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149 CHAPTER 8 The Umma and the Caliphate The umma is the term that is most frequently used to describe the entire community of Muslims throughout the world. In the Qur’an, all of humankind was once part of a single umma (Q.2:23) to which God graciously sent prophets and scriptures. After the division of humankind into peoples or nations, umma is the reference for the individual ethnic or religious communities to whom God sent prophets (Q.0:47, 6:36), such as an umma in Arabia to which God sent Muhammad (Q.3:30). The people of Moses are referred to as umma (Q.7:59), as are some of the People of the Book (Q.3:3). The Pact of Medina discussed in Part  created an inclusive umma in which Believers, Jews, and even polytheist Medinans were initially included, but over the years of Muhammad’s mission in Medina it became increasingly Muslim in character and membership. With the expansion of Islam through the conquests, the Arab rulers found themselves in control of a great multiethnic and multireligious empire made up of many different peoples. Sometimes this entire empire is referred to as the umma, but sometimes umma refers only to the Muslims within that empire. The umma as a whole enjoyed a centralized government under the caliphs, the leaders at the very top of the pyramid of rule whose name signified that they were the lieutenants or replacements of Muhammad in all but prophethood. The non-Muslim religious communities who came under Muslim rule governed their own internal affairs according to their traditional systems, but always under the overall rule of the caliph. The caliphs, also known as “commanders of the faithful,” governed in theory if not always 150 A N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O I S L A M F O R J E W S in reality from the death of the Prophet in 632 until the conquest of the Mongols in the 3th century. The caliphate, ruled by the caliph, was the political system for governing the umma. While it was an ideal institution in theory, it is recognized that the caliphate did not maintain anything near the integrity of the umma under Muhammad’s leadership. Few contemporary governments in the Muslim world are beloved or even much respected by their constituencies today, and there are movements, particularly among the more radically activist Islamists, to unify the Muslim world through the reestablishment of the caliphate. Returning the caliphate through force of arms is not a priority except among a small fringe, although the notion of the caliphate ideal remains important for most Muslims. The inclination to reestablish the caliphate is nevertheless only one expression of the desire among many to revive the stature of the Muslim world. The notion of a united umma has remained a part of the Muslim self-concept throughout history to this day, but there is little agreement about what that united umma should look like in reality. They do agree, however, that when the umma is governed properly by Sharī`a, it is an eminently ethical system and egalitarian, protecting the rights of Muslim and non-Muslim alike, and that it does not distinguish among race, class, or ethnicity. Non-Muslims The Qur’an has a number of designations for those within and outside the community of Believers, and the meaning of these is somewhat fluid. The terms “Muslim” and “Believer” and “h . anīf” were discussed in Part . The most important terms for those outside the community range from idolater (mushrik) to disbeliever (kāfir). Idolaters A mushrik is one who associates other powers with divinity. The polytheism of pre-Islamic Arabia is simply called shirk, meaning “associationism,” that is, assigning associates to God. Those associates take the form of idols. Abraham is cited in the Qur’an as articulating the essence of the problem: “You are only worshiping idols rather than God, and you manufacture falsehood . But what you worship in place of God cannot sustain you, so seek the sustenance of God, worship Him and thank Him, for to Him you shall be returned” (Q.29:7). Shirk is the worst possible sin, and the only sin for which there can be no divine forgiveness (Q.4:48). The act of shirk is not only a travesty in relation to God, it is a distortion and falsification of reality. It is an act...

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