ALBALAGH INTERNATIONAL From the Editor

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From The Editor Islam And The State V l f • » ! J

A Response To Ghamidi

By M u f t i M u h a m m a d T a q i U s m a n i

T r a n s l a t e d by W a q a r A k b a r C h e e m a

Dear Readers , Assalam-u-Alaikum ^

Praise belongs to Allah Who created the Universe and sustains it; and Durud and Salam be on the last of all Prophets who made the truth prevail over falsehood and provided humanity with guidance for all time.

It is a great irony of this age that modern scholarship has s tar ted advocating secular views In the name of religion. Especially they want to get rid of the very basis of Pakistan, The Two-Nation theory. Recently Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani has written a response to Mr Ghamidi 's article "Islami riyasat Aik Jawabi bayniah (Islamic State - A counter Narrative.) It is, in fact, a call to the political leaders and ruling elite to curb this kind of assertions and effort of insertion of secular ideas when Pakistan is passing through its most critical time of i t s history. Editor

The foundation of the Pakistan movement in pre-partition India was the ideology of Muslim nationalism. In response to the British and the Hindus who considered all Indians as one nation, Quaid-e-

A* u r>A Ali Jinnah vociferously propagated the Two torn M u h a m m a d M J .mMh ' »

aml ' ° Himhis^ Muslim th inkers and r . W . n . scholars!!) fully

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ALBALAGH INTERNATIONAL From the Editor 3 supported this idea. The memories of the chant ing of the slogan "Pakistan kaMatlab Kia? La Ilahallla Allaht* (What does Pakis tan stand for? There is no God but Allah!) a re still f resh in my mind. Eventually the Muslim majority responded to the call of the Quaid and as a result of the unforgettable sacrifices the dream of Pak i s t an was realized.

Though the foundation of the idea was already clear yet the first Constituent Assembly passed the Objectives Resolution which se t t h e direction of the state. It determined tha t sovereignty belongs to Allah and the elected representat ives shall exercise their r igh ts in accordance with the Qur'an and Sunnah. With slight variat ion of words this resolution has been a par t of all constitutions of t h e country throughout its history (1954, 1956, 1962, and 1973) and i s still a par t of the constitution of which we can be rightfully proud.

After discussions for over a quarter of the century the e n t i r e nation agreed to it and when the constitution was framed it included the article, "All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, end no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such Injunctions (Article 227) The now in force constitution of 1973 was approved by the consensus of all the political and religious parties of the t ime a n d even today all the (mainstream) political and religious parties seek to protect it. It has been fur ther supported by the recent historical agreement between the government and the opposition. Apex cour ts have also declared it a part of the essential underlying spirit of t h e constitution.

Recently, however, some voices are again being heard tha t in order to rid the country of terrorism it should be secularized. In o ther words the call is being made to discard all the ideological, political and practical efforts to set the direction of the state and to make altogether a new start.

At this critical juncture when all the segments of the society have resolved to defeat the menace of terrorism, questioning the very foundations of the state and to call for changing the agreed upon outlook of the state is akin to opening a Pandora's Box, and even t h e thoughts of ensuing troubles on this road gives one the goose bumps.

A reflection of the secularist agenda has come through a "counter narrative" in the name of religion. It was published in Daily J ang on January 22, 2015 under the title, "Islam aur Riyasat: Aik jawabi bayaniah" (Islam and the State: A Counter Nairative.) The au thor (Mr. Javed Ahmed Ghamidi)i2] has termed his thoughts as a "narrative on religion" instead of "advocacy of secularism."

The objective of the narrative, in the words of the author,' is t h a t not advocacy of secularism but only a counter narrative on religion

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ALBALAGH INTERNATIONAL From the Editor

can bring the positive change. Despite repeated readings the points of the narrat ive do not cease to appear weird to me and despite thinking of a number of possible interpretations I cannot resolve the internal contradictions among these points.

As such there are a number of points in the article that need to be commented upon; however, in brief some of the mutually contradicting points and their repercussions need to be highlighted. It is important because not only that these points are against the very idea on which Pakistan was created, but they also tend to call for such a vague and loose system that has no conceivable practicability.

His first point is, "it is baseless to think that a state also has a religion and there is a need to Islamize it through an objectives resolution and that it must be constitutionally bound to not make any law repugnant to the Quran and Sunnah." The evident meanings of this assertion are tha t the Objectives Resolutions which is par t of the constitution and article 227 is not just unnecessary; it is actually baseless.

The basic idea of the Objectives Resolution is the sovereignty of Allah. To call the Objectives Resolution unnecessary and baseless is nothing short of declaring the state recognition of the sovereignty of Allah is baseless.

This is the reality of the narrative presented as an alternative to "advocacy of secularism." Firstly, it is difficult to understand the difference between 'advocacy of secularism' and this 'religious narrative'? Secularism stands for divorcing the business of the state from religion as religion, it contends, is a private concern of an individual. Secularism also says there should be no religious obligation on the legislature and, therefore, the Objectives Resolution was misplaced. Mr. Ghamidi has said the very same things. Does mere change of label change the reality of the contention as well?

Fur ther , under point 8 Mr. Ghamidi himself writes that the Q u r a n i c verse, "The affairs of the Muslims are run on the basis of their mutua l consultation" (42:38) requires establishment of a par l iament and "neither scholars nor the judiciary is above the parliament. The Quranic principle of 'The affairs of the Muslims are run on the basis of their mutual consultation," (42:38) binds every individual and every institution to practically submit to the decisions of the parliament even though they may differ with them It is only this way which is justified in setting up the rule of Islam and to run it. If any other way is adopted to set up this rule, then it will be lUegol Together these two points mean the parl iament s h a l l be established according to the Qur'anic principle of consultation but once it established it cannot be bound to abide by Quran and Sunnah, yet all

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ALBALAGH INTERNATIONAL From the Editor

the individuals and institutions can be bound to submit to the decisions of the parliament.

First question is, if the state has no religion and its conduct cannot be bound by Quran and Sunnah on what basis then is the Qur'anic principle of consultation binding upon it? How can it be the 'only way to set up the rule in Islam' when the state has nothing to do with religion in the first place? Secondly, if following the lead of Western countries the parliament passes a law permitting same-sex marriages; will this Qur'anic principle still bind every individual and institution to submit to the parliament's decision though they may differ? If it does not bind them, what's the reason for it as the parliament is not bound by the limits set by Quran and Sunnah.

In point 9 he says, "that among the positive directives of religion, a collective communal Muslim setup can, if it desires, legally require from them only to offer the prayer and pay zakat" By "collective communal setup" perhaps he means the state. If so, then does it mean state can forcibly demand offering prayers and paying zakat and punish people for non-compliance? If legally binding the people to offer prayers is indeed a Qur'anic instruction as Mr. Ghamidi has stated, the condition "if it desires" practically means it is a discretion of the state to follow Qur'anic instruction or not. Against this what will be the significance of the verse, "It is not open for a believing man or a believing woman, once Allah and His messenger have decided a thing, tha t they should have a choice about their matter;" (33:36)?

In his point 9 (i) related to social rulings Mr. Ghamidi says, " Without their consent the state shall not impose any tax on the people other than zakat. If a dispute arises in their personal affairs like marriage, divorce, distribution of inheritance and other similar matters, then it shall be decided in accordance with the Islamic ShariahThis again raises multiple questions;

When the state has no religion and it is under no obligation to legislate in the light of Qur'an and Sunnah, how could the judiciary be bound to decide these matters according to shariah?

If the parl iament legislated on such a matter without any regard for shariah why should it not be binding to submit to it as stated by Mr. Ghamidi under his point 8?

When it is said, "Without their consent the state shall not impose any tax on the people other than zakat" naturally the consent of the people means the consent of their representative parliament. This effectively means for any other tax, consent of the parliament is required but it is not required to impose zakat. If this was the intended meaning, how will a tax be imposed without the legislative sanction of the parliament (given that state has no religion)? What will be the sanction for it? If the sanction for it is Qur'an then it will

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ALBALAGH INTERNATIONAL From the Editor

practically mean Qur'an is superior to the par l iament . What then will become of the 'state shall have no religion' principle?

Thereafter , he says, "If a Muslim is guilty of murder , theit , fornication, falsely accusing someone of fornication (qadhf) or spreading anarchy and disorder in the land and a court is fully satisfied tha t he does not deserve any leniency arising from his personal, familial and social circumstances, then those punishments shall be meted out to him which the Almighty has prescribed in His Book for those who have whole-heartedly accepted the call of Islam. This again leads to two questions;

Is it mandatory for the parl iament and the government to establish these penalties on such Muslims? If it is mandatory as per the Qur'anic instructions, how could the par l i ament be bound to legislate according to Qur'anic ruling when it is not bound to follow Qur 'an and Sunnah? Why could it not legislate some other penalt ies or make any of these acts (like consensual sex) permissible?

When these penalties are to be established for the Qur 'anic sanction, does the Qur'an limit them only to Musl ims who accept Islam with clarity of mind and exempt the thieves, murdere r s and the mischievous from amongst the non-Muslims?

In his narrat ive Mr. Ghamidi has also s ta ted, The basis of nationhood in Islam is not Islam itself, as is generally understood. At no place in the Quran and Hadith has it been said t h a t Musl ims are one nation or they must become one nation." This is the same of Two Nation Theory on which Quaid-e-Azam based his case for Pakis tan . I t is respectfully submitted tha t the issue is not whether Musl ims have been referred to as one nation in the l i teral or general sense of the word. The issue actually is whether it is r ight to dist inguish Musl ims from non-Muslims as a separate political and social enti ty and to make the demand for separate land for them on this b a s i s ? M

In the literal sense the Prophets addressed their specific "nations" bu t none of them established a political unity on this basis and if they established a state they did not do it on the basis of race or color r a the r they established it on the basis of Islam. This is wha t happened in the case of rule of Prophets Musa, Dawud and Suleman (peace be upon them all) and also in the case of the Las t Messenger o Allah's rule in Madina. However, i t guaranteed all civil ana

religious r ights to the non-Muslims citizen. Unde r his point 2 Mr. Ghamidi has s ta ted t ha t Nei ther is

khi la fah a religious te rm nor its es tab l i shment at the global leve a directive of Islam." (Against this claim consider the fact that) All. says in the narra t ive about Adam, "1 am going to create a khalifah on the earth!" (Qur'an 2:30) Regarding Dawud (pbuhI it is said Qur 'an , "We have made you a khalifah on ea r th ( Q u r a n

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A L B A L A G H I N T E R N A T I O N A L From the Editor

Moreover a t another place i t is said "Allah h a s who b e l i e . , and do good deed , tha t He will c e r u m l y make then , (His) khalifah in the land, as He made those before them, and will certainly establish for them their religion which He has' ^ o s e n for them, and will certainly give them peace in place of feai in wh they were before; (provided that) they worship Me, ascribing no par tner to Me." (Qur'an 24:55)

Further, there are numerous hadi th reports in which the head of Islamic government has been referred to as "khalifah" and his rule has be termed as "khilafah." For such s t a t emen t s in the Q u r a n and hadith Islamic l i terature is replete with term. The genius scholar of the philosophy of history Ibn Khaldun defining khi la fah writes; The Khilafah means to cause the masses to act as required by religious insight into their interests in the other world as well as in th is world. (The worldly interests) have bearing upon (the in te res t s in the other world)" (Muqaddimah Ibn Khaldun vol.3 p.189) With all these statements of the Qur'an and hadith and the te rm's being well known to the degree of tawatur I do not have appropr ia te words to comment on the claim that it is not a religious term.

Mr. Ghamidi claims his "narrat ive on religion" can rectify the prevailing situation and the current problem of terror ism. This is tantamount to say tha t scraping the cur ren t consti tut ion and reformulating it based on his mutually contradict ing points will keep the terrorists from their activities or it will automatical ly pu t them to end. In fact the t ruth is quite to the contrary. Alhamduli l lah, except for some partial issues there is nothing wrong with our consti tution. The problem, however, is tha t its core principles a re not being t ruly followed. The fundamental rights protected in the consti tution are not available to the people. The policy guidelines have not been followed even once. Provinces have not got the r ights they were supposed to. People face problems at every step. They face corruption and injustice. Economic disparity is huge. Public offices offer no facilitation and people have no access to justice.

Though it is stated in the constitution tha t no law r e p u g n a n t to Qur'an and Sunnah shall be enacted and for this the const i tut ion provides a mechanism as well which, if duly followed, can very well check sectarianism. But there is no serious effort to pu t it into action. Collectively the whole situation is making people despera te and providing the mischievous an opportunity to make propaganda t h a t these reforms cannot be made peacefully. Tha t the governments do not give due attention to demands made in a peaceful, advisory and consultative manner has made people *o believe t h a t a demand will attract attention only if it is made through s t r ikes or violence the extreme form of which is taking up a rms against the s tate .

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ALBALAGH I N T E R N A T I O N A L From the Editor

Enemies of the country are fanning such thoughts and on the same pretext emotion driven youth is being misguided. Therefore, the issue is not about some fundamenta l change in the constitution. It is about truly acting upon it. If the constitution is seriously and sincerely followed, people find justice according to Islamic ideals, Islam's justice and laws are enforced in their t rue spirit and the criminals are punished af ter fulfilling the due requirements of the law, these mil i tant movements will die down by themselves. For God's sake instead of creating more chaos get together to work in this direction.

- Transla t ion and Notes *

^Mr. Ghamidi 'sarticle was published in J anua ry 22nd issue of Daily Jang . DrShehzadSaleem'stranslat ion of the same was published in J a n u a r y 23rd in Daily The News. I have used Dr. Saleem's t rans la t ion with slight changes at some places. Mufti Taq iUsman i ' s r ep lv was published in Daily J ang on January 27 th.

f l ] Tha t religious scholars (mostly from Jami'atUlema-e-Hind) opposed part i t ion is much highlighted these days; however, the reality is many of them fully supported the cause of Pakis tan. Among the well-known religious scholars who supported the cause of part i t ion were Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi, Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani and Maulana Zafar Ahmad Usmani . Maulana Zafar Ahmad Usmani in his famous work on proofs of fiqh in 'Ila' al-Sunan, included a complete c h a p t e r refut ing the idea of composite nationalism and upholding the Two Nation Theory.

[2] Muft i Taqi Usmani has not explicitly mentioned the name of Mr. Ghamidi in his original write up. I have, however, used it for clarity.

[31 Like Muft i Usmani, Allama M u h a m m a d Iqbal a rgues the same way against Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madni 's a rgument on similar lines. See Iqbal's paper "Jughrafiyai Hudood aur Musalman" (Muslims and the Geographical Boundaries) (1938), included in Syed Abdul Wahid Mu'ini, Maqalat-e-Iqbal, (Lahore: Al-Qamar Enterprises, 2011) 262-279

No te s :

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CONTENTS ^ m A n d The State: A Respose To Ghamidi Muft i M u h a m m a d Taqi TJsmani 03 Translated By : Waqar Akbar Cheema

M a ' a r i f U1 Q u r ' a n Mufti Muhammad Shafi iSfe; 10

I s i a m A n d Pol i t ical Theor ies (Part:35) 1 0 Muft i M u h a m m a d Taqi Usmani Trans la ted By : Z.Baintner An - Nawawi's Forty Hadiths In te rne t Desk "" 25 Some Misconceptions About The Raiab 5 1 Muft i M u h a m m a d Taqi Usmani

MUSLIM WORLD

The Future Of Islam In The U.S.A. Dr. Ja ' f a r Sheikh Idris N e w s & Views. In te rne t Desk

39

43

CHILDREN'S CORNER

01

02

0 3

04

05

06

07

08 A Piece Of True Love In ternet Desk

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