Journey of the Followers of Muhammad?
We may identify ourselves as Muslims, but are we really the aal-e-(followers of) Muhammad?? Only the true followers of the Messenger of Allah subhanahu wa'tala are the inheritors of the aal-e-Ibrahim aleh salaam.The true aal-e-Muhammad? are an antidote of oppression; not its agents and catalysts.
The first and the foremost aal (follower) of Muhammad? was Abu Bakr Siddique raziAllah ta'ala anhu. He followed the Messenger of Allah subhanahu wa'tala from the age of eight years and later after passing away of the Messenger succeeded him as his khalifa. In 580 CE, there was only one aal-e-Muhammad?, Abu Bakr Siddique raziAllah ta'ala anhu. By the time he became the Steward of the ummat in 632 CE, the number of aal-e-Muhammad? had exceeded one hundred thousand souls.
The journey of aal-e-Muhammad? from just one person to one hundred thousand people was not easy. The Quraish tribe forcefully expelled aal-e-Muhammad? out of Makkah after rejecting Allah's Message of peace (Islam) revealed to the Messenger in the form of al-Quran. The revelation directly addressed the false believes and attributes associated with the Creator.
The false belief system was supported and nourished by social inequities, economic disparities, political marginalization, and dynastic oppression. The paramountcy of Quraish tribe depended upon the perpetuation of the false belief system. Acceptance of the message of Islam (al-Quran) meant giving up of the entitlements and privileges enjoined with the paramount status and worse; the acceptance of other tribes and nations as equals.
For three years, Muhammad? and his followers propagated the message of peace to the caravans in the wilderness of the drought stricken Arabian desert outside of Makkah. Muhammad? and his followers survived the harsh conditions of the scorching desert by living on the charity for three years before migrating to Madinah. The trade caravans carried the message of Islam to far away lands. In 621 CE, the people of Madinah, after learning the truth about Muhammad? from the Jewish tribes invited him to their city. In return, Allah subhanahu wa'tala through Muhammad? offered all residents of Madinah a covenant (mesaq).
Every Messenger of Allah subhanahu wa'tala be it Ibrahim, Yaqub, Musa, Daud and Essa aleh salaams; all offered a covenant (mesaq) to their people. Mesaq is a framework of treaties that collectively governs the affairs of the signatories according to the mutually agreed upon universal principals. Different groups of the followers (aal) of a Messenger unite to form a Muslim society (millat) whereas different groups that have not yet accepted or rejected the message of Islam but follow or ally with the millat form a larger community (ummat) of that particular Messenger of Allah subhanahu wa'tala.
By 628 CE, the aal-e-Muhammad? (followers of the Messenger) had established themselves in Madinah after surviving Quraish's wars of aggression, treachery of the hypocrites, and betrayals of the Jews. By now, a parallel system of collective security, mutual governance, fair economics, and social equality had emerged in Madinah which offered a way of living better than the unjust lifestyle of the Quraish in Makkah and of their tribal allies.
The peaceful and tranquil life of Madinah clearly overshadowed the chaotic and oppressive life of Makkah under the Quraish. When a tribe allied with Quraish unlawfully killed the innocent members of a tribe that was a signatory of the mesaq-e-Madinah, Muhammad? demanded justice and upon refusal of Quraish, he mobilized all signatories of the mesaq for the liberation of Makkah from the dynastic oppression. Within ten years of being forcefully expelled from Makkah, the aal-e-Muhammad? returned to the holy city as the liberators of all Arab tribes from the oppressive paramountcy of the Quraish. Now, for the first time, all Arab tribes were equal before their Creator under the protection of the mesaq.
Soon the Christians of Najran and Sinai also signed the mesaq-e-Madinah to ally with the aal-e-Muhammad? against the wishes of the Roman and Nubian empires. However, the Jewish tribes of Madinah and Khaibar who had betrayed the Muslims earlier by encouraging the Quraish to attack Madinah, openly rebelled. Jewish tribes were always aided by the hypocrites of Madinah in their scheming against the covenant offered by Muhammad?. Therefore, Allah subhanahu wa'tala expelled the Jewish tribes from the covenant and banished them from Makkah and Madinah forever to maintain the holy sanctity of the masjid-ul-harraam and masjid-ul-nabawi.
Soon after the passing away of Muhammad?, the first crisis (fithna) surfaced and challenged the aal-e-Muhammad? in 632 CE. Millat under the dynamic stewardship of Abu Bakr Siddique raziAllah ta'ala successfully rallied Muslims against the tribes whose leaders had falsely declared prophethood (nabuwat) by proclaiming that arch angel Gabriel now brings revelations to them. The millat which had grown immensely by then effectively put an end to the crisis, whereas non-Muslim ummatis were not involved in the struggle as per the terms of the mesaq.
In the next twenty-four years, the millat continued to grow with an ever increasing number of ummatis now spreading from the Atlantic coast of North Africa to China and from the Caucasus to the Horn of Africa. By 656 CE, the Stewardship of the Righteous had become the most egalitarian and largest political entity in the world. Within 35 years, the aal-e-Muhammad? had grown from a marginalized expelled group into a multicultural dynamic egalitarian millat supported by a peacefully coexisting ummat mutually governing the matters of security, trade, commerce, and taxation.
Muhammad? had warned the stewards of the covenant from the treachery of Quraish tribesmen who had fought against Islam after the liberation of Makkah. The Quraish tribesmen who had not accepted Islam till the liberation of Makkah, abandoned the covenant to revive the pre-Islamic tribal order under their tutelage. Revival of the pre-Islamic order paved the way for the establishment of the first Arab imperial rule in 661 CE. Soon, the first Arab imperial rule under the Ummayyads challenged the egalitarian order implemented by Stewards of the covenant.
The Arab tribes of the Fertile Crescent that had always sided with the Romans or Persians during their conflict with the Muslims and were familiar to the imperial form of government supported the Ummayyads. Moreover, the aristocracy of Anatolia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, Syria, and Georgia welcomed the Ummayyad imperial rule to counter the freedoms and equal status provided to commoners in the covenant offered by Muhammad?. Nonetheless, the Arabs that had accepted the mesaq-e-Madinah before the liberation of Makkah remained loyal to the mesaq-e-Madinah under the stewardship of the sons of Ali KaramAllah Wajhu. The common folks throughout the Ummayyad empire in Africa, Europe, Persia, India and China supported the aal-e-Muhammad?.
Forty years after the migration of Muslims into Madinah, the aal-e-Muhammad? had become a political minority in an ever expanding empire of the Ummayyads. The aal-e-Muhammad, the custodians of the covenant, the torch bearers of the millat-e-Islamia, and the stewards of the ummat struggled for another twenty years for the supremacy of mesaq-e-Madinah. Their struggle became headless in 680 CE when the Ummayyad empire massacred the male members of the House of Muhammad? at Kerbala, leaving only one male survivor.
The aal-e-Muhammad? under various leaders, from 680 CE to date (2020 CE), has continued its struggle against the imperialism, nationalism, racism, and other forms of injustices enforced by various dynastic imperial regimes often in the guise of religion & peace for centuries to come. Today, the egalitarian stewardship of the righteous has survived in the writings, poetry and imagination of the followers of Muhammad?.