By: Alaa Al-Khatib

26/02/2026

 

The Grand Deception

After nine episodes diving into the blood of conflicts, the corridors of palaces, and the shocks of modernization, we arrive at the existential questions: Is Islam truly “Religion and State” as ideologies promote? Or is it a “Religion” that found itself compelled to build a “State” using purely human tools?

In this final episode, we place our history on the dissecting table to discover how the “State” transformed from a tool to serve the people into an “Idol” worshipped in God’s name. Is the Islam that reached us truly the one brought by its founder? Is there really “no priesthood” in Islam as clerics claim, or does history prove that Muslim scholars formed a parallel authority, often allied with the ruler? Most importantly: does Islamic enlightenment have a new chance after the accelerating tragedies facing Muslim nations?

Illusions of the Utopian State: From Saqifah to the Sublime Porte

We saw in early episodes that the Prophet ﷺ left no constitution for governance nor a system for succession. The Umayyad state was not a “Rightly Guided Caliphate” but a realistic empire that borrowed its administration from Byzantium and Persia.

Statehood in Islam did not descend from heaven with a ready-made manual. At the Saqifah (the first political gathering after the Prophet), the language of “interests and tribe” was present, not divine texts. History proves that the “Caliphate” was not a theological pillar but an administrative human necessity. The deception began when jurists tried to clothe the “human body of the state” in “divine sacredness”; thus, criticizing the ruler became a criticism of religion, and maintaining the “Throne” became a “Holy Jihad.” The state turned from a means to organize life into an idol for which humans are sacrificed to ensure its survival.

Manufacturing the “Sultan’s Jurist” and Mental Stagnation

Why did the illusion persist? Because power needed legitimacy, and the jurist needed protection. This gave birth to the “Clerical and Activist” duality. Since the late Abbasid era, the door of Ijtihad (independent reasoning) was closed, and a “Jurisprudence of Siege” was born. The jurist transformed from a truth-seeker into a “Justifying Employee” (The Cleric). Conversely, the “Ideological Rebel” (The Activist) emerged, seeking to seize the throne using the same old tools. Both agreed that “the state is religion” to monopolize the right to speak on behalf of Heaven.

The Masked Priesthood: The “No Mediator” Myth

Clerics often repeat: “There is no clergy or priesthood in Islam.” But history and reality scream otherwise. The moment the jurist allied with the Sultan, the “Islamic Priesthood” was born. Clerics monopolized the “right to interpret” and granted themselves the authority of Takfir (excommunication). They formed a parallel authority: the Sheikh grants the ruler “legitimacy,” and the ruler grants the Sheikh “protection and wealth.” This alliance murdered the rationalist Mu’tazilite mind and persecuted Averroes. Today, “Clericalism” has become a security institution in religious attire.

Foundational Islam vs. Sectarian Islam

Is what Salafists or Activists practice today truly the Islam of Muhammad ﷺ? The historical journey says: No. Today’s Islam is a product of centuries of “sectarian accumulation” and “jurisprudence of necessity” born under the executioner’s whip or in the trenches of civil wars. They replaced “Grand Ethical Values” (Justice, Freedom, Dignity) with “Formalities” (Dress, Beards, Rituals). Even Salafism, which claims to return to the origins, actually returns to the “human understanding” of people who lived in eras of decline and stagnation, treating their historical interpretations as divine revelation.

Black Comedy: Sectarian Conflict as a Survival Tool

We saw how 70,000 were slaughtered in Marrakesh and a million died in the Ottoman-Safavid conflict. Was the conflict over “interpreting a verse”? Never. It was a purely geopolitical struggle where the sect was used as “mobilization fuel.” History proves that “politicizing religion” did not protect the faith; it destroyed societies and turned neighbors into enemies, all so the “Throne” could remain standing.

Modern Lessons: The Failure of Ideology

In our modern era, we tried everything: Sadat’s deal, the Khomeini revolution, the “Islam is the Solution” slogan of the Brotherhood, and the brutality of ISIS. The result? Political Islam failed to provide a single successful model for a modern state. Why? Because it tries to fly a “Jet Plane” (The Modern State) using a “Medieval Manual.” The schism between modernity and medieval jurisprudence led to “flattening religion” and turning it into empty slogans, driving new generations toward confusion or atheism.

Enlightenment: The Last Chance Amidst the Ruins

Does enlightenment still have a chance? The truth is that tragedy may give birth to the solution. The failure of “Political Islam” and the fall of “Clerical Islam” into the trap of state dependency have put the Muslim person before the mirror of truth. Enlightenment today is a “Lifeboat.” The new opportunity lies in “Dissociation”: freeing religion from the state and purging the state of sectarian utility. It means returning to the ethical core of the message and regarding politics as a human affair managed by reason, science, and law—not by fatwas and incitement.

From History to the Future

We read history to understand it, not to sanctify it. Islam as a religion is fine as long as it resides in the hearts of believers as a source of ethics. As for “Political and Clerical Islam,” it is in a historical deathbed. The road to the future begins by demolishing the “Human Idols” who ruled us in the name of the Lord. Sovereignty must be for the Human, Sacredness for Values, and Freedom for the Mind.

Final Conclusion: Toward an Islam Without Chains

What is the way out? It begins by admitting that Islam is a religion of ethics and values, not a catalog for political systems. The method of clerical indoctrination and the sanctification of the ancients against human rights is a war against the freedom of mind.

1. The state is a human social contract, measured by its success in providing freedom, justice, and prosperity.
2. Religion belongs to the conscience and the ethical system that monitors power, but does not merge with it.
3. Clerics are not guardians of people’s morals, nor are they mediators between God and man, especially in the age of Artificial Intelligence and scientific explosions.

We wasted 1,400 years trying to “nationalize God” for the sake of a ruler or a party. It is time to return sacredness to God, humanity to the state, and priority to rationality.

Closing Word

Our brief historical journey has ended. But the journey of consciousness starts now. If we want to reclaim the “House of Wisdom,” we must first demolish the “Prison of the Sect” and the “Idol of Ideology.” History is a school, and its most important lesson: Islam is fine… as long as religious authority—the servant of political power—is far from monopolizing its interpretation.

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You might want to read the full paper at this link:

History of Islam (full article): Islam Between the Sacred and the Human

Or you might be interested in reading the rest of the series:

1. Sovereignty and Negotiation: An Analytical Reading of the Formation of the “Medinan Polity”
2. Post-Founder Era: The Struggle for Legitimacy and the Test of Survival. The Saqifa, the Ridda, and the Conquest
3. From Omar’s Assassination to the Great Fitna: The Cracking of the Center. When the State Devours its Children
4. From Caliphate to Kingdom: The Birth of the Empire, The Umayyad Dynasty
5. The Global Empire: The Labor of Nationalities and the Making of the Muslim Mind. The Power vs. The Jurist
6. The Breaking of the Center: The Era of Sultans and the Making of Orthodoxy
7. The Era of Fracture: Crusaders, Mongols, and the Fiqh of Siege
8. The Tunnel of Stagnation and the Shock of Awakening
9. The Crossroads: Aborted Enlightenment and the Rise of Ideology
10. The Historical Trial: Toward an Islam Without Idols