DR. FIROZ MAHBOOB KAMAL 

Crime & the punishment

ISLAM’s glory doesn’t lie in the size of the geographical landmass or the number of Muslims, masajid, madrasas, minarets, Islamic arts, and other artifacts. These are not the markers of Muslims’ success. 

Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la will not ask about these things on the day of judgement. The prophet (peace be upon him) and his great companions showed little interest to engage in those things. The true glory and strength of Islam lie in the complete submission to the Qur’anic guidance and full practice of the sharia laws -that were framed by none but by the All-knowing Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Only this way, a believer strengthen bondage with his Almighty Creator. Only because of the complete adherence to the Divine guidance, the Muslims could build the finest civilisation on earth in whole human history. The Muslims build an Islamic state, raise an army, spread education and run judiciary only to ensure and enhance the total submission to the Qur’anic guidance. Only this way they earn the blessing of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la –both here and in the hereafter. What could be the worst and the ugliest crime against Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la than denial of space for His sharia and hudud in the courts of the Muslim states? How one can claim to be a Muslim with such an abhorrence of His law? A king is honoured only through complete obedience to his laws; not by hollow chanting of his names. What could be the worse dishonour and crime if his rules are ignored or rejected by the people? In the rule of law, a man gets punished even for dishonouring a court order.

Awfully, the Muslims are committing severe crimes by rejecting the law of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la -the Mighty King of the whole universe. A true Muslim can never think of that. It is a great rebellion against His sovereign power; belief in Him gets totally discredited by such crime. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la’s verdict on such offence is obvious; these criminals are labelled as kafir (disbeliever), zalem (oppressor) and fasik (disobedient, rebel) –as mentioned in chapter Maida in verses 44, 45 and 47. Five times prayer, month-long fasting, hajj and charity can’t undo such divine labelling. Appallingly, these are the criminals who currently run the Muslim countries; and the ordinary citizens pay taxes to help pursue their belligerent crimes. As a result, the Muslims are deprived of the benefits of sharia law and hudud. It is indeed the state-sponsored utter deprivation of Divine guidance. As a result, Satan and his followers can easily claim leadership of these ideologically lost and spiritually depleted people. This is why, even the worst tyrants, the infidels and the evil ideologies get millions of followers in the Muslim lands. With such deep deprivation of moral guidance, how a Muslim can follow siratul mustaqeem? Therefore, like a blind man, such a morally and spiritually incapacitated man follows anyone claiming to be a leader and easily falls in the satanic trap.

Deprivation of the Divine guidance is indeed the worst crime of all crimes. A killer can kill a man and a rapist can rape a woman, but they don’t take the victims to the hellfire. But a devil running a state can take millions of people to the hellfire. The whole statecraft then becomes the hell-bound vehicle. The state policies, the politics, the institutions, the education and the culture work as servile instruments in the hands of devils. This is why the most excellent good deed in Islam is not to build a masjid or a madrasa but to free a country from the rule of devils and to Islamise it. It is indeed the costliest task on earth; more than 60 per cent of the companions of the prophet (peace be upon him) sacrificed their life for that. And it opens paradise for the martyrs without any trial.

Those who get the labels like kafir, zalim and fasiq from Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la, can they expect any mercy from Him or space in paradise? These are the labels of the worst criminals. They deserve only the punishment –both here and in the hereafter. 

The Muslims are blessed people on earth. No nation on earth possesses the greatest gift of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la like the holy Qur’an. But awfully, the Muslims have failed to translate this Book of guidance into deeds. Instead of following this Divine guidance, they follow their own whims or evil ideologies. They take secularism, nationalism, tribalism and autocracy as the politics, capitalism as the economy and western materialism as the way of living. And the Qur’anic guidance gets ignored everywhere. Thus the greatest crime against Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la is committed by the Muslims. And it is also true that punishing a crime is the core principle of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la; hence no crime goes unpunished. For the same reason, the people of Bani Israel couldn’t escape the punishment either. In fact, the Muslims are already in the receiving end of the punishment –as promised in the Holy Qur’an, in different forms. Enemy’s wars, military occupations, defeats, deaths, destructions and humiliation are already working as tools of Divine punishment in the Muslim lands.

Sharia is indispensable

Islam’s every law and its punitive prescription reflects the most incredible wisdom of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. It works as a tool to enforce the Divine justice on earth and eradicate crimes. It is indeed the humanising as well as the social reforming arm of Islam. Five-time prayers, month-long fasting, charity, and hajj bring purification to individuals; but the cleansing of the social, state and civilizational arenas comes only through full implementation of sharia. Hence, it is impossible to build a peaceful and corruption-free society without sharia. If there was any such possibility, sharia wouldn’t have been prescribed by All-knowing Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. In fact, the past glory of Islam in achieving its civilisation excellence owes to its sharia laws. Law is the ultimate marker of the intellectual, spiritual and moral health of humans. Even in old days, humans showed their technological excellence; they could build pyramids, Great Wall and hanging gardens. But they failed tremendously in differentiating the right from the wrong and framing fair humanitarian laws. So, crimes like slave-trading, racism, ethnic cleansing and genocide could be practised as lawful acts! And the women could be deprived of property rights and were treated as household staffs.

Sharia is so crucial in Islam that without its implementation, Islam can’t reach its target. Nor can be thoroughly practised. Neither can deliver its most cherished benefits to mankind. Then, the Qur’anic project of providing justice to the people remains non-functional. The Muslim Ummah does not have any shortage of people who perform religious rituals; more than a billion do that regularly all over the world. But such practices didn’t add up any glory, peace and tranquillity to the Muslims; nor could end the foreign occupation and humiliation. In the holy Qur’an, the Muslims are described by Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la as the best people on earth (khaira ummah). But such a great honour doesn’t owe to five-time prayers, month-long fasting, charity or hajj. As per Qur’anic narrative, the Muslims get such a great honour only because of their excellent survival mission like enjoining the good deeds (a’maru bil maruf), eradicating the crimes (nehi anil munkar) and firm belief in Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la –as revealed in chapter al-Imran, verse 110.

Therefore, in order to earn such an honour and to fulfil Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la’s expectation, the Muslim must put into practice the Divine tool of social justice called sharia. The state that implements sharia becomes the safest place on earth for the people of all races, colours, creeds –as happened in the early days of Islam. Therefore, those who stand against sharia, indeed stand against Allah –the Almighty. It is a serious crime to drive people away from the Qur’anic roadmap. By abdicating sharia, they indeed run a criminal war to dismantle the most crucial civilizational instrument of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Nothing can be more damaging crime than such a war. It serves only the agenda of the devil. This is why, in the golden days of Islam, such despicable enemies of mankind used to get capital punishment for their war crimes. The presence of these devils in the midst of the Muslims only adds more speed to the downfall.

A non-believing man behaves no better than a donkey vis-à-vis dealing with sharia. A donkey, like any other animal, can’t understand the worth of sharia -the highest gift of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Nor is it capable of showing any interest to implement, ent it -although it can carry on its back a huge load of books impregnated with sharia. In Holy Qur’an, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la narrated how the people of Israel didn’t behave better than a donkey vis-à-vis sharia. They were given sharia in the Taurat. They could carry it and read it but failed badly to implement it. Because of such a sheer lack of responsibility, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la showed His displeasure: “The likeness of those who were entrusted with the Taurat, then they do didn’t take it on is like that of a donkey who carries (volumes of) books. Wretched is the example of the people who deny the signs of Allah. And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.” -(Chapter al-Jummah, verse 5). The free meals like manna and salwa that they received in the Sinai Peninsula for years couldn’t help them follow the Divine guidance, instead increased their greed and cowardice.

Sharia can’t be implemented in any land that stands occupied by the enemies. The occupying force never allows that to happen. Therefore, the enemy occupation needs to be dismantled. For that, it needs jihad against the enemies. Hence, the sacrifice of lives and wealth becomes unavoidable–as was the case with the prophet of Islam and his companions. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la proposed a land for the Bani Israel, too and asked them to raise a state thereon sharia law. Since it needed jihad to remove the occupying forces from there, the cowardice people of Bani Israel didn’t take that advice. Because of the withdrawal from jihad, their land remained occupied and the sharia that was revealed in the Taurat didn’t get any chance for the implementation. Otherwise, they could build khulafa-e-rasheda like the early Muslims. It was indeed one of the ugliest betrayals of an assigned mission; and such betrayal invited the Divine punishment. They had to roam as refugees in the cities and villages of various countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. During their stay in Arabia, they also showed their deadliest enmity against Islam. They even aligned with the pagan infidels to dismantle the only sharia-state at its nascent stage in Medina –which was against their own religion.

Awfully, the Muslims, today, are going down the same route –as was taken by the Jews thousands of years ago. They recite Qur’an, but do not bother to understand it. They are showing the same abhorrence towards sharia. Like any kuffar, they too, stand against the implementation of sharia in any Muslim land. They show their ever readiness to work with the global coalition of the kuffars to dismantle any sharia-compliant state in any part of the World –as the secularists did in Afghanistan. Because of such a collaborative mood of the Muslims, the former President of the USA Mr Donald Trump could boastfully say that they will dismantle any Islamic state in any part of the world. It means, they will not allow Muslims to return back to the prophet’s Islam that had an Islamic state, jihad and sharia as the integral parts. It is indeed a global conspiracy against the basic religious rights of Muslims.

So, the Christians, the Jews, the Hindus and other infidels are not alone in their fight against Islam and the Muslims. The Muslims, too join them as collaborators. So, in 1917, while the British and the French imperialists fought to dismantle and occupy the Osmania khelafa, they were not alone, more than a million Arab and non-Arab Muslims fought to bring their victory. In that war against Islam and Muslims, more than two hundred thousand Indian Muslims joined the British Army. In 1971 while the Indian infidels fought to dismantle the largest Muslim country of Pakistan, they were not alone either. Thousands of Bengali Muslims collaborated to bring the easy kuffar occupation. As a result of such collaboration, India emerged as a significant military power in South Asia. While the USA and its partners occupied and destroyed Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, they were not alone either. The so-called native Muslims collaborated with the invaders to kill the Muslims. The catalogue of Muslims’ crime against Islam and the Muslims thus goes on and on. As if, they fight only to please the proven enemies and not Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Before the European colonial occupation, it was unimaginable that the Muslims will run the judiciary according to laws that are incompatible with sharia. In those days, the Muslims didn’t know any other law apart from sharia. In those days, the Muslims believed that departing from sharia means leaving from Islam. Now, it is precisely the opposite; the Muslims are now practising the law that is known for non-compliance with sharia. Instead of fighting for getting closer to Islam and for the glory of the Muslims, they are moving towards the direction of surrender, decadence and humiliation.     

The deprivation of the religious right

The Muslims are now deprived of religious right even in the Muslim lands. It is indeed the worst calamities of occupation by the secularist enemies of Islam. In the early days of Islam, the Muslims had to engage in bloody jihad to get their religious right from the kuffar occupiers. But now the so-called Muslim states under the so-called Muslim rulers do not provide any peaceful option to enjoy such right either. The Muslims fight wars, sacrifice life and build states -not only for voting rights, civic liberty and other worldly gains. These are not the distinctive specifics of a Muslim state. Even in kuffar states, one can enjoy plenty of such rights. The religious right of a Muslim doesn’t entail only the right of religious rituals; it is much more than that. It is the complete freedom to perform the total slavery to their Supreme Lord Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala –the sole reason for the creation of mankind. Such slavery to the Almighty Lord includes the full practice of His revealed law (sharia), hudud, shura, khelafa, jihad, Muslim unity and other obligatory Islamic fundamentals. The right to perform this Islamic obligation is a million times more important than other civic rights. Voting rights, economic rights or cultural rights wouldn’t save humans from the hellfire. In absence of his total slavery to Almighty Allah, a Muslim runs the real risk of entering into hellfire –the holy Qur’an is very explicit on that. But how can a Muslim perform complete slavery to his Supreme Lord when he is not allowed to practise sharia, get Qur’anic education and can’t dismantle the divisive walls in the Muslim World? How can he claim to be a complete Muslim when he can’t establish khilafa and can’t do jihad in His way? How and to what extent a non-sharia state differs from a pure kuffar state? All kuffar states are indeed non-sharia state; therefore there exists hardly any difference. The compliance with a non-sharia state is indeed a clear marker of deficiency in faith and a gross deviation from the Qur’anic straight path. Such deviation can only add more speed to the Muslims’ ongoing downfall, and bring more disgrace and punishment both here and in the hereafter. Those who are really worried about life in the hereafter, how they could be oblivious or callous about this serious issue?

In the days of rightly guided Caliphs, there was no electoral process like today; but the people enjoyed the full civic liberty as well as the religious right to practise full slavery to Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Hence, they could invest their full physical and intellectual potentials to raise the finest civilisation on earth. But now, the situation has changed. In most Muslim countries, one can practise adultery, gambling, obscenity, usury and other evils but can’t be a full Muslim! Restricted practices of slavery to one Almighty Allah –as is the norm in kuffar and secularist occupation, opens the flash gates of slavery to other evil forces. In the Muslim World, there exists the satanic rule of the tyrannical despots. It is an irony that the Muslims show more submission to these criminal despots than to the laws of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. The voting rights of the common people now proved a mere façade for a more sinister agenda of the evil forces. Democracy, liberty and independence now look fake; these are only for the ruling criminals. The proven liars, killers, robbers, rapists, fraudsters, and manipulators enjoy a free rein to bully and bluff the people for easy electoral victory. An honest and propaganda-shy man can’t compete with these devils. The evil-mongers could easily use the electoral process as a ladder to grab the top post. 

It is an irony that the disease has also severely affected the people who believe in Islam and perform religious rituals. In them, the symptoms appear through the wrong set of their priorities. Even many pro-Islamic parties and their leaders are focused more on achieving voting and civic rights, and give little importance to getting the full religious rights. As if, getting a Muslim elected as the President of the country or becoming a minister or an MP is a great victory for Islam. 

It has proved to be a great distraction from the real Islamisation methodology –as prescribed in the Holy Qur’an and practised by the prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) and the early Muslims. This is why, elections in Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and many other Muslim countries and the participation of the so-called Islamic parties didn’t help to get the basic religious rights for practising the complete slavery of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Because of the failed strategy, the Islamic parties couldn’t show any success to take politics, judiciary, administration, education and culture onto the Qur’nic roadmap. Therefore, even repeated exercise of voting rights does not help fulfil the core purpose of survival; instead strengthen and legitimise the secularists’ occupation. 

Under such occupation, the whole state infrastructure does everything to take people to the hellfire. Therefore, what else could be the worst catastrophe for humans than such an evil occupation? Such occupation now survives in a Muslim country through Muslim vote, Muslim taxpayers’ money and Muslim manpower!