Response to the article of C/laahi Jama; Shari’a Law; peace or poison for Somalia?

It has been known to many of us for quite some time now, that most of those who write about Sharia law, Islamic State, political Islam and so on and so forth have very little knowledge about those issues which they unconsciously are craving for but, they are completely confused minds which through all this bewilderment trying to grasp little attention from here or there. In such trauma caused by self hallucination, the expected out come is, to be seen as an erudite who achieved the final destination of knowledge and therefore, all his words must be taken for granted by the rest of the people.

I know C/laahi Jama very well but I want to share with him and the readers one story, it happened in Egypt and the story begins in this way;

It was Friday morning in a very educated middle class suburban town of Port Sa’id mosque, people are slowly attending the homily of the their Imam before it commence. Every one has expectations about the kind of sermon which the Imam will speak about today (atypical Friday prayer) in terms of lifting up the spirituality of his congregation. Thus folks who attend the Juma prayer are obviously from wide range of profession and skills; some are medical doctors, journalists, professors of all kinds of discipline, politicians, business people, intelligence agency and military people, who otherwise want to worship their God and perform their obligatory prayer. That moment in time, everyone has empted the content of the materialist world desires and prepared his/her hart to take away enough provision for the journey ahead (after prayer and between the two Jumas) which in regard to Allah says; “Take a provision with you for the journey, but the best of provisions is right conduct. So fear Me, o you that are wise” (Baqara ayah 197).

Suddenly the Imam without any delay after the Salam, started talking about, almost every thing except the sole purpose of juma gathering, he talked about politics, CIA American intelligence, conspiracy theory, military activities, management skills, he literally tried to cover a wide range of areas which he barely knew any thing about it while forgetting his mission to awaken the spiritual aspect of human begins. The congregation who otherwise in shock have started looking at each other have jumped up and run towards the Imam to stifle and throw him out of the mosque. The police officers arrived the scene and questioned the witnesses. In one voice the whole congregation said this is wicked man, he is misusing the house of Allah (the mosque), he is exploiting and abuse Allah’s religion, he should not be here in the first place.

For surely the mosque and religion in general has lost its role in the Muslim society. Though we as Muslims donate the money which is used to build mosques in our countries, they are not after accomplishment in our hands though we still donate money to pay bills and the salary of those clerics who run the whole institution. But fortunately, this particular Imam when accused of committing these kinds of betrayal, he lost his position and he was dismissed from the mosque.

The mosque today can not be a military base, political centre that launches political campaign, education centre, recruitment base, fitness centre or  a centre that promotes a particular political ideology and at the same time be a proper mosque where people come to pray five times a day and worship God in a peaceful environment. Similarly, the Imam can not be every thing. If the prophet Mohamed (SCW) was every thing in his time, that was the special characteristics of the prophet it was the exceptionalism of the prophet to receive the revelation and teach people how to worship Allah, but no one can claim to be like the prophet. The nature of prophethood in Islam is very distinct to that of human quality.   

The central point of my argument is, if some one decides to unconsciously mix up every thing as my respectful traditional colleague C/laahi Jama did in his article “Shari’a law; peace or poison for Somalia?, in that process of interpenetration, both religion and politics will further lose its role in our society and in the subsequent development of that confusion Somali people will step up into the threshold of the gate of the hall. However I don’t see that we are able to grasp the wisdom behind living in this world, unless our attitude towards life completely changes, it is very hard to avoid pain and achieve pleasure with this typical mind set. Mischievous people claiming that what they seek in this world is to please Allah for what they did in his name can only be describe as the act of an ignorant foolishness.

Since the “Great Trial” as Muslim historians called the “Fitna” which lasted the period between 656 until 661CE, the power struggle emerged partly because the mechanism to solve political disputes were very immature among the Muslim society in that time. However Ali was assassinated in 661CE and the Umayya dynasty led by Muawiya had been installed as an Islamic Caliphate, since then the transfer of power was bloody and dictatorship where the most powerful alliances between the Arab tribes ruled the Caliphate until March 3rd in 1924 the last Ottoman Caliphate a dynasty of Ottoman Empire was abolished and the last Sultan Cabdul Mejid was sent into exile.

It is not surprising me when I read a book like “ Assiyasah Al-sharciyah” by our great Mufti Ibnu Taymiyah, becouse the book has been written in that period of lack of political ideas, it is clear reflection on the existing environment of “Fiqhul quwwa” period of Islamic history such book was inevitable to be published in wider circulation. Hence the implications was potential infinite, the message was, if you have the most power to overthrow the ruler, people must obey the most powerful leader, however as long as he is implementing “Assiyaasa Alsharciyah” his obedience is obligatory/Waajib. That was the core message of Ibnu Taymiyyah’s book. Today we see things differently. The argument of Ibnu Taymiyah is no longer valid in the 21rst century political thoughts. Please let us be fair to him! And let us talk about political legitimacy rather then legitimate politics. If some one has the dream to become Amiir Almu’miniin the leader of the faithful Somali people, that person must get the majority vote of the mu’miniin the Somali people. Let there be no doubt about that. This will bring “Mandiq alquwa” the language of force into full stop!.

Else where, I wonder where Rawls’ theories fit in your specious reasoning. Furthermore you are the first one in my reading experience who brought Ibnu Taymiyah one of the prominent Salafi Mufti and John Rawls the most liberal atheist political philosopher in the 20th century in one tiny preposterous article. It was absurd enough to read that!

I think it is inappropriate to view things as you have suggested in this article;

Seculars versus Religious

Shari’a law Vr Civil law

Moderate Islam Vr Militant Islam

What is missing in your rhetoric speech reminds me the social psychology of Somali society that presupposes the impossibility of harmonious life whereby coexistence and acceptance could become the dominant features of our Somali society. If you vest your self or your proponents a define legitimate authority it implies to have a total control over the absolute truth and who ever delude him/her self the possession of absolute truth, he/she must harm everyone who disagree or negate his/her absolute truth. Therefore their opposition, let us say their enemy, they favour that term nowadays, the person becomes the enemy of God! We have to be very careful here. Though we as Somalis still have the same problem for the last 19 year, some of us have yet the apatite to give them new names in order to justification the perpetual violence, anarchy  and civil war between Somalis regardless their constant shifting forms and patterns. 

By Nuradiin Askar Ibraahim         

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