Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
THE PHILOSOPHY OF UNITY
(15) Unity in Basic Social Life:
The distinctions of the clergy and the laity, of the wealthy and the poor, of the superior caste and the inferior caste, and of the superior race and the inferior race (based on the inhuman dogmas of the ‘chosen people’ or of the supremacy of one colour of human skin over another), have plagued the life of human communities—and that not only among those who have believed in the plurality of gods, like the Hindus, but also among those who have been the so-called upholders of Monotheism, like the Jews and the Christians. Negatively, through the abolition of the institution of priesthood, and positively through the creation of a classless, casteless and non-racial society, the Holy Qur’an has sounded the death-knell to all such evil distinctions. It has envisaged a society dedicated to godliness, and it has laid down a value-system wherein the only criteria of superiority are greater spiritual refinement, moral goodness and knowledge. This value system reduces all the conflicting material distinctions into unity.
(16) Unity in terms of Politics:
The establishment of the state is rooted in organisation, and organisation necessitates the emergence of the super-ordinate, on the one hand, and the sub-ordinate, on the other. The super-ordinate is the repository of the coercive authority and its function is to command— to rule. As opposed to it, the function of the sub-ordinate is to obey— to be ruled. This gives rise to a situation of conflict if supremacy is vested in the state-authority. The ancient thinkers have believed for long in the Divine Right of Kings. They have conceived the kings as above Law. Among the moderns, Hegel has idolised the State to the extent of its being infallible, unquestionable and unaccountable. Again, the Marxist state, through its iron regimentation, reduces the sub-ordinates to mere automatons. There, the politbureau is all-in-all.
The Holy Qur’an resolves this ugly and painful situation, by uniting the super-ordinate and the sub-ordinate in subjection to the principle of the Supremacy of the Law. No human being has a right to rule over another human being. It is the authority of Law—the Law of God, Who alone is the Sovereign—that should reign supreme.
It was this unifying principle which was proclaimed in his inaugural address by the first Caliph of Islam, Abu Bakr the Illustrious (in whom God’s Pleasure abides!). He said: “Obey me so long as I obey Allaah and His Messenger (Muhammad). But if I deviate from obedience to Allaah and His Messenger, obedience to me remains binding on you no more.” (Ref: Dr. M.S. Jung: The Administration of Justice in Muslim Law, p. 6).
(17) Unity of ‘Church’ and ’State’:
A state which functions without any idealistic foundations is only an expediency-based crude ‘police organization’; and a state which concerns itself only with the physical needs of its citizens, leaving the spiritual and moral needs to a parallel organisation, calling it the ‘Church’, damages the cause of its citizens. Because, it either breeds a state of the conflict of ideals or promotes the relegation of the fulfilment of spiritual and moral needs to a position of no importance. Being firmly committed to the principle of Unity, the Qur’an projects the concept of the state in terms of the organised effort of the people for a comprehensive and integrated fulfilment of all the requirements and needs of healthy, progressive and vibrant collective existence. Hence, the Islamic state functions in terms of the unification of the ‘Church’ and the ‘State’ and shoulders the responsibility of protecting and promoting not only the physical interests but also the spiritual and the moral interests of its citizens.
(18) Unity in terms of Economics:
All human systems and institutions aim at realising some human value or values. Thus capitalism is grounded in the value of Freedom. It was this value which emerged as the highest, by way of reaction to the authoritarianism of the Christian Church, when Europe was blessed with the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. The effort to realise this value brought about revolutionary changes in the fields of general social life, politics and economics. In the general social life emerged the phenomenon of increasing respect for anti-authoritarianism leading to disrespect for all authority, including that of the parents, the teachers and the Church. This disrespect has assumed enormous proportions today, leading almost to anarchy. In the political field, autocracy gave way to democracy, which became a tremendous source of strength for those Western communities wherein it had the proper opportunity for flourishing in a healthy manner. In the field of economics, the value of Freedom was realised in terms of ‘free enterprise’—the laissez-faire, which finally built up the giant of Monopoly Capitalism. This process gave tremendous economic power to the advanced states of Europe and America. At the same time, however, it helped to undermine a very important human value, i.e., the value of Equality. Such a result was inherent in the philosophy of Capitalism and could not be avoided.
However, it is human nature to yearn for the realisation not only of the value of Freedom but also of the value of Equality, and of several other values besides. Hence a severe reaction came, and the child of this reaction was Communism, or, the Scientific Socialism of Karl Marx. But, very unfortunately, this reaction was a blind reaction. It was even a crude reaction. Because, without challenging the sincerity and the academic attainments of Karl Marx, it is evident that his mind could not penetrate the true nature of the evil which he wanted to eradicate, and, in his reactionary mood, he just picked up the value of Equality, as a superficial person would do, and made it the foundation of his social philosophy. But with what result? There are so many states in the world today who have adopted the Marxist Leninist ideology. Everywhere the effort to realise the value of Equality in terms of Scientific Socialism has invariably resulted in depriving the people of the value of Freedom—and that completely. This tragedy, again, like the tragedy of Capitalism, was inherent in the situation.
The truth of the matter is: If a society adopts Freedom as the fundamental value, there will be no Equality. Similarly, if a society adopts Equality as the fundamental value, the value of Freedom will vanish into thin air.
But the realisation of both the values: Freedom and Equality, is necessary for the proper development of the human communities. The question is: how to bring this about?
The Holy Qur’an has supplied the answer in its philosophy of Unity, wherein it teaches the establishment of harmonious union between the values of Freedom and Equality through the adoption of the value of Justice as the fundamental value on which the human social order should be founded. It is evident that if this is done, the dichotomy of Freedom and Equality will be resolved, and it will be possible to realise both of these values in due proportion and without sacrificing either. As a consequence, a synthesis of the merits of free enterprise and controlled economy, will emerge, making it possible to establish a welfare society, which will function on the principles, not of class-war or of exploitation of the working class by the moneyed class, but of love, harmony, human fellowship, moral excellence and justice, will ensure a just distribution of wealth on the basis of just reward for labour, talent and achievement, and will guarantee to every citizen the basic needs of life in terms of food, clothing, shelter, medical assistance and education. Therein, no one, to whatever station in life he may belong, will be wronged in any manner, and slavery of all types between man and man will vanish—freedom and equality in respect of human dignity being accepted as the birthrights of every human being.
This is what the Qur’anic philosophy of Unity envisages in respect of the economic structure of society, and this is what it actually achieved during the Righteous Period of Muslim history, when the Qur’anic orthodoxy had not yet been tampered with.
(19) Unity of Classes:
It is in the very nature of every human society to undertake and promote diversified activity. Diversification of activity, in its turn, creates diversified groups who contribute to the life and growth of the community through the pursuit, at different levels of execution, of different types of tasks. Then, each type enjoys a status of its own. Thus different types of tasks become graded as of superior or inferior status in respect of their superior or inferior role in terms of their utility to the community, conferring ipso facto superiority or inferiority on the executors of those tasks. Thus groups of people become diversified and differentiated and emerge in terms of their professional superiority or inferiority. Then, it is in the very nature of organised activity that there is someone who commands, and there are others who obey. That, in itself, creates superiority and inferiority among the members of a society.
Thus, the emergence of classes with positive differentiations is the very condition of the existence of a human society. And those classes emerge on different bases. Administratively, the society becomes divided into the ruling class and the class of people who are ruled. Activistically, it gets divided into classes according to professions or types of work, on the one hand, and in respect of the quality of labour, on the other. Then, the factors of ‘type of work’ and ‘quality of labour’ are related to the talent which, certain persons possess while others do not, to the labours put in by certain persons for cultivating those talents, and to the measure of the merits acquired by them through sincere labour. Even if it is said that every member of a society owes all his merits and achievements totally to the society, that the society makes him what he is, and that therefore he should submerge his individuality in the society,—even then, on principle, the society has to pay more regard, and take more care of, him on whom it spends more in order that he may be more useful to it. Thus even making the concept of ‘labour’ as the only standard of evaluation, the emergence of classes with differences in respect of status in social, political and economic terms is unavoidable. The unskilled manual labourer cannot be put on par with the skilled manual labourer. Then, a manual labourer cannot be put on par with an intellectual labourer. Again: Among intellectual labourers, a creative scholar or scientist cannot be put on par with an office-worker or even with a journalistic writer,—nay, even with a teacher. Still again: The head of the state, elected by the people for his exceptional learning, wisdom and sagacity, cannot be put on par with the citizens of his state.
The above situation emerges whether the society is capitalistic or communistic, and whether it is autocratic or democratic.
The real fault with the feudalistic and the capitalistic societies lies in their materialistic approach to life and the consequent exploitation, injustice and want of human sympathy—all these evils being inherent in the feudalistic and the capitalistic social philosophy. “Every man unto himself, and devil take the hindmost”, as they say. Or, as the Darwinian atheism formulates it: “Survival of the Fittest.”
Human inequalities and qualitative and quantitative gradations are natural to the social life of humanity. But exploitation and injustice and want of human feeling are not natural. What the Holy Qur’an does, therefore, is: (1) it emphasises the human basis of social life, as opposed to class-distinctions. It does not believe that different professions should unavoidably divide the human beings into mutually-hostile classes. (2) It destroys the spirit of estrangement, to which the engagement of different groups of the people in different professions might give rise, through its fundamental unifying institution of Brotherhood. (3) It destroys the very foundations of, and the spirit behind, Feudalism and Monopoly Capitalism. (4) It gives a firm teaching and sound laws to keep away exploitation, injustice and tyranny from the society which practices the Guidance it gives. (5) On the positive side, it establishes Welfare Society based on Piety, Truth, Justice, Love, Wisdom, Beauty and Selflessness,—thereby eliminating all possibilities of the emergence of any type of class-conflicts and the consequent disturbance of the principle of human unity.
(20) Principle of ‘Unity’ as the basis of Culture:
The emphasis on ‘other-worldliness’ creates ideational culture. The emphasis on ‘this-worldliness’ leads to sensate culture. The Qur’an stands for human fulfilment in ‘this’ world as well as in the ‘other’ world, unifies the Good of this world with the Good of the other world,[1] and gives to both the spiritual and the physical values their full due—synthesising them within its unitary ideal of human fulfilment. Thus it projects the unified integralistic Culture.
(21) Unity in terms of the ‘Ideal of Single Goal’:
All human activity proceeds under the impact of different yearnings: the yearning for holiness, the yearning for moral achievement, the yearning for aesthetic refinement, the yearning for knowledge, the yearning for physical happiness, etc. Thus activity becomes diversified, at the individual as well as the collective level, into spiritual, moral, aesthetical, intellectual, physical, social, economic, political, etc. Now, what happens in actual life is that the superficial and un-balanced mind views each of these activities as if it exists independently of the others and believes that it should be pursued as such. Then, because of a diversification of human temperaments and environmental settings, different human beings acquire special interest in different types of activity and finally land themselves in the evil of fixing up the goal relating to one particular activity as the only or, at least, the basic goal of life. Then they go beyond that and transform their personal inclination into philosophy. The errors thus committed infect the minds of even great thinkers.
To give just a few examples. In respect of the function of the State: Hegel says that it is moral, while Marx says that it is economic. As regards Man: Aristotle says that he is a social being. Plato emphasises that he is a rational being. Marx asserts that he is an economic being. Then, coming to Culture: the upholders of the ideational school of sociology maintain the view that the spiritual alone is real and consequently hold to the ideal of an other-worldly culture; while the materialistic sociologists believe that the physical alone is real and, as a result, stand as protagonists of sensate culture. Thus, different individuals, different thinkers and different human groups adopt and emphasise different goals, and the pursuit of those different goals leads to endless disharmony and perpetual conflicts within the personalities of the individuals, and between different classes that go to constitute a community, as also between the different nations and races.
The Qur’anic concept of unity which, at the level of the psychological, the moral and the social phenomena, assumes the form of the principle of integration, provides the guidance which can save mankind from disaster in this behalf. Because God has created all the human beings with a plan and a purpose, and has endowed them with the status of His vicegerency, and has created the world such that the human beings can act in it in accordance with their status, the only goal worth the name which every human being should by his very nature pursue is the fulfilment of his destiny as the vicegerent of God, —wherein he attains harmony with God, Who is the Source of all life, light, power, happiness and beatitude. This only goal is, in fact, the comprehensive goal to which the pursuit of all the partial goals should bear reference; and for that purpose all the immediate goals of human activity (—and every healthy activity must be included in the empire of Human Action—) should be pursued in an integrated and balanced manner, harmonising everyone of them with the rest, and all together with the comprehensive goal, or, the ultimate goal.
[1] Cf. Along with other references, the prayer: “Our Lord ! Give us Good in this world and Good in the Hereafter” (2:201).
to be continued . . . . .
Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times
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