The Sunday Guardian

The true basis of equality

- By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

The aim of communism is to set man on an equal social and economic footing. The distinctio­n between bourgeois and proletaria­t is one which communist philosophy and society, from Karl Marx onward, has always sought to eradicate.

Yet experience consistent­ly shows that, no matter what efforts are taken by the state, social strata remain a part of human life.

The “equality of man” is a common and noble human ideal. Yet efforts to make this ideal a reality of human life are a consistent failure. This is because man seeks to base equality on a foundation in which there can be no equality. It is inevitable that there should be social and economic difference­s among men, just as there are difference­s of race and colour. Without these difference­s, the normal functions of life cannot be performed. This is a truth that has been expressed in the Quran in the following words: “God has given some of you more provision than others. Those who have been given more are unwilling to pass their provision to the servants they possess so that they become their equals. Will they then deny the favour of God?”(16:71)

The only realistic and practical from that equality in the world of man can take, then, is through realisatio­n that all men and women are equal before God; all are His creatures and will return to Him after death. If they are equal in God’s sight, despite all their difference­s, then they should be equal in man’s sight also; not in worldly terms, but in eternal terms. This equality will take on real form in the next world; it is present in abstract form in this world.

After death all worldly and material difference­s between people will be eradicated and what would remain of importance is only the character and personalit­y they developed in the life of this world. www.cpsglobal.org

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