Violent images of Muslims suffering rape, torture, and slaughter fill TV screens, newspapers, and magazines every day. Whether in Kosova, Kashmir, Algeria, or Arabia, it is obvious that Islam is facing its greatest outside threat since the Mongol invasions of the Seventh Hijri Century. In many ways, the situation is even worse: at least the Mongols soon joined our side.

In more recent years, our troubles have been made worse by people who claim that they are working and fighting for Islam, but whose deeds carry precisely the opposite message. These include, among many others, the "Mujahidin" opium growers in Afghanistan, the thugs who want civil war between Sunni and Shi'i in Iraq and Pakistan, and all the so-called fighters for Islam who seem to ignore the rules of jihad and refuse to be responsible to the Ummah they supposedly serve.

Once, we Muslims were ready to save Mankind and reshape the world following the master plan given to Prophet Muhammad (SAAW); but now we just react to disaster after disaster. Many of us have become numb to our Ummah's pain, and quietly accept our humiliation, frightened by the great power of tyrants. Still others think that they are helping when they denounce, with great fanfare, evil acts done in Islam's name; but these "activists" fail to see that Pharaoh just uses their statements to justify his crushing of Muslims, and ordinary non-Muslims don't believe them anyway. We are slowly losing our deen, lands, blood, and our dignity. The once fearless Ummah, ready to go to war over one female's honor, now stands helpless before relentless enemies. Why?

          The Prophet (SAAW) gave us a clue when he said:

          The Imam (Khalifah) is the shield behind which the people fight. --Sahih Muslim.

Since the destruction of the Khilafah, the superpower that once protected the sanctity of Islam and Muslims, our Ummah has become as weak as a plate of Jell-O, into which anybody can throw in ideas like tribalism, greed, and exploitation like bits of rotten fruit. Our Mubaraks, Assads, Musharrafs, and the elites they represent dress these ideas in pretty names like "nationalism," "liberalism," and "free markets," the better to shove down our throats. Until now, all forces attempting to fight these puppets and their masters, have either failed or, as in Afghanistan, mutated into something equally criminal.

One might ask, "Will there ever be light at the end of this tunnel?" The answer is an emphatic yes, simply because Allah (SWT) says that which can be translated to mean:

Allah has promised those among you who believe and do right that he will grant them Authority (literally, make them Khalifahs-Ed.) in the earth as he did to those preceding them, and he will make firm the Deen that he chose for them, and replace their fear with security. They worship Me and do not ascribe partners to Me. --Meaning of the Qur'an: An-Nur, ayah 55.

There is only one major obstacle to the fulfillment of the promise in our lifetime, namely the widespread belief that the Islamic state is only a dream, impossible to attain. For this wrong thinking there is a cure: knowing, as a matter of basic Islamic doctrine ('aqeedah), that Islam has to be victorious in this world as well as in the next. Therefore, abandoning Khilafah to the wastebasket of history is an act of kufr, a denial of Islam itself! At the same time, working to restore it is an obligation, or fard.

And if we Muslims won't remember this, be sure that the leaders of "The West" do. They want Khilafah to be like a hot coal we can't pick up, because they know that with Khilafah, Muslims will eventually unite, rejecting the idea of many weak states and multiple tyrants. They realize that the Khilafah could convert the mental and material potential of a billion Muslims into economic and military strength, and guard many of the most important strategic points and resources of the earth, for the benefit of all. They understand also the Islamic State would allow Islam to provide the world with an alternative vision of globalization that's not only better than today's globalization, but can actually compete with it.

The political and legal institutions of the Islamic Superpower would also help men of violent action to stay within the limits set by Allah, and pick out the "bad apples." Washington, for example, would not find it so easy to buy them for cannon fodder one year, then crush them yet another year when no longer needed (example: the Taliban).

The Khilafah's economic system would use its resources for the public good, and not the enrichment of a few. This would guarantee to every family, Muslim and non-Muslim, the necessities of life (food, shelter, transportation, medical care, and education). In addition to this, the Khilafah would establish a gold-based economy that would maintain its stability, unlike the funny-money Western economy built on speculation and interest. This would make Islam an economic superpower once more, capable of dictating its own agenda and loosening the grip of capitalism upon the world. The leaders of the present-day kufr system know all this and more, and that is why they do all they can to associate the "K-word" with mindless violence and the oppression of women.

If the enemies of Islam can see this, then why do Muslims who read the Qur'an every day remain blind? Having all the necessary tools to regain our role as witnesses over mankind including, most importantly, the promised support of Allah (SWT), there is no excuse not to restore the Islamic State. An Ummah that has all the knowledge and tools to succeed, yet refuses to use them, is like a giant mugged by a child. It does not make sense for us to remain in this ridiculous situation. It is time for a change.

Allah does not change the condition of a people unless they change it themselves. --MTQ: Ar-Ra'd, ayah 11

Allah (SWT) and His prophet (SAAW) have told us of the reestablishment of a Khilafah on the footsteps of prophethood, but this can come about only through the work of Muslims who strive to establish it.

O you who believe! If you support (the cause of) Allah, He will support you and plant your feet firmly. --MTQ: Muhammad, ayah 7

Let us restore the fard of Khilafah and attain glory in this world and the next by pleasing Allah (SWT) and implementing his Deen (Ideology). The world is waiting for Islam to lead it from the oppression of man-made systems and beliefs, though it doesn't know it yet. The Ummah of Muhammad (SAAW) will be held accountable for every atrocity, every oppression anywhere in a world without Khilafah-whether Muslims are guilty of the deeds or not-simply because we are responsible for the affairs of mankind.

Thus we have made you a just Ummah, that you may be witnesses over mankind and the messenger a witness over you. --MTQ: Al-Baqarah, ayah 143

It is He who has sent His messenger with guidance and the Deen of truth so that it may prevail over all other Ideologies even though the mushrikun (polytheists) detest it. --MTQ: At-Taubah, ayah 33

(Written 3/21/2000, reedited 7/6/2004)