Dear Tawhidi Janata, you are finally in plain sight and in the ascendant after decades of being forcibly obscured. We can see you; you have, as it were, the floor. And since you do have it, and since I am watching some of your actions with concern and dread, it behooves me to ask you: Who are your teachers? Who are you anUmmah of?
I ask you this in the context of the teachings of our Beloved Prophet, Sallalaihu-walaihu as Sallam (SAW), may he be ensconced in God’s Mercy and Beneficence, because quite a lot of what you do seems to have very little to do with what he taught, or at least taught me.
Revenge, murder, criminal damage, arson
When the Prophet (SAW) captured Mecca from the very people who had brutally oppressed him and his followers for years, he addressed them in this manner, according to the Sealed Nectar which is also sometimes known as the memoirs of the Prophet (SAW):
"O you people of Quraysh! What do you think of the treatment that I am about to accord to you?" They replied: "O noble brother and son of noble brother! We expect nothing but goodness from you." Upon this he said: "I speak to you in the same words as Yusuf spoke unto his brothers: He said: "No reproach on you this day, go your way, for you are freed ones."
While such a general amnesty may not be possible or desirable in Bangladesh today, surely some lessons must be taken from how the Prophet (SAW) handled his tormentors, their rights and their property. For one, no one’s homes were burned down, no one yelled “Allahu Akbar” from atop the equivalent of a 5th Century bulldozer or were encouraged to go hunting for the vanquished. Quite the contrary, again in the Sealed Nectar we find that the Prophet (SAW) becomes upset by the tribal retaliation which was committed after Muslims captured Mecca and issued directives against any further engagement in this “pre-Islamic practice” of revenge. He also gave the families of the victims the right to ask for the perpetrators of revenge killings to be executed.
In the collection of Hadith known as the Mishkat al-Masabih, in Chapter 19 on Jihad, there is a story about the Prophet (SAW) sending Khalid bin Walid to invite a tribe who had opposed them to Islam. But Khalid began to kill them and take prisoners. The narration goes as follows:
‘He handed a prisoner to each one of us. But when a day came when Khalid ordered each of us to kill our prisoners, I said, “I swear by God that I will not kill my prisoner and that not one of my companions will kill his prisoner till we come to the Prophet.” When we mentioned the matter to him, he raised his hands and said twice, “O God, I declare myself innocent in Thy sight of what Khalid has done.”’
Violence and retribution were not the preferred ways of the Prophet (SAW). The Sealed Nectar tells us that even when the Prophet (SAW) suffered personal losses and had plenty of reason to be aggrieved, he chose to forgive the likes of Wahshi, who murdered his beloved uncle Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib. He also forgave the person who attacked his daughter causing injuries to her that eventually led to her death.
Violence and retribution were not the preferred ways of the Prophet (SAW)
Grievances and anger
We hear the world Bikhubdo a lot, and a lot of allowances are being made for it, but khowb is in the province of anger, and Allah mentions in the Qur’an that the Muttaqeen, those who heed the words of God, control their anger:
“Those who spend (in Allah’s cause) in prosperity and in adversity, who repress their anger, and who pardon men, verily, Allah loves the al-Muhsinun (the good-doers).” (3:134)
If that wasn’t enough, there is secondary legislation, i.e. the Hadiths, in the compilation by Imam Bukhari (RA) in Book 78, the Book of Manners (Al Adab). Abu Hurrairah testifies in Hadith 173 of the book that:
A man said to the Prophet (SAW), "Advise me! "The Prophet (SAW) said, "Do not become angry and furious." The man asked again and again, and the Prophet (SAW) said in each case, "Do not become angry and furious.”
In another hadith the Prophet (SAW) is recorded as having said: "The powerful man is not the one who can wrestle, but the powerful man is the one who can control himself at the time of anger."
Laws of the state
It is among the principle teachings of Islam that the rule of law is supreme and that temporal authority is to be acknowledged. Some among the Tawhidi Janata are under the impression that man-made laws are not included in this and that only divine law, understood as the Shariah, is to be obeyed. This is an unexamined understanding of law, legal obligation, and the nature of the social contract -- according to the Shariah.
Let me explain. The Shariah is made of divine law and juristic law. Divine laws are those decreed by Allah, in other words, the Qur’an. Hadiths deemed to be authentic are often also regarded as divine though this is not agreed upon by all sects or schools.
Juristic laws on the other hand, are a result of the collective wisdom of scholars and jurists or even sometimes of the wisdom of a single jurist regarded as exceptionally gifted. A large swathe of the Shariah is juristic in that laws about taxes, finance, criminal damage, arson, intimidation, assault, land deeds, ages of majority and minority, and other everyday administrative matters come from Ijma and Khiyaas and are therefore man-made. In other words, man-made laws also inform the social contract.
It is among the principle teachings of Islam that the rule of law is supreme and that temporal authority is to be acknowledged
To live in a country, to enjoy citizenship, passports, roads, security, electricity, borders, transportation, and representation is to undertake an obligation or an oath that, in exchange for being able to enjoy what a country offers, one has to obey the laws of the land and refrain from detrimentally affecting the welfare of its people. That’s the basic social contract, even in an Islamic reference, and both the Qur’an and the Hadith are big on contacts.
Surah Ma’ida 5:1 insists:
“O you who believe! Fulfill your oaths”
and Surah Nahl 16: 91, says,
“Fulfill the covenant of Allah when you have taken it, and do not break oaths after their confirmation while you have made Allah a witness over you”
Secondary legislation on this is found in Ṣaḥih al-Bukhari, Hadith 34, which says:
`Abdullah ibn ‘Amr (R) narrated that Prophet of Allah said: “There are four (characteristics), whoever has them is a hypocrite, and whoever has one of the four has one characteristic of hypocrisy unless he gives it up: when he speaks, he lies; when he makes a promise, he breaks it; when he makes a pledge he betrays it; and when he disputes he resorts to foul language.”
It therefore a religious obligation for a Muslim to honour his or her pledges, and citizenship is a pledge. To obey laws that are meant for public security, individual and social rights, protection or persons and property, even things like traffic laws, form the Huqooq-ul-Ibaad -- the ethical and legal rights, and the obligations of people in society.
As regards authority in the land, Surah An-Nisa, 4:59 states:
“Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you.”
Mahfuj Alam and some others charged with authority as the current government of Bangladesh appear to be considerably more knowledgeable about Islamic theology than I would ever assume to be -- theology which, presumably, forms the grounds for which one is called Tawhidi. There is even an Islamic scholar heading up the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which is responsible for dealing with exactly these matters, that is, in dealing with instructions in faith.
When Alam addressed a section of society as the Tawhidi Janata, he did not ask them which path they are on in light of these teachings. Why did he not point out that the Qur’an requires them to listen to people in authority? Equally, why aren’t the people in authority making it clearer that the Tawhidi Janata are contradicting their own creed? Or better still, why aren’t the Tawhidi Janata themselves establishing these Islamic standards? Who has taught them to behave this way -- yelling “Takbir” as they violate the law of the land and the teachings of Islam? Who is instructing them on the Adab of “Inquilaab”?
Tawhidi Janata, am I to really regard you as Tawhidi, when the account you are giving of yourselves does not do very much to support such an exalted claim?
Zeeshan Khan is a journalist and lawyer.