The Reality of Khilafah — Page 32
SIRRUL-KHILAFAH— 32 These are the glad tidings that our Lord has bestowed on the believers, and these are the signs that He has given us to recognise the Khulaf a’. Therefore, anyone who approaches Allah seeking His forgiveness, without adopting the ways of insolence or cov- ering the truth with deceit, must accept this evidence, abandon unreasonable excuses and hearsay, and adopt the paths of the righteous. The full breadth of its meaning will be made clear to you through convincing arguments. O people of understanding! Know that in these verses Allah has promised Muslim men and women that some of the believ- ers from among them will be made Khulaf a’ by His grace, and that He will remove the sense of fear in their hearts and replace it with security and peace. This promise was only perfectly ful- filled in the Khil a fah of a s - S idd i q. Every scholar knows that his time of Khil a fah was a time of fear and tribulation. Upon the demise of the Messenger of Allah, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, countless calamities befell Islam. Many hyp- ocrites turned apostate and grew in their hostility towards Islam. Some impostors claimed prophethood and many Bedouin joined them. Things came to such a pass that about one hundred thou- sand ignorant and wicked people started following Musailamah. Seditions and tribulations arose and the believers were severely shaken. Everyone was tested, and terrible situations emerged. The believers were distressed as if embers were burning their hearts or they were being cut to pieces with knives. At times, they shed tears over being parted from Khairul-Bariyyah [i. e. the Best of Creation—the Holy Prophet Muhammad s as ], and at times they wept for the mischief that had become an all-consuming fire. The absence of peace was conspicuous. The mischief-makers grew in