We shall now take our leave from the volatile arena of jihad for a quieter, more serene, but equally vital arena of Shehu Usman's thoughts on the new, noble state that had just come into being. How, for example, would he visualize the unfolding of history in the course of the life of this young state? What was his vision of an Islamic state: in which way, .for example, would it differ from the Hausa kingdoms it had replaced? And if decline is inevitable for all peoples and all states, what would be his recipe for avoiding disintegration? Our main sources in this endeavour are the Shehu's Bayan Wujub al-Hijra, his Kitab al-Farq and his Usul al-Adl.

The Road to Revolution

The Shehu saw his role in leading to the establishment of the caliphate as similar in many respects to that of the Prophet Muhammad who came to call his people 'to profess belief in the unity of God, and demonstrated to them shining miracles in the face of which no man of sound judgement would doubt that he was the Messenger of God'. However, the Messenger of Allah was at first rejected and severely persecuted. His followers were killed and forced into exile. But he endured and persisted in his mission.

The Prophet had an ardent desire to see his people spared the prospect of destruction, even though their treatment of the Prophet was contemptuous and unjust. 'When their persecution intensified,' the Shehu recalled, 'Gabriel came to him and said, "O Muhammad, God has ordered heaven, earth and the mountains to obey you." He replied, "I (wish to) grant a respite to my community for it may be that God will forgive them." The question of rushing to establish a 'state' on the ruin of his community was never contemplated by the Prophet. All along he had hoped for one of three things: that his people be guided to the right path, by which they would be saved from the wrath of Allah, and made to live a successful life here, and a still worthier and more successful life in the hereafter; that in the case of their rejecting his message, Allah might, in His unbounded mercy, grant them His pardon, and that, alternatively, He would at least, raise out of them a generation that would accept the message and be guided rightly.

The Prophet's conviction that perseverance was a key to ultimate success restrained any tendency in him to seek an armed confrontation prematurely. 'In spite of the offer his Lord gave him,' the Shehu insisted, 'he was not the first to resort to force against them; on the contrary, he used to present himself to the tribes and during festive seasons saying, "Who will believe in me? Who will help me so that I can convey the message of my Lord and thus secure for himself (a place in) paradise?" In the end Allah opened for him the door of hijra and through it, the ultimate door to the perfection of religion and the termination of the days of ignorance.'

The system established by the Prophet after his Victory over the systems of ignorance thrived principally on his 'sublime attributes', including his personal discipline and his austere and abstemious life in the midst of numerous opportunities for an easy and comfortable life which his position as the head of state necessarily opened to him. The leader's self-restraint, his indifference to material privileges and his selflessness constitute the essence of being an imam as opposed to being a king. It is in this way that a leader symbolizes the spirit that gives birth to a new system, and carries it further and reinforces it by personal example and commitment.

The Prophet also had an absolute sense of humility, both in his personal conduct and his exercise of power. The Shehu noted that when the Prophet was given the option of being either a prophet and a king or a prophet and a slave, he replied, 'Rather a slave!' He noted further that the Prophet prevented his people from standing up for him as a mark of respect, saying, 'I am only a slave; I eat as a slave eats, and sit as a slave does.' His humility in private life was also revered by the Shehu:

In his own house he used to pursue the occupation of his family, i.e. serve them; he deloused his clothing, patched it, repaired his sandals, served himself, gave fodder to his camel used for water-carrying, swept the house, ate with the servant and kneaded dough with him and carried his own goods from the market, (a job) which he allowed nobody else to do for him. . . . He himself served when entertaining a guest. . . . He used to accept the excuse which one made, be the first to shake hands with his friends, and he never interrupted anyone who was speaking, nor made any displeasing remark to anybody. He never avenged himself save when the holy things of God were abused, then he would punish for the sake of God.

Another attribute of the Prophet was that he fixed his gaze in the course of his entire life on the hereafter, disdaining to take advantages of his life lest he should be occupied with it to the detriment of his relationship with Allah. Even as the booties from the battle-fields kept pouring into his treasury, even as territories came under his control at a rate beyond his imagination, even as people came to him in complete submission, the Prophet's mind was always occupied with the thought of Allah, and his ultimate abode. 'Nothing is dearer to me,' the Shehu quoted the Prophet, 'than to join my brothers and my intimate friends (i.e. his fellow Prophets).' One month later, the Prophet died, without ever desiring to enjoy material benefit from his lifetime struggle in the guidance of mankind - he died seeking purely the reward that is with Allah.

The Shehu's objectite in telling about the Prophet and the four rightly guided Caliphs perhaps killed two birds with one stone: he showed the attributes of the best of Muslim leaders, the nature of the Islamic state and the fundamental goals of Islamic polity; and secondly, he showed the likely trend in the history of his own state - from a merciful and compassionate caliphate, to monarchy and then to universal corruption and tyranny.' And all could happen within a period of only fifty years.

Shehu's Vision for the Caliphate

The mujaddid's vision of his own caliphate was essentially characterized by two fundamental attributes: a commitment to moral values and to an unconditional, universal justice. The mujaddid was determined to create a state far superior to and totally different from the Hausa states he had just overthrown. The new spirit can be summarized in two words: justice and piety.

The Moral Foundation of the State

Of the ten 'qualities commendable both for princes and others', mentioned in Bayan, we shall content ourselves with five. These qualities are an expression of the Shehu's concept of the nature of the new social order.

The first quality is wisdom - that moral and intellectual discipline which enables a person to join the company of angels while retaining essential human characteristics; it is the ability to strike a balance between the material and the spiritual in life. Proceeding from the two premises laid down in the hadith, namely that 'the best men are the wisest' and that wisdom takes one nearer to Allah, the Shehu stated that to be wise means that one should be a master of one's desires. Wisdom is therefore acquired not as much from books as from a life supported by honest and lawful income. The overriding importance of wisdom to the new order was articulated by the Shehu. 'A wise man,' he said, 'is guided aright by his wisdom and fortified by his sound judgement, so that what he says is sound and what he does is commendable, while an ignorant man is caused to go astray as a result of his ignorance; so what he says is unsound and what he does is objectionable.' Further: 'the merit of wisdom is that one can judge what one has not witnessed according to what one has witnessed. So he who can judge what he has not witnessed by what he has witnessed is called wise.' Wisdom entails the ability to make sound moral judgements and the possession of a keen and penetrating sense of history. The Shehu was, however, quick to add a provision: wisdom is essential, but its value can be undermined if it is not freed from its mortal enemies - caprice, envy, arrogance, greed and other desires.

A second quality that should characterize the spirit of the new state is knowledge. The need for the ruler of the Islamic state to be a man of knowledge is vital, for in as much as the ruler is the symbol of the state, his actions, behaviour and character are bound to influence society as a whole. 'All people,' the Shehu explained, 'derive fine qualities from the ruler and are indebted to him for laws, the checking of quarrels and settling of disputes. So, more than any other of God's creation he is in need of being acquainted with learning and gathering (knowledge) of the law.' The very fact of his being a leader places on him the obligation to be learned. To be successful in government the ruler should not have to rely on aides who might tell him what they think he wants to hear rather than what he ought to be told. 'For a ruler, as the Shehu says, 'sets himself up to deal with people's natures, to settle their disputes, and to undertake their government. All that requires outstanding, learning, keen insight and extensive study. How would he get on if he had not made the necessary preparations and made himself ready for these matters?' An ignorant ruler is most likely to be held hostage by his own advisers who inflate his ego in order to use him for their own purposes. A state will be on a sure path when the love of knowledge, its acquisition and its propagation becomes a characteristic. The role of scholars as administrators, judges, custodians of moral values and ideological guides of the caliphate was crucial: in fact, the success of the state depended ultimately on the extent to which it was able to draw inspiration and support from the scholars.

A further essential quality to the state is that of generosity, which operates on two levels. The first level consists of the material support that a state can give to individuals, that individuals can give to each other, with the aim of strengthening mutual brotherhood. The second level of generosity is the higher, which entails being 'so generous with your soul-that you wear it out for the sake of God, in worshipping Him and in willingly undertaking jihad in His path, seeking nothing but His good pleasure'. The caliphate had two tasks before it: the advancement of the well being of the people through a voluntary mutual support scheme initiated by the people themselves but boosted by the state, and the development of the caliphate through a continuous effort to defend the state and expand its frontiers.

The quality of patience is also necessary, in the post-revolutionary phase acquiring a new significance. It means an unswerving determination to carry out the fundamental objectives of the state and to establish the required institutions regardless of the material and moral costs. Patience would mean a determined resistance to the forces of evil which might have adopted new tactics to frustrate the realization of the objectives of the state.

The last of the five essential qualities is gratitude. How else could Muslims express their appreciation for Allah's support? When they were weak, He strengthened them. When they were scattered, .He brought them "together. When they were oppressed, He gave them victory and made them rulers.

God has said: 'Few are those who are thankful among My servants.' Gratitude is of three degrees. Gratitude from the heart, from the tongue, and from the bodily members. The first is to recognize that blessing comes from God alone. On this subject there is God's word: Whatsoever blessing you have, it comes from God. The second, which is gratitude from the tongue, is to talk about that, as in God's word: 'And as for your Lord's blessing, declare it.' The essence of it is to praise the Beneficent for His beneficence. The third, which is gratitude from the bodily members, is to pay God's due with each member and to worship Him with all of them. On this subject there is God's word: 'Labour, O House of David, in thankfulness. '

The Social Edifice of the State

We shall now look at the Shehu's conception of justice that should characterize the state. Proceeding from the principle established in the Quran that Allah is not heedless of the atrocities being committed by oppressors - He is only giving them rope with which to hang themselves - the Shehu postulated two assumptions in his Bayan. First, oppression is the main source of the collapse of a people: 'oppression is the thing most conducive to the withholding of divine favour and the occurrence of catastrophes.' Second, the oppressed are the ones most likely to triumph. Allah's statement that He would ultimately destroy the 'oppressor and oppressive systems is, in the Shehu's words, 'a sufficient warning to the oppressor and a sufficient consolation to the oppressed'.

Justice, then, was Shehu Usman's recipe for national stability and progress: it is the key to a nation's endurance on the stage of history. The principles of justice put forward by the Shehu and the social and political policies he recommended for the state are the subjects of his Usul al-Adl and Kitab al-Farq. In Usul al-Adl, the Shehu laid down ten principles of justice, mainly addressed to the overall ruler himself, as the symbol of the state. The first of these principles is that the Sultan should bear in mind the implications of his office. It is on the one hand a source of blessing for one who exercises it properly; and on the other, for one who misuses it. It is a source of unmitigated torment and misery. The just sultan will have the enviable benefit of being the 'dearest of people to Allah', and the unjust sultan will have to pay the consequences of being the most hateful of people to Allah.

The essence of justice is that the laws of Allah should be applied meticulously, without fear or favour. Since Allah established His law in a perfect order and for the purpose of realizing a comprehensive justice, it is foolish for a Sultan to tamper with it, even 'with good intentions. The ruler should recognize one fundamental principle: Allah knows best how society should be organized and managed, and how an abiding and comprehensive justice can be achieved, as set out in the Sharia.

An additional principle is that the ruler should endeavour to have upright and courageous scholars as his advisers and should himself listen to their advice. The scholars, on their part, must advise the ruler in accordance with what is best for both the ruler and the ruled, and must therefore not hide anything from the ruler for fear of displeasing him. Here the Shehu was stressing the crucial role of the intellectual community in the state. As the conscience of society, they are under a binding obligation to give direction to government'. Similarly, as the symbol of the oppressed, they have a duty to raise their voices against injustice and against all tendencies that could lead to permissiveness and luxury. Their exalted status in society demands that they dissociate themselves from all oppressive policies, and that they rush to the aid of the oppressed against the oppressor. They must share the people's aspirations, yearnings and, as much as possible, their sufferings. And because the scholar's association with the rulers is to establish justice, such an association should cease when justice is abandoned by the state. Thus, in reality, the scholar's tent should ever be pitched with the people, not with the ruling class, and the intellectual community should not constitute a community separate from the mass of the people.

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