Abbas Tyrewala's hard-hitting take on triple talaq is a wake-up call for AIMPLB
So the men "representing" my community in court have submitted that the option to polygamy is adultery, and the choice is between triple talaq and wife-killing?
Wow, we Muslim men must be real b**tards. Only 1,400-year-old laws can protect women from our behaving like we still live in medieval times.
What does the Quran have to say about this? Do the Hadith justify this? Because that is the "authority" these people are claiming on our behalf.
And then we wonder why, while so many of us cry ourselves hoarse that Muslims are not fundamentalists stuck in a time warp, no one listens. We aren't telling the right audience. Tell these so-called protectors of the worst in our customs. Lambast these guardians of the most embarrassing bits of our culture.
Tell them to look at a calendar. Tell them they are done. Tell them they don't speak for us. Tell the courts they don't speak for us. Tell the world they don't speak for us...
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We'll live without stoning (adultery) and chopping off hands (stealing), but no polygamy? No way José. The Quran says so. If you can learn to live without the criminal laws of Shari'a, you can bloody well learn to live with the modern civil laws of a country.
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| We cannot use any aspect of Islam or its traditions to reduce freedom and equality in a modern society. (Photo: AP) |
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My dear Muslim kin,
Remember, there is a difference between what the Quran makes compulsory for Muslims (the Pillars of Faith) and what it "recommends" for a barbaric society 1,400 years ago.
No one can or should stop you from the fundamental aspects of your faith, that is, faith, prayer, zakaat, fasting and hajj. (I'm not getting into the concept of Imamat for Shi'as as I want to speak to the whole Ummah.)
Notice, that not a single one of these affects anyone except yourself.
Beyond this, you can use the Quran, the Shari'a, and other traditions of the Sunna for arbitration or guidance, in addition to the law of the land. But nowhere does the Quran say that its recommendations supersede the laws of the government in a non-Islamic society.
For example, in the Hadith, Allah's Rasool (SAW) says that Islam does not require Muslims to pay any greater amount from their income than the zakaat. Does that mean you will refuse to pay tax? No. It means you can/should pay zakaat over and above the taxes of the land.
Similarly, we can turn to the Quran to ensure greater fairness than the law if we so choose. We can say no, Islam guarantees a higher equality in this context, or greater rights for the poor/downtrodden. We can choose to be more egalitarian as Muslims than the law requires us to be. But we cannot use any aspect of Islam or its traditions to reduce freedom and equality in a modern society.
You can say, "Islam commands me to give more." But you cannot say, "Islam allows me to give less."
Maybe it does, but your country doesn't.
It requires greater awareness and understanding from we Muslims, greater wisdom from our leaders and greater determination from the political class to bring Indians closer to a Uniform Civil Code.
(These posts first appeared on Abbas Tyrewala's Facebook page.)