Noble teachings of Allah

The verse Surah al-Nisa ($:135), and verse 8 of Sura al-Ma’ida (5) says:

“Be steadfast for Allah as witnesses for justice. And malice against a people should not bid you to not doing justice. Do justice. That is nearer to Taqwa. And fear Allah. Surely, Allah is all-aware of what you do (5.8)”

In this verse, it has been clearly stated that establishing and maintaining justice and being steadfast on it is not simply the duty of governments and courts. The instruction has been given to every human being personally firm about it and, at the same time, by making efforts that others too stay equally firm about seeing justice done.

However, a certain level of justice does fall in the jurisdiction of government and its officials when the wicked, the rebellious and the contumacious challenge and confront the processes of justice by flouting it personally as well as by stopping others to carry out its dictates. On such occasions, penalization and punishment do become necessary. This enforcement of justice, obviously, can be done only by government which holds the reins of power in its hands.

In the world today, leave alone the illiterate millions, even fairly educated people think that the dispensing of justice is the sole duty of governments and courts and the masses of people are not responsible for it.

This attitude is one of the major reasons which has made the government and the people act as two confronting parties in every country and every state. As a result, a gulf of conflict divides the rulers and the ruled. Masses of people from their government but, strangely enough, are not themselves ready and eager to uphold justice.

The outcome is all too visible everywhere in the world. Law stands on hold. Crime wave rides high. No doubt, we have law-making bodies in every country costing millions. When elections come, the furore created to elect representatives really shakes the God’s earth. Then, these elected few, being supposedly the cream of the whole country, go on to make laws with concern and caution keeping in view the needs and sentiments of their electorate. Then, the law is put forth for public opinion. When favourable, the law is considered enforceable.

Then, the whole machinery of the government with its countless departments and experienced personnel goes about enforcing the law so made. Now, this is a window to the custom-ridden world we live in. We have to look afresh and aim higher. In order to do something like this, we have to shake off from the torpor of blind following, the following of self promoting custodians of civilization, and we shall, then, realize that things are not as bright as we are being made to see.

Compare the state of affairs for a hundred years from now; the data will confirm that with every increase in law-making, there increased the exhibition of popular will in law and a corresponding increase in the machinery of law enforcement. One kind of police sprouted out in many more kinds resulting in a more than matching increases in ever-escalating crimes causing people to remain far more deprived of justice. With this graph of conditions rising up, more disorder in the world started showing up.

Belief in the Hereafter and the fear of God: the only guarantee of universal peace:

The world is waiting for someone sensitive and discerning who would cross over the barriers of customized routines and seriously consider the message brought by the Arabian messenger (PBUH) and deliberates in the reality of things as they are. Peace in the world has never been achieved through penal codes, nor will it ever be.

The guarantee of universal peace can be delivered by nothing but the belief in the Hereafter and the fear of God. This twosome is the channel through which all obligations of the ruler and the ruled, masses and the government merge together on a common platform. Everyone starts pulsating with the crucial sense of individual responsibility. When it comes to respecting and defending law, the masses of people cannot get away by saying that this was the job of the officials.

It will be noticed that the verses of the Holy Qur’an dealing with the establishment of justice as cited above end with an exhortation to this very revolutionary article of faith.

The present verse of Surah al-Nisa ends with the reminder: Allah is all-aware of what you do - at the end of the verse from Surah al-Ma’idah, the first came the instruction to observe Taqwa, the fear of Allah, after which I was said - Allah is aware of what you do. Then, at the end of Surah al- Hadid, it was said: Allah is powerful, mighty.

Seen together, these three verses do not rest at giving instructions to both officials and the masses that they should not only uphold and establish justice personally but should also see that others too do that.

These verses go further ahead through their concluding statements whereby they focus all attention to a decisive reality which has the potential to generate a great revolution in human life and its aspirations. This, in a few words, is the realization of the power and domain of Almighty Allah, the thought of having to be present before Him, and of reckoning, and of retribution.

This was, again in a nutshell, the secret behind the peace which prevailed in the less-educated world a hundred years ago as compared with what we have in our day; and in fact, it is the abandoning of such a valuable teaching that has deprived the modern progress-claiming, high flying and satellite-born world from the blessings of genuine peace on earth.

It is in the best interest of the liberal people of the world to realize that science and its progress can take them to all sorts of frontiers - they can climb the skies, camp on starts and visit the depths of seas - but, the real end-product of all these high-tech equipment and efforts is something which they would fail to find on far away stars or in ever new inventions.

This is still there for seekers to find. It is there, clear and true as ever, in the message brought by the Prophet (PBUH), who appeared in Arabia, may our lives be ransomed for him and may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and may the teaching of his, that of believing in Allah and believing in the life-to come and its reckoning.

Day by day, the astonishing discoveries of science do no more than confirm the most perfect power of Almighty Allah and go on to clearly demonstrate the state -of-the art mastery of His creation which has no match. Before the skill and range of such creativity, every human claim to progress stand humbled - as the famous Persian line seems to ask “If you have no wisdom and no vision, what is the use of doing what you do?”

Recapitulating, we can say that the Holy Qur’an has, on the one hand, declared the establishment of justice and fairness as the very purpose of a universal order in the world while, on the other hand, it has proposed a unique system which - if adopted and put into practice would metamorphose this very blood-thirsty and iniquitous world into a society of virtuous people which, in turn, would become Paradise now, instant and cash, much earlier than the promised Paradise of the Hereafter.

In fact, one of explanations given regarding the verse of the Qur’an ‘And for one who fears the high station of his or Rabb (Lord), there will be two Paradises’ is exactly what has been stated above. That’s, the God-fearing will have two Paradises, nothing Utopian about the idea. That it is feasible has been already demonstrated by the great harbinger of this message, the Holy Prophet of Islam, upon him the blessings of Allah, and peace.

He has bequeathed this message to posterity, not as some unproven theory, but as a practical and functioning system. Then, after him, came al-Khulafa’al-Rashidun, the rightly-guided Caliphs and many more from among the rulers who followed the Sunnah (traditions) of the noble Prophet of Islamic strictly.

As and when they acted in accordance with the principles set for them, the lion and the lamb were seen drinking at the same water trough, an imaginary saying for the ideal climate of justice for all, the strong and the weak, the poor and the rich, the labourer and the capitalist.

Totally eliminated was whatever difference there could be between human beings. Law was respected by every individual in bolted homes and in the darkness of nights. This is too fairy tale. These are facts of authentic history widely corroborated and confessed, even by open-minded non-Muslims.

Impediments to Justice

Though the two verses from Surah-al-Nisa and Surah al-Ma’idah quoted earlier come from two different chapters, yet their subject is almost common denominator between them. The only difference is that justice is normally impeded, obstructed or compromised by two things, firstly, by love, kinship or friendship or link with someone which pushes the witness to testify in his favour so that he remains shielded against loss or that he profits by it.

As for the judge or Qadi who is to give the verdict is affected by any such linkage, he would naturally have the urge to decide the case in favour of the party of his linkage.

Secondly, justice is impeded by hostility towards someone which may take the witness to testify against him, which it could also become the cause of an unfavourable judgement given by the judge or Qadi. So, love and hate are passions which can cause one to move away from the path of justice and become involved with all sorts of injustice and oppression.

These very two impediments have been removed in both the verses of Surah al-Nisa and Surah al-Ma’idah. The instruction given in the verse of Aurah al-Nisa is about removing the impediment of kinship or nearness.

A.W. Abdulkany