Social and
Dynamic Transformation of an Islamic Society
By Prof. Khalid B.
Sayeed
Emeritus Professor
Political Studies
Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario
Canada
There
are several translations of the Qur’an.
There are the familiar translations of Yusuf Ali
and Muhammad Asad. The basic approach in these
translations is to get involved in meanings and
interpretations of certain words in the Qur’an.
Unlike such translations is the interpretation
of the Koran put forward by Professor A.J. Arberry.
We find that Professor Arberry tries to go to
the central message that the Qur’an is putting
forward rather than getting involved in detailed
meanings of words or phrases. An example is Chapter
90 entitled “The Land” where the Qur’an
establishes the central point “we created
man in trouble”. What, does he think none
has power over him, saying
I have consumed wealth abundant?...
Have we not appointed to him two eyes,
and a tongue, and two lips
and guided him on the two highways?
Yet he has not assaulted the steep;
and what shall teach thee what is the steep?
The freeing of a slave, or giving food upon a
day of hunger
to an orphan near of kin
or a needy man in misery;
then that he become of those who believe
and counsel each other to be steadfast,
and counsel each other to be merciful.
Those are the companions of the Right Hand.
The above passage from the Koran explains why
the second Caliph Omar Ibn al Khattab beckoned
his slave or servant to ride the camel when he
entered Jerusalem as the conqueror while the caliph
was leading the camel. Such a sight startled the
onlookers.
Obviously, the message was that the Koran advocated
the social transformation of a society. The Koran
was not merely emphasizing that the believer should
worship one true god. This worship of one true
god implied in the next step the social transformation
of the Muslim society. This explains why Omar
Ibn al Khattab emphasized that the central message
of Islam was designed to weaken the rich and improve
the well being of the poor. This was the essence
of social justice.
This explains why Muhammad Iqbal, the well-known
Muslim poet who advocated the formation of the
state of Pakistan, wrote to Mr. Jinnah in 1937,
ten years before the state was established, that
if the state of Pakistan were to follow social
justice as its central policy it would be returning
to the cardinal message of Islam.
Ever since Pakistan was established in 1947, Muslims
under the guidance of the Muslim League or other
parties have not adhered to the central Islamic
policy prescription.
They tend to follow some of the ideas regarding
the establishment of democracy by merely emphasizing
that the electorate needs to have certain basic
qualifications of literacy or dividing itself
into political parties. These are the outward
manifestations of democracy.
Dag Hammarskjold when he was Secretary General
of the United Nations kept a diary recording his
messages to Christ. These were published as Markings.
In one of these he wrote, “Your position
never gives you the right to command. It only
imposes on you the duty of so living your life
that others can receive your orders without being
humiliated.”
Similarly, according to Dag Hammarskjold, Christ
sat down with street women and harlots not because
he wanted their votes but because he wanted to
transform their personalities so that they may
become better human beings.
Markings suggest that this is what democracy is
all about and this is precisely what the British
had in mind when they thought that democracy was
progressive realization of responsible government.
Many reformers and educators in the developing
world think that their fellow human beings need
to be educated to become literates and improve
their skills in areas like arithmetic. They don’t
realize that this does not necessarily lead to
the social transformation of the society. If you
follow the road to democracy through literacy
and arithmetic, the road tends to be a long one.
The Qur’an is emphasizing that man, in order
to get out of the trouble that God has placed
him in, has to assault the steep highway and as
we have suggested earlier, that assaulting the
steep highway lies through creation of social
justice and social transformation of a society.
In this sense the Koran is suggesting that the
Islamic path through social transformation is
a revolutionary path. In a very well-known poem
in Iqbal’s Baal-i-Jibreel, there is a dialogue
between God and Lenin and towards the end of the
dialogue God issues commands to his angels in
which he declares
Arise and awaken the poor people of my world and
shake the doors and walls of the
palaces of the rich
where a peasant cannot get his living from the
land he tills that land should be destroyed.
(translation from Baal-i-Jibreel)
It is obvious that the upper and middle classes
in Pakistan have not followed the guidelines that
their national poet Muhammad Iqbal put forward
so eloquently before them. The main cause of the
deviant and different path that the middle and
upper classes in Pakistan have followed is that
they do not realize that the central message of
Islam is social transformation. This also explains
why the upper and middle classes in Pakistan have
forged alliances with the seemingly corrupt bureaucratic
and entrepreneurial classes. The path of reformation
and education that such classes would like to
follow is the tepid and gradualist path of social
changes influenced by Americans and other dominant
groups in the world. More than a hundred years
ago Abraham Lincoln, the American president, in
one of his major speeches, said
What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty
and independence? It is not our frowning battlements,
our bristling seacoasts, the guns of our war steamers,
or the strength of our gallant and disciplined
army. These are not our reliance against a resumption
of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be
turned against our liberties, without making us
stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance
is in the love of liberty which God has planted
in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation
of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage
of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy
this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of
despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves
with the chains of bondage, and you are preparing
your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample
on the rights of those around you, you have lost
the genius of your own independence, and become
the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who
rises. And let me tell you, all these things are
prepared for you with the logic of history.
As we have said earlier, the great majority of
Muslims are clearly under the impression that
God rules the world largely through fear. God’s
subjects are supposed to be fearful and constantly
aware that if they deviate from the path of righteousness
and the requirements of five daily prayers plus
the fasting of one month that has been prescribed
and the performance of a pilgrimage to Mecca,
they have not carried out his guidelines. Adherence
to these guidelines will eventually reward them
with a place in the blissful paradise.
All these are highly essential guidelines and
Muslims are expected to adhere to them meticulously.
A major problem that we have raised is that even
a strict adherence to the commandments laid down
in the Islamic faith does not automatically create
a noble society on this earth. We are asking that
if Muslims by and large were to follow God’s
commandments on this earth, does it automatically
guarantee that the community will live in peace
and honor without being subjected by foreign rule
and domination? Our contention is that if the
large majority of Muslims were to follow God’s
commandments, would the rest of the world community
respect and honor them in such a way that the
community will live peacefully and honorably.
Our distinct impression is that this is not likely
to be so particularly if Muslim countries are
in control of some of the invaluable oil resources
that exist in the Middle East and other Muslim
lands. Other countries and particularly military
powers would like to seize control of the oil
resources and strategic areas. In other words,
Muslim countries will be faced by other non-Muslim
countries in a continuing struggle for world domination
and power.
Some of the recent examples from world history
also clearly indicate that the struggle for world
power has several origins and causes. There has
never been a world which has been governed by
principles of justice and fair play. World history
tells us that in the global struggle for power
there are nations constantly in search of more
and more power because man by nature tends to
be competitive and combative and is motivated
by what philosophers have called “animus
dominandi” that is desire for more and more
power because life on this earth is very much
like what the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes
described as nasty, brutish and short.
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