Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
CLASSIFICATION
OF DUTIES
1.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
The function of the
Code should be the realization of the Ideal and the actualization of the norms
that it implies.
Before we proceed to
the structural constituents of systematization, however, it is necessary to
establish the Qur’anic point of view with respect to the concepts of ‘Duty’ and
‘Right’.
Duty
and Right:
The Qur’anic moral code
is based on the emphasis on ‘obligation’ or ‘duty’ in contrast to the emphasis
on ‘right’ (5:48; etc.). Now, the implications of the emphasis respectively on
duty and right are:
Right is a right
against someone. Duty is a duty towards someone. Right means that someone else
owes something to us. For, when we say: ‘it is our right’, it means that
someone has to perform a duty to us. On the contrary when we say; ‘it is our
duty’, it means that someone has a right against us.
The emphasis on duty
creates harmony in social life, because if everyone were to concentrate on his
or her duty, the emphasis on grumbling for rights will naturally vanish. On the
contrary, the emphasis on rights creates strife, because if everyone were to
think about his rights on others, he would hardly have the mind to think of his
duties towards others. The immense increase in quarrels and strifes between the
different classes of human beings, as for instance, between laborers & capitalists, and between races & nations, which we find in the world today,
is the direct outcome of the emphasis on rights. As regards the political life
in different countries, the subjects or citizens clamor for their rights more
than taking pains for fulfilling their duties towards their fellow-beings, the
state and the country. Everyone tries thus to transfer blame to the shoulders
of others, and the confusion gets worse confounded. This state of affairs will
not improve unless the world adopts the Qur’anic emphasis on duty.
Then, the emphasis on
duty creates unity among human beings, because it is built up on the idea and
the sentiment of sympathy,— sympathy in the sense that in fulfilling our duty
we have always to do some positive good to someone in the world. On the contrary,
the emphasis on rights is conducive to disintegration and disunity among human
beings, because it is based on the idea of demanding some thing from others. We
all know that we feel happy when anyone gives something to us, and most people
feel unhappy and miserable when anyone demands anything from them.
The
Empire of Duties:
As to
the classification of Duties: Since, according to the Holy Qur’an, man is not
merely a moral being but also a spiritual, physical, rational and aesthetical
being, as we shall shortly see, the fulfillment of duties relating to all those
aspects of the human personality is necessary for the realisation of the
Qur’anic moral Ideal.
Now, since morality
originates in the attitude that man takes towards personality in his own being
or in the being of others, the moral duties should be classified basically
as: (1) Duties to Self, and (2) Duties
to Others. And since the person who is nearest to the moral agent is his own
person, Duties to Self should come first and the Duties to Others thereafter.
The question may now be
raised: What is the relationship between Duties to Self and Duties to
Others?
If the problem is
viewed in the light of the ideational cultural philosophy, the two duties
remain unconnected; because the point of view there is individualistic. Their
relationship can be affirmed only on the basis of the Qur’anic philosophy of
idealistic, or integralistic, culture which is based on the synthesis of the
ideational and the sensate, and which, consequently, stands for interdependent
relationship between morality and social life. Thus moral perfection of the
moral agent is conceived there with reference to the happiness of others,
which, in its turn, is possible only in terms of social welfare.
Source
to be continued . . . . .
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