In our recent Taleems, I was reading this Aayat:
Inna al-hukmu illa lillah
إِنِ الْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ
It is hard to find a single English word for hukm. It can mean order, rule, decision, judgment, command, or authority. So perhaps one way to translate it is:
“The final rule and decision belong only to Allah.”
And then, as often happens while reflecting on the Quran, I started having a conversation with myself. I started piecing this Aayat together with some other unsolved equations in my brain.
The Quran is like that. You can go as deep as you want, and the deeper you go, the clearer the picture becomes. I do not know how deep I have reached. Maybe I am still in shallow waters. But these questions are my attempt to understand these words of the Quran a little more.
Does this Aayat mean that all political struggle is a waste? That rulers and heads of state, whom we consider the most powerful people in the world, are actually not powerful at all? In many other places in the Quran, Allah says that He gives mulk — power, kingdom, authority — to whom He wills. So should we blame rulers for our state of affairs? Or is there another question before that? When we are not doing our duty to Allah, can we expect rulers to do their duty towards us?
When we are not obedient to Allah, why do we expect others to be just, obedient, merciful, and responsible towards us?
Am I waiting for society to change, while society is waiting for me to change? Is there a link? Will society change when I change? Or at least, will my part of society change when I change?
Maybe this is why many of the learned scholars stayed away from positions of power. Even when power was offered to them, they refused it. They chose instead to focus on learning, teaching, reforming hearts, and preserving the principles of Islam. Perhaps they understood something that we keep forgetting: power is not always where we think it is.
إِنِ الْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ
And maybe this is also why so many “impactful” leaders — those whom we call great, cruel, wise, foolish, successful, or disastrous — often set out to do one thing and end up doing something entirely different.
They planned. Others reacted in ways that they didn’t expect. And history moved forward.
But finally, whatever happened was whatever Allah commanded to happen.
Inna al-hukmu illa lillah.
I wonder, but if I can only wonder.
Take care and till next time.