By Naseer
Ahmed, New Age Islam
01 May 2019
In
the name of bringing back the Islamic Shariat, several groups are
actively engaged. The question is which Shariat? There is the stagnant Shariat
of the past based on paradigms of the previous scriptures and concocted Ahadith
antithetical to the letter and spirit of the Quran. It was this suffocating
Shariat that prevented adoption of the printing press by a couple of centuries
leaving us far behind Europe. It is the same Shariat that frowned on scientific
study and promoted obscurantism. It is this Shariat that invited the wrath of
Allah who inflicted colonial rule on us to give us a break from it so that we
could rebuild anew. Have we rebuilt anew based on a correct understanding of
the Quran dispensing with the paradigms of the previous scriptures and
concocted Ahadith? We have not. So, if we are hankering for the same
Shariat, is it to invite the wrath of Allah once again and have a foreign rule
imposed on us?
The
call is made in the name of restoring the ‘Sovereignty of Allah’! Is the
sovereignty of Allah subject to us humans proclaiming and establishing it?
Allah can any day impose his Will on us and take away from us our freedom and
autonomy which He did when he subjected us to colonial rule. Do not fall for
such misleading political slogans. Without doubt, we believe in following the Shariat
of Allah or the Deen of Allah, but what the Classical Islamic Fiqh teaches
us, is a hideous caricature of the Shariat of the Quran.
What
does the Shariat or the Deen of Allah mean to us as individuals? It is to
follow the commands of Allah in letter and spirit. No matter in which country
we live, except perhaps China and Russia, we can practice our religion. As an
individual, we need to follow the commands of Allah and do not for example,
commit adultery. Establishing the Quranic punishment for adultery is the duty
of the State and not of the individual. Even when such laws are established,
our religion does not encourage us to bring the guilty to punishment. As a
matter of fact, our religion actively discourages us from bearing witness, and
punishes the witnesses with 80 stripes if the guilt is not established with
four witnesses, even though it cannot be said that those who bore witness were
lying. The religion encourages us to correct the wrong doers but not to bring
them to punishment. We do not therefore become less Muslim, because the State
does not implement the Quranic laws, because even if it did, we will try to
correct the wrong doer rather than report to the authorities and bear witness
to get the guilty punished. This is however not understood by those who hanker
after the Shariat. The first thing that they do to prove that they have
established the “Sovereignty of Allah” is to inflict the harsh punishments
publicly on a large number of people.
What a hideous version of Islam these tyrants want to install!
It
is only when a large majority of Muslims bring the Quranic Shariat in their
personal lives that the laws of the State will change. Democracy is the best
way, the only way, and indeed the Islamic way to bring about change in a
religion that proclaims “let there be no compulsion in religion”. It cannot be
imposed through violence by pressure groups capturing political office. Without
exception, when they succeed, they impose a tyrannical rule.
The
so called Classical Islamic Shariat, is anything but Islamic, and deserved to
be uprooted through imposing colonial rule on us. What distinguishes the Quran
from all previous scriptures is the overarching rule “let there be no
compulsion in religion”. There can therefore be no law or rule forcing a Muslim
to pray or fast or for Muslim women to wear hijab or veil or to punish a Muslim
from leaving his religion. It is for the individual to decide what he or she
will or will not do without impinging on the rights of others or disturbing
public order.
The
Quranic Shariat Differs From The Classical Shariat On Every Subject. For
Example,
1.
There is no punishment for homosexuality except strong Social disapproval and
punishment only for public acts of indecency.
Read:
On Abrogation
2.
There is no punishment for apostasy. There is no punishment for blasphemy and
heresy. There can be a law against disturbing of public order or inciting
hatred but not impinging on academic independence or right to criticism.
3.
The Divorce process as per the Shariat of the Quran is different from classical
Islamic Shariat.
4.
Classical Islamic fiq errs in the inheritance related calculations.
5.
Classical Islamic fiq errs on female witnessing.
6.
The Rules of war are ill-defined in classical Islamic Shariat. There is no duty
imposed on the Muslims to subjugate non-Muslims and bring them under Islamic
Shariat. Read: The Principles of War from the Quran
7.
The relationship with the ‘other’ or the non-Muslim is ill-defined in classical
Islamic Shariat.
8. Imposing ‘Jiziya’ on
non-Muslims was never a religious requirement even in the Prophet’s times.
What the
individual Muslim needs to do is to study the Quran carefully and understand
how the bigoted Islamic scholarship has led us into a dead-end street, reject
the out-dated Classical Islamic Shariat which is based on concocted ahadith and
paradigms of the previous scriptures, and rebuild the Shariat afresh based on
an authentic reading of the Quran. This requires the democratic process. The
argument of how Islam got established in the past without the democratic
process is of no relevance. We do not have in our midst today, a Prophet
receiving divine revelations to guide us whom we can unquestioningly follow. We
have fallible human beings with a bigoted and tyrannical view of Islam, trying
to appropriate to themselves the power and position of a Prophet, and establish
their tyrannical rule.
Reject these pretenders.
We have the Quran, which is
understood differently by different people, and therefore, no single
individual, group, or sect, can have the authority to impose its view on the
rest. We have no choice but to follow the democratic process. As individuals
however, it is our duty to Allah, to read the Quran, understand it, and
implement it in our lives in the best manner possible, and also to teach and
promote it. We as a people, society, nation, and Ummah can succeed only when we
do what we need to do, as an individual first.
Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering
graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having
served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over
three decades. He is a frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com
10:23 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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