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Goals of Shariah
To realize the benefits of people.
• daruriyyat (necessities),
• hajjiyat (needs) and
• tahsiniyaat (refinements)
Necessities
1. Religion:
To be able to practice, exercise religion freely. Hence it is a necessity in Islamic state to practice it.
Contemporary thought:
To be able to practice, exercise their religion freely i.e. both Muslims and non-Muslims.
2. Life:
Preservation and propagation of life. The law of qasas, retaliation.
Contemporary thought:
To preserve life we need medical care, vaccination, police in streets, light in dark corners of the street etc.
3. Preservation of mind:
Islam considers ability to think is crucial. For e.g. to prohibit intoxication otherwise it tampers with the mind; superstition, black magic, ogre and omen, all ignore the role of the mind.
Contemporary thought:
Can anyone be able to think clearly without proper education and hence the right of education otherwise that would result in brain washing, coercion and compulsion, blind imitation.
4. Preservation of honor, preservation of lineage Lineage should be known and respected.
Adultery is haram.
Adoption is okay as long as the kid knows his father because the mother was known at that time.
Contemporary thought:
Surrogate mothers, semen banks, cloning should not be entertained because in case of surrogate mother, there is a possibility that even the original mother is unknown to the child.
5. Right of property
Everyone should have the right to protect their property.
Contemporary thought:
Islam respects the right of ownership and private property. Contemporary experiments showed clearly that ownership secures freedom and dignity of individuals. This right is not absolute because every thing is ultimately owned by God. So this right should not lead to hoarding, monopoly on commodities or exploitation of the disadvantaged. It is the duty of Muslim state to codify the laws and have the means to protect this right as one of the goals of shariah.
All these goals that we discussed should not be just limited to Imam Shafii’s or Imam Shatibi’s opinion but should be discussed as we did using contemporary eye.
Needs and refinements
Needs will make life easy otherwise life is difficult and hardship.
• Good nutrition should be available otherwise one can get sick but will not die.
Refinement will make life enjoyable. All things that one could add to make things nice is a refinement.
• While the issue of wudu (ablution) is a refinement although it is required for prayer
• Good attire while praying
• To construct parks, facelift buildings etc.
Rules of Shariah
1. Hurt or harm should be prevented, stopped, removed as direct act of shariah, if there is something that becomes hurtful. This is the principle of injury, al-dharar.
• If a person who is a diabetic is fasting, it is a must to prevent the person to break the fast to preserve the person’s life
2. Harm is not to be removed by harm. This is also the principle of injury, al-dharar
3. If one hurt that inflicts a person or small group to prevent hurt of a larger group of people, it is accepted.
• When one punishes a thief or a child molester, it hurts that person but protects the society at large
4. One tolerated the lesser of the two evils.
• Instead of boycotting the elections it is better to participate in the election and try to elect who is less corrupt.
5. Preventing harm takes precedence over bringing a benefit.
• Doctor advising the patient to take wine to open blood vessels to prevent a stroke or a heart attack, but it causes harm to brain and liver. We try to find a safer alternative.
6. When there is a necessity, allow the prohibited. The needs are treated as necessities at that time based on the individual’s case or society.
• Eating pork while starving
• Mortgage, insurance, interest, which sometimes without them harm will happen. All need to be revisited with harm issue in mind. This way it will lead either to reassessment or to find alternatives, not just prohibiting regardless of consequences.
7. The necessities are limited to its limit. When something is no longer a necessity, the prohibition applies again.
What are the situations to make life easier?
• Traveling - one can break the fast; shorten the prayers
• Sickness
• Compulsion
• Forgetfulness - eat while fasting
• Something is happening so prevalent that one cannot escape. e.g. the whole place is dirty but still one can pray; Saudi government permits pictures because no one can escape from it.
• Deficient minds
Rights of the individual
• If a person hurts the other, the other person has the right to demand due punishment or to forgive him.
• There are divine rights that nobody has the right to drop with the exception of pure ibadaat (worship).
• The right of the public is the right of the God. The only system that claims the right of the people as divine is the Islamic system.
• Zakah is a combined right of the people and the society, but more of the people. Abu Bakr fought for the zakah.
• When a wife drops off the case against her husband who committed adultery, the society still has the right to whip that person.
• For a serial killer, there is no right for that killer’s family and instead society has the right to prosecute the serial killer otherwise the society will be endangered.
• Taxation to military service, defending the whole society, and hence it is the right of the society that no one is allowed to evade.
(The writer is Sr. Advisor, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC))
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