The West’s Recognition of the Greatness of Islamic Legislation⁽[1]⁾

Stand out firmly for justice:

One February 7^th, 2014, some of the social media sites published the photograph of a large wall which adorns the main entrance of the faculty of law in the University of Harvard in the US. Written on the wall and with large English letters are the most important statements said about justice in history. One of them is the transliteration of Allah’s saying in Verse 135 of the Surah of the Women: “O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well- acquainted with all that ye do”. After the Verse, a brief explanation was written about it and the Surah in which it is to be found such as “It stresses the importance of honesty in testimonies”, and that the Surah of the Women: “Primarily deals with women’s commitments and responsibilities in the Muslim society, it also explains the principles of inheritance and family legislations”.

System of Justice for All Aspects of Life:

Those people have chosen well, for the Verse establishes an important role in the law of the application of justice in all spheres of life, building a just state, and a decent society. It begins with directing the command to all people, but it particularly addresses those who believe to honor them, or because they are the ones expected to adhere to the Divine commands more than anyone else. It commands them to stand firmly for justice in a language form which indicates a constant state and a firmly rooted characteristic within the human being, not a temporary utilization of justice. So standing firmly for justice has to be a constant system in human life.

The meaning of standing firmly is bearing the responsibility of justice, and commitment to its requirements. So it is unacceptable to give up one’s responsibility to testify to the truth by not providing any testimony. At the same time, this means righteousness, a “right” angle is called so because it is straight without any deviation from its axis. What is required in this context is an honest testimony for Allah (Exalted is He), a testimony which is not affected by any pressure on interests or personal inclinations, desires, or biases. You have to be heedful only for Allah (Exalted is He) in testifying without any deviation to the right or to the left even if this testimony was against one’s self, meaning that it is against his own interests or the interests of his parents or relatives, and also regardless of the status of the person you give this testimony for. Such a status must not be a subject of interest so that, the witness must never take the side of the rich against the poor if righteousness is on the side of the poor.

Richness and blood relations are mentioned because they are the clearest causes which lead a human being to adulations and deviation from the truth. Upholding the truth is required before all influences which pressurize a human being, as for the results and how they are in reality, those are affairs which are in Allah’s hands only, “for Allah can best protect both” and all other creatures for that matter, for He arranges all things.

Then the Verse points out to the universal, comprehensive theme driving people away from testifying for Allah (Exalted is He), which is following lusts and desires, and thus he forbids man from doing so: “Follow not the lusts”, he also warns them that following lusts would lead them to deviate from the truth: “lest ye swerve”. What this means is possibly to set up the following equation: If you wish to be just and uphold the testimony through the truth, then the path to doing so is not following lusts and desires. We thus reach the following conclusion: following lusts and desires is the root of all injustice and unfairness in human societies.

Then humanity is warned that if they are unjust in their testimonies, and if they deviate from the truth, and if they do not testify with the truth to those who deserve it, then Allah knows well what they do, He fully knows things and nothing is hidden from Him: “((Allah)) knows of (the tricks) that deceive with the eyes, and all that the hearts (of men) conceal” [Surah of the Forgiver: 40] to stress this basic point in upholding justice and truth.

Do not Let other beat you to it:

There are several aspects of greatness in the Noble Verse which made one of the most solemn of the law faculties on earth to make it into a banner at its doors for the benefit of all people going in and out of it. As for the Muslims, they are heedless. They do not realize the value of the gems Allah (Exalted is He) blessed them with at the hands of His noble Prophet (Prayers of Allah and His Peace upon him and his household). The enemies of Islam made use of the Muslims’ heedlessness and ignorance and convinced them to apply positive laws to their own lands while turning away from the laws of Islam. Those enemies of religion are the ones who make use of those gems while the export their useless ideas to us. Even today, the curricula taught in our law schools are about positive laws, the student graduates from those schools without having even a basic knowledge about his great religion. He only takes the superficial things, leaving the kernel to the foreigners so that they can build their civilization using it.

When Muslims objects to Islamic legislations while the West adheres to them:

Things are even worse than what we’ve said earlier. When we find a certain party which attempted to invest the rule of the Shia majority in Iraq to adopt a religion-based law which would organize human relations and personal status affairs through Allah’s legislation, which is a right guaranteed by the constitution, voices were raised in Shia social and religious spheres objecting to this. These voices accused, obstructed, and called for the rejection of applying Allah’s legislation.

Similarly, the martyred first Sayyid As-Sadi faced a vicious war from some of the poles of the religious schools and its followers when he presented some of the aspects of the greatness of Islam in philosophy, economics, and sociology. They surrounded him, and constricted his sphere of influence until Allah’s enemies found him an easy target and killed him.

This is another aspect of the injustice with which Muslims treat their own Shari’ah. They do not strive to apply it nor do they try to benefit from it. Instead, they obstruct it at the time when the West prides itself with this Quranic Verse. The Muslims have the entirety of the Holy Quran which contains more than six thousand Noble Verses, and tens of thousands of Traditions from the infallible ones (Peace upon them).

So, beloved brethren, you have to uphold your religion. It is the firm connection which you have with Allah (Exalted is He) so do not give anyone the opportunity to take away Allah’s greatest gift to you: His religion. Those enemies have their ways of stripping people of their faith, treating each social segment in the proper way which would achieve this end. University students, for instance, are corrupted through lusts and sexual sedition, religious scholars through jealousy, envy, buying allegiance with money, and love of power and so forth. The purpose of all this is one and the same: to strip you of the honor and glory of religion which would give you dignity in this world and in the hereafter.