ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Restatement of the History of Islam and Muslims Democracy and the Muslims Most modern Muslims believe and claim that government in Islam is democratic in character. A government run by the Muslims may be democratic in character but an Islamic government is not. Till the end of World War I, Muslims lived everywhere under the rule of kings and sultans.

They called their kings and sultans Zillullah (the Shadow of God), and they were very happy to live in that “shadow” (as if God has a shadow), even though, with rare exceptions, those kings and sultans were the most despotic, autocratic and authoritarian of rulers. They exercised absolute power over their subjects, and could kill anyone who displeased them. After the World War I, the power of the kings and sultans began to wane.

In the changing perceptions of the twentieth century, the kings and sultans became “anachronistic,” and the Muslims made the discovery that democracy was Islamic. They began to sing the praises of democracy, and most of them became “converts” to it.

Their “conversion” to democracy means that during the first fourteen centuries of its history, Islam was “undemocratic,” and it is only sometime after 1919 since when it has become “democratic.” Those Muslims who claim that democracy is Islamic, say that after the death of the Apostle of God, his companions set up the al-Khilafat er-Rashida (the Rightly-Guided Caliphate), and it was the best example of democratic government. Al-Khilafat er-Rashida lasted only thirty years.

After those thirty years, the Islamic democracy was supplanted by absolute monarchy. That system of government called “Islamic democracy” ceased to exist. Islamic democracy proved to be a highly perishable commodity. It lasted, in fact, less than thirty years – not even a generation! The Islamic democracy died unclaimed, unmourned and unsung. Who killed it? The pagans? The idolaters? The polytheists? The Magians? The Jews? The Christians? No. The Muslims themselves killed it.

And who were the Muslims who killed Islamic democracy? They were not the Muslims of later centuries. They all belonged to the generation of Muhammad Mustafa himself, and all of them were his “companions.” If the program of Islam comprehends the establishment of democracy as the ideal form of government for the Muslims, then what is the position of those saboteurs who destroyed it in its infancy?