A Caliphate Congress in Cairo
On This Day - On 13-May-1926, a #Caliphate congress was convened at Al Azhar in Cairo.
On This Day - On 13-May-1926, a #Caliphate congress was convened at Al Azhar in Cairo.
It was two years and 2 months after the formal abolition of the #Khilāfah in Istanbul - and it was convened to try to decide if a new Khalīfah could be appointed for the Muslims. However, it became clear at that stage that national divisions and colonial influence would prove obstacles.
The last Ottoman Caliph, Abdulmecid II, lived in exile in France at that time. He had no actual sultaniyya (power), so the Congress recognised that a baya to him carried no real meaning. He had be relegated to the status of ‘spiritual caliph’ in 1923, even before being banished and the office abolished.
The congress called on the world’s Muslims “to work together for the establishment of the Caliphate”.
Until the time of this congress, Muslims in India had formed a Khilafat Committee, and Muslims in Russia under the Russian Muslim Mufti Rızaeddin bin Fahreddin had voiced their concerns about the absence of this Islamic obligation.
Yet both these two groupings - and the Indonesian delegation were sceptical about a Caliphate conference being held in Egypt which was directly under British colonial rule. It was feared that this conference was simply to rubber stamp ‘King’ Fuad of Egypt as the Caliph.
There had been an argument to locate such a conference to Makkah, under the false illusion that this was free from British influence - they could not see that the absence of a British governor did not mean that it was free from British influence.
A previous attempt of Sharif Hussain to claim the title had failed as he had no credibility left within the Arab people, nor with his British sponsors, who had back his rival, Ibn Saud.
When the conference did eventually convene, it was widely regarded as having failed in its function.
It was recognised that even by this stage, the Muslims were "now divided between different governments, administrations, political interests, and even nationalist sentiments”.
According to Mona Hasan,
“At the climax of this conflict, the second committee formed by the conference body on Sunday, May 15, 1926, to investigate if it was possible to realize a caliphate at present, according to the specifications identified by the conference’s first committee, presented its findings. In short, they felt it was impossible. As they reported back to the full body of the conference, the caliphate had been a source of awesome greatness and glory while the Muslims were a united people, but they were now divided between different governments, administrations, political interests, and even nationalist sentiments—a dismal scenario even before considering their overwhelming lack of independence and their subordination to foreign rule. How then could a true caliphate be erected under these conditions, they asked. Not wanting to leave Muslims without a leader to manage their affairs, the only solution the committee could grasp was to call for consecutive conferences that would bring Muslim peoples closer to one another until they were fully able to establish a caliphate. Were this to prove unfeasible, they suggested that a council of Muslim leaders be formed and meet annually to discuss the affairs of the Muslims worldwide and thereby avert leaving the community bereft of a center. The question of what the current conference should do to elect a caliph, however, was moot.” (Longing for the Lost Caliphate by Mona Hasan).
So, it was recognised back then that national divisions were an obstacle to Muslim unity.
Yet for more than nine decades, the myth that Muslims can convergence through their different nation states - particularly as formalised in the useless OIC - persists. Moreover, there is often a lack of recognition of the maintained colonial influence in Muslim countries today, just as some delegates thought that Ibn Saud was somehow independent.
Today, this lack of fulfilment of this formal Islamic obligation is directly linked to the slaughter and devastation in #Gaza. For the Khalīfah is a shield for Muslims. There will never be real protection without the establishment of the system
Abu Huraira reported that the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said:
إِنَّمَا الْإِمَامُ جُنَّةٌ يُقَاتَلُ مِنْ وَرَائِهِ وَيُتَّقَى بِهِ فَإِنْ أَمَرَ بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَعَدَلَ كَانَ لَهُ بِذَلِكَ أَجْرٌ وَإِنْ يَأْمُرْ بِغَيْرِهِ كَانَ عَلَيْهِ مِنْهُ
“Verily only, the Imam is a shield behind whom they fight, and he protects them. If he commands the fear of Allah Almighty and justice, he will have a reward. If he commands something else, it will be held against him.” Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim