What is politics (siyasah) according to Islam?

Islamic Politics means the taking care of the collective or communal affairs of the Ummah both internally and externally. كَانَتْ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ تَسُوسُهُمُ الأَنْبِيَاءُ كُلَّمَا هَلَكَ نَبِىٌّ خَلَفَهُ نَبِىٌّ وَإِنَّهُ لاَ نَبِىَّ بَعْدِى وَسَتَكُونُ خُلَفَاءُ يَكْثُرُونَ قَالُوا فَمَا تَأْمُرُنَا قَالَ فُوا بِبَيْعَةِ الأَوَّلِ فَالأَوَّلِ وَأَعْطُوهُمْ حَقَّهُمْ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ سَائِلُهُمْ عَمَّنِ اسْتَرْعَاهُمْ The Prophet (saw) said, “The tribes of Israa’il were ruled by the Prophets, every time a Prophet deceased he was followed by another Prophet, and there will be no Prophets after me, and there will be Khulafaa (successors) and they will be many.” The companions then asked “What do you order us?” To which the Prophet (saw) replied “Fulfil your pledge of allegiance to them one after another, and give them their rights, and truly Allah will ask them about their responsibilities.” (Sahih al-Bukhari / Muslim) The verb “تسوسهم” means to manage the affairs. It indicates that the Prophets before the Messenger of Allah (saw) also used to rule their followers, managing their affairs according to whatever had been revealed to them by Allah This role is performed by the Khilafah State and the Ummah in the sharia of Islam. The Khilafah State handles this taking care (of the Ummah’s affairs) practically, and the Ummah accounts the Khilafah State regarding it’s performance. Ever since the Khilafah State was destroyed and Kufr political systems were applied in the Islamic lands, Islam ceased to be political in life’s affairs. In it’s place came Western political thought established upon the Capitalist doctrine, a doctrine that detaches Deen from Life. What must be clearly understood by the Ummah is that taking care of the life’s affairs by Islam cannot happen without the Khilafah State and that separating Islam from life affairs and from the Deen, means eradicating Islam, it’s systems and rules and the wiping out of the Ummah, her values, civilisation and message. Ever since the Khilafah was destroyed and Kufr political systems were applied in the Islamic lands, Islam ceased to be political. In it’s place came Western political thought established upon the Capitalist doctrine, a doctrine that detaches religion from life. What must be clearly understood by the Muslim Ummah is that taking care of the affairs by Islam cannot happen without the Khilafah and that separating political Islam from life and from the deen means eradicating Islam, it’s systems and rules and the wiping out of the Ummah, her values, civilisation and message. The Capitalist States adopt the doctrine of detaching the Deen from life, political system and current affairs, and they work actively to spread this doctrine and establish it’s rules upon the Ummah. They work to mislead the Ummah and convince her that Politics and the Deen do not mix, and that Politics means Realism and being content with the current situation and the impossibility of changing it. All this is to ensure that the Ummah remains under the yoke of the states of Kufr, oppression and tyranny, and unable to envisage the path for revival. In addition they work to alienate Ummah from the Islamic political groups and from involvement in Islamic politics. This is because the Kufr States know that there is no way to strike against the West’s political thoughts and rules except by political action and by being involved in politics on the basis of Islam. This campaign to alienate the Ummah from politics and politicians has reached the extent of depicting politics as contradictory to the greatness and spirituality of Islam. Therefore, the Ummah has to understand the secret behind the war fought by the Kufr States and the Oppressive rulers against the Islamic groups, who are working to revive the Ummah by establishing the Khilafah State, fighting the Kufr thoughts and restoring the Glory of Islam. Therefore, it is a must that the Ummah understands clearly the meaning of Islamic Politics linguistically and in Shari’ah, and that Political Islam cannot exist without the Khilafah State. Without it, Islam ceases to be political. Nor can it be considered alive except when the Khilafah State in it’s capacity as an executive political entity implements and executes the Islamic rules. This is the Shari’ah method by which the Islamic rules and systems are executed in the public life. They have to know that Allah has obliged the Ummah to implement these rules, and forbade arbitration to Kufr systems due to their contradiction with Islam and as they are man-made. Therefore, it is necessary to culture the Ummah with the Islamic Culture and to continually inject her with the Islamic political thoughts and rules and explain how these thoughts and rules emanate from the Islamic Aqeedah in it’s capacity as a political thought. It is also necessary to concentrate this culture from its spiritual aspect in it’s capacity as the commands and prohibitions of Allah without reference to any other consideration. This spiritual aspect will guarantee the strength of the Islamic thoughts and rules within the souls, and manifest the meaning of politics and political thought to the Ummah, such that she perceives the responsibility placed on her shoulder to initiate the Islamic thoughts and rules in practical life, and the importance of the universal message that Allah obliged her to carry to the world. This is particularly important as she sees the level she has reached in the present time, due to the disappearance of the Khilafah State and the thoughts and rules of Islam from her life, and the level which the world has sunk to in terms of evil, misery and the enslaving of humanity. This political culturing, whether it is culturing by the Islamic thoughts and rules or by following the political events, will create the political awareness and cause the Ummah to shoulder her fundamental mission and original responsibility, which is to carry the Islamic da’wah to all peoples and nations.