X-Periences
IRANIAN POWER ON THE VERGE DECLINE
By: SHEIKH MOHAMMAD IQBAL
We weaken alcohol to a degree that it becomes mere water and ceases to be an intoxicant." The caliph was not satisfied with this reply. He wrote back to Khalid: " The progency of Maghirah has undergone chastisement because of its excesses. Allah exempt you from such a death." (HKL.,305) He also advised him that whatever wealth he had obtained should be dedicated to poor and weaker section of Muhajirin. He regretted that he (Khalid)was extending favors to influential men, persons of status and orators . He ordered Khalid to submit accounts and insisted that he should not give even a camel or a goat to anyone as reward. This should reveal that Khalid had been going against the Caliph instruction. He is reported to have remarked on receiving this particular command: "Allow me to do my job or otherwise you are free to do whatever you like." Whether these words could be uttered by a responsible commander- administrator is not believable.
Keen observers among modern Muslim scholars such as Haykal and the like deem it hard to accept whether the conditions of people and the conduct of civil and military administration would improve if commanders and governors did not submit to supervision and did whatever they liked even though their sincerity and honesty authority could not be questioned . Were Khalid , for instance, to exercise authority without carrying out Caliphal instruction, it was likely that he could grow into an autoerotic ruler like jibillah Ghassani or the governors of imperial Byzantium or Iran. Once he punished or rewarded someone as he wished. He might at one stage , it could be expected, 'turn down the advice of the Caliph who might react( this was true of Umar) Knowing his rigidity and piety. In the present case Caliph Umar was already unhappy with the eminent general. May be that Khalid did not commit ' excesses' in public affairs consciously. Moreover , if he did something untoward (in the eyes of the Caliph) it was because he was aware of his own great achievements and of his having been a commander- darling of the Apostle of Allah, on him be peace, and his First Caliph . Nevertheless. Caliph Umar does not seem to have proceeded roughshod against Khalid bin Walid. Even though he was worried about the general's 'mild enormities,' the Caliph knew well the immediate consequences of a drastic action.
One might imagine trouble if Khalid were touched by a strict Caliphal command . Were the Caliph to dismiss him, there would be a division among Muslims (for khalid was not an ordinary man) and probably even a revolt could break leading to further trouble on the part of the Romans who might exploit the situation to their advantage. The Caliph would have then to rebuke himself only and no one else would be accountable to Allah for the difficulty. (HKL.,306)
But the Caliph was not a person to hesitate. He at once wrote to Abu Ubaidah to call Khalid to his place, get his hands fastened with his own turban after having removed his cap and then ask him. "Whether he had given the reward to Ash'ah from the booty or from his own. If it was from the spoils of war then he was guilty of irregularity and if from his own pocket then he had committed the sin of extravagance." The Caliph further ordered that in both cases. (if either was proved against him) he was to be removed from his post and position . The Supreme Commander was surprised to read the contents of the letter. Carrying out the Caliphal command, Abu Ubaidah summoned khalid, took his seat on the pulpit and the action was left to the messenger of the Caliph and Bilal bin Ribah. When asked whether he had given the reward from the booty or from his own , Khalid observed silence. So did Abu Ubaidah who could not know the meaning and the implications of the order of Caliph Umar.
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