Khalifatul Maseeh the IV – Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad

Courtesy: Laiq Ahmad Atif of Malta

Relationship between Religion and Politics in Islam, A Speech by Mirza Tahir Ahmad

Recently Pakistan has been the seat of this hot, sometime violent controversy about the Shariah. It is understood generally that if  the  majority  of  a  country  constitute  of Muslims,  then  the Muslims  have  a  right    rather,  an  obligation    to  enact  Shariah law.

It is argued that if they believe in the Holy Quran and if they believe also that the Holy Quran is a comprehensive Book which relates to every area of human activity and directs man as  to  how  he  should  conduct  himself  in  every  sphere  of  life, then  it  is hypocrisy  to  remain  contented  with  those  claims. They  should  follow  the  logical conclusion  and  enact  Shariah law and make it the only law valid for the country.

Now, this is what is being said on the one side. On the other side,  many  difficulties  are  pointed  out    such  as  proposed legislative  problems    very  serious  constitutional  problems as  well  as  very  serious  problems  in  almost  all  sphere  of  the enactment of Shariah. So, let me first briefly tell you, why Shariah law cannot be exercised or imposed on a people, who practically,  as  far  their  normal  way  of  life  is  concerned,  are the  not  ideal  Muslims,  much  to  the  contrary.  In  those  areas where they are free to practice Islam, they fall so much short that one wonders when they willingly cannot exercise Islam, how could they be expected to do it by coercion and by force of  law.  This  and  many  others  are  the  areas  where  debate  is being carried on and pursued hotly, but I’ll now, very briefly enumerate the points to make you understand all the sides of this issue.

Personally, I have also been participating in this debate which was  going  on  in  Pakistan  and  many  a  scholar  who  came  to London or who wrote to me for guidance, were helped by me. Though I did not entirely dictate notes to them but to a great degree  they  were  helped  by  me  to  understand  the  problem in  larger  perspective.  Thus  many  an  article  that  have  been published in Pakistan did have my opinion also expressed in them.

Shariah is the law and there is no doubt about it; the law of Islam; the law for Muslims. But the question is how far can this law be transformed into legislation for running a political government. On top of that many other issues get involved in it. For instance, if a Muslim country has a right to dictate its law to all its population, then, by the same reasoning and the same logic, every other country with majority of population belonging  to  other  religions  would  have  exactly  the  same right to enact their laws.

The entire world would become a world of not only political conflict but also of a politicoreligious conflict, whereby all the laws  would  be  attributed  to  God,  yet  they  would  contradict each  other  diametrically.  There  would  be  such  a  confusion that people  would  begin  to  lose  faith  in  a  God  Who  speaks one thing to one people and another thing to another people, and Who tells them to enforce this law on the people or ‘they will be untrue to Me’.

As such, you can well imagine what would happen in India for instance, if the law of the Hindu Majority is imposed on the  Muslim  minority. As  a  matter  of  fact  a  large  section  of the  Indian  society  is  gradually  being  pushed  towards  this extremist  demand    by  way  of  reaction,  I  suppose  to  what  is happening in some Islamic countries. What would happen to the Muslims and other minorities of India? Moreover this is not a question of India alone. What if Israel enacts the law of Judaism  the law of Talmud  I have read it and I know it will be  impossible  for  any  other  nonJew  to  live  there,  normally and decently. In the same manner Christianity has its own rights and so has Buddhism.

Read further in a PDF file: Relationship between religion and politics in Islam

Additional Reading

Shariah and Constitution: A Personal Journey

Shariah and Constitution by Zia H Shah

A Simple Recipe to Unite All Muslims

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