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Islam is filled with commandments and rules that cast light over the paths of life and ensures for the wanderer the means of safety and integrity but we have not been able to shed a light on all the guidance Islam gave through all sectors of life. * * * * * *
This is Our Religion, Part 21
The Nature of Legislation
What needs mentioning is that the study of these texts would enable the researcher to acquire knowledge in the spirit of Islam and its wisdom in the various aspects of life.
Legislators, by concentrating and studying these texts, were able to extract a cluster of rules and principles that would be considered as keys for the locks of laws.
With these laws those who have the power are able to furnish the corridor of Islam in all directions and to color life with it in every aspect of life.
The heritage that we inherited from the ways and words of the Prophet pbuh in dealings is a delicate and noble legacy that was never transmitted from another Prophet or from other humans before him.
But the ignorant offspring who were raised in this modern cultural invasion are totally unaware of this heritage needless to say its value.
So we deliberately gave a lot of varying examples in each sector for the following purposes:
1. To draw attention to what Islam excelled with by blending the dealings with good intentions and noble direction.
2. The wideness of the circle through which this religious legislation works in that it includes the whole life.
3. To reveal that these Su�nnen are no partial, fractured rules with nothing to bind them together. Rather they are appearances for one spirit that flows through it, joins its parts and organizes people�s matters as they renew and modernize.
Dr. Mohammad Yousef Musa said:
It is natural for this legislation to target the welfare of all people with no regard to their race or religion. Regarding this the scholar Al-Shatibi said:
�We have found by means of anticipation that the legislator meant the best interest of servants and the ordinary rules; laws of dealings - moves with them where ever they turn."
You can find for example something to be prevented the moment people has no welfare in it, but when people�s best interest is in it is allowed. Like money for money in return though it is prevented to deal with like selling and buying. But it is allowed to be loaned with no usury.
And things like selling dried dates with fresh ones it is prevented if there is a kind of deception and usury in it, but it is allowed if it were for the common good and best interest of people.
But it is widely known that best interests collide a lot, so what might work as good interest for one might cause harm to others and in these circumstances religion showed that common interest is advanced over the private one.
And in both cases the Hadeeth of the Prophet pbuh says, �No harm and no harming.�
And for both rules there are lots of applications.
We would like to mention from an application point of view:
That it is allowed to take private property away from some people in order to widen a highway, or a pathway or other kinds of public services. It is an obligation on those capable to spend on those in need from their relatives and kin and to coerce the wealthy people who owe others money to pay their debts off even by putting them to jail.
Bukhari narrated that Orwah said that Al-Zubair had a disagreement with one of the people of the city - regarding irrigating the land - so the Prophet pbuh said, �Oh Zubair irrigate your land then let the water go because the water way passes through his land first. The man said to the Prophet - protesting - he is the son of your aunt!
The Prophet pbuh said, �Zubair Irrigate your land until the water reaches the roots then stop (that means to irrigate until the land is saturated then leave the water for others).
In another incident mentioned by Yahya bin Adam Al-Qurashi in his book (Al-Kharaj) that a man called Al-Dahak had a piece of land that water doesn�t reach unless it passes through a garden for Muhammad bin Maslamah.
This Muhammad refused to let water pass through his land to reach Al-Dahak; that is he refused a channel to be dug through his land to the other. So Al-Dahak came to the Caliph Omar bin al-Khatab complaining.
Omar asked Maslamah: is there any harm caused to you if you let the water pass through your land? He said No. Omar said, I swear by Allah that if the water path goes only through your belly I would order it be allowed. Do as I say.
From this partial image, scholars of vision came and extracted very important results. Sheik Muhammad Yousef Musa said:
Islamic Fiqeh (law) guarantees the right for its owner and allows him to use it in the way that he wants, and would protect him from any hostility or aggression under the condition that others will not suffer from the use of this right by its owner. Provided that the harm done to those who suffer is far greater than the harm done to the owner of the right by being deprived from the use of his right.
This is an application for the rule �No harm and no harming� and committing the one with the least harm.
Sheik Ali Hasbullah said:
Scholars induced the rules of the Deen and what they target from best interests and found that they can be grouped into three types:
Type one: common interests that life can�t stand without them and they called them Necessary Interests and these are aimed to preserve 5 matters: Religion, Soul, Mind, Off springs, and Money. To this type most of the rules of the Shari�ah return to.
Type two: Common interests that when lost do not distort the lives of people but they might suffer from a kind of hardship and annoyance, and they called them Needed Interests. To this type a lot of rules of Shari�ah also return. Like allowing transactions and the permissions given in special occasions that would relieve people from some obligations sometimes.
Type three: Common interests that are taken from the best of habits like covering the private places and the prohibition of some dirty kinds of food and they called them Accessory Interests. Whoever studies the rules of the Shari�ah will find it has guaranteed to preserve all of these interests.
It is a complete legislation full of mercy, justice, and kindness to people. And this is one of the major reasons for this religion�s validity for human kind in every time and place.
Allah�s Rule has the Priority
It is not appropriate for people to take gods other than Allah as a lord or a Judge. And the one who worships any but Allah is a denier for the right and is betraying the blessing and so is everyone who follows other than what Allah has legislated or ruled.
Why give a human being the right to share Allah in his orders and prohibitions in making things Halal or Haram?
Why should a man have the power to leave Allah�s words aside or to through it behind his back and then come by his own with rules and laws which he claims to be more worthy of following than Allah�s rules?
Is he more truthful than Allah?
Does he have better insight with people�s interests than Allah?
Or does he have better memory for what Allah has forgotten from the needs of people?
Neglecting the divine legislation, and embracing the earthly law is an evil tampering and an obscene ignorance.
Allah said:
Shall I seek for judge other than Allah? When He it is Who hath sent unto you the Book, explained in detail. 6:14
And said:
Blessed be Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds! 7:54
And, honestly, the killing of the legislation from heaven is a major sin and the difference between this sin and other sins is that individuals might fall into other sins out of ignorance, weakness, a slip, or a storm of lust.
But as for the sin of eradicating the ruling of heaven, it is done purposely, publicly and with carelessness towards Allah.
Allah almighty has warned those who stray from the right path and decline into their own wishes so He said:
O David!
We did indeed make thee a vicegerent on earth: so judge thou between men in Truth (and justice): nor follow thou the lusts (of thy heart), for they will mislead thee from the Path of Allah: for those who wander astray from the Path of Allah, is a Penalty Grievous, for that they forget the Day of Account. 38:26
And surely the laws of Allah were never left except out of following the lusts, but while publicizing for this thing you find that they use a decorated argument that sounds as if it is one out of strong logic and common interest.
And so in order to prevent such a cheat Allah ordered His Prophet pbuh in the Quran:
�So judge between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that hath come to thee�5:48
And He says once more:
And this (He commands): judge thou between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, but beware of them lest they beguile thee from any of that (teaching) which Allah hath sent down to thee�5:49
And so we need all people to become aware of this truth and to have complete confidence that this Shari'ah never includes falsehood or injustice.
It is the perfect and complete truth:
The Truth is from thy Lord so be not at all in doubt. 2:147
�The Command is for none but Allah�12:40
�To Him belongs the Command, and to Him will ye (all) be brought back�28:88
Law might have sovereignty on people in large aspects of their lives but it is a handicapped and consumed one unless it is accompanied by a spiritual enlightenment that would furnish respect and honoring for it.
And how often the occasions are when law alone stood helpless and not able to secure the society and to spread confidence within its corners.
But as for the legislation of Allah the case is different and that is because submitting to it means submission to Allah who revealed it, and total surrendering to its major and minor details is a requirement of belief:
The answer of the Believers when summoned to Allah and His Messenger, in order that he may judge between them, is no other than this: they say, "We hear and we obey": it is such as these that will attain felicity. 24:51
But no, by thy Lord, they can have no (real) Faith, until they make thee judge in all disputes between them, and find in their souls no resistance against thy decisions, but accept them with the fullest conviction. 4:65
For this reason the divine law was considered both in public and secrecy and executed in privacy and openness because the execution of it is not done out of fear of a certain authority that can be deceived but it is a monitoring for the One who knows all that is known and hidden.
And the accused of the crime would be the first to surrender to the punishment because he knows that this is the order of Allah who none can prevent His destiny and none can over rule His rule. On the other side one might seek punishment in life so as to escape the punishment in the hereafter.
And this is the privilege the Divine law has over earthly laws in addition to that establishing the law of Allah is an obligation that requires both the cooperation of the state and the society and they both see that it is an obligation that is requested by the spirit of its faith.
Then the siege would harden around the criminal and he can never escape the consequences of his deeds and can find refuge in nobody of even his closest relatives.
Because all of them will seek nearness to Allah by surrendering him to law in order for him to get his just punishment as ordered by the sky. While in other laws a bounty would be put to capture him, regardless you can find some that would hide him. And that is because the Holiness of the law has never been attached to the hearts that some might argue about such a punishment and the soundness of the application of such a law.
It happens that a person might submit to the order of a close friend or an honored father and would carry out their request with content and joy. The passion might even reach a degree that one would wish one of them ask him to do something so he'll carry it out quickly and precisely to show them the extent of his love and attachment.
This is considered as one type of submission to the beloved known to people.
Another type of submission is the a submission that is accompanied by fear of harm and oppression, submission that would be to a boss by his employees that they would listen to him and carry out his orders with only fear as the driving force behind their consent.
They would do what they were told without the desire to do it and sometimes while detesting it and the one who gave it.
They are propelled to execute that out of the necessity for obedience or fear of punishment. Once they are secured from these consequences they would leave doing what they were told immediately.
The human soul might deceive in these circumstances while grouping between the hidden hatred and the apparent obedience so they would do what they are asked to far from loyalty and honesty image.
The first type of submission is the basic foundation of kind relations and the only guarantee for sensitive interest�
As for the other type of submission it is considered a form of domination that if was useful at one time, is so unworthy at many others.
Viewing the legislation that should dominate the crowds and discipline their well fare, rights and duties must be considered on the light of the truth that we gave example of previously.
That is the respect and the commitment given to law by the public and the private should arouse form the sound of consciousness that echo from within the heart.
With that the submission would be supported by strong psychological pillars that know no cunning or twists�
It is a matter so exhausting that the implementation of the law to be the duty of the physical authority alone�which by the time it is out of sight - and this happens so often - no shade of a law or value for welfare will be left.
I wonder of the number of officers and soldiers needed to guarantee such a mission?
And if that were sufficient, would we look to a high level of execution of what we ask?
How many burdens would that require?
On the other side I meditate on another society in which the religious conscience has done its obligation in a way that arouses satisfaction, admiration and meditation:
* A man slips with the sexual desire into committing the crime of adultery that he has committed in secret, but soon after the sky cleared off and the sexual desire broke down and the awakening of his conscience started. He would go on his own to the Prophet pbuh and ask him to establish the boundary of Allah upon him!
What's that? He is a believer who sees that he has committed an evil violation and that he should be purified from it through carrying out the law!
* In another example we find a young woman in the era of Omar bin Al-Khatab who issues an order that milk is not to be cheated with water. So Omar sets out in the middle of the night sensing the welfare of his subjects and he overhears a girl and her mother whispering to her: mix the milk with water! And she replies, no, the prince of believers prohibited that.
Her mother replies, trying to persuade her: and where is the prince of believers now? The young girl answers: if the prince of believers can't see us now, the Lord of the prince of believers can.
* Another girl was seduced by her companion to commit adultery by being told, the night has fallen and the stars are awake and we are in complete isolation from all the people and no body can see us except these stars. She replies:
Shame on you, and where is their Creator? Almighty!
The conscience attached to Allah - Glorified - is the true law. And I think that when we establish the policy of law making on this meaning then we have set it on fixed foundation and at that time we feel a kind of relief and comfort.
The Holiness of law is drew back prior to anything to its origin and to the relationship of people to this origin.
If people considered this law as a divine one, then they would make the domination of this law over them a part of their Salat and Zakat (prayer and charity).
The legislation that can reach these ends is a one that can straighten and stabilize people's matters and the Shari�ah is a guarantee for the common good because it is built on mercy and its goal is the happiness of people in this life before the hereafter.
In addition to that the good which Allah ordered benefits in this life and the hereafter while the evil that He prohibited them to do is only prohibited in order to shield them from harm and hidden or apparent evil.
The religion and what it contains from laws is the mercy of Allah with His creatures keeping in mind that He is in no need for any of His creatures whatsoever.
But sometimes you might hear an ignorant say mistakenly about the toughness of the penalties brought by the wise Legislator.
They make it sound as if Allah is enjoying these borders and punishments to revenge those who disobeyed Him. But He is Glorified Almighty from all that the liars say of Him because in truth those Divine penalties are a mercy to people and kindness to the society.
When Allah has allowed the blood of a killer to be shed He only did so in order to save thousands of bloods.
And when He allowed the hand of the robber to be cut it is in order to spread safety and security through out the earth.
And perhaps the worst lie of all is this passion that you can hear it echo between now and then asks for the cancellation of death penalty and to ignore what Allah has set from laws and boundaries.
Responding to these childish passions is an up rooting of just and security from the earth and a spread of oppression and aggression everywhere.
The legislation of Allah - ever since revealed through the Prophets - is a call for sane mercy.
Allah has explained in His book that he has allowed kinds of things to the people of Israel but when they committed oppression and they lusted to crime Allah hardened on them then he explained the wisdom of what He made:
If they accuse thee of falsehood, say:
"Your Lord is Full of Mercy, All- Embracing;" but from people in guilt never will His wrath be turned back. 6:147
But if the divine law can nail a dirty soul, it demonstrates that the purpose behind that is to surround the human community with a fence that would preserve lives and provide assurance for them.
On that account:
We ordained for the Children of Israel that if anyone slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people:
And if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people�5:32
Yes it is a general aggression on the whole humanity that if not stopped in time by punishment it would eradicate the individuals one by one.
In the law of Equality there is (saving of) Life to you, O ye men of understanding; that ye may restrain yourselves� 2:179
The land that is blessed after being rained would green and bear fruits.
Unfortunately this blessing that might bear less fruit and grain is of less value than a blessing that has been wasted by a lot of people.
This wasted blessing is the one meant by the Prophet pbuh by saying:
�A boundary applied on earth is better for the people of earth than to be rained for forty mornings.� (Al-Nasa�ie)
And no wonder in another Hadeeth you find, �One day of the days of a just Imam (ruler) is better than sixty years of worship.� (Al-Tabrani)
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The duties of Shari�ah that the believers were obliged to perform are not chains on the necks or feet rather they are actions that gather between loyalty for the rights of Allah and a guarantee for people�s needs.
It is a common error to consider the Deen as exhausting actions and tiring duties.
Certainly, it is energy and order and those who are used to chaos and laziness detest these meanings though it is a struggle to reach perfection and an establishment for right.
If a person planted a tree in the sand it would be in need for care so how do you think one should do in disciplining his soul and educating it on virtues to preserve it from harms?
Despite that and even if the matter reached the point of exhaustion and hardship Allah�s order came to relief those people and ease things down on them.
Alongside the required duties you can find Allah�s mercy come with lessening permissions, so whoever can�t find water can use sand to make ablution, and whoever travels can shorten his Salat, and whoever gets sick while fasting breaks his fast and make amends later.
Whoever wears his shoes or socks after ablution can wipe on them a complete day while not in travel and 3 days while traveling.
And it is allowed in times of need what is not in other times that, even the word that would change one from a believer to a non believer, can be said if one was coerced to say it and he would be excused for that:
Anyone who, after accepting Faith in Allah utters Unbelief, - except under compulsion, his heart remaining firm in Faith - but such as open their breast to Unbelief, on them is Wrath from Allah and theirs will be a dreadful Penalty. 16:106
But (even so), if a person is forced by necessity, without willful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits, thy Lord is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful 6:145
And when the rule says that necessities allow prohibitions then the nature of necessity is time and need not continuity and choice.
So those who would allow the usury systems in necessity - as they claim - are not an atom weight right that is because they make the building of the society founded on Haram with the slightest thinking in change or denial. This means to always allow the prohibited and to make the Harm forever Halal.
Further more Shari�ah - like cosmic facts and scientific rules - is general and doesn�t differ from time to time or country to another while in law you find that it is based on the common habits.
These might differ between people and countries without a respected standard for good or evil. The civil law that was transported to us from Europe allows adultery as long as the both parties are doing it out of free intention.
It also allows the consuming of Alcoholic drinks as long as the drunk is not causing any trouble or annoyance to others.
The civil law in other countries allows the growing of Opium and Hashish while in our countries it is forbidden in any form.
This variance means that the standards of virtue and vice are not fixed in law while such a thing is not known in Shari�ah at all.
The laws might be established on the foundation of fixing a certain part of public life and were successful in this mandatory mending, but public life is a whole that can�t be divided and the mending of one part of it does not spare us from the need to fix the flow in all the remaining directions.
That�s why the ethical studies were left to complete what law was unable to contain. Ethics by explaining duties, rights and high ideals guarantee in their claim this serious human side.
Frankly speaking the science of ethics while being separated from religion has become a building that is built on sand and the effort that this science does in correcting the human values is in no better condition than the effort exerted by law.
There is no remedy except by reestablishing the holiness to all the religious legislation and by letting the Divine laws to perform their everlasting message in spreading guidance and joy.
The religious researches in Islamic Shari�ah have remained for many centuries to flourish and prosper that has no comparison in the whole world.
This enormous legacy that was left by our aware ancestors in this track indicates a vast knowledge, an originality in study and measuring, and an outstanding skill in deduction and extraction.
The blowing wind of Fiqeh settled down after that and imitating scholars rose.
Then the people of this classical science passed out and after them came parrots that repeated what they did not know.
It was a hard period that passed by the Islamic Fiqeh and it was left into oblivion.
The public life set alone is negligent to the logic of Creed and Legislation all together.
Afterwards life started to beat into this sleepy giant and Muslims started coming back to their senses and to their hidden treasures in order to dig out the wonders from out of them.
It happened that during the last Islamic rise, Islamic studies flourished and legislative research occupied an honored place from it.
Another step took place after that when people of law started taking it back to its fountains of great Islam after a strong feeling has grown with the necessity of putting an end to this legislative colonization and the need to take our nation back to its glories and heritage.
But it is so hard here to bring evidences of the feelings law Arab men took towards Islamic Tashree� (Legislating) once they had recognized it and being glared by its raise.
It would be enough to mention here the testimonies of foreign lawmakers regarding this matter and you�ll find theirs full of wisdom and wit.
From the message for Prof. Ali Hasbullah:
He said the eminent scholar Fares Al-Khuri - one of the eminent figures of the east and of the greatest Syrian Christians - said: (Muhammad is the greatest of the great of this world, and time would never bring another one like him.
The religion with which he came with is of the highest, most perfect and complete of all in addition he had entrusted his pure legislation four thousand scientific, social and legislative matters.
The just law scholars couldn�t but recognize his virtue and that his principles agree totally with the mind and are in complete accordance with the finest rules and scientific facts.)
Prof. Saleem Al-Baz- a Lebanese Christian who explained the magazine of Legal Verdicts: (I sincerely believe that in Islamic Fiqeh you can find all the needs of people; contracts, dealings, cases, and commitments. You can find all of that placed in the book treasuries in Islamic or European countries.
What�s in these libraries of Islamic Fiqeh encyclopedias is the fruit of the efforts of thousands of the most prominent scientists. They are the biggest witnesses that there is no meaning among the vocabulary of rules that seek justice or any of the human legislative need unless a saying of a Muslim Faqeeh (scholar) has been told in it.)
Now let�s leave the testimony of the eastern Christians because they might have an inclination towards their Eastern origins and seek out the testimony of Europeans for those who don�t accept any but theirs and thank God we found among them who can be just and fair.
The European scholar Santilana said in some of his publications: (There is enough legislation in Islamic Fiqeh what would be sufficient for all Muslims needless to say all humanity.)
Dr. Anrico Ansabato said: (The Islamic Shari�ah overcomes in many of its research the European legislation plus giving the world one of the most powerful and fixed legislation.)
Prof. Lampier - a French man - said: (The books and publications provided in Islamic Shari�ah are a non-ending treasure and a fountain that doesn�t dry out. Islamic Shari�ah and the history of Islamic civilization has provided Christian civilization in the middle ages with a great deal of public origins.)
Joseph Kuhler - the German law maker - said when he had read a research for Dr. Mahmoud Fathi about �Unjustness in using the extreme right by the Legislators of Islam�:
The German lawmakers were so proud when they invented a law for such a theory in their civil law in the year 1787.
And now that it appeared that Muslim scholars have talked about that centuries ago back to the eighth century, Germans should leave the glory of talking about this theory and working by it to those who discovered it prior to the Germans by ten centuries; the holders of Islamic Shari�ah).
Prof. Sperel the dean of Law College in the University of Vienna said in a law conference in the year 1927:
(Humanity should be proud by the relation of a man like Muhammad to it.
Because he - despite his illiteracy - was able centuries ago to bring forth a legislation that we Europeans would be as happy as we can be if we were able to reach the top of it two thousand years from now.)
Finally in the year 1937, in Lahai, the international conference of comparative law - which gathered the lawmakers from all over the world in addition to the scholars of modern legislation -it recognized the virtue of Islamic Shari�ah and decided that it is a living Shari�ah which is suitable for prosperity and civilization and that it is worthy to occupy an excellent status among the resources of comparative law.
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Conclusion
The conditions of Muslims have been very bad for centuries.
For a long time they were the best of nations on earth. Then they started to lose that until they became the same as a lot of other nations. Then they deteriorated and fell down to a lower status than other nations.
It would be out of recklessness and ignorance to put the reason of all that on Islam.
Muslims were able to reach the peaks once they had close relation with their religion. But when the ties got weak and the distance went far they began to withdraw bit by bit until they became at the end like what the poet said:
People who were so far behind me got a head of me,
Once they were so far behind even if I was walking slowly�
And the reason for this delay doesn�t exceed two main reasons:
The enormous disobedience for a group of the guidance of Islam in the main fields of life though the path to follow was so clear and the means to it was so bright.
The turn of important concepts of the facts of Islam along with the prevalance of a lot of superstitions and innovations reached a point that large groups of pious used to worship Allah with not what He has ordered and would seek nearness to Him with other than what He had revealed.
Of course what was torn down over the years would never be rebuilt within months or years.
A long-term return with clear traces would consume a lot of time and effort. That is because religion at time of its flourish would be a light in consciousness, a rightness in actions, a care for trusties, fidelity, and honesty with Allah and people.
But if the time passed by and descendents came after ancestor religion would transform into words on the tongues, lowliness in wells, keenness on appearances, and waste in rights.
Rituals of religion might be probably taken as a veil to cover the illnesses of the souls and desires and an opening to its lusts and interest.
It would be the right of religion to prevail and its nation to prosper in the first case.
And it is the right of life in the second case to be unable to bear with deceived and deceiving religious people and to take them down from their height and from their victory to defeat.
The fixed law here is what Allah said:
Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls)� 13:11
And the age of true renaissance is what time it requires to change short or long, the time required changing folly into seriousness, falsehood into right, treason into loyalty, and stupidity into cleverness.
Do you think that something like that would happen overnight?
How impossible?
It requires a long time to get the ignorant to understand that he is ignorant.
Convincing him to be civilized takes longer.
Moving him from a stage to another takes longer.
Removing the piles of his past ignorance would take time.
And cutting a road that goes upwards or straight ahead would take ages.
If growing a fruit tree takes almost a year so how long would it take to raise a soul and revive a nation?
Oh how hard it is on the true advocates and how heavy the message is on those who build nations.
Say: "O Allah! Lord of Power (and Rule), Thou givest Power to whom Thou pleaseth, and Thou strippest off Power from whom Thou pleaseth: Thou endoweth with honour that Thou pleaseth, and Thou bringest low that Thou pleaseth: in Thy hand is all Good.
Verily, over all things Thou hast power 3:26
Some people think that the divine well would turn the destinies of nations in the same way you turn a page in your hand without any care or regard.
I tell those to leave this childish understanding of life and the living.
The consequences of removing the sovereignty from one nation in Palestine and giving it to others had introductions that took from 50 to 100 years to happen.
And in order for the country to return to its people, and for a nation to gain victory after defeat it should search thoroughly through the reasons of its catastrophes and then to pave the way for the desired results with deeds that produce good and bring victory close. Being patient and tolerant is a must in this stage.
Despite that the gamblers logic might work in fields of games and play but it would never work in fields of life.
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