Dominion of Allah

The dominion of Allah as a concept was coined out by Khawarij, a group of people who rebelled against the rule of the fourth Caliph, Ali; they forced him to accept the Arbitration, with his rival, Muawiyah.

The Khawarij insisted on raising the dominion of Allah as a slogan. They also described the companions of Prophet Muhammad as a bunch of “infidels”.

The dominion of Allah as a concept disappeared with the Khawarij. It was, however, revived by Abul A'la Maududi, the founder of Jamaa'a Islamiyya.

Maududi authored the book, “Four Basic Qur’anic Terms: Theism; Deism; Worship, and Religious”. He considered these four terms the four basics of the Islamic religion.

To Maududi, the word “God” was synonymous to the word “Governor”, “Deism” was synonymous to “Judgment” that belongs to God alone, and “Worship” was synonymous to the full “submission” to Allah.

Sayyid Qutb, the leading theorist of the Muslim Brotherhood, adopted the main idea of Maududi’s book, namely the dominion of Allah.

He wanted to form his own concept about all regimes that govern with state-tailored laws. He viewed these regimes as merely a bunch of “infidels” as well.

Rifts over the concept

Some people try to take some verses of the holy Quran out of context and give the dominion of Allah a meaning that only suits the way they think. These people always defend their views by saying, “this is how the term mentioned in the Quran”. They never try to look at the reasons behind the revelation of the specific verses under study.

Some people believe the real meaning of the dominion of Allah can be seen in the following verses:

“The Command rests with none but Allah” (Al-An'am, 57), “Allah doth command according to His Will and Plan” (Al-Maidah, 1), “Allah commands, there is none to put back His command” (Ar-Ra'd, 41).  

The fact is that only extremists prefer the meaning of the dominion of Allah as indicated in these verses.

The dominion of Allah means that God is in absolute control over this universe; He created its rules and also manages its affairs. This universe also functions only by orders from God. It also means that God is the only ruler of the End Time; He rules between people and judges their disputes, but never subjects anybody to a shred of injustice. It also means that God is the one who makes the laws for people; He is the one who shows them what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. There should be no dominion but for Allah. Accordingly, legislative dominion is only one aspect of the dominion of Allah as a whole. It is the absolute right of God as a creator.

Legislative dominion is then one of the characteristics of Allah. People also have to follow the rules God formulated. They do not have the right to follow other gods who make laws that do not go hand in hand with those created by Allah. They do not have the right to change his rules either as is mentioned in the following verse:

“The Command is for none but Allah: He hath commanded that ye worship none but Him: that is the right religion, but most men understand not” (Yusuf, 40).

Extremist organizations interpret the meaning of dominion here as one that combines both total submission to God and full worship of Him. They believe that those who reject to include both meanings in their behavior are “infidel”. They even allow their killing in punishment.

Some of the verses of the Quran order Muslims to select a ruler and obey him, provided that this ruler enforces the rules of God. These verses include verse no. 59 of Surat An-Nisaa, “O ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you. If ye differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger, if ye do believe in Allah and the Last Day: that is best and most suitable for final determination”.

This verse shows that Islamist political thinking gives supremacy to the dominion of God, not the dominion of man, even if this man is the ruler of one country or one place. This means that a ruler can only be obeyed as long as he obeys the laws of God.    

- Some people can take this verse out of its context by claiming that the dominion of Allah means abidance by the rule of God in an absolute manner. These people sometimes take the meaning of the dominion of Allah as mentioned in Surat al-Maidah and consider it the true meaning of this dominion. In doing this, they disregard the fact that the verse which contains this means describes the people of the book and in relation to a specific issue.

- Other people like to refer to the verse, “Allah doth command according to His Will and Plan”. Those analyzing the meanings of the Quran say command here means the will of God. In interpreting the same verse, al-Hafez Ibn Kathir said, “God tells man that command, the will and the universe all belong to Him and that he should not worship any other God.”

This strikes a discordant note with the new meanings given command as a term. It means the just law derived from the generalities of the religious texts.

- Extremist groups ignore state-tailored laws as well as the development of societies and human thinking and take verses out of their contexts to justify their actions.

- Islam is both a religion and a state, given the fact that human societies keep developing. Prophet Muhammad said, “You are well around of your affairs”.

Dominion of Allah and Sayyid Qutb

Sayyid Qutb was not the first to talk about the dominion of Allah. The concept of dominion is repeatedly mentioned in books on Islamic jurisprudence within the framework of God’s governorship.

Islamic jurisprudence classifies every human act into five main categories: obligatory, recommended, permissible, reprehensible, and forbidden. This means that each human act has the laws that regulate it.

Qutb derives his understanding of the concept of the dominion of Allah from the verse, “But no, by thy Lord, they can have no (real) Faith, until they make thee judge in all disputes between them, and find in their souls no resistance against thy decisions, but accept them with the fullest conviction (An-Nisaa, 65).

In interpreting this verse, he said, “Faith and Islam are determined by Allah, which means that nobody has the right to determine the condition of faith.”

Qutb added that whoever does not rule in accordance with God’s laws is one who rejects God’s deism and everything connected with it.