Islam and democracy

The crisis and challenges facing the Muslim world are multifaceted. Its future will depend on how it chooses to respond to these compelling challenges. One of the major challenges is to reconstruct its polity in the wake of new global realities.

In this connection, there is a debate both within and outside Muslim societies about what form of political structure should Muslim societies develop and whether democracy is compatible with Islam or not.

There are normally two views on this issue. One group feels that Islam lacks any credible political alternative to western democracy, which has emerged as "the system," and, therefore, we must adopt western norms of democracy in order to promote development of our societies.

The other group takes almost an opposite view and considers democracy alien to Islam and completely rejects it. It promotes the idea of re-inventing Khilafat-based model of political governance.

If we analyze the principles of politics and statecraft in Islam, we find that both views have a meeting point. Democracy as a system of government is neither western nor eastern.

Democracy stands for certain fundamental principles, which enshrine freedom, respect, rights, and dignity of people. These values are universal and have been cherished in different societies just as honesty and justice are universal principles and it is hard to classify these as either Muslim, or western or eastern values.

Modern democracy today stands for people's right to choose their government, hold accountability of rulers, guarantee freedom of human rights to citizens, provide justice to all, establish supremacy of law, uphold pluralism, deliver good governance, practise tolerance and empower the people.

If we look at Islamic history, we find that these values were at the heart of the political system established by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the state of Madina.

At a time when Muslim society was practising these values, no other civilization was anywhere close to its standards. No other state or civilization was democratic enough to empower its slaves to become rulers and commanders.

The principles laid down by Islam require that state must be based on the following principles; first, the political process must be based on popular legitimacy or "bay'ah" and second, the elected and governing system must be run on the basis of mutual consultation or "shura".

Two fundamental features of Qur'anic philosophy underlie the broad formulation of the above-mentioned constitutional principles. The first is that of diversity.

The Qur'an encourages ethnic and other types of diversity as blessings from God. Consequently, it recognizes the fact that what may suit one culture may not be quite suitable for another.

The second fundamental feature of the Qur'anic philosophy is that of gradualism. Again, the Law Giver recognized both the human ability to constantly evolve and improve and its need to do so over time.

Given the pervasive authoritarian ideology in the world at that time it was clear that human consciousness would need time to recognize the evils of authoritarianism and reject it in favour of democracy.

The Quran provided the basic principles for a constitutional democracy without providing the details of a specific system. The Prophet himself was the head of Madina, the first Muslim city-state.

He acquired this position through bay'ah, which included women, and conducted his affairs through shura. Every Caliph was also elected through bay'ah. It was the dispute over bay'ah that resulted in the tragedy of Karbala.

The constitution of Madina established a pluralistic state - a community of communities. The principles of equality, consensual governance, and pluralism were central to the compact of Madina.

Similarly, Islam gave women the right to acquire property, receive inheritance, participate in public affairs, engage in trade, and exercise rights in parity with men much before it was practised in the West.

The Prophet concluded agreements with various Muslim and non-Muslim tribes of the new city-state as a way of forging a new "federal" community which would no longer be plagued by divisive tribal warfare.

The Charter of Madina, which reflected the product of these agreements, declared all Muslim and Jewish tribes of Madina to be one community. At the same time, each tribe retained its identity, customs and internal relations.

The "federal" system of Madina was responsible, however, for such matters as common defence and peacemaking, purposes similar to those in the Preamble to the American Constitution, which refers to insuring "domestic tranquillity, [and providing] for the common defence."

The Charter also contained its own partial bill of rights, which was supplemented by the Qur'an and sunnah. Among the rights that it protected were the right to freedom of religion, and the right not to be found guilty because of the deeds of an ally, a form of guilt by association which was widely practised at the time. For this reason, due process of protections is important in Islamic criminal justice.

In an era when religious intolerance was the rule, the Charter of Madina stated that the Jews of the community, who were party to the Charter, were "one people" with the Muslims, though it provided "to each their own religion."

More specifically, this meant that the Jews who became party to the Charter were entitled to both succour and equality. They also had the same standing as Muslims and were entitled to Muslim loyalty. If wronged, the Charter provided that the Jews must be helped.

The sense of public trust and accountability of rulers are central to Islam's political teachings. Every caliph urged the people to put him straight if he deviated from his duties.

Respecting citizens and safeguarding their human rights is the fundamental duty of a Muslim state. Hazrat Umar wrote to governor of Egypt how could you make people slaves while their mothers have given them birth as free people.

When he learnt about a family in Madina during drought that they were without food, he carried ration on his back to this family. When stopped by a servant he replied that I am answerable to Allah if anyone remains hungry within my government territory therefore I must carry this burden.

He introduced stipend for every newly born baby so that the child could grow healthy. When he learnt about one of his governors, who was otherwise good, but had built a luxurious residence for himself he became furious and immediately sent a representative with the direction to go and burn the gates of his residence and reprimanded him severely. Both Hazrat Usman and Hazrat Ali also followed these traditions.

In Islam, four principles support human rights: monotheism, justice, vicegerency, and shahadah. Monotheism necessarily leads to freedom, because man worships no one and nothing else but the One, True and Only God. This frees him from servitude to any other person or false god. This also rules out any grounds for the subjugation of one person by another and establishes equality among all individuals and nations.

The concept of vicegerency is derived from the Qur'anic verse depicting the role of Adam as the first human in this world. If humans are God's vicegerents on earth, then they should be respected on earth, and honoured intrinsically for their humanity, not creed, culture, race, or any such attribute. As vicegerents of God on earth, mankind is required to preserve the integrity of the planet and thereby the rights of those who will follow after us.

Finally, by shahadah (bearing witness to God), we are God's witnesses for justice on earth. The Qur'anic verse, "We sent aforetime our apostles with Clear signs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance (of right and wrong), that men may stand forth in justice" (57:25) shows that justice was central to all prophetic missions.

The injunction that our duty to do justice should not be swayed by our love or hate of the ones on trial before us was brought out in the verse: "O Ye who believe, stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear God. For God is well-acquainted with all that ye do" (5:9).

As such, we cannot be indifferent to the scourge of tyranny. We have to be outspoken against oppression and leaders in the fight to free all people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

This Islamic concept more than matches any philosophical response to the rational and moral obligation to resist evil and to endorse such resistance, even when it entails certain death as Hazrat Imam Hussain did in Karbala. It is quite clear from the above facts that Islam's political teachings are an essence of the modern democratic traditions.

So, given (a) a Muslim society's free choice of a constitution based on Qur'anic values, (b) that the khalifah/ruler in the Muslim state has no divine claims or attributes, (c) that the will of the people in that state continues to be expressed through bay'ah, shura and ijma' (the "consensus" of the Muslims) and (d) that there is no ecclesiastic structure in a Muslim state, then the difference between a Muslim state and a secular one is reduced to the ultimate origins of their laws and not to whether the people's will is decisive.

Thus, structurally, the two systems are the same, though substantively they may differ. Although God has ultimate sovereignty, He clearly delegated sovereignty on earth to us. He willed for humans to exercise choice and bear responsibility for their actions.

Rulers, elected by the people, remain answerable to them. Conversely, the people, having elected the rulers, have the right and duty to monitor their conduct and hold them accountable while in office.

Ultimately, all human beings are accountable to God here and in the Hereafter. In Muslim democracy, sovereignty is a sacred trust in the hands of the people to be exercised freely but not violating His basic injunctions.

It is unfortunate that Muslim societies have given up the golden principles of its political philosophy, which are more democratic in form than any existing democratic system. Instead of discrediting democratic principles as alien and western, we must rediscover our political traditions and restructure our political institutions to make them representative.

The writer is a former deputy chairman, Planning Commission.

e-mail: betterpakistan@hotmail.com.

Senior poet honoured

Karachi: Rasheeda Ayan, a senior New York-based poet, at present staying in Karachi, was the chief guest at the local press club on Wednesday. A prolific writer, author of nine published poetry collections (another in the offing) and many others to appear in near future, Rasheeda Ayan's contribution to literature were not duly recognized by critics, observed Dr Jamiluddin Aali in his presidential discourse at the reception.

The poet came with four collections, the latest comprising her religious poems, titled Fanoos-i-Haft Rung, published by Zain Publications. Meri Kahani, a versified auto-biography, rare in Urdu, carrying 2,000 couplets, was highly admired by known poet Prof Saher Ansari who was also there.

Hemayat Ali Shaer, author of a similar biography, was the chief guest of the evening. He spoke with zest on her poetry collection Shamim Ke Naam she wrote in memory of her loving life partner who died about seven years ago.

Ms Raana Iqbal had compiled the book Rasheeda Ayan: Fun Aur Shakhsiyat and read out a paper highlighting major qualities of the poet's person. A similar paper was presented by Ms Parveen Javed.

Mr Hussain Anjum, Editor Tuloo-i-Afkar and Mr Zainuddin, Editor Roshnai, also publisher of her naats, evaluated the fascinating qualities of the collection.

Mr Naqqash Kazmi, who did the compering, admired her hamds and naats - including some 'bhajan' verses in Hindi written in praise of God - as a proof of her command over the language and diction of Urdu and Hindi both languages.

Rasheeda Ayan, it was learnt, started writing when she was 13. Her poetic contribution is thus spread over 65 years. Ms Sheema Ahmad, the elderly Rasheeda's niece, read out a brief paper on the life of her loving Khaala.

Dr Jamiluddin Aali, while paying his lavish tributes to the poet of the evening, expressed his resentment over the ignorance of official literary bodies who failed to acknowledge the merits of 'a great past of our time'. He declared to hold a two-day seminar on Rasheeda's poetry when next time she comes to Karachi.

Ms Rasheeda Ayan presented her hamd, naats, and a ghazal in melody (tarannum) to the liking of everyone in the jam-packed Ibrahim Jalees committee room.