Mus'ab ibn Umayr: We Don't Need a Prophet Nearby
To Make an Islamic State

The Messenger of Allah (SAAW) said, "The Prophethood will last among you for as long as Allah wishes, then Allah will take it away. Then it will be (followed by) a Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided) according to the ways of the Prophethood. It will remain for as long as Allah wills, then Allah will take it away. Afterwards there will be a hereditary leadership which will remain for as long as Allah wills, and then He will lift it if He wishes. Afterwards, there will be biting oppression, and it will last for as long as Allah wishes, then He will lift it if He wishes. Then it will be a Khilafah Rashidah according to the ways of the Prophethood," then he kept silent.
-Musnad Imam Ahmad (4/273)

The Khilafah is the political order in Islam, the Islamic superstate. It can and must replace the present world dis-order. Our readers often find time to ask questions or write comments. We try to answer as many of these as we can, because the process of restoring the Khilafah requires dialogue and hard questioning.

Of course, plenty of skeptics write too. They offer several arguments against what we say: "Muslims are not yet pure enough to deserve Khilafah," or, "Muslims have enough trouble just running Islamic Centers," or, "Muslims can use the democratic system to get what they need." (Never mind that even the kuffar themselves can't make the US government work for more than 5% of the people.) Much of the time, the unconvinced sound like they're making excuses, rather than learn about the Islamic State. Seldom do they use actual evidence from the Qur'an, the Sunnah, or the Sirah of Prophet Muhammad (SAAW) to support their positions.

A few years ago, however, a correspondent from the Buckeye State did send a question that made us scratch our heads for a while. He wrote, "In the past, the Khalifah followed a prophet off (sic) Allah. But since prophethood has come to an end now how do we solve this dilemma?...since a prophet cannot come a Khalifah will not come."

We have learned that this writer is not alone. Perhaps one important thing that impedes Muslims from reestablishing Khilafah is their distorted view of history. For example, many people convince themselves that the first Islamic state took root and grew strong because of a condition not existing today: the presence and active participation of Muhammad (SAAW). As they see it, the Prophet provided something apart from God's revelation: it might have been special leadership, force of will, charisma, or even barakah. Whatever it was, it had the power to make an ummah from a motley group in the oases of Yathrib, and inspire it to triumph over all enemies and obstacles. Unfortunately, the effect of this "unique" quality did not last long after the Prophet's death; within a generation, Khilafah degenerated into monarchy, and the Companions (RAAH) could not stop this-or so the story goes. In this light, is it so surprising that the idea of remaking the Islamic Superstate frightens so many Muslims? If their betters have failed, then how can they-imperfect people that they are-succeed without the Prophet close at hand?

Let us, therefore, try to restore hope. We begin with the observation that Muhammad (SAAW), was nowhere near while the Islamic State was successfully prepared in Madinah. Haykal, in his Life of Muhammad, asserts that Yathrib (Madinah's old name) was a natural place for the Prophet to settle because he had relatives and his father's grave there. With all respect, we disagree: just having relatives in a place did not guarantee that he would be accepted. Muhammad had plenty of kin close by who wanted to kill him. Moreover, few people in Yathrib even recognized Muhammad. On the other hand, Yathrib, nearly destroyed after a civil war, was ready for real change. In spite of this, the Last Prophet (SAAW) did not think it safe to leave Makkah until Yathrib was "ready."

Muhammad might have asked Abu Bakr (RAAH) to prepare the way. That Companion had extensive and intensive experience as a da'wah worker from the very start, as well as great personal prestige. Or the Prophet could just as easily tapped 'Umar (RAAH) to go; he was tough, strong-minded, perhaps just the man to take charge in a city where things remained so unsettled.

Yet when the time came, at that first Meeting at 'Aqabah roughly one year before the Hijrah, Prophet Muhammad (SAAW) did not send a "big name" back with the Twelve from Yathrib who had committed themselves to his Deen. Instead, he looked about his Makkan followers and picked out Mus'ab bin Umayr bin Hashim bin 'Abdu Manab (RAAH).

Who was Mus'ab bin Umayr, anyway? At the time, he was a man in his late 30's. He missed much of the testing at the Prophet's side in Makkah, for he had been with the refugees in Abyssinia. Mus'ab never became a great teacher or source of ahadith, because he did not survive the battle of Uhud. Nor was he a great figure in this world. Though he was a nephew, by marriage, to Hamzah, Mus'ab remained quite poor. His clothing was so meager that there wasn't enough to cover him when he was put in his grave. Among the Companions, therefore, he was just an "ordinary" man; perhaps we would have dismissed him as a "nobody."

Even so, Mus'ab had the talent to succeed. He knew the Qur'an and he had been well-trained in Islam.

These were the best of the few assets he possessed for the mission Muhammad (SAAW) gave him. To start with, Mus'ab had to recite the Qur'an and instruct the Yathribis in the Deen of Islam-all of it. He could not forget to target the Aus tribe as well as the Khazraj in that community. Finally, he needed to keep the Prophet (SAAW) informed about his progress. That was, of course, all the harder because Mus'ab knew little about his future territory. Fortunately, he had the help of As'ad bin Zurara (RAAH), one of the first Yathrib Twelve, who gave good advice about which doors to knock at first.

Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah describes how Mus'ab (RAAH) worked. He would sit in a garden or courtyard where a Yathribi tribe might gather. There, with his host As'ad offering support and counsel at his side, Mus'ab recited the Qur'an and explained Islam to passers-by, whether they were Muslims already or not. If a leader from the old order came threatening, such as Usayd bin Hudayr, Mus'ab would just say, "Won't you sit down and listen. If you like what you hear you can accept it; and if you don't like it you can leave it alone."

After lending his ear, Usayd (RAAH) came away exclaiming, "What a wonderful and beautiful discourse this is!"

That statement is significant. Usayd did not say how great or good Prophet Muhammad was-or, for that matter, how eloquent Mus'ab had been. He fell in love with Islam because of its good ideas and the sheer beauty of the Qur'an, and the same was true for nearly all the others who accepted Islam that year in Yathrib. The ideas that a poorly dressed man recited in the square always attracted them first. For a time, Muhammad (SAAW) simply was the message-bearer, the one to whom God happened to reveal those wonderful, wonderful ideas. Of course, they loved the Prophet too; but never forget that in the beginning Yathrib had no personal experience of his "excellence": they could not even pick him out in a crowd! When some of the new Yathribi Muslims went to Makkah just before the Second Meeting of 'Aqabah, they had to ask directions of someone who told them that Muhammad was "the man standing next to his uncle Al-'Abbas."

Mus'ab ibn Umayr (RAAH) kept spreading Islamic concepts in Yathrib. But he was not perfect; he did not know everything at once. Sometimes, it appeared, a listener's question "stumped" him. Then he had to write the Prophet (SAAW) in Makkah for advice. Regular correspondence between Muhammad and his Companion continued. In one letter, the Prophet instructed Mus'ab to start Jumuah (Friday congregational) prayers in Madinah-Yathrib. This was a real departure from the past: Muslims in Makkah had to do salah on the sly, in their homes, or in secluded places outside town. But in Yathrib, soon to become Madinat-an-Nabi, the Prophet's City, Islam was well on its way to becoming established, going public! When Mus'ab (RAAH) taught people about "Islam", he did far more than instruct them about "The Five Pillars"; he showed them how to run, and live in, an Islamic State.

When Mus'ab's students encountered the Prophet at the second 'Aqabah meeting, with Al-'Abbas making the introductions, they were ready to pledge their allegiance to a man they did not know well-as a person. However, they did know and love the ideas Muhammad had brought; and they were ready to live, and die, for them and their Messenger. With the giving of their bay'ah, "a switch was closed," and the nucleus of the Islamic State was ready to go in a place that henceforth was Madinah-not Yathrib any more. All that was needed was the appearance of Muhammad (SAAW) at the controls.

For Mus'ab (RAAH) succeeded at his mission to establish an Islamic State. Perhaps he was not the best qualified, or the most knowledgeable to go, but he was certainly good enough. He may not have won over a majority of people in Yathrib to Islam: the 75 or so who showed up at the second 'Aqabah meeting were part of a party six times as large; the rest probably were not Muslim. Nevertheless, it is said that every home among the Ansar, except for a few holdouts, had a man or a woman committed to Islam. Muhammad's message had become a household word, and even the non-Muslims were ready to accept the Prophet's rule, or at least not resist it.

As for Muslims living in this age, we must stop thinking of reestablishing the Islamic State in terms of finding one perfect leader, a "Muslim Mao" who then presents us with a utopian Islamic State. No such pure people exist; and perhaps that is just as well. The Khilafah needs to be understood as the natural consequence of a society's saturation with the good ideas of Islam, followed by the emergence within that society of a group of people dedicated to the implementation of those ideas on all levels. It is a mercy from Allah that ordinary folk like you, me, and Mus'ab bin Umayr can bring this about even when the Last Prophet is not on the scene. Why? Because Muhammad's message survives to this day; and texts from both the Qur'an and Sunnah describe Khilafah in detail. It is our task to relearn the ideas of Islamic government, teach them to people who forgot, and introduce them to our society.

Of course, there will always be people who are "purer" in their Iman, or who know more; but with perseverance, we will find that we are good enough to make the "Kh-word" (Khilafah, of course) the table-talk of every house and shack on this planet. And once enough Muslims in a single place realize that the Islamic Superstate, as Prophet Muhammad described it, is thinkable and do-able, then they will select from among themselves a Khalifah-and keep him straight. That man may not be "perfect," but he will be good enough to rule Muslims and non-Muslims according to Islam, and defend them against the insanity and oppression of those who mastermind the present-day kafir world dis-order.