Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
2. IMPORTANCE OF ULTIMATE
QUESTIONS IN PRACTICAL LIFE
Some might doubt that these ultimate questions may not after
all be as important as they are said to be. Indeed, the modern secular
civilisation is, for all practical purposes, based on the notion that these
ultimate questions have nothing to do with the immediate practical problems of
mankind and that the interest that can at all be reasonably taken in them
cannot be anything else than academic. In other words, these questions are
meant only for philosophers and no practical person should waste his time and
energy on them. But if we go deep into the matter, we are bound to come to the
conclusion on the basis of our common sense itself that the ultimate questions
are infinitely more important than the immediate questions.
The problem can be attacked from different angles. But here
it will suffice to quote just one instance of the importance of ultimate
questions in the field of the immediate problems of life. Namely, we shall
discuss the practical consequences of belief and disbelief in the existence of
God.
Taking up disbelief in the existence of God first: If there
is no God and the world came into being by itself, it means that it came into
being by chance. In other words, it is a world of chance in which everything
and every event emerges and dies out by chance.
If we consider the nature of “chance” itself, we find that it
always indicates an event which has no pre-conceived cause. In any case, it
cannot be said to be a planned event. Again, if there is no plan in an event,
there can be no purpose, because all purposive activity is planned, whether the
planning is conscious (namely, based on intellectual appreciation) or merely
instinctive.
Resuming the argument, if the world came into being by chance, it
is a blind and lawless world. Indeed, the very word “chance” means the absence
of law.
Now, if the world is lawless in its inherent constitution and
if everything which is born out of it is also in its nature without law, it
means that the formulation of any laws by human beings, whether those laws are
scientific or ethical or political or economic, would be a violation of human nature
and the nature of the world itself. But human beings cannot exist without law.
Therefore, they are bound to give up the atheistic hypothesis of the existence
of the world in order to live. If they don’t and if they carry the atheistic
hypothesis to its logical consequences, the only law which they can establish
for themselves would be the law of the jungle in political administration and
the rule of expediency in moral life.
Speaking from the other side, namely, affirmation of faith in
God’s existence, if we believe that God exists and that He has created the
world, it means that the world came into being through planned creation, is
functioning under a system of law and is moving towards a purpose. In other
words, plan, purpose and law are inherent in the very constitution of the
world. This, in turn, provides the ground for every branch of human
law—ethical, political, economic, and so on.
Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
PART 2
THE NECESSITY OF DIVINE REVELATION
Chapter 1
PROBLEMS
1. PROBLEMS OF HUMAN LIFE
Life means activity and all activity brings with it certain
problems. Those problems have to be solved successfully in order to make the
human life a success.
If we analyse the human problems, we find that they fall
under two categories, viz: (1) Immediate Problems; and (2) Ultimate Problems.
The immediate problems are the practical day-to-day problems,
such as those which refer to the immediate personal needs of the individuals
and such problems as the administration of the state, the production,
consumption and distribution of wealth, and the relations between the different
nations of the world. There is no human being living on earth who has not to
face these problems one way or the other during his life. The manner in which
they are faced and the efficiency and practical common sense which is shown in connection
with their solutions forms the measure of human success.
As regards the ultimate problems, every human being who takes
life seriously finds himself face to face with them as soon as he attains the
age of maturity and feels the strains, the burdens and the intricacies of life.
The first question which arises in this connection is: “What am I?” Every human
being is closer to himself than to anyone else. Hence the first problem which
should arise in his mind in connection with the ultimate problems should
naturally be about his own self.
The question: “What am I?” is a question about the nature of
human beings. But this simple question opens a whole field of questions which
shoot off in a continuous chain and whose links are forged with the unbreakable
bond of necessity. Consideration of this first question, therefore, leads to
the next one, namely: “From where have the human beings come?” Then a third
question arises: “What is the nature of human life?” And then a fourth
question: “What is the purpose and end of human life?”
All the above-mentioned questions are, so to say, personal.
But, then, no human being lives in a vacuum. He lives in a world which is
infinitely and immeasurably vaster than his physically-infinitesimal
personality, and this world influences his life and his actions at every step.
His fortunes, nay, his very life, is interlinked with and dependent upon the
world around him. For instance, if the sun were to stop its function, the
entire related physical environment would be shattered to pieces. Or, if the
heat of the sun rises above or falls below the average to certain levels, the
very existence of the human beings on the earth would become impossible.
This being the case, the questions about one’s own self lead
to questions about the world. The first question in that connection is: “What
is this world?”, which in other words means: “What is the nature of this
world?” But the nature of a thing cannot be properly understood unless we have
a clear idea about the origin of that thing and the purpose for which it
functions. Therefore, the question about “what” leads to questions about
“when”, “how”, “wherefrom” and “whereto”. In other words, the enquiry arises:
“When did the world come into being?”; “From what source did the world acquire
its life?”; “What is the end towards which it is moving?”; and “What is its
final goal (destiny)”?
Among the questions about the world, the question: “How did
the world come into being?” brings forth a number of further questions,
namely:—“If this world came into being by itself, how is that conceivable,
i.e., on what ground?” “If this world was brought into being by some other
force, what is that force?” “Is it an impersonal force like electricity, or is
it a person?” “If it is believed to be an impersonal force, that would mean
that it is a blind force like all impersonal forces; and if it is a blind
force, how could intelligence, foresight, plan, purpose and law come out of
it?” “If it is a person, what is the nature and constitution of that person?”
“Is He a person like us—physical, faltering and subject to the processes of
decay and death, or is He eternal?” “If not physical, what else is He?” “Is He
finite or infinite?” “Is He one in number or two or three or more?”
The above-mentioned questions concerning man, the world and
God, are ultimate questions (or fundamental problems). The questions are so
vital that every thinking human being is bound to face them at one time or the
other during his life and they have such a close bearing on the immediate
questions of life that anyone who has any knowledge of human problems will
admit that they cannot be shirked.
Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE AND
CIVILISATION:
“It is to Mussulman science, to Mussulman art, and to
Mussulman literature that Europe has been in a great measure indebted for its
extrication from the darkness of the Middle Ages.”[1]
“Europe was darkened at sunset, Cordova shone with public
lamps: Europe was dirty, Cordova built a thousand baths: Europe was covered
with vermin, Cordova changed its undergarments daily: Europe lay in mud,
Cordova’s streets were paved; Europe’s palaces had smoke-holes in the ceiling,
Cordova’s arabesques were exquisite; Europe’s nobility could not sign its name,
Cordova’s children went to school; Europe’s monks could not read the baptismal
service, Cordova’s teachers created a library of Alexandrian dimensions.”[2]
“Our use of the phrase ‘the Dark Ages’ to cover the period from 699 to 1,000
marks our undue concentration on Western Europe … From India to Spain, the
brilliant civilization of Islam flourised. What was lost to Christendom at this
time was not lost to civilization, but quite the contrary … To us it seems that
West-European civilization is civilization; but this is a narrow view.”[3]
“… From a new angle and with a fresh vigour it (the Arab
mind) took up that systematic development of positive knowledge which the
Greeks had begun and relinquished … Through the Arabs it was and not by the
Latin route that the modern world received that gift of light and power.”[4]
PEACEFUL PROSELYTISATION:
“History makes it clear, however, that the legend of
fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the
sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that
historians have ever repeated.”[5]
“In their wars of conquest, however,
the Muslims exhibited a degree of toleration which puts many Christian nations
to shame.”[6]
THE RISE OF ISLAM:
“The rise of Islam is perhaps the most amazing event in human
history. Springing from a land and a people alike previously negligible, Islam
spread within a century over half the earth, shattering great empires,
overthrowing long-established religions, remoulding the souls of races, and
building up a whole new world—the world of Islam.
“The closer we examine this development the more
extraordinary does it appear. The other great religions won their way slowly,
by painful struggle, and finally triumphed with the aid of powerful monarchs
converted to the new faith. Christianity had its Constantine, Buddhism its
Asoka, and Zoroastrianism its Cyrus, each lending to his chosen cult the mighty
force of secular authority. Not so Islam. Arising in a desert land sparsely
inhabited by a nomad race previously undistinguished in human annals, Islam
sallied forth on its great adventure with the slenderest human backing and
against the heaviest material odds. Yet Islam triumphed with seemingly miraculous
ease, and a couple of generations saw the Fiery Crescent borne victorious from
the Pyrenees to the Himalayas and from the deserts of Central Asia to the
deserts of Central Africa … Preaching a simple, austere monotheism, free from
priestcraft or elaborate doctrinal trappings, he tapped the well-springs of
religious zeal always present in the Semitic heart. Forgetting the chronic
rivalries and blood feuds which had consumed their energies in internecine
strife, and welded into a glowing unity by the fire of their new-found faith,
the Arabs poured forth from their deserts to conquer the earth for Allah, the
one true God …
“They (Arabs) were no blood thirsty savages, bent solely on
loot and destruction. On the contrary, they were an innately gifted race, eager
to learn and appreciative of the cultural gifts which older civilizations had
to bestow. Intermarrying freely and professing a common belief, conquerors and
conquered rapidly fused, and from this fusion arose a new civilization—the
Saracenic civilization, in which the ancient cultures of Greece, Rome and
Persia were revitalized by the Arab genius and the Islamic spirit. For the
first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D. 650-1000) the realm of Islam
was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with
splendid cities, gracious masjids, and quiet universities where the wisdom of
the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a
striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark
Ages.”[7]
[1] Marquis of Dufferin and Ava: Speeches Delivered in India. London
1890. p. 24.
[2] Victor Robinson: The Story of Medicine, p. 164.
[3] Bertrand Russell: History of Western Philosophy, London 1948, p.
419.
Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
PROFOUNDLY PRACTICAL AND
RATIONAL:
“In all things Muhammad was profoundly practical, When his
beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred, and rumours of God’s personal
condolence quickly arose. Whereupon Muhammad is said to have announced, ‘An
eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute such things to
the death or birth of a human being’.”[1]
BROAD, LIBERAL AND UNIVERSALISTIC
CREED FOR THE WHOLE WORLD:
“His creed … necessarily connotes the existence of a
universal empire.”[2]
“The nobility and broad tolerance of this creed, which
accepts as God-inspired all the real religions of the world, will always be a
glorious heritage for mankind. On it could indeed be built a perfect world
religion.”[3]
“More pure than the system of Zoroaster, more liberal than
the law of Moses, the religion of Mahomet: might seem less inconsistent with
reason than the creed of mystery and superstition which, in the seventh
century, disgraced the simplicity of the gospels.”[4]
“Islam had the power of peacefully conquering souls by the
simplicity of its theology, the clearness of its dogma and principles, and the
definite number of the practices which it demands. In contrast to Christianity
which has been undergoing continual transformation since its origin, Islam has
remained identical with itself.”[5]
“As a religion the Mahomedan religion, it must be confessed,
is more suited to Africa than is the Christian religion: indeed, I would even
say that it is more suited to the world as a whole [6] …
the achievement of the Moslem faith enjoys, I maintain, a definite superiority,
in proof of which may be cited Moslem abstinence, sense of fraternity, take
condemnation of usury, and recognition of prophets other than its own. Its
quality may be summed up by saying that it takes a man as he is, and while it
does not pretend to make a god out of him, seeks to regulate his conduct so that
at least he shall become a good neighbour.”[7]
WISEST, MOST LEARNED AND MOST
ENLIGHTENED JURISPRUDENCE:
“The Muhammadan law which is binding on all from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law
interwoven, with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most
enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”[8]
NO COLOUR BAR:
“ ‘Take away that black man! I can have no discussion with
him’, exclaimed the Christian Archbishop Cyrus when the Arab conquerors had
sent a deputation of their ablest men to discuss terms of surrender of the
capital of Egypt, headed by Negro Ubadah as the ablest of them all.
“To the sacred archbishop’s astonishment, he was told that
this man was commissioned by General
Amr; that the Moslems held Negroes and white men in equal respect—judging a man
by his character and not by his colour.
“ ‘Well, if the Negro must lead, he must speak gently’,
ordered the prelate, so as not to frighten his white auditors.
“(Replied Ubadah:)
‘There are a thousand blacks, as black as myself, amongst our companions. I and
they would be ready to meet and fight a hundred enemies together. We live only
to fight for God, and to follow His will. We care naught for wealth, so long as
we have the wherewithal to stay our hunger and to clothe our bodies. This world
is naught for us, the next world is all’.
“Such a spirit … can any other appeal stand against that of
the Moslem who, in approaching the pagan, says to him, however obscure or
degraded he may be, ‘Embrace the faith, and you are at once an equal and a
brother’. Islam knows no ‘colour line’.”[9]
RESTORATION OF DIGNITY OF WOMANHOOD:
“That his (Muhammad’s) reforms enhanced the status of women
in general is universally admitted.”[10]
“You can find others stating that the religion (Islam) is
evil, because it sanctions a limited polygamy. But you do not hear as a rule
the criticism which I spoke out one day in a London hall where I knew that the
audience was entirely uninstructed. I pointed out to them that monogamy with
blended mass of prostitution was a hypocrisy and more degrading than a limited
polygamy. Naturally a statement like that gives offence, but it has to be made,
because it must be remembered that the law of Islam in relation to women was
until lately, when parts of it have been imitated in England, the most just
law, as far as women are concerned to be found in the world. Dealing with
property, dealing with rights of succession and so on, dealing with cases of
divorce, it was far beyond the law of the West, in the respect that was paid to
the rights of women. Those things are forgotten while people are hypnotised by
the words monogamy and polygamy and do not look at what lies behind it in the
West—the frightful degradation of women who are thrown into the streets when
their first protectors, weary of them, no longer give them any assistance …
“I often think that woman is more free in Islam than in
Christianity. Woman is more protected by Islam than by the faith which preaches
Monogamy. In Al-Quran the law about woman is more just and liberal. It is only
in the last twenty years that Christian England has recognized the right of
woman to property, while Islam has, allowed this right from all times … It is a
slander to say that Islam preaches that women have no souls.”55
WAR AGAINST THE INSTITUTION OF
SLAVERY:
“According to the Koran, no person can be made a slave except
after the conclusion of a sanguinary battle fought in the conduct of a religious
war (Jihad) in the country of infidels who try to suppress the true religion.
Indeed, wherever the word slave occurs in Koran it is ‘he
55 Annie Besant:
The Life and Teaching of Muhammad, Madras 1932, pp, 25-26
whom your right hand possesses’, or a
special equivalent for neck— ‘he whose neck has been spared’, thus clearly
indicating ‘a prisoner of war’ made by the action of not one man only, but of
many … the Arabian prophet recommended: ‘When the war has ended, restore them
(the slaves or prisoners) to liberty or give them up for ransom’ (Sura 47:57) …
“And elsewhere: ‘Alms (which procure righteousness) are
distined … to the redemption of slaves’ (Sura 9:60). Further (Sura 24:33): ‘If
any of your slaves asks for his manumission in writing give it to him, if you
think him worthy of it, and give him also some of the wealth which God has
given you’ … The reconciliation of a separated married couple should be
preceded by the ransom of a slave, and, if none can be found, the husband should
feed sixty poor, or else fast for two months (Sura 58:4-5). Whenever the sense
of happiness, including that of conjugal felicity, predisposes the heart to
gratitude towards the Creator, or whenever fear of God or a punishment, or the
desire of a blessing, affect, as such motives can and do affect the daily life
of a Mohammadan, the emancipation of a slave, as a most proper act of charity
is recommended. In short, the ‘Cliff’, or narrow path to salvation, is charity:
‘What is the cliff ? It is to free the captive (or slave)’ Sura 90:12-13).
“Descending to the second source of the Mohammadan Law, the
authenticated traditions of Hadis, we find Mohammad stating that ‘the worst of
men is he who sells men’: slaves who displeased their masters were to be forgiven
‘seventy times a day’: no believer can be made a slave; and ‘in proportion to
the number of redeemed slaves will members of the body of the releasing person
be rescued from the (eternal) fire’.”[11]
[7] Lancelot Lawton: The Sphere, London, 12th May, 1928.
[8] Edmund Burke: in his “Impeachment of Warren Hastings”.
[9] S. S. Leeder: Veiled Mysteries of Egypt, London 1912, pp 332-335.
[10] H.A.R. Gibb: Mohammedanism, London 1953. p. 33.
[11] Dr. G. W. Leitner; Mohammadanism, pp. 17-18. Cf. the observation:
“It is indeed an ‘abuse of words’ to apply the word slavery in the English
sense to any status known to the legislation of Islam.” (Syed Amir Ali : The
Spirit of Islam; p. 262).
