Muayad Al-Samaraee

Introduction by the Author: Why This Report?
Understanding the foundations of governance and leadership in light of divine standards is a strategic necessity for national security, especially amid the regional and international chaos witnessed in the region and the world. The Holy Qur’an and previous heavenly books did not leave the matter of governance and leadership to purely human reasoning; rather, they established precise and immutable standards that ensure justice, righteousness, and the flourishing of the earth, and warn against corruption, arrogance, and tyranny.
This report presents a comprehensive vision for national security from a divine perspective, drawing on the story of Abraham and Ishmael (peace be upon them) as an authentic model of achieving Islam, explaining the foundations of governance and leadership, analyzing the eternal conflict between two factions: the people of Abraham’s creed and the people of worldly boasting, and refuting attempts to export chaos and revolutions as a tool for controlling the destiny of peoples. It is a cognitive effort aimed at providing a strategic framework for national security based on immutable divine laws, benefiting from contemporary analytical tools, in an integration of revelation, experience, and reason, far from bias or blind imitation.

First: The Creedal Foundation — Achieving Islam Between Heartfelt Submission and Practical Implementation
Islam is achieved in its highest form when heartfelt submission is joined with practical implementation. In the story of Abraham and Ishmael (peace be upon them), this truth is manifested in the verse: “So when they had both submitted and he laid him upon his forehead” (As-Saffat: 103). The phrase “they had both submitted” means the heart’s surrender and contentment with God’s command, entrusting the matter to Him. And “he laid him upon his forehead” represents the actual practical implementation, where the father proceeds to sacrifice his son and the son submits to be an offering to God. The matter did not remain an intention or words; rather, it became complete Islam: obedience, submission, and action. Then God said: “You have fulfilled the vision” (As-Saffat: 105). This realization rests on four pillars: trusting faith in the unseen, logical faithful dialogue, cooperation in overcoming difficulties, and actual implementation. The dialogue was not an argument to reject the command, but a consultation on how to carry it out. Abraham said: “O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice you, so see what you think” (As-Saffat: 102). And Ishmael replied: “O my father, do as you are commanded; you will find me, if God wills, of the patient” (As-Saffat: 102). This shows that Islam is not based on blind imitation, but on proof, dialogue, and seeking certainty. Abraham himself debated his father and his people with argument, and asked God to show him how He gives life to the dead so his heart might be reassured: “My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead. He said, ‘Have you not believed?’ He said, ‘Yes, but [I ask] that my heart may be satisfied’” (Al-Baqarah: 260).

Second: Personal Experience as a Condition for Consulting Opinion — Ishmael as a Model
Ishmael (peace be upon him) was not tested only at the moment of sacrifice; his trial extended from childhood. He was settled with his mother in a valley without cultivation: “Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley” (Ibrahim: 37). He tasted hunger and thirst, and saw his mother’s submission to God and her striving between Safa and Marwah. Then he shared with his father in striving and raising the foundations of the House: “And when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House, and Ishmael” (Al-Baqarah: 127). He was not a pampered or indulged son, but a man of work and obedience from his youth. This establishes a fundamental rule: whoever is to be consulted in a matter should have lived it or lived its meanings. Ishmael was not consulted merely because he was a son, but because he had lived hardship and submission since infancy and had participated with his father in striving and building, so he was qualified to be consulted in the most difficult moment.

Third: Divine Honor for Abraham and Ishmael — Building the House and Praying for a Messenger
God honored Abraham and Ishmael by making the House a place of return and security for people: “And when We made the House a place of return for the people and a place of security” (Al-Baqarah: 125), by taking the Station of Abraham as a place of prayer: “And take the Station of Abraham as a place of prayer”, and by entrusting them to purify the House: “And We charged Abraham and Ishmael, saying, ‘Purify My House’”. Among the most prominent aspects of this honor is their prayer that God send a messenger from among their descendants: “Our Lord, send among them a messenger from themselves who will recite to them Your verses and teach them the Book and wisdom and purify them. Indeed, You are the Exalted in Might, the Wise” (Al-Baqarah: 129). They did not ask this for themselves alone, but for the community that would come after them, and they asked for a messenger from their own people to be closer to them in teaching and purification. This was answered with the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). God also made Abraham the one who named this community Muslims: “The religion of your father Abraham. He named you Muslims before and in this” (Al-Hajj: 78). He condemned those who reject his creed, describing them as foolish against themselves: “And who would be averse to the religion of Abraham except one who makes a fool of himself” (Al-Baqarah: 130). He described him as a nation, devoutly obedient to God: “Indeed, Abraham was a nation, devoutly obedient to God, inclining toward truth, and he was not of those who associate others with God” (An-Nahl: 120). “Nation” here means the teaching imam of goodness whom the people of guidance follow.

Fourth: Foundations of Governance and Leadership — Experience as a Condition for Empowerment
Leadership and authority are not attained except through trial and action. God said: “And when Abraham was tried by his Lord with commands, and he fulfilled them, He said, ‘Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people.’ He said, ‘And of my descendants?’ He said, ‘My covenant does not include the wrongdoers’” (Al-Baqarah: 124). The divine order is clear: trial and experience first, then leadership. When Abraham asked that prophethood be in his descendants as it was in him, God answered: “My covenant does not include the wrongdoers.” That is, God’s covenant of leadership and prophethood is not granted to one who has no experience or qualification, for whoever is given responsibility without experience or action is a wrongdoer against himself, transgressing against its right, placing the message in the wrong place. This necessitates that leadership comes only from experience. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was from the nobles of Quraysh, raised in a house of status and leadership, and knew governance, politics, and leadership from within the community of leadership, until he was called the Trustworthy and Honest before prophethood, and he arbitrated in the greatest dispute between tribes at the age of thirty-five. As for Joseph and Moses (peace be upon them), God’s decree brought them to be raised within the society of leadership and authority. Joseph was raised in the house of the Aziz, entered prison, then came out to be placed over the treasuries of the land, learning crisis management and economic planning from within the institution of governance. Moses was raised in the palace of Pharaoh, then lived in Midian, then returned to face Pharaoh and lead a nation, combining palace upbringing, the experience of exile, and the hardship of calling to God. All this indicates that the divine sequence in empowerment passes through acquiring experience, knowledge, and training in the environment of leadership and responsibility, not by skipping the laws.

Fifth: Popular Revolutions and the Divine Sequence of Empowerment
Popular revolutions do not necessarily mean that they are compatible with the divine sequence in acquiring experience, knowledge, and preparation for governance. People may move with enthusiasm, anger, or a desire for change, but divine empowerment does not rest on enthusiasm alone; it rests on the laws: training, experience, knowledge, qualification, justice, and reform. God said: “And these days We alternate among the people” (Al-Imran: 140), and said: “Indeed, God will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves” (Ar-Ra’d: 11). Comprehensive change requires training, preparation, and empowerment, not an impulse that may produce leaders without experience or qualification, leading to injustice and the return of tyranny under new names. This explains the verse: “My covenant does not include the wrongdoers.” Whoever assumes authority without experience or qualification has wronged himself and deserves to be removed from God’s covenant. Thus the divine balance remains constant: experience before leadership, trial before empowerment, qualification before responsibility.

Sixth: The Eternal Conflict Between Two Factions — The People of Abraham’s Creed and the People of Worldly Boasting
The real conflict since the dawn of history is between two factions, with no third. The first faction: the people of Abraham’s creed — the people of monotheism, submission, logic, proof, dialogue, and evidence, who make revelation their reference, their reason a servant to it, submit to God alone, refuse to submit to anyone other than God, and seek certainty through proof, not imitation. The second faction: those who follow worldly life — those who made their goal “adornment and boasting among yourselves” (Al-Hadid: 20), “more wealth and children” (Al-Kahf: 34), and “rivalry in wealth and children” (At-Takathur: 1–2). Their goal is increase, boasting, and elevation in the earth. The point of collision between the two factions is boasting and arrogance. Boasting is not merely a social behavior; it is the essence of disbelief and refusal of God’s command. Satan embodied this logic when he said: “I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay” (Al-A’raf: 12; Sad: 76). His refusal to prostrate to Adam — whom God created and honored by breathing into him of His spirit — was not pure ignorance, but arrogance and elevation based on element and matter, and a challenge to the Creator’s command out of gross ignorance caused by boasting. This is the same logic of those who reject Abraham’s creed: they see themselves as better, higher, richer, and with more children, so they become arrogant against submission to God. This conflict is what Abraham faced with his father and his people, with Nimrod, who said: “I give life and cause death” (Al-Baqarah: 258), and with a people who “were greater in number and stronger in might and traces in the earth” (Ar-Rum: 9). It is the same conflict between Adam and Iblis, between Moses and Pharaoh, between Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab, and between every prophet and his arrogant people.

Seventh: Exporting Chaos — A Threat to National Security and a Challenge to the Divine Order
States that instigate conflicts and revolutions and work to export them are challenging what came in the Holy Qur’an and all heavenly books, because they export chaos to control the destiny of peoples. This is the very essence of corruption in the earth that God forbade: “And do not cause corruption in the earth after its reformation” (Al-A’raf: 56), and He said: “Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by what the hands of people have earned” (Ar-Rum: 41), and He said: “And God does not like corrupters” (Al-Ma’idah: 64), and He said: “And do not seek corruption in the earth. Indeed, God does not like corrupters” (Al-Qasas: 77). God threatened corrupters with severe punishments: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against God and His Messenger and strive upon earth to cause corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land” (Al-Ma’idah: 33). He described corrupters as those who “destroy crops and progeny” (Al-Baqarah: 205). This warning is not specific to the Qur’an; it is a fundamental principle in the Torah, which warned against bringing sin upon the earth: “You shall not bring sin upon the land” (Deuteronomy 24:4), and cursed those who stir up strife among brothers: “and one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:19). In the Gospel, which advised caution against “those who create divisions and obstacles” (Romans 16:17), and affirmed that “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33), and Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). And in the principle of “Bal Tashchit” (Do Not Destroy), which prohibits deliberate destruction and rejects the logic of “scorched earth.” Whoever exports revolutions and chaos is challenging the divine laws that rest on reform, training, and empowerment, not on destruction, bombing, and controlling the destinies of peoples.

Eighth: The Unity of Heavenly Religions — All Are Religions of Islam
All heavenly religions that came after Abraham (peace be upon him) are in essence religions of Islam, meaning based on submission to God alone, even if the laws and methods differed. God said: “Say, ‘We have believed in God and what was revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and what was given to Moses and Jesus and what was given to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are Muslims to Him’” (Al-Baqarah: 136). And He said: “He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined upon Noah and that which We have revealed to you and what We enjoined upon Abraham and Moses and Jesus — to establish the religion and not be divided therein” (Ash-Shura: 13). And He said: “To each of you We prescribed a law and a method” (Al-Ma’idah: 48). Among these Muslim religions: the creed of Abraham the monotheist: “Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was one inclining toward truth, a Muslim” (Al-Imran: 67); the religion of Jacob and his sons: “Do not die except while you are Muslims” (Al-Baqarah: 132); the religion of Joseph: “Cause me to die as a Muslim and join me with the righteous” (Yusuf: 101); the religion of Moses and Aaron and the Torah: “By which the prophets who submitted to God judged” (Al-Ma’idah: 44); the religion of David and the Psalms: “And We gave David the Psalms” (An-Nisa: 163); the religion of Solomon: “And come to me in submission” (An-Naml: 31); the religion of Jesus and the Gospel: “And bear witness that we are Muslims” (Al-Imran: 52); and the religion of Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Qur’an: “This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion” (Al-Ma’idah: 3). This final religion is not a new thought separate from what came before; it is the completion of what came before. All messages are one unit in their origin and essence. Therefore, the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his followers affirmed: “The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and so have the believers. All have believed in God, His angels, His books, and His messengers, making no distinction between any of His messengers” (Al-Baqarah: 285).

Ninth: The Strategic Vision for National Security — Foundations and Recommendations
Based on the above, the strategic vision for national security within divine standards rests on five foundations. The creedal foundation: Achieving Islam = heartfelt submission + practical implementation, with trusting faith in the unseen, logical dialogue, seeking proof, and rejecting blind imitation. The foundation of governance and leadership: Leadership and authority are not attained except through trial and action; experience is a condition for empowerment: “My covenant does not include the wrongdoers” — with training and preparation in the environment of responsibility, and rejecting skipping the divine laws. The foundation of legitimacy: Legitimacy does not come from popular enthusiasm alone, but from knowledge, experience, qualification, justice, and reform. Popular revolutions are not necessarily compatible with the divine sequence. The foundation of conflict: The eternal conflict between two factions: the people of Abraham’s creed and the people of worldly boasting. The point of collision is boasting and arrogance (Satan’s logic: “I am better than him”), and the criterion: “So as for he who transgressed and preferred the life of the world, then indeed, Hellfire will be his refuge” (An-Nazi’at: 37–39). The foundation of confronting threats: Exporting chaos and revolutions = corruption in the earth = a challenge to the divine order. Confronting this is through reform, training, empowerment, and justice, and warning against the “creative chaos” imposed by arrogant powers. Strategic recommendations include: consolidating the creedal foundation; building leaders through experience, expertise, and knowledge; confronting the export of chaos and exposing the schemes of states that instigate conflicts; adhering to divine laws in change; embodying the unity of heavenly religions; achieving justice, flourishing of the earth, and fighting corruption; and guarding against arrogance, rejecting the logic of “I am better than him” and adhering to the logic of “and we are Muslims to Him.”

Conclusion: The Divine Balance Is Constant and Does Not Change
Understanding the foundations of governance within divine standards is not an intellectual luxury; it is a strategic necessity for national security. The eternal conflict between the people of Abraham’s creed and the people of worldly boasting is the conflict of submission versus arrogance, monotheism versus tyranny, reform versus corruption, and experience and qualification versus chaos and control. States that instigate conflicts and export them are challenging what came in the Holy Qur’an and all heavenly books, because they export chaos to control the destiny of peoples, and this is the very essence of corruption on earth. Confronting this is by adhering to the divine laws: training, experience, qualification, justice, reform, and rejecting the skipping of the laws. The divine balance is constant and does not change: experience before leadership, trial before empowerment, qualification before responsibility, and “My covenant does not include the wrongdoers.”
“Our Lord, make us Muslims [in submission] to You and from our descendants a Muslim nation [in submission] to You. And show us our rites and accept our repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful” (Al-Baqarah: 128).