KHILAFAH – RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS ON EARTH

 

DAY 2

KHILAFAH – RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS ON EARTH

What is the meaning of the word ‘khilafah’?

There are 3 meanings of the word istikhlaf:

Khalifah / Calipha / Successor 

Khalaif / tribes / peoples / generations 

It means someone who takes responsibility of its people. 

Please give Quranic references

Verse 2:230 says, I will create a vicegerent on earth. Most scholars understand ‘vicegerent’ as human beings. So Allah created human beings so that they can take responsibility of the earth. So human beings were given this responsibility and not any other creature. 

So what went wrong?

The meaning of the term Khilafah underwent change with time. It moved from having spiritual significance to political. So earlier it meant that all human beings were agents of Allah and thus take care of the earth. Later it meant that only political leaders can be khalifa and they were the representatives of Allah on earth. So earlier khalifas assumed political significance. They were believed to have divine powers. Anyone disobeying them are then actually disobeying Allah. 

Is the term khalifah gender neutral?

Actually with time, due to patriarchy, it came to be assumed that only men can be khalifas. So what started as ‘all human beings’, got diluted to ‘political leaders’ and got further diluted to ‘male political leaders’. 

With patriarchy – it was then assumed that only men can be caliphs. As human beings both women and men have been assigned the responsibility of the earth. Both are responsible for managing the affairs of the earth. And they are accountable to the Allah. So istikhlaf means equality in building human civilization. It is a relationship between human beings, both women and men, with the creator.

So what is the responsibility that women and men have to fulfil on earth? 

The responsibility is to achieve Tawheed. Tawheed means monotheism or unicity of Allah. Allah is One, kul huwa allah ahad. It is the fundamental principle of Islam. 

Tawheed also means that this One harmonizes all the contradictory principles. Allah gives life and death, Allah is angry as well as merciful, it gives night and day. It has the capacity to dissolve all differences. 

Allah is also unique, laysa ka mithlihi shayun [there is no thing like him [42:11]

Wa lam yakun lahu kufuwan ahad [there is not one thing like him [112:4]. 

Tawheed also means Allah Unites. It causes atomic, subatomic cellular and stellar reality to come together over seemingly irreconcilable differences. Its serves as a principle of unity and not dominance and control. It harmonizes, makes all in a complete whole, supporting each other, balancing each other.

How can human beings, both women and men achieve Tawheed? 

If the meaning of tawheed is to harmonize, to bring in oneness, to bring in unity, should harmony, unity not be an important human trait? If Allah harmonizes, should humans do the opposite? If Allah unites, should humans disintegrate? Clearly not. Humans have to do what Allah does for humans, bring in harmony and unity and oneness amongst not just humans but amongst all its creation. So to begin, we must treat all human and non-human creations as divine, as manifestation of the divine. Our task is to bring in harmony and unity where ever we are, in which ever situation. If one believes in tawheed, then equality is essential. I cannot treat anyone as my subpar if I believe in the principle of tawheed. And that without doubt includes gender relationship. In our own heads, it is important to believe in gender equality as a given in a world today where women’s consciousness has risen exponentially. So the first job is to put women and men on a common and equal pedestal. There cannot be a hierarchical relationship between the sexes vis-à-vis the Creator. 

What is required by women and men to be a khalifa on earth?

In order to be a khalifa, there are 7 requirements:

• Knowledge/ilm [39:9, 16:43, 96:1]

• Justice/Adl [40:17, 42:15 and 16:90], 

• Wisdom/aql [2:242, 12:2, 29:43, 22:46]

• Freedom of Belief/Hurriyat al-mutaqad [6:135, 10:99, 18:29]

• Diversity/Ikhtilaf [11:118, 5:48] and 

• Love/mahbah [ 2:165, 5:54]

Reference:

An Egalitarian Reading of the Concepts of Khilafah, Wilayah and Qiwamah

Asma Lambrabet