Written by If one were to read the Quran, and I would encourage everyone to do so, you would notice one of the biggest themes aside from worshipping One God Alone, is justice and equality before the law. Hence, some of the earliest political theorists established an independent judiciary and opined that God is in fact the head of the State. In other words, it was possible to try the President or Caliph in a court of law. I am aware we can do that in South Africa, but show me how many Muslim countries you can do that in?
The problem with how Muslims engage with political Islam is that they think a ‘country’ is ‘Islamic’ because they don’t have pork, they have mosques, and they have capital punishment along with a dress code. In reality, very little time is dedicated to any of those things in the Qur’an. Rather, the consistent and enduring theme can politically be seen as an insistence on a meritocracy, equal opportunity, eradication of severe poverty (not poverty in and of itself), and accountability before the law.
In fact, the very theme of Heaven and Hell is to teach people accountability before God, who is the Supreme Judge. The problem with religious people is that they only look at religion in terms of religion and NOT in terms of real life; whether societal, spiritual or political. They don’t ask the very important question, “What is the goal of these rules? What type of social order or civilisation does these Books envision?”
In reality society has gotten much safer and better than it was in the past. Governments have advanced far beyond earlier political systems with more robust checks and balances and standard legal practices for crimes that are so defined as crimes in the Bible and the Qur’an. We have punishments for murder, theft, bribery, incest, gambling, drug abuse, and nepotism in most countries. These are all in sync with revelation. Anyone who thinks this world isn’t being largely run by the word of God doesn’t understand the word of God. There isn’t a single real civilisation that can flourish by being wholly evil, because evil by itself, according to the Quran, perishes. #Quran #Islam #Christianity #politics #governance
