February 26, 2005
Are Elections Haram? Says Who? And Based on What? Part 3
Section: WRITINGS | 77 reads
Clean Living:
Clean living at all levels is one of Islam’s greatest contributions to human civilization. We were the ones who invented the concept of Taharah – cleanliness: washing hands, feet, face and such – 1400 years ago. Well, the West is now becoming more and more conscious of the importance of Taharah.
In 1996 or so, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) discovered that hand washing is a good thing and launched a nation-wide campaign to get people to wash their hands. Did the ASM give us any credit? No! Did it acknowledge its debt to Islam? No!
Just like Columbus “discovered” America in 1492, even though the Americas at that time were teeming with tens of millions of people everywhere, with some American cities larger than London and Paris. So also ASM “discovered” hand washing in 1996, even though Islam had taught hand washing over 1400 years ago, and hundreds of millions of Muslims had been practicing it on a daily basis ever since all over the world.
So, what are we supposed to do now? Stop making Wudu and stop washing hands because hand washing is now fast becoming a cherished Western practice?
Human Equality:
So also, it was Islam that, 1400 years ago, taught the world the concept of human equality. After centuries of stubborn and bloody resistance against it, the West today calls it one man, one vote – especially for its own kind, within its own borders, and in parts of the world where its geopolitical and economic interests are safe and secure.
What are we going to do? Convert to Brahmanism and divide humanity into different impermeable castes and strata?
A Matter of Commonsense:
Do you see how so many of these questions are at bottom not really questions of Islam vs. non-Islam, Halal vs. Haram? Instead, they are mostly matters of common sense, understanding and logic on the one hand and of some absurd and mindless statements on the other hand?
The whole thing then becomes a question of being able to understand Islam on the one hand and at the same time being able to understand the world in which we live. For, the only understanding of the Islam that really matters is the one that successfully relates it to the reality in which it is embedded.
That means we must try to understand not only Islam as a set of abstract doctrines but also the contemporary culture, idiom and language of the Western world in which we live. And then we need to find ways to relate the two together. That means we should be able to translate and interpret it all into each other’s language, culture and vocabulary.
And that precisely is where we have fallen short thus far: in being able to make those connections and transitions between the world of Islam and the rest of the world and in particular the Western world and experience.
Shortage of Qualified People:
This was mainly because we fell short of people qualified enough to do the job for us. We did not have among us an adequate supply of individuals and institutions that straddled the boundaries and were simultaneously literate in both cultures to a point where they had a native command of each language, culture and idiom and as a result were able to interpret one culture to the other with authority, authenticity and integrity.
West’s Problem:
The West, however, had a different kind of problem in dealing with Islam and Muslims. In many ways, its ignorance of Islam would appear almost willful and deliberate. And the West appeared almost incapable of dealing with Islam and Muslims in isolation from its fixation on and lust for Muslim wealth, lands and resources.
As a result, much of the knowledge of Islam and Muslims that the West came to possess was skewed and tainted by its political, economic and even racial imperatives, urges and agendas.
Envy:
At the same time, deep down at heart, the West also seemed to suffer from a sense of envy. It appeared intimidated by the innate beauty and superiority of things and teachings Muslim and Islamic and seemed to suffer from an underlying sense of guilt, embarrassment, shame, fragility and inadequacy at its own history, background and origins.
As a result, rather than acknowledge the beauty and superiority of Islam and Muslims openly and give credit where credit was due, the West generally demurred, ducked, distorted and, at the end of the day, freely stole and plagiarized.
Flawed Understanding:
On the side of the Muslims, this vacuum was often filled by those whose understanding was flawed at both ends of the spectrum – Islam on the one hand and the West and the world on the other hand.
These people understood fully neither Islam nor the world in which it was supposed to be put into practice. For, analytically, neither can be understood fully and properly in isolation from the other.
As a result, here we are fighting, at the dawn of the 21st century – 1400 years after Islam first taught that method to us – over whether voting and elections are Halal or Haram. And over whether or not we should allow ourselves to be happily herded and driven like cattle, without ever having the right or opportunity to say yes or no about any of it.
For, in the ultimate analysis, that is what voting and elections all come down to. They are – no matter how badly they may turn out in practice at a given place or time – about people’s right to say yes or no about what happens to them.
Voting and elections are about people having the right, ability, skills, means and opportunity to say what they would like to see happen – to themselves; to their families; to their homes; to their businesses; to their cultures; to their societies; to their futures; and to their world – and who they would like to see doing it.
If all this is evil, undesirable, despicable, taboo, reprehensible – Haram that is – then maybe we just don’t know the meaning of the word Haram.
Or maybe, at a more fundamental level, we don’t know the meaning of that other word: Islam.
Wallahu A’alam! Allah knows best.
Allahumma, Aslih Ummata Muhammadin, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam!
Ya, Allah! Straighten out the affairs of the Ummat of Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam!
This brings us to the end of Part III of Are Elections Haram? Says Who? And Based on What?
Inshallah, we will bring you Part IV as soon as Allah enables us to finish working on it.
But do bear in mind, however, that our manuscripts are mostly drafts in need of further revision, which often we are unable to undertake or complete due to time and resource constraints.
End of Part 3 of 8
Written, January 2001
Modified, 2004, 2005
(To be Revised)
© 2005 Syed Husain Pasha
Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at]
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.
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