| Man has been created free. He is not
subservient to anyone except the Almighty. Hence, neither an
individual nor a state has any right to impose any
restrictions on his ideology and deeds or take any step
against his life, wealth and honour. This freedom is a birth
right of a person, and has been granted to him by his Creator.
The Global Manifesto of human rights is a declaration of this
reality. All nations of the world have accepted it and have
guaranteed that they will not violate it in their
constitutions. This is a testimony to the fact that the
awareness of freedom is found in human nature and a person
never wants that any individual or government try to arrest
it. The Prophet Muhammad (sws) in his sermon of hajj stressed
this very reality in the following words:
إِنَّ وَدِمَاءَكُمْ وَأَمْوَالَكُمْ
وَأَعْرَاضَكُمْ بَيْنَكُمْ حَرَامٌ كَحُرْمَةِ يَوْمِكُمْ هَذَا
فِي شَهْرِكُمْ هَذَا فِي بَلَدِكُمْ هَذَا
Indeed, your lives, your wealth, and your
honour are as sacred and inviolable as this day of [sacrifice
of] yours in this city of [Makkah of] yours in this month of [Dhu
al-Hajj of] yours.
The question, however, arises: is this
freedom of life, wealth and honour absolute in nature? The
answer to this question is firmly in the negative. This
freedom ends when a person usurps the rights of others or
takes a step against the life, wealth and honour of an
individual. Man’s moral awareness and God’s shari‘ah both
agree that after this every society has the right to terminate
this freedom and refrain from acknowledging this sanctity of
life, wealth and honour.
It is this which in reality forms the basis
of legislation in an Islamic state. All laws are made to stop
people from usurping the rights of others and committing
excesses against them or to punish their perpetrators. The
right to legislate of every institution, every government and
every parliament begins and ends here. The directive God has
given a Muslim state to punish people who kill, steal, falsely
accuse people of fornication and spread anarchy in the land is
because fornication is tantamount to usurping rights while
killing, stealing, falsely accusing someone of fornication and
spreading anarchy in the land are excesses committed against
the life, wealth and honour of people. When in the times of
the rightly guided caliphs the issue of prescribing a
punishment for liquor arose, ‘Ali (rta), on this very basis,
opined that a drunkard should given the same punishment as the
one prescribed by the Qur’an for falsely accusing someone of
fornication. That is when people drink, they will get
intoxicated and once they get intoxicated, they will utter
nonsense; and once they start uttering nonsense, they will
falsely accuse other people.
Similar is the case of marriage, divorce, distribution of
inheritance and other similar matters. All these relate to the
state only when a person does not discharge the rights imposed
on him by the Almighty, and in this manner is guilty of
usurping rights. In the state of Pakistan, laws regarding
permission of the first wife for second marriage and
prohibition of marriage of minors have been made on this
basis.
Every government and every legislative
forum of the world is bound to justify the legitimacy of all
the laws and statutes they enact on this basis as well.
Moreover, it is the right of the people to analyze the laws
made by them and if they see that there are some laws which
are devoid of this basis, to not accept them. Thus, if a
government, for example, has enacted the law that people will
not be allowed to wear their religious identifications like
the zunnar, the cross, the turban or kirpan, or they will have
to necessarily give a wife a certain amount of their wealth at
the time of divorce or will not shave their beards or not wear
shorts or not listen to music or women will not go out without
wearing the veil or will not put on the scarf then this indeed
is exceeding the limits. Similarly, if, on the contrary, it
has enacted the law that they cannot go out unless they wear
the veil or not go for hajj or ‘umrah without a mahram or will
not drive cars, or will not adopt such and such a profession,
or will not take part in politics or will not cast votes, then
this also is exceeding the limits. Even if any of these is
God’s directive, then people are answerable before God if they
follow or violate it. No government of the world has the
authority to order a person to obey such matters. The Almighty
has made it evident with in unequivocal terms that among the
positive requirements of religion, a state can only demand two
things from its Muslim citizens: the prayer and the zakah. The
Qur’an asserts that after that a state must leave them alone
and not try to implement anything on them through law. It
says:
فَإِنْ تَابُوا
وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوْا الزَّكَاةَ فَخَلُّوا
سَبِيلَهُمْ (٥:٩)
So, if they repent,
are diligent in the prayer and pay zakah, leave them alone.
(9:5)
This directive was given to the Prophet
Muhammad (sws) at the time when God ruled on this earth. Thus,
while explaining this, I have written:
… This means that at the state and legal
level no additional demand can be made from the Muslims to
fulfill the requirements of faith and religion. This is
because when God did not allow this in His own rule, how can
others be given this permission.
(Translated by Dr Shehzad Saleem)
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