Injustice
Problem
Statement: Analysis the concept of Justice, with the significance Islamic
epistemology.
Problem
justification: with regards to contemporary issues happening in Malaysia, i.e:
Sister In Islam (SIS) with their worldview on injustice towards women, and
Political System (Democracy)
Introduction.
Evolution
towards knowledge which currently dominated by the west intricate with Islamic
values and principle as each doctrine are not compatible and contradict each
worldview. The core of Islamic worldview is permanent reality ( Attas : 1993).
The main emphasize in the system itself is Justice as it shared common
definition from plato, that is- Justice.
Justice defines as giving men his proper due or placing each perspective
on the right place so that each perspective will fall on the right compartment.
This paper is aims to analyze the concept of Justice according to Islamic
worldview and try analyze contemporary movement that is Sister in Islam (SIS)
in regards to injustice promoted by them.
Islam is a perfect system given
and bless by Allah s.w.t as guidelines for mankind to live in the world. Human
being is the most perfect creation of Allah s.w.t as men is challenge by both Aql and Nafs.
As Al-ghazali mentioned, men has two prominent souls that is, Human soul
(the ability to reason and prevent men from wrongdoing) and as well animal soul
(Desire) that divided into two forms, that is Dog and Pig. Thus, the basic problem of human in nature is
choice to live in virtue or vices. Therefore, comes Islam as system to govern
mankind from continuously living in vices. As Allah s.w.t mentioned in Quran Today I have perfected your religion for
you, and completed My grace upon you, and approved Islam as your religion
(5:3).
Islam emphasized men to live in
society as Allah mentioned in the Quran The
believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear
Allah that you may receive mercy (49:10) The Quranic verse entails mankind
to live in society, thus in order in Society, there must a system to ensure and
guarantee for mankind to live in subtle way. Justice is to ensure society in harmony.
Justice is a guarantee for mankind to live in virtue. Violating any principle
of justice will eventually lead mankind to live in vices. For example, men is
mend to have partner with women and vise versa, however if otherwise, society
may face severe consequence.
Dilemma in contemporary Muslim
Political Thought is either to reject or bandwagon with the dominant thought.
For example, democracy is never compatible with concept of Justice. Democracy
simply means majority rule with the consent of minority (Barrington : 2010).
Democracy violating the nature of justice since it depends on the majority.
What if the majority refused to accept Islam and demand to separate between
Religion and Politics? As consented by majority, a leader must obeyed and
follow every single demands by the majority. In addition, leader is voted by
other factors and left out important aspect of leadership ie, to lead rather than
to follow. In short democracy violating and propagated injustice towards leader
because democracy does not guarantee an effective leader however merely as puppet
to serve the rest of the majority.
Another
dilemma faced in Malaysia is the idea propagated by SIS as they believed Shariah’s violate and transgress women’s
right as the laws reprimand in so many areas. Besides that, as written by
Zainah Anwar (ZA) in New Straits Times (NSTP) claimed that Hudud law is discriminatory towards women.
“On top of
that, my rape report could also be taken as confession of illicit sex and I
could be charged for zina. And even if I could produce the four men, I would be
torn apart wondering why four supposedly pious and just men watched me being
raped.”
Most
of her words bickering towards Hudud law show her ignorance towards
Islam as her epistemology clouded by
liberal feminism thought on seeking total equality between men and women. Which
is, obviously violate the concept of justice. Men and women have different
natures and these differences are not mend to regressed women however as a
complementary to men. Besides that, Hudud law is divine revelation given
by Allah s.w.t to ensure justice properly done. If men caught stealing and
throw into jail, would there be any guarantee that men will stop stealing? and
obviously jail system is defective because mankind will have the tendency to
repeat the same mistake again.
In
short, realizing Islam as full of way of life is not utopian and
hypothetical. The problem face with
Muslim scholar these days is secularism (Al-attas: 1993). Separating religion
will only intricate more problems as many thought will be left in grey area and
left unanswered. Islam is a guidelines to have mankind live in full of
justices, virtues and all the kindness. Secularism is anti-thesis to separate
religion to human affair. A full rationalism towards action will only leads
mankind. Reason and Revelation should go hand in hand in order to realize the
fullest Islamic life.