Muslims most civilised- 29 Islam the Best Basis of Civilisation - 1

[javed jamil]

Muslims most civilised- 29 Islam the Best Basis of Civilisation - 1 Despite shortcomings, Muslims Most Civilised in the World – 29   Dr Javed Jamil*     Islam the Best Basis of Civilisation - 1   Till now we were studying the statistics related to various denominators of civilization, which proved beyond doubt that the record of Muslim World is better than the most. We have also analyzed why despite being the most civilized in the current world, the Muslim world needs to civilize more. We have studied the key areas where there is scope for further improvement. In coming few chapters we will see why the religion of Muslims, Islam can form the most perfect basis of the on-going process of civilization. We will study in brief why Islamic paradigms of peace, health, human rights, freedom, economic development, political system and morality should replace the current international paradigms popularized by the West. Defining Peace: Modern versus Islamic Definition of Peace   Much water ought to have flowed down the Thames since September 11 2001 when “terrorists” created history of its own kind by plane-crashing twice into the Twin Towers that New York and United States boasted of as the symbol of their economic prowess. But the truth remains that little water seems to have flowed down the Thames, for even now Islam as a religion and Muslims as a community are being maligned as supporters of violence in general and terrorism in particular. This is despite the fact that in the so-called coalition against the so-called international terrorism Muslim countries and groups have been among the foremost ranks, without whose active participation America and company could never have succeeded in their plans. This is also in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of casualties in this war, at least one hundred thousand dead, has been of Muslims. Most of these hapless victims have been neither “Islamic terrorists” nor “fighters against terrorism” but innocent men, women and children, who had nothing to do with this on-going war. The incessant pouring of hatred on Islam and Muslims has also been progressing in spite of a large number of Muslim clerics and intellectuals having issued categorical statements condemning terrorism and all other forms of violence.   A concerted campaign is being run all over the world, denigrating Islam as the religion that promotes violence and Muslims as the people that resort to violence. Clever remarks like “Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims” are still being circulated to put Muslims on the defensive. The impact on Muslim masses has been profound, even though there is no way it can be measured. Unfortunately, most Muslim clerics and thinkers have become victims of this propaganda, and have adopted an evidently apologetic stand in their defence of a beleaguered Islam. Commoners however have responded by either becoming despondent at the condition of their fellow religionists or indignant at the treatment being meted out to them. The hatred for the West has almost become ubiquitous, which rightly or wrongly is perceived as the biggest enemy of Islam. It will be seen in the coming pages that most of the hate-Islam or hate-Muslim campaign as well as the reaction of Muslims have been dismally out of place, and it is high time it some plain speaking was done to rectify the situation.    In the forthcoming discussion, it will be proved that Islam has a much larger meaning of peace, and adopts effective and practicable methods to achieve its larger objectives of “Grand Peace”, which will be defined shortly. It will be seen that it is only the Islamic concept of Grand Peace that can bring real peace in human lives, individually and collectively. The discussion will obviously be in the backdrop of developments that have marked the emergence of the current civilisation dominated by Western value systems. It has already been seen in more than two dozen installments of this work that have been released so far that neither have the major players in the evolution of current social, economic and political trends shunned violence in achieving their bigger goals nor violence has disappeared as the result of that evolution. The truth on the contrary is that the book of the current civilisation is reddened with blood from the first word to the last though the authors of this monumental work have made huge efforts to spread a paint of white lies to suppress the sanguinity of its leaves.   It will be in the fitness of things if the meaning of Grand Peace that Islam espouses is introduced at the very outset. It will then be easier for readers to comprehend the developments in the past few centuries and their impact on human life.   Political Definition of Peace Let us first see how the world today understands peace. There are numerous definitions of peace, including those given by the world forums of eminence, individual thinkers and institutions. We will however concentrate mainly on the definitions given by the United Nations, which is unquestionably the biggest and the most powerful body of the community of nations that inhabit the earth. Let me reproduce here the definitions and programmes given by the UNESCO Culture of Peace: “An Agenda for Peace: Definitions ·        Peace is dynamic. Peace is a just and non-violent solution of conflicts. It generates an equilibrium in social interactions, so that all of the members of society can live in harmonious relations with each other. Peace is good for society. Where there is violence there is no peace. Where there is injustice and absence of liberty, there is no peace. In order for there to be an equilibrium in the dynamic of social interactions, peace must be founded on justice and liberty. ·        Preventative diplomacy is action to prevent disputes from arising between parties, to prevent existing disputes from escalating into conflicts and to limit the spread of the latter when they occur. ·        Peace-making is action to bring hostile parties to agreement, essentially through such peaceful means as those foreseen in Chapter VI of the Charter of the United Nations. ·        Peace-keeping is the deployment of a United Nations presence in the field, hitherto with the consent of all the parties concerned, normally involving United Nations military and/or police personnel and frequently civilians as well. Peace-keeping is a technique that expands the possibilities for both the prevention of conflict and the making of peace. ·        Peace-building is action to identify and support structures which will tend to strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict. Only sustained, co-operative work to deal with underlying economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems can place an achieved peace on a durable foundation.”   It can be noted that the above set of rules defining peace is primarily an agenda ”to prevent disputes from arising between parties, to prevent existing disputes from escalating into conflicts and to limit the spread of the latter when they occur”  “so that all of the members of society can live in harmonious relations with each other.” This is obviously a political definition of peace. This definition is not only incomplete but is highly deficient in many ways and will have dangerous implications because its very basis is erroneous. Though it speaks of peace as “dynamic”, the peace it promotes has hardly any dynamism about it: it is static rather than dynamic and negative rather than positive. Peace is regarded as essentially not a positive quality but mere absence of conflicts. In negative terms too, this indicates only an absence of armed conflicts. This definition of peace is neither all-encompassing, including all that is positive nor all-abandoning excluding all that is negative. As will be seen in the coming pages, this “peace” is primarily the brainchild of those who seek to promote a certain type of ideology and accompanied culture for their own selfish interests. What an irony! Peace based on selfishness! But this is the peace that is being promoted all over the world with utmost zeal, valour and planning. The consequences of such a strategy are what they should be. Total all-enveloping chaos at every level. The same approach is adopted in various other documents. See for example the following:   Appeal to the International Community from a Round Table of Institutions Who Have Won the Nobel Prize for Peace (excerpts)   Peace is not only the absence of armed conflict, it is also a dynamic set of relationships of coexistence and co-operation among and within peoples, characterised by the respect for the human values set forth particularly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the concern to provide the greatest possible well-being for all. Peace is increasingly threatened each day by the accumulation of weapons of mass destruction, by the great economic and social inequalities, which divide mankind, and by contempt for basic human rights and the dignity of the individual. Peace requires ever greater efforts to overcome these threats. It is only possible in a world in which the observance of international law replaces violence, fear and injustice, in which states voluntarily agree to limit their national sovereignty in the general interest, and in which states employ existing procedures for the peaceful settlement of disputes between nations. To build such a peace, everyone must feel a responsibility and should be educated in that sense from childhood ... Finally, the round table asks the mass media to employ to a greater extent their skills and immense resources towards building and maintaining peace, to foster a spirit of equity and solidarity among peoples and to draw attention to the personal and collective sacrifice inherent in the pursuit of those ideals. Source: Issued by representatives of the following: Institute of International Law, International Peace Bureau,   Suggestions for Moving towards a Culture of Peace   ·        Revisit history to discover how people contributed to their cultures. ·        Research non-military actors and make them models to be emulated. ·        Research women's roles in the development of their societies, and the causes and consequences of violence against women. ·        Promote peace goals as the dominant factor in all forms of art. ·        Teach the need to be aware of, and take responsibility for, the consequences scientific discovery can have for society as a whole. ·        Promote responsibility for the well-being of the local and global community, including protection of the natural environment. ` ·        Promote gender-specific analysis in all areas of human activity, encouraging women to organise themselves to make an impact on decisions that affect society. ·        Teach co-operation rather than competition, solidarity for mutual support, and appreciation for the rich diversity of multicultural societies. ·        Combat racism and discrimination, teach respect for human rights, for human life and the dignity of the person. ·        Promote economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights to create conditions for peace, disarmament and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Source: International Peace Update, April 1995, newsletter of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (excerpted from "UNESCO and a Culture of Peace: Promoting a Global Movement")   Spiritual and Social Definitions   The above-quoted documents fail to mention peace at individual and family levels, and only concentrate on national and international violence. There are others, mainly the spiritual masters belonging to different religions including mystics, who stress on individualistic notion of peace. (Spiritual definition) For them, tranquillity of mind and soul represent true peace, which is attained through belief in God or gods, through meditation, devotion, self sacrifice and other spiritual exercises ranging from self-appeasing to self-sacrificing. They tend to ignore family and social dimensions of peace, their argument resting on the premise that if individuals are peaceful society will be peaceful as well. They tend to bury in the cemetery of their ideology the fact that hundred per cent of members of society can never be truly peaceful, and that a very minuscule percentage is enough to cause disastrous consequences on society. There is another definition, the social one, of peace that is promoted by sociologists for whom the equality of the distribution of wealth is the chief motive. They argue that if the distribution of wealth and opportunities in society is not equitable there is no way peace can be ensured.   Comprehensive Islamic Definition of Peace   The truth however is that no definition of peace can be complete unless it takes into account the following:   First, human existence has three essential constituents: individual, family and society. For peace to carry any real meaning, it has to be at all these three levels. Peace at individual level means physical, mental, social and spiritual health, to which must be added what we understand as Satisfaction. Peace at family level means cordial relationship between spouses, between parents and children and among children themselves, and absence of all irritants in a peaceful family life.   Peace at social level means peaceful co-existence of all human beings that inhabit the earth anywhere, individually or as communities and nations, and absence of all forms of exploitation, oppression and conflicts. Thus individual heath, family peace and social order may be regarded as the three essential constituents of Grand Peace.   Second, peace must involve all stages of life: foetal, paediatric, adult, geriatric, and post-death life. This alone can lead to eternal peace.    Islam literally means Peace, and is defined as submission to God, which means that peace cannot be obtained without total submission to the Lord of the universe. Similarly Iman means total satisfaction, which again can be obtained only through undivided devotion to God. When Quran calls, “Enter Islam wholeheartedly”, it does not merely invite its adherents to follow the institutionalised system of Islam; it also signals to them that the real, comprehensive and long lasting peace can be achieved only through total acceptance of the System of God. Quran states: “The System for you is the (system of) Peace” and “Call them to the House of Peace.” In Islam, peace is not just a state of absence of war or chaos in society; it has the broadest and the most comprehensive meaning, in terms of extent, depth and longevity, including all the components of peace described above. It has to be not just personal, not just family and not just social; it has to be at all the three levels and in the widest discernible sense. At individual level, it does not merely mean peace of mind; it encompasses physical, mental and social health. At family level, it comprises peaceful relationship between husband and wife, between parents and children, and among children themselves. At social level, it does not only indicate absence of war or chaos, it also means absence of all forms of crimes and social tensions, and prevalence of mutual brotherhood and justice. Peace is also not something bound by time or space; it is as much for this world as for Hereafter; peace is eternal. This is to be ensured that Islam’s message of Grand peace has to percolate down the lowest strata of society. And this to be done in a way that the world does not feel threatened by the emergence of an institutionalised and political Islam, but learns to apply moral and socio-economic principles of Islam for the benefit of the whole mankind.   Islam uses all possible means to achieve its goal of Grand Peace. In the modern world, dominated by what I call economic fundamentalism, a two-dimensional constitutional system is followed.. If we want to achieve true peace, a three-dimensional approach is indispensable, which is what Islam promotes. We will discuss a little more deeply about what is Three-Dimensional System of Islam.   *  Dr Javed Jamil is Executive Chairman, International Centre for Applied Islamics, Chief Editor, “Islam, Muslims & the World” and Director PEACE. He is also author of more than a dozen books including “Islam means Peace”, “The Essence of the Divine Verses”, “The Killer Sex”, “Rediscovering the Universe”, “The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism” and “Islamic Model for Control of AIDS”. Also has more than 200 articles and papers to his credit. His soon-to-be-published works include “Scientific & Social Principles based on Qur’an” and “Westernism: the Ideology of Hegemony”. He can be reached at doctor...@yahoo.com.