Tschannen – a Swiss Muslim