Luxury as a Requirement - Essay Example

LUXURY AS A REQUIREMENT BY Khaldun A, the of The Muqaddimah developed the theory of luxury based on group feeling. He associates luxury with royalty; ‘the royalty comprises all the good things of the world, the pleasures of the body, and the joys of the soul’ (Khaldun 2012). Thus, for luxury to come about, the people must enjoy the power vested in royalty and royal authority, which is only created through the group feeling of the people. It is only when people hold together and have that feeling of togetherness that there is a great chance of them raising a leader among them who will serve their interest and enjoy the luxury of power and peace. The joy and luxury only come about after a long battle for dynasty with the help of God to establish the dynasty. Only time can fade away the memory of the establishment of the dynasty, leading the new generation to forget about the struggle and spirit of togetherness leading to the destruction of the kingdom. Further still, once power is vested in a given royal family, it is passed over to the next generation granting them the luxury of leadership. At a given point after the establishment of the dynasty, the memory of the establishment will fade away. The fading of memory will give way for the people having a new look at their leader and his family. Resultantly, all members of the royal family are considered as leaders. The leadership is shared in the family with less support of the group feeling required, but rather obedience of the people to the government. The help of outsiders in establishing the government may be necessary to retain power. Luxury in the royal family can still be maintained by having influence over other nations in the neighborhood. In some cases, the group feeling of the leader is so strong that it attracts other nations to believe and trust in the leadership of the given leader. As such, when the leader desires to leave the kingdom, other nations embrace them and are willing to submit to their power thus the leader retains their leadership position in a foreign land. Furthermore, religion has a major role to play in the success of leadership based on group feeling. The royal leaders derive their power from being superior as the people lift them up in the spirit of togetherness. However, it is not easy to divert the people’s mind from the pleasures and treasures of the world to oneness in the interest of the whole group. It is only God who is able to bring the people together in sound mind to disregard worldly pleasure and pursue the interest of the community, thus raising God-given leaders in their respective leadership position. Further, religion has the power to surpass all evil including jealousy. It gives the people a bond that cannot be broken by any circumstance. Religious togetherness gives the people courage to die for one another than to abandon others in time of need. This forms the basis of the strong kingdoms that are established by the people since they are united at all times even in war. The spirit of togetherness has enabled small Muslim armies to defeat large none Muslim armies who lack unity of purpose. Therefore, numbers is not a major determinant, but unity is. Moreover, luxury is derived from the amount of land and provinces that a dynasty has. Depending with the number of members a dynasty has, it is allocated provinces and land to settle the people. The more people it has, the more land is allocated. The rule of the leader only extends to the point where the provinces occupied by his supporters are. The application of taxation and other administrative measures is limited to these areas. The added advantage of having many followers is that the more followers a leader has, the more area they can rule as the followers are allowed to spill over to other areas where they can fit given that the land allocated to them is not enough. Concentration of power at the center is important to strengthen the kingdom from the core. The strengthening of the kingdom from the core gives the dynasty a longer life. The logic behind a strong dynasty having power at the center is that when provinces start defecting, they start at the rear end where there is a low concentration of power. Having most of these dynasties being big thus protests the heart of leadership from quick erosion. By the time the province at the central defects, long time would have passed giving leaders more time in power. Common language is another uniting factor bringing Muslims together to form strong dynasties. Different tribes and groups have different priorities to uphold and an accompanying group feeling to defend their belief. In such a case, the different tribes will advocate for their respective group interest leading to division in the kingdom. Minor group interest diverts the attention of the people from the major interests of the entire kingdom. In this respect, Muslims have only one language of communication, Arabic and no tribes. Therefore, the royal leaders enjoy all the luxury, peace and tranquility of the kingdom. A united group raises one common leader into power by virtue of having common interests. As such, the leader can serve both as a religious and political leader so as to ensure the interest of the people is represented everywhere. After all, politics dictate that only one leader can hold power at any given time to avoid destruction of the whole community. The stage in the lifespan of the dynasty also determines the luxury of the people. It is generally believed that just like human beings, dynasties also have a lifespan, which is equal to three generations. Each generation is 40 years long as inspired by the children of Israel in the desert in their journey from Egypt. Forty years were the time they spent in the wilderness before reaching the promised land of Canaan, which was also enough time for the whole generation that left Egypt to be swept away. In the first generation, the people are strong and brave possessing the desert characteristics of unity and toughness. They have a strong sense of oneness just like in the desert, which in turn gives them power and many people submit to them. With the luxury, the people enjoy from the rule of authority and easy life, the second generation introduces changes into the dynasty. Sharing glory is no longer a welcome idea in this community; rather, everyone desires to have power only to them. The life of luxury and plenty now enters into full motion. The people live in self-denial, trying to assume that the previous conditions are still in place. Luxury then reaches it pick in the third generation. By this time, nobody remembers the desert life. The life of prosperity and ease blindfolds the people forget the past and care less about each other. This is also the climax of destruction of the dynasty and only external help can save it. However, the help will only be of use for a limited time until God allows the destruction of the dynasty. However, in some cases luxury is derived from the desire to strengthen the dynasty. Royal authority and luxury enables tribes to reproduce, resulting in a grown community. Through luxury and prosperity, the population of the people increases rapidly with the new generation being brought up in luxury. In times of plenty, population growth increases due to availability of much food and luxury. On the contrary, even with the larger population, the dynasty will not hold together as it is an indication of the third generation kingdom. In that case, the roots are swept away in the first and second generation, thus the third generation is only the branches without roots. As a result, despite their large physical number, the dynasty still disperses and comes to an end. Furthermore, the monuments of any given dynasty are proportionate to its original power. The more people the dynasty has, the more area it occupies and the more workers are available. With the many workers from the increased population, any size of the monument can be achieved in a dynasty. In some cases, though it is easier to destroy than to construct, a strong dynasty can build a strong monument that other dynasties cannot destroy. This shows the extent of the strength of monuments. There are also different positions occupied by followers of a dynasty depending with their closeness with the rulers. Older followers are closer to the leaders than recent followers. The closeness is explained by their unwavering support for the leader in most cases before and during the formation of the dynasty. Thus, the leaders have more faith in the previous followers as they have shown commitment to the leaders for a long time. Moreover, in cases where power and authority is passed over in the family line, closest followers of the dynasty have a role to play. In case an incapable leader has handed over power, for example a child, the child’s guardian in this case the fathers Wazir rules on his behalf. Reference Khaldun A. (2012). The Muqaddimah. Accessed from: https://asadullahali.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/ibn_khaldun-al_muqaddimah.pdf Read More