NOTES AND COMMENTS
Mohammad Yaqub Khan
Editor : The Light
Basic Principles
WHATEVER constitutional experts may have to say about the Basic Principles report, from the purely Islamic point of view, a constitution based on the unquestionable authority of the Head of the State is the direct negation of Islam. According to this outline of the Pakistan Constitution, the Head of the State, which includes, besides the Governor General, all Provincial Governors, cannot be hauled up before a court of law, for any offence, civil or criminal, official or private. This is an outrage on the essential message of human equality in Islam which makes no distinction between the King and the commoner. In the eye of the law, both are equal. In Islam, there is no such thing as “the King can do no wrong.” The Quran makes the Holy Prophetﷺ himself say that he was afraid of Divine punishment in case he violated His commandments. Our constitution framers, however, are raising ordinary sinning man like Heads of State to the position of infallibility and unaccountability.
This is an insult to the great religion of human equality whose great Founder declared:
“Surely, even if Fatima, daughter of Muhammad ﷺ, is guilty of theft I will have her hands amputated.”
It is an insult to the whole history of Islam. The great God-fearing Khulafa had to appear before the Qazi to answer any charges that were brought against them. Once when the court showed a little sign of respect in preference to the other party, the Caliph greatly disapproved of it. Iqbal has epitomized this cardinal teaching of Islam in recounting in detail the incident of how a Turkish king who had the hand of a great architect amputated, so that he might not build for others, was hauled up before the Qazi and was sentenced to undergo like punishment. In a beautiful line Iqbal sums up the verdict:
خون شه رنگین تر از معمار نیست
“The King’s blood is not redder than that of the architect.”
Explanation
HE SARDAR ABDUR RAB NISHTAR, Governor of the Punjab, in a Press Conference, has sought to find an explanation for this un-Islamic provision in the Constitution. Since the Head of the State has been vested with powers of clemency, he argues, it would not look proper that no occasion should arise when he may use the same powers in his own case. This difficulty could be easily obviated by limiting his powers of clemency, excluding his own person from their purview. A basic Islamic concept could not be sacrificed for a minor issue like the exercise of clemency.
Ambedkar’s Call
DR. AMBEDKAR, the Untouchable leader and Law Member, Government of India, has advised Hindus to embrace Buddhism which alone will solve the manifold social and economic problems which that society is just now confronted with. At one time he had counselled his people to join Islam or Christianity to win equality of status with other fellow-men. Buddhism is the offspring of Hinduism and cannot therefore, escape the disabilities of that parent. It believes in the theory of transmigration of which caste is the logical corollary, just the same. It can work no radical change in the Hindu’s outlook on life. What the Hindu needs is a revolutionary change in his outlook which Islam alone can bring about. If Hindus were ever to seriously consider change of religion, Islam would be ideal for its religious value as well as political significance. Religiously, Islam claims to be only a reassertion of the same eternal truths taught by all the Teachers of mankind, including Sri Krishna. By embracing Islam, a Hindu has the hard core of Hinduism untouched. In fact, he rediscovers that real core which has, at present, been lost in spurious importations into that system. Politically, it will solve the Hindu-Muslim question once for all, thereby paving the way for a well-knot homogeneous state.
Humanity?
IN his call to the Korean Government to surrender, General Mac Arthur has assured the Koreans that they and their prisoners of war would receive humane treatment according to civilized concepts and practice. Stripping prisoners of war naked and putting them on public parade, as done by the American forces in this war, photographs of which scandal have appeared in the Press, do not reflect much of “humanity” or “civilization” which the gallant general claims for his people. But the Americans have their own concepts of these virtues. They proclaim the equality of all Americans in the eye of law but lynch the negro on a public thoroughfare for daring to enter a white people’s train or restaurant. It is an outrage on humanity to strip prisoners of war naked. America, with all her vaunted talk of democracy, must yet sit at the feet of the Prophet of Islam to learn the lesson of true humanity. Prisoners of war were treated by him as members of the family and shown the same consideration. If instead of the Prophet ﷺ, the victorious General at the fall of Makkah were Mac Arthur, he would have stripped the leaders of the Makkan opposition and march them through the streets. The Prophet’s ﷺ proclamation went forth:
قَالَ لَا تَثْرِيبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْيَوْمَ يَغْفِرُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ ٱلرَّٰحِمِينَ
Said he: ’No reproach shall be uttered today against you. May God forgive you your sins: for He is the most merciful of the merciful!
Yusuf (Joseph) 12:92
This is what “humanity” means in Islam, much different from the American brand of humanity which sees nothing wrong in stripping fellow human beings.
M.Y. K.
(The Light – 16 October 1950)
