CONSTITUTION OF PAKISTAN – Part 2

PAKISTAN, we said, was created to be a separate homeland for the Muslims that they might be able to live up to their own Islamic ideology in full freedom. But the Constitution of 1956 which had been given to the people after nine years of anxious waiting, had nothing to do with the fundamentals of Islam, and would not have, therefore, fulfilled the purpose of the creation of Pakistan. The Revolutionary Government has indeed acted wisely in throwing that constitution overboard. The new Constitution, we are told, will have the basic Values of Islam incorporated in its pages, is now on the anvil.

The well-known book of Hadith Sunnah of Abu Dawud has on its record an important event of the early history of Islam. When the Prophet ﷺ appointed Muaz-bin Jabal and Abu Musa Ashari as the Governor and the Judge of the High Court of Yaman respectively, he got them mounted on their horses and himself walked beside them through the streets of Madina to see them off. The Hadith runs thus:

”On being appointed Governor of Yaman, Muaz was asked by the Holy Prophet ﷺ as to the rule by which he would abide. He replied, By the Law of the Qur’an. But if you do not find any direction therein, asked the Prophet ﷺ. Then I will act according to the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, was the reply. But if you do not find any direction in the Sunnah, he was again asked. Then I will exercise my judgment and act on that, came the reply. The Prophet ﷺ raised his hands and said:

“Praise be to Allah Who guides the messenger of His Apostle as He pleases.”

The system of government outlined in this Hadith will serve as a good guide for those who repose a sincere faith in the Law of Islam. The Holy Qur’an undoubtedly is a perfect and complete code of life. But it is not impossible that a man may not be able, in time of need, to find out from the pages of the Holy Qur’an the solution of the problem that confronts him. It may again be possible that he may not succeed in finding guidance from the Prophet’s practice. Under these conditions, therefore, recourse may be had to ijtihad or one’s own judgment. Having thus opened the door of ijtihad the Holy Prophet ﷺ has pointed out a very sane and rational way for Law-making. Every age, the fact cannot be denied, has its own problems, for the resolution of which the correct course will be that the Muslims should make a proper and judicious use of their experience, discretion and judgment, keeping of course within the framework of the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah.

There is yet another sublime saying of the Prophet ﷺ which opens out a vast vista for the Muslim Lawmakers to inquire into and explore. He said: ”Truth and wisdom is the lost property of a Muslim; he should take it wherever he may find it and put it to his own good use.” It therefore becomes necessary for our Constitution Assembly to study and scan the constitutions that are in vogue among the different nations of the world and pick up therefrom every good and useful thing to be assimilated in the Constitution of Pakistan; and it cannot be that a thing which is really rational and sane, will ever turn out to be inconsistent with the teachings of Islam. The forms of government prevalent in Russia, Germany and France differ drastically from one another. India has a constitution of its own which resembles neither the constitution of England nor that of the United States of America. The democracy of England is out of all proportion with the democracy of Russia where freedom of opinion and conscience is not at all tolerated. But we need not be bound down to the imitation of either of them, when the Holy Qur’an, having laid down certain basic principles of Government, has also allowed a pretty large measure of human endeavour within the limits of those broad boundaries.

A few of these Inviolable Principles which should form the basis of the Constitution of Pakistan may briefly be stated as under:

1.Sovereignty

Real sovereignty rests in the hands of God Almighty, and man, as His vicegerent, has only to carry on His rule in accordance with His law.

”To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth and whatever is between them and whatever is beneath the soil.”

لَهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا وَمَا تَحْتَ ٱلثَّرَى

(Ta-Ha 20:6)

2.Human dignity

Every human being shall be respected indiscriminately for being a human being:

And surely, We have honoured the children of Adam

وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ

Al-Isra (The Journey by Night) 17:70

This great truth is not to be found in any other scripture of the world. In the Old Testament and the Gospels there are tribes and colours chosen by God Himself. In the Rigveda of the Hindus it is stated that ”excluding Aryavarata all the countries and nations of the world are Asur and malechchas (untouchable and impure). And to the Greeks all their neighbours are barbarians.

3.Unity of human race

All the artificial distinctions between man and man, distinctions of colour, clime and creed, Islam has brushed aside with one single stroke viz.,

Mankind is a single nation

وَمَا كَانَ ٱلنَّاسُ إِلَّآ أُمَّةً وَٰحِدَةً

Yunus (Jonah) 10:19

and that superiority of one over another in this vast brotherhood does not depend on nationality, wealth or rank, but on the careful observance of duty or moral greatness:

”Surely the noblest of you with Allah is the most dutiful of you”

إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتْقَىٰكُمْ

Al-Hujurat (The Dwellings) 49:13

The Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s hadith, it may be remarked in passing, permit not under any conditions the takfir or interdiction of the Muslims, for this pernicious practice cuts at the very root of the nation’s unity, strength and solidarity.

4.Religious toleration

Freedom of conscience and religion was proclaimed, saying:

`There is no compulsion in religion`

لَآ إِكْرَاهَ فِى ٱلدِّينِ

The Muslims were told that when they hold the power in their hand their guiding principle should be that there should be no compulsion nor cruelty in the matter of religion. For an apostate there is absolutely no punishment, no penalty, in the Law of Islam. Compulsion and constraint creates cant and hypocrisy. It was for this reason that full freedom of conscience was proclaimed through the Divine Declaration quoted above.

5.Human liberty

No individual shall force his will upon another aggressively, but all shall submit to and obey the Divine laws willingly through the agency of the Islamic State:

”It is not meet for a mortal that Allah should give him the Book and the judgment and the prophethood, then he should say to men, Be my servants besides Allah’s”

6.Zakat

To secure a fair distribution of wealth among the people the Law of Islam has prescribed the two institutions of Zakat (poor-rate) and the Bait-al-Mal (State Treasury). The Holy Prophet ﷺ has described Zakat as wealth ”which is taken from the rich and returned to the poor.” For the amelioration of the weak and the needy a portion of the State Treasury has been allocated and set apart. When the Islamic State came into existence, and the Holy Prophet ﷺ held in his hands the reins of government, the first thing that he did was to alleviate the suffering of the poor and relieve them of their want; and for this purpose, he invested them with a right against the nation’s wealth and riches. The Prophet ﷺ also proclaimed:

If a man leaves property behind at the time of his death, it should be distributed, according to the Law, among his successors whoever they may be but if he should leave behind small children and a debt outstanding against him, I shall be responsible for the payment of the debt as well as for the bringing up of the children,” and the Prophet ﷺ on this occasion, recited the Qur’anic verse,

”The Prophet feels more for the faithful than they feel for themselves”.

ٱلنَّبِىُّ أَوْلَىٰ بِٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ مِنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ

Al-Ahzab (The Confederates) 33:6

When the sympathy and goodwill of the rule should reach such a high degree why should not the nation be prepared to sacrifice on the slightest indication from him, their life, property and wealth. When the apprehension that can stand in the way of this sacrifice be removed, the nation becomes readily responsive and offers the sacrifice as and when required.

                                                                                                                            M.Y.Khan

                                                                                                                         THE LIGHT – November 16, 1959.