right of controlling the destinies of others to bring more and more economic advantages to their own people. Aggression in one form or another is the very essence of the civilized state. The weak have no rights; the right belongs only to those who have the might, who have the strength to command respect and attention. This mentality has been developed by Western nations, resulting in states striving to outvie others in armies and armaments. And the result is a deadly conflict of the different states and the desire to destroy one another.
The responsibility for this state of things rests entirely with the materialistic concept of the state. Every state must necessarily be invested with power, with which it may stop aggression and protect the weak, dealing out fair justice to all. The advance of science has increased this power a thousandfold. On the other hand, materialistic outlook on life has made man more unscrupulous in the use of his power against fellow man, and with advancement in the conquest of nature, the conquest of self which alone serves as a check on the tyranny of man against man, has been retarded and thrown to the background. The result is that the increased powers of the state, which must necessarily be exercised through individuals, are being used more for the enslavement and destruction of man than for his deliverance from tyranny and upholding the cause of truth and justice. It has been rightly remarked that while science has given man powers fit for the gods, to their use, the civilized man brings the mentality of a savage. The state, instead of being helpful in increasing human happiness for which it was originally meant, has become a menace to human happiness, with the individual being so enthralled by this idol that, willingly or unwillingly, he is working as a part of the machinery for the destruction of humanity.
It is to remedy this evil that Islām requires the vesting of state authority in the hands of men who are God-fearing before all. The state which the Holy Prophet founded was invested with physical force, as every state must necessarily be, but it was a unique service which he rendered to humanity that he spiritualized the greatest of all human physical forces. The head of the state in Islām is called both an Amīr (lit., one who commands) and an Imām (lit., a person whose example is followed), i.e., a person who stands on a very high moral plane. On