Prophet Muhammad’s Political Strategy



Prophet Muhammad’s Political Strategy

In Makkah and Madinah

Faqir Hussain Shakir

Before we look at the political strategy of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in Makkah and Madinah, we need to understand or at least to familiarise ourselves with the constituent parts of his overall vision or strategy for life. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) fused the Sacred and Secular in one single entity in a most profound way, so everything, in a sense, became both sacred and secular at the same time in Islam. Therefore this brief assignment would be incomplete if we only discuss the political aspects without referring to the core of his teachings.

The bedrock of Islam is the principle of Tawhid – the Oneness of God. This idea is promoted through Risaalat (the Prophethood) to all mankind. By further extension, every person holds the office of Khalaafat (Vicegerency) and thus is the Khalifah (Vicegerent) of God on earth to observe and to promote the Divine Message. Now let us define the above terms.

TAWHID:

Tawhid means that God is One. He is not only the Creator but also the Sustainer of everything. As such the “Sovereignty and the Command” belong to God alone and the entire creation is His humble slave. Our faculties and power, individual or collective, over the rest of creation are not our own but a Trust from the Sovereign Lord to us. Therefore, it is not up to us to use our “delegated powers” unrestrained or follow our own whims and desires as we like. It is the job of God to guide us in order to fulfil His Divine Will – (Thy Will be done on earth as in heaven as the Bible says). This applies to an individual as well as to a nation or the entire humanity. In practical terms, the principle of Tawhid negates the “Sovereignty” of man and replaces it with the “Sovereignty of God”. God alone is the Giver of Law for our life and He alone is worthy of issuing Command for us to be obeyed.

RISAALAT (Prophethood):

For practical reasons the "Divine Law" is revealed through the Prophet who implements it, as instructed by God, in his own life to act as a model for his followers to follow it. In other words, there are two sources for this Law: one is inscribed in the Revealed Divine Book - the Quran and the other one is the practical interpretation of this Divine Law in the life of the Prophet. This is known as the Sunnah of the Prophet. The combination of these Two Sources is called the Shariah upon which the Islamic State is founded and established according to the Will of God.

KHALAAFAT (Vicegerency):

From an Islamic point of view, man's real disposition in the order of creation is that he is the Khalifah (Vicegerent) of God on this earth. God has given him the "delegated powers" to deal with the affairs of this world. In other words, the Real Sovereign Lord is God but man acts on his Lord's behalf with his delegated powers to establish the Will of his Sovereign Lord on this earth.

Those who accept the basic principles of Tawhid and Risaalat and are willing to follow the guidelines prescribed by God are His "active vicegerents", as it were, on this earth. This is the principle that lays down the foundation and develops the Islamic Society in which every member, male or female, is the Khalifah of God with equal rights and no one has the power to deprive any other member from his or her rights. This is the point where the "True Democracy" enters into the Islamic Society. All the Khalifahs choose a head of Islamic State and their representative assemblies without coercion and by the criteria set by the Divine Law. In other words, they delegate their own powers, willingly, to the Islamic State for practical reasons. All the Khalifahs have the power to elect and to dismiss the government if it is transgressing the boundaries of Shariah - the Divine Law. No one in the Islamic State is above the Law or beyond criticism.

However, the difference between the "Islamic Democracy" and the "Western-style Democracy" is that in the former the "Sovereignty" belongs to God alone and in the latter the "Sovereignty" belongs to the people. "Islamic Democracy" fulfils the Will of God on earth and the Western-style Democracy fulfils the capricious desires of its people. The former is conditioned to obey the Divine Law without transgressing the divine boundaries and the latter is Absolute to use its power freely without much regard even to its own moral constraints.

In the above context the mission of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) may be observed in two phases. The first phase is the Makkan Period that lasted for thirteen years in Makkah, the city of Prophet's birth place. There was a great opposition from politicians, community leaders as well as religious circles to his Divine Message as it challenged the status-quo of his contemporary society. The Makkan leaders used all tactics, including an offer of kingship, in order to curtail his Message. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) rejected their tempting offers and refused even to compromise on the basic tenets of Islam.

The Divine Message - the Quran - was guiding the Islamic Movement at every step. The spread of Islam was slow but the persecution of its followers in the tribal Makkah was severe and heartless to say the least. Many persecuted Muslims, under the instructions of Prophet Muhammad, escaped to Ethiopia for their life. This was an important political move on the part of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) that helped Muslims as well as established ties with foreign alliances. The personal safety of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) became very serious when he lost his wife Khadijah and his powerful uncle Abu Talib who was his protector in that tribal society. After a while an attempt was made by the enemy tribes to kill him but he escaped from his assassins and reached Madinah, a city about three hundred kilometres to the north of Makkah. His flight to Madinah in the year 622 CE is known as the year of Hijrah (migration) and the Islamic Calendar starts from this Hijrah as the year one. This Hijrah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is so important that it changed the course of world history forever.

The Makkan period may be described as the grooming and strengthening the faith of the followers of Islam and to train them in patience and perseverance. Besides, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his followers were not in a strong position to defend themselves against the cruelties that they had suffered in Makkah. The apparent policy was to gather strength and wait for the right opportunity.

The right opportunity did come when the people of Madinah who had been involved in their own civil war, invited the Prophet as a mediator to settle down their long standing feuds. The Prophet offered them Islam and they accepted it as a blessing as they had already known the coming of this Prophet foretold by the Jewish scholars of Madinah. There were a great number of tribes living within and around the city of Madinah. There were also some powerful Jewish tribes in Madinah.

After arriving in Madinah, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) immediately established a mosque, a seat of Islamic State that functioned as a centre for religious, social and political affairs of the Muslim Ummah (the community of believers). Within a few months an Alliance was chalked out and signed between the Islamic State and the tribes of Madinah including the Jewish tribes against their common enemies. It was a clever move in terms of political strategy that added strength to the nascent Islamic State of Madinah. New laws and values were continuously revealed by God and these were implemented straightaway into the fabric of the Islamic society. Islam was rapidly gaining ground. However, the enemies of Islam were not sitting quietly. They were contriving schemes to demolish Islam from both within - through the hypocrites and Jews in Madinah - and without - through the far and wide tribes. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was aware of all such schemes through the revelation from God. In the next ten years since the arrival of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in Madinah, many battles were fought between the Muslims and their enemies. The Jewish tribes also conspired and stood against Islam but were defeated and expelled from Madinah for good.

In the sixth year of Hijrah, a Peace Treaty at Hudaibiyyah was signed for ten years between the Islamic State and the leaders of Makkah. This was a tremendous achievement from an Islamic point of view although some believers who witnessed the occasion were not happy about the terms and conditions that were forced upon the Muslims by the Makkan leaders. The political skill of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was at its best, through the inspiration of God, of conducting and accepting this Peace Treaty although others could not see it at the time. Within a short time, it was proved without a shadow of doubt that Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) political farsightedness excelled above all. The conditions of the Peace Treaty that were forced upon the Muslims by the Makkan leaders started working against their own interests in no time. After securing this peace treaty by defeating the enemy in political field, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) decided to invite the neighbouring countries such as Egypt, Rome and Persia to the folds of Islam. According to the historical records, nearly three hundred letters were sent out to various countries. Islam was spreading fast during this period for its simplicity of faith. Through his political strategies, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) managed to unite a number of tribes under the banner of Islam.

The Peace Treaty at Hudaibiyyah hardly lasted for two years. The Makkan leaders broke it themselves. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) acted swiftly and invaded Makkah with an army of ten thousand believing men. Makkah was conquered without shedding a drop of blood. Now the old enemy fearing for worse, who persecuted the Prophet and his followers for years, was trembling before the Messenger of God. History has never witnessed anything like this before or ever since when the Prophet forgave them all and thus conquered their hearts and minds. Makkah was conquered in the eighth year of Hijrah. Within two more years the entire Arab peninsula converted to Islam. Through the political strategy of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), hundreds of tribes were united together in the folds of Islam. Not only a new Muslim Ummah (the community of believers) was born but a new "Islamic Civilisation" was established that contained new manners, attitudes, God-fearing and God-loving value-system for the benefit of all mankind.

An objective study of the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) reveals that his religious and political policy was to promote “good and remove evil” from God’s earth – His Kingdom – as prescribed by God in His Divine Law: To observe the Moral Code of Conduct, to do full justice at every level, to speak the truth even against one’s own self and to fulfil the covenants. And to stand by the Truth, Honesty and Justice even if it means material losses. And to protect and give human rights to every one, to fulfil the obligations towards the needy, the poor, the widows and orphans, the sick and frail, and the wayfarers according to the Divine Law.

The Islamic Movement, trained in the religious and political vision of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), uprooted the two superpowers of Rome and Persia and freed its people from the tyrannical yoke of kings and emperors. Islam became the most dominant and guiding force in no time from Indonesia in the East to Spain in the West. It dominated the world scene and guided mankind in developing arts and sciences for nearly a thousand years.

Humanity owes a lot to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) for his contributions. He is a universal heritage and a leader for all mankind whether one is aware of it or not.

F.H. Shakir

Email: fhshakir-islamicwritings@

December, 1999

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