Lessons from the life and struggles of Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid (RH)

by: Muhammad Jalal

Today is the 8th anniversary of the passing of the founder of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Amir-ul-Momineen Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on him).
8 years ago, he gave his soul in a remote rural area of our beloved country and left this world for the hereafter at time when he led a resistance against the global coalition of invaders. He was the leader of thousands of fighters and millions of common Afghans. He passed in simplicity in a mud house when his men had large swaths liberated from the invaders. He was the formidable leader of the freedom fighters of Afghanistan.

The life and struggles of the late Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid (RH) has many facets, his individual and social life has many features and different chapters, all of them worth mentioning yet cannot be explained here in a few pages, but here we will focus on one point to try and understand what have we gained and learned from the struggles of Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid (RH). The struggles of Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid (RH) made the path easy for us in order to follow the footsteps of our forefathers. His rule, governance, social behavior and way of thinking brought back the memories of good times in the history of Islam and our beloved country. People say and it is well-known among many that a pious man cannot involve himself in politics because it entails deciet, lies and cruelty but with his practical politics, he turned this false notion upside down. He conducted politics with its main pillars being justice, honesty and integrity.

He revived a forgotten tradition of the Muslim Ummah (Islamic Emirate) in which we have the Islamic sovereignty and Islamic system in which the religion of Allah and His law is the main source for ruling. He revived Shariah in Afghanistan which was as per the aspiration of all Afghans. During his rule many prominent religious scholars of the world acknowledged and said that we read about the Islamic system in theory (we had read in books) but we had not seen the Islamic system in practice. Praise be to Allah we now saw the system in practice too. His struggles showed us that everything should be in the light of religious guidelines, our religion should be above all and should dictate politics, business, social affairs and all individual and social affairs of the community and personal life. The secular and communist-minded elements of Afghanistan used to say that the religious minded class of the society cannot do politics and their only area of activity should be restricted to the mosque. The mullah can only talk about worship and has no right to say anything when it comes to the political situation and affairs of the country. This talk of the secular class even affected some religious minded people, some still think that religion and politics cannot go together. But the politics of Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid (RH) proved in practice that the religious minded class can pursue a political path which will become exemplary for everyone. He followed diplomatic policy based on mutual respect with the neighbors, the region and the world in the most difficult situations and he preserved both religious and national interests of Afghanistan.

The life and struggles of Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on him) showed and proved to all that in addition to being the imam of the mosque, the mullah can also be an active diplomat in the office, a competent commander in the field, a preacher on the pulpit, a renowned writer, poet and orator in literature and journalism, a just businessman in business and a dedicated servant and protector of religion, country and people.

Today the followers of Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on him) are following his footsteps and carrying on his noble mission for the supremacy of Islam, peace , stability and prosperity of our country and they will not rest until it is fulfilled and Afghans get for what their leader and everyone offered so much sacrifices for – an Islamic system and freedom of Afghanistan.