IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SHARIAH LAW — Re-engineering Individual Minds

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SHARIAH LAW Re-engineering Individual Minds I N present times, movements to impose Shariah law have been launched in different Muslim countries; for instance, in Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Pakistan, etc. In all these countries we find almost the same state of affairs. Muslims are divided into two groups—the rulers and the ruled. These two groups have gone on a collision course, resulting in great harm. It has ultimately proved impossible to impose the Shariah law, and these movements have only brought hatred, violence and coercion in their wake. Why did these movements to impose Islamic law prove to be counterproductive? The reason is that everywhere the watchword was the enforcement of Shariah law, but the mistake made was that the example of the Prophet of Islam was not followed. The enforcement of Shariah law begins in any society with intellectual purification, rather than with the practical enforcement of law. The Prophet of Islam lived in this world for a period of 63 years of which 23 years were as a Prophet. During his prophethood a successful Islamic state was established. However in that period we do not find Muslims in Arabia dividing into two groups and fighting in the name of the enforcement of the Shariah, like the Muslims of today. Light is thrown on the nature of this problem by a tradition of the Prophet narrated by Aisha, the Prophet’s wife. She says: ‘First of all, those verses were revealed in the Quran which deal with God and the Hereafter. It was only when people had come within the fold of Islam, and minds had been prepared, that the commands concerning what was lawful and unlawful were revealed. If the commands regarding the prohibition of wine and adultery had been revealed first, people would certainly have said, “We will never stop drinking wine and we will never stop committing adultery”' (Sahih Bukhari). According to a tradition, everyone is born a child of nature. But then under the influence of the environment, he or she is gradually turned away from the natural state. This is known as perversion. The act of