Concerning colonialism, two very important points need to be highlighted at the beginning of the chapter.
Firstly, in a famous hadith from Sahih Bukhari, it is mentioned that “there will be no town which Ad-Dajjal will not enter.” So how would the Antichrist reach every town in the world?
Narrated Anas bin Malik: The Prophet (PBUH) said, “There will be no town which Ad-Dajjal will not enter except Mecca and Medina, and there will be no entrance (road) (of both Mecca and Medina) but the angels will be standing in rows guarding it against him, and then Medina will shake with its inhabitants thrice (i.e. three earthquakes will take place) and Allah (SWT) will expel all the non-believers and the hypocrites from it.” (Sahih al-Bukhari:1881)
The Antichrist would enter every town. One interpretation could be that the fitnah of the Antichrist would reach every corner of the world. To achieve that goal, the colonialists implemented a system that was not based on divine laws but rather on man-made laws. Thus, in every continent – Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America a secular man-made system and the Antichrist’s fitnah became omnipresent.
Secondly, colonialism by nature is an oppressive system. Allah is merciful and is not oppressive. As mentioned in Hadith Qudsi:
On the authority of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (may Allah (SWT) be pleased with him) from the Prophet (PBUH) is that among the sayings he relates from his Lord (may He be glorified) is that He said: O My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another. O My servants, all of you are astray except for those I have guided, so seek the guidance of Me and I shall guide you, O My servants, all of you are hungry except for those I have fed, so seek food of Me and I shall feed you. O My servants, all of you are naked except for those I have clothed, so seek clothing of Me and I shall clothe you. O My servants, you sin by night and by day, and I forgive all sins, so seek forgiveness of Me and I shall forgive you. O My servants, you will not attain harming Me so as to harm Me, and will not attain benefitting Me so as to benefit Me. O My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be as pious as the most pious heart of any one man of you, that would not increase My kingdom in anything. O My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be as wicked as the most wicked heart of any one man of you, that would not decrease My kingdom in anything. O My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to rise up in one place and make a request of Me, and were I to give everyone what he requested, that would not decrease what I have, any more that a needle decreases the sea if put into it. O My servants, it is but your deeds that I reckon up for you and then recompense you for, so let him who finds good, praise Allah (SWT), and let him who finds other than that, blame no one but himself. (Hadith Qudsi 40:17)
Christopher Columbus and the Start of Colonialism
3rd August 1492, can be described as the day on which a new age of colonialism began. On this day Christopher Columbus and his crew set sail from Andalucía to cross the Atlantic, making landfall in the Bahamas, San Salvador, on 12th October 1492 [1].
The purpose of their voyage was to bring back gold, pearls, and other valuables that Christopher Columbus had promised to his sponsors, i.e., Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. When he struggled to find the gold in sufficient quantity, he decided to send Queen Isabella 500 enslaved people instead. She refused to accept them because she considered them to be Spanish subjects and Spanish subjects must never be enslaved [2].
Queen Isabella’s attitude towards the natives of newly colonised territories is interesting. Afterwards, the Europeans shamelessly continued for centuries to enslave, exploit, torture, murder, and plunder the colonised globally. However, a neighbouring empire, the Ottomans, although they could have imitated and competed with Europeans on this lucrative venture, stayed away from it. The Ottomans chose not to follow in the footsteps of colonisers. What stopped them, apart from already having a huge empire, was the divine law – a two-eyed system.
Under the two-eyed system, the conqueror becomes responsible for the protection and all the rights of subjugated individuals, giving them equal rights as to their citizens. But this is not what the Western European colonialists practised. What they practised was genocide, and probably with a clear conscience. The word ‘genocide’, derives from the Greek word genos (tribe, race) and Latin cide (as in tyrannised, homicide, fratricide). Exactly what is happening in Palestine now [3].
Genocide is a process of removal of the population and then colonisation of the area by the oppressor’s nationals, e.g., Australia, North America, South America, Palestine, and South Africa. In all these regions, the oppressed were usually either killed or put in jails for long periods without trial, especially those who resisted colonisation. Australia had the policy to take away the children from the aborigines and use them as slaves, disguised as civilising the natives; in other cases, “taking away continuing opportunities of procreation.” [3] The fate of the Indians in the Americas was not much different.
Historically speaking, colonisers have always seen themselves as history’s true heirs and hence focused on superseding. Take, for example, an ancient country, that used to be called Ma-i, which was renamed the Philippines after a Spanish King, Philip II of Spain (1527-1598), the son of Queen Isabella of Castile. The point I am trying to make here is that renaming places was done intentionally. The intention was to create an unequal relationship between the colonisers and the colonies. So that the conquered should know who their master is.
After 500 years of colonialism, wherever you look, you will see a one-eyed system. One may argue that genocide and the one-eyed system go hand in hand. It makes you wonder: could it have been possible to implement a one-eyed system globally without chicanery, torture, murder, slavery, genocide, theft, and financial exploitation?
Former colonialists dare not teach in school history classes what they did in their former colonies. How the civilised empires plundered and destroyed the economies of their colonies.
Unlike the colonialists, when the Prophet (PBUH) sent Mu`adh and Abu Musa as rulers to Yemen, he told them the following:
Narrated Abu Burda: That his father said, “The Prophet (PBUH) sent Mu`adh and Abu Musa to Yemen telling them. ‘Treat the people with ease and don’t be hard on them; give them glad tidings and don’t fill them with aversion; and love each other, and don’t differ.” (Sahih al-Bukhari:3038)
References
[1] “Christopher Columbus,” 14 10 2024. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus.
[2] H. Editors, “Christopher Columbus,” 11 August 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus.
[3] J. Docker, The origins of Violence, Pluto Press, 2008.
[4] “1490s,” 17 11 2023. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1490s.
[5] “Forced conversions of Muslims in Spain,” 07 09 2024. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_conversions_of_Muslims_in_Spain.
[6] “Spanish Inquisition,” 12 10 2024. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition.
