Great responsibility

By Yasser Latif Hamdani (writing in the Friday Times)

The Supreme Court's suo motu notice of allegations of corruption on Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's son was odd. The presiding judge was the father, and the accused, his son.

Many have attempted to justify the action of the chief justice of Pakistan by quoting examples from Islamic history, including that of Hazrat Umar (RA) who sentenced his son. Others have referred to the fictional but more indigenous example of the Anarkali story where Prince Salim was tried for treason by Emperor Akbar. It is unfortunate that substance has always been disregarded in emotive arguments for form. 

Ehteram-e-Ramadan Ordinance is unIslamic and unconstitutional

COMMENT: There is no compulsion in religion —Yasser Latif Hamdani

A thousand years before the age of enlightenment and before the idea of religious toleration took root in the west, the Holy Quran said, “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256).

It is often forgotten, when we speak of Islam, that Islam’s approach was reformist. For example, the punishment for stoning to death for adultery existed long before Islam but Islam set the bar for evidence so high that it became virtually impossible for anyone to be stoned for adultery. For slavery, Islam created obligations on slave owners in terms of treatment of slaves and encouraged slaves to be mandatorily freed on the flimsiest excuse. Similarly, Islam strictly regulated the prevalent practice of polygamy by limiting it and further setting a standard for equal treatment that is hard to achieve.

Now our mullahs have forsaken substance and adopted form. Whereas Islam sought to civilise a tribal society, our mullahs’ take is to tribalise all civilisation. Where Islam sought to regulate polygamy and eradicate its social evil, our mullahs’ take is that marrying more than once is a necessary part of faith — ironically a Mormon idea. Whereas Islam humanised and rationalised existing customs and tribal traditions such as rajm (stoning) by introducing strict proof, our mullahs want to de-humanise all laws and while Islam spoke of equality of all mankind and religious freedom at a time when these concepts were unheard of, our mullahs want to end equality and religious freedom in the information age.

The closest precedent for Ehteram-e-Ramzan Ordinance comes not from Islam but from Christian fundamentalists in the Midwest who had enacted the ‘Blue Laws’ that forbade selling of non-essentials on Sunday out of respect for the Christian Sabbath