Islamic democracy is the modern form of the caliphate, and those who remind people of a "golden age" of past Muslim rulers and caliphs actually wish to impose a "dictatorship of the mullah". This view was expressed by Islamic scholar and commentator Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza, who is known for his candid and often blunt perspectives on current affairs as he discusses them in relevance to Islamic scripture and history.
In a special YouTube interview with journalist and anchor Nasrullah Malik, Engineer Mirza said that the democracy that prevails in Pakistan is very different from the democracy that Islamic clerics or ulema had declared incompatible with Islam.
Malik asked Mirza whether the present form of democracy was correct for a Muslim country like Pakistan. He contextualized his question in the backdrop of governance failures and segments of society deriding democracy as a western invention and dreaming of a new Islamic caliphate.
The Islamic scholar stated that as long as a system of governance allows the people to decide their affairs by consensus, but also acknowledges the immutability of God's law, then such a democracy is Islamic and it cannot be opposed by Muslims.
Mirza added that the archetypal caliph of many who promote the "past glory of Muslim rule" is the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir "who had his brothers murdered and imprisoned his own father". He said that Aurangzeb is venerated by modern ulema because he commissioned the Fatawa 'Alamgiri, a compendium of religious edicts reviewed by hundreds of scholars in his time. "His character was not in accordance with the Sunnah," Mirza said of the Mughal emperor.
Engineer Mirza clarified that he himself belonged to the Mughal ethnic group and considered Aurangzeb among his ancestors, but that would not deter him from calling out the hypocritical manner in which today's Muslims celebrated the Mughal emperor's manufactured legacy.
"You cannot become a Muslim just by keeping a beard or by sewing skullcaps, you must organize your affairs in accordance with Huqooq Allah and Huqooq ul-Ibad," Engineer Mirza concluded, in reference to the duties a Muslim has towards God and towards their co-religionists.
In a special YouTube interview with journalist and anchor Nasrullah Malik, Engineer Mirza said that the democracy that prevails in Pakistan is very different from the democracy that Islamic clerics or ulema had declared incompatible with Islam.
Malik asked Mirza whether the present form of democracy was correct for a Muslim country like Pakistan. He contextualized his question in the backdrop of governance failures and segments of society deriding democracy as a western invention and dreaming of a new Islamic caliphate.
The Islamic scholar stated that as long as a system of governance allows the people to decide their affairs by consensus, but also acknowledges the immutability of God's law, then such a democracy is Islamic and it cannot be opposed by Muslims.
Mirza added that the archetypal caliph of many who promote the "past glory of Muslim rule" is the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir "who had his brothers murdered and imprisoned his own father". He said that Aurangzeb is venerated by modern ulema because he commissioned the Fatawa 'Alamgiri, a compendium of religious edicts reviewed by hundreds of scholars in his time. "His character was not in accordance with the Sunnah," Mirza said of the Mughal emperor.
Engineer Mirza clarified that he himself belonged to the Mughal ethnic group and considered Aurangzeb among his ancestors, but that would not deter him from calling out the hypocritical manner in which today's Muslims celebrated the Mughal emperor's manufactured legacy.
"You cannot become a Muslim just by keeping a beard or by sewing skullcaps, you must organize your affairs in accordance with Huqooq Allah and Huqooq ul-Ibad," Engineer Mirza concluded, in reference to the duties a Muslim has towards God and towards their co-religionists.