I had the
pleasure of going through all the comments
concerning the review of the book “Chasing a
Mirage” by Tarek Fateh. I have not read the book
and I do not think that I will read it in near
future. So, I will be commenting only on the
present discussion going on. The important
subject matter appears to be “Islamic State” and
“state of Islam”. This last term is employed to
describe the religious practices and its
applications by Indian Muslims. In other words,
it describes the state of a religion (Islam) as
practiced by Muslims in India. It has nothing to
do with the State as a country.
Now the
other term Islamic State declares that the State
(country) is Islamic. Once, it is accepted that
a State is Islamic, the State as an independent
and sovereign entity ceases to exist. It is
Islam which governs the State as a sovereign
power in the name of Allah. The people of an
Islamic State belong to Ummah (the nation of
Islam) and after they may belong to a
geographical country, to a province, to a tribe
or to a clan.
It is true
for any Thing Islamic. The moment the Thing
enters Islam, it loses its liberal and
independent status. Any Islamic Thing will be
only Islamic and Nothing else. Thus, to talk of
Equality, Republic and Democracy in terms of
Islamic Equality, Republic and Democracy has no
sense.
The
Islamic Equality certainly exists (49:13). All
Muslims have the same obligations and privileges
before God without any distinction of colour,
creed or social status. At the time of a prayer
Mahmood (the master) and Ayaz (the slave) stand
side by side as two equals before Allah. This is
the religious equality when the distinction
between Bandah (slave) and Bandah Nawaz (master)
disappears. But, unfortunately this Equality
disappears the moment the prayer is over.
Mahmood becomes the master and commands Ayaz as
his slave.
Islamic
Equality tolerates that a man may take four
wives and many slave women that he can afford
(4:3). Here, matrimonial legal right of a man is
certainly superior to that of a woman. Also,
legally the civil and social status is not the
same of married woman and unmarried concubine.
It is certain that before Allah they are equal.
The same is true for Islamic Republic which is
nothing but only Islamic. There is no “Republic”
and no “Democracy” in any Islamic State.
Mr. J. I.
Chaudry (JIC) and many others have used the term
“Islam and Muslims”. Islam and Muslim go hand in
hand. Without Islam there is no Muslim and
without Muslim there is no Islam. The human
beings were there but Muslims were born with the
venue of the teaching of Islam. Islam is not
only a relation between God and Man but it is
whole life of a man (Muslim). Islam accompanies
a Muslim all the time no matter where he goes.
Islam never leaves a Muslim alone. Thus any act
performed by a Muslim is the act of Islam. Islam
can not take the credit of good acts and abandon
the Muslims if they do any thing bad.
The term
Islamists is only used for Muslim terrorists.
This is a group of Muslims whose only excuse for
terrorism is Islam. They are Muslims and are
supported by other Muslims. They claim to fight
for Islam. These people have never been excluded
from the religion of Islam by any religious
authority or by any Muslim community. It is
simply impossible. As Muslim they acted and as
Muslim they died. In this conjecture Islam has
full responsibility of the terrorism of the
so-called Islamists.
In the
passing, I will remind that Syrian terrorists,
Iranian terrorists or Libyan terrorists were
never called “Islamists” because they never
claimed to fight for Islam.
-
Ahsan
-
Strasbourg
-
July 21,
2008.