Islam or Islamism: Post Mortem of an Empire

The umma is experiencing trials. It is uneasy in its relations with non-Muslims. Wars rage in different parts of the earth. A few are instigated by the writings of Islamists, Syed Qutb and Mawdudi. They use Islam for political ends. They want to establish a paradise - a global caliphate - in this world. They are reluctant to wait for the paradise in the hereafter. Islamists reinvented Islam as Islamism. Thereby they bring grief to the umma as well as to parties destabilized by extremists. Militant Islam brought defeats in France in 732, in Baghdad in 1258, and at Vienna in 1529 and 1683. For "Allah does not love aggressors" (Quran, 2:190). In becoming an aggressor, a Muslim deprives himself or herself from assistance from Allah. For "Allah does not guide wrongdoers." It is necessary to reject the expectation of a paradise on earth from the "clash" between the dar al-Islam and the dar al-harb. For Islam and the West share roots in the Abrahamic faith. Yet jihadists treat wars of aggression, contrary to the teaching of revelation, as a "sixth pillar of Islam." They treat the perpetration of war crimes as a requirement of the faith. Has the world ever witnessed a travesty of this magnitude ever before? Sectarians cause divisions. They are animated by the "holier than thou attitude." Recent examples encompass the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran. This belligerence is a result of past errors. Is Islam as understood and practiced today the same as the Islam as practiced by the prophet and the Muslims of his time? Or has something changed? Allah says He never changes the condition of people until they first change what is in themselves (Quran 13:11). There is reason to believe that the umma exchanged the Book of Allah for books of manmade traditions. Politics corrupted the knowledge of revelation. As the empire expanded, Islam was politicized. It was reinvented as Islamism. The politicization of Islam required reinventing the it as a teaching of war. This was expedited by the politicization of exegesis and jurisprudence. The politicization was a weaponization. The justification of wars of aggression, prohibited in revelation, was enabled by a fatal turn from revelation to tradition and the of abrogation of all verses that restrict war to self-defense by the verse of the sword (Quran 9:5). The turn to tradition and its treatment as revelation was assisted by the repression of reason. For which reasonable person would accept the perception that reports akin to hearsay are "revelation from God?" The repression of reason was justified by treating the use of reason to understand revelation as kufr. Thinkers were persecuted by Musa al-Hadi in 786. Mutawakkil also repressed persons who dared to think. The gates to ijtihad were shut and taqlid - blind following of tradition - became the norm. Al-Ghazali repressed rationality further by rejecting causation. As a result, empirical pursuits disappeared from curricula. The umma fell into endemic backwardness. The repression of reason was an expression of despotism, which also repressed freedom. The rejection of causation prepared the road for the emergence of the teaching of predestination. This was used to justify the transgressions of unjust rulers. Tradition surpassed revelation. It was treated as "equal" to revelation, with the authority to abrogate and replace revealed rulings, as exemplified in the penalties for apostasy and adultery. The Book of Allah prescribes the death penalty neither for apostasy nor adultery. The persons that persist in endorsing these punishments transgress the boundaries of Allah. The treatment of tradition as a "judge" of revelation reversed the relationship between revelation and tradition by subordinating the former to the latter. Is it possible to affirm the duality of revelation without presupposing a duality of divinity? What is required to retrieve the tawhidic foundation of the religion?