| May 24, 2002 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 11,1423 |
How others see us
ISLAMIC Law is the body of rules of conduct, revealed by God to his Prophet (peace be upon him), according to which the people are directed to lead their lives. Thus, unlike the western systems of law, the laws of Islam originate from revelation.
Revelation consists of:
1. The communications made by Gabriel, under the directions of God, to the Prophet, either in the very words of God or by hints;
2. Such knowledge as occurred in the mind of the Prophet through the inspiration from God; and
3. The opinion of the Prophet, embodied in the form of ratio-cination, delivered from time to time on the questions that happened to be raised before him.
The question may arise as to why the opinion of the Prophet is a part of revelation? Well, it is so because God has said: “Your companion (the Prophet) errs not, nor does he deviate, nor does he speak out of desire. It is naught but revelation that is revealed. One Mighty in Power has taught him, the Lord of strength. So he attained perfection.” (The Quran: Al-Najam; 2-6).
Revelation is available to us in the form of the Quran and the Traditions of the Prophet. The Quran comprises only those revelations which are made in the very words of God, while the rest form the corpus of the Traditions.
The rules of conduct provided by revelation comprise:
1. Laws which regulate men’s relations to and dealings among one another;
2. Laws which are concerned only with the spiritual aspect of individual life; and
3. Laws which not only concern the spiritual aspect of individual life, but also affect the Muslim society.
Another distinctive feature of the Islamic Law is that it attributes the authority of making laws to God only. According to the laws of Islam, no man or body of men can ever be capable of or allowed to make laws for other men. Now the big question arises that as the last set of laws made by God was bestowed upon mankind centuries ago, and as much has changed in the world since then, so in the absence of new laws for the new circumstances, how Islam managed to survive? In other words, as new laws cannot be made by men and as God has also not given any further laws, how can Islam cope and deal with the modern issues? It is an established fact that a legal system has to continuously adapt according to the needs of the changing time, otherwise, it loses its applicability and gradually fades away.
To begin with, as the laws available in the form of revelation are concerned, in them God has explained the fundamental principles of behaviour pertaining to all the essential human transactions, dealings, and matters.
He says: “...I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favour to you...” (The Quran: Al-Maidah 3) “...and We have revealed the Book to thee explaining all things...” (The Quran: Al-Nahl; 89) “And certainly We have set forth for men in this Quran similitudes of every sort that they may mind.” (The Quran: Al-Zumar; 27) “...If you quarrel about any thing, refer it to Allah (i.e., the Quran) and the Messenger (i.e., the Traditions), if you believe in Allah and the last day...” (The Quran: Al-Nisa; 59)
The verses tell us: 1. Revelation is a complete set of guiding principles; and 2. Revelation is well capable of settling and dealing with all controversies, conflicts, and problems.
However, where there is no room for the making of new laws, there is also no prohibition on the innovation, extension, and re-interpretation of the existing laws. This very process, which is highly encouraged by God and His Messenger, of innovation, extension, and re-interpretation of laws given in the Quran and the traditions, in order to explain and analyse the legality of the latest issues, is denoted by Ijtehad.
It is the method of Ijtehad by which God has enabled the Muslim jurists to: 1. Make provisions for the developing circumstances; and 2. Prove Islam as a system of life practical for all times. When Ijtehad is conducted by a single jurist, it is called Qiyas; and when it is conducted by a body of jurists, it is named Ijma.
If a Qiyas and an Ijma, both conducted at the same time regarding the same thing, come into conflict with each other, then Ijma is preferred over Qiyas. This is done due to the presumption that the jurists acting in a body are less likely to err than a jurist acting alone.
Let us see some examples of how the law is innovated and developed by way of Ijtehad. The Quran (Al-Maidah; 90, 91) has forbidden the drinking of alcohol. The ban has been put due to its being an intoxicant. By using Ijtehad this ban on the non-medical use of alcohol is applied to the use of all substances which have the property of intoxication. Heroin, which is a recent discovery, is also prohibited due to the same reason.
The Quran enjoins honouring of contracts and honesty in trade. These centuries-old commandments are also applicable to the present-day on-line contracts and e-business.
Similarly, whether a person steals money by using the conventional methods, or by drawing cash on a stolen credit card, or by transferring sums to his account by manipulating the computer system of a bank, he will remain a thief and will be dealt with in accordance with the laws given in the Quran and the Traditions.
The law developed by way of Ijtehad may or may not be good for all times. The whole universe is in transition; consequently, a rule which is suitable for a certain matter under certain circumstances may not be so if the facts governing the matter undergo a change.
This gives rise to the necessity for a continuous exercise of Ijtehad. To put it differently, whereas the law given in the form of revelation cannot be altered, amended, or annulled by the Muslim jurists, the law obtained by practising Ijtehad can be modified, replaced, or cancelled according to the demands of the latest facts.
TRYGVE Sxrvaag, a Norwegian photojournalist, arrived in Karachi on an assignment for the Sunday Magazine of a leading New York daily just after General Musharraf’s referendum. As luck would have it, he landed in Karachi to join another correspondent staying at Sheraton the same day that the MQM had called for a strike and Karachiites had to endure the fury of five bomb explosions in the city.
Incidentally he left for London |on May 8 when a bomb ripped through a Pakistan Navy bus outside his hotel killing eleven French nationals and three Pakistanis. While leaving later that afternoon he acknowledged that except for one last sleepless night, which had been topped with that early morning blast killing fourteen people, he had had a good stay in the city
(pretty hard to believe?). A hardworking and thorough professional he
kept his promise to email impressions about Karachi back from London. Excerpts from that email in his rusty mix of Norwegian and English are produced below.
“Dear Fahim, I left Europe with an anxious feeling. People told me that I was heading for a country on the brink of war with several of its neighbour countries. They reminded me that people in Pakistan hated Westerners after what happened the last 7-8 months, and that people were killed on the streets of Karachi every day.
“This is what stayed in my head when I arrived at the airport. A nervous driver in an old Toyota didn’t make me feel any better. He quickly took me to his car, locked the doors and set off to town. The signal horn seemed to be his most important instrument for driving as we headed for the hotel.
“Despite strike on the day I arrived, I still found the traffic very chaotic. Every driver seemed to have his own rules and it was all about getting first to the junction to claim your position. Camels, donkeys, trolleys, mopeds with entire families and colourful busses with people jumping on and off at any given place - all side by side without any visible sign of regulations or rules. To me it looked like a total chaos, but it seems to work for Karachi.
“After I got over the first chock of the traffic and the uncomfortable high temperatures, I soon realized that that the impression I was given in Europe was not all that correct. The people I met along my route were among the friendliest people I have ever met. No one expressed any anger or discomfort being with a Westerner. I actually found it much easier to approach and to take pictures of people on the streets of Karachi than on the streets of London. People of Karachi were very curious - and very often they all wanted to be in my pictures. That does not happen in London.
“One must not forget that Karachi is a big city with a lot of criminality, but it does not mean that one have to go around with an anxious feeling all the time. City seems to be a mixture of social conflict and contradictions. A shrine on-top-of-a-hill flocked by praying, singing and dancing devotees only a stone throw away from a western style shopping mall bustling with people trying to shop and have fun or ‘Area 51’- a nice bowling alley, tailor made for aliens yet swarming with many out-of-shape men, western style women as well as the ones hiding behind the veil. The city streets with numerous potholes looks more like made-to-order posting venue for a pervasive number of billboards and few lit lights at night, adding to that feeling of an unending chaos.
“Yet there seems to be no dearth of friendly young people, artists, fashion designers and college graduates bursting with fresh ideas as if waiting for the right opportunity. As long as you take your precautions, I learnt that there is a lot to enjoy in Pakistan — delicious food and welcoming people are two good reasons to come back to a friendly chaos, Trygve Sxrvaag.”
Let’s be fair to our friend, someone coming from a different part of the world and having stayed in the city only for a few days cannot be expected to offer more profound or candid observations. Most of us seem to have become accustomed to that friendly chaos Trygve talks about but tend to forget the sleeve-tugging taxi driver and the beggar at the Karachi airport.
Be it the international airport, the railway stations or the one hundred and fourteen inter-city bus terminuses Karachi remains a picture of complete chaos. In case of the airport once out of the parking lot everyone has to zig zag through that exercise in futility (the late dictator Zia-ul-Haq’s legacy) commonly known as ‘checking.’ Right out of the airport parking the arriving passengers are confronted with a jungle of huge hoardings and billboards. The kutchi abadi on the other side of Sharea Faisal seems literally caged behind that fence, while the dusty and broken footpaths on the two sides of the city’s main thoroughfare give a clue to the things to come along the way.
Invariably all first-timers to Karachi express their fascination at the city’s pretty well-maintained infrastructure on one side of Sharea Faisal and total apathy of the managers to the other side of the city. While passing through most of the central and western parts Trygve expressed his utter disbelief over the condition of the infrastructure as well as the visible change in people.
A lack of civic response to disasters like a bomb blast is something that seems to perturb outsiders more than us. Over-populated, and apparently falling apart Karachi remains a pretty lawless metropolis. Yet many foreign visitors praise Karachi for its unfailing openness that even a passerby cannot leave without feeling for the city or its residents. On the other hand, Karachi may also like to benefit from the openness of some of its visitors.