This is brief response to recent comments about the need for a Khalifa. Brothers and sisters, do not think, simplistically, that the mere existence of a Khalifa will solve the Muslims problems. The Khilafa (office of the Khalifa) was ended by the order of Kemel Ataturk in 1924. At that time, all of the problems currently affecting Muslims existed, some to a greater extent than they do today. For example, the existence of a Khalifa did not prevent the colonization and division of the Muslim world. A Khalifa did not prevent the rise and consolidation of western economic hegemony over Muslim lands. A Khalifa did not prevent the ideological colonization of Muslim minds. A Khalifa did not prevent the emergence of dominant secular elites in Muslim lands, epitomized by Ataturk himself. A Khalifa did not prevent the emergence of a gap in military technology between the Muslim and Western worlds that has culminated with the ability of the West to annihilate the Muslim world, through nuclear bombardment, were they to choose to do so (may Allah stay their hands). A Khalifa did not prevent the rise of a globalized materialistic worldview, one so deep that it even defines the way most Muslims currently view Islam. In other words, we had a Khalifa and it did nothing to prevent the emergence of these and many other problems currently impacting our Ummah.

The solution to these problems is a lot deeper than the mere existence or non-existence of a Khalifa. That solution begins with addressing the lack of knowledge, ethical commitment and spiritual emptiness that is affecting far too many Muslims. These are issues that must be addressed at the individual level before we can even begin to think that change at the level of political systems will have any meaningful or lasting impact. To put the proverbial cart before the horse, as they say, by demanding a Khilafa as a caricatured symbol of an Islamic state, but refusing to do the hard work needed to make our internal states Islamic, can become a form of escapism, which only deepens the crisis we find ourselves dealing with as an Ummah.