THE PRINCIPLE OF LOVE & DESIRE: Bani Adam Cannot Live Alone

What one must know is that every group or community in the world must have an oath, agreement, or contract between two or more parties that binds them, because Banī Ādam (i.e., mankind) cannot live without cooperating with one another to gain benefits and repel harms, and their agreement towards that is the contract and covenant.

This is why fulfilling contracts is one of the things that the people of earth all agree upon, even if there are those who do not do so despite their ability to do it, just as they agree upon the need for justice and honesty. Therefore, if they agree and make a contract to promote what they love, and repel or defend against the things they dislike, then they will help one another in attaining the things they love and support one another in defending against the things they dislike, even if they never actually spoke an agreement. So their participation necessitates that they work to attain shared benefits and defend against things that will cause them harm, such as the people of one lineage or the people of one city, so a lineage or community necessitates cooperation to attain shared benefits and to defend against harms.

This partnership is either formed by their actions, which is the covenant based on the common good, or it is formed by Allah's action. Allah, the Most High, joined these two foundations in His saying:

So He mentioned in this surah the rights and the relationships between the creation, and these are based on covenants and contracts. Just as Allah, the Most High, said:

And He, the Most High, said:

And He, the Most High, said:

Therefore, if every partnership-based on an oath or otherwise- requires cooperation in order to attain the things that are loved and avoid the things that are disliked, then the things that are liked are allegiances and the things that are disliked are enmities. Hence, all the Sons of Adam have allegiances and enmities. They are praised for bravery and kindness. Kindness is support with wealth and helpful- ness to help someone attain things that are loved, and bravery is helping to defend against something disliked by fighting and other means. Nothing of Bani Adam's affairs are established without that, and it is all built upon justice in all partnerships and exchanges.

Therefore, it is clear that all of Bani Adam's affairs require coopera- tion among themselves, which means they must have an agreement and they must possess the ability (to carry out the agreement), and the basis of the contract is desire, as He, the Most High, said:

I.e., they make a covenant or an oath.

Every action requires both intent and ability, so those who seek to cooperate with one another to achieve an action must agree on what their intent is and know the level of their ability. By acting upon this intent and using this ability, some can attain from others what they love and defend from them what they dislike. For example, intercourse through marriage-which is a contract-is based on desire and ability, and intercourse through slavery is compulsion with ability. Their participation in attainment and defense either follows their covenant or it is due to obedience to a command. The first is allegiance, and the second is obedience without allegiance, whether that obedience is based on a right or not.

Obedience that is based on a right is the obedience shown to every person to whom Allah commands us to show obedience, such as His prophets, the leaders of the believers, our parents, and others. Obedience based on a right can also be how some of the (aforemen- tioned) people respond with truth to the wants of others. That is the meaning of obedience, because what is intended by obedience is the acceptance of that which is wanted or sought.

That which is not based on a right is like obedience to the tawaghit (false deities). A taghut is anything that is falsely glorified.

Any group that is not joined by a single object of obedience for all their affairs must rely on a covenant and alliances for the things that they are not commanded to do. This is why Allah revealed the shari'ah and included actions that are obligatory to perform for Allah's sake and actions that are obligatory for some people over other people. In other words, the action may be obligatory due to Allah making it obligatory or due to a contractual agreement, such as an oath, an exchange contract (i.e., sale or rent), or a partnership. Hence, all the obligations in the shari'ah are either legislated (by Allah) or contracted (between people).

If it is not based upon a revealed shari'ah from Allah, then it is either a legislation that is not divine or a policy created through ability and knowledge by those who are held in esteem. This neces- sitates that there is an oath that binds them, because their situation could not be kept in order without obedience to a leader to whom the people have pledged allegiance or whom they obey.

This is why allegiance is disputed for the nations without a shari'ah, or those who oppose the nations with a shari'ah, and also in relation to the affairs that do not come under the purview of the shari'ah, and that only becomes apparent when one studies the signs of prophethood. Hence, people pledge allegiance to obey a king or elder, or to obey others in certain stipulated affairs, like how the Arabs in pre-Islamic times used to pledge allegiance to become a member of a tribe. Allah, the Most High, said:

Allah, the Most High, said:

This also includes the covenant by brotherhood, the kings, tribal leaders, the scholars, the military, and other people who are in agreement on certain issues. Oaths of allegiance are common to all of Bani Ādam; they even sometimes made allegiances loved by Allah in the pre-Islamic period, as the Prophet said:

Muslim also reported a similar hadith on the authority of Jubayr bin Mut'im, that the Prophet said:

This oath is called the Oath of the Perfumed People. There was a man who came to Makkah with some merchandise for sale who was oppressed by some of the leaders of Makkah, and he screamed for help, but no one came to his aid until someone said the following poetry:

Later, the tribes of the Quraysh gathered in the home of 'Abdullah bin Jud'an and they vowed to cooperate upon justice and help the oppressed; then they placed their hands in a container of perfume, and that is why it was known as the Oath of the Perfumed People.*3

However, in terms of the shari'ah with which Allah sent His messen- gers in respect to one's religion and dunya, then that suffices one from the need for an oath or covenant on anything but that (i.e., the religion); so one's oath, covenant, cooperation, and support are all for that, as Allah describes the ones who are loved in His saying:

They pledge allegiance (bay'ah) based on that to those who are to be followed, such as the leaders, scholars, and others, as Abu Bakr said in his speech to the Muslims:

Allah and His Messenger commanded the people to obey the leaders of the Muslims upon this condition. The Prophet said:

And:

And it is reported in the Sahih that 'Abdullah bin 'Umar wrote his pledge of allegiance to 'Abdul-Malak bin Marwan when the people agreed upon him as the leader: "To 'Abdul-Malak bin Marwan, Leader of the Believers: I agree to hear and obey based on Allah's Sunnah and His Messenger's Sunnah, as much as I am able; and my son agrees to what I have agreed."

So he informed him that he pledged to obey him in the manner that Allah commanded in accordance to his ability, and this is an obligation of the shari'ah. So he made an oath based on Allah's command with the same status as when one enters into Islam and the pledge of allegiance to the Prophet, like his pledge from the Anşăr, his pledge from the Muslims beneath the tree, and just as the Muslims used to pledge to hear and obey as he instructed them: "as much as you are able."

Obedience to the Messenger is obligatory upon all creation, due to Allah obligating that with the covenant to obey Allah, just as He,

the Most High, said:

However, this was only apparent in the time of the righteous caliphs; after their time passed, contracts that were in accordance with the shari'ah were common but so were contracts that contra- dicted the shari'ah. The general ruling is that one is obliged to fulfill all contracts that involve obedience to Allah, but as for the contracts that involve disobedience to Him, then it is prohibited to fulfill this kind of contract, as the Prophet said in the authentic hadith:

And he said:

And in the books of sunan, it is reported:

The contracts of Bani Adam have no consequence in terms of the religion and that which Allah loves and that which draws one close to Him; rather, the affair is returned to Allah and his Messenger's commandment. The religion is only what Allah commands it to be, so whoever follows the covenants of Bani Ādam in terms of their religion, then they are following their peers who legislate into the religion that which Allah has not permitted them. This is the situation of all who innovate into the religion and those who follow and accept their innovations. They pledge their allegiance to them and take their innovations as their religion, and all those who make innovation their religion, then their opposition to the Book and the Sunnah is manifest. Acceptance of these (covenants) has these implications.

Most of what is exchanged among the Muslims involves both truth and falsehood, since pure falsehood does not remain among them,

and that includes allegiance upon that which is not based on the commands of Allah, and replacing Allah's religion with that which mixes truth and falsehood. This is the state of the Jews and the Christians, and the rest of the people of misguidance. They depart from Allah's commandment and mix it with falsehoods that they invent; they replace Allah's religion with their innovations, and they pledge allegiance to these innovations.