I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
This is the Litany of Fear, any reader of Frank Herbert's DUNE books will recognize. They're probably the most memorable lines in the book. It described desert dwelling arab-looking bedwins wearing "still-suits" which recycle and distill the body's own liquids, of perspiration and urine. Men who's sign of respecting one another is to spit infront of them, because the liquid is their most sacred possession. Men who are awed when someone sheds "tears" for a dead loved one. "Giving water to the dead". The dead who have no use for the water which you give in tears. To them the act is so wasteful and irrational, it can only be explained as a mystical religious act.
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Another story caught my eye yesterday on BBC & the Indepedent:
Saudi princess 'given UK asylum'
Princess facing Saudi death penalty given secret UK asylum
It's curious that the 2nd story in the Independent wrongly states that the child also would face death. As I understand it, Shari3a law ac states that the pregnant woman awaiting stoning or flogging is made to wait until birth, and in some cases even allowed to nurse the child for sometime if needed, until the baby can survive without her, and THEN she would be flogged if she wasn't married, or stoned to death if she was.
This is a classic case of the conflict in moral values between us muslims and those of the west.
What do you people think?
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Another story caught my eye yesterday on BBC & the Indepedent:
Saudi princess 'given UK asylum'
Princess facing Saudi death penalty given secret UK asylum
It's curious that the 2nd story in the Independent wrongly states that the child also would face death. As I understand it, Shari3a law ac states that the pregnant woman awaiting stoning or flogging is made to wait until birth, and in some cases even allowed to nurse the child for sometime if needed, until the baby can survive without her, and THEN she would be flogged if she wasn't married, or stoned to death if she was.
This is a classic case of the conflict in moral values between us muslims and those of the west.
What do you people think?
5 comments:
I think that while arab/muslim morals are to be upheld the way justice is served should be changed. The shari3a may have worked in the prophets time but now, in this age it is viewed as barbaric. Simply because the system is flawed, courts are flawed, justice is flawed. everything can be bought for a price.
well, I believe that whatever Allah tells us to do in the Qur'an, is good for us, and is timeless. because God didn't give us the Qur'an with an "expiry date".
قال الله تعالى في بيان حد الزاني البكر - أي غير المحصن - : ( الزَّانِيَةُ وَالزَّانِي فَاجْلِدُوا كُلَّ وَاحِدٍ مِنْهُمَا مِائَةَ جَلْدَةٍ وَلا تَأْخُذْكُمْ بِهِمَا رَأْفَةٌ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَلْيَشْهَدْ عَذَابَهُمَا طَائِفَةٌ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ) النور/2 .
أما المحصن فحده الرجم بالحجارة حتى الموت ، كما جاء في الحديث الذي رواه مسلم في صحيحه (1690) عَنْ عُبَادَةَ بْنِ الصَّامِتِ رضي الله عنه قَالَ : قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : ( خُذُوا عَنِّي ، خُذُوا عَنِّي ، قَدْ جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لَهُنَّ سَبِيلًا ، الْبِكْرُ بِالْبِكْرِ جَلْدُ مِائَةٍ وَنَفْيُ سَنَةٍ ، وَالثَّيِّبُ بِالثَّيِّبِ جَلْدُ مِائَةٍ وَالرَّجْمُ ) .
So if we're supposed to change the rulings of shari3a after a certain time goes by, it should have been mentioned, and ofcourse it wasn't.
The reason these punishments are so severe I think isn't because shari3a is harsh. it is because the sin itself is so damaging to society that the harshness of the punishment should be so high that the mere mental image of it repels us from the sin.
Like the cold war for example, nuclear bombs are SOOO devastating that their mere existence stopped the 2 superpowers from going to war. the consequences would have been too great.
same with the severance of the thief's hand.. it's ruled as such for the purpose of "preventing" those problems from happening in the first place.
just like Allah says in the Qur'an:
{ وَلَكُمْ فِي الْقِصَاصِ حَيَاةٌ يَاْ أُولِيْ الأَلْبَابِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ} سورة البقرة — 179
So here Allah clearly tells us that applying these punishments as harshly as they were subscribed results in a better life. not more death or suffering.
Plus shari3a only applies these punishments after no reasonable doubt is left. like the 4 witnesses for adultery.
So clearly the main objective of these very harsh punishments is mental. and I will simply trust God's command that they will fix our society if applied properly.
but anyway, I'd rather obey Allah regardless of what society thinks.
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I think that while arab/muslim morals are to be upheld the way justice is served should be changed. The shari3a may have worked in the prophets time but now, in this age it is viewed as barbaric. Simply because the system is flawed, courts are flawed, justice is flawed. everything can be bought for a price.
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