It is self evident to Muslims the world over that we are misunderstood as a people and a culture, while the religion of Islam itself is being maligned in the process. Governments, citizens and faith communities everywhere want us to answer for what terrorists are doing in the name of our faith. Naturally, we cannot ignore the call and must take this opportunity to answer these questions for ourselves.

We must ask ourselves, do we want our belief in God and his Beloved Messenger, Sayyidina Mohammed, and the faith of
Islam as a whole to be interpreted by changing political regimes? Is our religion safe in the hands of those who have hidden agendas? What does Islam mean to us as a religion and can we separate that from what Muslims must do as a geopolitical community? I believe we can and, more importantly, we must.

Allah said in the Holy Quran, “I made you a moderate nation.” Prophet Mohammed said that Islam is the “middle path.” Why then do we practice such violence and tyranny? Many observers say that the oppression of European colonialism led to the decline of Islamic civilization. Yet, the most predominant oppression in the Muslim world today is done by our own leadership. Authoritarian dictatorships that have stifled free expression of the people and corruption prevents economic development.

Muslims the world over, tired of poor economic progress and stifled by politics that has no community representation, have resolved to accept that only militant Islam can free them. Our sense of powerlessness and desperation has lead us to think that only armed combat will bring victory when, in fact, it creates only more conflict and oppression. It is my premise here today that our roadmap to peace will not come from becoming progressively more extreme but rather will come from obedience to Allah’s commandment, “OH Muslims I made ye a moderate nation”.

We must rediscover our traditional Islamic heritage. Islam does not need a reformation; what we need is a counter-reformation. By returning to our past I refer not only to the time when the religion of Islam began, but to the era referred to as the Golden Age of Islamic civilization. It was a time when our scholars, scientists and philosophers were the envy of Europe and taught the world about justice and the rule of law.

So what can we learn from the traditional Islamic model of governance? The Quran says, “Obey God, obey the Prophet and obey those in authority among you.” The primary sources of Islamic law are therefore the words and commands of God as laid out in the Quran, the sayings and traditions of the Prophet (ahadith), and the rulings of religious leaders over time.

The Holy Quran is the highest standard by which man can order his life. As such, it is a model only the Prophet of God could uphold to its fullest. Muslims therefore rely on the authority of their scholars to guide them in upholding the principles of law laid out in the Quran and the traditions.

From the beginning, Islam has mandated democracy through a shura (elected council of leaders), a process through which people sit together, consult with one another, and select one person to represent them. A clear example of democracy’s role in Islam is manifest in the Prophet’s passing without appointing a successor to rule the Muslim state. He intentionally left it to the Muslims to come together and make this crucial decision based on what he had taught them.

The democratic election of a leader was the model on which the city of Madinah was founded. The Prophet, while invited by Muslims from that city, became its ruler by the choice of all its citizens – which included Jewish and polytheist tribes. He then developed a social contract, a pact signed by all the tribal leaders naming Muhammad as the leader, and establishing laws binding the tribes to cooperation, assistance in defense of the city, and the protection of its inhabitants.

According to this pact, Muslims and non-Muslims are equal citizens of the Islamic state, with identical rights and duties. Communities of different religious orientations enjoy religious autonomy, which is essentially wider in scope than the modern idea of religious freedom. The principles of equality, consensual governance and pluralism are beautifully enmeshed in the pact of Madinah.

Since then, this lengthy document has proven an exemplary historical model of a social pact in which a multi-religious, multi-cultural society was bound by one law. Note that, in signing the contract, the non-Muslim parties did not accept the Prophet as their religious leader, but rather signed with the conviction that he would provide the leadership needed to build an ideal society. In later centuries, the system of governance in Madinah became the basis for the ideal city, a detailed model developed by al-Farabi and later scholars.

Prophet Muhammad freely propagated the message of Islam, yet gave all people the freedom to choose any other religion. Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians were contractual members of the Muslim community. The Quran states, “Let there be no compulsion in religion.” In fifteen centuries of Islamic rule throughout the globe, there are no incidents in which Islam was imposed by force according to Islamic law.

Further, it was deemed unlawful in Islam to desecrate or destroy non-Muslim houses of worship. At first restricted to certain faiths, this category was later extended to include the Hindus of India and followers of other beliefs. A traveler in Muslim lands should not be surprised to see churches, synagogues and temples of other faiths, often erected in places of prominence.

Al-hukmu lillah – Rule belongs to God. Traditional Muslims believe that God is al-Hakim, Ruler of Creation. In every moment God is the Supreme Judge. Yet, He gave man will. Why? If God were to give the rules and demand that we follow them while knowing we are weak and cannot, it would be oppression. God is not an oppressor, but most loving towards His creation. He will not impose on us what we cannot achieve. Through the Quran, God told humanity what He prefers for us, His highest standard of behavior.

The Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad as the exemplar of the highest level of morality. God said to him, “This is your capacity as My perfect Servant.” Since the rest of humanity are but ordinary human beings, the Prophet served as an intermediary, reducing the power of the Divine orders to the capacity of the people he addressed. The Prophet urged the Muslim community, with the guidance of qualified religious scholars, to use their own minds, judgment and sincerity in seeking out the intent of the law and adjusting it according to the capacity of the people.

The law is subject to hierarchy. The highest level is obedience to God. If you cannot obey all of God’s commands, then obey the Prophet.

The level of Divine law – stated in the Quran – is the abstract and is why so many issues are described in only general terms. It was the duty of the Prophet to explain these issues. God said, “Whoever obeyed the Prophet, in fact obeyed God.” After the Prophet’s death, it became the duty of the scholars and rulers to further codify and implement existing laws. Therefore, the next level of the hierarchy is obedience to those in authority, for those unable to maintain obedience to the Prophet must at least obey those in authority.

Both the intellectual and spiritual fields grew tremendously as many different cultures and nationalities entered Islam. This demanded that Muslims apply their intellects to every issue, and not simply rely on the rulings of their ancestors. They were required to start with legal precedents, then refine and adapt them into new laws that accommodate the era and environment in which they lived.

A hadith narrated by Ibn Masud states: “Whatever the body of Muslims collectively sees as good is also considered good by God, and what they see as bad is also considered bad by God.” Just as culture, geography and natural circumstances impact our needs, the Prophet recognized the importance of developing a system that would be useful for all time and circumstances. He stated, “Majority opinion is best.”

A process of examination that leads to majority consensus (itjihad) was applied even in the time of Prophet Muhammad. This is borne out by the famous hadith of Bani Quraizah, in which the Prophet gave a group of Companions the order not to pray one afternoon until they reached the place of Bani Quraizah. Each individual Companion followed his own interpretation of this order; some prayed on the way, believing that what was meant was to try to reach Bani Quraizah, but not to miss prayer. Others waited to reach there, but missed the prescribed time for the prayer. The Prophet accepted both interpretations, as he intended only that they proceed quickly in order to reach Bani Quraizah sooner.

From this example, jurists derived two fundamental principles of Islamic jurisprudence: ß Allowance for independent reasoning based on the intent of the law. ß Allowance for divergence of opinion in interpreting the law. Thus the Quran contains broad, general rules that are immutable, not unlike societal rules of today: the sanctity of life, security and freedom of expression, and the inviolability of these rights. Yet, a democracy is a society governed by the people, for the people. The adaptation of law according to time and circumstance was necessitated by changes in society, and the influx of various cultures and material conditions.

Islam first came to one people with one lifestyle. As the religion spread and the borders of Muslim lands expanded, all of the different civilizations, each with their own codes of law, traditions and cultures, had to be incorporated into the Islamic polity. This was not achieved overnight and took great foresight on the part of Muslim jurists. This is most elegantly displayed in the development of the law.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “He who inaugurates a good practice (sunnatun hasana) in Islam earns the reward of it, and of all who perform it after him, without diminishing their own rewards in the least.” The Prophet comprehended that new situations would arise, and thus gave Muslims the ability to adopt new applications of Islamic law if they were beneficial to the community.

Among numerous other examples of how applications of law have changed is the assembly of the Holy Quran, which during the Prophet’s lifetime consisted of loose pages in chronological sequence of divine revelation. The third caliph, Uthman, took the initiative to assemble the revealed verses in the book format we have today. As the Prophet had never indicated this should be done, or done so himself, Uthman’ act was an innovation. He introduced the notion of change, and thereby established a precedent for what would be considered good or useful innovations in religion.

Dr. Wahba al-Zuhayli, a scholar of Islamic jurisprudence at the University of Damascus, writes that Sayyidina Umar had eliminated the rule of cutting the hands for theft in the difficult ‘Year of Hunger’ despite it being a fundamental rule in the Quran. Umar was the first to institute the use of prisons to hold people before judgment.

During the Prophet’s time, Islam was spread with great tolerance and openness. The command to pray five times daily came over a period of years. The Arabs, who were fond of alcoholic beverages, were gently weaned from alcohol over a period of twenty years. Those who prayed to idols were not ostracized from their Muslim relatives. Islam was introduced gently, not forcefully.

In explaining the impact of culture, environment and geography versus the impact of revelation on the development of law, Shaykh Abdul Halim Mahmoud, former Shaykh of al-Azhar and one of the highest scholars in Islam in recent times, wrote:

“Among these philosophical principles were justice, the existence of good and evil, and the relationship between human beings and the environment and his interactions with it, the most important of these being the freedom of choice. The leadership of Muslim scholars has shown the differences in their views: each was able to deduce different methodologies from which emerged the various schools of thought.”

Having arisen in the tribal regions of the Arabian Peninsula, the Islamic political structure originally included localized, tribal systems of government. Concurrent with the rule of the caliph, who bore the leadership of Islam as an inheritance from the Prophet, each tribe ruled itself within a limited territory, according to tribal loyalties and other factors specific to their community.

When the last, collective Islamic empire was dismantled, the individual Muslim states that arose did not revive the classical Islamic systems of elections and democracy, but instead the vacuum of power was filled by new monarchs and new methods of governance. Since the beginning of the twentieth century until today we witness the progressive decline of Islamic thought and society. Our rulers and their populace are plagued by corruption, materialism and a loss of faith. Scholars of Islam today issue fatwas, not based on Sharia, but to please the needs of the state. The theology of Islam is repeatedly abused and manipulated, not only by those in power, but also by opposition groups in their quest for power.

Is it not any surprise to see the rise of militant, political Islam as a solution for the injustices people suffer. Until recently, the fury of such ideologies were aimed at the Muslim world, but now we see their wrath has turned against the West. They claim that the injustice will not end until the West withdraws its support and interference from the Muslim world. This begs the question, however, of our own accountability: Why as a society have we generated over a century of dictators?

Allah said in the Holy Quran, “"Lo! Allah will not change the condition of a people until they (first) change that which is in their hearts.” We must show our allegiance to true Islamic principles of moderation, justice, and freedom of expression before Allah will support us. If we are on Haqq, Allah will favor us with His Mercy and Divine Justice.

The universal human rights of self expression, rule of law and religious pluralism are part of our own traditions and are not imports from the West. We can pursue our own form of democratic policy through the traditional Islamic paradigm, but that requires us to reject the dogma of militants and to embrace our past. “Difference of opinion in my ummah are a mercy,” the Prophet said, but do we have the courage to stand up and say it?

Islam is a religion for all centuries. It must be allowed to develop and expand to accommodate changes in technology, science and human advancement.

We must demonstrate our personal commitment to the Islamic etiquette of compassion, patience and tolerance if we want the rest of the world to embrace our values. It is inevitable that Islam will be judged by what Muslims do. It is up to us to determine what they will see.

Quran 13:11