Link with Human Rights,
Freedom and Dignity
The Qur’an states that the Divine compensation which is exacted for
accidental homicide by a Muslim of a Muslim includes freeing of a believing slave or, for those who find this beyond
their means, fasting
for two months.
“And it is not conceivable that a
believer should slay another believer, unless it be by mistake. And upon him who
has slain a believer by mistake there is the duty of freeing a believing soul
from bondage and paying an indemnity to the victim’s relations, unless they
forgo it by way of charity. Now if the slain, while himself a believer, belonged
to a people who are at war with you, [the penance shall be confined to] the
freeing of a believing soul from bondage; whereas, if he belonged to a people
to whom you are bound by a covenant, [it shall consist of] an indemnity to be
paid to his relations in addition to the freeing of a believing soul from
bondage. And he who does not have the wherewithal shall fast [instead] for two consecutive
months. (This is) the atonement ordained by Allah: and Allah is indeed
all-Knowing, Wise.”
(Qur’an, al-Nisa’, 4:92)
Hence the freeing of slaves is invested
with a special degree of spirituality in Islam since it is equivalent in status
to prolonged fasting. This is an achievement of great significance indeed for
it permits the process of the dismantling of the institution of slavery to
proceed in a manner which ensures the full rehabilitation of the freed slaves.
The negative after-effects of slavery
and, in particular, the damage to the human personality, are still very visible
in the western hemisphere more than a century after the abolition of slavery in
Western civilization. The descendants of freed slaves in the United States of
America are yet to be successfully integrated into the American society. The
explanation of this pathetic situation lies in the fact that slavery was
abolished in response to basically economic compulsions with no effort
whatsoever to restore the slave’s humanity, human rights and human dignity.
Western critics of Islam would hasten to scurry around searching for whatever
can be used to conceal or distort the noble words of Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ta‘alah ‘alaihi wa Sallam) when he ordered:
“Give your slave to eat from what
you eat, and give him clothes to wear which you wear.”
(Bukhari)
Humanitarianism appears to have played
a minor role in the whole affair. No evidence exists of any significant
spiritual motivation in the dismantling of the institution of slavery in western
civilization. (See the excellent work of Dr. Eric Williams, entitled Capitalism and Slavery)
We wish to suggest that this is the
basic reason why western civilization has been able to live with, or at least
to tolerate Western-imposed apartheid
on the soil of the very continent from
which the West enriched itself by enslaving a free people. In other words, apartheid is a manifestation of the spiritual
bankruptcy of secular western civilization.
In India, on the other hand, the caste
system imposes a very real form of slavery on millions of people in that
hapless country. It is of crucial importance to note that there is a form of
colour discrimination which is involved in the caste system. The fair-skinned
Aryan is never at the bottom of the social order. That is reserved for the
dark-skinned indigenous Indians. Although the caste system has been denounced
by many great Hindu spiritual and religious leaders and Hindu reform movements,
as well as being made illegal by the Indian constitution, it continues to
survive and to impose terrible sufferings on low caste and casteless Hindus to
this day. In Christianity as in Hinduism, there appears to be no basic linkage
between fasting on the one hand, and the recognition of human freedom and
dignity on the other. And it is the consequent inability to mobilize the
spiritual consciousness and bring it to bear on such social problems as caste
in India, apartheid in South Africa, and the integration of
the descendants of freed slaves into American society which explains the
continued existence of these manifestations of social cancer.
Islam’s basic achievement really lies
in the functional linkage it has established between fasting, on the one hand,
and charity, chastity and recognition of human freedom and dignity, on the
other. The one envelops the others in a spiritual embrace of profound practical
consequences.
When Muslims were ruled by those who
lived lives faithful to Islam, one could not distinguish in Muslim society
between the ex-slave and those who had never been enslaved. Freed slaves were
integrated into Muslim society to such an extent that an ex-slave sometimes
rose to become ruler of the Muslims.
It is only in this evil age of the
ascendancy of a Zionist Judeo-Christian alliance which has taken control of the
world through modern western civilisation, that Muslims are subjected to rulers
who rule over them on behalf of their enemies. As a consequence Dubai, Saudi
Arabia and Malaysia can boast of their high standard of living that rests on
the foundations of slave wages. Indonesian maids who are paid the wages of a
slave, and Bangladeshi, Filipino, Indonesian and Pakistani labourers who also
work for slave wages, now blot the fair face of Islam.
To Be Continued ....
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