Three Men in a Boat (1)
Seagull stood up, then sang a part of a song,
And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah, you bleed just to know, you're alive
And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am *)
After saying salaam, delivered the opening sentence, she continued, "One day, when I was sitting at a dock, I saw three men in a boat. One was wearing hoodie, he always seemed to be staring down, as if he wanted to hide his face. Another man, wearing a jacket, his hands always in his pockets. And the last man, wearing a cardigan, he looked calm and always stared at the open sea. As long as I listened to their conversations, they shared what they knew, never arguing with each other.
The man wearing the hoodie asked, "Is Islam dangerous?" The other two men were silent for a moment, then the man wearing the cardigan said, "I don't think so!" The hoodie asked, "What do you know about it? Tell us!" The cardigan said, "All I know and have heard, Islam, in a word, means liberation from all sorts of slavery which may inhibit the progress of humanity or may not allow it to follow the path of virtue and goodness. It means man’s freedom from dictators who enslave him by force or fear, make him do what is wrong and deprive him of his dignity, honour, property or even life. Islam liberates him from such tyranny by telling him that all authority vests in Allah and Allah Alone; He Alone is the Real Sovereign. All men are His slaves and, as such, He Alone controls their destinies, none of them having the power to benefit aught or even avert any distress from his own self contrary to or independent of His Divine Will. All men shall be presented before Him on the Day of Judgement to account for their performance throughout their lifetime. Thus Islam brings to man freedom from fear or oppression inflicted on him by men like himself who are in reality as helpless as he is, and who are no less subject to the Dominant Will of Allah the Almighty than he himself is.
Not only this. Islam means freedom from lust as well, including even the lust for life, as it is this very weakness of man which is exploited by tyrants and dictators intentionally or otherwise, in enslaving their fellowmen. But for it, no man would silently accept slavery to men like himself or sit idle to watch tyranny strut abroad and dare not challenge it. It is a great blessing of Islam that it taught man to fight tyranny and oppression bravely rather than cringe before them in abject servitude.
Islam attaches so great importance to the freeing of man from his animal passions. For this purpose, it neither favours monarchism, nor does it forbid its followers to partake freely in the good things of this life. Rather, Islam aims at the attainment of a balance between these two extremes. Whatever things are here, are for man. They are to serve him, not to dominate or rule him. He should not, therefore, allow himself to be made slave to them. He should rather use them as means to a higher end i.e. his spiritual perfection by disseminating the word of Allah amongst his fellowmen. Thus Islam has a two fold objective in this regard: in the individual life, it aims at making a just and sufficient provision to each and every individual so as to enable him to lead a decent, clean life; and in the collective sphere, it arranges things in such a way that all the social forces of a community are directed towards the enhancement of progress and civilization in accordance with its basic outlook upon life that aims at striking a balance between the units and the whole, between individuals and the community.
Islam has also had the most liberalising effect on human intellect as it is diametrically opposed to all sorts of superstition. Humanity has been in the course of history, found to fall a prey to diverse absurdities of thought as well as practice, some of which were the lively play of man’s fancy and were acknowledged as such, whereas others were referred to as originating with gods to whom human hands gave shape. Thus did the human intellect grope about in the dark before the advent of Islam. With Islam it attained maturity and freedom from this hotchpotch of nonsense, symbolised in these so-called gods. Islam, once again, brought human intellect back to the folds of True Faith and True God; Allah The Most High.
Islam uses a very simple terminology. Its teachings are very easy to understand, perceive and believe in. It invites man to make use of the faculties given to him and try to acquire the fullest possible understanding of life surrounding him. It does not as such admit of any inborn hostility between reason and religion or, for that matter, between science and religion. It does not force man to believe in silly stuff as a prior condition to his belief in Allah. Nor does it compel him to renounce his Allah so as to be able to admit of scientific facts. Not confined to this, Islam impresses upon man in clear and unequivocal terms that it is Allah and Allah Alone Who has in His Immense mercy subjected all the things on this earth to man, and that all the facts that are discovered by scientific exploration or the material benefits that flow therefrom to man, are in fact a blessing of Allah, for which man should offer his thanks to Allah, and strive hard so as to become a worthy slave of so Merciful and Beneficent a Master.
Islam holds knowledge and science as a part of faith rather than regards them as an evil intrinsically opposed to genuine belief in God; Allah The Most High. Science is a powerful instrument to help us increase our knowledge of the things around us. As such, it has an impressive record of achievements to its credit. Islam equips man with a sound outlook upon life telling him that whatever knowledge he acquires or the material or spiritual benefits he enjoys, are in fact so many gifts to him from a Beneficent God. And that He is pleased with man so long as man employs the knowledge thus acquired in the service of mankind; and that Allah does never get angry with His creatures for their aspiring after knowledge, nor does He have any fear whatever of them that they would challenge His authority or vie with Him; and that He is provoked to anger only when man abuses his knowledge of science and makes it a means of tormenting his fellowmen or committing aggression against them.
Thus Islam not only establishes peace and harmony, but also rids mankind of tyranny and oppression. The contemporary world presents in this respect, no better view than it did thirteen hundred
years ago, when Islam freed it from all false gods. Tyranny still struts abroad in the guise of haughty kings, insolent demagogues and heartless capitalists who are busy as ever sucking up the blood of the working millions, subjugating them and making capital out of their helplessness and miserable plight. There is still another class of dictators who rule with fire and sword, usurp peoples’ liberties and go about chanting that they are merely instruments in enforcing the people’s or the proletariat’s will.
The world was divided into two big power blocs — the capitalist and the communist blocs, each set against the other in a deadly struggle for the capture of world-markets and important strategical points on the globe. They, however, despite all their differences, still remain one and the same thing as both are imperialistic in outlook and are out to enslave other peoples of the world. With this end in view, they are both anxious to capture the maximum possible resources, human as well as material. Other human beings are in their eyes no better than so many chattels, man-power they call it, or mere tools with which to realize their nefarious designs."
The hoodie asked, "What do you know about capitalism? Tell us!" The cardigan was silent, turned to the man in the jacket and said, "You tell us!" The jaket said, "Some think that Islam was a feudalistic system. Let us see what the word feudalism means in fact and what are its characteristics. Speaking about feudalism, there is an author says, “Feudalism is a way of production, the distinguishing mark of it being the existence of a perpetual system of serfdom. It is a system wherein the landlord or his representative is entitled to receive a fixed share of production and enjoys certain specific economic rights, carrying with them the privilege to make their tenants serve them or, instead thereof, receive payments from them in cash or kind. As an explanation of this, we may say that the feudal society is divided into two classes of people, first, The owners of feudal lands, and second, the tenants, who may again vary in their grades, farmers, agricultural workers, and slaves, the number of some of them dwindling off more rapidly than that of others. It is the farmers, the direct producers, however, who enjoy the right to possess land and have a share in the produce that is so necessary for them to support their families and themselves, besides the right to build farmhouses on the tillage. Against these benefits, they are required to serve the landlord every week by rendering free services in his fields working with their own cattle and instruments, along with performing for him a number of other services at the time of harvesting and reaping, and offering him on the occasion of festivals whatever gifts and presents they can. They are also expected to get their food-grains and grapes milled and pressed in his flour mills and pressing machines.
The landlord also exercises full executive and judicial powers over his tenants living within the bounds of his feudal lands. The real producer in feudalism did not enjoy freedom in the sense we know at present; he did not own the land, nor could he sell, inherit or give it as a free gift to others. He was compelled to a forced labour in the lands of his master even at the expense of his own material gains or considerations thereof. Moreover, as a mark of his obedience to the master he had to pay him taxes that were unlimited in amount as well as extent. With the land he too changed masters passing from one to the other, for he did not have the right to shift of his own free will from one chief to another in search of work or even join the service of still another master. As such, the feudal villain forms the connecting link between the slaves of old times and the free tenants of the modem times.
It was the master who fixed the extent of the land to be given by him to the peasant. He also decided about the services that he expected his tenants to render him without being under any obligation to have a consideration for the rights of the other landowners or the needs of the peasants while making such momentous decisions.
Then, what is the relationship between Islam and feudalism? Islam has nothing to do with it. There is no serfdom in Islam as it recognized no other form of servitude save that of slavery, the causes and conditions whereof and the means of freedom. Islam admits of no bondage arising out of a tenant’s being bound to the soil. The only slaves that we know of in Islam were those captured in wars which is quite sufficient to prove that in the early Islamic society the number of slaves was far less in comparison with the total numbers of its free citizens. They worked on the soil of their masters till they were freed voluntarily by, or they themselves took the initiative and demanded the writing of their freedom of their masters.
Islam is not at all familiar with this type of serfdom as it is in principle opposed to all forms of servitude save that rendered by man unto his Rabb, the Creator of all life. There is no provision in Islam for the subjection of some creatures to other creatures like them. Whenever such an abnormal state-subjection of some men to others is found due to certain external causes without any initiative from Islam, it always is a temporary or a transitional phenomenon, which Islam strives to do away with, with all the possible resources at its disposal, encouraging the slaves to earn their freedom besides holding the state responsible to render to them all possible help towards that end.
In economics too, Islam does not recognize any bondage of man to other men like him. The system of slavery to which we have alluded above is an exception as there was no other economical alternative before Islam at that time. Islam tolerated it till the slaves were freed spiritually and till the time they were able to shoulder their responsibilities as free members of the community, whereupon Islam actively helped them in winning back their lost freedom.
Islam bases its economic structure on freedom of action coupled with a relationship of a complete co-operation and exchange of mutual services among all individuals. The Islamic government acts as a guardian and custodian of all such people who happen to lag behind in the struggle of life for some reason and are denied all amenities of a decent living. Thus with all the resources of the state backing him in an Islamic community; no man needs let himself become a bondsman to the landowners. Islam provides for all his basic needs without degrading him or making him lose his independence, self-respect or honour.
Thus both spiritually and economically Islam is opposed to feudalism. It brought to men freedom from feudalism even before they were caught up in the shackles of serfdom."
The hoodie asked, "So, what about capitalism? "
