The Nature of Tyranny

And the Devastating Results of Oppression

Abdul Rahman Al-Kawakibi

• Publisher: Hurst Publishers
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781787385481
• eBook ISBN: 9781787386303
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Fascism & Totalitarianism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Nature of Tyranny was written and published at the dawn of the twentieth century by Abdul Rahman Al-Kawakibi, one of the pioneering thinkers of the Arab world. More than a century later, another Arab awakening exploded, led by a new generation of youth who chanted Al-Kawakibi’s words in revolutionary cries from Aleppo, his hometown, to Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Today this seminal text appears in English for the first time, with a foreword from Leon T. Goldsmith offering an overview of Al-Kawakibi’s intellectual contributions. The first chapter of the text provides a definition of tyranny, presenting it as akin to a sickness or malaise that seeps into all classes of society, leaving behind decay. The following seven chapters apply this conception of tyranny to what Al-Kawakibi sees as society’s crucial elements: religion, knowledge, honour, economy, ethics and progress. Having laid a theoretical framework for understanding the centrality of tyranny, its characteristics and its devastating effects, Al-Kawakibi concludes by setting forth a brief programme for remedying the ‘disease’ of tyranny. The final chapter outlines another book in which he had planned to elaborate upon his ideas–but, ultimately, his fate arrived too soon.

GETTING RID OF TYRANNY

We do not have a better teacher than history, and no better proof than deduction. Human beings lived for a long time in a natural “wild” phase, wandering in groups around water resources. The need for nursing and care during the long period of weak human childhood attached him to his family. They were feeding at that stage on plants, and hunted animals on land and sea, driven only by free will and desire, and led by the stronger members to lands of livelihood.

Human beings progressed thereafter to a Bedouin phase of “ownership” and formed clans and tribes. They started to collect prey and store seeds for later time of need. This led them to stay together to protect their wealth and their herds of cattle, and to protect their stores, grassland, and water resources from competitors. Large groups of human beings developed early civil life. They established villages to cultivate land and grow food for living. They did grow, but in misery, and they deserved it because God created them to walk around freely all over the land to admire the great creation of God, but instead, they settled down into ignorance and humiliation. God created land free for all, but human beings started private ownership. So, God implemented upon them a tyrant who may exploit their wealth and enslave them. This group of people lived without natural collective drive. They were driven only by the desires of city dwellers. Their law is to oppress, or to be oppressed.

Some human groups progressed and developed skills either in material aspects, i.e., workers, or in theoretical aspects, i.e., people of knowledge and science. They dwelled in cities, where despite imprisoning their bodies within walls, they managed to liberate their thoughts and minds to explore the universe. They became rich in wealth and expanded their needs as well. However, most of them did not discover the ideal method of ruling and managing large societies, that is why we observe many types of governments, and no nation is completely settled on a certain satisfactory form. Nations tried various types of political formats according to the dominance of progressive or oppressive parties in their societies.

The agreement on the type and format of the government is one of the greatest and oldest problems in human history. It is the field of challenge for many researchers, and the field in which many individuals explored on the back of an elephant of wisdom, a camel of ignorance, a horse of intuition, or a donkey of foolishness, until late in human history when the Western people explored it courageously, riding detailed thinking in steamboats, and established some basic rules in this field, guided by reason and experimentation to reach some definite proof. These rules and regulations became firm common social agreements in advanced nations, despite the fact that these nations are still divided into separate competing political parties, because their differences are mainly about the methods of implementing these common rules and their application in their specific conditions.

These rules that became intuitive issues in the West are still unknown, foreign, or unacceptable in the East where many did not even hear about them, while some ignored, and others did not accept because they have special interests or ill intentions.

I present here to the reviewers the main topics of some issues related to political life. However, before I mention them, I remind readers about the definition of tyranny as “The government that does not have a specific, clear and known relationship with the nation that is guarded by undisputed law.” I also alert them to the fact that no promise can be trusted by any state authority, whoever he is, and no covenant or pledge can be trusted to guard religion, piety, justice, honor, fairness, general public interest, or any such important general issues that may be declared by any good or evil person, because all statements may be delivered as empty speeches, as criminals always find excuses, and oppression is a nature of power and authority. Authority can only be restrained with power.

Coming back to the issues I wanted to present to reviewers, they are:

1 –What is a nation? Or people?

Is it just a collection of creatures? A society of slaves of an oppressive owner who is to be obeyed even when hated? Or is it a group of people with common religion, race, language, country, common rights, and a voluntary political bond where each individual has the right to state his opinion, as clearly stated in the highest and most eloquent Islamic rule: “All of you are shepherds, and each shepherd is responsible for his subjects”?

2 –What is a government?

Is it the authority of ownership by an individual over a group of people, while he is free to handle their conditions as he wishes, and to enjoy exploitation of their work as he desires? Or is it a voluntary authorization by the nation to manage its common public interests?

3 –What are national rights?

Are they the rights of individual kings considered, by metaphor, as national interests? Or, on the contrary, are they the rights of the nation that are passed to the rulers for them to protect and maintain its interests, such as the land, minerals, rivers, beaches, castles, temples, navy, equipment, and borders, as well as to guarantee security and maintain justice, order, religion, good behavior, law, treaties, commerce, and all such issues that are the rights of every member of a nation to enjoy and to feel safe and secure about?

4 –Equal rights.

Does the government have the right to dispose of public material and intellectual rights as it wishes in giving and deprivation? Or are all rights equally preserved for all individuals, and are all public revenues and liabilities fairly and equally distributed between all groups, cities, ethnicities, and religious groups? Are all individuals equal in having the right for fair representation in a just legal system?

5 –Individual rights.

Does the government have control over individuals’ actions and ideas? Or do individuals have freedom of thought and activity within the common social law because they are more familiar with their own interests, while the government does not interfere except in general public issues?

6 –The type of government.

Is it better to have an absolute monarchy without any control? Or is it better to have one that is restricted by certain conditions? And what conditions? Is it better to have leaders elected for life, or be limited to a certain time period? Is governance achieved by inheritance? By a treaty? Or by force? Is it achieved by chance? Or under certain conditions of competence? What are the conditions, and how are they accomplished? How is the government monitored, and how is continuous monitoring assured?

7 –What is the duty of the government?

Is it the management of public interests according to its own ideas and opinions? Or is it restricted by law according to the desire of the nation, even if it was not the best option? When a government has a different opinion about what is beneficial or harmful to the nation, does the government have to resign?

8 –The rights of governance.

Is the government free to allocate to itself by itself whatever it wants of honorary ranks, grades, and salaries, distributing the wealth and the rights of the nation as it wishes? Or is the management of all such issues in giving, limiting, or restricting totally controlled by the nation?

9 –Obedience of the government by the nation.

Is the management plan under the control of the nation, and the government must implement it? Or is the plan set by the government, and the nation must follow? Can the government force the nation to blindly obey, and to force its orders without understanding or conviction? Or must the government care about convincing the nation by all possible means so that the nation may sincerely follow with honesty?

10 –Distribution of assignments.

Is determining taxes completely left to the decision of the government? Or does the nation make decisions about required expenditure, approve the budget, and agree on collection and maintenance methods?

11 –Defense readiness.

Is preparing defense forces and recruiting men and arms for defense completely left to the government to apply with impunity, to be reduced or increased or abused in oppressing the nation? Or is it under the command of the nation so that force is used in the nation’s interest, not against its will for the benefit of the government?

12 –Monitoring the government.

Is the government above the law and unable to be questioned? Or does the nation have the right to control the government in managing its interests? Does the nation have the right to elect representatives who have full access to information and can hold anyone responsible so that the most important duty of the representatives is to guard the nation’s basic rights and to protect its interests in confronting the government?

13 –Maintaining national security.

Does everyone have the task of protecting himself and his belongings? Or does the government have the duty to protect him whether at home or traveling, and to guarantee him security against natural disasters by preemptive measures, not just by compensation?

14 –Law and authority.

Does the government have the authority to force individuals to work according to its own opinion and decisions without legal procedures? Or is the authority restricted by law except under specific temporary circumstances?

15 –Assuring legal justice.

Is justice limited to what the government decides? Or is it under the control of judges who are independent and protected against any influence other than the law, and protected against any pressure even by the public opinion?

16 –Protecting religion and proper social conduct.

Do the government and the legislators have any control over public beliefs and ethics? Or is its authority limited to the maintenance of major common relationships, such as religion, nationality, language, traditions, and general public conduct, using wise measures if sufficient without requiring punishment? Does the government stay away from religious issues as long as its sacred believes are not violated? Are Islamic politics a form of theological governance? Or was that only limited to the initial phase of Islam, as a type of martial law immediately after conquering new areas?

17 –Assignment of duties by law.

Does anyone in the government, whether a general ruler or a simple policeman, have absolute power to implement his opinion at will? Or is each government’s duty controlled by a specific and clear job description that is not violated by anyone, even for important public reasons, except under grave danger to the national interest?

18 –How laws are issued.

Are the laws of the country passed according to the opinion of the grand ruler? Or by a group he selects for that task? Or is the law laid down by a group of representatives elected by the general public as persons who are knowledgeable about the interests of their people and what is suitable to the public nature, habits and benefits? Is the law applied in general or may it vary according to various elements and natures, and be changed under different circumstances and times?

19 –What is the law? And what is its authority?

Is the law a collection of judgments used by the powerful to oppress the weak? Or is it a collection of decisions reached according to the relations between individuals taking into consideration the nature of the majority? Does it comprise clear text without any ambiguity or complexity? Does the authority of the law cover all classes, and can it be implemented without being influenced by any personal interest, pardon, or inappropriate piety? Is the law accepted by all as the natural law of the nation, respected and protected by all individuals?

20 –Distribution of jobs and employment.

Is the distribution of jobs limited to the relatives of the ruler, his clan, and his supporters? Or is it distributed as a public national right to all groups and tribes, even in taking turns, and considering the difference in importance and numbers so that government employees represent the whole nation, or they are the nation in miniature? Does the government develop efficient well-informed individuals, even by compulsory education if needed?

21 –Separation between political authority, religion, and education.

Is there a collection of several authorities under the control of one person? Or is each duty in politics, religion, or education authorized to persons who can implement each task with efficiency and mastery? Mastery cannot be accomplished except by specialization....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword by Leon T. Goldsmith
• Translator’s Note
• Preface
• Introduction
• What is Tyranny?
• Tyranny and Religion
• Tyranny and Knowledge
• Tyranny and Honor
• Tyranny and Wealth
• Tyranny and Ethics
• Tyranny and Pedagogy
• Tyranny and Progress
• Getting Rid of Tyranny
• Notes
• Back Cover