Reflecting on the situation
in the Muslim world, the Khalifatullah (atba) takes note of the strong
undercurrents of dissatisfaction and discontentment among the Muslim masses against
the elites of their societies. Almost presciently, the Khalifatullah (atba)
anticipated the "Arab Spring" events of 2010-11 when he noted the revolutionary
upsurge among the Muslim youth leading to the overthrow of governments. He
noted that the deep divisions among the Muslims would increase the distance
between Islamic precepts and the practice of Muslims. In recent decades, the planting
of the western economic ideas and philosophies- ranging from socialism to
capitalism, individualism to authoritarianism- on the Islamic soil have only
created more puzzles and riddles. In these tumultuous times, the Islamic
teachings are being trampled to dust by the leaders and the priests. Consequentially,
the contemporary Muslim youth is vulnerable to misguidance and susceptible to violence
while confusing oneself with the belief that one is doing service to the
religion. The guiding presence of a Divinely- raised soul- a Khalifatullah
to lead the Muslim Ummah is, thus, a historic spiritual necessity.
In the Friday Sermon, the
Khalifatullah (atba) goes on to indicate and describe the outlines of Islamic
norms applicable to economic and social systems. Moderation, restraint, responsibility,
trust and fellow feeling are among the principles of conduct pertaining to social
relations and economic activities in Islam, points out the Khalifatullah (atba).
The task is to translate these ethical and spiritual norms of Islam into enforceable
measures and legal rules. There could, however, be debates about specific
policies and particular measures needed to maintain social equilibrium between
individual freedoms and collective responsibilities. Be that as it may, Islamic
norms and values can cater to and adapt in, the dynamic environment of changing
societies, points out the Khalifatullah (atba).
Read
the Extracts from the Friday Sermon:
“And We
desired to show favour unto those who were oppressed in the Earth, and to make
them examples and make them the Inheritors, and to establish them on Earth…”
(28: 6-7)
Today is the first Friday Sermon in the month of Jamadal
Awwal and also that of the month of May and it is a public holiday in
Mauritius and also in many countries in the world today is Labour Day, a day for the workers whereby they have an insight of
their rights.
Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) have also
taught men their rights in this world. Each worker, each community, each people
have each contribution for the development of their country. Each worker,
whatever his qualification, intelligence, competence, quality of work, each of
them has contributed to the welfare of their country. It is not just a group of
people or a community who contribute to the development of a country. Each citizen in this world belonging to
Allah has their right and liberty of expression. Nobody is more superior to
others in the eyes of Allah. That is why you see that in Islam, when you
stand up to pray, one must be held close to each other, shoulder to shoulder.
There is no reserved place in the Mosque for either a minister or a king or for
a scavenger etc.
Labour
Day should be only for
the workers so that they may do an analysis of the contribution which they have
made to the country and it is also a day of reflection
to found out about the foul play which there is in each sector of the
different industries. It is also a way to ameliorate all that which is not
working properly and it is a means to help the lower-class workers to meet
their end as we may say. It is also an opportunity to find solutions to prevent exploitation of workers (especially the poor,
weak of intellect, young girls and women) whereby they receive lesser salary
whereas the high-class employers are making millions of roupies profit on each of their head. Moreover,
these employers do not hesitate to fire these lower-class people from their
work, and do not pay them their due. To protect themselves and their profits
from tax payment, they finally declare their business bankrupt.
There are some people who talk big, and pretend to be
great defenders of workers’ right, but in fact are trampling under their feet
these workers. In this country, those who earn good money, they keep on earning
well; but those who are poor, the low-class workers, they are those who all the
time go through difficulties and all sorts of problems. Thus they remain in
debt all the time.
The politicians, especially in Mauritius have made the
first of May become means to make their dirty politics. They make bus free and
available to fool the workers and the citizens of the country. It is a means
for them to make these citizens forget the frauds, corruption and extreme
poverty which there are in the country. Islam condemns these kinds of hypocrisy
and dishonesty. The workers are not analysing and realising that these
politicians are little by little taking away their dignity. These politicians
are always downgrading others, and attributing such and such achievements to
themselves. Then in all these self-attributions to success, where is the contribution
of the workers? The
first of May has ceased to be Labour Day, but has become Politician Day!
Each of these politicians will be pompously saying that it is him who has
brought this and this person to his gathering. They are the same people who do
not hesitate to walk on the corpse of workers to obtain honour and they take
from workers to fill their pocket with money for them and their children,
generation after generation.
There
were those who did not possess anything, but when they were elected and came to
power, they became the proprietor of lots of belongings. It is unfortunate to see the news on television
concentrate on politicians and some selected sects of such and such community.
These sects’ religious leaders use press conferences to tell people from their
own religion to act as these politicians’ partisans and come to such and such
gathering on the first of May. It is the politicians who are worsening the
image of the country – Mauritius which the other countries know as a Paradise Island. Politics in Mauritius
has become dirty, where there is no shame. To obtain power, one party is
prepared to fight the other, and doing all sorts of tricks to come to power;
even if it be communalism. It is only on their lips that they say: “One people, One nation”, but at the same
time they are trampling under their feet the minority. Liberty of expression
and people’s opinions are being trampled, especially for the Muslims because
there is no unity yet among ourselves. We are not realising where we are leading the teachings
of Islam to.
Stop dreaming. The time has come to take conscience of
our religion, the religion that Allah has perfected for us and then made us
Muslims. We Muslims must not let ourselves be divided by third parties who are
keen to create division among Muslims. We all turn towards the same Qibla, read
the same Holy Book (the Quran), observe the Fast in the same month of Ramadhan.
Then, why are we divided? Why are we fighting among ourselves and killing our
brothers of the same faith? Reflect on what is happening in all Muslim countries
throughout the world.
The
contemporary Muslim world is passing through one of the most critical yet
creative periods of its history. Despite political freedom and economic
resilience the pattern of life imposed upon Muslims during the period of
colonial rule and strengthened in more subtle ways during the post-colonial
era, has remained fundamentally unchanged. The
present-day upsurge in the Muslim World is an expression of the Muslim people’s
repugnance to the politico-economic systems imposed upon them either directly
under foreign rule or through its continuing influence via the indigenous
westernizing élite, who stand mostly alienated from their own people and
traditions and whose interests somehow converge with the interests of the dominant
élite of the west.
Islamic resurgence symbolises the failure of the major
western models – secular
democracy, territorial or linguistic nationalism, individualistic capitalism
and totalitarian socialism, to mention only the leading few – to take root in
Muslim society and capture the imagination of the Muslim people. That is why
all efforts to introduce a secular system in the Muslim lands have taken place
under the protective umbrella of severe rule. At the present moment the Muslim
people are striving to reassert themselves by attempting to throw off their
shoulders the yoke of various models of westernisation or more correctly
“west-domination”, and also to get rid of their indigenous perpetrators.
“Islamic revolution”, symbolizing a holistic move towards a new
civilization, is the target of the Ummah’s tryst with destiny, whether it be
any Muslim countries. Islam – They are today grappling with the onerous task of
rediscovering Islam’s relevance to their present-day problems and of formulating
its answers to the challenges of the modern age. In spite of all the tensions
and travails which characterize the contemporary Muslim is groping to perform
the uphill task of establishing a New Social Order based on the ideals and
values of Islam and capable of leading Muslims through the rough waters of the
modern age. In spite of all the tensions and travails which characterise the
contemporary Muslim scene, the soul of the Ummah must be engaged in producing a
creative response to a multi-faced challenge.
The
contemporary Muslim is groping, without a guide, to perform the uphill task of
establishing a New Social Order based on the ideals and values of Islam and
capable of leading Muslims through the rough waters of the modern age. The
revivalist upsurge is not confined to political activism or cultural
regeneration. At a deeper level there is a new awakening of Muslim thought and
revivification of the entire Muslim ethos. So in this era the coming of a
Caliph of Allah “Khalifatullah” is very
important.
The ethical value that goes to make up the set of axioms in the model of
Islamic economics would be accepted by most Muslim thinkers as essential to the
Islamic system although some may have certain reservations in accepting them as
necessarily sufficient.
Tawhid (unity of Allah)
contains within it and leads to the concepts of Risâlah (Prophethood), Hidâyah
(Guidance) and Akhirâh
(Accountability) but some would prefer a definite place for them in the system,
maybe as a cluster of values that go to make up the first plank of the axiom
set.
Each of these concepts has its own implications for the economic system, as well as certain modifying influences on the
implications of one another. Similarly the concept of freedom may also be
formulated by others with a shade of difference. Human freedoms as well as human
responsibility must be based on the coming of a Chosen Servant of Allah
(especially when the teachings of Islam have been trampled to dust). Some
of us would feel that while correcting the imbalance embedded in western
concepts of individualism and capitalism the delicate balance established by
Islam through its concepts of Fard ‘alâ al-ain (Individual
responsibility that is non-transferable) and Fard alâ al-Kifayah
(Collective responsibility dischargeable by even a few) deserve to be captured
in the system. Al-Adl (justice) is central to the Islamic system but it
has to be supplemented by Al-Ihsan (beneficence).
Moreover, the interregional implications of Al-Adl
are as important as are the interpersonal and inter-temporal ones. The question
of the unity of the Ummah, its economic consolidation, and its non dependence
on the non-Muslim world are so integral to the system, by essential aspects of
“a man of God” that others may assign to this value a seat in the assembly of
axioms. Emphasis must be put on equitable distribution of income and wealth
should be shared but it would be difficult for many of us to agree with the
role he assigns to the institution of private property as such in generating
this inequality. That unrestricted private property is one such factor no one
would dispute; but to assume that near total abolition of private property is
what Islam aims at for achieving social equity would be against the mainstream
of Islamic thought, classical as well as modern. The Islamic concept of
trusteeship does not exclude right of ownership, restricted by the use – limits
laid down by the Quran and Sunnah. There is very little evidence,
logical or canonical, to suggest that “collective ownership” is or has ever
been the Islamic norm.
More careful and rigorous differentiation between
private ownership based on the concept of Amânah (Trusteeship) and the
unrestricted private property and enterprise of capitalism as well as the
collectivization of property in different brands of socialism deserves to be
made. Similarly clear distinction between equity and equality, not to say of
“absolute equality”. Islam’s commitment to equity and a fair distribution of
income and wealth ensure justice in society, without imposing any artificial
equality over the unequals.
The Islamic perspective on life is one of certainty,
social harmony and dynamism. The Islamic emphasis on unity, acting as an
integrative force, provides man with a perspective of certainty since guidance
along the path of finding the truth comes from God, who is Truth Himself.
Furthermore, Unity makes it “natural” for man’s economic behaviours to coalesce
and reinforce each other.
Equilibrium (that is, Al-Adl), as the cohesive
force in the universe, dictates a middle-of-the-road philosophy leading man on
to the “straight path” of social harmony, and enjoining him to avoid all
extremes.
Human
freedom gets a new definition within the framework of the Islamic philosophy
where the individual, though providentially endowed with free will, is never
allowed to assume promethean irreverence. Nor are all his preferences an infallible
guide to social action.
In particular, individual freedom that constitutes a negation of unity or
Equilibrium is not recognised in Islam.
Man must voluntarily curtail his own freedom in order
to maximize collective freedom. This can best be done by increasing his social
consciousness. This is the responsibility axiom which is both a restraining and
a liberating force. It restrains (or rather constrains) human freedom by making
man responsible not only for what he does but also for what goes on around him.
At the same time, man has been asked (indeed commanded) by God to break the
chains of traditions. In forbidding him to be backward looking or static, Islam
is neither hide-bound nor tradition bound. Hence, there is no option left for
him but to be forward looking. Thus, contrary to what is often asserted about
the static nature of the Islamic outlook on life, the doctrines of Equilibrium
and Responsibility build into the Islamic system an irrepressible dynamism,
which refuses to tolerate the predominance of obscurantist force, which tend to
prevent social change.
Should a class of social exploiters attempt to disturb
Equilibrium, it is the responsibility of all men to restore it. In the Islamic
perspective this struggle goes on between the just people and those who are
unjust irrespective of the class to which they may belong.