We arrive at the conclusion or the bitter harvest that the [Islamic] nation has reaped as a result of its stance towards the Qur'an, neglecting it, and dismissing it from its social reality.
The Islamic nation has fallen into the flow of universal and social laws, abandoning the conditions of its goodness by abandoning the Qur'an and dismissing it from its social and practical reality. After embodying the burden of carrying this noble Book and the great Reminder, as mentioned in the verse:
"The example of those who were entrusted with the Torah and then did not take it on is like that of a donkey who carries volumes [of books]. Wretched is the example of the people who deny the signs of Allah. And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people." (Al-Jumu'ah: 5).
So, it no longer benefits from the Qur'an, and it has no share of it except the letters, writing, and sound. It has lost the trust of carrying its message, the trust of conveying it, the trust of adhering to it, and the outcome of honor by it, and guidance to what it leads to in terms of the goodness of this world and the Hereafter. Al-Tabari comments on this verse, saying: "Allah has made the example of the one who reads the Book and does not follow what is in it like the example of a donkey carrying a heavy book of Allah, not knowing what is in it."
The universal recompense is determined by Allah, as the Qur'an affirms this systematic law: "Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves." (Ar-Ra'd: 11), and similarly, this verse: "That is because Allah would not change a favor which He had bestowed upon a people until they change what is within themselves." (Al-Anfal: 53).
These two verses clarify the rules of the major movement of change that occurs in history, civilizations, and nations. Humanity is the driver of history, and it is also the factor in the rise and fall of nations and civilizations.
The replacement of conditions necessitates the replacement of status: "And If you turn away, He will replace you with another people, then they will not be the likes of you." (Muhammad: 38); which means that turning away from the conditions of the goodness of the nation—commanding good and forbidding evil (in its civilizational sense)—which has its source and primary reference in the wise Qur'an, will necessarily be followed by a replacement in status, that is, in goodness. For goodness is not granted but rather depends on acquired and realized conditions in social reality.
Al-Qurtubi mentions in his commentary on the verse from Surah Muhammad:
"And If you turn away," meaning if you turn away from this religion that Muhammad, peace be upon him, brought to you and revert back from it, He will destroy you and then bring forth other people in your place instead of you. He then specifies the characteristics of these other people as follows:
1. They believe in him (the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the Qur'an).
2. They act according to his Shari'ah (Islamic law).
3. They do not withhold what they have been commanded to spend in the cause of Allah.
4. They do not neglect anything from the limits of their religion.
5. They fulfill all that they have been commanded to do.
The core of the law of replacement is turning away; that is, the nation's aversion from what it was commanded to do, which falls under its function and the conditions of its comprehensive goodness, namely "commanding good and forbidding evil" in their broad Qur'anic meaning, that is, the civilizational and social meaning that makes this nation a source of goodness for the world and humanity, and activates these conditions in its movement and urban development. Abandoning the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil and the absence of the effectiveness of faith in the nation's reality is the very essence of turning away and abandoning adherence and obedience; and thus, turning away is contrary to submission to and acceptance of Allah's rulings, which is the essence of faith and Islam, through which the goodness of this nation and its empowerment in time and place are realized.
Have the Conditions of Replacement Been Met in the Nation?
Derivatives of the root "ولي" (wali) appear around 80 times in the Qur'an according to lexical tracking, of which 64 instances refer to the factors of replacement—for nations, peoples, systems, status, power, and strength—and clarify the pillars of turning away (the condition) for the state of replacement (the consequence). We attempted to preliminarily classify these tendencies, behavioral manifestations, and their outcomes, indicating the specific dimension/manifestation of "turning away" and its contexts in the Qur'an as follows:
1. Turning away from: This manifestation appears in 22 Qur'anic contexts distributed according to the tendencies and motives for turning away. The topics of this turning away are as follows:
- Turning away from adhering to God's covenant and promises: (Al-Baqarah: 64).
- Turning away from divine values: (Al-Baqarah: 83).
- Turning away from faith and guidance: (Al-Baqarah: 177), (Hud: 52).
- Turning away from Islam and its teachings: (Al-Imran: 20), (Al-Imran: 23), (Al-Imran: 32), (Al-Imran: 64), (Hud: 57), (Hud: 3), (An-Nahl: 82), (Yunus: 72), (Al-Ma'arij: 17), (Al-Anbiya: 109), (An-Najm: 33), (At-Taghabun: 12).
- Turning away from listening to the words of God: (Al-Anfal: 23), (Al-Anfal: 40).
- Refusing to disassociate from polytheists: (At-Tawbah: 3).
- Turning away from responding to repentance: (At-Tawbah: 74).
- Turning away from the remembrance of God: (An-Najm: 29).
- Turning away from the Hereafter: (Al-Mumtahina: 6).
2. Following desires and obeying Satan: (Al-Ma'idah: 43), (An-Nahl: 100), (Al-Hajj: 4).
3. Denying the signs and laws: (Ta-Ha: 48), (Al-Qiyamah: 32), (Al-Ghashiyah: 23), (Al-Layl: 16), (Al-‘Alaq: 13).
4. Failing to engage in jihad/fleeing from the battlefield: (Al-Baqarah: 246), (Al-Imran: 155), (Al-Anfal: 15), (Al-Fath: 16).
5. Abandoning the support of Muslims in their adversity: (At-Tawbah: 50), (At-Tawbah: 129).
6. Inclination towards moral decay: (Al-Imran: 82), (Al-Ma'idah: 49).
7. Engaging in corruption on Earth: (Al-Baqarah: 205), (Al-Imran: 63), (Muhammad: 22).
8. Disobeying God and His Messenger: (Al-Ma'idah: 92), (Al-Anfal: 20), (An-Nur: 47), (As-Saffat: 40), (Al-Fath: 17), (An-Nisa: 115).
9. Aligning with falsehood, the enemies of Islam, and hypocrites: (An-Nisa: 89), (Al-Ma'idah: 80), (At-Tawbah: 23), (Al-Mujadila: 14), (Al-Mumtahina: 9), (Al-Mumtahina: 13).
10. Evading spending in the cause of Allah: (Muhammad: 38).
11. Turning to conspire against the believers: (Ta-Ha: 60).
12. Engaging in great sins: (An-Nur: 11).
13. Attempting to escape God's punishment: (As-Saffat: 178).
14. Being preoccupied with worldly pleasures and desires: (An-Najm: 29).
15. Inviting others to deprive people of their rights: (Al-Hadid: 24).
The replacement of previous nations occurred through their destruction, as with the peoples of Thamud, Salih, Lot, and Shu'aib. This destruction was direct from God: "So each We seized for his sin; and among them were those upon whom We sent a storm of stones, and among them were those who were seized by the blast [from the sky], and among them were those whom We caused the earth to swallow, and among them were those whom We drowned. And Allah would not have wronged them, but it was they who were wronging themselves." (Al-Ankabut: 40). Another form of replacement is the transfer of honor and dominance from one nation to another: "The Byzantines have been defeated. In the nearest land. But they, after their defeat, will overcome." (Ar-Rum: 2-3).
The leadership mantle was then temporarily handed to the Children of Israel through Prophet Moses: "And We wanted to confer favor upon those who were oppressed in the land and make them leaders and make them inheritors. And establish them in the land." (Al-Qasas: 5-6). This is the law of empowerment, the counterpart to the law of replacement. Whenever a people are replaced, another is empowered—each according to its conditions and laws—until they too deserve replacement due to their propagation of evil, distortion of God's law, and breaking of His covenants and promises.
The Muslims then took up this mantle, being the final nation, the witness, and the just nation over previous and present nations. Allah granted this nation its goodness with its conditions, which are:
1. Faith in Allah.
2. Enjoining good.
3. Forbidding evil.
4. Possessing the qualifications for empowerment to fulfill the role of witnessing over nations.
5. Clearly conveying God's messages.
The nation has lost many, if not most, of these conditions, retreating from its role as a witness, from conveying the message, and from enjoining good and forbidding evil within and outside itself. It has lost its civilizational witness, potential, and will. As a result, the law of replacement has been applied to the Muslims. The factors and conditions for replacement have been met, and turning away has flourished among its ruling classes, scholars, and collective conscience. The nation has retreated from the law of mutual contention and confronting evil and oppression, as evil has increased, injustice has spread, and evil has dominated its actions. Even some scholars and religious authorities have called for it, extinguishing the nation’s mission to be beneficial to itself and others. The human element within it has deteriorated, no longer capable of shaping history or conveying the message; it has become a sick, compelled, and unfree being, driven rather than a driver, a follower rather than a leader, an imitator rather than a civilization-builder.
For this reason, the nation has deserved replacement, not through its destruction but through its weakness and the transfer of the mantle of honor, elevation, strength, and leadership to other nations.
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