|
National Endowment for Democracy
ISLAMIC DEMOCRACY
AND
MUSLIM TYRANNY
Peaceful Solution For The 21’st Century
Written by
Ahmed Subhy Mansour (PH.D)
{……And you will remember what I am telling you. And my fate I leave it to God. Verily, God is all seer of [His] servants.}
The Holy Quran: [40:- 44]
That was the final preachment said by the believer noble Egyptian man to his people, when he opposed the tyrant pharaoh in the time of the prophet Moses
Dedication
My sincere appreciation to: Dr; Mohammed El-Sayed Said, Deputy Director, Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Egypt. And Alexander Apstein, Barrister,Toronto, Canada, and Dr. Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldoun chair of Islamic Studies, American University. They –kindly- helped me to have this fellowship at NED.
My sincere gratitude to the National Endowment for Democracy and its efforts to help the democratic trends around the world
My special thanks to Carl Gershman, Larry Diamond, Laith Kobba, Sally Blair, Zerxes Spencer, Emily Anter, and all the decent staff at (N E D).
My special regards to my lawyer Irving J. Spitzberg, and his wife, Virginia V. Thorndike and Dr, Khaled Duran, for their decent care.
My greetings to my wife and sons in Egypt .who share me the agony of persecution and exile.
Finally, to my great friend Dr.Saad El Deen Ebraheem, who sacrifices his own freedom to defend the freedom of Egypt and the Arab World.
Ahmed subhy Mansour
Introduction
This research is mainly depending on the Quran in an objective way. Accordingly, it analyzes its verses by the Quranic terminology, code, and idiom.
The fanatic Muslims understand the Quran according to their traditions, which are in a big contradiction with the Quran. As a result, they distort its meaning and its terms to support their previous inherited dogmas. Then they support their vision by adding the sayings that they attribute to the prophet Mohammed, some centuries after his death. The sayings that Mohammed himself died knowing nothing about them. Those traditions in many parts illustrate the real images of the fanatic Muslims, but in the same time it proves the big gap between them and Islam, as it was revealed in the Quran, and practiced by the prophet Mohammed during his life, and some years after his death.
It was planned to give a comparison between Islam and the fanatic Muslims in the realm of democracy, proving how the Quran makes democracy one of its aspects of faith, culture, and its daily rituals. And how Muslim’s rulers distorted all of this, in their history and in the religious tradition invented for them, and how they changed the Quranic democracy to be a religious dictatorship in the name of Islam. It was planned also to make this fundamental research the key to amend the Egyptian Constitution to be more democratic, from this Islamic perspective.
Such a research needs enough time, old scriptures and text books all of them are in Arabic and not available here in the U S, so I have to limit this research in its first chapter on the Quran; the only resource of Islam, and the divine scripture that anyone can recognize Islam through it if he reads it according to its code, its idioms, and its terminology. From the Quranic verses this research tries to provide the Islamic democracy as it is mentioned in the Quran, and as it was applied in the time of the prophet Mohammed.
This Quranic research not only discovers an absent Islamic fact, but it also discloses how the fanatics Muslims have abandoned the Quran and its commandments. Among these commandment is democracy or ‘Al Shura’ in the Quranic terminology.
The second chapter gives a brief history of the Arabs tribes, and democracy, from their early history before Islam to our current time. Then it tries to predict some of the aspects of their future in this century, calling to adopt democracy in Muslim Arab World, to solve the international problem after the attack of September 11, 2001.
Finally, the book gives an out line of its Quranic and historic facts and suggestions to apply democracy in the Arab Muslim World.
December, 11, 2002
PREFACE
Sometimes, it needs to forget the Arabic word (Islam), because the fanatic Muslims have given Islam a notorious name. But in any language and in any time, Islam as a religion means submission to the One God, and to be a peaceful in dealing with the people. Simply, it is ‘Submission to God and Peace.’ We can use this term ’S, P’ instead of the Arabic word ‘Islam.’ ‘S,P’ is the core of the religion of God ;which was revealed to all the prophets in many languages in ancient times, then the final divine message was revealed to the seal of the prophets ‘Mohammed ’to confirm the previous divine Messages. This final message;’ the Quran’ has pronounced in the Arabic language.
According to the Quran, God wants all the people to believe in Him alone, the only God, and to submit themselves to Him only, to their real Lord, but He gives them the total freedom of choice to believe or to disbelieve, to obey Him or to disobey Him. They will be questioned by God only on the Day of Judgment concerning their belief and deeds. No one in this world has the authority to judge any one on his belief, because this belongs to God alone in the last day.
According to the Quran also, any believer, or any Muslim is the one who is dealing with the people peacefully, and people trust him, regardless of his inner faith, religion, and sect. The society has the authority to punish any one who violates the peace.
In his life, Mohammed was commanded to obey and to apply the commandments of the Quran, (6:50,106) (7:203) (10:15,109) (33:2) (45:18) (46:9).Al Shura ,or democracy was one of these commandments which was applied by the prophet Mohammed when he was persecuted in Mecca ,and when he was the leader of the Islamic state of Al Madina .
After the death of Mohammed, his Arabic tribe, {Quraysh} had used the name of Islam to invade and to occupy countries in Asia, Africa and in Europe, where the dynasties of {Quraysh} had ruled that middle aged empire for 650 years. During this Arabic Muslim Empire, Muslims for many reasons invented their religious traditions, which they ascribed to God and His Messenger.
The hardest line of those middle aged tradition was the Hanabela Sunni tradition, which has been revived under the new doctrine, named “Al Wahabeyya’ of the Saudi kingdom. Al Wahabeyya is the practical religion of the current fanatic Muslims. Accordingly, the real commandments of the Quran were abandoned.
In such a religious middle-aged authoritative empires, Al Shura or democracy was the first absent commandment. There are thousands of the Arabic-Muslim scriptures written in Muslim traditions, every one of them claimed to depend on the Quran, but nothing of them mentioned the Quranic verses that clarify the democracy, or Al Shura.
More over, they defined Al Shura to be one aspect of dictatorship, where the ruler may consult the elders around him, just like the Egyptian Pharaoh used to do; they call those elders ‘Ahl Al Hal wa Al akd.’ It means the people who could decide the affairs, but the ruler has a total freedom to consult them or not. In the same time, he is not accountable before any one, only before God on the last day, when God will ask him about his subjects. They call the ruler ‘Al Ra’ey.’ It means the ‘Grazer’, and they call the people ‘Al Ra’eiah’, it means the cattle. It is not only distorting the Quranic commandment of democracy, but it also disobeying the Quran that forbids believers from using that specific Arabic word in dealing with themselves (2:104)(4:46).
Al Khalifah or the religious empire has the total authority to kill any one of his subjects or cattle. There is a famous verdict in the Sunni tradition said: ‘The Imam’ means the religious ruler’ has the right to kill the third of the subjects [Al Ra’eyah] to reform the other two thirds.’ The fanatics celebrated this middle-aged verdict in Egypt in 1990’s. So, I do not use the past tense here, because the fanatic trend has revived this middle-aged culture of dictatorship, as their own understanding of Al Shura.
According to that middle aged religious culture the Saudi kingdom was built, and by its finance, the fanatic culture of Al Wahabeya represents Islam, the religion of peace, justice, freedom of belief and democracy!
The Saudi regime understands Al Shura, or the Islamic democracy, as their absolute right to monopolize the power and the authorities for their own family only. That’s why they give the kingdom their own family name, as it used to be in the dark middle aged culture, and rule it the same way the dark middle aged tyrant used to rule, under the name of Al Shura.
The term of democracy has many applications, some of them misuse the meaning of democracy, let‘s remember the democratic state of the Eastern Germany, in the time of the Soviet Union. Shura also has been misused to be an aspect of the religious dictatorships.
Originally, both Shura and democracy mean the right of the people to rule themselves by themselves on the base of power; it means people have and assume the power, and they use the ruler to serve them in the way that is designed by the people.
Society is the realm of democracy or the cattle of the dictatorship. Power is the factor that determines the winner, the people or the dictator. In the west, people struggled hard for centuries to free themselves, and to assume the power, or to be democratic. If this is understandable in the case of democracy, it needs a clarification in the case of Al Shura.
Although Arabs and Muslims have the Quran, the guidance for democracy and human rights, they have a very poor historic experience in the realm of democracy. It is only the time of the prophet Mohamed [23 years]; in front of [1400 years] most of it is the history of dictatorship, which has its religious culture, in the name of Islam. The western scholars could have their democratic history, and democratic tradition, but the Muslim scholar has only the Quran and some lines in the Muslim long history. He has to prove for the fanatic Muslims that the Quran advocates democracy, freedom of belief, justice and peace.
Islam has these high values before the western culture. Some of these values were practiced by some righteous Muslim rulers some years in different eras after the prophet Mohammed. Those righteous rulers were fair and just dictators during the dark middle ages. They were inspired by some Quranic verses, but they had not the complete Quranic system of the high values which were applied in the time of the prophet Mohammed. Their history could be used as base of a recent reform movement, but the Saudi Wahaby doctrine control the Islamic field, confiscating any other discourse that try to prove the Islamic culture of Al Shura or democracy, and other high values, which are now upheld by the western culture. As a matter of fact, the western culture of high values is nearer to Islam which is against the fanatic terrorist trends. However, when I use the term of Al Shura, it is the Islamic democracy.
CHAPTER ONE
DEMOCRACY IN ISLAM
The Islamic Democracy in the Holy Quran.
Democracy is one detail of the Islamic Values in the Quran.
It needs an Islamic society, an Islamic Culture, and an Islamic faith and rituals.
It has also its process and its own history, which is mentioned in the Quran; the only book of Islam.
Let’s try to read this in the Quran.
Democracy is only one aspect of the Islamic Society; the other aspects are justice, freedom of speech and belief, peace, and human rights.
In fact, the term of ‘Islamic Society’ means that high values, any society uphold these values, in any time, any place, and in any language is an Islamic Society. Democracy is one of these values.
As we are talking about Islam in this regard, let’s forget the Muslim dictators, and fanatic Muslims, knowingly the contradiction between their deeds and Islam.
Aspects of the Islamic Society/Values: -
Equality and freedom:-
1-Equality among different races, and cultures:
In the Quran God said :( O people, we have created you from a male and female, and we made you into nations and tribes to recognize each other. Verily, the most honorable of you with God is the most righteous. God is the All Knowing, All Cognizant.’[49:13]
It means, all of us belong to one father,’ Adam’ and one mother, ’Eve’, but God makes us different races and different cultures to recognize each other not to fight each other, to utilize from this plurality, to enrich each other, not to confiscate each other. As we belong to the same father and mother we are equal in this life, but in the Day of Judgment, the best of us is the righteous, the real believer who uphold the divine values of peace, justice, freedom of belief and human rights.
In this life no one –according to the Quran- has the right to claim himself to be a righteous, or to exalt himself. God said:’ and do not exalt your selves, He [God] is fully aware of the righteous.’[53:32] this verse prevents the use of religion as a means of living, and power. Only God is the one who know the secrets of the hearts, and He is the only one who will judge us according to our deeds in this life. That will happen only in the Day of Judgment. So, in this life we are equals, as a brothers and sisters belong to the same parent.
2-Equality and justice between male and female; - God in the Quran confirms the equality between man and woman, in the creation, in the responsibilities, and on the Day of Judgment [3:195] [4:124] [16:97] [40:40].
In the realm of marriage, the Quranic laws state the justice along with the equality. {The details in my unpublished book: ‘the rules of woman between the Quran and the Sunny laws’}But the Islamic democracy confirms the right of woman as the half of the society. Muslim women and Muslim men should be active together in advocating the high values and forbidding the bad. [9:71]
3- Equality between the different religions; -The Islamic society means the total freedom of belief and speech, and the right of every one to advocate his own ideas in a peaceful way without insulting any one in his belief, or in his personality. In this society every peaceful one is Muslim, regardless of his belief. It includes even the atheist who denies the God; because it is his freedom of choice, and God will judge him and all of us in the last day. It’s the right of God only. But the right of the individual in the Islamic society is to enjoy peace, justice, and freedom of belief and speech, so every peaceful one is Muslim. The society here identifies any one by his manner, as his practical religion, if he is a faithful, honest, peaceful, generous, decent, polite, then he is the best Muslim, regardless of his faith or sect or religion. If he is an aggressor, aggressive, killer, liar, deceitful, thief, then he is a criminal, disbeliever or infidel according to his bad deeds.
Strong Peaceful society:-
The Quranic word ‘Islam’ means peace and the total belief in the one God. The one who submits his life to the one God, and lives in peace. [6:161 to 163][2:208][4:94].The Arabic word ‘Iman’: [belief] means the total belief in the One God, and being trusted by the people. [9:61][6:82] [26:47-49-111].
The peaceful one, who believes in the One God and is trusted by the people because of his good deeds, is the winner in the Day of Judgment. The one who is peaceful and is trusted by the people but does not believe in God, the society considers him a believer and Muslim according to his deeds. As for his religion or faith it is his freedom of choice, and his responsibility before God in the last day.
The one who violates the others rights, in life, in wealth, in honor, in security is considered a disbeliever or infidel, because of his bad deeds, and should be punished according to his crime against the individuals, or according to his deeds, not his belief.
The society has the right to judge you if you violate its peace and security. The peace and the security of the society mean the peace and security of all his members. But the society or any human authority has no right to judge any one in the realm of belief and thoughts. This belongs to the One God alone in the day of resurrection. Actually, Islam is a secular religion which has no religious authorities in its state.
The Islamic state has the right to defend itself when another state attacks it; it has the right to retaliate equivalently, but not to start fight against the others. God says ’You shall fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not aggress, for God does not love the aggressors’ [2:190}’...If they attack you, you may attack them to inflict an equivalent retribution.’[2:194]
To maintain peace in front of the enemy, the Islamic State should have a strong army. Once it has such a strong army, the Aggressor State will refrain from attacking the peaceful strong Islamic State. If the enemy asks for peace, the Islamic state should respond to the peace, trusting in God alone. [8:60-62] this means the strong army here is to keep peace, and to prevent the bloodshed of the human beings, including those of the aggressor state itself.
Human rights between the Islamic society and its individuals
In the dictatorships, the ruler owns the society, and all rights are exclusively for him. He has rights more than the free society has. He gives some of them to the people around him. Every one outside his elders and servants has no rights. Any one who does not confirm his loyalty to the dictator is considered suspected until he will be proven guilty.
In the free democratic society, the confusion between the rights of the individual and the rights of the society has been solved. Although this problem was solved also in the Quran, fourteen centuries ago, but Muslim traditions has ignored it in the middle ages.
Most of Muslims today believe that Islam is the religion of the great values, but they can not prove it, while the fanatics uphold the middle-aged tradition and its culture of tyranny, because they believe themselves to be the chosen ones to rule their people by the name of God and Islam. As they monopolize the name of God and Islam for themselves, they are against the western democracy, dooming it as the rule of Satan, [Taghout], while they are the representatives of God and His religion, and the owner of the absolute truth.
This effective dominating fanatic religious culture has alienated the old Quranic facts that not only stated the human rights, in the middle dark ages, but also balanced between the rights of the individual and the rights of the society.
Until now, we can recognize this balance as if it’s revealed to us today.
How does the Quran balance between the rights of the society, and the rights of the individual?
There are five rights in this regard: the right of: Justice, freedom, wealth, security, and power.
Justice: -
According to the Quran, justice is the aim, and the target of all the divine messages revealed from God to the prophets. [57:25] [16:90].Muslim and the Islamic state must apply justice in dealing with relative, and with enemies; the peaceful enemies or the aggressor enemies. [4:135] [5:8] [60:8] [2:194].
As its main duty, the Islamic state must apply the complete justice in its courts, [4:58] [42:15] [2:282] [65:2] and in its fields of trade and commerce, [2:282] [6:1520 [55:8-9]. The Islamic state must uphold justice in the international conflicts. [49:9] [60:8] Muslim must apply justice inside his family. [4:3]
More over, The Quran considers the 99% of justice is wrong; According to the Quranic terms, there is a difference between two Arabic Quranic words,’ Al mokseteen’ and ‘Al kaseteen’ The first word means people who uphold 100% of justice, so God loves them[5:42] [49:9] [60:8],the other word means the people who mostly apply justice, but not 100%,so God will through in hell, in the last day.[72:15]. As a result, the individual inside the Islamic society has the absolute right in justice.
God has created us and this universe just to test us. [11:7]Then He will destroy this entire universe, and will create a new world for the Day of Judgment, [14:48-] where He will question us about our deeds and belief in this life, before death.
To be effective trial on that day we must have the total freedom of choice. So God has created us free minded, we have the total freedom to believe or not ,to love or to hate, to say whatever we want to say ,do whatever we want to do. Moreover, the Quran confirm this freedom of belief or unbelief, freedom of obey or disobey, and we will be responsible for our deeds and thoughts. {17:107] [18:29] [41:40]
Moreover, the Quran forbids the compulsion in the religion of Islam [2:256] and said to the prophet Mohammed:( and if your Lord willed, those on earth would have believed, all of them together. So, will you then compel people, until they become believers?) [10:99]
Moreover, God will forgive those who forget, or were forced to do wrongly, or mistake unintentionally, [2:286] [16:106] [33:5].
It is not the state mission to guide the people to the right path, because it is a personal responsibility, the Quran usually confirms that fact. [28:56] [10:108] [17:15] [27:92] [39:41] [3:20] [6:104].
Actually it is against justice itself to judge the human being concerning his belief or thoughts, because the judge in the court, either against this belief or has the same belief, in the same situations he will be with or against; he will not be just at all. The Islamic state has to insure the total freedom of belief and speech for every one, because the individual has an absolute right in freedom of belief and speech.
He has the right to preach his own religion, to advocate his own thoughts, but not to insult the others in their beliefs [6:108] [25:72] [23:3] [28:55] [29:46] or to insult the others in their personality, he should be punished if he accuses the innocent people without prove.[24:4-5]
The Wealth.
Originally, the wealth belongs to the creator, the One God, He provides all the resources of the earth for all the generations, and He made these resources in an equal opportunity for all the seekers. [41:10]
As for the Islamic society, it owns the resources and the properties of its land; it’s an absolute right of the society. But it’s a relative right of any individual to own, and to exploit it according to his abilities, efforts, and endeavors, because it increases the wealth of the society. If he is fool enough to destroy his property, the society has the right control it instead of him, and sponsoring him. It’s the same case of the young rich orphan, he must be tested until he attains puberty, if he is found majority, and it will be his right to run his properties. During his childhood the society must handle his properties by an appointed guardian. This guardian is accountable before the authority of the Islamic society. [4:5-6]
It means the society has the absolute right in the wealth, but it is for the individual, unless he is not a fool or young minor, if he is a fool or minor, the society invests his wealth for him, keep it to his heirs, sponsors him, and treats him amicably. If he has majority, he has the right to seek the wealth and happiness as he likes, [11:3] [67:15]
The poor and the needy are sponsored by the society and by any one who is able to give ‘Zakat’, or alms. There are two kinds of charity, one which is collected by the state, as a tax, the other is what the individual gives in the cause of God. [9:60] [2:215].
In all cases, the poor, the needy, and deprived, have their own right in the wealth of the society, [17:26] [30:38] [6:141] [51:19] [70:24].
In the same time, the Quran forbids the monopoly of the society’ wealth by few monopolists, [59:7], because they will control the power and the state instead of the majority of the people. In such a case, the society will be divided into two classes, the greatest majority of the people, who are poor, needy and deprived, in front of the few richest monopolists, who are very luxurious. The Quran makes this case a sign of the destroying the society, [17:16] Also see [23:33] [21:13] [11:116] [34:34] [43:23] [56:45] [23:64].
The Quran warns people from such a case, calling the Islamic society to give the rights of the poor; otherwise they will destroy their society. [2:195]
This Quranic fact is a real historic fact, not only in the Muslim history, but also in the modern western history. [Do you remember the late communists?]
The society has the absolute right of security, so it has to prepare a strong army to defend its homeland. The security of the society includes the security of every peaceful individual of the society; this peaceful person has also an absolute right of security. [6:82]. the society has to prepare another force to protect the peaceful people, and to insure the security inside the homeland. The crime against any peaceful person is a crime against the society. In the same time, the criminals have relative rights of security, according to their deeds, under the enforcement of justice.
As for the dictator, all the troops are to maintain his security, and to defend him, or his regime, because his personality represents the society, the nation, and the homeland. That is why he monopolizes all the power, all the authorities, and all the influences. The people are just his assets, or the lebensraum, the living room, the living space in which he assumes his authorities. This is about the dictatorship, what about the democracy?
What is the relationship between the right of [having] the power and democracy or dictatorship?
Shura or Democracy means the society owns the power, and assumes its authorities according to its rules, and its benefits. It‘s the strong society.
If the society is helpless, all the powers are owned by the ruler who becomes a dictator, who represents the people, and the homeland. Any one opposes him will be accused to be a traitor.
When the society has some power, the dictator has to fabricate some kinds of false democracy; he may rigs the elections, creates some self maid opposition, and makes his own parliament. This is the usual democratic reform of the despotic regimes. To change this false democracy, the society has to struggle more to win more power that may enable it to get a real democracy, which means all the powers are exclusively to the society, not to one human being of that society. This is the stance of power between the democracy and the dictatorship, and this is what the Quran explains in the story of the Egyptian Pharaoh of the prophet Moses, and the history of the final prophet Mohammed.
Pharaoh of Egypt in the time of Moses declared himself the owner of Egypt, its kingdom, its rivers, its troops, and its people [43:51]. That what we can understand from the Quran about him. This was proven by the modern discoveries made by the Egyptology of the time of the Ra’amsises, when the pharaoh used to monopolize the wealth, the troops, and the total authority.
The Quran has its unique description of the personality of that tyrant, and how his elders were just an echo to his sound saying to him what he wanted to say. As the teacher of all the dictators after him, pharaoh said to his people asking them to kill Moses: ‘Let me kill Moses, and let him implore his Lord. I fear lest he alters your religion or spread corruption on the earth.’... .’ I show you only what I see [right] and what I see is the only way of guidance’. [40:23-29]. Killing the prophet of God is the pharaonic guidance; It’s the same culture of all the dictators after him in dealing with the peaceful reformers.
As a result of his dictatorship, he lost his life, his kingdom, and his people, to be a reminder and admonition for the generations after him. This is what God said frankly to us about pharaoh in his story in the Quran: [3:11] [8:52] [38:12] [50:13] [28:38-41] [40:36-37] [10:92] [43:56].
More over ,God repeated his story in the Quran more than the stories of many prophets,[7:103-141][8:52-54][10:75-92][11:97-99][14:6][17:101-103][20:9-97][23:45-48][26:11-68][27:7-14][28:3-42][29:39-40][40:23-46][43:46-56][44:17-31][51:38-40][66:11][79:17][85:18]
It’s so clear that the Quran confirms that the society should undertake the power instead of one person, because that person will be another pharaoh, who will destroy himself, and his country, and may be his people. This is usually happens in countries, where the people recite the Quran, by day and night, but unfortunately, they do not understand what the Quran says about pharaoh, or even what the Quran says about the seal of the prophets, Mohammed.
The fanatic Muslims believe that the ruler in Islam has his political authority from God, the same [divine right of kings] as it was in Europe in the Middle Ages. But the fanatic Muslims have their own idiom; ’Al Hakemeyya’ which is an Arabic word generated from its root word: ’Hokm’ which means the rule, or the governance. The term of’’Al Hakemeyya ‘means the right of the rule comes from God, not from the people, or the society. As a result, they consider the democracy to be disbelief in the One God, because it establishes the rule of the devils; Taghout’ on the earth, instead of the rule of God.
Did the prophet Mohammed as the ruler of Al Madina, get the right of rule from God?
If so, well, he was the one who was revealed by God, the seal of the prophets, and no prophet after him, so no one after him has the privileges the prophet Mohammed had in his life. That means the fanatics have no right to claim themselves the chosen people who should rule their people in the name of Islam.
But Mohammed as a ruler got the right of power and authority not from God, but from the people who established the state for him.
The prophet Mohammed had to escape from Mecca to’ Yathreb’ because of the severe persecution. Yathreb has become ‘Al Madina,’ means the civilized city, which was the first capital of the new –and the last- Islamic state in Muslim history. [There is a difference between the ‘Islamic state’ and the Muslim state]
The believers of the new religion immigrated to Al Madina, where they together with the believers of Al Madina, established the new state for the prophet Mohammed to protect him and themselves from the continuous persecution of Quraysh, the tribe of the prophet Mohammed, which was the leader tribe of all the Arabs in religion, trade, and in power.
The elders of Quraysh were against the prophet Mohammed because his religion is against worshipping other idols beside God, and the leadership of Qurysh was based on idolizing the saints and their sacred tombs and statues. Because of that religious business they refused Islam, although they admitted it as the guidance. [28:57]
Al Madina was the shelter that protected the prophet from his ardent enemies. This shelter had to be a state, not alike any state, but an Islamic state in which the prophet by himself used to apply the revelation of the Quran, to establish the great values of justice, peace, freedom, and democracy or Al Shura, the values that were denied and rejected in that early middle ages.
However it is expected to such a state to vanish quickly, because it was against the dominant culture of tyranny and misusing the religion of God to serve the political and commercial affairs. This culture was upheld by Quraysh, in the Arab desert, and by the two super powers in that time; the Romans and the Persians.
It’s also expected that Quraysh, the tribe of the prophet Mohammed, and his ardent enemy, will inherit the new state after converting to Islam to serve its own interest. That’s exactly what happened after the death of the prophet.
The democratic state of the prophet was changed to be a military tribal dictatorship in the dynasty of the Qurayshy family named ‘Al Omaweyyeen’ about thirty years only after the death of the prophet. The Qurayshy family ‘Al Abbaseyeen’, was the next dynasty, who established the religious dictatorship which lasted 526 years. In this religious empire, the Muslim traditions were written, to respond to middle-aged religious culture of tyranny and fanatics. That tradition became the practical religious teachings in the following dynasties, the Mameluks and the Ottomans. Then, the fanatic trend in our time believes in it as the real Islamic teachings, which should be applied.
It’s also expected to forget about the young old Islamic democratic state of the prophet Mohammed after 14 centuries of the dictatorships, it dominant culture, and thousands of traditional scriptures, all of them ignored the Quranic verses which indicate and explain the value of democracy. It’s only because God has guarded the Quran, [15:9] we can prove the democratic aspects of the Islamic state, and prove the contradiction between it and the Muslim state of the fanatics.
Prophet Mohammed, the leader and the ruler of the state of Al Madina, got the right of rule and governance not from God, but from the people around him, the society that protected him, insured his safety, and defended him against his enemies. This society is his resource of power and authorities.
God said to him in the Quran, “And because of the mercy of God that you treated them compassionately. Had you been harsh and hardhearted, they would have broken away from about you. Therefore, you shall pardon them, ask forgiveness for them, and consult them in the matter. Once you reach a decision, then carry it out, putting your trust in God, God loves those who trust in Him.”[3:159].
It means God made him deal with them gently, to get their sincere loyalty. If he was not so, they would have abandoned him. If they abandoned him, he would lose their power and protection, and became homeless and helpless in front of his enemies.
This is the way that the Quran confirmed to the prophet his need to the people or the society of Al Madina. The Quran made it a mercy from God that He made the prophet so kind to them to win their power for the new state.
It’s not only to be gentle in treating them, but also he had to forgive them if they insult him, and consult them in every matter as they were the strength that would carry out that matter, by the trust in God. The prophet who was revealed by God was ordered by God to consult the society, not to ask the answer from God. Consulting is the literal meaning of the Arabic word: ’Al Shura’, but this Quranic term means the prophet himself as a ruler, had to share all the people in decision making in any matter. Not to decide any thing by the divine revelation, or by himself, or by the advice of some elders around him. He had to consult all the people, all the society; the rich and the poor, the high class and the low class, the educated and the uneducated.
In such a democratic case, some of them might insult the prophet, but he has to forgive them, because it is the right way to teach them and to purify them.
It was his mission to teach them and to purify them as a messenger, as a leader and ruler. [2:151-129-][3:164][62:2].
Al Shura or the Islamic democracy was the school in which the Muslims around the prophet Mohammed were taught and purified in continuous sessions that were held in the mosque of Al Madina, and attended by all the believers. This process confirmed to them that they were the real owner of the state, and the resources of the authorities.
That’s why they were a small group, but they finally defeated all the enemies around them, including the mighty tribe ‘Quraysh’ itself.
The Arab nomads were naturally rebellious, and the Arab settled tribes were hardly aware of that kind of the state that established by the prophet Mohammed. It was impossible to such a state surrounded by enemies, from inside and outside, to survive, it was more impossible to it to defeat its enemies. It’s easer in our time to sacrifice the democracy and justice in the emergency situations, but in the time of the prophet Mohammed, democracy and justice were the reason of strength, security and victory.
This unique democracy has its own miracle, which is mentioned in the Quran. The Quran said that God made the hearts of the believers united around the prophet Mohammed, and it was impossible for Mohammed, as human being, to make this by himself. [8:63].
This miracle could be understood if we imagine those believers around the prophet, enjoying his kindness, care, and nobleness, feeling that they own the state in the presence of the leader, who- in their sight- is greater than any king. In that case, they must be united around him, because his kingdom is theirs. This is the grace of God, that He made the prophet treat them gently, and ordered him to apply Al Shura, or democracy.
We can say it’s the miracle of democracy itself that changed the Arabic notorious rebellious hearts, tamed them to be united in such a way that enabled them to defeat all their enemies.
One can argues that it was a specific unique case, not accessible in our time, because it belongs to the prophet Mohammed, and his course of teachings which are no longer exist.
Actually, the Muslim tradition, which written two and more centuries after the prophet’s death, ignored all the real history of the prophet which included his weekly Friday speech, and his continuous teachings in the[ Majalis] or meetings or assemblies, and its activities, although the Quran referred to them.[58:8-13][4:114].
Surely, the Muslim tradition ignored the Mohammed’s real teachings, but The Quran has the original culture of democracy, which its real miracle is in its validity for any time after Mohammed.
The roots of the democratic culture in Islam
[The culture of power and justice]
The strong society is the one who maintains his power, assumes his authorities, and rules himself by himself through a rulers and executives, who are servants of the people, not the masters of them, and accountable before the society, or its representatives. In this society, all the military forces belong to the society, and so are the rulers and the governors. This is the democratic society.
The helpless society is the one that usually produces the dictators; or it is the society that enables any average president to be dictator controlling every thing, because the people usually are subject themselves to any ruler. Whatever the ruler is, or he was, they obey and submit to him.
The difference between the strong society and the helpless one is in only one thing; the culture. The helpless society has his culture of cowardliness, fearfulness, passiveness, negative ness, laziness, hypocrisy, dissimulation, and subservience. It’s easy for any one or any people to have this culture, if they accept it as a way of life.
But it’s hard to uphold the culture of power, because it needs a struggle and sacrifice. The struggle begins inside the person himself to choose the honorable way of life, and then he will be ready to sacrifice for this choice.
Struggle and sacrifice are not the favorite words in the helpless society, it usually prejudges the freedom fighters, believing what the dictator said about them, accusing them to be trouble makers, but when the freedom fighters take over the state, the helpless society changes its loyalty to the new regime, encouraging the new leaders to be dictators. This society is actually enslaved not by the dictators, but by his own culture that encourages any one to be a tyrant, not only the president, but also any official in this regime. In the democratic society, the officials are servants of the people, and act in that way; serving the people with smile. But in the tyrant regimes the officials usually mistreat the public because their loyalty is to the dictator, not to the people. More over, he considers the people in his field to be his servants or his subjects, in the same way the people themselves think about themselves.
This culture of bondage should be changed from inside the society itself.
This is the mission of the peaceful freedom fighters who will suffer in their struggle to advocate the values of peace, justice, freedom of belief and belief, and all human rights. It may be difficult to make such a change in only one generation, unless it’s sponsored by the regime itself. As if we imagine in our dream that there is a dictator decides to change his life to be democratic. Then he needs to change the culture of his people, using all the powers and all the methods he has to change the people peacefully from inside.
Most of the human history belongs to the tyranny rulers, not to the democratic rule. That’s why the culture of tyranny is engraved inside the human memory. It has begun in ancient Egypt, when the gangs controlled the villages, then the strongest gangs controlled the provinces, making them states, after some centuries, there were two big provinces in ancient Egypt, one in the south, and the other in the north, then the southern leader conquered the northern one, and united Egypt in one kingdom under the rule of the biggest gangster, or the biggest king; the pharaoh.
It’s the same story in the European history; the gangs that were changed to be feudatories beside the king or the biggest gangster, and their struggle among each other, then the appearance of the middle class and its culture which brought the modern secular democratic state after centuries of wars and bloodshed.
In many historic cases, tribes from desert and/or planes of Asia conquered the cultivated lands, under the name of religion and/or the motive of hunger, establishing a mighty empires that enslaved the helpless nations, intensifying and deepening the culture of bondage more and more in their soul, especially when they linked it in religion, as it happened in the Muslim world.
This makes the Muslim case different from the western case, not only because the eastern tyranny is justified by the practical religion, but also because this religion of Islam is controlling all the aspect of life, including the political affairs which were easily changed to conform and/or confirm the prevalent culture of bondage. In the western case, the Christianity as a religion is separated from the world of politics, enjoying their own sacred kingdom, so it was easy to the western freedom fighters to call for the separation between the state and the church.
After they neutralized the church, it became easier to the western intellectuals to change the people culture to be in harmony with the democratic ideology. It was easer to them to concentrate on this practical life, forgetting the kingdom of God, and all the religious traditions, to invent a peaceful compromise in which all the competing powers have their chance to rule according to the will of the people, or the elections.
But it’s still a dilemma in the Muslim world where there are two active different trends, the strongest fanatic religious trend, whose slogans are in harmony with the dominant desires of the masses, and the weaker secular trend which is influenced by the western culture, and is fond of its leaders, calling for the total separation between state and the religion of Islam, in a manifest defiance to the religious belief of the people. The fanatic trend knows how to influence the masses by the Islamic slogans, without saying how to apply these mottoes in the real life. This fanatic trend killed the secular leader of Egypt;”Farag Fouda” in 1992, because he kept asking them: how could you apply your slogan of Islam is the solution? The assassination of Farag Fouda was their real answer of their motto’: Islam is the solution’
The terrorist crimes committed by this trend make the Muslim masses more confused. Most of those people are peaceful and against the culture of terrorism, and have the belief that Islam is the religion of high values, but they are confused between the religious teachings of the fanatics who control the education, the media and the mosques, in one hand, and the secular liberal trend and its western arguments in another hand. Those people are against the ‘westernism,’ and against the ‘alienation ‘of Islam in its home, under any justification. They believe in their independent eastern Islamic old civilization, and very proud of it. They want to listen to a discourse of human rights, democracy, and justice, but not from the western fathers of enlightenment but from inside Islam, while the two main trends- the fanatics and the seculars- are unable to produce such a discourse, more over , they are together against that discourse, for different reasons.
The Arabic secular trend is reluctant of every Islamic discourse, even if that Islamic discourse upholds democracy, justice, peace and human rights. Its call for the total separation between Islam and the state ignores the difference between Islam and Christianity, and the different circumstances of the west society and the Muslim peoples.
This dilemma could be solved in the guidance of the Quran; God said in the Quran about the people who follow the Quran and the people who follow the previous scriptures ’Torah, and Gospel’:” To each of you We have prescribed a law and a clear way, If God had willed, He would have made you one nation, but He may test you in what He has given you; so compete in good deeds.”[5:48] It means ,in spite of the different details, all the believers of the religion of God have the same values, and they should compete in doing the good deeds, which go with these high values of the religion.
As the majority of Muslims believe in Islam as the religion of the great high values, they could be easily convinced by the Quran, when they will be lectured by it, in a free society where every one has the freedom of belief and freedom of the speech. But what is going on is something else, The fanatic are imposing their tradition as the religion of Islam, by the help of the regime, who banns any other religious perspectives, or religious reform, to make the educated people more confused between the religious culture of terrorism and the secular culture that calls for westernization. That’s why the Muslim educated people and the masses do not know that Islam has its unique democratic culture which is different from the western democratic culture.
The Islamic democratic culture is peaceful, but in few years it changed the Arabs in the time of the prophet Mohammed, and made them a strong state and strong nation. But the western democratic secular culture has been generated from centuries of wars and bloodshed, from Magna Charta, to the world war two.
Could this Islamic democratic culture make another miracle in our century? Let’s recognize it firstly.
The Quran has its unique democratic culture.
In Islam, this culture is a part of its divine revelation ’the Holy Quran’, but it’s so simple and practical that any one can recognize it, and apply it if he wants.
Briefly; this democratic Islamic culture could be defined in four aspects:-
1-The Belief of the Day of Judgment.
The Quran confirms that whoever believes in the One god, and in the last day, and maintains the righteous deeds in this life, he will be the allies of God in the last day, whatever religion he belongs to, be a Jews, Christian, Muslim, or any one who revolts against the common religion.[2:62][5:69] In many verses the Quran calls all the humans to believe in the oneness of God and the last day; this is the real belief that makes the human being control himself by himself, to enter the kingdom of God, or to be the owner of the paradise. This belief should be reflected in his manner in this life, means to be a good decent person who upholds the great values of peace, justice, tolerance, and freedom. These are the target of all the good deeds which confirm the real belief.
The good deeds are misunderstood by the Muslim tradition and the current fanatic Muslim. They believe that they are only the four ritual commandments which are: the daily five prayers, the alms, the pilgrimage to the sacred Mosque in Mecca, and fasting the month of Ramadan. They think that any Muslim who makes these commandments will go to paradise whatever crimes he commits. So, you can see how the terrorists usually keep doing these four ritual commandments believing that they are the owners of the paradise whatever crimes they may commit.
More over, they believe in their Jihad as the top of all the ritual commandments, which means –according to their belief- killing the innocent peaceful people. In this regard, they believe in a fabricated [Hadeeth] or saying which they attribute to the prophet Mohammed, claiming that he said” I was commanded to fight all the people until they testify that there is no god but One God, and I am his messenger” This false Saying or [Hadeeth] is their religious justification in their religious culture of terrorism, which determines the compulsion in religion, forcing the other people to be Muslims or to be killed, makes this criminal deeds the highest degree of their good deeds.
According to the Quran, God said ”There is no compulsion in religion”[2:256] and guidance is personal responsibility, God said:” Whoever is guided, is guided for his own good; and whoever goes astray, does so to his own detriment. No burdened soul will bear the burden of another soul.”17:15]. Killing one innocent peaceful person is the most outrageous crime, because any peaceful one is a Muslim regardless of his religion, sect, cult or belief. This terrorist killer will be in Hell to abide therein, and has the wrath and the curse of God upon him, and suffer a great punishment forever, [4:93] this is one aspect of the gap between the Muslim terrorists and the Quran.
According to the Quran; all the real ritual commandments should be done, but they are not the aim or the end, they are just a means to the final aim, which is the righteousness or”AlTakwa” in Arabic language.[2:21-183- 196-197-263-] [22:30][29:45] .People who maintain righteousness in any time ,any place, any language, are the dwellers of the paradise for ever, in the last day.[3:15-133] [19:63-72][39:71-73]
This term:”Al Takwa” or: “righteousness’ in the Quran means to obey God, and to observe and fear Him, to do the good deeds, and to refrain the bad deeds to please Him. The good deeds are not only the four religious commandments, but it includes also any useful deed for the society, specially to be active in advocating the high values of justice, freedom of belief and speech, peace and tolerance.
All these values are including in the Quranic term’ advocating the good deeds and forbidding the denied deeds’ [Al Amr Bel Maarouf-Wal Nahy an Al Monkar], which is usually mentioned in the Quran. For example: [3:104-110-114] [7:157] [9:71-112] [16:90] [22:41] [31:17].
Although it’s a great Islamic value to advocate the good and to forbid the evil, yet the Quran makes it just an advice, not to force any one to do or not to do it, [26:214-216] [16:125-128]. Also the Quran makes it a general commandment, any Muslims, male or female, should do it[103:1-3][9:71][3:103-104-105] not to be an authority for specific group that consider themselves higher than the other people; order the people to do good things , but no one can order them. [2:44] [60:2-3]
The fanatic Muslims violate this Quranic value when they claim themselves the chosen people among all Muslims to monopolize this commandment, and change it to be a kind of authority to force people to obey them in the name of Islam. More over, they expand the meaning of forbidding the evil or the denied to include the political regimes, to give themselves a religious justification to take over these regimes.
Actually they are active, but for their own purpose of power. Their activity is against the Islamic values of peace, tolerance, justice, and freedom of belief and speech. Their activities are responsible for killing thousands of innocent peaceful people around the world, inside and outside the Muslim world, besides tarnishing the image of Islam.
The real Muslim who believes in the Day of Judgment makes his activities to win in the test of the last day, by upholding the great values in a peaceful way, not to subject the people in this life for his ego. God says in the Quran about the paradise and its owners in the last day:” That home of the Hereafter, We shall assign to those who do not want exaltedness in the earth nor they want corruption. And the good end is for the righteous” [28:83]. In the dictatorships and/or the fanatic oppositions, you find the two aspects of corruption and the exaltedness by the power and against the human rights, justice and tolerance. Middle East is one example of this case which is mentioned in the Quran.
Real Muslim in his activities for the high values is respectable in the society of the high values, but he will be a persecuted when he lives in the other society, where he will be a victim to the tyrant and the religious fanatics together. As a Muslim, his real home is these great values, so he is ordered by the Almighty God in the Quran to immigrate when the persecution prevents his mission in his home land. He has to find another home that enables him to practice his values. It’s hard to leave your own country, but the Quran says reminding the believer of the last day: “Oh my servants, who believe, my earth is spacious, so worship me alone. Every one will taste the death, then, to us you will be returned.”[29:56-57]. surely, this life is short, and we will leave this world sooner or later, so we must devote this short life in a fruitful useful deeds. If the persecution waists this short life in our home land we must try to activate it in another place, because the earth is spacious while the age is short. It’s a real consolation for any active Muslim suffers from homesick and nostalgia.
God promises to bless and help this activist in his difficulties. [4:100] [3:195] [16:41-42-110]. When he is able to immigrate but refuses to leave his country, God will punish him in the Hell. If he is unable to immigrate, God calls the righteous people to help him, [2:272-273]. If he is too weak to immigrate, God will forgive him. [4:97-99].Accordingly, the real Muslim must be active in advocating the high values to please God. He has no other way.
As he believes in God and the last day, he does not ask any price from the people in this world waiting the reward from God in the hereafter. All the messengers of God and the active believers were ordered in the Quran not to ask the people any pay; because their pay came from God. [25: 57][26: 109-127-145-164-180][36:21]. this is another difference between Islam and the fanatic Muslims, who are usually seeking for price. This includes the official religious people and the religious opposition. All of them are competing for the vanity of this life in the name of God and Islam, ignoring the belief in God and the Day of Judgment. Those people are cursed by God, and they will suffer the painful retribution. [2:159-160, 174-176][3:77-79]
It’s a big contradiction between this noble active believer and the fanatic terrorist activist. In his struggle in the cause of God and the day after, the peaceful active believer welcomes the persecution or death any time, expecting the rewards of God. When he gets old, he usually looks at his second life in a great hope in the eternal enjoyment. The others, have a live full of violence, and competition for the vanity of this life, under the name of God, by tarnishing His religion, while they have no real belief in God and His day of judgment. If they get old and useless, they feel they are loosing all what they had struggled for it in their past, and they will leave it by death. The death proves to them that this life alone is a big zero without the belief in God and in the last day.
2-The belief in the divine predestination: -
The divine predestination is a long controversial debate in the religious traditions of Muslims and Christians in middle ages. Therefore it has a strong relationship with the religious tyranny, which claims that whatever crime and wrong happens by the dictators, it is predestinated by God, and people have to accept what may happen to them, because if they oppose it, they actually oppose the predestination of God. This is the fatalism which means that every thing is done and controlled only by God, and the human being has no freedom of choice at all.
Muslin scholars of fatalism believed that the human being is just a feather in the wind, and what we imagine of our freedom of choice is just an illusion, which has nothing to do with the divine truth. This creed of fatalism was- firstly- sponsored by the Omawy Muslim Empire, to justify its tyranny and bloodshed. Then the Abbasy Empire encouraged this creed, and made it Muslim concept under the name of Sunna. While the religious political opposition of the Omawy Empire upheld another creed which believe in the human freedom of choice. In the Amway era, that opposition were tortured and branded to be the deniers of the Divine Ability of the One God, who controls every thing. In the Abbasy long educated empire, the creed of fatalism was improved, and adjusted by the Abbasy scholars to be the official creed of the empire under the name of “Ahl Al Sunna”. More over, Many “Hadeeths” or prophet’s sayings were attributed to the prophet Mohammed cursing the creed of the human freedom of choice, or “Al Kadariah” or the people who deny the possessing power of the One God. This creed of fatalism contradicts Islam because it destroys the freedom of choice which is the basic of the test on the Day of Judgment. One can simply argue; if God controls every thing including all the human criminal behavior, then why He will punish the criminals if they had no choice in this life?
According to the Quran; God has predestinated only four things for every human being in this world: his birth, his death, the crises and the sustenance. All these dimensions of every human being are belonging to The One God alone, and to His knowledge and His measure which are unknown to us. If we control those four dimensions, every one of us will have all what he needs; the longest happiest, richest healthiest life, and may be without death. Simply, every one wants to be millionaire, but every one is not a millionaire, even the millionaire of today he does not guarantee to be a millionaire for the next year or the next month. You may plan to go here and there, or to do some perfect thing, but you do not be sure of the result, because you are not alone in this world, and you do not control every thing in it. Your interest is interfering or contradicting with the others, who are different from you in their abilities, and attitudes. Finally, all the unexpected events are controlled by God, including the events that happen by us to us, or to inflict us. No one can avoid or change those four inevitable things of birth, death, crises, and sustenance.
God is the only One who shapes our features, defines our parents, and the date and the place of our birth. He is the only One who knows the time and the place of our death or killing, and our age in this life.[7 :11][3: 6][35 :11][41:47][13 :8][3 :154-158][4:78][62: 8][31: 34].
During this life, the sustenance for every alive being is prepared and guaranteed by God. Through different means, the alive beings are themselves included in these means.
This sustenance means the food and other things that keep the life inside the alive being until his death. It includes those means of living and their changes, and the changes that happen to the creature during his life, all of them are written in God’s eternal Book before this world.[11: 6][6: 151][17:31][29 :60]
Every misfortune, sickness illness, infectious disease, accident, calamity, and disaster is predestined by God before this world, so no one can harm or benefit you unless according to what was written before our lives.[9: 51][57: 22-23][64 :11]
The fatalism in Islam is limited in the realm of these four dimensions only; but this is not the only difference between the predestination of the Quran and the fatalism of the Sunni Muslim. In the Quran, no one knows the unseen, or what will happen in the future,[10:20][27:65]7:187-188][6:50][46:9] and every one has the total freedom to do what he wants to do, to think and believe what he wants to believe. Therefore, many people choose to disbelieve in The One God, while many other people add to the one God some gods according to their belief. What is usually happening in the realm of religions is the strongest prove that the human being has the total freedom of choice, not only in his secular life, but also in his religious life, even it’s against the will of God Himself. God Said in the Quran:”If you disbelieve, God is in no need of you, and He dislike for His servants disbelief. But if you are appreciative, then He is pleased for you. No one is responsible for anyone else’s sins. To your Lord is your final return; then He will inform you of every thing you did? He is fully aware of the innermost intentions.”[39:7].This is the total freedom of choice. In the same time, this human being does not know the unseen and what will happen in the future, therefore he decides and acts freely in his usual life, and faces these predestinations knowingly or unknowingly.
According to the Quran, any one is not responsible before God about these four predestinations, but every one is responsible before God about all his deeds beyond this limit, where he has the total freedom to obey or not, to believe or not, to do good deeds or bad deeds. As a believer one, he recognizes his freedom of choice, and in the same time he believes that God does not break His promises. This is a Quranic fact, repeated in the Quran. [2:80] [3:9] [13:31] [22:47] [30:6] [20:39]. So, any one can decide to be in the paradise if he chooses to believe in God alone and in the last day, and maintain the good deeds. This decision is up to the human, not to God, and God will fulfill His promise.
The believer should recognizes these facts, and acts accordingly. He should have all the courage, act bravely, obeying God, putting his trust in Him, because no one can harm him or benefit him unless according to what God has predestined to him before this life, and no one can kill him before or after the specific time and the condition of death predestined by God.
To outline the belief in the divine predestination and the belief in the day after, the believer one can say to himself: God created me and all the human beings to test us in the Day of Judgment. He brought me in this life and has predestined for me four thing: my birth[date, family and shape], my death[when, where and how],His providential sustenance for me, and the accidents and the crises that will happen to me in this life. In the Day of Judgment, I will not be questioned before God concerning those four predestinations, but I will be responsible for any deed beyond these four inevitable predestinations. Beyond them, no one can harm or benefit me in this life, while I have the total freedom to believe or to disbelieve, to be active in good or in bad, or to be inactive. According to my freedom of choice in this life I will be in Hill forever, or in the eternal paradise. As a believer, I know all the enjoyments of all the mankind in this world are not equal to one moment in the eternal paradise, while all the sufferings of all the creatures in this world are not equal to one moment in the eternal agony of the Hell. Therefore I have to answer the eternal two questions: Why am I here? What should I do to pass the test of my life? To answer these two questions perfectly, I must have a good belief in the one God and in the Day of Judgment, and to maintain the righteousness, and/or to uphold the great values, by advocating the good and forbidding the bad. In my active life for high values, I have nothing to fear, except God. [3:175], while the tyrants and the criminals are humans like me, but they are scared of their bad deeds. Their victims haunt them in their nightmares, they expect the retaliation, and they have to commit more crimes to prevent it. While they are servants and victims of their ego, I am only servant of The Lord of the universe, to feel this strong relationship between me and my Lord I have to control my ego, or to have self-restraint.
3- Self-restraint:-
The highest degree of freedom is to be free of your self, to control yourself and not to be addicted to any vices. If you commit any sin you question yourself, and quickly repent forbidding your self from doing it again. The weakness inside your self makes you lose the high values, and your duty to be active in their cause. But if you control your self no one can control you, or defeat you. The highest degree of activity is to have self discipline; it enables you to direct your life towards the highest values, serving them in this short time of your life, to win the eternity in the kingdom of God or the paradise in the last day.[79:40-41][91:7-8-9-]. This self-restrain clarifies your freedom of choice, which is the fourth aspect of the Islamic democratic culture.
4- Freedom of choice
It’s easy to disbelieve in God and the last day, and to be selfish, and inactive, but it’s difficult to be active in your belief, because it may need self sacrifice. However, it’s the only way to make our short life in this world respectable, and make this world better. Moreover; it gives you the salvation in the last day, when you win in the test of this life.
To believe or to disbelieve, it’s your freedom of choice, which is exclusively belongs to you only, not to God. God only confirms your choice; if you choose the guidance He gives you more guidance, if you choose the misleading He misleads you more. [19:75-76][47:17][2:10][29: 69][35:8]
It’s the same case in the political field. If the people recognize the dictator and submit themselves to his tyranny, God recognizes him as their ruler. That’s why God sent Moses to the pharaoh, and did not send him to the Egyptian people, who were owned by pharaohs. In another stories, the Quran recognized some ardent dictators as kings, because their people recognized them, and obeyed them, and did not revolt against them. [2:258][18:79].
God confirms justice as the main aim of all the divine messages. The mission of all the messengers of God was to guide people to maintain justice in their societies. As He descended the divine message of justice, He also descended the iron from the outer space to be a weapon in the struggle for justice, in the cause of God and His revelation, and He will see those who will struggle for him and his justice. [57:25]
It’s your freedom of choice to believe in God and His revelation, or to disbelieve. If you disbelieve in God, you will enslave your self to another fabricated gods, and/or many idols and vices, and you may be enslaved by tyrants and dictators, who will subject you to their tyranny for nothing. But this is your choice, and you will be questioned by God in the last day in this regard.
If you choose to believe in God, His holy messages, and His justice in the day after, you have to struggle to establish his justice in this life. This struggle begins with a peaceful ways, advocating the God’s high values, If you are persecuted to the degree of endangering your life, and your freedom of belief and speech, you must immigrate, if you are strong enough to defend your lives, and the freedom of belief and speech for all the people, then you have to fight by the iron to defend justice and freedom.