In the post-colonial era, it has become increasingly common, particularly among those residing in Western liberal democracies or Gulf monarchies, to assert that the absence of the Caliphate is inconsequential. They argue that the core tenets of Islam remain accessible: prayer, fasting, modest attire, building masajid, religious education.
It is the colonised and weak mind that accepts Islam to be totally dominated by kufr and to seek any few sanctities it can find therein. But Islam is not meant to beg for space within a liberal framework, it is meant to supersede it.
Such an assertion, while superficially comforting, represents a profound reduction of the Islamic political vision and a misrepresentation of the obligations that bind the Muslim ummah.
This line of argument does not arise from jurisprudential insight or historical awareness, but from an internalisation of secular paradigms and liberal statecraft. It confines Islam to the domain of personal ritual, stripping it of its political and civilisational mandate.
The notion that Islam is fulfilled through individual liberties ignores its comprehensive nature.
The Shariʿah is not a private ethic, it is a public order.
Islam as understood by the companions, the jurists, and the revivers of every age was a deen that regulated not merely personal morality, but criminal law, foreign policy, economic justice, and societal ethics.
The liberal democratic order tolerates Islam as long as it is pacified, privatised, and de-politicised.
When Muslims assert values that challenge secular orthodoxy – on social issues, law, sovereignty – they are swiftly marginalised or criminalised.
Citing Safety is a Privilege Not Universally Enjoyed
To claim that the Caliphate is redundant because some Muslims live in peace is to dismiss the trauma and imprisonment of the Uyghur, the statelessness of the Rohingya oppressed wherever they are, the siege of the Palestinians and al-Quds with the assault on Gaza and the West bank unanswered, and the drone-ridden skies of wherever America decides it wants to carry out extrajudicial assassinations next. This is besides the civil strife and military interventions in Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Libya and elsewhere.
What binds them all together is not a deficiency in iman – but the absence of a polity to defend them and to unite them.
The Caliphate is not about you or me in our comfort zone with all the trappings of modern capitalism around us, it is about us globally as an ummah.
Freedom in Secular States is Conditional and Reversible
The liberal democratic order tolerates Islam as long as it is pacified, privatised, and de-politicised.
When Muslims assert values that challenge secular orthodoxy – on social isues, law, sovereignty – they are swiftly marginalised or criminalised.
There is the Prevent agenda, CVE, hijab bans in certain countries, impositions on Islamic educational establishments effecting their curricula, prohibitions on vocal support for Palestine leading to deportation and jail to name but a few.
It is the colonised and weak mind that accepts Islam to be totally dominated by kufr and to seek any few sanctities it can find therein. But Islam is not meant to beg for space within a liberal framework, it is meant to supersede it.
هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُۥ بِٱلْهُدَىٰ وَدِينِ ٱلْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلدِّينِ كُلِّهِۦ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِٱللَّهِ شَهِيدًۭا
He is the One Who has sent His Messenger with ˹right˺ guidance and the religion of truth, making it prevail over all others. And sufficient is Allah as a Witness (48:28)
Islam is Not Apolitical: Authority Belongs to Allah
The Qur’anic axiom is unambiguous:
إِنِ ٱلْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ
“Judgement belongs only to Allah.” (12:40)
And again:
وَمَن لَّمْ يَحْكُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَـٰسِقُونَ
“Whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed – they are the rebellious.” (5:47)
Among several other similar ayat.
Islam without political authority means that the laws of Allah are not applied. Yes, personal rituals and ibadaat can be continued, and some communal aspects such as schooling and education within what the law permits.
But a ritual-only faith devoid of its legal and institutional teeth cannot fulfil its divinely ordained role as a comprehensive framework of justice. The caliphate is not a nostalgic aspiration it is the vehicle by which Islam lives.
The Caliphate is the Institutional Shield of the Ummah
The Prophet ﷺ said:
إِنَّمَا ٱلْإِمَامُ جُنَّةٌ يُقَاتَلُ مِن وَرَائِهِ وَيُتَّقَىٰ بِهِ
“The Imām is a shield, behind whom you fight and by whom you are protected.” (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)
This shield is not simply a nice metaphor – it is what ensures the enforcement of hudud, the mobilisation of jihad, the collection and distribution of zakat, the promotion and protection of Islam. Without it the ummah has become a dismembered body – leaderless, voiceless, vulnerable.
Complacency is Not a Juridical Argument
Those who assert “we don’t need the caliphate” in this case do so not from theological reasoning, but from comfort, fear of losing that comfort, or despair with the world and so they retreat into their comfort.
But ease does not negate obligation.
The Prophet ﷺ faced boycott, torture, and war – not for prayer alone, but to establish authority for Islam. That struggle is our inheritance.
أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُم مَّثَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ خَلَوْا۟ مِن قَبْلِكُم ۖ مَّسَّتْهُمُ ٱلْبَأْسَآءُ وَٱلضَّرَّآءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ ٱلرَّسُولُ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مَعَهُۥ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ ٱللَّهِ ۗ أَلَآ إِنَّ نَصْرَ ٱللَّهِ قَرِيبٌۭ
Do you think you will be admitted into Paradise without being tested like those before you? They were afflicted with suffering and adversity and were so ˹violently˺ shaken that ˹even˺ the Messenger and the believers with him cried out, “When will Allah’s help come?” Indeed, Allah’s help is ˹always˺ near. (2:24)
Conclusion: A Comfortable Lie or a Divine Duty?
To say “we are safe, so we do not need the caliphate” is to confuse the individual’s luxury with the community’s duty. It is to claim sufficiency in fragments of the deen, while neglecting its collective expression and divine mandate.
It is also complacency and a failure to recognise that their individual circumstances may be in relative comfort due to the space afforded to them by a kufr regime and ideology today, that can be easily taken away tomorrow – leaving them with no recourse to anyone to stand up for them on the basis of Islam either.
As it is, the caliphate is not a utopian dream – it is a juridical obligation, a historical reality, and a political necessity.
Without it, our worship is tolerated, not sovereign.
Our safety is provisional, not protected.
And our ummah remains a nation fractured by borders, betrayed by its rulers, and bereft of its rightful leadership.
Dr. Reza Pankhurst is the author of The Inevitable Caliphate (Oxford University Press, 2012) and The Untold History of the Liberation Party (C Hurst & Co, 2016)