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The Vicegerency of Man
by Dr. Mohammad Ammara
The word istikhlaf (vicegerency) is derived from
the root istakhlafa yastakhlif istikhlafan. It is a verbal noun and means to
take on the vicegerency, to represent or deputize in the realm where one has
been appointed as vicegerent.
When God wanted to create Adam, he informed his
angels that he would appoint him as vicegerent on the earth, to assume
responsibility of knowledge, option and commandment, and carry out his mission
of populating and civilizing the earth. As the Holy Quran says :
Behold, thy Lord said to the angels : "I will
create A vicegerent on earth." They said :
"Wilt Thou place therein one who will make
Mischief therein and shed blood ? - Whilst we do celebrate Thy praises And
glorify Thy holy (name)?"
He said : "I know what ye know not." (Heifer 301)
This vicegerency over the earth, which God (To
Whom be ascribed all Perfection and Majesty) has intended for man, is the most
precise and most accurate expression of man's position in the universe and about
man's mission in this life, and about the divine framework which governs man's
conduct throughout his life in this world.
Whoever entrusts a man with some task, must
inevitably define this task, and the sphere of his vicegerency, and the basic
principles which he requires man to observe as a framework for his freedom as he
rises up to assume this vicegerency. As vicegerent, then, man holds an
intermediate position, not attaining to the heights of the person who entrusted
him with this vicegerency, nor as low as someone who enjoys no rights as agent,
deputy or vicegerent.
In this meaning of vicegerency is defined the
position of man - from the Islamic perspective - in this universe, the position
of vicegerent who is delegated to populate and civilize the earth, free, chosen,
commissioned and responsible. Having these privileges was a necessary condition
for him to be able to undertake the mission of populating and civilizing the
earth. On the other hand, his freedom was governed by the terms of the contract
and covenant of vicegerency, i.e. Divine Law.
This meaning of istikhlaf and this status of the
vicegerent, man, constitute the philosophy of the Islamic concept concerning
man's status in this universe - the status of vicegerent for the creator of this
universe and the creator of this man. The materialist philosophies of and
civilizations strayed from this understanding when they deified man and made
their heroes gods, or made God a man, claiming that he had come down and been
incarnated in a man. The first trend is exemplified by the Greeks, who, in the
ancient Greek civilization, made their heroes, who were men, gods. The second
trend is exemplified in the Romans, who, when they became Christians, put this
pagan content in the place of Christianity's original oneness and exaltation of
the creator, deifying the Christ, Issa bin Miriam (peace be upon him), claiming
that the divinity had entered into his humanity! Both processes, the deification
of man and the incarnation of God, stray from the philosophy of vicegerency and
make man lord of the universe, rather than the vicegerent for the Lord of the
universe!
Straying from the philosophy of vicegerency is
what has made man in this materialist civilization, either in its pagan Greek
guise or in its western secular guise, give free rein to his freedom, without
any restraints or limits or horizons deriving from the heavenly law. If the idea
of vicegerency is denied, the restraints, limits and landmarks of the contract
of vicegerency are also denied. This is what has created a sort of freedom, in
the west, and hence a western democracy which does not respect the religious
limits of what is forbidden (haram) and what is allowed (halal) in regulating
the freedom of man!
Contrary to this erroneous materialist theory
regarding the status of man in this universe, some philosophies connected with
the religions invented by man, like the Hindu philosophy of Nirvana and some
schools of esoteric and philosophical Sufism, came and denied man any freedom or
innate capabilities. They regarded him as despicable and ephemeral, unable to
achieve salvation, progress or exaltation except through fatalism and absorption
into the absolute or into the being of God/Truth! Through shackling and
marginalizing man so excessively, and by denying his freedom, they have strayed
from the mediating Islamic conception, which regards man as the vicegerent of
God on this earth, commissioned to populate and civilize it. He has been given
the qualities necessary to be free and capable. These do not, of course, remove
him from the created order and the position of deputy and agent, for he is not
the lord of the universe. At the same time, however, they make man more than an
object of scorn who will be absorbed into the other, who has no freedom, ability
or right of choice.
Between these two visions - the materialist and
the esoteric - stands the Islamic philosophy of vicegerency. It makes man, in
this universe, the pinnacle of God's creation, and a slave of God, his
vicegerent, whose freedoms and capabilities are governed by the terms of the
contract and covenant of vicegerency, God's Sharia. In the words of Sheikh
Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905), when defining istikhlaf and the status of man as
God's vicegerent in this universe ; " Man is a slave of God alone and the lord
of everything else."
This is the meaning of istikhlaf as it relates to
the status of man in this universe.
From this comprehensive meaning of istikhlaf,
comes the distinctiveness of the Islamic view of the extent of man's freedom, of
his vicegerency over its riches. Over them too he is the vicegerent, his freedom
of behaviour governed by the terms of the contract and covenant of vicegerency.
The true, absolute owner of the world's riches is
their creator and their bestower, God (To Whom be ascribed all Perfection and
Majesty). He it is who has submitted them, like the other forces and treasures
of nature to the use of man, to use as creatures made by God like himself,
rather than as expendable slaves to be heartlessly exploited, in order to fulfil
his commission of vicegerency, populating, civilizing and beautifying this earth.
Man has the virtual, usufruct right to possess
this wealth for the benefit of society, which bestows on him the freedom to
specialize, to invest, develop and profit from it, within the terms of the
contract and covenant of vicegerency on behalf of the real owner (To Whom be
ascribed all Perfection and Majesty).
This meaning of vicegerency over the riches of the
world, as is characteristic of Islam's mediating position, does not strip man of
the right of ownership of them, nor does it lift off him the restraints on his
freedom of ownership and disposal. This freedom stops at the same bounds as
those of the vicegerent, governed by the will, the orders, and the prohibitions
of the true owner of these riches.
This meaning of vicegerency is expressed in the
term haqq referring to the right of others to one's wealth, as in the following
verses from the Holy Quran :
"And those in whose wealth Is a recognized right
For the (needy) who asks And him who is prevented (For some reason from
asking)." (Ways of Ascent 24-25)
In addition, it was recognized that man was the
vicegerent of these riches, as in the following verses, where the word heirs
(Arabic mustakhlifina) should be read as vicegerents :
"Believe in God And His Apostle, And spend (in
charity) Out of the (substance) Whereof He has made you Heirs. For, those of you
Who believe and spend (In charity), - for them Is a great Reward." (Iron 7)
The word mal (wealth) is used in 47 verses in the
Holy Quran in conjunction with the plural pronoun, thus indicating that men in
the plural are the vicegerent, and only in seven verses with the singular
pronoun, so that he might not take exclusive possession of it, going off alone
and doing without others, and also so that he might not be deprived of the right
of jurisdiction, tenancy, and ownership, governed by the philosophy and the
restraints of vicegerency!
Man possesses wealth, but at the same time it is
the wealth of the state (Arabicumma. here and throughout this paragraph) As
Sheikh Muhammad Abduh said : "Solidarity of the Ummah means that your wealth is
the wealth of the Ummah you belong to."
As Zamakhshari (1075-1144 A.D.) said in his
Kashshaf in his commentary on the verse :
"And spend (in charity) Out of the (substance)
Whereof He has made you Heirs." (Iron 7)
"What God meant by this verse was that he [the
Prophet] was to tell people : the wealth you possessed belonged to God because
he had created it and made it grow. However, he had bestowed it upon you and
vested in you the enjoyment of it and made you his vicegerents in disposing of
it. So it is not really your wealth, but rather you are trustees and
representatives." This is the meaning of vicegerency as applied to the world's
riches and wealth.
From this meaning, and from this philosophy, the
materialist civilizations have departed, making man the lord of the universe,
with absolute freedom, and allowing him to give free expression to his freedom
of ownership of the world's riches, as individuals in the liberal capitalist
world, and as the proletariat class or party in the totalitarian communist
world, which forces man to turn his back on the prospect of benefiting
personally from the world's riches and wealth.
Between these two false teachings stands the
mediating philosophy of Islam, as represented in the theory of vicegerency.
There is another sphere where the distinctiveness
of the Islamic philosophy of vicegerency stands out from other philosophies :
the relationship between religion and the state (Arabic dawla here and
throughout most of the rest of the text).
Because man is the vicegerent of God, and is free
within the limits stipulated in the contract and covenant of vicegerency, the
state (which is a human invention) and civil institutions are governed (from the
Islamic point of view) by the divine standard, the Sharia, which is of divine
invention. Human consultation sets up the state governed by the religious Sharia,
thus the authority of the state and the sovereignty of Divine Rule meet in
association and conformity. Under this sovereignty, jurists devise the
conventions of social conduct, where their judgements in are governed by the
fixed points of usul and the divine laws. Thus, the model of the Islamic state -
the caliphate - was distinguished from the theocratic state which was sanctified
by the sanctity of religion and established on the firm basis of divine
invention. The Islamic model of the state is also distinguished from the secular
model of the state, which is the opposite of the theocratic state, in that it
separates state and religion and cuts the legislative links in all matters to do
with populating and civilizing the earth.
In the light of the fact that the Islamic state
was based on the foundations of the philosophy of vicegerency, it was called the
caliphate. Its head, the Caliph, was not, unlike the Pope, a representative of
God, because the vicegerency belongs to the state, to man, and the head of the
Islamic state is the caliph, the regent of God. For this reason, it is the state
that chooses its caliph, pledges him allegiance, empowers him, supervises him,
and calls him to account. By contrast, in the theocratic state, the leader is
infallible as the representative of heaven.
Because of this sense of vicegerency in the
philosophy of government in the Islamic state, the following tradition of the
prophet was given, teaching us how distinct was the philosophy of the caliphate
from the philosophies of the states which preceded it in the laws and
civilizations which they produced. In the hadith related by Abu Hurayra, the
Prophet (Peace and Blessings be upon him) said, "The children of Israel were
governed by the prophets. Whenever a prophet perished, he was succeeded by
another prophet, but there will be no prophet after me. but rather there will be
caliphs." (This is related by Al-Bukhari, Ibn Maja and Imam Ahmad). The Islamic
philosophy of the caliphate is the philosophy of vicegerency.
If materialist philosophies and civilizations,
including western civilization, have restricted the paths of knowledge to two -
reason, and experiments which can by grasped by man's senses -, it is because of
the absence of the philosophy of vicegerency from these civilizations. They do
not grant man any means of knowledge outside himself and the world of the
senses, the world of experiment, because it sees him as the lord of his
existence, not as the vicegerent of a God who is separate from this world, free
of involvement, incarnation, or unity with this world.
By contrast, the Islamic attitude towards the
paths of human knowledge, based as it is on the philosophy of vicegerency, does
not belittle the power and status of reason and the senses, but rather adds to
them and controls them. It adds to them the guidance of divine revelation, which
is displayed in the proclamation of the Quran and the prophetic commentary on
this proclamation, the Sunna of the Prophet, considering this revelation a
divine guidance for man from the omniscient Lord (To Whom be ascribed all
Perfection and Majesty), bearing to man news of the unseen world, and of decrees
which human reason cannot grasp unaided and which do not come within the scope
of human senses or experimentation. This is because human reason and human
senses are contingent in their abilities and comprehension, in line with the
contingency of all man's capabilities.
In addition, it also adds to the paths of human
knowledge, the path of spiritual perception, the illumination of the heart, that
knowledge which does not come as a fruit of reason or the senses, but rather
consists of divine insinuations and celestial lights which shine into the heart.
Thus, upon the philosophy of vicegerency is based
a distinctive theory of epistemology, seeing man as the vicegerent of God (To
Whom be ascribed all Perfection and Majesty), and therefore seeing his knowledge
as standing not just at the level of what he can comprehend for himself, and
what he can experience of the world as perceived by his senses, but rather
seeing him as having other paths of knowledge bestowed on him by his Creator
(who has no equal), who made him his vicegerent to populate and civilize the
world he lives in.
Thus, in the realm of the state, as in the realm
of the world's riches and wealth, and in the paths and sources of human
knowledge, and in fact in all spheres, the Islamic philosophy of vicegerency
stands out, beginning as it does with its distinctive view of the status of man
in the universe and his position in the created order.
In conclusion, man is the vicegerent, the
possessor of the qualifications for vicegerency, but his liberties, abilities
and right of ownership are at the same time governed by the terms of the
contract and covenant by which God appointed him as vicegerent, the divine
Sharia. This concept of vicegerency is what distinguishes Islam from other
systems of thought in all spheres of life. It also distinguishes Islamic
civilization, modelled on Islam, from the materialist civilizations which have
deviated from the divine model and from the natural disposition which God has
endowed them with.
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