The Political Concepts of Hizb ut Tahrir  

by Taqiudine an-Nabhani

Hizb ut Tahrir

1392 AH / 1969 CE

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Excerpts

What Is Politics?

Politics means the taking care of internal and external affairs of the nation. It is practised by the state, which discharges this care practically, and by the nation, who call upon the state to account for its practices. The internal policy, which is the care exercised by the state over internal affairs, is fulfilled by applying an ideology upon the society. The foreign policy, which is the care exercised by the state over external affairs of the nation, is accomplished through the relations of the state with other countries and through the spread of Islam in the world.

It is of paramount importance to understand foreign policy to protect the state and the nation (ummah), and as a requirement for conveying the message of Islam. Foreign policy is also a prerequisite for the correct establishment of the relations of the ummah with other nations.

Political Idea And Method

As for the idea upon which politics is based, it is the idea on which the state builds its relations with other nations. A country with no ideology will possess ideas that differ and conflict and will be liable to constant change. These countries are discussed from the perspective of the political plans and means, while the study of the political idea does not apply to them. Contrary to this is the ideological country which builds its policies on a fixed idea, which is to spread its ideology to the entire world according to one fixed method no matter what means are used. This type of state falls under the area of study for its political idea.

A New Colonialism

In the modern imperialist policy, the western countries have abandoned resorting to military occupation and have replaced it by other newer means. In addition to the exertion of political pressure and harassment, the U.S. for instance, has started to use her assistance in so called development projects; uses American experts who are present in many countries, and also uses loans, as the new means of colonialism. Britain too has developed some new means of colonising, such as the recruitment of agents, British intelligence, loans, suspicious trade deals and reliance on its agents amongst the leaders of other countries. Beside all these means, Britain still adheres to the use of force and the construction of military bases in its colonies or in close proximity to them. As an illustration of how colonialism has become an objective rather than a method, one can refer to the fierce conflict between the capitalist colonialist countries to exploit Africa. The Congo crisis which lasted for several years illustrates very clearly the wild avarice and greed of the colonialist countries to exploit this continent, as does the Rhodesian crisis which set free the hands of the British to exploit it. However, inspite of all this, colonialism is still the method used by the west to spread capitalism and western civilisation. Actually, means such as schools, universities and missionary activities cannot be effectively used unless the colonisation of other countries by the West is achieved first.

The Role of the Islamic State

The Islamic state is an ideological state, and its prime role is to carry the message of Islam to the world. Thus, it is compulsory on her, and it is very much a part of her existence to have a respected international standing and to be able to influence international relations. Thus there is no escape from the fact that the political concepts of the politicians must be of the sort which are international concepts and not domestic or regional ones. Therefore  there is no escape for the politicians in their capacities as Muslims to have political concepts of the international aspect and not only of domestic or regional matters. Hence they have a great responsibility to gain a full political awareness. Being Muslims and the state being Islamic, the basic and original role is to carry the message of Islam to the world, this necessitates that they have political awareness and that this awareness be comprehensive.

Political Awareness

Political awareness does not only mean to be aware of the political situations, the international position, the political events or to follow up the international politics and the political actions, although these are part of the requirements for a comprehensive political awareness. Rather, the political awareness is to view the world from a special angle, and for Muslims the special angle is the Islamic creed i.e. the view of (There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah). The Prophet (pbuh) said "I was commanded to fight the people till they say there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah, if they said it, they would protect from me their blood and money except for its right." This is political awareness. So the view towards the world from no special angle is superficiality and it is not political awareness.

The view towards the domestic and regional domain only is triviality, and not political awareness. The political awareness does not exist unless it satisfies two elements:

1. The view towards the entire world.

2. The view must emerge from a special defined angle no matter what this angle is, whether it is an ideology, a particular idea or a certain interest or anything else.

This is the reality of political awareness. Of course, for the Muslim, political awareness must come from the angle of the Islamic creed. So if this is the reality of the political awareness, then it is a natural necessity for the politician to engage himself in the struggle in order to form a particular concept about life for man in his capacity as man, wherever he lives. The formation of this concept is the first responsibility thrown on the shoulder of the politically aware person who would have no rest unless he makes the effort to form it.