Source: http://forum.athaar.org/showthread.php?t=762
Mu'awiyah was one of the Companions of the Prophet and one of his scribes who recorded the Revelation. He was appointed governor of greater Syria by 'Umar after the death of his brother Yazid who had been appointed by Abu Bakr, and remained governor under 'Uthman. As he was related to 'Uthman, he was a leading force in demanding that his murderers be brought to justice. Thus he and 'Ali came to be on opposite sides in the Fitnah or Civil War. Eventually 'Ali was murdered by a Kharijite and his son Hasan declared khalif. When Hasan realised he could not control the situation, he handed over power to Mu'awiyah which led to peace and re-unification of the Umma in 40/661, the year known as the Year of the Jama'a, or Community. There was no further major civil unrest - except for the odd Kharijite agitation - during his reign. When he died, another chapter of the Fitnah ensued in the form of the war between his son Yazid and first Husayn, 'Ali's son, and then Ibn az-Zubayr in the Hijaz.
So what was it about Mu'awiyah which made his rule so successful to such an extent that the famous historian, adh-Dhahabi, points out that after al-Hasan had surrendered his claim to the khalifate, "Mu'awiyah reigned without a rival, and without losing any of the conquests of Islam. Neither 'Abdu'l-Malik, nor al-Mansur, nor Harun ar-Rashid earned this praise, unique in the annals of Islam"?
Before examining governance under Mu'awiyah, it must first be pointed out that defining the nature of governance in an Islamic context is somewhat difficult, not least because it has been a long time since Islam formed the foundation of governance and Muslims have tended to base themselves on Western political theories and then to "Islamicise" these theories. Even the question of what an ummah is causes problems. What precisely is the Muslim Ummah? When it is translated as "nation", it is inevitable that some of the connotations of the modern nation-state creep in, or if "community" is used, it becomes a purely social concept, something like a undefined social unit without any real political role. So any attempt to deal with Islamic governance is often fraught either with tinges of historical romanticism and utopic idealism, or else a pragmatism devoid of any real Islamic content - and so we find ourselves like Odysseus trying to pass between the twin perils of Scylla and Charybdis without being destroyed by either one. It is with the hope of avoiding these twin perils that we will examine how Mu'awiyah, one of the most successful of Muslim rulers, governed.
So what is the ummah? The concept of ummah was an entirely new one which superseded previous tribal and family allegiances, although these tendencies kept coming back, particularly in the case in the Ridda, or Revolt, which followed the death of the Prophet. We read in the Qur'an: "You will not find any people who believe in Allah and the Last Day who are loving to anyone who opposes Allah and His Messenger, even if they were their fathers or their sons, or their brothers or their clan." (Qur'an 58:22) Acceptance of and allegiance to the ummah, based on following Allah and His Prophet, became one's primary allegiance. This means that the umma is not a nation-state based on ethnicity or language. It is not surprising, then, that it left the Arabs of the time somewhat bemused. Like the revelation with its uncompromising statement of tawhid, the idea of a community whose central core of political cohesion was based on that same principle was entirely alien to them. In fact, it was probably alien to just about everyone of the time. And indeed, it kept being forgotten, and still is forgotten, in favour of 'asabiyya, or tribal solidarity.
The ummah is further delineated in the Qur'an when Allah says, "You are the best ummah brought forth to mankind - enjoining the correct and forbidding the incorrect and believing in Allah" (3:110) and "The believers, men and women, are protector-friends of each other, enjoining the correct and forbidding the incorrect." (9:71)
The Covenant of Madinah stipulated that the Muslims "Constitute one ummah" and "All believers shall rise as one man against whomsoever rebels or seeks to commit injustice, aggression, wrong action or spread mutual enmity between the believers, even though he be one of their sons. ... All believers are bonded together to the exclusion of other men."
This, then, is the polity of the Muslims, and it is clearly a political as well as a spiritual collective, the one being a logical consequence of the other. Being a Muslim necessarily entails certain political consequences.
Having defined what the polity is, the question becomes: how it is to be governed? Historically, there has been two basic forms of governance - and indeed Fiqh - which seem to reflect an eastern/ western split - and we find the same split in the forms of governance in eastern and western Christendom. In the east, we find the imperial form, reflecting the Persian Sassanid and Soghdian traditions, and, on the other side, initially in the Hijaz and Syria, a more open form of governance based on amirate and shura, which moved to Spain when the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads. I leave the imperial form to others. From 138/756, the Ummah is split because the Umayyads in Spain regarded the Abbasids as usurpers. From 316/929 there were two rulers with the title Amir al-Mu'minin, and in 334/945, the Buwayhids, the Persian military dynasty, assumed full power, and the khalif was a mere figurehead.
This brings up the question of leadership: how is a leader chosen?
When it comes to choosing the Khalif, in the early community there were four ways that the Khalif was chosen:
1. By the bay'ah of the people of loosing and binding (ahl al-hal wa'l-'aqd) i.e. the 'ulama' (people of knowledge), leaders and army commanders, as happened with the first Khalif, Abu Bakr.
2. By the will and appointment of the preceding khalif as happened with the second Khalif, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab.
3. By a decision of the consultation (shura) of a certain group - as with 'Uthman and 'Ali, the third and fourth khalifs.
4. By the successful assumption of power of a man possessing the requisite qualities and qualifications to be khalif (sometimes in conjunction with 1 or 2).
When the khalif has been chosen, bay'ah takes place. It is an act of validation by which the ruler accepts the duties of office and receives the power to discharge them, and the subjects undertake to obey him. It is usually translated as "allegiance" but this is somewhat unfortunate because rather than being one-sided, it is an agreement undertaken by two parties, like the conclusion of a sale from which the word is derived. As in any transaction, each side has an expectation of the other. In essence, the khalif makes an undertaking or covenant ('ahd) to act according to the Shari'a.
Hence the ruler has certain duties. He must respect and enforce the Shari'a and thus he must protect the interests of the ummah, defend or expand the frontiers, carry out jihad, administer public property, dispense justice and maintain internal security.
The behaviour of the ruler vis-a-vis his subject is a trust and a matter of grave concern for him in this world and the Next. The ruler is empowered to implement the Shari'a and all that entails, but he is nevertheless a custodian, and he expects to be corrected by the people of knowledge if he errs. When Abu Bakr was given the bay'a as Khalif, he stood up and addressed people, saying: O people! I have been put in charge over you, but I am not the best of you. If I act well, then help me, and if I act badly, then put me right. Truthfulness is a trust and lying is treachery. The weak among you is strong in my sight until I restore his right to him, Allah willing. The strong among you is weak in my sight until I take the right from him, Allah willing. People do not abandon jihad in the way of Allah but that Allah afflicts them with humiliation. Shamelessness does not spread in a people but that Allah envelops them in affliction. Obey me as long as I obey Allah and His Messenger. If I disobey Allah and His Messenger, you owe me no obedience. (Sira Ibn Hisham)
Mu'awiyah was one of the Companions of the Prophet and one of his scribes who recorded the Revelation. He was appointed governor of greater Syria by 'Umar after the death of his brother Yazid who had been appointed by Abu Bakr, and remained governor under 'Uthman. As he was related to 'Uthman, he was a leading force in demanding that his murderers be brought to justice. Thus he and 'Ali came to be on opposite sides in the Fitnah or Civil War. Eventually 'Ali was murdered by a Kharijite and his son Hasan declared khalif. When Hasan realised he could not control the situation, he handed over power to Mu'awiyah which led to peace and re-unification of the Umma in 40/661, the year known as the Year of the Jama'a, or Community. There was no further major civil unrest - except for the odd Kharijite agitation - during his reign. When he died, another chapter of the Fitnah ensued in the form of the war between his son Yazid and first Husayn, 'Ali's son, and then Ibn az-Zubayr in the Hijaz.
So what was it about Mu'awiyah which made his rule so successful to such an extent that the famous historian, adh-Dhahabi, points out that after al-Hasan had surrendered his claim to the khalifate, "Mu'awiyah reigned without a rival, and without losing any of the conquests of Islam. Neither 'Abdu'l-Malik, nor al-Mansur, nor Harun ar-Rashid earned this praise, unique in the annals of Islam"?
Before examining governance under Mu'awiyah, it must first be pointed out that defining the nature of governance in an Islamic context is somewhat difficult, not least because it has been a long time since Islam formed the foundation of governance and Muslims have tended to base themselves on Western political theories and then to "Islamicise" these theories. Even the question of what an ummah is causes problems. What precisely is the Muslim Ummah? When it is translated as "nation", it is inevitable that some of the connotations of the modern nation-state creep in, or if "community" is used, it becomes a purely social concept, something like a undefined social unit without any real political role. So any attempt to deal with Islamic governance is often fraught either with tinges of historical romanticism and utopic idealism, or else a pragmatism devoid of any real Islamic content - and so we find ourselves like Odysseus trying to pass between the twin perils of Scylla and Charybdis without being destroyed by either one. It is with the hope of avoiding these twin perils that we will examine how Mu'awiyah, one of the most successful of Muslim rulers, governed.
So what is the ummah? The concept of ummah was an entirely new one which superseded previous tribal and family allegiances, although these tendencies kept coming back, particularly in the case in the Ridda, or Revolt, which followed the death of the Prophet. We read in the Qur'an: "You will not find any people who believe in Allah and the Last Day who are loving to anyone who opposes Allah and His Messenger, even if they were their fathers or their sons, or their brothers or their clan." (Qur'an 58:22) Acceptance of and allegiance to the ummah, based on following Allah and His Prophet, became one's primary allegiance. This means that the umma is not a nation-state based on ethnicity or language. It is not surprising, then, that it left the Arabs of the time somewhat bemused. Like the revelation with its uncompromising statement of tawhid, the idea of a community whose central core of political cohesion was based on that same principle was entirely alien to them. In fact, it was probably alien to just about everyone of the time. And indeed, it kept being forgotten, and still is forgotten, in favour of 'asabiyya, or tribal solidarity.
The ummah is further delineated in the Qur'an when Allah says, "You are the best ummah brought forth to mankind - enjoining the correct and forbidding the incorrect and believing in Allah" (3:110) and "The believers, men and women, are protector-friends of each other, enjoining the correct and forbidding the incorrect." (9:71)
The Covenant of Madinah stipulated that the Muslims "Constitute one ummah" and "All believers shall rise as one man against whomsoever rebels or seeks to commit injustice, aggression, wrong action or spread mutual enmity between the believers, even though he be one of their sons. ... All believers are bonded together to the exclusion of other men."
This, then, is the polity of the Muslims, and it is clearly a political as well as a spiritual collective, the one being a logical consequence of the other. Being a Muslim necessarily entails certain political consequences.
Having defined what the polity is, the question becomes: how it is to be governed? Historically, there has been two basic forms of governance - and indeed Fiqh - which seem to reflect an eastern/ western split - and we find the same split in the forms of governance in eastern and western Christendom. In the east, we find the imperial form, reflecting the Persian Sassanid and Soghdian traditions, and, on the other side, initially in the Hijaz and Syria, a more open form of governance based on amirate and shura, which moved to Spain when the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads. I leave the imperial form to others. From 138/756, the Ummah is split because the Umayyads in Spain regarded the Abbasids as usurpers. From 316/929 there were two rulers with the title Amir al-Mu'minin, and in 334/945, the Buwayhids, the Persian military dynasty, assumed full power, and the khalif was a mere figurehead.
This brings up the question of leadership: how is a leader chosen?
When it comes to choosing the Khalif, in the early community there were four ways that the Khalif was chosen:
1. By the bay'ah of the people of loosing and binding (ahl al-hal wa'l-'aqd) i.e. the 'ulama' (people of knowledge), leaders and army commanders, as happened with the first Khalif, Abu Bakr.
2. By the will and appointment of the preceding khalif as happened with the second Khalif, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab.
3. By a decision of the consultation (shura) of a certain group - as with 'Uthman and 'Ali, the third and fourth khalifs.
4. By the successful assumption of power of a man possessing the requisite qualities and qualifications to be khalif (sometimes in conjunction with 1 or 2).
When the khalif has been chosen, bay'ah takes place. It is an act of validation by which the ruler accepts the duties of office and receives the power to discharge them, and the subjects undertake to obey him. It is usually translated as "allegiance" but this is somewhat unfortunate because rather than being one-sided, it is an agreement undertaken by two parties, like the conclusion of a sale from which the word is derived. As in any transaction, each side has an expectation of the other. In essence, the khalif makes an undertaking or covenant ('ahd) to act according to the Shari'a.
Hence the ruler has certain duties. He must respect and enforce the Shari'a and thus he must protect the interests of the ummah, defend or expand the frontiers, carry out jihad, administer public property, dispense justice and maintain internal security.
The behaviour of the ruler vis-a-vis his subject is a trust and a matter of grave concern for him in this world and the Next. The ruler is empowered to implement the Shari'a and all that entails, but he is nevertheless a custodian, and he expects to be corrected by the people of knowledge if he errs. When Abu Bakr was given the bay'a as Khalif, he stood up and addressed people, saying: O people! I have been put in charge over you, but I am not the best of you. If I act well, then help me, and if I act badly, then put me right. Truthfulness is a trust and lying is treachery. The weak among you is strong in my sight until I restore his right to him, Allah willing. The strong among you is weak in my sight until I take the right from him, Allah willing. People do not abandon jihad in the way of Allah but that Allah afflicts them with humiliation. Shamelessness does not spread in a people but that Allah envelops them in affliction. Obey me as long as I obey Allah and His Messenger. If I disobey Allah and His Messenger, you owe me no obedience. (Sira Ibn Hisham)