Written by Ayat. Muhammed Beheshti
"We have made you (the true Muslims) a balanced nation, so
that you could be an example for mankind" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:142).
What the Qur`an expressly desires is that the Islamic society
should be a model for all those who want to lead a healthy and happy life. It
should be a living testimony for the exalted principle that the way to live a
healthy life and secure justice and fair play is not closed to human beings. It
is they themselves who should find it and follow it with consciousness, faith
and persistence. Society Man is a being that has for long been social and has
been living a collective life. A group of persons living together is called
society. Society may be defined as a group of individuals whose life is
correlated with each other because they have common desires or common interests
for the realization of which they work together. The formation of such a group
is sometimes accidental and sometimes intentional. In the former case it is
technically called Accidental Society and in the latter Intentional Society.
Accidental society
Suppose you go out to see the museum or to have a walk in the
public garden of your town. You find that there are many other people also who
have come there for the same purpose. You and they practically form a group
having a common object.
However, it is evident that the individuals forming such a group had no prior
intention to form it. Every one of them left his house without having had any
intention to do so. Such a group is called Accidental Society.
Intentional society
If you want to set up a social, financial, political or
educational institution and you do not have the intellectual, physical and
financial potentialities necessary to undertake such a project, you try to find
some other persons who may co-operate with you in the undertaking. Thus a group
or a small society comes into existence, whose members joins each other and work
together with prior intention to do so. Such a group is called Intentional
Society.
Characteristics of Accidental Society
In this type of society there is co-existence, but there is
no co-operation except that of a very superficial nature and that too partial
and of short duration.In this sort of get-together the members of the group do
not choose each other. That is why they do not consider it necessary to have any
previous acquaintance with one another to be a member of that group. For
example, a passenger of a bus, a train, an airplane or a ship normally does not
feel any necessity at the time of purchasing his ticket to make inquiries about
the moral character of other passengers, their views and their motives of
journey. Normally such inquiries are not even possible. He and other passengers
are interested only in using a particular means of transport for going from one
place to another, and no deep and extensive acquaintance is required to achieve
this end.
Characteristics of Intentional Society
This tie is lasting within the limits of the objective of the
society and continues to exist until the group is dissolved for one reason or
the other.
As this type of society comes into existence with the intention of co-operation
for the realization of a particular object, therefore, in this case co-existence
is coupled with co-operation and mutual and reciprocal responsibility.
In this type of get-together members of the group select each other, and as the
way of thinking and doing of each one of them affects the destiny of the others,
they contemplate certain rules and criteria for the membership of their group.
The co-existence and co-operation between the members of the group and their
mutual relations are based on the principles and rules accepted by each member
consciously and after careful study. Members of the group work whole-heartedly
for its growth and development.
A definite example of an intentional society is a family,
which in its Islamic form is a model for every other such society. It has all
the characteristics of an ideal intentional society, such as:
The husband and wife choose each other intentionally and
willingly; With a view to lead a common life, With common responsibility, With
reciprocal rights and obligations based on a definite social system accompanied
by whole-hearted co-operation to secure a better and more developed life for
themselves and their children.
Individual and society
Man is a gregarious and social being. There can be no doubt
that the conditions of his life depend on the conditions of the society in which
he lives. But how and to what extent? Is this dependence such that it does not
in any way curtail the independence of an individual to mould his life according
to his own choice? Or is it such that it makes him absolutely subservient to his
social environment? Or is it neither this nor that but has some intermediate
position?
These are three different views regarding the relation of an
individual with his social environment. We propose to explain them further. It
is the individual who is important. According to this view, the main factor in
molding the life of every person is he himself and not the society, for the
society is nothing but a collection of individuals, who have learnt by
experience that their desires will be better fulfilled if they co-operate with
one another, and consequent to this experience they have been attracted to
collective life. Hence their incentive to lead a collective life is actually
their interest in the fulfillment of their personal desires.
All the social systems have been devised by the individuals
to safeguard their own interests. Hence everywhere the hand of the individual is
uppermost and it is his desire and action that play the basic role. The
corruption of society also originates from the corruption of the individuals. If
every individual reforms himself, the whole society will automatically be
reformed.
It is the society which is important
According to this view the truth is diametrically opposite to
what is maintained by those who say that it is the individual who is important.
The exponents of this view hold that it is the society and the social man which
are the material reality in this world and not an individual independent of
others, for what we find on the face of the earth is only a collection of men
mutually correlated and that is what is society. As in the world of nature every
natural being is subservient to a general and universal system of nature and is
not absolutely independent, similarly in the society an individual is only a
part of it; such a part that follows the whole unhesitatingly and is governed by
its over-all system. Even the ideas of an individual, his way of thinking, his
desires, his aspirations and his will are only a reflection of his natural and
social environment and the economic conditions of his society and class.
Those who hold that it is the society which is important,
maintain that an individual is just like a cell in a living body. A cell cannot
be independent of the whole body and its complex system, nor can it develop
fully irrespective of the fact whether the whole body is in a healthy and sound
state or not. Similarly an individual cannot be independent of the social system
in which he lives. He will have to go the way towards which the powerful social
and economic forces dominating the society will push him.
Some contemporary social schools have gone to such an extent
in their reliance on the importance of society as explained above, that it
appears as if man is a being totally dependent on society or his class and has
perforce to follow the way shown to him by social and class environment without
having the least possibility of exercising his own will and choice. As the
result of this view, the principle, that everybody should reform himself so that
the whole society is reformed, gives place to another principle, which says that
it is the social system which should be changed and reformed so that the
individuals are automatically reformed.
It is the mixture of the individual and
the society which is important. According to this view it is the mixture
of the individual and the society which is important. The individual is a being
who is neither fully independent of nor fully dependent on society. He has an
intermediate position. There is no doubt that the overall educational, economic
and political system of the society leaves its impression on the individual, his
ideas and his personality. It evokes certain desires. in him and suppresses
certain others. It moulds his life and guides his will. Nevertheless its impact
is not so strong as to make the individual totally subservient to his social
environment.
It is similar to the impact of the natural environment on
him. Unlike other existing things man is not also totally subservient to his
natural environment. In many cases he rules over nature, and using his
self-consciousness and harnessing his latent inner forces tries to change his
natural environment or to bring it under his control. He stands in the same
relation to his social and class environment also. He does not completely submit
to it. He tries to understand the sociological laws and with the help of his
knowledge and his hidden powers tries to control and change his social
environment to his own advantage. He is not always reconciled with the existing
social system.
Hence, though the social changes have their own laws and
trends and most of them are due to the factors working inside society as a
whole, an appreciable amount of them takes place as a result of the ceaseless
efforts of self-conscious and enthusiastic individuals also.
Thus neither the individual is exclusively important, nor the society and the
social system. What is important is a mixture of the two.
An overall study of the Islamic teachings shows that they are based on this
third view, that of the real importance of a mixture of individual and society.
We find that the Islamic teachings stress, on the one hand,
the responsibility of an individual in regard to self-making and
environment-making, and on the other emphasize the inevitable effect of the
social atmosphere in giving shape to the ideas, intentions, morals and actions
of man to such an extent that it may be said that all men are largely
interdependent in shaping their destiny. That is why the Qur`an wants everybody
to find and tread the path of righteousness and not to put up the corruption of
environment as an excuse for his own deviation.
"When the angels take away the souls of those who are
wronging themselves, they ask them: hi what circumstances were you They will
say: We were oppressed in our land. (The angels) will say.' Was not Allah s
earth vast enough for you to migrate2 It is they whose abode is hell. What a bad
fate!" .(Surah al-Nisa, 4:97).
Imam Ali (a.s) says very emphatically: "You people must not
be deterred and discouraged by the paucity of those who are going on the right
path .
At the same time man has been reminded that he should not be contented with his
being on the right way himself and must not neglect his duty of improving his
social environment. The fall of society leads to the ruin of the good and the
bad alike.
Imam al-Baqir (a.s) says: Then the wrath of Allah reaches its
height. His retribution overtakes all. The virtuous are ruined along with the
wicked, and the young in the house of their elders.
That is why a Muslim, while holding his individual
responsibility, is a collectivist also. Whatever he seeks from Allah, he seeks
for us' and not for me'. Look at the supplication we make to Allah in our daily
prayers: "You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help. Guide us to the
straight path". Also look at the ritual blessing at the end of the prayers:
"Peace be on us and on the virtuous bondmen of Allah ".
The stress laid by Islam on exhortation to good' and
restraining from evil' being the reciprocal responsibility of all the members of
the society, whatever be their position, the drawing of attention to the deep
effects of the purity and the pollution of the social environment and the
emphasis on other factors touching faith and morality such as the economic
conditions, are some other signs which clearly show that the doctrines and
injunctions of Islam are based on the principle of the importance of a mixture
of the individual and the society.
From what has been stated above briefly, we come to the
following conclusions:
- Islamic society is an intentional and not -an accidental
society. It has come into existence by the will of the people on the basis of
the choice of a definite goal of life.
- It is a society all the systems and laws of which pay full heed both to the
individual and to the relative role of his will and conscious choice as well as
to the social system and the educational, political and economic conditions of
the environment and their inevitable role in moulding and building the
individual character.
In our opinion to pay attention to these two points is
essential for the correct understanding of the social economic, moral and
devotional teachings of Islam, and their difference from what is preached by
other schools of thought.
Social System
In every society, especially an intentional society, there
always exists a sort of method or system which determines:
The general ways and customs of society;
· The way of its administration;
· Mutual relations of its members, and
· Thee relations of every member with the whole society;
· The rights and obligations arising out of these relations.
For an example take the case of a trading or an industrial
concern. From the very beginning it is necessary that its aim, the method and
the means of the realization of this aim, the way of the administration of the
company, the functionaries responsible for the ~working of each section of it,
the rights and powers of every share-holder, every office-bearer and the general
body and all such other questions should be decided in advance, and that the
company from its very establishment should work accordingly.
Is it possible that a company is established or run without
deciding all these details? Obviously not. The same applies to a society also.
From a small professional union to the world society every organization requires
a system and fixed rules and regulations for its working.
The sum-total of the rules, the system and the basis according to which a
society works, is called the social system.
Just Social System
We know that only a healthy and balanced body can continue to
grow properly. Any kind of defect in the limbs or a system of the body will
cause disturbance and weakness. If the temperature of the body goes above what
is normal, the result will be high fever and a general crisis. If its
temperature goes below normal, weakness and some other kind of imbalance will
ensue. The excessive increase or decrease in the degree of blood pressure, in
the number of white and red globules, in the quantity of the vitamins necessary
for the body - all these cause a sort of imbalance and some disease or other.
One must combat strenuously these diseases (and imbalances) in order to bring
about all round equilibrium, or otherwise be ready to decay and die. As we have
seen, this kind of balance is necessary in human and spiritual matters also. Too
much or too little satisfaction of the desires of man is injurious to his
humanity.
Society
The strong mutual attachment of a group of individuals brings
about the existence of a sort of social entity called society. Anyhow, its
members retain their individual character and the independence of their will.
Like the physiological and human existence of an individual, the entity of
society is also governed by certain laws, which of course, exclusively pertain
to it. The survival of society depends on the existence of a social equilibrium
in accordance with these laws.
If there exists all round justice in society, conditions will
be favourable for its growth and development, and generally speaking, the
evolutionary movement of society will be in conformity with the evolutionary
course of the entire world. On the other hand, any kind of injustice will be a
cause of disturbance, retrogression and decay of society. It is one of the
principal aims of Islam to establish justice and to bring about complete
equilibrium in Islamic society. The Qur'an says: "Indeed We sent Our Messengers
with clear evidence and We revealed with them the Scriptures and the standard to
show what was right and what was wrong, so that people might conduct themselves
with fairness ~ (Surah al-Hadid, 57:25).
In order to know the factors which cause equilibrium in society, the following
factors should be taken into consideration:
Equality of men
We know that for the establishment of equilibrium it is
necessary that every thing should be in its place. As all men are basically
equal, Islam does not admit that any individual has any special position. All
men have been born of one ancestor and have a common nature. The difference in
rights on the basis of race, class, tribal attachments etc., which existed among
certain nations, is totally denied by Islam. Islam declared its view on this
subject at a time when social groupings, discrimination in position, difference
in rights were considered to be natural and rational in the biggest civilized
and eminent countries of the day. Islam does not believe that any particular
group or class has been born for subjection and any other group for mastership.
No group has been born dirty nor any other group for executive and
administrative jobs. No groups has come into existence to have the status of the
beasts while others enjoy human dignity, as was the religious, legal and social
position under the out-dated systems of yore.
Islam officially proclaimed that:
· "All men are equal like the teeth of a comb
· "You are descendants of Adam and Adam was made of day.
"This nation of yours is one nation and I am your Lord. Therefore worship Me .
(Surah al-Anbiya 21:92).
In fact all men are slaves of Allah and brothers of each
other. They all form one group and belong to one class.
Legal Justice
With that conception of divine cosmology which Islam has in
regard to man, it is naturally necessary that among individuals there should
exist a sort of unity, harmony and equality in the matter of basic legal rights.
When it is not recognized that any particular position in society is reserved
for any particular individual or group, none can claim that any high position or
a superior job is his exclusive prerogative, nor can any one consider others to
be destined to obey him and to do only menial work. Naturally for no particular
group there exist any special rights or fixed privileges, nor for others lesser
rights and privileges.
On the basis of this conception, justice does not mean the
subjection and privation of the vast majority and the enjoyment of all the
comforts of life by a particular class of individuals having the right of
exploiting others for their own benefit. None has any special position and all
are capable of developing their talents and showing their ability. In this
context justice means the provision of equal opportunities to all individuals to
promote and show their talents, and to go forward up to the limit of their
capacity.
Elimination of undue discrimination
under Islamic conception
If we look at man from a purely material angle, it is quite
likely that we should arrive at a conclusion untenable intellectually and
ideologically. For example, if we consider man only as a living being having
various faculties of growth and reproduction and having certain physiological
and biological characteristics culminating in a developed nervous system and
brain, we will notice that there is a vast difference between various
individuals from the point of view of their physical activity, colour of skin,
power of muscles, shape of limbs, height, weight and the ability to do various
physical jobs.
If we define man as a tool-making being, we will find that all men are not alike
in tool-making ability and manual skills. Similarly if we judge man and his
human value by his power of production, we shall see that in this respect also
there is a vast difference from individual to individual. On this basis, it may
look to be a part of human nature that there should be a difference in the
position and the legal rights of different individuals. This kind of philosophy
leads us to the ancient system of grouping and paints discrimination in natural
and rational colors.
But according to the divine view of Islam, humanity of man
neither lies in his veins, skin or bones nor in the growth of his muscles, his
working power or his tool making. It lies in the fact that man is a
self-conscious being having independence of will and power of choice. On this
basis all men are human beings possessing human values. Even from material point
of view, what is important is that all men are made of clay, which is their
common feature. Their nature is the same. According to this view the question of
any human and natural discrimination does not arise.
Economic Justice
As we have already learnt, basically ownership is
concentrated in Allah. All the natural resources which can be exploited by man
are as a principle Allah's property. All men have been created by Him and they
live on His gifts. According to this' conception of cosmos, natural wealth is
not the private property of anybody in society.
No particular group or class can claim its ownership and
deprive others of its use or to reduce them to the status of serfs. All natural
resources belong to Allah. They are for the benefit of all. Justice means that,
in the words of the Qur'an, wherever a man finds his means of living or in the
words of Imam Ali a.s, whoever has a spark of life, he should have a right to
acquire his sustenance Social justice in financial matters means that all yes
all should be able to get all the necessities of life.
Freedom of thinking and acquirement of knowledge We know that
man is a being ready for evolution and moving forward. Hence the social position
of an individual in society is represented by the opportunity that opens for him
the way to evolution and development, and even protects and guides him on this
way, so that he may attain his natural and human rights. For example, man has
the power of thinking and choosing. Therefore a just society is that which
provides him the opportunity of exercising his free will, gives him freedom of
thought and does not impose on him the will and desire of any particular class.
Suppression of the freedom of thought in any way hampers evolution and deprives
man of his innate and God-given right.
A just society gives man the right of making free and conscious choice.
Man is not expected to make his choice with his eyes and ears
closed nor under duress and pressure against the dictates of his conscience. The
suppression of the right of choice is a deviation from the normal human course.
It causes disequilibrium in society. Anyhow, in regard to these questions it is
a social necessity that guidance and constructive opportunities are provided to
man to enable him to think rightly and make his choice rightly. But in providing
this guidance there is a lurking danger which must carefully be avoided.
Guidance must be earnest and selfless. It should be provided for the service of
man, to make his hidden capacities bloom, and not with a view to exploit him and
mar his humanity.
Man has also the capability to learn and attain knowledge.
Attainment of knowledge is his birth-right. A just society is that which
provides an opportunity to everyone to gain literacy, to make higher studies and
to acquire proficiency in skills and arts. Profit is the result of work and
all-round activity It is the right of every individual to profit by the natural
resources. But that is possible only as the result of his exerting himself and
doing work. Therefore, it is necessary that an opportunity of working and making
some sort of useful effort should be provided to every individual, and everyone
should be guided and trained to make full use of his intellectual, mental and
practical creativeness, so that he may be engaged in constructive activity and
may profit by the natural gifts as the result of his own efforts.
Privation is the result of encroachment. It should not be
forgotten that man is a social being, and an individual has to live with others
in society. It is not the right of any one individual, but it is the right of
all individuals that all possibilities of growth and development should be
provided to them. Hence, the education of one must not be at the cost of keeping
others uneducated, and the employment of some must not be at the cost of the
unemployment of others. Similarly the enjoyment of the comforts of life by some
should not be the cause of the privation of others.
It may be noted that according to the view held by Islam it
is not because some individuals have secured their rights that others are
deprived of theirs. It is, in fact, because of the transgression and excess of
some individuals that others are deprived of their rights. Imam Ali (a.s) has
said: "I have never seen any hoarded money', without there being neglected
rights' besides it. He has also said: "No one remains hungry, except for the
reason that some rich man has availed himself of too much. There can be no
privation if everybody is satisfied with what is his due.
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