Muslim Woman

It is necessary that we Muslims face up to the reality that the Islam that we profess, practise and preach today is not working. And has not worked for a long time. This is true both for our communal life as societies, and our personal lives as individuals. In Muslim countries and communities around the world there is no shortage of mosques and preachers; prayer and fasting are common, millions perform the Hajj every year. Yet most of these societies are rife with corruption and injustice; poverty and illiteracy prevail; sickness and malnutrition are common. It is not just a question of resources; those Muslim countries that are lucky enough to have oil or other natural resources may have avoided some of these problems but face other serious ones (which are also common throughout the Muslim world) : lack of individual freedom and human rights; deep economic and social class divisions; materialism and consumerism; the lower status of women; the alienation of youth, etc.

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The Mosque in Islamic history was the focal point where political, social, and religious activities were perfectly blended together. The concept of Islamic ideology paid as much attention to a man’s well-being and welfare in this world as much as the life hereafter. In this sense the role of the mosque has always been instrumental in the social-moral and political uplift of the Muslim Community. However, in the later period after Khilafat-e-Rashida, the period of first four pious caliphs with the decline of the political supremacy of the Muslims resulting in their disintegration under foreign rule, the concept and role of the mosque also underwent fundamental changes. Consequently the active and dynamic role the mosque played in the life of the Ummah in the period of our prophet and caliphs was reduced to a place of rituals and worship. The later concept continues up to today. This has not only rendered the mosque ineffective as a center of social uplift but it has rather indirectly or directly increased the sectarianism and parochialism among Muslims. It is therefore of paramount importance that the present concept of the role of mosques be analysed and redefined in the light of its original concept and function in the days of the Prophet and in the context of the present needs of the Muslim community.

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The mere enactment of good laws, the Quran asserts is not enough to ensure peace in the world. It is necessary that the laws should be properly enforced :We sent Our messengers with clear arguments and with these Our laws and the criterion of justice so that man may establish himself in justice ; and with it We have , also created steel wherein is mighty power and many other uses for mankind (57 : 25).

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Human characteristics are baffling in their complexity and contradictions. Man’s capacity for ennoblement is equaled only by his capacity for debasement. He can rise to heights of sublimity but also sinks to the lowest depths of degradation. He may adore God with a fervor which is truly angelical; on the other hand, he may take devilish delight in debauchery and sensuality. If he can rise to heights of spiritual grandeur in love and can even die for his beloved, he can also hate like a beast of the jungle. Endowed with an intelligence which can explore interstellar spaces and can weigh the sun and the earth, he may remain ignorant of his own worth and latent powers and foolishly follow a path that will surely lead to the extermination of the human race..War has been with man throughout his existence on this planet. As far as our eye can penetrate the haze of the distant past, we see men fighting each other. Despite the splendid civilization he has created, and despite his glorious achievements in art and science, one wonders whether a being so busy with destroying his kind deserves to be called human. It is true that from time to time great men have appeared who have held aloft the banner of peace, tolerance and fellowship, but equally prominent men have as often preached the opposite gospel and glorified war. To Nietzsche, fighting was a noble occupation. "Men should be educated for war" he counseled, "and women for the production of warriors," and adds, to make his meaning clear, "everything else is folly". Mussolini looked upon war as a moral necessity. Hitler regarded war as the basic principle of life. For him law was only that which a soldier laid down. In his view, only those who help the state to prepare for war really contribute to national culture and social well-being. "We should demolish", says Heinrich Hauser, "all those institutions which safeguard peace and security for man. Life will be stable and simple only in an age we call barbaric.".

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And We have created you all from one breath of life, says the Quran. But the perception of life as an organic unity is a slow achievement which depends for its growth on a people’s entry into the main current of world events. This opportunity was brought to Islam by the rapid development of a vast empire. No doubt Christianity  long before Islam brought the message of equality to mankind but Christian Rome did not rise to the full apprehension of the idea of humanity as a single organism. As Flint rightly says, No Christian writer and still less of course, any other in the Roman Empire can be credited with having had more than a general and abstract conception of human unity. And since the days of Rome the idea does not seem to have gained much in depth and rootage in Europe. On the other hand the growth of territorial nationalism, with its emphasis on what is called national characteristics which has tended rather to kill the broad human element in the art and literature of Europe, it was quite otherwise with Islam. Here the idea was neither a concept of philosophy nor a dream of poetry. As a social movement the aim of Islam was to make the idea a living factor in the Muslim’s daily life and thus silently and imperceptibly to carry it towards fuller fruition.

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Islamic Question -1: A Muslim is engaged in a business, which involves selling or buying alcoholic beverages. He is honest and hardworking. He prays, fasts, and gives Zakat regularly. He performs Hajj as well. In other words, he practices the five pillars. But in his heart he feels that he is committing sin because of the nature of his business. So, he asks for God's forgiveness. He thinks that his pieties in religious matters are sufficient to outweigh his sin due to his business. Is he justified in his thinking?

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Every Muslim knows that the injunctions of the Quran are not confined to religious and moral duties. Everyone except those who are ignorant knows that the Quran is the general code of the Muslims. A religious,social,civil,commercial, military, judicial, criminal and penal code! it regulates everything from the ceremonies of religion to those of daily life; from the salvation of the soul to the health of the body; from the rights of all to those of each individual, from morality to crime; from punishment here to that in the life to come, our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has enjoined on us that every Muslim should possess a copy of the Holy Quran and be his own priest. Therefore, Islam is not confined to the spiritual tenets and doctrines and rituals and ceremonies. It is a complete code regulating the whole Muslim society in every department of life, collectively and individually.

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How does the concept of life (right or wrong) change the perspective of human vision and define the direction of his activities, we need not to go anywhere far to understand it. Every one complains today that falsehood; deception, cunningness, betrayal, corruption, bribery, injustice, oppression, extortion and exploitation are prevailing in the world. It looks as if, without any exception of zones or inhabitants, the germs of these diseases have spread all over the globe like an epidemic. Did you ever ponder over the cause thereof? Ills were also there in the days gone by, but these were not so general and comprehensive. With a little pondering, this reality will be established that its basic cause is the concept of life which, in the 19th century, emerged in the West and due to the general and global means of communication spread to ever nook and corner of the world. All these ills/miseries are the product of this concept. This concept of life was that the human life is only the physical life and laws governing the life and the death at the animal level apply to man also. Survival of the fittest is the immutable law of nature. According to this law, only the one wielding the maximal scepter of authority and power has the right to live. How this authority and power acquired was is no question. The poor and the weak and the powerless can be allowed to live only to become victual of the powerful. Every big fish devours the smaller one. Insects are born to be the food of the sparrows and the sparrows consequently breathe only to be the prey of the eagles. This is the law of nature, the constitution of life. It is according to this law that the decisions on the life and death of individuals as well as Nations are made. “Might is right” is the exigency of justice. Lion is the king of jungle, not the goat. If the lion eats the goat, the goat cannot make complain that it is the victim of oppression.

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Nature has provided guidance to human beings since civic life has started or more appropriately, since the dawn of civilization. From the stars guiding the bedouin Arabs in the vast desert (without any signposts or milestones), to the ships, airplanes and space vehicles equipped with sophisticated, modern, computerized navigation systems. It is Nature which ultimately provides the guidance for following the desired (right) path. It is also nature that provides indications in case of failure (wrong path). Nature provides guidance regarding truth and falsehood in every field of human knowledge and scientific endeavor. It is not nature that misguides but our imperfect knowledge, improper designs and improper observations misguide us. The moment knowledge advances to the level of perfect understanding in accordance with nature, human beings succeed in their missions. So, nature provides the touchstone (guidance) to test the validity of all the scientific hypotheses in the various areas of knowledge.

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