Civil, political rights in Islam<\/p>\n
This is the second of two articles based on a paper prepared
\nby Dr. Nurcholish Madjid, rector of The University of Paramadina
\nMulya in Jakarta, for the Seminar on Enriching the Universalities
\nof Human Rights: Islamic Perspectives on the Universal
\nDeclaration of Human Rights, held in Geneva, on Nov. 9-10.<\/p>\n
GENEVA: The universality of religion and the oneness of
\nhumanity lay the foundation for the necessity of believing in all
\nreligions symbolized in the Islamic article of faith of believing
\nin all prophets and all holy books.<\/p>\n
Here are some extensive quotations from the Koran relevant to
\nthe principles:<\/p>\n
\"The same religion has He established for you as that which He
\nenjoined on Noah -- the which We have sent by inspiration to thee
\n-- and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses and Jesus: namely
\nthat ye should remain steadfast in religion and make no divisions
\ntherein; to those who worship other things than God hard is the
\n(way) to which thou callest them. God chooses to Himself those
\nwhom He pleases and guides to Himself those who turn (to Him).\"
\n(Koran 42:13)<\/p>\n
\"Mankind was one single community and God sent messengers with
\nglad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in
\ntruth to judge between people in matters wherein they differed.\"
\n(Koran 2:113)<\/p>\n
\"Mankind was but one nation but differed (later). Had it not
\nbeen for a word that went forth before from thy Lord their
\ndifferences would have been settled between them.\" (Koran 10:19)<\/p>\n
\"Now then for that (reason) call (them to the Faith) and stand
\nsteadfast as thou art commanded nor follow thou their vain
\ndesires; but say: 'I believe in the Book which God has sent down;
\nand I am commanded to judge justly between you. God is our Lord
\nand your Lord. For us (is the responsibility for) our deeds and
\nfor you for your deeds. There is no contention between us and
\nyou. God will bring us together and to Him is (our) final goal.\"
\n(Koran 42:15)<\/p>\n
At the face of the universality of religions and of their
\nfundamental unity, all of the apparent differences among
\nreligions are but the external forms and the symbolical
\nexpressions of the same and one perennial truth which is
\nbasically ineffable.<\/p>\n
God gives all communities their own way and method of
\nattaining salvation, and there are many, not one, ways of God and
\nways of salvation, although man should be cautious against some
\nof them which are devious. Every community has its own point of
\norientation, and members of a community are not supposed to
\nquestion the validity of the point of orientation of other
\ncommunities, but all communities should be encouraged to \"strive
\ntogether (as in a race) toward all that is good\".<\/p>\n
Thus the principle of the freedom of conscience is firmly
\nestablished in the Koran. The principle is an absolute necessity
\nbecause at the ultimate stage it is individuals rather than
\ncollectivities who will be held responsible for all of their
\nrespective worldly activities. The Koran is replete with
\nassertions that on the Day of Judgment people will be summoned by
\nGod absolutely individually to account for their deeds:<\/p>\n
Just as man is the vicegerent of God, he is the highest among
\nall creatures in ranking, in such a way as none is above him
\nexcept God. Therefore, man should not look up to anything other
\nthan God. God honors the children of Adam, and subjects the whole
\nuniverse as His bounty for them, as long as they use reason. And
\nhuman beings are worthy of the divine honor as individuals, that
\nthe Koran says that every individual of man is worth the whole
\nhumanity, \"that if anyone slew a person unless it be for murder
\nor for spreading mischief in the land it would be as if he slew
\nthe whole people: and if anyone saved a life it would be as if he
\nsaved the life of the whole people.\" (Koran 5:32)<\/p>\n
By virtue of the individual dignity of man as the vicegerent
\nof God, each person has the right to exercise the freedom to
\nchoose what he conceives as good for him to perform in activities
\nthat he would be personally and individually held accountable for
\nin front of his Lord, just as it is exactly all of the purpose of
\nthis life. \"He (God) who created death and life that He may try
\nwhich of you is best indeed: And He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-
\nForgiving.\" (Koran 67:2)<\/p>\n
Individual accountability presupposes individual freedom
\nbecause someone cannot be held accountable for his deeds if he
\ndoes not have any choice other than what he has done. This
\npostulate is very strongly indicated in the Koran: \"Anyone who
\nafter accepting faith in God utters unbelief except under
\ncompulsion while his heart remains firm in faith, but such as
\nopen their breast to unbelief, on them is wrath from God and
\ntheirs will be a dreadful penalty.\" (Koran 16:106)<\/p>\n
Therefore, one of the basic rights of every individual is to
\nparticipate in all processes of decision-making that affects
\ntheir lives through open and mutual deliberation and consultation
\n(shura). The prophet himself was ordained by God to perform the
\nshura, and the first four enlightened caliphs firmly held the
\nprescript. It is very unfortunate that the open and enlightened
\npolitical arrangement of Islam of the Prophet from Mecca to
\nYathrib (renamed Medina) until the assassination of Ali, the
\nfourth caliph.<\/p>\n
The system was then usurped by the Umayyads, terminating the
\nbasic Islamic social and political arrangement and replacing it
\nwith a pre-Islamic Arabian system.<\/p>\n
Robert Bellah, one of the leading authorities in sociology of
\nreligion, observes that the system laid down by the Prophet and
\ndeveloped by the first four caliphs \"did so closely enough to
\nprovide a better model for modern national community building
\nthan might be imagined.\"<\/p>\n
But \"it was too modern to succeed. The necessary social
\ninfrastructure did not yet exist to sustain it.\"<\/p>\n
Bellah said: \"There is no question but that under Muhammad,
\nArabian society made a remarkable leap forward in social
\ncomplexity and political capacity. When the structure that took
\nshape under the Prophet was extended by the early caliphs to
\nprovide the organizing principle for a world empire, the result
\nis something that for its time and place is remarkably modern. It
\nis modern in the high degree of commitment, involvement and
\nparticipation expected from the rank-and-file members of the
\ncommunity.<\/p>\n
\"It is modern in the openness of its leadership positions to
\nability judged on universalistic grounds and symbolized in the
\nattempt to institutionalize a nonhereditary top leadership. Even
\nin the earliest times, certain restraints operated to keep the
\ncommunity from wholly exemplifying these principles, but it did
\nso closely enough to provide a better model for modern national
\ncommunity building than might be imagined. The effort of modern
\nMoslems to depict the early community as a very type of
\nequalitarian participant nationalism is by no means an
\nunhistorical ideological fabrication.<\/p>\n
\"In a way the failure of the early community, the relapse into
\npre-Islamic principles of social organization, is added proof of
\nthe modernity of the early experiment. It was too modern to
\nsucceed. The necessary social infrastructure did not yet exist to
\nsustain it.\"<\/p>\n
As for the relapse into pre-Islamic principles of social
\norganization, it was done by the Umayyads from Damascus,
\nbeginning with Mu'awiyah's decision to appoint his own son,
\nYazid, to succeed him as the caliph, discarding the system of
\npreceding caliphs.<\/p>\n
Reactions against the Umayyads by the Medinese and Meccans
\nwere harsh and radical. In Medina, Abdur Rahman bin Abi Bakr,
\nbrother of A'ishah, the wife of the Prophet, categorically
\nrejected the plan, accusing the Umayyads of shedding the Sunnah
\nof the Prophet and the caliphs, adopting the traditions of the
\nPersian Khurso and the Roman Caesar.<\/p>\n
Other leading figures like Abdullah bin Umar and Abdullah bin
\nZubair reacted in the same way, charging the Umayyads of leaving
\nbehind the Koranic principle of mutual consultation and the
\ntradition of the nascent Islamic community of open election of
\ncaliphs.<\/p>\n
As it is well-known, ever since the time of the Umayyads, the
\nMoslem world knew only hereditary, genealogical dynasties in
\npolitical systems until the reintroduction of the idea of a
\nrepublic and open elections by the West in modern times.<\/p>\n
Even more than that, starting with the Umayyads, Moslems knew
\nonly states or dynasties named after ruling clans, like the
\nUmayyads, the Abbasids and the Fatimids, or after ruling tribes,
\nlike the Moguls in India. All of this is against the very basic
\nprinciple of the Koranic and prophetic perspectives.<\/p>\n
Author Emile Dermenghem said: \"Islam, which has contributed to
\nthe spiritual life of humanity and has enriched its culture,
\noffers permanent value from which all have profited. Intermediate
\nnation, as the Koran says, has its role to play between east and
\nwest. If it has, like all religions and moral codes, its closed
\nand static aspects in the Bergsonian sense, it also has what is
\nneeded for an open religion.\"<\/p>\n
As an open religion, Islam has developed a cultural system
\nwhich is highly receptive to other cultures. The outlook can be
\nconveyed to modern times that Islam must be able to positively
\nand consistently accept and validate modern values akin to its
\nown very fundamental principles like the ideas propounded in the
\nuniversal Declaration of Human Rights. Maybe there is a need for
\nsome very particular adjustments of Islamic principles but it
\nshould be seen as the imperative of the adjustment to particular
\ncultural environments or particular requirements of a certain
\ntime and space.<\/p>\n
Such an adjustment was given as an example by Caliph Umar in
\nthe way he handled the problem of redistributing the agricultural
\nlands of the liberated regions.<\/p>\n
When he was confronted with fierce opposition from some
\nleading Moslem figures in Medina using literal references from
\nthe Holy Book, he managed to overcome this by his enlightened
\nsuccess in elevating the Koranic principles from a literal
\napproach and understanding to highly generalized principles and
\nthen bringing them down to prerequisites of the realities of the
\nsituation.<\/p>",
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