provisions for modern times

Change is inevitable in human life and society. “Every day He manifests Himself in yet another (wonderous) way (Vise 29, Sura Al-Rehman). The Quranic state of our vision as outlined above is not only Islamic it is also modern hut without violating the spirit of Islamic principles. The holy Quran repeatedly asks the unbelievers to abandon their ancestor’s ways. The same advice also holds good for the believers. Tribes give asylum to an assassin and will not let law to take its course because they are bound by an age old custom of their forefathers. Change is a fact of life. A society that refuses to adjust in accordance with changing circumstances soon becomes decadent. In recent history the rigid fixation with tradition has led to destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq, two great Muslim countries, at the hands of the US after nine eleven. Osama bin Laden was under Taliban’s protection. They accepted the destruction of a substantial part of a great Islamic civilization for the sake of an individual to uphold their age-old tradition. Ijtihad means to strive, to make effort to find a solution to a problem which is not available from either the holy Quran or from Prophet’s sayings. The Quran repeatedly ordains the Faithful to think, observe, analyse and dilate over the word of God. What for? If all what is there is required to be taken for granted for all times to come, then why think? If religion and religious laws are meant to remain as they are why then think over them? The fact is that our religion has two aspects i.e. transcendental and transient. The former is immutable while the latter is subject to change. Slavery, is transient while human dignity’ is transcendental. That is why slavery, once permissible, is extinct today. Human dignity lives on. Similarly concubines had the sanction of the holy Quran. They do not exist anymore. Islam is a religion of Nature and human nature. Anything that is in conflict with Nature is un-Islamic. Therefore all what currently goes on in violation of the human nature in the name of Islam is un-Islamic and is to be undone. Ethnic and tribal prejudices. extremism, factionalism, customs trampling human rights, intellectual stagnation, bar on education of women, curbs on watching TV and listening to radio, shaving of beard, honour killing, Vani / Swara, marriage of daughters with the holy Quran are some such practices that are irrational. They cast slur on the fair name of Islam. They project it as a regressive religion. Change is will of God and must have its sway when it becomes due. The obdurate attitudes and straight-jacketed views on the reality of change stand in the way of Ijtihad that must be made to give a progressive thrust to Islamic ways of living. In human affairs, the process of ‘Ijtihad’ continues to work silently even if no effort at the desired change is consciously made. For example, in course of time, slavery went out of practice and became a legal offence without any divine commandment or any fatwa by a ‘mujtahid.’ At a certain stage the civilized mind realized that enslavement of man by man was an offence to human dignity therefore it should be dispensed with.