Auron ka hai Payaam aur, mera Payaam aur hai, / Ishq key dardmand ka tarz-e-kalaam aur hai! (Iqbal)
What most Muslims don’t know, and consequently what the world does not know, is that Islam is not what the world calls a “religion.” At least not in the ordinary and usual sense of that expression.
First of all, Islam is not a man-made system – with or without inspiration from above. It is all direct revelation from God. Otherwise it is not Islam.
And it is all fully documented history, if you want to call it that. Except that Islam is more fully, rigorously and carefully sifted, verified, investigated and authenticated set of facts and data from the past than any history of any kind about any individual, place, time or culture.
This is not pious declaration of faith or speculation but a hard fact, rooted in cold reality. In the sense that everything about Islam goes back to the Qur’an and to the Hadith and to the Sunnat of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
That means everything about Islam is what came out of his mouth in the form of the Qur’an; it is what he said by way of his teachings – Hadith; and it is what he practiced in his daily life – Sunnah.
These are all extremely precise objective realities, carefully defined and established, and these are not the lose professions or assertions of a believer’s misty-eyed faith, piety or devotion.
ISLAM VS. “RELIGION”
Second, Islam is for all times of day and night – twenty-four-seven, as people call it. Whereas “religion” is mostly for a few minutes or hours on a Sunday or some other selected day of the week.
Third, Islam is for all places on earth, up in space and everywhere else. Whereas “religion” is mostly to be done in certain specially designated and sanctified places and sanctums.
Fourth, Islam is for the individual as well as for groups and the entire society, and for the human race as a whole, to connect with God Almighty directly, as best as they can and as per the teachings of the Qur’an and the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam. Whereas “religion” generally requires a “holy man” of some kind, such as a priest or a pundit, to do it.
Fifth, and to make the earlier point more clear, Islam is directly done by the individual – by all people, men as well women, old as well as young. Whereas “religion” is done by “Holy Men” for and in behalf of the individual and the people.
Sixth, Islam is for all of human life. That means it covers every single aspect of human existence on earth, from the most trivial to the most important and profound, and from the most private and intimate to the most public. Whereas “religion” is generally limited to certain specific aspects of human life.
Seventh, Islam is open and available to every individual human being to learn and to practice. In fact, Islam makes it the duty of all to learn Islam. That is why the very first commandment of Islam is to seek knowledge: to read. Whereas in “religion,” it is the privilege and prerogative of certain designated “holy men” to learn it and to practice it for and in behalf of the regular and ordinary people – “lay people,” as they are called.
So, the list of distinctions and differences between Islam and “religion” goes on and on forever.
HOW PEACEFUL IS PEACEFUL?
And then there is the question of characterising Islam as “peaceful” and doing so under duress. That is, when you are being pursued and hounded by people who brand you as totally irrational and uncontrollably violent.
So, you have a knee-jerk reaction, purely defensive and purely self-protective and blurt out that you are a “peaceful religion.”
No, don’t get me wrong. Not that you are not are absolutely and one hundred percent right in saying that. For, Islam is all about peace and truth and justice and kindness and compassion.
But that is not what your accusers and tormenters are saying. They are pointing to all the violence that is going on in different parts of the Muslim world, and elsewhere, violence in which Muslims are involved or implicated in one way or another, and these people are saying that it is all Islam’s fault.
Many of them say that Islam made you that way.
But what some of these people conveniently forget is that there are all kinds of background factors and conditions that lead to violence in individuals, groups, nations and societies.
They forget that peace is one state of human life and reality. Another is strife and conflict. A third reality of human life is force.
ULTIMATE GOAL OF ISLAM
Peace is the ideal state to which we all aspire and toward which we all work. And peace remains the ultimate goal and what philosophers call the Summum Bonum of Islam.
Strife, however, is the sad and gloomy reality in which human life is all too often mired. It is often the troubling and dangerous default of human reality at many levels from the most private to the most public.
Legitimate, lawful and societally sanctioned force is the instrument that human beings have devised for minimising and controlling strife and for maximising peace.
The foundation of true and lasting peace on earth and in any society is justice, love, safety, security, compassion, integrity, truth, reasonableness and sound morality.
Where this foundation is absent or weak, and where people’s most basic needs and legitimate rights and aspirations are not met, and are persistently and blatantly denied, chances of stable and lasting peace are minimised or jeopardised.
All too often, then, those who have been systematically denied their basic and legitimate rights, and who are not allowed by individuals, groups, nations, societies and governments any rightful recourse to the redress of their lawful grievances, begin to resort to force and violence as an instrument of resistance to their domination, subjugation and exploitation by others and for the amelioration of their desperate situation.
There are all kinds of university books full of all kinds of theories and research that explain why and how people, individually and collectively, develop violent tendencies and behaviour.
For example, extreme poverty, deprivation, hopelessness, oppression, marginalisation, cruelty and systematic discrimination, exclusion and abuse may potentially move people toward violence. So also may serious perceptions of injustice, usurpation of property, abuse of power, violation of basic rights and deeply held values such as honour, personal dignity and the life, honour and dignity of family members.
Colonisation, mass enslavement, social and political tyranny, occupation of lands, exploitation and stealing of resources will all make nations and societies rise up in revolt.
This has been the history of the world. And everyone knows that.
RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENCE
That is why the constitutions of practically every civilized country in the world, as well as the United Nations Charter Article 51, guarantee people individually and collectively the inherent right to self-defence and the defence of their family and property.
What Islam does is it takes this universal and fundamental human right of individuals, families, societies and nations to self-defence and canonises it – to use a Christian religious expression. That means Islam makes that right a sacred and not just a mundane or secular one. So, self-defence in Islam is not just a legal right but also a natural and sacred one, blessed by God. So, some of those who assert that “Islam is a peaceful religion” seem to want to cover up this fact – and hope nobody finds out.
They have been thoroughly intimidated and demoralised by the relentless and ruthless propaganda that brands Islam and Muslims as inherently violent and incorrigibly irrational. So, is Islam “peaceful” then? Of course, it is. In fact, Islam is peace, period, no matter how you look at it. But Islam is also about truth – quite possibly much more than any other system in the world. And Islam also is strongly about human rights. And Islam is also against all forms of injustice, inequity, cruelty, oppression, exploitation, domination, tyranny and abuse. But does Islam permit self-defence? Of course, it does. How can it not? Which constitution of the world, and the law of which civilized country, does not permit self-defence? Islam is thus as perfect a synthesis of Jesus’ model of personal compassion on the one hand and of Moses’ model of social justice and supremacy of the law on the other hand.
Anyone whose heart is not filled with lust and greed, and whose soul is not scarred and demented by hate and prejudice, can see that Islam thus is really the entire old Bible in a brand new bottle or package.