ملاحظات كتبها توماس ووكر أرنولد، بتاريخ ١ مايو ١٩٢٢، و١ يوليو ١٩٢٢ وأغسطس ١٩٢٢ [ظ‎‎٢] (٤/٤)

4
This will safeguard the political independence of self-governing Arab States, and
they can do as they please in the matter of putting the Caliph's name in the Khntbah
or asking his sanction for their nomination of qadis. &c.
Note by Sir T. W. Arnold, dated August 1922.
Government of India s teleqravi, dated 2Srd August 1922.
J he Aiabic translation oi ' spiritual rights and privileges '' given in this
telegram presumably represents the interpretation that the Indian Moslems would
put on that phrase, and it is m harmony with the anticjuated view of the position of
the Caliph, which they are trying to press. Ihey view with dislike the formation
of independent Arab States, and hope by means of a treaty to induce the Allies to
force the King ol the llejaz and the King ol Iraq to accept the suzerainty of the
Sultan of Turkey. This, they think, can be achieved by vindicating for the Sultan
the exercise of certain sovereign rights that ho formerly used to enjoy as Caliph,
and accordingly, for example, they lay stress on the carrying of his flag during the
ceremonies of the Pilgrimage in Mecca; for if the King of the llejaz allows the flag
of the Sultan to take precedence of his own in Mecca, this will imply recognition of
the Sultan s suzerainty. It is hardly possible that the Allies wish to interfere with
the sovereign rights of the King of the Hejaz so far as to compel him to let the flag of
a foreign Power be flown in his capital. But, by trying to get the phrase "rights
and privileges" inserted in the treaty, and by translating *'spiritual rights 'and
privileges " into Arabic as ''al-huqnq wal imtiyazat al diniyah" {i.e., religious rights
and privileges), the Indian Moslems clearly show that this is the kind of aim they
have in view.
The word " religious " here has not the same connotations as it has in Europe.
For, according to Moslem doctrine, the Caliph is head of the State and head of the
Church at the same time; he is the supreme civil and religious authority; he
exercises religious rights in virtue of his position as a political overlord. Thus,
the Arabic phrase "religious rights " has a definite meaning, with the anthoritv of
centuries of usage behind it, for (as I have urged several times) the word ^ rights "
(huquq) brings in the whole body of Moslem law. In this connection 1 would 0 refer
to Sir Abdur Rahim's delinition of right (the singular of the Arabic word huquq), on
page 57 of his "Principles of Muhammadan Jurisprudence"—" Pight means the
authority recognised by the law to control in a particular way the action of the
person against whom it exists, the latter being obliged or under an obligation to
act as required. Rights are primarily the privilege of God, but inasmuch as men
in their communal life are dependent on each other for their wants, God, having
regard to such necessities, has authorised men individually to control each other's
actions, though within limitations. That is to say, law permits one man to acquire
rights against another, and thus to control the freedom of the latter to a certain
extent."
So, instead of "extinguishing the Sultan's territorial sovereignty in liberated
territories," the phrase " al-huquq wal imtiyazat al diniyah" distinctly re-establishes
it. Moreover, the very phrase is a tacit acknowledgment that the words " spiritual
rights " have no meaning in connection with the position of the Caliph. The Indian
Moslems know this, and put forward the phrase " spiritual rights " only for European
consumption and also, in the Urdu translation, since the Urdu language is familiar
to many English ofticials.
If the Caliph possesses any 14 rights and authority " apart from his position as a
political monarch, the definition of them (as the Government of India rightly point
out) is a matter lor Moslems alone to determine, according to the usage and tenets
of Islam. For the situation is one that is entirely novel in Muhammadan history ;
there never has been before now a Caliph whose supreme temporal authority and
political lordship were not recognised in Mecca. So, by using a phrase that for
centuries has associated with the old status of the Caliph, the Indian Moslems wish to
strike a blow at the political independence of the King of the Hejaz. If the Allies
wish to make it clear that they " in no way arrogate to themselves power to extinguish
Caliph's spiritual rights and authority, which Islam alone can grant and take away,"
a phrase should be used that does not interfere with the independence of the liberated
territories, but permits of adjustment to the altered relation of the Caliph to the Holy
Cities, and leaves it open to the -Moslems themselves to settle what privileges they aro
going to allow the Caliph to exercise in future.