– Hasan ul Banna Khan
One fateful night, when a young man had a dream of a mighty tree growing out of his chest and covering the entire world, little did he know its significance. The year was 1299 AD, the young man was Osman bin Ertugrul Ghazi, a leader of Turkish tribes in Anatolia, and the dream was an Ilham (sign) from the Almighty. History witnessed the realization of Osman’s dream, as the descendants of Osman formed the great Ottoman Empire (later turned into a Caliphate) which ruled the world for over 600 years, producing some of the greatest rulers in history and governing over the regions like Turkey, Egypt, Middle East, North Africa, and a large chunk of Eastern Europe at the peak of its powers.
Ottoman Empire was one of the biggest Empires in history to have existed on the Planet
The Ottomans were the last link in a long chain of Caliphates which started with the Rashidun Caliphate followed by the Umayyads and the Abbasids, each of them having a glorious history of their own. The Rashidun Caliphate headed by Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman & Ali (رضي الله عنهم) introduced the world to a fair and just political system based on the Qur’anic Principles and Prophet Muhammad’s teachings, where honesty and morality were the cornerstones on which governments were formed. Before this, the world had only seen tyrannical rulers who came to power through nepotism, deceit, or sheer brutality and practiced injustice, oppression, exploitation, cruelty, and atrocity. For the first time, the world witnessed faithful personalities who grew in humility, lowered their lifestyle, and spent sleepless nights when entrusted with power, as they realized that authority is nothing but responsibility and accountability in this world and the hereafter (life after death). As a result, they united humanity, abolished darkness, and filled the world with light.
The Caliphates that followed could not meet the high standards set by the Rashidun, the primary reason being the growing distance from its founding principles, i.e., the Qur’an and Sunnah, but whatever traces remained of these principles, ensured that there were still many aspects of these governments which made them virtuous. The Shariah, which was the bedrock of a moral and ethical polity, was generally upheld. This meant that the military, judicial and civil systems of these societies largely remained exemplary, thus providing strong and independent judiciaries, preserving the moral and ethical code of the society, securing minority rights, etc. to name a few outcomes. There was a great emphasis on uptake and dissemination of knowledge, so much so that these regions became global education centers, and ensured leaping progress in the fields of science, technology, medicine, arts, culture, etc. There was significant economic progress as well during this period.
However, over time, the ever-widening gap between the Caliphate and its founding principles kept plaguing it, and ultimately proved fatal. The late 1800s and early 1900s witnessed the Caliphate-ruled regions decreasing one by one. The disintegration of the Caliphate, resulted in the Ummah being divided into countless geographies, each having meaningless flags, pointless anthems, and aimless armies of their own whose sole purpose was to safeguard self-interests born out of cultural, linguistic, geographical, ethnic, and other biases. These new countries were inspired by western political ideologies, thus opening doors for governments based on inequity, injustice, fascism, majoritarianism, bigotry, etc. Thus, the welfare and prosperity of the society took a back seat.
Ottoman Empire aka “the Sick Man of Europe” had its last rites on 3rd March 1924, exactly a hundred years from now
Finally, on 3rd March 1924, the death knell was sounded for the once-great Ottoman Caliphate, which had by then been termed “the sick man of Europe”. Western conspiracies, hypocrites from the ummah seeking power, combined with its own shortcomings were some of the key factors that hastened its demise. The shield that protected humanity for 1300 years was finally broken, the uppermost knot of Islam that protected the other knots from falling apart was undone, and the world was thrust back into darkness. The Prophet (PHUH) had prophesized: “The knots of Islam will be undone one by one, each time a knot is undone the next one will be grasped, the first to be undone will be the Rule (of Islam; The Caliphate) and the last will be the Prayer (Salah)” (Bukhari, Tarikh al-Kabir, 4:233). Another hadith states: “…and there shall be misguided rulers” (Mustadrak al-Hakim).
After the fall of the Caliphate, we are witnessing the fulfillment of these prophecies word by word. First, the military laws of the Shariah were abolished, the judicial laws followed suit, and now the civil laws are collapsing at the hands of misguided rulers. Soon, the last knot (Salah) will be attacked and the Ummah will be running helter-skelter in trying to figure out ways to protect it. The solution has always been in front of our eyes. Even if a single knot in a rope is left untied, it is not going to be effective and is surely going to disintegrate sooner or later. Similarly, until a Caliphate is re-erected on the principles of Qur’an and Sunnah, as has been prophesized in another hadith: “…and then there will be Caliphate upon the Prophetic method” (Masnad Ahmed – 18,430), the other aspects of Islam will surely disintegrate, and the humanity will sink to deeper and darker depths each passing day.
