Democracy in Islam [Quote – 270]

“Democracy, people say, is “Government of the People, by the People.” At least that is how Abraham Lincoln defined it in his Gettysburg Address in 1963.

And that is a pretty good definition too. But is that all there is to democracy?

For too many people, democracy is a political theory or model.

But could it be more? The Qur’an tells us it is.

The Qur’an tells us that democracy is more – much, much more.

In fact, the Qur’an is nothing if not an elaborate manual of democracy.

That is why in Islam democracy is an entire way of life, and not just a political plank.

And that is what the Qur’an came into this world to teach us: How people should live their lives on earth in peace, amity and harmony.

Can you think of a better alternative? Brute force? Rabid tyranny? Endless mendacity? Eternal lying and deceiving?

Think for a moment of Thomas Jefferson’s oath: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility to all forms of tyranny over the mind of man.”

The Qur’an came to set our minds free. And to show us how people should conduct their business of living on earth through mutual talk, discussion, debate, respect, consultation, negotiation and give-and-take.

And how they – people that is – should do all that based on truth, justice, compassion, freedom and equality.

And based on something else, believe it or not, that the Qur’an refers to as “Non-Aggression.”

“And do not commit aggression,” says the Qur’an openly and bluntly.

And, also, based on something else, most people would not suspect even in their wildest dreams: total and unconditional renunciation of force and coercion in the persuasion process.

“There can be no coercion or force when it comes to dealing with people’s beliefs,” is how best I can paraphrase a passage in the Qur’an on that subject.

You want to hear the original words of the Qur’an? Here they are, and they are pretty clear and categorical. And so far as my limited knowledge goes, they are not duplicated anywhere else.

So here goes – the Qur’an: “Laa Ikraaha Fid-Deeni.”

So, democracy in Islam pertains not only to government and politics but to every single aspect of human life on earth – individual or collective; private, personal or public.

In sum, there is no better way to live life on earth than the divinely ordained way of democracy.

And its divinely mandated pillars of truth, honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability.

And that, in a word, is Islam.

That is because Islam is an interlocking system of rights – political rights; human rights; civil rights; economic rights; all kinds of rights including personal rights and animal rights.

That means in Islam, everything in existence has rights. And that is the core foundation of democracy: acknowledgment of pre-existing rights for all; enshrining them in governing documents such as constitutions and statutes; and commitment to honoring and delivering them in practice.

Does anybody know that you too have rights and claims on you? Hear the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, say it, which I paraphrase here: “And your body too has rights on you, as do your visitors, your family members…and others.”

“So,” says the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, “Aati kulla dhee haqqin haqqahu – give every right-holder their right.”

What a statement!

What a concept!

Do I need say more?

Except, maybe, to admonish my fellow-human beings:

“People! Let us hurry and catch up – with Islam; with the fuller and truer dimensions of democracy; and with all the rights some of even the best of us never thought we had.”

“Have we not already lost enough time?”

“Have we not frittered away enough energy?”

“Have we not squandered enough resources?”

“And have we not, by turning our back on the Qur’an, and on the true teachings of Islam, done enough damage to ourselves and to the world?”

“So, let us not let our Pandora’s Box of fears and prejudices hold us back any longer from discovering what is best in humanity’s common heritage and opening our hearts and minds to it!”” (Dr. Pasha)

Miracles in the Qur’an [Quote – 269]

“For those who know – and for those who don’t – everything in the Qur’an is a miracle.

How can it be otherwise if Qur’an is really the word of God as it claims to be?

By miracle I mean an event or outcome that is least likely to occur in the real world. Stated differently, a miracle is something that is most improbable in nature.

Here, take a closer look at the following six things and ask how likely or probable is each one of them:

  1. How likely is it that an illiterate man would emerge out of a trackless desert and proclaim that he is offering the world “A Book”?
  2. Or that he would say that this book is “That Book”?
  3. Or that he would call that book “A Book of Reading”?
  4. Or that he would declare that “Everyone Must Learn to Read”?
  5. Or that he would say that “God Made Pen the Instrument of Knowledge”?
  6. Or that “God Taught Humans Everything They Did Not Know before”?

Now, how likely do you think any of these things is?

And yet that is what the Qur’an says. And it has been saying that for the past 1400 years.

And the Qur’an is full of miracles of this and all other kind in every page.

Don’t you think we should be aware of that fact? Don’t you think we should try and find out if any of this is true or not?

And don’t you think we should take that fact seriously if it turns out to be true?

And in order to do that, does it matter whether we are Christians, Jews, Hindus or Muslims — or Atheists or Agnostics or something else?” (Dr. Pasha)

Story of the Creation of Man and of Human Greatness [Quote – 268]

“Want to know what Islam is really all about? Here is a glimpse:

In the beginning, as the Good Book says, there was God. And God created man.

And God, says the Qur’an, breathed in Man his spirit. And then, the Qur’an says, God armed Adam, the Man, with the knowledge of the names and properties of all things.

And, then, from that One Soul, which he first created, God created its mate. And from the two of them he caused a multitude of men and women to spring forth and populate the earth.

Therefore, those who cannot sense the greatness of the human spirit on earth cannot see the greatness of the divine spirit in heaven. Those who cannot see the divine spark in the hearts and lives of their fellow-humans right here on earth below, they cannot sense the great divine effulgence up above, no matter what their professions of faith and no matter what their pursuits of life.

For example, those who cannot sense the greatness of any or all of the following individuals, whose names I list below, to mention only a few from humanity’s rich and glorious heritage of greatness and goodness, cannot sense the greatness and goodness of any or all of the Prophets or their God:

  • Thomas Paine, a Deist and a Skeptic, and a White Scotsman or Englishman most likely, and arguably a Father of Two Revolutions, back to back, one in America and one in France, and the author of The Rights of Man and an inveterate and inspired foe of the evil institution of Hereditary Monarchy everywhere.
  • Thomas Jefferson, another Deist and Skeptic, and a White American Revolutionary and the author of the American Declaration of Independence.
  • Abraham Lincoln, a man who gave the American Nation its unity, and gave Black Slaves of America their freedom, and who, though a White Christian American, established on firm footing on earth in modern times the fundamental Islamic Institution of the Government of the People by the People.
  • Mahatma Gandhi, a devout Hindu, and a nationalist and freedom fighter, and a Brown Indian and a Conqueror of the British Empire.
  • Albert Schweitzer, a medical doctor, musician and a White Swiss Christian missionary in Africa who devoted his life and career to serving those afflicted with leprosy.
  • Martin Luther King, a Black Christian Minister, and a Liberator of the Oppressed and Dispossessed in America, brutally butchered by White Supremacists in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
  • Nelson Mandela, a Black leader of all lovers of freedom and peace on earth and among people, from South Africa.

As I said, these are just few names from a long and most impressive list of Human Greats on earth at different times in history and in their own different ways.

If you cannot see the spark of greatness, and light of goodness, in any or all of them, irrespective of your own faith or race or nationality or politics, then you cannot hope to sense God’s greatness or his light in Heaven.” (Dr. Pasha)

Islam Is the Best Science there Is [Quote – 267]

“Now, this is going to raise some eyebrows. I mean what I am about to say here. As if we have not raised eyebrows before by what we have had to say earlier.

In any case, if you are looking for Best Science, then, ab initio, or from the word go, Islam is your best hope.

I don’t mean Muslims make the best scientists. It would be unreal and quite possibly fanatical to make such a sweeping claim. Maybe the Brahmin Community in India has a much stronger Education Ethic than the Muslims anywhere have had in a long time.

What I am trying to say instead is that Islam will offer you the best science there is, if by science you mean a collection of robust truth-based models of reality in any aspect of life.

That means with regard to anything in this world, Islamic teachings are likely to be the best you possibly can find in the marketplace of science and ideas – scientifically speaking that is.

That is why the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) found it necessary to summarily steal – or should I say borrow, without so much as “By Your Leave” – the practice of hand-washing from Islam and Muslims. But after a great deal of research and after spending vast amounts of money.

But by then Islam had already made the method of hand-washing a household word in every Muslim home throughout the world by a millennium and a half and Johnny ASM was 1400 years late in coming to the water fountain from which the world of Islam washed it hands.

That is to say ASM’s reinventing of that wheel occurred after generation after unbroken generation of Muslims all over the world had been practicing hand-washing for all those 1400 years without a moment’s interruption or letup.

Whether or not ASM acknowledged its debt to Islam and Muslims is a question to which I do not know the answer. And whether any Muslim source ever demanded an answer or an explanation from ASM I have my doubts.

But the fact remains that you cannot improve upon the Islamic practice of Wudu as the most thorough and effective means of washing up and cleansing the often open human peripheries much exposed to the elements and a growing array of modern toxins, pathogens and pollutants.

What miracle could be more powerful than the fact that what an illiterate Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) from the Arabian sands had so freely given the world in the middle of the Seventh Century, a most highly educated body of men and women like the ASM had to go through the motions of re-inventing at the end of the 20th Century.

So, when it comes to body cleansing, the Islamic method of Wudu remains the gold standard. And you cannot do a thing to make it any better than the desert-dwelling Prophet of Arabia (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) made it fourteen centuries ago.

Nor can you, to cite another instance of how Islamic teachings are at the cutting edge of the best and the most functional in this world, improve upon the two-piece white-cotton-sheet-Ihram that Muslim men wear during annual Hajj pilgrimage to make it a better or more fascinating exemplar of human equality transcending all time and space. Again, that clock has not stopped ticking for 1400 years.” (Dr. Pasha)

Related article: Continuity and Change in Islam

Islam means Know Your World [Quote – 266]

“Islam means knowing and understanding your world.

That means those who do not understand the world in which they live cannot hope or expect to understand Islam, which they attribute to God.

There is not a doubt that Islam is indeed, and it could only have come, from God Almighty. The probability is next to zero that a system of ideas and practices that we collectively refer to as Islam could have been cobbled together by a human source or agency.

That means, speaking purely from an empirical or practical point of view, no individual, group, committee, agency, institution, society or nation could have invented anything even remotely resembling the teachings and principles of Islam.

So, there is absolutely, positively no question that Islam is of divine origin and revelation from A to Z. However, what many people do not understand is what Islam really is and what it does in this world.

So, here is a summary statement to address that mystery:

  1. On the one hand, Islam provides an explanation of the way the world works – simple, clear and, in most instances, an empirically verifiable explanation. That means, you will actually see and hear things in this world work the way Islam says they do and will.
  2. On the other hand, Islam also outlines a model of individual and collective belief and behavior, which, if properly implemented, will optimize human happiness, good and peace on earth.

That is why those who do not understand their world cannot understand Islam.” (Dr. Pasha)

Prayer, Fasting and a Sturdy Ladder to Climb the Roof [Quote – 265]

“What many people may not realize about Islam is that the Law of Gravity is as Islamic as Fasting and Prayers – what is called Siyaam and Salaah or Roza and Namaz. And having a safe, sturdy and secure ladder as a requirement of climbing an otherwise inaccessible roof may be as much a part of Islamic life as Ablution or Wudu is to Prayers or Salaah. For all those used to various forms and brands of Snake Oil in the name of Islam, and in the name of “religion” in general, how does this sound as a core insight into the spirit and true teachings of Islam?” (Dr. Pasha)

You Want A Better World? Clean Up Your Inside [Quote – 264]

“Of course, we must ask Allah all the time – for everything, no matter how small or routine it may be, just like the Hadith says. But at the same time, here is something important we all must learn: Rather than asking Allah all the time to purify our motives and intentions, we must work on doing it ourselves, even though nothing ever gets done without Allah doing it. That is because till we clean up our inside, our motives and all, our outside, our actions and output that is, will not become pure. And the Qur’an will then remain a stranger to us for the most part. And we will be reduced to playing games with the Qur’an the way many non-Muslims or even Muslims do. The world will then go on being the kind of mess it is.” (Dr. Pasha)

Pleasure-Pain Principle [Quote – 263]

“Pleasure for many people is the path they pursue through life. Pain is often the price they pay for many of the pleasures they seek in this world. Islam modulates pleasure, and optimizes it, while minimizing pain and distancing it. Islam also balances the pleasure-pain principle of this world against the pleasure-pain prospect of the next world. Now, that is Islam for you in a nutshell.” (Dr. Pasha)

Technology beyond This World [Quote – 261]

“New communication technologies have given us the ability to see and hear each other across time and space. But Islam placed that technology in our hands from before time and space were created: the Qur’an.

So, while it is important for us to learn and use all the best technologies available in any place or time, we must at the same time train ourselves to use the Qur’an the way it was intended to: to communicate beyond time and space and through the worst of conditions and toughest of barriers.

Therefore, I want us to train to see ourselves, and each other, and the world, through the looking glass of the Qur’an. We then see through the unfailing mirror of the hearts that have been polished by the Qur’an and that have been illumined by the radiance of the Qur’an. There is no better medium than that for those connected to the Qur’an.” (Dr. Pasha)

Published Books

Library Catalog

Please request free copies of our books and booklets for your family, friends and local libraries today! Send us your correct address and contact information and a brief introduction who and where you are and what you do. And we will be happy to try and send you our literature free of cost.

Booklets