July 30 , 2010

Shariat - Need for Review and Change?

Dr. Zaki Yamani, the eminent Saudi statesman and erstwhile Oil Minister, had declared years back that Shariat (Islamic jurisprudence) need be reviewed to bring the laws in line with the compulsions of the modern scientific and technological age. Dr. Yamani has been not the sole proponent of change. Similar voices have been raised by prominent scholars and leaders of opinion in different parts of the Muslim world. Yet nothing concrete has ever come out of their appeals. Why? Chiefly because of the conservative frame of mind of Muslim scholars and religious leaders for centuries past. Perhaps this was dictated by the overarching need to avoid differences of opinion leading to fractions in the community.

It may be recalled that the Islamic Shariat Court had declared in 1992 that interest was ‘riba’ (exploitation) that is unequivocally prohibited in the Qur’an. Proposals of Modarba, profit and loss accounts, etc. were adopted to paper over the concept of interest and the international credit system. The basic issue remained unsolved.

The need for a redefinition of ‘riba’ is mandated by the current banking system, particularly in Pakistan, which has inverted the traditional relationship between the lender and the borrower. The lenders to the banks, national savings setups, and cooperative societies, are not a small number of very rich people who monopolize wealth like here in the US, but millions of middle class individuals who deposit their savings, as investments, to meet future needs of their families. It is now, therefore, the lender and not the borrower who needs protection. The government petition also raises the question of the loss of the purchasing power of a depositor’s money owing to inflation, and how he is to be compensated in the light of Islamic jurisprudence.

It is easy to adopt an orthodox and rigid posture and proclaim that since interest is ‘riba’ and has been regarded for centuries as such, it stands prohibited for all times to come, irrespective of who benefits and who loses, who is the exploiter and who is the exploited. It is the letter which counts; one need hardly go into the spirit or wisdom behind it.

On the other hand, during the heydays of Muslim rule in Medina, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Cardoba ( Spain), and in the Ottoman, Persian and Mughal empires, the intellectual leaders of the community exercised on such occasions their spirit of inquiry. This creative minority which thrived on challenges included giants like Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sina, Ibn Arabi, Ibn Battuta, the four Imams of fiqh and the compilers of the Ahadiths. The list of such remarkable scholars and intellectuals is so big that only a few names have been mentioned at random. No disrespect is meant to those not named here.

The point being made is that the outstanding scientists, philosophers, astronomers, sociologists, historians, intellectuals, jurists, etc. never shied away from challenges. They invariable responded rationally to all challenges instead of taking dogmatic positions. The differences in the Hanafi, Shafie, Malaki and Hanbali schools of thought, on several issues, reflect this convincingly. Then there are the Shiite interpretations.

It was only during the twilight of Muslim civilizations that the line of least intellectual effort was adopted. It was argued that the Qur’an and Sunnah provided all the knowledge that was needed by human beings and there was, therefore, no need to look beyond them.

What determines whether a challenge will or will not be met depends upon the presence or absence of initiative and of creative individuals with clarity of mind and the will to effectively respond to new situations. A challenge successfully met raises the temper and level of a nation and makes it abler to meet further challenges. When a civilization declines, it is through no mystic limitation of a collective life but through the failure of its political and intellectual leaders to meet the challenges of change.

The fall of the Muslim rule in Granada, Spain, in 1492 provides a good example of the elimination of a system not keeping pace with the march of events of the period. The Muslim rule over bulk of Spain spanned over seven centuries (711-1492).

The orthodox Muslims would say that Granada collapsed because the Muslims there had deviated from their faith and had become corrupt and luxury loving; they were weakened by internecine struggle for power. That is correct but only partly. The real reason was that the whole of Europe had entered a new era. New ideas, new technologies and new political systems were beginning to herald the new age. Reformation had taken roots and the concept of nation-state was fast developing. This new concept was supplanting the system of different, often warring, tribal lords and kings.

The arranged marriage between Princess Isabella with Prince Ferdinand (not allowed in Christian creed being cousins) consolidated, as wisely calculated by the elders, the states of both into one large and formidable kingdom, an emerging nation-state of Spain.

The inability of Ameer Abul Hasan of Granada to see clearly this new reality and adjust his response accordingly in his state which was already suffering from a triangular strife for power between him, his brother and son, ensured the end of the Muslim rule going back to over seven centuries in history. With the capitulation of Granada in 1492, Spain became the premier nation-state in Europe, the first major imperial power of Europe with extensive colonies in foreign lands, particularly in South America.

The emergence of the West from its dark age is indebted to the collapse of Granada which placed into the hands of the Spanish scholars, who were well-versed in Arabic, thousands of books and manuscripts of Granada libraries. It is also indebted to the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Sultan Mehmet II which caused the exodus to Europe of religious and secular elite of eastern Roman Empire, along with thousands of manuscripts. These valuable treasures were in no small measure instrumental in generating deep interest in philosophy, history, sociology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, trigonometry, etc. leading to the Renaissance, followed by Reformation and then by the Industrial Revolution.

On the other hand, the spirit of inquiry disappeared from the sun-lit Muslim world pushing it into the twilight zone of history. Islam ceased to be a logical, rational, thriving, throbbing religion. It became an odd mixture of miracles, mysteries and myths. Deviation from Shariat gave rise to Tariqat, advent of several Sufi, mystic orders, and a litany of saints and mystics. Semi naked faqirs and mentally deranged persons became holy men and tombs of saints attracted devotees who invoked the dead saints for blessings. A practice still pursued but which is totally against the injunction of the Holy Qur’an. Ataturk in Turkey and the Wahabi movements in Saudi Arabia slammed this practice. But, it continues in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent and many other parts of the Muslim world. Most of the feudal lords of Pakistan are also sajjada-nashin, custodian of the tomb of some saint or another. This is helpful to them in controlling the minds of their vassals by invoking the fear of some concocted supernatural feat.

In such a religious milieu, Muslims who argue that the modern world makes its own demands, which may be grouped as secular, stand on shaky theological ground. Many Muslims, in fact, regard such a belief as tantamount to a rejection of Islam. For, they believe that Islam’s jurisdiction is absolute, that its laws are all-encompassing. The modern, forward-looking Muslim is thus on the defensive. He finds it safer to leave the subject alone. The result is that the banner of Allah is now carried by the literate or semi-literate extremists. For instance, the Taliban in Afghanistan, the clerics in Iran, the radical right-wing parties of Pakistan, Ikhwanul Muslameen in Egypt, and Islamists of Turkey, now define the Islamic way of life. One common trait in almost all of them is that their ideal, their utopia lies over 1400 years back in history - the 30-year period of the righteous caliphs after the demise of the Prophet.

Unlike Judaism whose doctrines emerged only after the exile in Egypt and the wandering in the desert, and unlike Christianity which started as a small and persecuted Jewish sect, improvising its theology as it grew, Islam was born, so to speak, full-blown. The Qur’an was revealed to Prophet Muhammed in its totality and provided, it is firmly believed, all doctrine that was needed. With Islamic dogma buttressed by an exceptionally triumphant history of fast spread of Islam, Muslim thought is uncomfortable in accepting any period, past or present, as holding an edge over the 30-year utopian period of the first four caliphs.

The extremists in particular have difficulty in absorbing the idea that mankind is destined to progress, or that innovation can bring improvement to life. They maintain that a higher order of life may be found only by going backwards. These backward looking extremists have organized in every Muslim country with the aim of taking control of the state. They are a dynamic force and they share a determination to impose their definition of Islamic life on the society as a whole. They will go to any extent to gag the voice of dissent of Muslims equipped with modern education and given to the use of the tools of reasoning and logic.

Perhaps the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) could set up a standing committee of scholars to advise on review of problems of Islamic laws referred to it by the OIC. It is only through debate and discussion that we can arrive at a consensus. For want of consensus, the extremists and fanatics are setting credulous young men in suicide jackets to take the lives of fellow Muslims. If they want to impose their views through such violence, they are very much mistaken.

arifhussaini@hotmail.com