Lessons from the Arab Spring
By: Bilal Muhajir – Pakistan

The Arab Spring came as a surprise for many following the Middle East. One did not expect that a people that had lived under oppression and tyranny for decades, would awaken and rise from the ashes of oppression and suppression. Moreover, the people would stand defiantly in the face of the tyrants that had punished them with the worst of the punishments. The tyrannical rulers of the Arabs and the colonialist disbelievers had assumed that this Ummah would never arise, especially after having destroyed its Khilafah that had unified it, thus splitting it into tiny pieces and appointing butchers over it who stopped her from learning Islam and implementing Islam as a political authority.

It is true that one was surprised by these revolutions, but they confirmed the truth of the hadith of RasulAllah (saaw) when he said,

«لاَ تَزَالُ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْ أُمَّتِي ظَاهِرِينَ عَلَى الْحَقِّ لاَ يَضُرُّهُمْ مَنْ خَذَلَهُمْ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ وَهُمْ كَذَلِكَ»

“A group of people from my Ummah will always remain triumphant on the right path and continue to be triumphant (against their opponents). He who deserts them shall not be able to do them any harm. They will remain in this position until Allah's Command is executed (i.e. Qiyamah is established). They will remain in this position.” [Bukhari, Muslim]. Even if the Ummah has had a setback, failing in its stance as an independent and leading nation in the world, it takes little time to wake up and revive itself again. Many historical precedents have established this. When Muslim Lands were occupied, as was the case of the Blessed Lands of Palestine, which were occupied by the Crusaders for almost a hundred years, which was longer than the occupation by the Jews today. This example established that even in that situation, the Ummah revived itself and revolted against the crusaders, freeing herself and her lands from their filth.

Islam and the Islamic Aqeedah in the Ummah is what prevents her from dying, being destroyed or being assimilated within other civilizations. The Islamic ideology and its nature is superior to the man-made ideologies and so does not assimilate with other civilizations, which are inferior to it it. Thus, the Ummah has not left its Deen despite the disbelieving colonialists’ promotion of their western civilization, which is built on premise of freedoms and intellectual aberrations, and its forceful implementation over the Ummah through their agent rulers, as well as through education, media and cultural platforms. Instead, the driving force for the Islamic Ummah has been its Deen, inciting the Arabs to revolt against the secular regimes that contradict its Islamic Aqeedah. This is why Islam has been the special ingredient in these revolutions, rather than nationalism, patriotism or other impulsive causes. This was evident in the Syrian Revolution, where the slogan of the revolution was “It is for Allah, It is for Allah”.

Even when some of the sold out groups attempted to hijack the revolutions in Yemen, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, the Ummah freed itself from these two-faced dubious people, who attempted to show themselves as leaders of these revolutions. Instead, the Ummah renewed its revolution against those who were attempting to hijack the revolution. The Ummah did not want those new agent rulers in their lands and the reason was that these rulers did not implement Islam. Islam alone would bring justice to the people, after the oppression from the previous agent rulers. The Ummah rejected them despite their raising slogans of democracy and opening the doors to "freedoms" as they claimed, to the extent of granting licenses to parties that are working to uproot these regimes and establish the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood on their ruins, when previously they had not granted licenses. Thus, they granted Hizb ut Tahrir a license in Tunisia, gave permission to it to open an office in Egypt and turned their gaze away from it in Yemen.

Yes, Islam was the motivation behind these revolutions. Therefore, martyrdom for the sake of revival was the theme of the struggle that was carried out by the Arab Muslims. Unless Islam comes to power, these people will not calm down and settle. Islam is the only just system and if the people are not ruled by all that pleases Allah (swt), the people will neither be granted equality nor receive their rights, that have been denied them for decades. Therefore, whoever wants to lead this Ummah must be Islamic, pure and sincere. If he is not, he will not be able to lead, as a true leader. Moreover, if he merely claims his adoption to Islam, he will be exposed before the Ummah which will reject him.

One of the lessons that emerged clearly from the Arab Spring is that Islam resolved the issue of the clash of civilizations in the favor of Islam. The Islamic Aqeedah was the only ideology capable of defeating the communist dialectic theory. The communist bloc failed to spread its thought amongst the Ummah and so failed to make it dominant. Thus, the Aqeedah of Tawheed (توحيد Oneness) was the only Aqeedah which defeated the communist atheism. Islam alone defeated the communist through, whilst the West was confined to rallying military and economic alliances against the Soviet Union, due to its inability to confront its ideology. This was obvious through the emergence of Islam in the former Soviet Republics of Central Asian and the Fergana Valley. When the death of communism was announced, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there was a withdrawal of troops and an end to the strict, suppressive, communist legislative oppression of the people. However, when the rulers of these formerly communist republics were unable to confront the Islamic thought, with neither the communist thought nor the capitalist thought that they subsequently adopted, they returned to similar methods of suppression.

Secularism, including its democracy, dominated the world in the early 1990s. Yet, despite the un-challenged position of the Western world in the international scenario, it was not able to triumph over Islam and Muslims in terms of civilization. The demands of Arab revolutions included neither democracy nor freedoms nor free markets nor libertinism or any of the Western ideas that have long been promoted. Even those who call for democracy and freedoms do so either thinking that these ideas do not conflict with Islam or, often, thinking that they are from Islam. Therefore, the Arab Spring revolutions were an explicit declaration of rejection of the Western regimes and the secular regimes that ruled them. Western politicians and intellectuals have recognized this defeat, such as the author of “The Clash of Civilizations,” Samuel P. Huntington. In addition, the Western politicians, along with the rulers of Arabs and Muslims and the misguided people among the Ummah have returned to the policy of repression, killing, and abuse of this Ummah. Moreover, adopting the policy of misleading and lying, they have manufactured the new product of "terrorism" and labelled the Islamic Ummah with it. This is an explicit declaration of defeat in front of Islamic thought i.e, if they had a stronger thought they would have use it against Islam, which did not happen. Allah (swt) said,

{يُرِيدُونَ لِيُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ * هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ}

“They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it- It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion, although those who associate others with Allah dislike it.” [Surah as-Saf 61:8-9]

One of the lessons learned from the Arab Spring revolutions is that the Muslim people are tough and cannot be overwhelmed. Previously the rulers’ agents deliberated over power and decided the fate of their people, sometimes an English agent, sometimes American and sometimes French. However, the Arab Spring revolutions confirmed the presence of another player in the regional and local scenario, namely “the people.” And who are they?! They are the Muslims of the Ummah.

And this is after the West thought that it had done enough to mislead, westernize and make ignorant the Muslims, using the regimes that follow the West. However, the Ummah exploded in the West’s face confirming the failure of those desperate measures. Thus, the Ummah’s health was restored. The era that the West viewed itself as a visionary and genius has ended. It is now the time of the people of the Islamic Ummah, who are proud of their Deen and Aqeedah, sacrificing for their return to the shade of the guiding Khilafah of on the Method of the Prophethood. The issue of the liberation of the Ummah of the colonialism was only a matter of time and no more than that.

However, it is upon the Islamic Ummah, including the Arabs, to focus their march upon overthrowing these regimes. Pure Islam must be their demand and they must take the sincere amongst their sons as leaders. These are those whom they know well and about whom they know truthfulness and sincerity. These are those who have the qualities of the Muslim political leader, who believes in Islam and adopts the project of its complete implementation without compromise. With all due respect, these are those of Hizb ut Tahrir. Allah (swt) said,

{اتَّبِعُوا مَنْ لَا يَسْأَلُكُمْ أَجْرًا وَهُمْ مُهْتَدُونَ}

“Follow those who do not ask of you [any] payment, and they are [rightly] guided” [Surah Ya-Sin 36:21]

* Written for Ar-Rayah Newspaper – Issue 161