Civil, political rights in Islam

This is the second of two articles based on a paper prepared by Dr. Nurcholish Madjid, rector of The University of Paramadina Mulya in Jakarta, for the Seminar on Enriching the Universalities of Human Rights: Islamic Perspectives on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, held in Geneva, on Nov. 9-10.

GENEVA: The universality of religion and the oneness of humanity lay the foundation for the necessity of believing in all religions symbolized in the Islamic article of faith of believing in all prophets and all holy books.

Here are some extensive quotations from the Koran relevant to the principles:

"The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah -- the which We have sent by inspiration to thee -- and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses and Jesus: namely that ye should remain steadfast in religion and make no divisions therein; to those who worship other things than God hard is the (way) to which thou callest them. God chooses to Himself those whom He pleases and guides to Himself those who turn (to Him)." (Koran 42:13)

"Mankind was one single community and God sent messengers with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in truth to judge between people in matters wherein they differed." (Koran 2:113)

"Mankind was but one nation but differed (later). Had it not been for a word that went forth before from thy Lord their differences would have been settled between them." (Koran 10:19)

"Now then for that (reason) call (them to the Faith) and stand steadfast as thou art commanded nor follow thou their vain desires; but say: 'I believe in the Book which God has sent down; and I am commanded to judge justly between you. God is our Lord and your Lord. For us (is the responsibility for) our deeds and for you for your deeds. There is no contention between us and you. God will bring us together and to Him is (our) final goal." (Koran 42:15)

At the face of the universality of religions and of their fundamental unity, all of the apparent differences among religions are but the external forms and the symbolical expressions of the same and one perennial truth which is basically ineffable.

God gives all communities their own way and method of attaining salvation, and there are many, not one, ways of God and ways of salvation, although man should be cautious against some of them which are devious. Every community has its own point of orientation, and members of a community are not supposed to question the validity of the point of orientation of other communities, but all communities should be encouraged to "strive together (as in a race) toward all that is good".

Thus the principle of the freedom of conscience is firmly established in the Koran. The principle is an absolute necessity because at the ultimate stage it is individuals rather than collectivities who will be held responsible for all of their respective worldly activities. The Koran is replete with assertions that on the Day of Judgment people will be summoned by God absolutely individually to account for their deeds:

Just as man is the vicegerent of God, he is the highest among all creatures in ranking, in such a way as none is above him except God. Therefore, man should not look up to anything other than God. God honors the children of Adam, and subjects the whole universe as His bounty for them, as long as they use reason. And human beings are worthy of the divine honor as individuals, that the Koran says that every individual of man is worth the whole humanity, "that if anyone slew a person unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if anyone saved a life it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people." (Koran 5:32)

By virtue of the individual dignity of man as the vicegerent of God, each person has the right to exercise the freedom to choose what he conceives as good for him to perform in activities that he would be personally and individually held accountable for in front of his Lord, just as it is exactly all of the purpose of this life. "He (God) who created death and life that He may try which of you is best indeed: And He is the Exalted in Might, Oft- Forgiving." (Koran 67:2)

Individual accountability presupposes individual freedom because someone cannot be held accountable for his deeds if he does not have any choice other than what he has done. This postulate is very strongly indicated in the Koran: "Anyone who after accepting faith in God utters unbelief except under compulsion while his heart remains firm in faith, but such as open their breast to unbelief, on them is wrath from God and theirs will be a dreadful penalty." (Koran 16:106)

Therefore, one of the basic rights of every individual is to participate in all processes of decision-making that affects their lives through open and mutual deliberation and consultation (shura). The prophet himself was ordained by God to perform the shura, and the first four enlightened caliphs firmly held the prescript. It is very unfortunate that the open and enlightened political arrangement of Islam of the Prophet from Mecca to Yathrib (renamed Medina) until the assassination of Ali, the fourth caliph.

The system was then usurped by the Umayyads, terminating the basic Islamic social and political arrangement and replacing it with a pre-Islamic Arabian system.

Robert Bellah, one of the leading authorities in sociology of religion, observes that the system laid down by the Prophet and developed by the first four caliphs "did so closely enough to provide a better model for modern national community building than might be imagined."

But "it was too modern to succeed. The necessary social infrastructure did not yet exist to sustain it."

Bellah said: "There is no question but that under Muhammad, Arabian society made a remarkable leap forward in social complexity and political capacity. When the structure that took shape under the Prophet was extended by the early caliphs to provide the organizing principle for a world empire, the result is something that for its time and place is remarkably modern. It is modern in the high degree of commitment, involvement and participation expected from the rank-and-file members of the community.

"It is modern in the openness of its leadership positions to ability judged on universalistic grounds and symbolized in the attempt to institutionalize a nonhereditary top leadership. Even in the earliest times, certain restraints operated to keep the community from wholly exemplifying these principles, but it did so closely enough to provide a better model for modern national community building than might be imagined. The effort of modern Moslems to depict the early community as a very type of equalitarian participant nationalism is by no means an unhistorical ideological fabrication.

"In a way the failure of the early community, the relapse into pre-Islamic principles of social organization, is added proof of the modernity of the early experiment. It was too modern to succeed. The necessary social infrastructure did not yet exist to sustain it."

As for the relapse into pre-Islamic principles of social organization, it was done by the Umayyads from Damascus, beginning with Mu'awiyah's decision to appoint his own son, Yazid, to succeed him as the caliph, discarding the system of preceding caliphs.

Reactions against the Umayyads by the Medinese and Meccans were harsh and radical. In Medina, Abdur Rahman bin Abi Bakr, brother of A'ishah, the wife of the Prophet, categorically rejected the plan, accusing the Umayyads of shedding the Sunnah of the Prophet and the caliphs, adopting the traditions of the Persian Khurso and the Roman Caesar.

Other leading figures like Abdullah bin Umar and Abdullah bin Zubair reacted in the same way, charging the Umayyads of leaving behind the Koranic principle of mutual consultation and the tradition of the nascent Islamic community of open election of caliphs.

As it is well-known, ever since the time of the Umayyads, the Moslem world knew only hereditary, genealogical dynasties in political systems until the reintroduction of the idea of a republic and open elections by the West in modern times.

Even more than that, starting with the Umayyads, Moslems knew only states or dynasties named after ruling clans, like the Umayyads, the Abbasids and the Fatimids, or after ruling tribes, like the Moguls in India. All of this is against the very basic principle of the Koranic and prophetic perspectives.

Author Emile Dermenghem said: "Islam, which has contributed to the spiritual life of humanity and has enriched its culture, offers permanent value from which all have profited. Intermediate nation, as the Koran says, has its role to play between east and west. If it has, like all religions and moral codes, its closed and static aspects in the Bergsonian sense, it also has what is needed for an open religion."

As an open religion, Islam has developed a cultural system which is highly receptive to other cultures. The outlook can be conveyed to modern times that Islam must be able to positively and consistently accept and validate modern values akin to its own very fundamental principles like the ideas propounded in the universal Declaration of Human Rights. Maybe there is a need for some very particular adjustments of Islamic principles but it should be seen as the imperative of the adjustment to particular cultural environments or particular requirements of a certain time and space.

Such an adjustment was given as an example by Caliph Umar in the way he handled the problem of redistributing the agricultural lands of the liberated regions.

When he was confronted with fierce opposition from some leading Moslem figures in Medina using literal references from the Holy Book, he managed to overcome this by his enlightened success in elevating the Koranic principles from a literal approach and understanding to highly generalized principles and then bringing them down to prerequisites of the realities of the situation.