Why the Muslims lost the mandate to rule

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For a people whose very name means “those who submit”, the Muslims have gone through history doing anything but. We were the ruling class of the East and the West — as foretold by the Prophet ﷺ — and being Muslim used to be synonymous with dominance and superiority. [1]

“Islam is to dominate, and it is not to be dominated upon.” [2]

Inferiority complex of our former subjects

Indeed, the tables have turned and our reversal of fortune has been total; from Bosnia to Hyderabad, resentment and jealousy is against us as the former ruling class.

After all, the new rulers always make it a matter of priority to malign their predecessors, as a way of bolstering their own legitimacy.

And this has resulted in horrific violence at the hands of peoples suffering from a severe case of inferiority complex, as our former subjects. [4]

Why we lost power and prestige

All of this begs the question: why are we no longer the ruling class; why the reversal of fortune?

First of all, Allah Himself tells us that,

“If a wound should touch you — there has already touched the [opposing] people a wound similar to it.

“And these days [of varying conditions], We alternate among the people so that Allah may make evident those who believe and [may] take to Himself from among you martyrs — and Allah does not like the wrongdoers.” [5]

Secondly and quite simply, we became decadent.

We lost what the ancient Chinese called “the mandate of Heaven”, the right to rule.

In other words, we no longer deserved it. And in order to understand why, we first need to understand what made us deserving of it originally. [6]

We are actually natural leaders

As mentioned earlier, we Muslims do not submit… to other created beings. We submit only to God.

This is what makes us poor subordinates and natural rulers, because that very submission to God and God alone — apart from making us unwilling to bow down to other human beings — entails cultivating certain qualities that are indispensable to a ruling class.

You cannot control others unless you control yourself first, and this is what a Muslim is continually taught to do by way of the self-disciplining regime given to us by God through Islam.

Being Muslim means being self-disciplined to the point of being in full control over oneself.

Practising regulated abstention from all sorts of worldly pleasures, including, at times, food and water, combined with a martial spirit that is inherent to Islam is what turned us into an aristocratic people, fit to rule. [7] [8]

But we became slaves to this world

When we lost the abovementioned qualities, and got embroiled in the Dunya with all its pleasures, we forfeited our right to rule because we were no longer fit to do so.

For Muslims, being a ruling class does not (should not) entail wallowing in luxury and enjoying privileges. It is the exact opposite: it means sacrificing the enjoyment of this world in order to serve others. It means depriving oneself from the pleasures of this world and offering it to others.

Remember, non-Muslims in an Islamic state enjoy certain pleasures that we ourselves are forbidden from engaging in, such as the consumption of alcohol. It is a responsibility, a duty. The reward does not lie in the Dunya, but in Paradise.

So as soon as we seek the reward in the Dunya itself, we lose the right to rule. That is what happened.

Loss of our aristocratic nature was foretold

Just as with the initial case of the rise of Muslims as rulers of the world, our downfall and humiliation due to abandonment of our aristocratic qualities was foretold by the Prophet ﷺ as well. [9]

Thawbān reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

“Soon, the nations will be summoned to you just like one is invited to a feast.” [9]

It was asked,

“Will we be few in that day?” [9]

The Prophet ﷺ said,

“No, rather you will be many in that day, but you will be scum like such flowing down a torrent.

“Allah will remove your esteem from the chests of your enemies, and Allah will insert feebleness in your own hearts.” [9]

It was asked,

“O Messenger of Allah, what is this feebleness?” [9]

The Prophet ﷺ said,

“Love for the worldly life and hatred of death.” [9]

In another narration, the Messenger ﷺ said,

“When you deal in ‘inah [seemingly legal sales that actually involve interest] transactions, hold onto the tails of cows, are content with farming, and abandon jihād, Allah shall permit your humiliation and He will not lift it from you, until you return back to your religion.” [10]

Our decadence even extends to food

It is clear to all and sundry that we currently lack the qualities needed in a ruling class.

For example, just look at our relationship with food.

Whilst the Sunnah is clear with regard to self-control when it comes to eating, it is as if Muslims today want to compensate for their abstention of alcohol by the indulgence in daily feasts.

This is irresponsible in so many ways, not least due to the damage that it does to the planet. We should be providing leadership on this, but we are as indulgent as everyone else (if not more). And the truth is that our decadence has been evident for a long time.

Our car has kept moving with foot off the gas

We have been far away from the ideal with some exceptions (such as Umar ibn Abd al-Azīz and Aurangzeb).

In fact, I believe that one of the reasons why we managed to stay on top for as long as we did is due to the barakah of being part of the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ and through the after-effects of the work of the Sahaba (radiy Allāhu ‘anhum).

In other words: everything I have said about aristocratic virtues applies primarily to the Sahaba and it is our job to try and emulate what they did.

When we manage to do that, we deserve “the mandate of Heaven”, and if not, Allah might still allow leadership to remain with us for a while (as He did up until the Mughals and the Ottomans) in the way that a car keeps moving, even as the foot has been lifted from the pedal.

Role-playing as arrogant aristocrats

Becoming arrogant and complacent, seeing ourselves as a chosen people or a master race destined to rule (and promised Paradise) by default is precisely what we have been warned against by Allah, and such an attitude signals the beginning of our downfall. [11]

This is why I wish to take a look at such an ideology of “arrogant aristocrat-LARPing” that seems to have gained traction amongst some Muslims.

Let me preface the discussion by saying that given what I have written about Islamic virtues and the historical role played by Muslims as natural rulers, even with all of our flaws, it is understandable why Friedrich Nietzsche — the ultimate philosopher of aristocracy — was so smitten with us and our civilisation, particularly the one that flourished in Andalus. [12]

This, in turn, makes it understandable why arguably the most popular poet of the Ummah, Muhammad Iqbal, was so influenced by Nietzsche.

And it also explains why some Muslims have now taken an interest in the writings of an online populariser of Nietzsche’s thought: Costin Alamariu, better known by his Internet persona, Bronze Age Pervert.

Muslims attracted by neo-Nietzschean views

Alamariu outlines his neo-Nietzschean ideas in two self-published books and through his podcast. He is highly entertaining with a distinct and creative but also bizarre approach to the “self-deprecating Jew schtick”.

A Romanian-American Ashkenazi Jew with white supremacist ideas that overlap with Nazi ideology, his surrealist ironic way of delivering his message means that you cannot take him literally, and recent events in Palestine have made it clear that he does have a soft spot for Zionism.

And this should surprise no-one, given the racist and fascist aspects of that ideology — the idea of a chosen people, a master race to which Arabs are to submit is common to both fascism and Zionism, and there are actual historical ties between them. [13]

Interestingly, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu himself openly espouses ideas that mirror Alamariu’s. [14]

But the man, as I said, is highly entertaining and being a Nietzschean, he will naturally promote ideas that, in their capacity as pro-aristocratic, pro-self-discipline and pro-excellence, and against self-abasement, pleasure-seeking and vulgarity, will overlap with Islam as well.

I will skip giving an overview of these, there are plenty of new articles that summarise them. But just to give one benign example, his ideas about one’s relationship to food are quite close to the Sunnah. [15]

A sort of pagan will to power

For everything that we have in common with Alamariu in terms of values and outlook on life — and with Nietzsche himself, or with others like the proponents of “tradition” such as Julius Evola — there is one crucial difference, one difference that really makes all of the difference in the world.

They live under the illusion that apotheosis is possible, that reaching nobility and virtue is possible through a sort of pagan will to power… Alamariu loves to tweet images of well-sculpted male bodies.

The reality is that the only way to reach nobility and virtue is through God. We are feeble creatures. One day I am super disciplined with an iron will, and the very next day I succumb to the most childish of my desires.

What is more: nobility and virtue is not only something that you seek to reach with the help of God, these two things are in fact proximity to God Himself.

Being noble means being near to God. We should not seek to be gods!

Nietzsche turned mad, Evola was wheelchair-bound — these were no god-men. Worship of God is a privilege, because it means that we get some nobility and virtue by proxy, by being allowed to approach the Divine. There is no apotheosis, that is absurd, but there is the blessing of being able to communicate with God and seeing Him in Paradise.

At the end of the day, people on the alt-right get so many things — pardon the pun — right, but they still live under a great jāhili illusion about the relationship between man and God.

Allure of alt-right among Muslims

For the reasons discussed just now, I have been somewhat annoyed (but also amused) by the enthusiasm that the works of alt-right thinkers such as Alamariu have garnered amongst some Muslims on X, with soft appropriation of some of his ideas.

We do not need an Islamic version of Bronze Age Mindset (his book); in fact, we already have a pseudo-Islamic version of his ideology that existed before he was even born, complete with ideas of racial superiority and god-men: the Nation of Islam.

Now, as I was reading Alamariu’s second book and thinking about writing this article, he re-posted a bitter, Middle-Eastern Christian’s claim that Islam is dysgenic and that Muslims are biologically inferior.

By endorsing such a view, Alamariu clearly parts ways with Nietzsche when it comes to Islam. The Assyrian Twitter user goes on to say that it is his people who are biologically superior and the natural rulers of the region, as opposed to the dysgenic Muslims.

This flies in the face of history, given that they were ruled over by Muslims, but his reply to this provides us with a beautiful example of what the kids today call “cope”, by saying that they were too noble to resist Muslim rule.

Alamariu’s approval of this tweet has alienated some of his Muslim fans.

Even so — or perhaps because of this claim about Muslim biological inferiority — there was one recent tweet from a Muslim about “Islamic eugenics” as a measure to reverse the trend of biological deterioration, which tells us that these Nietzschean ideas might be here to stay for a while longer. [16]

I am going to partially quote the person tweeting about Islamic eugenics because — excepting the nods to racist European ideas of physical superiority — I do like some of the proposals, and I cast no aspersions on him. His tweet is merely a good illustration of how Muslims seek inspiration from the alt-right.

“All reform begins with the youth of a society.

“Countrywide establishment of classical gymnasiums; boarding academies that educate youths in the physical and martial arts, chivalric conduct, the profane sciences, and the religious sciences amongst other things.

“For the rest of society, a carrot and stick approach: introduce prohibitory laws banning people above a certain BMI threshold from holding most offices, issue deadlines for a staggered movement toward the total eradication of obesity. Subsidise training programs for the poor. Reward those who drop below the BMI threshold and for each year they stay below it for 3 years, by which point they will likely have fully adapted to their new lifestyle.

“As a result of them reducing the strain on the healthcare system through their own efforts, they will be entitled to numerous healthcare benefits which can be fleshed out later. The actual Islamification of society must occur at every level, and that includes urban planning.

“Cities must be reoriented so that Islam and the mosque, and not secular structures, are the nexus of everything. To actually facilitate the movement toward a healthier society, the requisite infrastructure must be put in place. This will involve subsidising the construction of gyms, safe walking trails, pools, etc.” [16]

This is one way of trying to recapture the aristocratic virtues of the Sahaba.

I shall be delving deeper into this in the second part of this series, with a suggestion of my own, one that each and every one of us can implement in our own lives.

Action points

• Cultivate self-discipline and aristocratic virtues by applying Islamic self-control and martial spirit.
• Reject alt-right ideologies and their interpretations of Nietzschean ideas that don't align with Islam.
• Avoid indulgence and decadence in daily life; and keep an eye out for the second part to this series!

Also read

• The truth about Sultan Aurangzeb
• When the Muslims of Burma were free
• Unmasking Western Modernity: Farangism Studies

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Source: Islam21c

Notes

[1] Thawbān (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

“Allah brought the corners of the Earth together for me, so I saw its Eastern and Western parts. The dominion of my Ummah will definitely reach as far as what was brought together for me (all parts of the world).”

https://hadeethenc.com/en/browse/hadith/3337

[2] https://hadeethenc.com/en/browse/hadith/64633

[3] Cf. https://www.islam21c.com/islamic-thought/unmasking-western-modernity-farangism-studies/

[4] A prime example of that inferiority complex is noted later in this piece.

[5] al-Qur’ān, 3:140

[6] Shakib Arslan wrote a classical treatise on this topic: https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/shakib-arslan-why-muslims-lagged-behind-and-others-progressed-excerpts

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggM8J19EAlg

[8] In the linguistic sense of the word, meaning those with the best qualities (with regard to matters of state and military).

[9] https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2021/05/25/nations-weak-ummah/

[10] https://thehumblei.com/tag/explaining-the-hadith-of-inah/

[11] https://www.islam21c.com/seasonal-reminders/dhul-hijjah/lessons-for-ummah-farewell-dhul-hijjah/

[12] https://twitter.com/BheriaMS/status/1711052515330986438

[13] https://theamericansun.com/2019/08/01/bap-on-israels-problem/

[14] https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1034849460344573952

[15] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/bronze-age-pervert-costin-alamariu/674762/

[16] https://twitter.com/hydaspian/status/1713701555721920725