The Law of ‘Diyat’
By Khalid A.
London UK
The law of ‘Diyat’ is based on Divine wisdom. Human beings are revengeful by nature. A single murder leads to more and more bloodshed. One of the most glaring cases is the start of the First World War in 1914.
On 28th June, 1914 , Prince Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, who was the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated in Sarajevo (Bosnia). His murder was followed by ultimatums and threats amongst European nations. Within weeks, the Great War had started. By the end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire had disappeared. More importantly, the seeds of the Second World War were laid in the Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the first fateful assassination of the Prince.
It would be amazing to imagine how different our world would have been today if ‘Diyat’ was possibly applicable in Muslim Bosnia in 1914! There would have been no World Wars, no cold war, no Nazi Germany and therefore no Israel. Turkey might have been a ‘caliphate’ today! Iraq and Libya might have been Turkish provinces.
Human beings can be easily aroused to die when fighting against a foe but would be reluctant to spend a few hours to help an ailing friend. The venom of hatred is much stronger than the sentiments of love. We are all ready to ‘die’ for Pakistan. How many of us are ready to ‘live’ for our homeland? Most of our actions are based on ‘Bughz-e- Muaawia’ rather than ‘Hubb-e-Ali’.
Let us all pause and contemplate. We have to learn to co-exist with other human beings, sharing the resources of our planet in a fair manner. Perhaps we have to learn this lesson from some animals who share their resources in a more democratic way than the so-called cultured and civilized humans.
I watched a documentary on BBC TV about the survival of penguins in severe icy winters. They huddle together to conserve body heat, while strong winds blow around them with temperatures falling to minus 60. This goes on for months. Every few hours, those who are in the middle of the crowd, move out to the outer periphery, to brave the icy winds. This enables the outer ones to move towards the middle and get some warmth. This can be called ‘democracy at work’. Of course there are no elections, no parliamentary resolutions and no policing. Pure selfless common sense prevails.
A few years ago, I was in Makkah for Hajj. I bought a newspaper there because the startling headline read: “If only Hajis were pigeons”. The paper wrote: “It is generally believed that even the pigeons respect the cleanliness of the Harem-e-Kaaba. Alas, the Hajis coming from the four corners of the world do not bother to have any such consideration. They do not use the dust bins and throw away all types of rubbish wherever they like”.
It is high time we learnt from the penguins and pigeons.
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