Freedom from
hunger; Freedom
from fear;
Education
and intellectual development
There are a number of rights that men owe to one
another and to the global environment. These rights have always been there but many
have become critical in recent times. Man’s basic needs start with food,
clothing, shelter, and security and go on to include education and intellectual
development, spiritual purification and growth. By way of example, we may
highlight a few of these basic needs.
It is scandalous that millions of people should
live in abject poverty, that millions should starve
and die of starvation in a world where there is no shortage of food. Food is
stockpiled, dumped, wasted in enormous quantities in some parts of the world to
maintain profits and price levels while babes die on their mother’s breasts too
dry to provide life-giving sustenance.
‘Spread peace and distribute food’ was the first
instruction of the noble Prophet on reaching Madinah
after the historic hijrah journey. Throughout his
career he sought to ensure that those in need had sustenance even though he and
his family had often to go without food. He constantly emphasized the link
between belief and caring for people by such statements as, ‘He is not a true
believers who eats his fill while his neighbor goes hungry’
Cutting off supplies of food is not allowed in
order to bring people to submission. During the time of the Prophet, a new and
ardent Muslim, Thumaamah ibn
Uthaal, vowed that ‘no grain of wheat or any product’
should reach the Quraysh in Makkah ‘until they follow Muhammad’. The boycott was
stringently applied by his people. Price of food rose in Makkah.
Hunger began to bite and there was even fear of death among the Quraysh. When this was brought to the attention of the
Prophet, he immediately instructed Thumaamah to lift
the boycott and resume supplies.
To avoid dependency and starvation, societies
should strive to be independent in food production as a primary goal. The
practice of giving over land almost exclusively to the production of cash crops
like sugar cane, cotton, and worst of all tobacco for the main benefit of
foreign multinational companies should be abandoned. The Prophet’s encouraged
agricultural production and linked it with rewards in the Hereafter. Any person
who plants a tree or sows a crop for people, animals and birds to eat of its
product merits reward, according to the noble Prophet.
In emergency cases, there is often the need to
mobilize resources and organizational skills on a vast scale to avert disasters
of the kind the world now witnesses. The contributions, however small, of
individuals is important to help relieve hunger and suffering. Compassion must
be translated into practical help. (top)
This is another important and basic condition of
human life. Fear has become a global problem on a vast scale. People live in
fear of eviction from their homes, in fear of oppression and the denial of
basic human rights by tyrannical governments, in fear of the ravages of war and
sectarian strife, in fear of unemployment and crime.
The techniques and instruments of fear and
torture are many and more sophisticated now than ever before. It could be even be said that the majority of mankind today suffer from
exploitation, oppression and injustice of one form or another.
In a naturally ordered world of submission to God
or Islam, people have mutual rights and expectations of one another. In
particular they should have clear expectations from a society or state that is
governed by the natural values of truth, goodness and justice. For example,
people need to take it for granted and feel confident that:
·
Human life, body, honor and freedom are sacred
and inviolable. No one shall be exposed to injury or death, except under the
authority of proper moral and legal system and procedure;
·
No person shall be exposed to torture of body,
mind or threat of degradation or injury either to himself or to anyone related
to him or other wise held dear by him; nor shall he be made to confess to the
commission of a crime, or forced to act or consent to an which is injurious to
his or another person’s interests;
·
The right to privacy of home, correspondence and
communication is guaranteed and shall not be violated except through due and
proper judicial processes;
·
Every person has the right to his thoughts,
opinions and beliefs. He also has the right to express them so long as he
remains within the limits prescribed by law;
·
No person may be discriminated against victimized
because of race or color;
·
All persons, whether involved in government or
not, are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law.
These are a few of the
ideals and norms set by Islam as it works for justice and for the protection of
true religion, life, mind, honor, and property. The strength of Islamic law is
there to safeguard these values. But in the first instance, the method of Islam
is to appeal to the natural goodness of the human conscience to prevent injury
and harm to others. The Qur’an statements and the
noble Prophet’s advice are simple and direct:
‘Do not seek to work
corruption on earth. God does not like the corrupters’ (28: 77)
‘Walk not exultantly
on earth. God does not like any arrogant boaster’ (31; 18)
And the noble Prophet
said:
‘Let there be no harm
and no reciprocating of harm’
‘Make things easy for
people and not difficult’ (top)
Education and intellectual
development
Apart from the basic
freedoms mentioned above, every person has the right to a minimum education. As
we have mentioned before because of the demands of faith, no man and no Muslim
in particular can afford to live in a state of illiteracy and barbarity.
Again, there are millions
in the world today who cannot read and write or who cannot use these skills
with enough ease for practical purposes. There are the ‘total’ or ‘functional’
illiterates. There are about one billion illiterate adults in the world today,
many of them in Muslim societies. These are usually condemned to live limited
lives, easy prey to superstition and deprivation of many kinds. (This is not to
say that there are many erudite intellectuals who are also seized by moral
blindness and ignorance and who also live limited and diminished lives)
One of the greatest gifts
of Islam and Muslim civilization to many parts of the
world has been the gift of literacy.
The first word which
began Muhammad’s prophetic mission was ‘Read’:
‘Read in the name of
your Lord
Who created
Who created man from a
germ-cell;
Read! For your Lord is
most bounteous,
Who taught the use of the
pen,
Taught man that which he
knew not’
(The Qur’an, 96: 1-5)
Even though Muhammad,
peace be on him, was an unlettered prophet, the emphasis on a literate culture
(in addition to the strengths of an oral culture and tradition) is striking and
accounts for among things, the historical sense of the Muslims and the
preservation and transmission of knowledge. The Prophet’s concern for having
his followers literate can be demonstrated by a single face. Any person who had
the unfortunate lot of becoming a prisoner of war was immediately offered his
freedom by the Prophet if he was literate on condition that he taught some
Muslims how to read and write.
Each community and
society in the world needs to have a campaign to promote universal education.
One of the minimum requirements of this education should be functional
literacy.
Apart from their mother
tongue, Muslims need to be literate in Arabic, for knowing Arabic may bring one
closer to the Qur’an, and being close to God.
The provision of such a
minimum education universally is one of the greater challenges facing an ‘enlighened’ world.
Beyong this of course lies the far greater task of re-shaping knowledge so that it
enhances truth and justice and serves God’s purposes for man and the universe.
The intellectual leadership of mankind must pass from the materialists and
those who promote corruption on earth to those who are committed to the
long-term welfare of mankind and the global environment. (top)