Is ruling by all that Allah has revealed a slogan raised by Islamic groups for popular consumption, to stir emotions and rally followers, or is it a practical project capable of implementation?

Ruling by all that Allah (swt) has revealed is a comprehensive ideology for a project with complete foundations; it is precisely defined in its ‘Aqeedah (creed), constitution, and systems—economic, social, security, educational, political, judicial, and institutional. It is not a product of human intellect; rather, it is a divine ‘Aqeedah (creed) and set of Shariah rulings revealed to our noble Messenger (saw) to convey to all of humanity. It is specifically for those who carry it, act upon its requirements, implement it practically, and embody it in a tangible project: the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood, for the believers. This is due to the saying of Allah (swt) Who said:

[هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَىٰ وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ]

“It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the Deen truth to manifest it over all ways other ways of life, even if the mushrikun (polytheists) dislike it” [TMQ Surah At-Tawbah: 33]. It is that which absolves their responsibility before Allah (swt) on the Day they are presented to Him (swt), when nothing hidden will be concealed.

Ruling by all that Allah (swt) has revealed is both an idea (fikrah) and a method (tareeqah). These two pillars cannot be an empty slogan unless they constitute a complete project, which is what the greatest Messenger (saw) accomplished after the Pledge of al-‘Aqabah al-Kubra. Following its conclusion between him and the Ansar, he embodied this project in reality in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah. This system was then passed on to his noble Companions (ra), and it was named the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate). Later, authority became Al-Mulk al-‘Adud (the dynastic rule), which was abolished in 1924 CE by the criminal Mustafa Kemal and traitors amongst the Arabs and Turks with him—may they receive from Allah (swt) what they deserve.

This project was embodied for approximately thirteen centuries, realizing the finest and most beautiful experience humanity—not Muslims alone—has ever known, due to its embodiment of the concept of true, just sovereignty, where the ruler and the ruled, and the Muslim and the dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen), are equal before the Shariah rulings of Allah (swt).

This slogan is neither hollow nor for organizational consumption and material gain—except for one who raises it without grasping its meaning, envisioning it, or for whom understanding its Shariah texts and rulings is difficult. This is the pitfall into which Islamic groups fell, making reality the source of thought and a severe constraint on their thinking, instead of launching into the vast expanse of Islam. This caused their reality to push them to restrict the Shariah texts or twist their meanings to align with the reality they had become captive to. It is not only the groups that fell into this trap; rather, many, or most, of the Muslim scholarly community throughout the past century were ensnared by it, in fulfillment of the saying of our Messenger (saw) who said:

«فَوَاللَّهِ مَا الْفَقْرَ أَخْشَى عَلَيْكُمْ، وَلَكِنِّي أَخْشَى أَنْ تُبْسَطَ عَلَيْكُمْ الدُّنْيَا كَمَا بُسِطَتْ عَلَى مَنْ كَانَ قَبْلَكُمْ، فَتَنَافَسُوهَا كَمَا تَنَافَسُوهَا، وَتُهْلِكَكُمْ كَمَا أَهْلَكَتْهُمْ»

“By Allah (swt), it is not poverty that I fear for you, but I fear that the world will be spread out before you as it was spread out for those before you, and you will compete for it as they competed for it, and it will destroy you as it destroyed them”—meaning, that you would manipulate the Shariah texts and rulings as those before you did, and thus be destroyed by it.

Therefore, Sheikh Taqiuddin An-Nabhani, may Allah (swt) have mercy on him, took up this noble idea and embodied it in the project of the Islamic State: the vessel of salvation for this Ummah and for all of humanity from the overwhelming chaos that strikes mankind, trees, and stones, and corrupts the human fitrah (natural disposition). This is the chaos which Allah (swt) warned against in His (swt) saying:

[وَلَا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ بَعْدَ إِصْلَاحِهَا]

“And cause not corruption upon the earth after its reformation” [TMQ Surah Al-A’raf: 56]. In its absence, humanity will gather against you as diners gather around their bowl, and tribulations, like fragments of a dark night, will crowd upon the Ummah, in which the believer will be confused, unable to distinguish truth from falsehood; he will go to bed a believer and wake up a disbeliever, and wake up a believer and go to bed a disbeliever.

This eminent Sheikh dedicated himself to researching and contemplating this immense catastrophe and the pitch-black darkness—so dark that if one were to extend his hand, he could scarcely see it—so is there any path to the light? Until Allah (swt) enlightened him, revealing that the absence of the Khilafah is the cause of all these calamities and tribulations, and that there is no savior, no way out, and no path except through its return as a Khilafah on the Method of the Prophethood. Here, his brilliance and intellectual creativity were manifested in conceptualizing the Khilafah by delving into the depths of the Noble Quran, the purified Sunnah of our Prophet (saw), and his Seerah over the 23 years he spent in the two stages, those of Makkah and Al-Madinah, until the Islamic State was established. This state lifted the veil of ignorance from the Arabian Peninsula and then set out to remove the era of tyranny from the rest of the world.

The Companions (ra) embodied the practical establishment of its foundations on the earth, succinctly summarizing their understanding of its ideology and method with a statement made by Rib’i ibn ‘Amir  (ra) to Rustum, the commander of the Persians, (اللَّهُ ابْتَعَثْنَا لِنُخْرِجَ مَنْ شَاءَ مِنْ عِبَادَةِ الْعِبَادِ إِلَى عِبَادَةِ اللَّهِ، وَمِنْ ضِيقِ الدُّنْيَا إِلَى سِعَتِهَا، وَمِنْ جَوْرِ الْأَدْيَانِ إِلَى عَدْلِ الْإِسْلَامِ) “Allah has sent us to bring forth whom He wills from the worship of servants to the worship of Allah, from the narrowness of this world to its vastness, and from the injustice of religions to the justice of Islam.” An-Nabhani (rh) therefore embodied the vision of the Islamic State in its general and specific conception with a written project and books based on Shariah rulings derived from the Book of Allah (swt) and the Sunnah of His Prophet (saw). Whoever has studied them has seen the vision of the desired Khilafah and the promised outcome in the most beautiful and greatest form.

So, towards this outcome, which absolves one of responsibility and saves those who engage in the work to achieve it from accountability before Allah (swt), and it is inevitable, and none stands in the way of its realization except a known hypocrite, or a disbeliever drowned in his disbelief (kufr), or one who benefits from the worldly life of others, having sold his Deen and Hereafter, we call upon you, O Muslims.

O Allah, use us for this work until we meet You while You are pleased with us, and protect us from the evils within ourselves and the whispers of Shaytan, and grant us steadfastness upon this until death; for the Truthful, the Trustworthy has informed us that this is inevitable, as he (saw) said: «ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ» “Then there will be a Khilafah on the Method of the Prophethood.” And indeed, we see and feel the heralds and the signs of the approach of its time and era appearing clearly, without any ambiguity. Among these signs are: the fall and weakness of capitalism, the peoples in the West clashing with the ideology they once adhered to, even dragging the rulers—the protectors of capitalism and the separation of religion from life—to cite texts from their religions and declare the renewal of the Crusader wars. This signifies their disbelief in the ideology they believed in and fought for over decades, and which they forced upon the peoples and compelled them to adopt along with its culture. This means they are revolting against an ideology that has brought them ruin, corruption, and the spread of corruption on earth. Therefore, these are not mere slips of the tongue or unintentional lapses, but rather they reveal what their hearts conceal and what they hide. They see it as distant, but we see it as near. Is not the dawn near? And the dawn of the Khilafah has, by the Permission of Allah (swt), become within very close reach, inshaa'Allah and we hope to be among its witnesses.