Democracy-Islam Isomorphism
Dr. Firdaus Kamalodeen
How much clearer can the issue of Democracy = Islam = Deen = Shari'ah be?
Finally, the world seems to be getting around to understanding this equation.
But notwithstanding those who haven't got a clue, it seems to me that the message is gaining traction, as it were, across the world. You get the impression that more people are embracing this axiom, this truth.
Wallahu yahdee man-yashaa'u ilaa sweeratin-mustaqweem: Allah guides whom he wants to a path that is straight.
It's amazing how people sit in the comfort of democratic societies, under the cover of all the privileges of a democratic society, some of whom escaped from tyrannical governments in their home countries, and seek to decry the process which will give the same privileges to those who reside in those other countries.
It's amazing how people turn towards the democratic societies in their time of crisis, as they should as that is democracy, and then seek to destroy, as it were, the very system that facilitates their existence.
But Islam, from where democracy actually came, no one seems to have any idea what it is, or what its relationship is to the democratic process, whose fruits these same people now so freely enjoy.
But the right to be an idiot, I guess, is also democracy. And that right also was given to men – and of course women – by their maker.
Even as Muslims seek to straight jacket and limit Islam to a religion, and even cult-like culture, at least in the last 30-50 years (it's been happening all along to his timetable as he wants) you are seeing visible signs of Allah's system gaining ground in so many parts of the world.
And notwithstanding the corruption and the myriad of failings of and in some of these societies, there are signs of growth, development, stability and prosperity in many of these countries. If we want examples, just look at Brazil and India.
Some say the real powerful signs are in Indonesia and Russia as these are a little more recent.
The bottom line is that in these places people's quality of life is better by any measurement you might choose to apply.
Those of us who live in “free societies” should not take Allah's blessings for granted. We must work to make the society a better place. That means we must move the society ever closer to the system and rights that are innate and ingrained in Islam.
That means that we must "take the Qur'an to every home and heart that needs it, and which one does not."
That starts with learning to read the Qur’an and then teaching the reading of the Qur'an to people; sharing translations of the Qur’an in the language of the people; and sharing the message of the Qur’an in the language of the people.
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