The government should take the
following steps to Islamise our society at the social and penal levels and
to improve the existing situation in both these areas:
AT THE SOCIAL LEVEL
1. All the institutions of
the state should help establish a society in which people should be
honoured and respected on the basis of their intellect and piety instead
of their cast, creed, profession, social status and other similar
criteria.
2. The house should be
regarded the centre of activities for women, and they should be granted
the necessary facilities to maintain this priority even in indispensable
social and economic needs.
3. A husband should be
accepted as the head of a family and he should always be granted the right
to correct and admonish his wife which has been mentioned in the Qur’ān.
4. The tradition of obeying
parents and treating them kindly, which is still widely acclaimed in our
society, should be promoted and patronised in all circumstances.
5. Co-education should be
completely abolished, and all women should be obligated to dress as
honourable Muslim women do when they go out of their houses by wearing
Jilbābs (large cloaks).
6. The custom of dowry and
marriage procession should be gradually eliminated, and the tradition
established that if at all there is to be some expenditure upon wedding
ceremonies, the bridegroom’s family must bear it.
7. A restriction should be
imposed on the people that if they intend to divorce their wives, they
should do so according to the prescribed procedure mentioned in the Qur’ān
by administering the divorce sentence once only. However, if someone who
is ignorant of this procedure, or due to his own foolishness administers
three divorce sentences in succession, he should be punished, and such a
case should be decided in the manner the Prophet (sws) had done so with
Rukānah ibn ‘abdi Yazīd.
8. Polygamy should be made
conditional upon some moral or social need only, and the general concept
about it being permissible in the absolute sense should be discouraged.
9. A complete end should be
put to the injustices suffered by women, and they should be given all
their divinely ordained rights in all affairs, specially in inheritance.
10. The daily routines of
people should be organised in a manner that they gradually develop the
habit of going to bed early at night and rising early in the morning so
that the status occupied by the morning prayers and the morning Qur’ānic
recital in our culture is restored with all its glory.
11. Our national language and
dress should be popularised and given patronage and all national
traditions should be firmly established in the society. The Arabic
language should be given the same status as the English language is given
in present times.
12. It should be accepted that
music, photography, painting and other branches of fine arts are in no way
forbidden in the absolute sense, but it is their nature and use which in
some situations must be forbidden. As such, their prohibition is no
eternal law of the sharī‘ah; however, in certain circumstances when they
become a source of evil, a restriction can be imposed upon them by the
government.
13. A complete stop should be
put to the offences committed day in and day out by the mass media which
include radio, television, film, newspapers and journals.
Their first offence is that
instead of giving coverage to learned and accomplished women who have not
only distinguished themselves in the fields of arts and science but also
as scholars of Islam, they present women as objects of lewd entertainment.
This lecherous display is in complete disregard to the injunctions of the
Qur’ān which specifically enjoins all Muslim women to cover their heads
and chests and to refrain from exhibiting themselves. Rather than setting
examples of dignity and modesty they ‘sell’ their honour and integrity by
furthering the shameless trends of a shameless culture.
Their second offence is that
through their courtesy the stories of romance and intimacy which
everywhere in the world had been confined to the subtleties of poetry and
literature and whose recital and listening to was not disallowed in a
specific age and situation even by the great Caliph ‘Umar (raa), have now
invaded the everyday atmosphere of our homes. Such is the nature of this
invasion, that the chastity in the relationship between a mother and son,
father and daughter, brother and sister, upon which the poise and grace of
a society so heavily depends, is becoming an episode of the past. Through
the agency of our media a state has been reached in which our young men,
like most women are seen perpetually involved in glamorising themselves
with the latest flares of fashion. The older lot, may not be very
enthusiastic about their clothes and appearance but show tremendous
enthusiasm in shredding off any shame they might have originally had.
Their third offence is that they
have promoted sports and other means of amusement to an unwholesome and
unhealthy degree. Such is the nature of this patronisation that our
younger generation regards actors and sportsmen as their ideals in life.
While our scientists and technologists, scholars and thinkers do not even
receive posthumous recognition for their achievements, these merry-makers
are kept in the highest esteem. The bewitching manner in which they allure
young minds by depicting the daily routines of these celebrities
effectively diverts them from the higher objectives of life, after which
they can no longer be expected to become scholars and thinkers, and
indulge in other intellectual pursuits.
Their fourth offence is that
specifically among them radio and television show complete disregard to
the mandatory hours of worship in a day when nothing except prayers are
permissible.
AT THE PENAL LEVEL
1. All those criminals who
take the law into their own hands, become a nuisance for the state, adopt
immodesty and profligacy as a profession, become notorious for their ill
ways and vulgarity, commit rape, become a threat to honourable people
because of their immoral and dissolute practices, openly disgrace women
due to their social status, cause destruction, are a source of terror and
intimidation for the people, are guilty of killings, robbery, decoity and
hijacking, or create a law and order situation for the government by
committing other similar crimes should be severely dealt with. They should
be administered the punishments of Taqtīl
crucifixion, chopping off limbs on alternate sides, and exile which are
specifically prescribed for such criminals in verses 33-34 of Sūrah
Mā’idah.
2. Other criminals who commit
zinā (fornication), Qadhf (to falsely accuse chaste men or women of
fornication), theft or are guilty of killing or wounding someone, but at
the same time do not create a situation of law and order for the state,
and do not take the law in their hands should be administered the
prescribed punishments of stripes, chopping of hands, Qisās and Dī#yah.
3. In the case of Dī#yah, it
should be accepted and acclaimed that though it is an everlasting law
which must be obeyed in all times, yet its quantity, nature and other
related affairs have been left upon the customs and traditions of a
society. Consequently, no eternal quantity of Dī#yah has been fixed by
Islam, nor has it obligated us in any manner to discriminate between a man
or a woman, a free man or a slave and a Muslim or a non-Muslim in this
matter.
4. Likewise, in the case of
apostasy also, it should be recognised that the prescribed death sentence
was specifically meant for the Mushrikīn of Makkah i.e., the people
towards whom the Prophet (sws) was directly assigned. It, now, has no
bearing whatsoever upon any person or nation. Hence, today if a Muslim
becomes an apostate and is also not a source of nuisance for the state, he
cannot be administered any punishment merely on the basis of apostasy.
5. The prevailing erroneous
concept about the testimony of women must be revised. In cases of Hudūd,
Ta‘zīrāt, Qisās, Dī#yah, Financial matters, Marriage and Divorce and
indeed in all such matters, it should be left upon the discretion of the
judge whether he accepts someone as a witness or not. In this regard,
there must be no discrimination between a man or a woman. If a woman
testifies in a clear and definite manner, her testimony cannot be turned
down simply on the basis that there is not another woman and man to
testify alongside her. Similarly, if a man records an ambiguous and vague
statement, it cannot be accepted merely on the grounds that a man has
testified. If a court is satisfied by the statement of the witnesses and
by the circumstantial evidences, it has all the authority to pronounce a
case as proven, and if it is not satisfied, it has all the authority to
reject it even if ten men have testified.
6. Similarly, it must be
accepted that it is not necessary in cases of zinā that four witness can
only testify if they have seen the convicted man or woman in position of
the criminal act. According to the Qur’ān and Hadīth, this is only
required when a case has been filed on the basis of an accusation and the
accused are chaste, virtuous, and morally sound, and about whom no one can
even imagine that they can commit such a crime.
7. It should also be accepted
that in all cases of Islamic law that a crime legally stands proven not
only by the testimony of the witnesses or by the confession of the
criminals themselves but also by any circumstantial evidence. Hence in
cases of zinā, for example, medical examination, and in some other crimes
the use of post mortem reports, finger prints and other similar aids, the
extent of certitude obtained is no less than that obtained by the
testimony of the witnesses or by the confession of a criminal himself.
8. Apart from the crimes
whose punishments have been mentioned in the Qur’ān, punishments in cases
of other criminal offences should only be restricted to physical
chastisement, exaction of fine, exile or house arresting a criminal. The
inhuman punishment of confining a person behind bars should be completely
abolished.
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