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Just Islamic Society
By: Ali Hussain al-Hakim
Mahdiology is the science where all the Shi’ah eschatological technical terms should be defined and re-produced. In the light of the frameworks of this knowledge, one should grasp the role of each organisation and redefine the responsibility of every single entity. In this article, my work is dedicated to highlight the characteristics of a ‘Just Society’, and to rediscover the role of mass media in creating a ‘Just Society ’, or even its ability through manipulation to produce an unjust atheistic social order. It is the author’s sincere attempt to manifest the role of religion in the public sphere together with its constructive contribution.
This work is neither based on, nor inspired by, attending various church services; and secular events and the publication thereof provide no source for brainwaves. No informative meetings were helpfully inspirational unlike the motivational sparks generated by Qur’anic verses and its exegesis. The Qur’an has been revealed for more than a millennium, but has consistently innovated and stimulated Muslim scholars throughout history, up until today and for the foreseeable future.
The Article’s main questions
The broad-spectrum topic that this article may necessarily seek to address is the appropriate role of religion in the public sphere in quest of answers to the following:
- Whether, in a pluralist society, public expression and/or displaying of any religious signs belonging to a belief system can be divisive? Can the Media play a constructive role or, through manipulation, exhibit only a destructive influence?
- Can a community find cohesion amongst various faiths and backgrounds?
- What are the potential clashes of values as globalization and population mobility increasingly lead to the intersection of strikingly different backgrounds and cultures?
The Role of Religion in the Public Sphere
Throughout many articles written by Jurgen Habermas , amongst others, e.g., Rosalind I.J. Hackett , and the multitude of books which have emerged particularly after the Hijab ban in French schools, the question of the role of religion in the public sphere has become increasingly urgent, and now is the time to begin the search for deeper knowledge and understanding of the sociological, historical, and theological issues that confront the relation between Muslims and between Great Britain and Europe. England provides an adequate start towards gaining insight into religion’s potential role in European public society and perhaps in the world through pursuing a deeper understanding of the thoughts of Islamic sacred texts.
Islam, its crucial role in the public sphere and the way it is presented by the media is one of our subjects, partly due to the fact that it has become a major religion in Great Britain. Despite our emphasis being placed on Christianity’s diminished role and Islamic thought while elaborating generally the role of religion in the public sphere, we have not mentioned Sikhs, Buddhists and other religious minorities satisfying ourselves with Islamic features and rare Christian references, as these were taken as examples of the growing European religious diversity and the increasing role the Islamic faith is starting to play.
Muslims Roots in the West
There are many causal factors leading to the growth of extensive Muslim communities in Europe but, in many cases, Muslims were encouraged to immigrate to various European destinations which sought cheap labour from the Muslim workforce, and from working wanderers from different Muslim lands. The result instigated a great migratory Muslim movement into the European heartland, including its Scandinavian periphery.
Muslims ought to play a positive role, precisely taking into consideration their magnificent religion and ancient civilizations and heritage. They have to come to Europe with their contribution to the European societies, and this is not because they are impelled to say something, but rather because they, in fact, have something to say and contribute.
Muslims who are living in the West are either being collectively or individually promoted or motivated to preach with their Divine teachings in an effort to convince others that their faith ought to be followed. They are ordered by the Holy Qur’an not to remain silent in the face of corruption or if they witness any form of transgression. We read a statement of the Qur’an as follows: “Thus did we try them because they transgressed. And when a party of them said: Why do you admonish a people whom Allah would destroy or whom he would chastise with a severe chastisement? They said:- to be free from blame before the Lord, and that haply they may guard (against Evil). So when they neglected what they had been reminded of, we delivered those who forbade evil and we overtook those who were unjust with an evil chastisement because they transgressed”.
In a narration we read that Sharif b. Sabiq al-Tafalisi narrated on the author of Hammad al-Samdari: ‘I said to Abu ‘Abidillah, Ja’afar b. Muhammad [al-Sadiq] (as): ‘I often go to the land of idolaters, and people say that if I die there, I will be resurrected with them’. He said to me: ‘O Hammad! When you are there do you mention our cause and call people to it?’ I said, ‘yes.’ ‘And when you are in these cities –the cities of Islam- do you mention our cause and call people to it?’ I said, ‘Yes’. He said: ‘if you die over there, you will be resurrected as a whole community in yourself, and your light will run before you.’
This narration clearly made it investable for all Muslims to call to their faith, in order to attain the peak of salvation and to be resurrected as a whole ‘Ummah. Indeed, calling to the Right Path is the antithesis of causing division amongst others, as it is not meant as an insidious act or a discordant performance. Islam is a call for harmony and a reminder for peace as every believer ought to be in entire peace with himself, nature and his environmental surroundings. The Shi’ah Imams have promoted positive thoughts and goodness; we read from Imam Ali (as): ‘Thinking instigates goodness and action upon it.’
From this narration, from the abovementioned points and the ensuing discussion related to the Islamic role of mass media, one should be able to discern answers to the first and second questions posed in the beginning of the second subtitle.
Religion’s Fluctuating Status throughout the Last Centuries
The traditional secularization thesis predicted that modernization would inevitably and irreversibly lead to secularization, while the latter should lead to the limitation of religiosity to the worship sites. Many social scholars and materialist philosophers, like Karl Marx, postulated that key aspects of modernity, such as industrialization, urbanization, and scientific rationalism, would result in the ultimate erosion of religion in society. Church domination of virtually every aspect of life gave way to structural differentiation in which functions previously performed by the church, such as healthcare and education, became increasingly specialized and carried out by independent bodies or organizations. As the church lost its pervasive social influence, religion became a matter of private personal choice rather than social obligation. This has reinforced the stereotypic theories claiming that religion should appropriately remain solely a private matter between an individual and his creator.
It is hardly accurate to claim that religiosity has been blanched or limited, as it is difficult to give a precise numerical value on church attendance, mosque prayers in particular, or the actual presence of religious belief in general. Nonetheless, certain facts are verifiable; at the end of the nineteenth century, a period when some currents of thought- most notably Darwinism- seemed to many to pose a real threat to the Christian tradition. It posed a serious threat to the classical way of understanding the story of creation.
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) was moved to declare in 1882: ‘Whereas the basis of things amidst all chance and change has in Europe generally been for ever so long supernatural Christianity, and far more so in England than in Europe generally, this basis is certainly going.’ The years 1914-1945 seem a period of marked decline for organised religion and perhaps the trauma of the Great War was one factor behind this loss of faith. While wars’ catastrophes should have rendered people back on track to being humble servants of their Lord, the statistics tell their own distorted story. In 1920, perhaps about 23% of the adult population were active members of the protestant churches of Great Britain; a figure which had dropped to roughly 18%by 1945. In the major provincial town of York, regular church attendance fell from 35.5% in 1901 to 17.7% in 1935 and to 13% in 1948. The number of civil marriages in England and Wales rose from 16% in 1901 to 31% in 1952.
Sunday school enrolment in the same home countries fell from 51% of population aged 15 in 1911, to 46% in 1931, and to 20%in 1961.
J. Martain states: ‘Sometime during the 1920s’ we are told of organised religion in industrial Yorkshire, ‘the local religious classes lost heart.’ They ceased to believe in their mission to evangelise the nation... It no longer seemed possible. And it had become a burden.’
At a variety of official levels, Christianity still seemed well established but, as an official Church of England report acknowledged at the end of the war, realities belied appearances: The coronation ceremony, the regular prayerful openings of the sittings of Parliament, the Mayor’s Chaplain, the provision for religion in the services and in all state institutions, the religious articles in popular periodicals, the Religious Department of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and many similar phenomena, go to show that the ethos of the state remains Christian... the Established Church is still entwined by countless subtle threads around the life of the realm and the nation’... But behind the facade the situation presents a more ominous appearance. The decline seems to have accelerated after 1960. The statistics are unequivocal. By 1974 only 53.5% of marriages in England and Wales were performed in a place of worship, a figure that had declaimed to 45.1% by 1995, and by 1989 ‘only 14%of the under –15s attended churches or Sunday schools’.
As regards religious observance, it is estimated that in England in 1967 only about 15% of population attended religious service on Sunday and only 25% went to church at least once a month.
By 1975 only 11.3% of the adult English population were committed churchgoers and by 1989 only 9.5%. Recent decades have seen an especial collapse. Trinitarian Churches fell in active membership from 9.1 million adults in 1970 to 6.4 million in 1995. In England, in 1979, 5.4 million people attended Sunday Church; by 2005 that figure was down to 3.2million and the largest percentage decrease was amongst the young.
A Church of England account of the 1989 census on church attendance concluded its analysis in the following melancholy fashion: Can we consider England as ‘Christian’? With only two thirds of the population claiming some allegiance to the church, however faint, 14% active members, and 10% regularly attending the claim to call England Christian looks thin. The UK community figure is much lower than the figures of other Western European countries. However one interprets such figures it seems reasonable to suppose that they indicate a fading of Christian religiosity. They correlate with that they indicate a fading of Christian religiosity. They correlate with the fact that there is now a broad area of non-belief within British society.
All of the abovementioned reflect clearly and without doubt that there is a tendency towards rejecting Christianity. A phenomenon that has been called by some contemporary authors as ‘DeChrisitianisation’ is ongoing, whether one likes it, or is not willing to accept it.
Can we conclude that all the members of British society are currently against any form of religiosity? One can hardly reach this conclusion based solely on the above statistics, as those mentioned aspects of the Christian practice may only prove that it is no longer in favour of the Christian faith and its dogmas. It is beyond doubt that all the indicators available suggest that British society has become heavily discouraged about Christianity over the last hundred years when we survey that such factors as levels of church attendance, people’s connections with organised Christianity, the importance of Christianity in politics, and a whole range of contemporary comment, has been diminished.
But can one come to a wider and more all-inclusive conclusion that all forms of faiths and religiosity are rejected? It is the author’s firm belief that religiosity in individuals, as in societies, is hard to monitor. It is difficult to probe the presence of religious beliefs, the intensity with which they are held, the way in which they are put into practice, or the impact that they have on the lives of individuals or cultures.
Recalling the saying of an Iranian ethical scholar, Ayatollah Mazaheri, who always taught his students that: ‘You should refrain from being negative, as sometimes people are too negatively oriented ‘manfeebaaf’.’ One should become inspired, e.g. as to how to establish rightly-guided mass media! Being negatively-oriented, ‘Manfeebaafi’, means that one is always approaching the world wearing gloomy glasses. One is negatively built, that’s when one is always critical, approaches things from an evil angle and is never satisfied. This negative approach is disastrous as it causes others to avoid associating with such a person, or drives them away. Mass media – if it were to adopt such a negative policy - is capable of corrupting the whole world, and all individuals around them leading them to overwhelming destruction.
A narration has been reported by some Islamic references quoting the story that: In Tanbih al-khawatir the prophet Jesus (as) was passing the corpse of a dog, with his disciples, when the disciples exclaimed: What an awful stench this dog has!’ to which the prophet Jesus (as) retorted: How white are his teeth!’
Based on the abovementioned narration and the ethical lesson, one can only accept that there might be many individuals who have become apathetic to the Christian faith, and/or are unsatisfied with its dogmas, but this may also mean that mankind is now more inclined towards a religion that is more practical and commonsensical, more easily acceptable and more viable in being followed.
Imam Ali (as) taught us: ‘A real scholar is one who does not make people lose hope in the mercy of Allah, or cause them to have despair from the mercy of Allah, or make them feel safe from the Allah’s resourcefulness.
Based on these guidelines one is inclined to arrive at the abovementioned conclusion, albeit to be equally precautious to warn the majority of population that miserable life conditions are to be expected, if one remains rebellious towards his Lord. However the author is convinced that there are felt evidence that we are through a transitional phase, which is to be elaborated in the next paragraphs.
A- Transitional Phase:
Though the secularization thesis predicted the ultimate demise of religion in the modern world, religion is clearly thriving globally today even in secular Europe. It is the author’s claimed postulate that we are encountering the invisible reflections of perhaps the greatest social transformation of our times. Christianity is about to fade out of British culture. In recent decades, under the influence of secularism, the nations of Europe have moved away from unitary forms of religious expression toward greater pluralism or rather: We witness the phenomenon of the transitional phase from vague atheism towards invisible uniting Divine-humanism. It is an inevitable process that shall never be diverted into recourse nor distorted towards a reversion of atheism.
The Secularists’ Bid
Since the end of the Second World War, the secular declared approach to religion in the public realm has aimed to accommodate tolerance and peaceful coexistence within an existing or desired pluralist society through creating a public sphere devoid of any visible religious presence or even removing religion from public discourse. However, many insist that secularism was continuously leaning towards fundamentalism, i.e. that secularists, despite claiming neutrality and tolerance, were imposing their own values on others and threatening the very pluralism and diversity they claimed to encourage. This has been manifested in the many recent claims of German and British politicians that pluralism has failed. Thus, pluralist societies are confronted with the question of whether secularism was protecting it or whether it was constantly hindering religious freedom and dismissing what religion’s proper role could or should be in the public dialogue.
Amongst the various secular regimes of many European countries, Great Britain is the home to secular and religious forces competing for influence and authority both within and abroad. Both secularist and religious camps claim to champion toleration and liberty accusing the other side of endangering pluralism and freedom. Therefore, we feel the need for a profound understanding of religion in general and Islam in particular. In the following, we shall elaborate on the characteristics of society based on monotheism, more precisely Islam, its relationship and potential interaction with each society’s cultures and the role of media in creating an ideal just society or manipulating to produce an evil one.
How Does the Qur’an Describe Religious Scholastic Role?
The main or crucial description of religion is that it has become a matter of expert study, just like other human knowledge and science. The Qur’an has emphasised the need for dedicated individuals who would seek knowledge and devote many years of their lives both to study it and equip their minds with saturated Divine teachings that their souls would be able to diligently absorb.
Qur’an states: ‘Nor should the Believers, All go forth together: If a contingent. From every expedition. Remained behind, They could devote themselves, to studies in religion, And admonish the people, When they return to them, That thus they (may learn), to guard themselves (against evil).’ Qur’an, C. 9: V. 122.
Additionally, seeking knowledge or what was prescribed in the Qur’an as: ‘Tafaquh Fid Din’ is not meant to be a matter of aristocratic pleasure to argue and discuss with ignorant individuals, but rather to be used as a tool through which one should seek and aspire to guide the servant of Almighty (swt) to the Right Path, as it is perceived from the last phrase of the above mentioned Qur’anic verse.
In other narrations we read the following: ‘Imam al-baqir (AS), with regards to the Quranic verse: “Except the ones who are deemed weak...”, said, This refers to one who is not capable of disbelieving that he may be considered a disbeliever, though neither has he been guided on the path of faith that he has faith. [It also refers to] children, and those people from among men and women who have intellects of children and who are therefore not accountable for their deeds.
The characteristics of an ideal monotheistic society
It is the author’s firm belief that the characteristics of an idealistic monotheist society are to be summarised as follows:
1. Negation of the Man of Absolute Materialism: from the viewpoint of Islam, man is a mixture of soul and body, and in this mixture the soul is genuine. In other words, the humanity of man and his reality depends on his soul, and this soul, with all its complexities, is a tool for comprehending and carrying out its own actions. Man, from the view of the Holy Qur’an and the narrations, is neither absolutely good-natured nor totally bad-natured; rather the two kinds of inclinations exist within his nature, one towards evil and the other towards good.
2. Negation of Individualism: individualism, as was formed under the auspices of humanism and which, subsequently, led to utilitarianism and profit-making, has no place in Islam and Islamic society. Individualism of this type is ungracious in the realm of values and morality; for the human being is not the pivot of morality and values but is the one who must be bound by values and in fact excels thereby. The bases of morality and the propositions of value are objective affairs independent of men’s will, demand, and mentality. Consequently, the basic propositions of morality are absolute and free from relativity. The secret of objectivity of the main moral propositions is that these express the existence of a moral act and man’s ultimate spiritual perfection.
3. Negation of Secularism (Separation of Religion from Politics)
If we consider even a little of the content of Islamic teachings, it can be understood that jurisprudence and religious law are important elements within it; for religious law is not limited only to personal and private realms, and Islamic social jurisprudence has clear teachings in various social categories.
Therefore, we have witnessed that secular media have introduced Islam in a totally negative way from a gloomy angle. Islam is continuously introduced by the media creating an Islamophobic environment. They, i.e. the secularists, have constantly sought to remove Islam from the social and political fields limiting it to the arena of personal life, without realizing that Muslims recognize it as a pale distortion of the reality of this perfect and exalted religion. If personal behaviour plays a role in man’s perfection and exaltation and is the cause for his consequent happiness in the hereafter, social behaviour and collective mutual relationships influence his happiness far more effectively. In the second media approach, Islam has been reproduced to be contradicting any human European culture, due to its exclusiveness and rigid Shari’a Law’s rulings. Therefore, we feel the need to profoundly grasp the relationship between Islam and various European cultures.
Islam and the Various European Cultures between Contradiction and Compliments
Islam and European Cultures, we have espoused the idea that it is here that one should promote compliments instead of conflict or contradiction. In order to analyze the discussion in a profound manner, one ought to grasp the relationship between religion and culture in general. It is necessary to technically define each term and arrive at a point of satisfaction regarding how these concepts stand and interact with each other in the reality of social life.
The interaction and the way these two social phenomena affect each other is accepted according to the Islamic legislator in the following examples, where no one shall be able to deny the effectiveness that pushing towards one direction may lead to a favourable level of the other. It means that religion and social norms should interact and complete each other instead of conflicting and contradicting each other.
There are different forms of interaction between culture and religion which shall manifest itself in many examples. Here follows some of the ensuing social and cultural effects:
- While practice of a religion is intended to unify a whole Muslim society in general practice, it may, however, differ in the manifestation as to how that practice is practiced. The perfect example of this case is in the Muslim woman's dress, whereas the Hijab (Muslim women’s dress code) represents a religious duty, different manifestations appear of the same practice. In Iraq, ladies wear the 'Abayah while the Iranian lady wears the Tschadour and the Pakistani wears her Shalwar Khamis. The commemoration of Imam Hussain varies too, depending on the different cultures, while manifesting their devotion in various practices, either in form of theatre (Ta’aziah), lamentation (Ma’atam), and sad songs combining sorrow and deep emotional feeling (Na’i). All these different cultural acts are various manifestations related to different cultural and social practices of the Shi’ah Muslims.
- Cultural practice may create or eliminate extensions that are considered cases for the practical ruling of the Shari’ah Law.
- Cultural practice may change or alter the rulings of Shari’ah Law in favour of a dynamic implementation of Divine guidance.
Within the last century’s different definitions of religion, we ought to discuss religion following the relevant theories introduced by astute sociologists ranging from Emile Durkheim, Clifford Geertz up until the current contemporary thinkers. Within the Islamic Worldview we have espoused the idea of a contemporary Muslim thinker, i.e. late Ayatollah S. M. B. As-Sad, who established the Shi’ah Muslims’ practical approach towards a dynamic interpretation of Shari’ah Law that is flexible, lax and non rigid to accommodate an applicable combinational model for the role of religion in the European public sphere. By this, we find it incumbent upon us to discuss the role of mass media in creating or manipulating social norms.
The Crucial Role of the Media in the Constructive Creation or Manipulating Against a Just Society
Media is a generic term used to indicate systems or vehicles for the transmission of information or entertainment such as radio, television, videotape, newspaper and magazines, hoardings, films, books, records, and tapes. Of these, the ubiquitous television, radio, and newspapers are generally qualified as the mass media. Unlike the others, they form parts of man’s total environment in Mass society and cannot be ignored without conscious and sustained effort; far more commonly their use engenders degrees of passivity which make them efficient for moulding tastes and preferences. Many contemporary thinkers, such as Marshall McLuhan , have argued that the form of the media has a more significant effect on society and knowledge than the content carried. Of course, the content is also of great importance in leading laymen towards the desired direction.
Mixed media is a recent term for the long-established concept of combining more than one form or area of communication, usually for dramatic effect. Another usage of the term ‘media’ refers to the professionals employed in this sector who, on the ground of their assumed culture and political attitudes, are seen either to distort or dictate public taste. For many thinkers, the media has assumed a politically and culturally independent existence. Therefore, many strategic thinkers have considered the use of the media and propaganda as one of the modern state’s tools through which it achieves its goals.
It is obvious that the mass media has a great responsibility towards what it offers their audience. It should at least try to introduce a positive attitude and create a constructive atmosphere for its clients.
In a narration we read: ‘The prophet (sawas) said: ‘It is bad enough for a man – except for one whom Allah protects from evil - that people should point the finger at him with regard to either his faith or his worldly affairs.’ He meant that it is a matter of great concern that one is so evil to be accused of and have fingers pointed at him as having violated a matter that had negative impact on its faith. Media can be similarly accused with the same defect.
However, the great lesson here to all journalists and activists, who are in touch with the public or address the laity, is that one should struggle to achieve one’s ultimate Divine duty, instead of presenting what they like to read or hear. The solution is that, as one can never achieve the satisfaction of all people, one should just think about Allah (swt)- what He would accept and be pleased with.
We know that disobedience is not desired, but committing disobedience in public is more disgusting than the act itself, as it calls for the Divine wrath to be instigated. Imam Ali (as) has said: ’Openly and candidly disobeying Allah-glory be to him-hastens his wrath’. Therefore, even if one had committed an error or a mistake, it is recommended not to reveal their shortcomings, as it is a disgusting revelation.
Again, referring back to the Qur’an as a source of guidance for the media, we read the verse: ‘Whenever you speak, speak good,’ Whenever you judge between people, to judge following justice’ , an example of those not speaking in justice are those who come with revelation, or who manifest justice with slanderous coverage so as to create a perception of total social disaster. That is when a media group manifests something in such a negative way that causes everyone to perceive it as a great felony and the person who did it to have committed a huge defect. This is a media ethical problem that every society of journalists are potentially endangered to suffer from. An ordinary layman would more commonly know this as ‘gossip’. Manipulation (Talbis Al-Haq bil Batil) and/or backbiting (Ghibah) – in its ethical Qur’anic conceptualization- or revelation – as they may call it within the media milieu- is essentially revealing news about others with wrong intention anticipating that they committed such a thing, while they do not want it to be covered nor publicised in that negatively reproduced manner.
Analysing it from an ethical angle, there are in fact three misleading errors. Firstly, is the actual revelation which is, itself, undesirable and prohibited. Secondly, is the assumption, the way and/or the tone of voice that conveyed the negative impression. An insinuation that what ‘X’ has committed is a grave sin, while this was not the case at all. Thirdly, by informing others so that the revelation may result in the original act being amplified out of proportion and making it into a bigger issue than is necessary, especially as the original person did not want his action to become exposed to the public. Therefore, the situation can become very complicated, much more so than may have initially been imagined.
One of the main problems with spreading misinformation, ‘gossip’, or revelation is that most people do it willingly or unwittingly, and thus unintentionally cause social problems. The Qur’an describes the ethical spiritual outcome affecting those who are involved in such revelation with a pitiful degradation, namely in verse 12 of surah al Hujurat; ‘Avoid much suspicion; indeed some suspicions are sins. And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?’. While other traditions describe backbiters as ‘the dogs of hell’ that feed on the flesh of their dead brother. Therefore, one must take the outcome of these social sicknesses of the mass media seriously, as it gravely and fatally creates a society of dogs, which metaphorically it means it transforms harmonious individuals into hellish aggressive, turning them against each other.
We read further in the narrations from Ahlul Bayt (as) similar guidelines. The Prophet (sawas) said: ‘Do not probe for flaws in believers, for a man that probes the flaws of his brother will have Allah probe his own flaws: and when Allah probes the flaws of a man, He will expose him even if he were inside his own home.’
Also, Imam Ali (as) said: ‘Nothing prevents anyone from among you from disclosing to a fellow brother a fault that he fears in him, except for the very fear that he too will disclose the same fault to him. You are all accomplices in your rejection of the next world and loving this world.’
In another Qura’nic verse those who desire to spread exposure about wrong - doers are being condemned with the verse:‘ Those who love (to see), scandal published broadcast, among the Believers, will have a grievous Penalty in this life, and in the Hereafter: God knows, and ye know not.’
They have been displayed as if they would desire lewd things to be spread amongst the believers. Here one has to seek the genuine meaning of this technical term from other Qur’anic verses. For example verse 151 of surah an’am also refers to another duty, when it then states: “come not near to lewd things (al-Fawahish) whether committed openly or secretly”.
What is meant by ‘al-Fawahish’ is the reference to anything shameful, or indecent acts, whether being related to –amongst others- sexual desire or not. These acts are considered in Qur’anic terms as ‘al-fawahish’. The Qur’an has described and used the same words (derived from the same word root) in verse 268 of surah baqarah- ‘shaitan threatens you with poverty and orders you to commit fahsha’ (n.b. fahsha is the singular of the (plural) fawahish). According to Qur’anic terminology, all things which are lewd are considered to be ‘al-fawahish’. The Qur’an has described adultery as ‘fahisha’, and repeated in numerous Qur’anic verses that it is prohibited, and is considered in many narrations to be one of those heinous and great sins (kaba’ir).
The Qur’an says prohibited are: ‘all these forms of lewd things whether open or concealed.’ There are many narrations describing what is meant by ‘open’ and ‘concealed’. What is ‘open’, according to the narrations, is whatever has been declared in the Qur’an as prohibited. What is meant by ‘concealed’ is whatever has been declared by the Prophet (sawas) or Imams (as) as prohibited. Imam Sadiq (as) was once asked ‘what is meant when the Qur’an says lewd things which are open or concealed?’ He replied that ‘the things which are declared according to Qur’an as prohibited are open lewd things, and whatever has been declared by us (i.e. the Imams (as) or the Prophet (sawas) are concealed lewd things’).
Misguiding the laity, and/or misleading them towards disobedience or manipulating the masses towards violating what has been declared as prohibited is an insidious act and lewd. Also when there are calls to lead people to the right path, standing against those calls may well cause sedition, but it is the responsibility of the media to resist sedition, which is strictly forbidden in Qur’anic terminology. Reading between the lines and whatever has been mentioned before gives the answer to the few questions that have been posed in the second subtitle of the article.
Media’s Misleading strategies
Unfortunately, the pure teachings of Divine messengers including Prophet Jesus (as) are ignored. He used to say: ‘Take truth even if it be from wrongdoers, but do not take falsehood even if it be from the righteous critics of speech. What has happened is exactly the other way round. That is instead of following the truth and being thankful towards what Almighty has blessed mankind with an innovative mind, he surrenders to the satanic insinuation, and follows an Eurocentric attitude to neglect anything Divine.
We read in Maritain’s book, ‘Religion and Culture’, the following: ‘The spiritual dominant of modern culture is an anthropocentric culture.’
The humanist outlook, with its associated faith in man and his capacities, has been powerfully promoted by the astonishing scientific, technological and economic achievements of the last three centuries. It is a creed which has gained massive credibility and legitimacy from modern human advance. So much exaggeration has been produced in favour of placing emphasise on the Powerful Mankind which has been levelled with God. Amazing wealth, incredible machines, landing on the moon, conquest of diseases, the micro-chip, jet-planes, the mapping of the human genome, vast cities – all these successes, and many others have given man immense belief in himself and his abilities. Moreover, such advance has been very much a phenomenon of Western man, whose supremacy in such areas has marked him out from the other peoples of the earth and lain behind his planetary ascendancy, a process which has added further lustre and prestige to such achievements.
It seems that many predictions of the apocalyptic hadith and eschatological traditions were metaphorically referring to these cases. We read in a narration from hadith, which was narrated by Muslim, the following: ‘Once they have been victorious over all those who are on Earth, they say, ‘let’s fight those who are in Heaven and the sky, so they would shoot at them with their arrows, but God will order those arrows to descend with blood. They would become incredibly happy claiming that they have killed those who are in the sky.’
Nowadays there is wide belief that there is nothing that he cannot do. He thinks that he is indeed, the master of his own destiny. This self-admiration has been especially encouraged by apparent success in the enterprise of dominating nature – an ancient ambition. For millennia man was heavily subordinated to the natural world and thus constantly reminded of his limits. His scientific successes during the modern age have revolutionised this relationship, as Hans Jonas has well emphasised in his work: ‘The Imperative of Responsibility’.
Media has been transformed from what it ought to be - a source of inspiration and guidance towards the right path, into a tool of temptation and misguidance. Imam Ali (as) has said once describing this kind of tool: ‘Condemning those who follow Satan, they have taken the controller for their affairs, And he has in turn adopted them as his partners [use them as his traps]. He has laid eggs and hatched them in their tongues. Thus does he lead them to commit errors and glamorizes their own foolish deeds to them, like the act of one whom satan has made partner in his domain, speaking lies through his tongue.
Towards the End
Contemporary mass media’s struggle has been to consistently belittle, even trivialize, the importance of religion in addition to causing confusion in the mind of the majority. Nevertheless, today’s headlines have not awarded them the opportunity to escape what, for them, is the bitter fact that they cannot fail but be overwhelmed with astonishing evidence that refutes all relevant secularist predictions. The mobility of the population during the Islamic revolution of Iran, led and guided by the late Ayatollah Khomainy (may his soul rest in peace) has brought home to the whole world the varieties of religious phenomena that had seldom been reproduced as exotic features of the British empire. Now, the whole European continent has to deal with the entire gamut of them, and this paper has attempted to effectively spell out the paradox that faces French secular minds; on the one hand, dreaming of the absence of religion from the public realm as a (mistaken) guarantee of liberal tolerance and, on the other, facing the unintended consequences of their futile policies.
Conclusion:
- Islam belongs at home to the majority of European countries, while these societies are heading towards a transitional phase about adopting a human-Divine Worldview that is closer to the teachings of Islam and Divine messengers.
- The decrease of the role of Christianity is not to be generalized to apply to the reduction of all Divine faiths, such as Islam, which is a thorough and all-inclusive worldview that possesses the practical approach to all European cultures with positive inclusion, rather than negative rejection.
- The role of religion, especially Islam, in the Public sphere, is undeniably powerful and impossible to be devoid, while the role of media could turn either way: Positively creating a just monotheistic society, or negatively manipulating to provide unjust, atheistic and apathetic social norms
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