Our Society:
The society that we are living in today is a society like any other and its components are the same as any society and its elements are the same as any other society. And what reforms any society will reform it and what corrects any society will correct it. However just as we have stipulated the obligation of knowing the reality that we want to judge upon and treat, it is also necessary to understand everything about it and to understand its circumstances, conditions and everything that is related to it. As such it is necessary to apply this principle upon this reality i.e. upon our society that we want to treat.
Therefore it is not sufficient to know its components and elements so that we can go immediately to treat it. Rather it is essential to understand our society in a manner that removes any and every obscurity and throws a revealing light upon all of its aspects and dimensions. After the attainment of this understanding, will it be able to be said that the society is still established upon unified thoughts and sentiments and that the customs and traditions are still present?
Or have they disappeared and been replaced by new customs, norms and traditions? And does the system that is applied upon it and safeguards its political unity, emanate from the Aqeedah of the people or does it oppose their Aqeedah and contradict it? And was the executive body delegated on behalf of the Ummah (Moslems Society) to apply this system upon them or do they represent a group who has merely grabbed the reins of power and authority? And is this authority tied to others acting as an agent to them or is it sincere to itself and its society? Or has everything faded away and our society no longer has any distinguishing characteristics or unity that gathers it together, where its thought is not in harmony with its emotion and its system does not have a relationship with its Aqeedah? All of this in regards to knowing and understanding the reality from all of its dimensions.
As for understanding its circumstances, conditions and all that relates to it, then all that happens and exists in our society in terms of circumstances and conditions must be paused at to examine, in order to explain them and remove the obscurities. This is so that we can understand them and remove all of the obstacles that stand in the way of providing a treatment to the society or prevent it from moving forward.
Our society and I mean the society that currently exists in the Islamic world, is like any society as it is established upon a collection of people who have permanent relationships existing between them, which is taken care of by the Nizhaam (system/regime) and its unity is safeguarded by it. However it is noticeable that in this society specifically the unity of thoughts within it has faded away in spite of the unity of the Aqeedah which is supposed to be the intellectual principle from which all of the concepts and thoughts emanate and are built upon. However this Aqeedah has not been taken as an intellectual basis and no longer acts as the basis of thinking for the majority of the people including their thinkers and educated. It is an Aqeedah that the people have inherited and it was not the result of a purposeful process of thinking and examination and was not the result of thinking and a rational conviction. In addition they killed it in terms of being a political Aqeedah and let it remain living as a spiritual Aqeedah alone. However it still remains pure and clear in its fundamentals despite obscurities that have become attached to some of its parts in addition to some distortions. This was especially the case after it had been distanced from the reality of life represented in the relationships between the people and the systems that governed the society and it was restricted to the spiritual dimension and distanced completely from the area of politics. For this reason it remained as a spiritual Aqeedah within the breasts of the people and it remained the basis for their religious beliefs and what related to the relationships of the individuals with their creator in terms of ‘Ibaadaat (acts of worship) or in terms of the relationship of the people with themselves in terms of Akhlaaq (morals) or their clothing and foodstuffs. For these reasons the effect of the Aqeedah remained restricted to the individual and it had no relationship to the life of the people, their (societal) relationships or the societal systems or the taking care of the (societal) affairs of the people. This restriction was complete, with the exception of some parts of the social system related to marriage, divorce, inheritance and Nafaqah (spending upon those you are responsible for) which became known as the Law of personal circumstance. Therefore the Islamic Aqeedah remained the source for this law whilst its affect ended in respect to the thinking of the people in regards to the affairs of the society and its issues.
Since the time when the society lost this intellectual basis (their Aqeedah), it has not carried a political Aqeedah which would allow the people to build their thoughts upon it and from which the systems of life emanate. This was despite the spread of certain philosophical opinions and capitalist and socialist thoughts and despite the presence of a group of thinkers and educated people who were imprinted with these opinions and thoughts. For this reason a unity of thoughts did not remain in the society and the productive way of thinking amongst the people became absent. At the same time, the environments were poisoned by some thoughts, like the thoughts of freedom, democracy and socialism amongst other opinions, thoughts, rulings and legislations that had no relationship to the Aqeedah of the people. Therefore we are certain that the unity of thoughts in the society has been broken up and disappeared.
As for the unity of the feelings and sentiments, which is the third basis from amongst the components of the society, then we have explained that the Mashaa’ir (feelings) are the natural result of the thoughts that the people carry and what is concentrated deep within them in terms of concepts. They get angry when these concepts are contravened and are happy when they exist and are pleased by what agrees with them. This therefore is the reality of the sentiments that the people hold. Therefore built upon the absence of the unity of thought and existence of differing concepts, the unity of the sentiments also became absent. And due to the difference in the thoughts and their contradictions, the sentiments and sensations also became different and there no longer remained that which brought together the sentiments and feelings of the people with the exception of those matters that still remained connected to their Aqeedah like being Muslims for instance. As for other than that, then their sentiments were not stirred or their anger kindled when they saw the violation of the prohibitions of Allah or when they witnessed the ruling by other than what Allah (swt) has revealed or the existence of the open calls to atheism or licentiousness amongst many other matters. Indeed the situation has even reached the extent in some cities that celebrations and mourning (events of happiness and sadness) would take place at the very same time within the very same building without any of them taking into account the feelings of the others.
In the absence of the unity of the thoughts and the sentiments within the society, the ‘Urf ‘Aamm (public custom) was also absent, with the exception of some partialities. This is because the ‘Urf ‘Aamm (prevailing general custom) is only established upon the basis of a thought that the people believe in and affirm to the exclusion of other thoughts and the masses of the people commit to it like the concepts which regulate their conducts. They are concentrated within the people deeply and the feelings of anger and pleasure are moved in response to them until they reach the level of absolute conviction that has become a fully recognised norm (that the people are accustomed to). The origin of the thought has been forgotten or the evidence that it was extracted from or the principle that it was built upon it. Had this not been the case, then the people’s conduct would have been regulated in accordance to it. It would have become a law which the people collectively would not accept to be violated and would be angry about any violation of it. This is the type of norm that is deep rooted and has become concentrated within and amongst the people thus becoming an ‘Urf ‘Aamm (Public general custom) between the masses of the people.
So for example: Abu Hurairah (ra) related from the Messenger (saw) that he said: Whoever believes in Allah and the last day must honour his guest. (Al-Bukhaari, Muslim, Imaam Ahmad, An-Nasaa’iy, Ibn Majah).
This statement is a thought and its source is the Wahi (revelation) that the one who said it believes in and is followed by those who believe in him. This is because it is a thought which its reality has been comprehended and Tasdeeq (affirmation) has occurred in respect to it, so that it has become a concept that regulates the conduct of the one who believes in it. As time progressed the issue of honouring the guest became a normal and regular matter, it proceeded with the people and regulated them so that it became an ‘Aadah (norm). Additionally this norm encompassed the masses of the people and they became accustomed to this matter until it began to run in their veins and to the point where nobody dared to violate it. If someone did violate it then he would be exposed to the anger, scorn and indignation of the people and he would be maligned by a number of accusations that relate to his dignity.
However if we were to ask the masses from amongst these people about the evidence for this ‘Urf (custom), the thought that it is built upon and the source of this thought, then you would not find except a very small number of people who are capable of providing its evidence, know its origin and the Hadeeth of the Messenger of Allah (saw) that it is based on. In addition, our society today is not governed by an ‘Urf (custom), thoughts do not prevail over it and their sentiments are not shaken by anything. This is the clear reality that is necessary to know and understand in relation to our society before laying down a plan for its cure and treatment.
In relation to the Nizhaam (system/regime), it is the fourth basis from amongst the components of the society and the fundamental main pillar for safeguarding its unity and for looking after its affairs.
So the main task of the Nizhaam in our current society is to preserve the fragmentation and division of the Ummah (Moslems Society), by ensuring the continuance of these parts which are represented in scattered political entities. This is in regards to the statement that states that the Nizhaam represents the protector and safeguard of the unity of the society, however in our reality, it represents the very opposite of that.
The regime in its current true reality and it relation to its connection to the Aqeedah of the people, we can say that it is a regime that has been imposed upon the people, it has no relationship to the Aqeedah of the people and it does not emanate from their customs, concepts and thoughts. Rather it is a capitalist system that has been imposed upon them and despite this they have nothing but obedience to the regime and abide by it. Their interests are tied to it, their affairs are governed by its dictates and the people have had their identities and residency defined by it and by the piece of land that they have found themselves residing in. So it has been imposed upon them and at the same time they are committed to its rules without paying any regard to whether they are in agreement with their thoughts or the beliefs that they believe in. For this reason we find that the vast majority of the people point the finger of blame towards the standing regime and consider it to be the source of all corruption and the basis of every misfortune. They wish for it to be changed and indeed perform supplication to Allah (swt) for Him to change it and remove it from being over their necks. This is despite the absence of an alternative in their minds and indeed they have not even thought seriously about a replacement and alternative and this even includes those who are actively calling for the change. This is because as we have already mentioned, they do not have an intellectual principle (basis) to launch from and to take their thoughts and systems from. They also do not possess a productive way of thinking that they can utilise to understand the reasons and causes of the corruption, to define the objectives and to present an alternative or replacement. Therefore we find many and many indeed of these movements and political parties who are working towards changing the current standing regime and yet until now they have not placed within their programmes or methodologies an alternative that they want to change it to.
Uprisings, coups and revolutions have taken place in the Islamic world targeting the change of the regime and even many of these revolutionaries and coup makers have reached the position of ruling.
However despite this they were unable to change the system because they did not have an alternative. If any changes took place then they were merely to solve an immediate problem, or to bring a new matter that was taken from another society or they implemented a matter in response to the slogans that had been raised during the revolution. This is whilst the hero of the revolution who became the new president would feel a great deal of pride when changing the constitution of the State that he governs. He would be proud that the constitution which he had chosen for the people and imposed upon them was extracted and taken from the different constitutions of at least fifty-one states!
This therefore is the description of the three main components of our society, the thoughts, feelings and the systems. And it is a description of what has affected and caused our society to become like the water that has no colour and the smell that has no flavour. These are its fundamental diseases that have paralyzed its recovery, made its body sick and broken its ribs. If only the matter had remained restricted to this however the side (non-fundamental) diseases which have arisen from these fundamental diseases are no less than them in regards to the dangers that they pose.
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