Modi (Moderate): Good morning, Mani, Radi. Peace be unto you.
Radi (Radical), Mani (mainstream): And unto you peace, Modi.
Radi: I would like to know the actual basis for the Sharia. I am told that it is only from the Qur’an, which I am inclined to believe. Is that right? The Sharia is actually from the Qur’an reworded?
Modi: First you must accept that Islam is a complete life, not a religious component of a life. Where the precepts of Christianity end, the secular law begins.
Radi: I do not understand. What are you saying?
Mani: I can answer that one, Radi. Modi is saying that in the Christian world, there are many nations and cultures. The leaders of Christianity find ways to adjust or tweak their precepts so that the nations and cultures within Christianity can work cooperatively with each other.
Radi: But what about a Christian going from one culture to another? Will he not find differences that may trouble him seriously?
Modi: Good question, Radi, and you are right. I remember reading of a Scotsman, whose tradition included the bearing of a knife[1] worn in their stockings, finding himself in England where the bearing of any arms is illegal. He soon found himself a guest in a British jail, despite the best defense in court about the power of some traditions.
Mani: And closer to home, some of our people continue to emigrate to the United Kingdom and Europe with two or more wives, despite the laws against polygamy in those countries.
Radi: I have not heard of any deportations for that reason.
Mani: Of course not. Europeans and the British are a little weak when it comes to immigrants breaking their laws. British lawyers for the immigrants have only to state that the polygamists would face prosecution in their own country if they were deported. European judges go wacko over that concept and seldom ask for proof.
Modi: Be that as it may, Islam is unlike Christianity in that its precepts go further into each person’s life. Islam takes the entire ummah, the entire Muslim world, and provides its teachings of the principles of life so that it applies to every aspect of humanity in every nation and culture on the globe. Indeed, Islam is a culture-producing force that also welcomes entire nations to its bosom.[2]
Radi: But what about the Qur’an? Where does that come in?
Modi: According to Muhammad Asad, “From the very outset, Muslim civilization was built on foundations supplied by ideology alone.” If you remember, Radi, Muhammad was building this civilization in Medina while fighting to convert his own hometown, Mecca.
Mani: So it was never a nation by itself, nor was there ever a racial element, so it did not have the “national or racial homogeneity” that organized it into a nation or race.[3]
Modi: And since the Qur’an was the basis of our “ideological civilization,” it stands to reason that the Qur’an would also be the basis for all of our laws. The total source of course would be the Qur’an and the Sunna.[4]
Mani: The other source, Radi, is not really an independent source, but a source that must analyze various parts of the Sunnah as they arise in the law.
Radi: That makes as much sense as telling me about aerodynamics.
Modi: What Modi means, Radi, is that whenever we must turn to a Hadith that is not clear enough for our purposes, we must turn to our own scholars for discussion and argument and then accept their decision.
Radi: Oh. Well, that seems clear enough.
Modi: Radi, there is still one more element that is not discussed in the Islamic law books. In some cases in which there are national laws in play, the national governments may determine that in capital cases, for example, their laws and especially the penalties must be according to the national laws and not the Sharia.
Radi: What?
Mani: If you take your favorite pastime, killing apostates, you may never do that again in Iraq. Although the Sharia not only endorses such killing, but urges it, Iraq and many other Muslim nations do not. Apostasy is not a capital offense.
Radi: (Storm clouds appear in his eyes) If the Qur’an and the Sharia both call for the killing of apostates, on what authority does the nation prevent it?
Modi: For one thing, Radi, it has signed the International Declaration of Human Rights and may eventually be subject to the ICC on that issue. Second, there is no legal basis for a country, any country, to declare leaving a religion a crime.
Mani: In some backwater countries authorities turn a blind eye to the national law and lightly prosecute only if it becomes an international issue.
Radi: I still do not understand the nations’ positions in removing apostasy as a capital crime.
Modi: After the Prophet died, many tribes left the religion partially because they considered their covenants a personal bond between themselves and the Prophet, and his death ended the covenants.[5] Caliph Abu Bakr pursued these people vigorously and slew many of them; but he did not refer to them as apostates. He was after their share of the zakat, the poor tax.
Mani: Modi, I think Radi is stunned. He is standing there with his mouth open.
Modi: You had better sit down now. I tried to explain this to you once before, but my words did not seem to penetrate. Apostasy by itself is not a crime; it must be accompanied by something else that makes it one. In the seventh century, an apostate left the religion and either spied for the Meccans or left Medina for Mecca, where he fought the believers. That sort of apostasy was actually treachery, or treason.
Mani: Aha! So you are saying that if you just stop going to mosque on Fridays and eliminate your prayers and the fasting, your neighbors might ostracize you if they found out, but they couldn’t remove your head, as Radi wants to do.
Modi: That is about it. But if someone takes the command to kill apostates seriously, he may do it and either get awqay with it or get a wrist slap. You just never know.
Mani: What about the zakat? But, I think that is also considered a state tax also.
Modi: As of today, only the Saudis do that, but soon probably all of the Muslims states will include the zakat as an income tax. Well, Yemen maybe, but not Morocco. In Morocco, you must only provide the money to whomever you choose, even if it is your less fortunate relatives.
Mani: I heard that the shops there have coins that will be enough to buy a meal and that a homeless person or one down on his luck need only show up and take one from the shop counter.[6]
Modi: Oh, that is wonderful. Why cannot we all do something like that?
Radi: If it were one of my relatives, he’d be the first one there and take all of the coins.
Mani: See how one person can spoil things for everyone else?
Modi: I am sure that even Radi’s relative can be brought into the spirit of things, Mani.
Mani: I suppose so. I will have to forget what he said; he spoiled a beautiful, true story.
Modi: Radicals are known to do just that. I hear Bilal calling. You know what, I will say a special prayer today just for those shopkeepers in Morocco. They deserve a special prayer to Allah.
Radi: I will say a special prayer, too.
Mani: To have Allah bless those Moroccan merchants?
Radi: No, just to hope any family of mine there finds out about them.
They chase Radi out of the house by bombarding him with cushions.
HJS
[1] “Sgian dubh” (/skin doo/ ‘dagger black’) Once worn near the armpit, now worn by Highlanders in the stocking (“stocking dirk”).
[2] The entire paragraph is adapted from Muhammad Asad, This law of ours, 2002, Islamic Book Trust, pp. 27-28.
[3] ibid., p. 29.
[4] The words and deeds of Muhammad.
[5] Efraim Karsh: Islamic imperialism, 2007, Yale University Press, p. 30.
[6] http://ramadankareem.blogspot.com/2007/09/zakat-in-morocco.html
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