Islam and Freedom

Let us Begin in the Name of God the All-Merciful, and All-Compassionate

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Let me also begin with a slight sidetrack, hopefully to get to freedom eventually.

There are times when in conversation with non-muslims one comes across topics which somehow highlight the differences in understanding that arise from the way our traditions have approached similar human, social, and spiritual processes, for example the present trend to accept Human Rights as a common basis for moral judgements is not a natural way for a muslim to think, as his tradition instead of rights talks about duties. It is the same process we are talking about.

There is a natural process by which priviledge in wealth or power is self-sustaining, and yet there is also a social need to get the priviledged to relinquish some of their advantages in favour of the underpriviledged if the system is to remain stable and healthy. This process can be discussed in two ways, in terms of rights or as in traditional Islam in terms of obligations and duties.

This difference is quite a good example of the different approaches of the different traditions, the one view tending to be more theoretical, the have-nots discussing what they haven't got that someone else has and that they ought to be given, a theory which looks upwards and breeds envy and dissatisfaction. For example: when I came back from the third world, my poor left wing friends that I hadn't seen for some time were giving it - "7% of the people own 84% of this country's wealth - this is unfair - we deserve more of it - we demand our rights - eat the rich - etc." Not a very happy lifestyle. But I was just back from places like India and had a natural tendency to say - "But you are the rich! What you feel about a few industrialists and aristocrats the vast majority of humanity feels about you! Are you prepared to give up your wealth and priviledges.

I was speaking from the emotion of the experience, but my view was also like the traditional Islamic view of the process, which is, I tend to think, more practical, not addressing those without about what they need, but addressing those who have and their duties to those who have not, even formalising this flow of wealth and power in the Zakat, one of the pillars of Islam. The Zakat, of course, is just a minimum legal requirement, but viewing the problem in terms of obligations means that man has to think in terms of those less priviledged than himself, and exist in a state of mercy, compassion, and generosity, a much happier state than that of envy.

By the time he died, the Prophet was the undisputed ruler of a large swathe of Arabia, but he used to have patched clothes, and gave away whatever he had to whoever asked, so that on many occasions his family even ran out of food. A few hours before he died, he called in his advisors and asked if he owed anyone any money, which he didn't, then insisted that his last few coins be given away to the poor, as it was not right that he died in possession of any wealth at all.

So we can see that the legal obligation is only a social enforcement of what is the ideal lifestyle, because it is not a matter of wealth and poverty, there is always someone with more than us and certainly someone with less, it is a matter of which way we are facing. Islam rarely talks to the slave about his rights, but frequently talks of the duties of the slave-owner,  and mention of slavery must mean we are finally getting close to discussing freedom. I'll get round to slavery in more detail later.

The reason for this sidetrack is because when I started to look into the subject of freedom, the first thing I did was to look through the Qur'an, and I found that freedom was virtually never mentioned as such. I think that the fiercely individualistic arabs of the day were prime examples of the truism that man will always fight for his own personal freedoms, and doesn't really need reminding to do it. But the Qur'an often talks in terms of the negative aspects of excessive freedom, so without going into Emerson's distinctions between freedom and liberty, the Qur'an talks not of liberty but libertines, frequently illustrating how they are in fact losing out by the untrammelled freedom of their behaviour on an individual level, and deals with the social aspects of their behaviour through exhortations to justice, and prescriptions for the ideal basis for that justice.

The Qur'an recognises that we are not all given the same cards to play with

Not equal are the blind and the seeing man,
the shadows and the light,
the shade and the torrid heat;
not equal are the living and the dead.

Say: "The corrupt and the good are not equal,
though the abundance of the corrupt please thee."
So fear God, O men possessed of minds; haply
so you will prosper.

but ultimately all men are equal before God, and equal before God's law. Kings have no divine right above the Shari'a, and in theory at any rate are the servants of their subjects, and restricted in their actions by the rulings of the jurists of that community. Any man is free to challenge the behaviour of the King and expect justice. The law is there to curtail the behaviour of libertines. 

Now does this mean that in fact the religious men have all the power and can get away with what they like. Well no, not quite. Just after one of the most beautiful and famous verses of the Qur'an there is a line dropped in like a landmine for zealots. - "There is no compulsion in religion" - which is a theme the Qur'an returns to frequently - "The truth is from your Lord; so let whosoever will believe, and let whosoever will disbelieve." - So it's not just a subjective impression that we can clearly do what we like. We in fact have freedom of choice.

But as individuals, this is the only real freedom we have, Free Will, freedom to choose whether to believe or not. Of course, once this initial choice of how one is going to understand Creation has been made, we live our lives facing continuous choices that feel free enough, but they are all dependent for their experiential truth on that initial choice. This distinguishes man from the animals. The birds are not free. They can perhaps choose to sit here or there or fly north or south, but they cannot choose not to believe. We can, and this initial choice is an exercise of Will.

Karl Popper was on the TV late last night, saying "A bee doesn't know how to lie" The thing which distinguishes man from the animals is his ability to choose truth from falsehood - the ability to tell a lie or live in the truth. By seeking for the Truth, we are in fact searching for God, as in the Islamic tradition, one of the Names of God is The Truth. Al-Haqq, the meaning of which also includes Justice of which we spoke earlier.

As you know, the muslim does not just think of God as outside himself to be seen through the Creation, but God is also within - "We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in themselves" - The individual life-force that we receive at birth is described as the Breath of God. God is connected with us in a way qualitatively different from the rest of creation. We were not only placed above the animals, but above the angels, so what is it that we are given that merits this preferment. It is in our Free Will that we are Godlike. Because of course, if you believe in an eternal all-knowing Creator, the only way we can have any freedom is by sharing in the Will of that Creator. We get the thrill of feeling that we are running the show, but without the gift of Freedom, we are are all just God's slaves.

There, I said I'd get back to slavery, and it might not be a bad idea to climb back down from the airy heights of philosophy to something a little more concrete. Islam has always accepted slavery as a fact of human life, and I don't think there's any need to go into what pressures are brought to bear in making a man spend his life in unpleasant labour, but the attitude of the Qur'an is quite clear, as the only frequent use of the word free is in the context of freeing slaves. As a direct expiation for misdeeds, or just as an example of right behaviour, the Qur'an constantly exhorts the freeing of the oppressed. Accepting the realities of service, however, in Islam a master is expected to feed his slave with the same food that he eats, to dress him in clothes of an equal standard to himself, to look after his health, and to see that he is not overworked.

After one of the muslim's early battles, the captives were enslaved and one of them was given as servant to the Prophet and his household. Some time later, the man's family who were quite wealthy leaders of a northern region got to hear of his whereabouts, and his parents made the journey to Medina to plead for his freedom. When they arrived they offered to buy him back, but the Prophet said that really no money was necessary, and that the man was formally set free to leave. Of course, then they found out that he actually didn't want to go. Who would? He was actually living in the presence of the Prophet, getting to feed him and look after him, wash his feet, he was freely working as a slave of the Prophet.

In the same way a muslim is given Freedom by God, and can then choose to remain in God's company by being His willing slave, and living a life in His service. We can choose what we want to do, but it only becomes a worthwhile experience of the Truth if we are ultimately doing it for God.

My full given name is 'Abd al- Malik, and I have a muslim friend who constantly calls me Abdul to my intense frustration, as it combines the application of the rules of Christian naming with an ignorance of the way Arabic works that is alright in a non-muslim, but is extremely aggravating from a muslim. The reason so many muslims are called Abdul is because it is not a name at all - "al" is the definite article, and is usually in the name linked to one of the names of God - in my case al-Malik, the King - and 'Abd means "slave" - so I am the slave of the king. Muslims are frequently named in this way, as slaves of one of the Divine Names, 'Abd al- Qudoos, 'Abd al- Salaam, 'Abd al- Rahman, 'Abd Allah -  the slave of God. As muslims we choose slavery to remain in the company of the One who gave us our freedom.