Truth Prevails — Page 138
( 138 ) So we find that the question of deposing any of the Khulafa-i-Rashidin does not arise here in any way, the point being entirely irrelevant to the angle of this study. Meaning of the first Khutba of Hazrat Abu Bakr To prove that his views on the deposition of a Khalifa are well-based and correct, Mr. Faruqi has sought support from certain words and expressions in the first address Hazrat Abu Bakr gave after his election: “O Muslims, I am only another member of the same community as you are. I will follow the spiritual laws as laid down; and I can’t introduce anything new into it. If I follow correctly the spiritual laws then you must obey me; but if I go astray from that path, then you must put me right. ” (Truth Triumphs, page 34, 44) It is only too evident here, that the first part is a bare expression of an utter sense of humbleness characteristic of Hazrat Abu Bakr. The rest embodies a solid and permanent fact namely, that a Khalifa has no authority, whatsoever the circumstances, of making any alteration in the body of the Sharia. The sentence “As long as I remain obedient to Allah and His Apostle, remain ye obedient to me; but if I go astray, in the very least, correct me”, is Abu Bakr’s characteristic manner and style of saying that he too was subject to the same laws as were the rest of the Muslims; that he had not come to look upon himself that, in any way, he had not now been placed in a different position, than the rest of the Muslims. Mr. Faruqi holds that the Promised Messiah was an ordained and appointed Khalifa. It is not to be imagined that he would want to deny this. We beg him to have a look at the conditions of bai’at ; if he is prepared to indulge us to that extent, he would find that these hardly seem to go beyond binding the devotee to obedience in things involved, better let us say, embraced in ‘obedience in things which can generally be classified as “ma’ruf ”. In fact it is stated in the Holy Quran itself that in the terms of bai’at for women the expression used is “we shall not disobey your teaching on points taken to be included in ma’ruf ”. Do we here take the expressions to imply the possibility that the Holy Prophet Mohammad or the Promised Messiah was not beyond the possibility of asking the disciples to engage themselves in pursuits held to be disreputable and sinful, in view of which danger, this condition had to be imposed by the devotee that he should not be taken to be prepared to render obedience, even if asked to do something which society did not look upon as lawful, or respectable. So you see, the presence of expressions of this kind, in pledges given by devotees, or terms fixed by reformers or religious mentors for initiation, do not yield valid ground for inferring legality of action taken to depose a Khalifa, on the basis that certain expressions used by Hazrat Abu Bakr furnish, to the disciples, the power to topple the Khalifa on a pretext that he had gone wrong on a certain point of teaching, or conduct, or in his conception of the duty he owes to the public. In