Islamic Social Contract

PREFACE

At the dawn of the 21st century two events seem to be dominating to decide the trend for the entirety of it. The first development is the continuing economic recession in the industrialized West. This is producing civic unrest against the established social order and raising questions about the effectiveness of secular democratic institutions. The popular uprising of people to overthrow autocratic rulers in the Muslim majority Middle East and North Africa is the other cataclysmic event demolishing existing order. These two phenomena are still shaping up making it difficult to ascertain their final impact on the political landscape of the world. It is evident, the status quo is not acceptable to the majority of citizens around the world. Academics, researchers and scholars are seeking alternatives to secular democracy, especially redefining the role of religion in a social order. Islam considers life on earth as a temporary recess before a soul migrates to its final resting place in an afterlife. It offers a link connecting the deeds performed during a lifetime and salvation of the soul in the hereafter. Islam considers that the primary objective of the State is to establish an environment that not only satisfies bodily needs, but also enables a person to earn mercy on the Day of Judgment.

For the large part of the last two centuries, majority of Muslims were ruled by imperial powers of the West. During the colonial rule, the Christian majority West had tried to remake the social, cultural and religious lives of people of these countries. It can be assumed that the motive of imperial powers was to ensure the continuity of their rule rather than the promotion of Christianity. To achieve this objective, they tried to influence the linguistic tradition, distorted the history and prevented the evolution of a social order based on Islamic principles. Muslims, on the other hand, have blamed their subjugation by foreign powers on the corruption of religious beliefs and ethics. To regain their lost glory, independence movements have been influenced by the ideology to move the social clock back to the first two centuries of Islam when it was at the zenith of its power. This backward-looking attitude has dampened the desire to embrace progress in science and technology. The situation was further aggravated when Muslim modernists equated adoption of scientific knowledge with acceptance of Western culture. Conservative rural maulvis (religious scholars) in Northern Pakistan raise objections to allow anti-polio vaccine campaigns in their villages on the pretext that it is a conspiracy by the West to make their children impotent. To counter the emergence of conservative societies some independence movements appealed to nationalistic sentiments to secure liberation for their communities. These Muslim majority countries, even after the lapse of five decades, are still struggling to create stable social order by resolving intrinsic conflict between faith and culture, pan-Islamism verses nationalism, and to define minority and women’s rights. Most of these countries, especially in the Middle East and Africa, have struggled with establishing stable democratic institutions. These failures have created a wrong perception that somehow democracy is not compatible with the tenets of Islam.

By the middle of the 20th century Muslim countries regained their geographic independence but political, economic and ideological liberation remained out of their reach. At the advent of 21st century, economic and political weakening of the West has provided an opportunity for Muslim populations to gain at least political independence. Evidence of this is the electoral success of Islamic political parties in Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Indonesia, and Pakistan. Manifestos of these political parties aspire to establish an Islamic Social State. However, these parties fail to provide viable political solutions that can address social issues such as acceptance of diversity, equal rights to all citizens, women’s rights and containment of extremism. They fail to provide a road map that could resolve ideological differences between politically influential orthodox Islamic scholars, which are a minority, and the educated middle class that are the majority.

Human condition is evolutionary in terms of unlocking mysteries of the universe as well as understanding the divine message of a revealed religion. It is sad that doors of ijma (consensus) and ijtihad (reasoning) were permanently closed around the 11th century. Despite a clear philosophical advantage over the West in unlocking the wisdom of Greek philosophers, the Muslim Ummah (community) fell behind because progressive understanding of the Divine message was not allowed to prevail. This inability of Muslim scholars to evolve contemporary interpretation of the Divine message, in the light of new discoveries in social sciences, has severely affected the gradual political transformation of Muslim societies. Dynastic rulers considered it politically expedient to promote interpretation by early scholars of Islamic thought as final and infallible. To address administrative issues arising from doctrinal difference between Muslims, the Millet (nation) system and multiplicity of legal codes was introduced. This stalemate of thought alone can be blamed for the colonization of Muslim lands around 17th century.

Much like other fields of science and reason, Muslims have fallen behind in developing social sciences. The Muslim inability to offer an alternate system to secular democracy is the result of a lack of interest in anthropology as a science. Sharia, developed by Muslim scholars in the early centuries of Islam, provides a legalistic perspective to lead a life of piety and righteousness. It is not a political theory that helps design institutional structure although it can provide guidance. Sharia does not enjoy divine status by itself, as the Quran does, but it is a human effort to guide people about the practical aspects of the revealed message. Much effort has been put in to develop it, which mainly focuses on individual behavior, while not much effort has been made to understand the anthropological aspect to enable Muslims to organize their societies. Modern society is not purely legalistic but a combination of rights and duties that are voluntarily accepted by citizens. Failure of Muslim majority countries to evolve a social order impeded development of a political structure that is unique to their cultural and religious traditions. This produced botched efforts to adopt Western models of secular democracy.

Much like other fields of science and reason, Muslims have fallen behind in developing social sciences. The Muslim inability to offer an alternate system to secular democracy is the result of a lack of interest in anthropology as a science. Sharia, developed by Muslim scholars in the early centuries of Islam, provides a legalistic perspective to lead a life of piety and righteousness. It is not a political theory that helps design institutional structure although it can provide guidance. Sharia does not enjoy divine status by itself, as the Quran does, but it is a human effort to guide people about the practical aspects of the revealed message. Much effort has been put in to develop it, which mainly focuses on individual behavior, while not much effort has been made to understand the anthropological aspect to enable Muslims to organize their societies. Modern society is not purely legalistic but a combination of rights and duties that are voluntarily accepted by citizens. Failure of Muslim majority countries to evolve a social order impeded development of a political structure that is unique to their cultural and religious traditions. This produced botched efforts to adopt Western models of secular democracy.

Mohammad (PBUH) in his last hajj sermon advised the Ummah (community) in these words:

All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me directly. Be my witness, O ALLAH, that I have conveyed your message to your people.

This was a clear advice that understanding the message of Islam is evolutionary. No prior generation should claim to have fully understood it. To maintain contemporary freshness of Islamic ideology, think tanks, academics and religious scholars have to engage in ongoing research of its social message and underlying political order.

The objective of this book is to provide a macro level concept of an Islamic Social State in the light of the teachings of the Quran and political tradition of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). It is by no means a final thought that is nonnegotiable. This book is an effort to offer an alternative to the secular form of democracy.  The objective of this book is to plant the seed of an idea that can be developed into a fully grown tree through discussion and discourse.

The book is structured in five chapters, each dealing with a particular aspect of social and political questions. The appendix offers texts of the Charter of Medinah, Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and last sermon of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) that was delivered during Hajj (annual pilgrimage to Mecca). These texts are not authenticated through independent investigation. The texts offered in the book are the most widely published versions of these historic documents. It was beyond the scope of this book to authenticate these documents. The verses presented throughout the book are from the translation of the Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. The convention for verse numbers is sura (chapter) number followed by a period and verse number. For example, verse 33.025 corresponds to verse 25 in sura 33.

I pray that God help us all to establish a just society in our communities. But we must never forget that God advised us in the Quran (verse 13.011) that God does not change the condition of people until they change it themselves. Instead of relying on alien systems that were developed outside Islamic tradition, we have to develop our own indigenous systems.  We should not get disheartened from the hurdles that are a natural occurrence at the initiation of a new direction. Islam makes it incumbent upon us to take an active role, rather than being passive, in our nation building efforts. This book is my humble effort to contribute towards this objective. It is not a book of religion but of political science. I don’t expect everyone to agree with the ideas presented but if it makes you think, my purpose has been achieved.

I am thankful to Khaula Mazhar for editing the manuscript despite her other commitments. She is an established author in her own right with many books in publication. I am indebted to Arif Ansar for his critical review of the book. Arif is a founding partner and chief analyst of POLITACT, an advisory group focused on security, political and economic affairs.

Any errors and omissions are entirely my responsibility.

Abdul Quayyum Khan Kundi

Clovis, California

September 30, 2012

Chapter 1—Secularism and Faith

A brief history of Social Development

Behavioral scientists agree that humans are a social species and require association with others to achieve their full potential. This interdependence enabled the emergence of a tribal society in the formative years of civilization when cavemen came down from mountains to the planes of Asia and Africa to engage in farming. In a tribal setting, members of a particular group agreed to abide by a cultural, moral and religious code that differentiated them from other tribes. These differences offered substantial enough motive to gain loyalties of new members to enhance a group’s influence consequently containing clout of other tribes in the area. Archeological finds of ancient civilizations make it abundantly clear that religion played a significant role in defining the moral character of a particular culture. Adherence to a religion fundamentally meant belief in a supernatural entity that held powers of mythical proportions that could not be comprehended through faculties of reason or logic. For instance, elaborate religious sacrificial rituals were practiced for natural phenomena like rain or drought that were supposed to be controlled by a deity. This blind faith created anxieties that were satiated to some extent by giving some tangible shape or form to the deity. Some of these ancient civilizations granted divine status to a particular force of nature like the sun, moon and fire. In a similar fashion, other cultures adopted a combination of idols and natural phenomena that formed their religious beliefs. Communities grew into towns when agricultural surpluses were traded among tribes. It was at this state of social development that we find first appearance of belief in one Supreme God appears in the recorded history. It is widely believed that Prophet Abraham (AS) was the first one to promote submission to one God, but recent discoveries suggest that idea of one Supreme entity is much older than that. Islamic sacred text the Quran proposes that belief in one God has been present since the appearance of first men. Anthropologists broadly classified these religious phenomena as monotheistic, polytheistic, and pantheistic.

An interesting corollary to consider is that throughout recorded history there was not a single dominant religion that was adhered to by all mankind. This diversity of beliefs resulted in religious wars causing devastation and misery. The Islamic invasion of Hindu South Asia and Zoroastrian Persia is well documented. Two centuries of struggle for dominance between Christian West and Islamic East, termed as crusades, are still fresh in memories. While religious wars caused devastations to mankind, they did not dampen the human spirit to improve its understanding of nature and materials. Scientific knowledge grew with leaps and bounds as diverse people came together in large towns. These scientific discoveries translated into new industries required diversity of skills that attracted ever larger numbers of people to congregate in towns, giving rise to urbanization of mankind. This urban migration eliminated the influence of tribes and was replaced by a larger community in the form of a nation state. A nation was represented by a dominant linguistic, cultural or a religious group in a contagious geographic region. A nation was held together either by coercive force of an army or a shared economic interest. This nation state needed a continuous flow of raw materials from distant lands to ensure uninterrupted running of their industrial complex. Economic interest to gain access to raw materials induced competition among nation states to occupy and colonize large parts of the South America, North America, Asia, Africa, Middle East and Australia. This resulted in the emergence of imperial powers that employed religion to affect the culture and values of subjugated people. Political motive, behind this rewiring of faith, was to ensure colonization of thought, subjecting the intellect of occupied people to the values promoted by the occupying power. An intellectually compliant population was considered politically passive towards the occupying force.

Despite coercive efforts by colonial powers to impose a universal faith, diversity of religion survived. Most urban centers were a blend of religions including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism. Commercial success provided resources for the creation of research laboratories which accelerated the progress in scientific knowledge. Innovations in print and paper technologies enabled wide distribution of new findings creating a growing number of empowered individuals. These scientists, doctors and philosophers questioned the soundness of following a religious dogma that cannot be explained through logic, reason and philosophy. This gave rise to appearance of new forms of beliefs which anthropologists classified as atheism and agnosticism. Atheists totally rejected the idea of a Supreme Being or First Cause that was needed for the creation of universe thus commanding a mandate to define moral code for a society. Agnostics on the other hand did not reject the idea of a supreme God but required reasonable proofs for His existence. Until it can be proven they neither accepted nor rejected