Group Feeling and Royal Authority

16. The goal of group feeling is royal authority.

This is because group feeling:

• gives protection and mutual defense
• allows the pressing of claims and other kinds of social activity

Human beings need someone to act as a restraining influence and mediator in every social organization, in order to keep the members from fighting each other.

That person must, by necessity, have superiority over the others in the matter of group feeling. - If not, his power to exercise a restraining influence could not materialize.

Such superiority is royal authority (mulk). It is more than leadership.

Leadership means being a chieftain. The leader is obeyed, but he has no power to force others to accept his rulings.

Royal authority means superiority and the power to rule by force.

When a person sharing in the group feeling has reached the rank of chieftain, he then finds the way towards superiority.

He can only achieve his goal through the help of the group feeling, which causes the others to obey him.

Thus, group feeling leads to royal superiority, its goal.

A tribe has different “houses” and many diverse group feelings. Still, there exists a group feeling that is stronger than all the other group feelings combined.

It:

• is superior to them all and makes them subservient
• is that in which all the diverse group feelings coalesce to become one greater group feeling.

Otherwise, splits would occur and lead to dissension and strife.

Once group feeling has established superiority over the people who share (in that particular group feeling), it will, by its very nature, seek superiority over people of other group feelings unrelated to the first.

If the one group feeling is the equal of the other or is able to stave off its challenge, the competing people are even with and equal to each other. In this case, each group feeling maintains its sway over its own domain and people, as is the case with tribes and nations all over the earth.

However, if the one group feeling overpowers the other and makes it subservient, the 2 group feelings enter into close contact.

• The defeated group feeling gives added power to the victorious group feeling
• The victorious group feeling sets its goal of superiority and domination higher than before until it equals the power of the ruling dynasty.

Then, when the ruling dynasty grows senile and no defender arises from among its friends who share in its group feeling, the new group feeling takes over. It deprives the ruling dynasty of its power and obtains complete royal authority.

The power of a given group feeling may also reach its peak when the ruling dynasty has not yet reached senility.

This stage may coincide with the stage at which (the ruling dynasty) needs to have recourse to the people who represent the various group feelings (in order to master the situation). In such a case, the ruling dynasty incorporates (the people who enjoy the powerful group feeling) among its clients whom it uses for the execution of its various projects. This, then, means (theformation of) another royal authority, inferior to that of the controlling royal authority.

This was the case with the Turks under the ‘Abbasids ’ 103 with the Sinhajah and the Zanatah in their relation to the Kutamah, and with the Hamdanids in their relation to the (Fatimid) ‘Alids and the ‘Abbisids.

Thus, royal authority is the goal of group feeling.

When group-feeling attains that goal, the tribe (representing that particular group feeling) obtains royal authority, either by seizing actual control or by giving assistance (to the ruling dynasty). It depends on the circumstances prevailing at a given time (which of the two alternatives applies). If the group feeling encounters obstacles on its way to the goal, as we shall explain, it stops where it is, until God decides what is going to happen to it.

17. Obstacles on the way toward royal authority are luxury

This is because when a tribe has achieved a certain measure of superiority with the help of its group feeling, it:

• gains control over a corresponding amount of wealth
• shares abundance with those who have had these things for a long time.

The tribe shares in them to the degree of its power and usefulness to the ruling dynasty.

If the ruling dynasty is so strong that no one would think of depriving it of its power or sharing power with it, the tribe submits to its rule. It is satisfied with whatever share in the dynasty’s wealth and tax revenue that it can enjoy.

The tribe members are merely concerned with prosperity, gain, and a life of abundance. They are satisfied:

• to lead an easy, restful life in the shadow of the ruling dynasty
• to adopt royal habits in building, dress, all the other things that go with luxury
  • They take more and more pride in such things, the more luxuries and plenty they obtain.

As a result:

• the toughness of desert life is lost
• group feeling and courage weaken
• members of the tribe revel in well-being
• Their children grow up too proud to look after themselves or to attend to their own needs.
  • They have disdain also for all the other things that are necessary for group feeling. This finally becomes their natural character.

Their group feeling and courage decrease in the next generations. Eventually, group feeling is altogether destroyed. They thus invite their own destruction.

The greater their luxury and the easier the life they enjoy, the closer they are to extinction, not to mention (their lost chance of obtaining) royal authority.

The things that go with luxury and ease break the vigor of the group feeling, which alone produces superiority. When group feeling is destroyed, the tribe is no longer able to defend or protect itself.

It has thus become clear that luxury is an obstacle on the way toward royal authority.