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Quran as Discourse
Engineers Case for a Politics of Liberation
Nazeer A Majeed
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experience speaks otherwise. Even a revolutionary Islamic regime cannot ensure cleaner and corruption-free politics. The
Islamic Republic of Iran today, Engineer says, is hardly any different from other Islamic countries. It is dogged with economic
problems, it is rife with corruption, and it can hardly claim to be
morally superior to any other country. Of course, it is an Islamic
republic, but only to the extent that there is prohibition there;
there are some public performances of Islamic rituals; and
women have to stick to a certain dress code.7
A general belief of Islamists is that western materialism is a
major source of corruption in the Muslim world. Instead, Engineer says, concentration of wealth, as of power, is the real culprit. A perceptive observer of human society can never agree
with the nave assertions of Islamists. While in any society
integrity of human character and scrupulousness of conduct is
a must, they cannot be ensured without establishing an egalitarian and just society. Vast differentials in income, as they
exist today, are a major source of corruption as well as social
tension and class conflict in almost all Islamic countries. However, the orthodox proponents of Islamic states, be he
Maududi of Pakistan, King Khalid of Saudi Arabia or Ayatollah
Khomeini of Iran, knowingly or unknowingly more probably
knowingly try to deceptively assume a simple position that
it is Western materialism that has brought about moral degeneration and things can be set right only if the provisions of the
Islamic sharia (canonical law) are strictly enforced, and religion and spiritualism become dominant in life.
An ideology, Islamic or otherwise, can certainly provide
valuable guidelines and a framework of values, but by itself it
can never become the final solution. But Islamic militants do
not take the human (aspect of the) problem into account and,
taking for granted an Islamic society of morally perfect human
beings, claim that Islam is the only solution. This is how
Maududi dogmatically refuses to take into account various
interests and how they influence the policies of a modern state.
He thinks that in an Islamic society there is no conflict between capitalists and workers, landlords and peasants, and
the rulers and the ruled. It is quite obvious that he considers
religious conflict as the basic conflict even in a modern polity,
thus betraying a very superficial understanding of religion and
the motive forces of human society. Religion, even in its most
abstract and universal form, cannot be fully segregated from
its concrete social milieu. Even a medieval thinker such as Ibn
Khaldun had no difficulty in appreciating this.8
Politics of Islamisation
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socio-economic and political reforms (democratisation, gender and land reform). For its thoroughness, Engineers critique
of worldwide Islamist politics is unique.
Debunking the religious politics of Islamic rulers, Engineer
quotes Karl Marx who dubbed any state claiming to be Christian
(or Jewish) a hypocritical state.
Marx has said in On the Jewish Question that one must distinguish between religious attitude to politics and political attitude to religion. It
would not be difficult to establish that the rulers have adopted political
attitude towards religion throughout the Islamic countries. Religion is
being used by these rulers to strengthen the forces of status quo.9
The Quranic revelation, as is very clear from the early history of Islam, was not meant to sanctify the status quo but to
change it for the better and establish justice and equality. However, as Engineer finds it, the ulama, as a class, are feudal; as
in Iran, so in Pakistan, and India. In a conference held in Mecca
in Saudi Arabia in 1976, the ulama categorically rejected the
concept of a public sector or nationalisation as un-Islamic as
it would deprive Muslims (that is, monarchs and feudal lords)
of their Islamic right to hold property.10
Making observations about Muslim politics in colonial India,
B R Ambedkar said that Muslim tenants would never join Hindu
tenants to prevent the tyranny of a landlord, and that Muslim
labourers would not join Hindu labourers in the fight of labour
against capital for the simple reason that it might harm a Muslim landlord or capitalist, which would result in weakening the
community in its fight against Hindus.11 In Ambedkars time, it
was the Hindus, in the postcolonial Muslim world, it was the
communists. The ulama in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan (including Islamic theorists), in their rush to protect the Muslim
masses from falling prey to communism, emphasised the Godgiven right of Muslim feudal lords to private property, as if
there was no Islamic ground to hold on between the devil and
the deep sea (feudalism and communism).
The concept of property, therefore, was treated as an abstraction, without distinguishing between property in the form of
means of production, which is used for exploiting the labour of
others, and personal property meant for direct consumption.
According to Engineer, socialist concepts and institutions come
much nearer to the Quranic spirit of social justice. It is clearly
stated in the Quran that no bearer of burden shall bear the burden of others (35: 18). Though the context is that of divine justice on the day of judgment, it nevertheless implies that no one
in this world shall work for the comforts and luxuries of others.
This verse is a clear denial of the right to extract labour without fully compensating for it, which the feudal or capitalist systems sanction in one form or the other. The Quran says, again
in the context of divine justice, that man shall get what he
strives for (50: 39). This is a clear enunciation of the principle
of ownership of wealth based on ones work or labour. A property
acquired by exploitation, speculation, or by any means (feudal,
for example) other than by ones own labour, cannot have any
sanction in Islam. It is in this Quranic spirit that the Prophet
prohibited sharecropping or owning land that is not cultivated
by the owner himself. And it is in this spirit that speculation and
future trading in commodities have been banned in Islam.12
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movement for social reform. His liberal reinterpretation of religion, along with his support for the British empire, served his
own class interests and had hardly any appeal for the toiling
masses. Far from offering them an opportunity for modern education, the exploitative imperialist rule had put their very
survival at stake. Although Engineer is highly appreciative of
Ahmad Khans project of reinterpreting religion, he criticises
him for missing the point which, according to him, had to constitute the central vision of reform.
It is equally important to determine the priorities in keeping with the
aspirations of the people at large and not merely a tiny minority constituting the upper classes. Indian Muslims are extremely poor and
backward. Any reform or re-interpretation of Islam would have to
keep this fact in mind. In other words, social justice (adl) will have to
be re-emphasised as constituting the central vision of Islam.30
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different set of core values and read them into the Quran, values such
as militancy, power, and domination. Similarly, his invoking the principle of shura to legitimise political democracy is also inspired by his
own politics, and does not emanate directly from the Prophetic example itself, for although the Quran advised the Prophet to consult his
followers, he was not bound by their advice.
In the ultimate analysis, Sikand says, all readings are arbitrary, human products that cannot claim to represent the divine will in its entirety, and this applies to Engineers own understanding of the divine revelation as well.45
Although no reading, or methodology, can claim to be infallible, it is viability of the discourse, in terms of its rationality
and the spirit of the Quran (or of the Islamic tradition) invoked invariably by Engineer, that makes the difference.46
Engineer cites a medieval religious authority stating the rational principle of the viability of a discourse. Ibn Qayyim says
quoting Ibn Aqil from Funun that any act, process, or project
that ensures social justice must be accepted even if it had not
been clearly laid down by the Prophet or by the Quran.47
It is interesting to note that, thanks to the discourse of democracy, certain writers who are also well grounded in tradition
invalidate their own patriarchs interpretation of the consultation verse (3: 159) that argued for monarchy and against democracy while convincingly explaining the Prophets conduct
in this regard.48 In another example, the Quran only as text
allowed learned theologians to interpret the verse of equality
(49: 13) to mean only spiritual equality before god, thus
affirming social hierarchy through the medieval ages.49 The
Quran as a discourse will make any such argument impossible,
keeping in view the viability of the modern discourse on egalitarianism and social equality.
Conclusions
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References
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Islam A Study of Islamic Fundamentalism
(Oxford: Oneworld).
Thanwi, Maulana Ashraf Ali (1427 A H): Islam aur
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