Third Topic
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
O mankind! We created you from a single [pair] of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other.
That is, I created you as peoples, nations, and tribes, so that you might know one another and the relations between you in social life, and assist one another; not so that you would regard each other as strangers, refuse to acknowledge one another, and nurture hostility and enmity.
First Matter
Since the elevated truth stated by the above verse concerns the life of society, I have been compelled to write it in the tongue, not of the New Said, who wants to withdraw from society, but of the Old Said, who was involved in the social life of Islam. It is written intending to serve the Qur’an of Mighty Stature and to shield it against unjust attacks.
Second Matter
In explanation of the principle of mutual acquaintance and assistance alluded to by the above verse, we say this: an army is divided into divisions, the divisions into regiments, the regiments into battalions, and companies, and squads, so that all the soldiers may know their many different connections and related duties. In this way, they all will perform properly a general duty in accordance with the principle of mutual assistance, and the collectivity they form will be safe from the attacks of the enemy. The army is not arranged thus to be divided and split up, with one company competing with another, one battalion being hostile to another, and one division acting in opposition to another.
Similarly, Islamic society as a whole is a huge army that is divided into tribes and groups. Nevertheless, it has unity in numerous respects: its groups’ Creator is one and the same, their Provider is one and the same, their Prophet is one and the same, their qibla is one and the same, their Book is one and the same, their country is one and the same; a thousand things are one and the same.
All these things being one and the same necessitates brotherhood, love, and unity. That is to say, being divided into groups and tribes should lead to mutual acquaintance and assistance, not to antipathy and mutual hostility.
Third Matter
The idea of nationalism has greatly advanced this century. The cunning European tyrants in particular awaken this among Muslims in negative fashion so they may divide them up and devour them.
Furthermore, in the idea of nationalism is a thrill of the soul, a heedless pleasure, an inauspicious power. For this reason people involved in social life at this time cannot be told to give it up.
However, nationalism is of two kinds: one is negative, inauspicious, and harmful; it is nourished by devouring others, persists through hostility to others, and is aware of what it is doing. It is the cause of enmity and disturbance. This is the reason the Hadith states that Islam has abrogated what preceded it and put an end to the tribalism of Ignorance.
And the Qur’an decrees: While the unbelievers got up in their hearts, heat and cant – the heat and cant of Ignorance – Allah sent down His tranquillity to His Messenger and to the believers, and made them stick close to the command of self‑restraint; and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it. And Allah has full knowledge of all things.
The above Hadith and verse reject in definite terms negative nationalism and racialism. For positive, sacred Islamic nationhood leaves no need for them.
What race has three hundred and fifty million members? Which racialism can gain for those who subscribe to it so many brothers – and eternal brothers at that – in place of Islam? Negative nationalism has caused untold harm in history.
In Short: The Umayyads combined some nationalistic ideas with their politics, and vexed the World of Islam. They also brought down many calamities on themselves.
Also, the European nations have promoted the idea of racialism enormously this century; the ghastly events of the Great War demonstrated just how harmful negative nationalism is, in addition to the perpetual, ill‑omened enmity of the French and Germans.
And with us, in the Second Constitutional Period, – like the myriad tongues at the destruction of the Tower of Babel, known as the “ramification of peoples,” and their resulting dispersal – various refugee societies called “clubs” were formed, chiefly by the Armenians and Greeks, because of their negative, nationalistic ideas, and these were the cause of division. From that time to now, the condition of those devoured by the Europeans due to those clubs, and of those made wretched by them, has again demonstrated the harm of negative nationalism.
As for the present, when the peoples and tribes of Islam are most in need of one another, and each is more oppressed and more poverty‑stricken than the others, and they are crushed beneath European domination, to regard one another as strangers due to the idea of nationalism and look on each other as enemies, is such a calamity it is indescribable.
It is quite simply a lunacy like turning one’s back on dreadful serpents so as to avoid being bitten by a mosquito and struggling with the mosquito – due to the idea of nationalism. To attach no importance to the European nations, which are like huge dragons, at a time when with their insatiable greed their grasping hands are outstretched, indeed, to in effect help them and to nurture enmity against fellow‑citizens in the eastern provinces or brother Muslims to the south, and to take up positions opposed to them, is extremely detrimental and dangerous. In any event there are no enemies among the people to the south that they should form a front against them. The Qur’an’s light comes from the south; it is where the light of Islam came from. It is present among us and is found everywhere.
So to be hostile towards those fellow Muslims is indirectly harmful to Islam and the Qur’an. And hostility towards Islam and the Qur’an is hostility of a sort towards the lives in this world and in the next of all those fellow‑citizens. To destroy the foundations of their two lives while claiming to serve their social life in the name of patriotism, is not patriotism but stupidity!
Fourth Matter
Positive nationalism arises from an inner need of social life and is the cause of mutual assistance and solidarity. It gives rise to a beneficial strength, and is a way of reinforcing Islamic brotherhood.
The idea of positive nationalism should serve Islam and be its citadel and armour; it should not take its place. For within the brotherhood of Islam is a hundredfold brotherhood that persists in the Intermediate Realm and World of Eternity. So whatever its extent, national brotherhood may be an element of it. But to plant it in place of Islamic brotherhood is a foolish crime like replacing the treasure of diamonds within the citadel with the citadel’s stones, and throwing the diamonds away.
O sons of this land, who are the people of the Qur’an! Challenging the whole world, you have proclaimed the Qur’an as its standard‑bearers, not for six hundred years, but for a thousand years since the time of the ‘Abbasids. You have made your nationhood a citadel to the Qur’an and Islam. You have silenced the whole world and repulsed awesome attacks. You have confirmed the verse: Soon Allah will produce a people whom He will love as they will love Him, lowly with the believers, mighty against the rejecters, fighting in the way of Allah. Now you must refrain from succumbing to the stratagems of Europe and the dissemblers who imitate them, thus corroborating the passage above; you must be frightened of doing such a thing!
A Noteworthy Situation: The Turks are the most numerous of the Islamic peoples, and wherever they are found, they are Muslims. They have not divided into Muslims and non‑Muslims like other peoples. Wherever there are Turks, they are Muslims. Turks who have abandoned Islam or who are not Muslims are no longer Turkish, like the Hungarians. But even small races consist of both Muslims and non-Muslims.
O my Turkish brother! You watch out in particular! Your nationhood has fused with Islam and may not be separated from it. If you do separate them, you will be finished! All your glorious deeds of the past are recorded in the book of Islam’s deeds, and cannot be effaced from the face of the earth by any power. So don’t you efface them from your heart at the evil suggestions and devices of Satan!
Fifth Matter
The peoples awakening in Asia are embracing the idea of nationalism and imitating Europe precisely in every respect, and on the way are sacrificing many of the things they hold sacred. However, every nation requires a dress suitable to its particular stature. Even if the material is the same [for all nations], the styles have to be different. A woman cannot be dressed in a gendarme’s uniform, nor can an elderly hoja be clothed in a tango‑dancer’s outfit. Moreover, blind imitation very often makes people into laughing-stocks. This is so for the following reasons:
Firstly: If Europe is a shop, a barracks, Asia is an arable field and a mosque. A shopkeeper can go to the ball, but a peasant cannot. The situation of a barracks and that of a mosque cannot be the same.
Moreover, the appearance of most of the prophets in Asia, and the emergence of the majority of philosophers in Europe is a sign, an indication, of pre‑eternal divine determining that what will arouse the Asian peoples and cause them to progress and to govern, are religion and the heart. As for philosophy, it should assist religion and the heart, not take its place.
Secondly: It is a grievous error to compare the religions of Islam and Christianity and to be indifferent towards religion like Europe. Firstly, Europe has its religion. The fact that such European leaders as Wilson, Lloyd George, and Venizelos were as bigoted in their religion as priests, testifies that Europe has its religion, and is even bigoted in one respect.
Thirdly: To compare Islam with Christianity is a false comparison and wrong. For when it was bigoted in its religion, Europe was not civilized; it became civilized on giving up its bigotry.
Furthermore, religion caused three hundred years of war between them. And since it was the means of despotic tyrants crushing the common people, the poor, and thinkers who were in their power, they all felt a temporary disgust at religion.
However, in Islam, history testifies that apart from one occasion, religion has not been the cause of internal war.
Also, whenever the people of Islam have adhered in earnest to their religion, they have advanced proportionately, achieving significant progress. Witness to this is the greatest master of Europe, the Islamic state of Andalusia.
But whenever the Islamic community has been slack in religion, it has sunk into wretchedness, and declined.
Furthermore, Islam has protected the poor and the common people with compassionate measures such as enjoining the payment of zakat and prohibiting usury and interest. And in accordance with phrases like, So will they not think, ❋ So will they not reason, ❋ So will they not ponder on it, it has called on the intelligence and encouraged reason and knowledge and protected scholars. Islam has therefore always been the stronghold and place of recourse of the poor and the people of learning. They have no reason to be vexed at Islam.
The underlying reason Islam differs in various respects from Christianity and other religions is this:
The basis of Islam is the pure affirmation of divine unity; it attributes no actual effect to causes and intermediaries, and affords them no value in respect of creation and position.
Christianity, however, since it has accepted the idea of Jesus being the Son of Allah, it gives some value to causes and intermediaries; it cannot break egotism. It quite simply ascribes a manifestation of divine dominicality to its saints and great ones, thus confirming the verse: They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah. It is because of this that, together with maintaining their pride and egotism, those Christians who occupy the highest worldly ranks are religious and bigoted, like the former American president, Wilson.
In Islam, the religion of pure divine unity, those holding the highest worldly positions either give up their egotism and pride, or they give up their religion to an extent. For this reason, some are neglectful or even irreligious.
Sixth Matter
To those people who go to excess in the idea of negative nationalism and racialism we say this:
Firstly: The face of the world and especially this country of ours has since ancient times seen numerous migrations and changes of population. In addition, when the centre of Islamic rule was established here other peoples were drawn to it and they settled here. Consequently, only when the Preserved Tablet is revealed will the races truly be distinguished from each other.
To construct movements and patriotism on the idea of true race is both meaningless and extremely harmful. It is for this reason that one of the nationalist leaders and racialists, who was very neglectful in religion, was compelled to say that a nation is a nation when its people share the same language and religion. Since that is so, relations based on language, religion, and country should be taken into account, not true race. If the three are the same, the nation will certainly be strong. But if one is lacking, there will still be nationhood.
Secondly: I shall describe by way of example, two of the hundreds of advantages the sacred nationhood of Islam has gained for the social life of the sons of this land:
The First: What enabled this Islamic state, while numbering only twenty or thirty million, to preserve its life and existence in the face of all the large states of Europe was the following idea held by its army, which was born of the light of the Qur’an: “If I die, I shall be a martyr; and if I kill, I shall be a /ghazi.” They met death eagerly and with longing, laughing in its face. They always made Europe tremble. What in the world is there that will give rise to such elevated self‑sacrifice in the spirit of a simple-hearted soldier? What patriotism can be instilled in its place? What can make him willingly sacrifice his life and all his world?
The Second: Whenever the dragons (large states) of Europe have dealt a blow at this Islamic state, they have caused three hundred and fifty million Muslims to weep and cry out. So in order not to make them do that, those colonialists drew back their hands; they lowered them, even while raising them to strike. What power can be established in place of this constant moral support, which can be in no way belittled? Let them show it! No, that huge moral strength must not be offended by negative nationalism and independent patriotism.
Seventh Matter
We say to those who exhibit excessive patriotism and negative nationalism: if you truly love this nation and feel pity for it, be patriotic in such a way that your pity is directed towards the majority of its people. For to serve the temporary heedless social life of the minority, who are in no need of pity, in a way that is the reverse of pity for the majority, is not patriotism.
Patriotic works performed out of negative racialism may be temporarily beneficial for two people out of eight. They receive the kindness arising from that patriotism, although they do not deserve it. But the remaining six are either elderly, or sick, or afflicted with tribulations, or are children, or weak, or pious people turned earnestly toward the hereafter; these people want a light, a solace, compassion, in the face of the Intermediate Realm and the hereafter, for they are concerned with that life rather than worldly life; they are in need of helping hands that are blessed and patriotic. What patriotism could permit their light to be extinguished, their solace to be destroyed? Alas! Where is that pity for the nation, that self‑sacrifice?
We must never lose hope in divine mercy. For Allah the Most High will not cause to perish through temporary set‑backs the magnificent army and mighty community of the people of this land, which He employed for a thousand years in the service of the Qur’an, appointing them its standard-bearer. He will once again kindle that light and cause them to continue their duty, if Allah so wills!