Forgiveness and justice: Meditation on some Hadith
The model is the Prophet (SAW), who endangers himself in order to establish God’s justice in a feuding Arabia, and who ends his life in holy poverty, despite the advantages he could have gained from having been born into the aristocracy.
(3) I have forbidden injustice for Myself, and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another.
Here God himself is speaking. This text establishes that the ‘political’ life is not dissociated from the ‘religious’; not just because the believer should recognise an integrated set of values in all he or she does, but also because by cultivating the political virtues we conform ourselves to the ‘qualities of God’. Hence the often-cited hadith, ‘Emulate the qualities of God.’
The alternative is seen, at least by Ash‘aris, as a form of dualism. The ruler’s subjects may thus recognise his actions as moral by reference to revelation, and will consider any injustice as a blasphemy against God. Leaving political decisions to individuals who reject justice as a blessing grounded in a heavenly archetype is to cultivate the mentality of Pharoah, who ‘exalts himself in the land’, and ‘divides its people into groups’. (Qur’an, 28:4)
(4) Umm Salama narrated: ‘God’s Messenger, upon him be peace, never went out of my house without raising his eye to the sky and saying: “O Lord God! I seek refuge in You lest I stray or be led astray, or slip or be made to slip, or cause injustice or suffer injustice, or do wrong or have wrong done to me”.’
The Prophet, as a saintly being who has ‘emulated God’s qualities’, must manifest His justice as well as His mercy. Here Islam and Christianity tread very different paths.
The Christ of the Gospels, despite incidents such as the ‘cleansing of the Temple’, preaches a passive witness; the Prophet of Islam also receives persecution patiently, but also strives to establish justice politically, with a mercy that may come through rigour.
No doubt this is not the result of a deep clash between ideals, but rather is the consequence of incommensurable contexts: Islam, too, advocates nonconfrontation when oppressed by a massively powerful empire; and Christians have moved away from the pacifism of the Gospels, fearful of the consequences of failing to control tyrants. Yet in the founding stories the differing emphasis is clear. Some Muslims have regarded this as grounds for reproach: according to Shabbir Akhtar, ‘a Muslim face to face with a Pilate would have given the Roman chap a lot more to do than merely wash his hands’; a view that neglects the cautious stance of classical Muslim jurists over resistance against overwhelming odds. But a characteristically Muslim optimism about the reformability of structures is also, no doubt, at work.
(5) God’s messenger said: ‘Whoever sees something he dislikes in his ruler should be patient, because whoever leaves the community [jama‘a], even by one fraction, and then dies, has died the death of the Age of Ignorance [jahiliyya].
This hadith forms part of a substantial body of revealed texts which seem to insist on political quietism in the face of misconduct by rulers. Unsurprisingly it lay at the centre of a storm of controversy. Most Sunni scholars maintained the view that once a caliph had been chosen (ikhtiyar), it became unlawful for Muslims to rebel against him.
For the Hanafis, ‘if the ruler is oppressive, or corrupt, he is not to be deposed,’ the reason being the fear of civil war (fitna), which had been the besetting evil of the Age of Ignorance before Islam. This quietism was resisted by the Mu‘tazilite and Kharijite sects, by many Twelver Shi‘ites, and also by some Shafi‘i Sunnis. The institutional separation of the ulema class (ahl alqalam) -- who were funded by their own mortmain endowments (awqaf) -- from the ruling family and its military formations (ahl alsayf), which reached its peak in the Ottoman theory and practice of religious statecraft, nonetheless gave the preachers the duty of condemning the sultan’s abuses, and defending the interests of the poor and weak. http://www.masud.co.uk/ ISLAM/ahm/