Islam is the Kingdom of
God on Earth
In examination of that marvellous vision of
the Prophet Daniel (chapter vii) we saw' how Muhammad (Peace and blessings of
Allah be on him) was escorted by the myriads of celestial beings and conducted
to the glorious presence of the Eternal; how he heard the words of honour and
affection which no creature had ever been favoured with (2 Corinthians xii);
how he was crowned to the dignity of the Sultan of the Prophets and invested
with power to destroy the "Fourth Beast" and the "Blasphemous
Horn." Further, we saw how he was authorized to establish and proclaim the
Kingdom of God on earth; how all that human genius can possibly imagine of the
highest honours accorded by the Almighty to a beloved Servant and to His most
worthy Apostle could be ascribed to Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be
on him) alone. It should be remembered that among all the Prophets and
Messengers of Allah, Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) alone
figures like a tower above all; and the grand and noble work he accomplished
stands a permanent monument of his honour and greatness. One cannot appreciate
the value and importance of Islam as the unique bulwark against idolatry and
polytheism unless the absolute unity of God is earnestly admitted. When we
fully realize that Allah is the same God whom Adam and Abraham (Peace and blessings of Allah
be on him) knew, and whom Moses and Jesus worshipped, then we have no
difficulty in accepting Islam as the only true religion and Muhammad (Peace and
blessings of Allah be on him) as the Prince of all the Prophets and Servants of
God. We cannot magnify the greatness of Allah by conceiving Him now as a
"Father," now as a "Son," and now as a "Holy
Ghost," or to imagine Him as having three persons that can address each
other with the three singular personal pronouns: I, thou, he. By so doing we
lose all the true conception of the Absolute Being, and cease to believe in the
true God. In the same way, we cannot add a single iota to
the sanctity of the religion by the institution of some meaningless sacraments
or mysteries; nor can we derive any spiritual food for our spirits from feeding
upon the corpse of a prophet or an incarnate deity; for by so doing we lose all
idea of a true and real religion and cease to believe in the religion
altogether. Nor can we in the least promote the dignity of Muhammad if we were
to imagine him a son of God or an incarnate deity; for by so doing we would
entirely lose the real and the historical Prophet of Mecca and fall
unconsciously into the abyss of polytheism. The greatness of Muhammad (Peace
and blessings of Allah be on him) consists in his establishing such a sound,
plain, but true religion, and in the practical application of its precepts and
principles with such precision and resolution that it has never been possible
for a true Muslim to accept any other creed or faith than that which is
professed in the formula: "I believe there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad
(Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) is the Apostle of Allah." And
this short creed will continue to be the faith of every true believer in Allah
to the day of the Resurrection.
The great destroyer of the "Eleventh
Horn," that personified Constantine the Great and the Trinitarian Church,
was not a Bar
Allaha ("Son
of God"), but a Bar Nasha ("Son of Man") and none other than
Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) al-Mustapha who actually founded and established the Kingdom of God
upon earth. It is this Kingdom of God that we are now to examine and expound.
It would be remembered that it was during the divine audience of the Sultan of
the Prophets, as given in Daniel, that it was promised that:-
"The kingdom and the dominion and the
greatness of the kingdom under all heaven shall be given to the people of the
Saints of the Most High; its (the people's) kingdom (shall be) a kingdom forever,
and all dominions shall serve and obey it" (Daniel 7:22 and 27).
The expressions in this prophetical passage
that the Kingdom of God shall consist of "the People of the Saints of the
Most High," and that all other dominions or powers shall serve and obey
that people, clearly indicate that in Islam the Religion and State are one and
the same body, and consequently inseparable. Islam is not only the Religion of
God, but also His earthly empire or kingdom. In order to be able to form a
clear and true idea concerning the nature and the constitution of the
"Kingdom of God on earth" it is necessary to cast a glance upon the
history of the religion of Islam before it was perfected" completed, and
formally established by God Himself under His Apostle Muhammad (Peace and
blessings of Allah be on him).
1. Islam before Muhammad (Peace and blessings of
Allah be on him) was not the
Kingdom of God upon Earth, but only God's True Religion
Those who believe that the true religion of
Allah was revealed only to Abraham (Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) and
preserved by the people of Israel alone, must be very ignorant students of the
Old Testament literature, and must have a very erroneous notion of the nature
of that religion. Abraham (Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) himself
offered tithes to the King and Imam of Jerusalem and was blessed by him
(Genesis xiv: 18). The father-in-law of Moses was also an Imam and a
Prophet of Allah; Job, Balaam, Ad, Hud, Loqman, and many other prophets were
not Jews. The various tribes and nations like the Ishmaelites, Moabites,
Ammonites, Edomites, and others which descended from the sons of Abraham (Peace
and blessings of Allah be on him) and Lot, knew God the Almighty though they
too, like the Israelites, fell into idolatry and ignorance. But the light
of Islam was never entirely extinguished or substituted by idolatry. Idols or
images, which were considered as "sacred" and as household gods by
the Jews, as well as their kindred nationalities, and usually called "Traphim"
(Genesis 31 xxxi) in the Hebrew, were, in my humble opinion of the same
nature and character as the images and idols which the Orthodox and Catholic
Christians keep and worship in their houses and temples. In those olden
times of ignorance the idols were of the kind of "identity card" or
of the nature of a passport. Is it not remarkable to find that Rachel (Rahil),
the wife of Jacob (Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) and the daughter of
Laban, should steal the "trap him" of her father? (Genesis 31 xxxi). Yet
Laban as well as her husband were Muslims, and on the same day raised the stone
"Mispha" and dedicated it to God!
The Jews in the wilderness, inebriate with
the wonders and miracles worked day and night-their camp shadowed by a
miraculous cloud at daytime and illuminated by a pillar of fire at night,
themselves fed with the "manna" and "Salwai" -as soon as
the Prophet Moses disappeared for a few days on the misty top of Mount Sinai,
made a golden calf and worshipped it. The history of that stubborn people from
the death of Joshua to the anointment of King Saul, covering a period of more
than four centuries, is full of a series of scandalous relapses into idolatry. It
was only after the close of the revelation and the Canon of their holy
Scriptures in the third century before Christ that the Jews ceased to worship
idols, and have since remained monotheists. But their belief in the Unity of
God, though it makes them Unitarians, does not entitle them to the qualification
of being called "Muslims," because they have stubbornly rejected both
the persons and the revelations of Jesus and Muhammad (Peace and blessings of
Allah be on him). It is only through submission to the will of God that a man
can attain peace and become Muslim, otherwise the faith without obedience and
submission is similar to that of the devils who believe in the existence of
Allah and tremble.
As we possess no records concerning the
other peoples who were favoured with divine revelations and with the Prophets
and Imam sent to them by God, we shall only content ourselves with the
declaration that the religion of Islam existed among Israel and other Arab
peoples of old, sometimes more luminous, but mostly like a flickering wick or
like a dim spark glimmering in a dark room. It was a religion professed by a
people who soon forgot it, or neglected it, or transformed it into pagan
practices. But all the same there were always individuals and families who
loved and worshipped God.
It seems that the Jews, especially the
masses, had no true conception of God and of religion as the Muslims have had
of Allah and Islam. Whenever the people of Israel prospered and was successful
in its wars, then Jahwah was acknowledged and worshipped; but in adverse
circumstances He was abandoned and the deity of a stronger and more prosperous
nation was adopted and its idol or image worshipped. A
careful study of the Hebrew Scripture will show that the ordinary Jew
considered his God sometimes stronger or higher, and sometimes weaker, than
those professed by other nations. Their very easy and reiterated relapse into
idolatry is a proof that the Israelites had almost the same notion about
their EI or Yahwah, as the Assyrians had of Ashur, the Babylonians of Mardukh,
and the Phoenicians of their Ba'al. With the exception of the
Prophets and the Sophis, the Muslims of Torah, the
Israel of the Mosaic Law, never rose equal to the height of the sanctity of
their religion nor of the true conception of their Deity. The
faith in Allah and a firm conviction and belief in a future life was not
ingrained and implanted in the spirit and in the heart of that people.
What a contrast, then, between the Muslims
of the Qur'an, the believers of the Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be
on him)an Law," and the Muslims of Torah or the Mosaic Law! Has it ever
been seen and proved that a Muslim people abandoned its Mosque, Imam, and the
Qur'an, and embraced any other religion and acknowledged that Allah was not its
God? Never! It is extremely unlikely that a Muhammad (Peace and blessings of
Allah be on him)an Muslim community, so long as it is provided with the Book of
Allah, the Mosque and the Mullah, could relapse into idolatry or even into
Christianity.
I am aware of the certain so-called Tartar families
who embraced the Orthodox Christian Faith in Russia. But I can assure my
readers, on authentic authority, that these "Tartars" were those
Mongols who, long after the subjugation of Russia and the establishment of the
"Altin Ordu" by Batu Khan, were either still pagans or newly
converted to Islam and seem to have been forced or induced to join the Russian
Church. And in this connection it should not be ignored that this happened
after the Muslim power of the "Golden Horde" ("Ahin Ordu")
tumbled down at the tremendous invasion of Timur Lang (Tamerlane). On the
contrary, Muslim traders and merchants, in China as well as in the dark
continent of Africa, have always propagated their holy religion; and the
millions of Chinese and negro Muslims are the fruit of these unpaid and
unofficial Mussulman missionaries. It is evident from the above that the true
religion of God before Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) was
only in its infancy, that it remained immature and undeveloped amongst the Hebrews,
although it shone brilliantly in the life of the true servants of Yahwah. Under
the direction of the God-fearing Judges and the pious Kings of Israel, the
government was always theocratic, and as long as the oracles of the Prophets
were favourably received and their injunctions duly executed, both the religion
and the nation prospered.
But the true religion of God never took the
form of the Kingdom of God as it did under the Qur' anic regime. Allah in
His infinite wisdom had decreed that four great Powers of Darkness
should succeed each other before His own Kingdom was to be established. The
great ancient civilizations and empires of the Assyro-Chaldeans, of the
Medo-Persians, of the Greeks and of the Romans, had to appear and flourish, to
persecute and oppress the people of God, and to perpetrate all the evil and
wickedness that the Devil could devise. All the glory of these great
Powers consisted in their worshipping the Devil; and it was this
"glory" that the "Prince of the Darkness" promised to grant
to Jesus Christ from the top of a high mountain if he were only to follow him
and worship him.
2. Christ and his Disciples
Preached the Kingdom of God
They were, it is true, the harbingers of the
Kingdom of God upon earth. The soul and the kernel of the Gospel of Jesus
is contained in that famous clause in his prayer: "Thy Kingdom
come." For twenty centuries the Christians of all
denominations and shades of belief have been praying and repeating this
invocation, 'Thy Kingdom come," and God alone knows how long they will continue
to pray for and vainly anticipate its coming. This
Christian anticipation of the coming of the Kingdom of God is of the same
nature as the anticipation of Judaism for the coming of Messiah. Both
these anticipations exhibit an inconsiderate and thoughtless imagination, and
the wonder is that they persistently cling to this futile hope.
If you ask a Christian priest or parson what
he thinks of the Kingdom of God, he will tell you all sorts of illusory and
meaningless things. This Kingdom is, he will affirm, the Church to which he
belongs when it will overcome and absorb all the other heretical Churches.
Another parson or priest will harangue on the "millennium." A
Salvationist or a Quaker may tell you that according to his belief the Kingdom
of God will consist of the new-born and sinless Christians, washed and cleansed
with the blood of the Lamb; and so forth.
The Kingdom of God does not mean a
triumphant Catholic Church, or a regenerated and sinless Puritan State. It is
not a visionary "Royalty of the Millennium." It is not a Kingdom
composed of celestial beings, including the departed spirits of the Prophets
and the blessed believers, under the reign of a divine Lamb; with angels for
its police and gendarmes; the Cherubs for its governors and judges; the Seraphs
for its officers and commanders; or the Archangels for its Popes, Patriarchs,
Bishops, and evangelical preachers. The Kingdom of God on earth is a Religion, a powerful society of believers in One God
equipped with
faith and sword to fight
for and maintain its existence and absolute independence against the Kingdom of
Darkness, against all those who do not believe that God is One, or against
those who believe that He has a son, a father or mother, associates and
coevals.
The Greek word euangelion, rendered "Gospel" in English,
practically means "the enunciation of good news." And this
enunciation was the tidings of the approaching Kingdom of God, the least among whose citizens was greater than John the Baptist. He himself and the
Apostles after him preached and announced this Kingdom to the Jews, inviting
them to believe and repent in order to be admitted into it. Jesus did
not actually abrogate or change the Law of Moses, but interpreted it in such a
spiritual sense that he left it a dead letter. When be declared that hatred was
the root of murder, lust the source of fornication; that avarice and hypocrisy
were as abominable sins as idolatry; and that mercy and charity were more
acceptable than the burnt offerings and the strict observance of the Sabbath,
he practically abolished the letter of the Law of Moses in favour of its
spiritual sense. These spurious and much interpolated Gospels report frequent
parables and references of Christ to the Kingdom of God, and to Bar-Nasha or
the Son of Man, but they are so corrupted and distorted that they have
succeeded, and still succeed, in misleading the poor Christians to believe that
by "Kingdom of God" Jesus only meant his Church, and that he himself
was the "Son of Man."
These important points will be fully
discussed, if Allah will, later on; but for the present I have to content
myself with remarking that what Jesus announced was, it was Islam that was the
Kingdom of God and that it was Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be on him)
who was the Son of Man, who was appointed to destroy the Beast and to establish
the powerful Kingdom of the People of the Saints of the Most High.
The religion of God, until Jesus Christ, was
consigned chiefly to the people of Israel; it was more material and of a
national character. Its lawyers, priests, and scribes had disfigured that
religion with a gross and superstitious literature of the traditions of their
forefathers. Christ condemned those traditions, denounced the Jews and their
leaders as "hypocrites" and "the children of the Devil."
Although the demon of idolatry had left Israel, yet later on seven demons had
taken possession of that people (Matthew 12:43-45; Luke 11:24-26).
Christ reformed the old religion; gave a new
life and spirit to it; he explained more explicitly the immortality of the
human soul, the resurrection and the life in the next world; and publicly
announced that the Messiah whom the Jews were expecting was not a Jew or a son
of David, but a son of Ishmael (Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) whose
name was Ahmad, and that he would establish the Kingdom of God upon earth with
the power of the Word of God and with sword. Consequently, the religion ofIslam
received a new life, light and spirit, and its adherents were exhorted to be
humble, to show forbearance and patience. They were beforehand informed of
persecutions, tribulations, martyrdoms, and prisons. The early
"Nassara," as the Qur'an calls the believers in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, suffered ten fearful persecutions under the Roman Emperors. Then comes
the great Constantine and proclaims liberty for the Church; but after the
decisions and the Trinitarian Creed ofthe Nicene Council in 325 A.C., the
Unitarian Muslims" were submitted to a series of new and even more cruel
persecutions by the Trinitarians, until the advent of Muhammad (Peace and
blessings of Allah be on him) (upon whom be peace and blessings).
3. The Nature and Constitution
of the Kingdom of God
There is a royal Islamic anthem sung aloud
five times a day from the minarets and the mosques in every part of the globe
where the Muslims live. This anthem is followed by a most solemn worship to
Allah by his faithful people. This royal Muslim hymn is called Adhan (Azari).
This is not all; every action, enterprise and business, however important or
trifling it may be, is begun with the words bism'l-Liih, which means "in the name of
Allah," and ends with an al-Hamdu tn-uu« meaning "praise be to Allah!" The
bond of faith which binds a Muslim to his Heavenly King is so strong, and the
union between the Sovereign and His subject so close, that nothing, however
powerful or seductive, can separate him from Allah. The Qur'an declares that
"Wr: are nearer to him than the hablu'l-Warid' (Qur'an, 50:16), which means "Allah is
nearer to man than the life-vain."
Never was there a favourite courtier who, in
his sentiments of affection, devotion, obedience, and respect for his
beneficent monarch, could ever equal those which a Muslim entertains towards
his Lord. Allah is the King of the Heavens and Earth, He is the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords in general. He is the King and the Lord of every Muslim
in particular, for it is a Muslim alone who thanks and praises his Almighty
King for all that happens and befalls him, be it prosperity or adversity.
Nearly three hundred million Muslims are
endowed-more or less-with the same feelings of faith and trust in Allah.
It is evident, therefore, that the nature of
Islam consists in its being the only real and truly Theocratic Kingdom on
earth. Allah need no longer send Messengers or Prophets to convey His oracles
and messages to the Muslims as He used to do to Israel and other Hebrew
peoples; for His will is fully revealed in the Holy Qur'an and imprinted on the
minds of His faithful Subjects.
As to the formation and the constitution of
the Kingdom of God, inter
alia, the
following points should be noted:-
(a) All Muslims form one nation, one family,
and one brotherhood. I need not detain my readers to study the various quotations
from the Qur' an and the Hadith (Tradition of the Prophet) on these points. We
must judge the Muslim society, not as it presents itselfnow, but as it was in
the time of Muhammad
(Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) and his immediate successors. Every
member of this community is an honest worker, a brave soldier, and a fervent
believer and devotee. All honest fruit of the toil belongs by right to him who
earns it; nevertheless the law makes it impossible for a true Muslim to become
excessively wealthy. One of the five 5 obligatory pious practices of Islam is
the duty of almsgiving, which consists of sadaqa and zakdt, or the voluntary and the obligatory alms. In
the days of the Prophet and the first four Khaliphas, no Muslim was known to be
enormously rich. The national wealth went into the common treasury called
"Baitu '1- Mal," and no Muslim was left in need or want.
The very name "Muslim" signifies literally "a maker of peace." You can never
find another human being more docile, hospitable, inoffensive and peaceful a
citizen than a good Muslim. But the moment his religion, honour, and property
are attacked, the Muslim becomes a formidable foe. The Qur' an is very precise
on this point: "Wa
lii ta'tadu"-"And you must
not transgress" (or take the offensive). The Holy Jihad is not a war of
offence, but of self-defence. Though the robbers, the predatory tribes, the
semi-barbarous nomad Muslims, may have some religious notions and believe in
the existence of Allah, it is the lack of knowledge and of religious training
which is the root- cause of their vice and depravity. They are an exception.
One can never become a good Muslim without the religious training and
education.
(b) According to the description of the
Prophet Daniel, the citizens of the Kingdom of God are "the People of the
Saints." In the
original Chaldish or Aramaic text, they are described as "A'mma d'
qaddtshid' I'lionin," an epithet worthy only of the Prince of the Prophets
and of his noble army of the Muhajirin (Emigrants) and the Ansar (Helpers), who
uprooted idolatry from a great part of Asia and Africa and destroyed the Roman
Beast.
All the Muslims, who believe in Allah, in
His angels, Books, and Apostles; in the day of the Resurrection and Judgement;
that the good and evil are from Allah; and perform their pious practices
according to their ability and with good will, are holy saints and blessed
citizens of the Kingdom. There is no grosser religious ignorance than the
belief that there is a person called the Holy Ghost who fills the hearts of
those who are baptized in the names of three gods, each the third of the three,
or the three of the third, and thus sanctifies the believers in their
absurdities. A Muslim believes that there is not one Holy Spirit, but
innumerable holy spirits all created and ministers of the One Allah. The
Muslims are sanctified, not by baptisms or ablution, but their spirits are
purified and sanctified by the light of faith and by the fire of zeal and
courage to defend and fight for that faith. John the Baptist, or rather
Christ himself (according to the Gospel of Barnabas), said: "I baptize you
with water unto repentance, but he who comes after me, he is stronger than I;
he will baptize you with fire and with the holy spirit." It was
this fire and this spirit with which Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be
on him) baptized the semi- barbarian nomads, the heathen Gentiles, and
converted them into an army of heroic saints, who transformed the old waning
synagogue and the decaying church into a permanent and strong Kingdom of Allah
in the promised lands and elsewhere.
4. The Permanence and the
Dignity of the Kingdom of Allah
Is doubly assured by an Angel to Daniel. It is
stated that "all the nations under the heaven shall serve the People of
the Saints of the Most High." It requires no proof to say that all the
Christian Powers show a particular respect, and even deference when necessary,
not only to Muslim Powers, to Muslim sacred places and mosques, but also to the
local institutions of their Muslim subjects. The mystery of this
"service" lies in this: in the first place, the Muslims always
inspire respect and fear through their dignified behaviour, attachment to their
religion and obedience to just laws, and their peacefulness; and secondly,
because the Christian Governments, as a rule, treat the Muslims with justice
and do not interfere with their laws and religion.
Space does not permit us to extend our
observations over other points of this Divine Religion and Kingdom, such as the
Muslim Khaliphas, Sultans, etc. Suffice it to say that the Muslim Sovereigns
are subject to the same Qur'anic laws as their compatriots; that justice and
modesty are the best safeguards for the prosperity and stability of every
State, Muslim or non- Muslim; and that the spirit and the principles of the
Book of Allah are the best guidance for all legislation and civilization.
