He was sent to his people to invite them to worship one God. Surah al-A’araf reports the significance of his message and the purpose of his prophethood. He asked his people to believe in one true God and not to submit to any other false deity. In case of refutation of his invitation, Noah remarked that this might attract divine displeasure.

According to the Quran the leaders of his people replied in the negative to his invitation to monotheism. The chiefs of his people said that Noah was in error, to which he replied that he was not misguided, but a prophet sent by the Lord of the Worlds.

Noah then spoke to his people and said that his basic task was to deliver the message of God and be their well-wisher.

He asked his people why they thought it strange that a man from amongst them brought them the message of God as well as remembrance of God so that they could attain awareness of one God (monotheism), become pious and in return receive divine mercy.

But the Quran has reported that many of his people refused Noah’s invitation to monotheism, except a few who believed. Noah and a small group of believers were delivered from the subsequent deluge. The prophet had built an ark for his followers due to which he and the believers landed safely on land after the great flood and rainfall.

Elsewhere it is reported that Noah’s invitation to monotheism spread across almost 900 years. This means that he preached to his people for almost a millennium but without much success. He elucidated to his people that monotheism leads to peace and tranquillity.

Noah asserted to his people that monotheism is the original state of awareness for every person. When a person realises monotheism, he or she in turn becomes an effective, useful and thankful creature of God.

In Surah Nuh, Noah invites the attention of his people towards the infinite mercy and blessings of God. These include rainwater, wealth and children, fertile gardens and rivers. He then asks his people why they do not expect honour from God who has created them all in a diverse fashion.

Noah then invites his people to ponder over the natural signs and natural order as proof of the presence of one God. He asks them to reflect upon the seven skies (Verse 15), the brightly shining moon and luminous sun (Verse 16), the creative process of man from mud (earth) (Verse 17), death of man and resurrection (again from earth) (Verse 18), and the earth as a resource and the pathway for travel (Verses 19 and 20).

When a person reflects upon the natural order of things, he or she inevitably ends up with monotheism. The fully fledged awareness of the great and profound presence of God and His connection with human beings as well as all of creation leaves one awestruck.

One cannot ignore the overriding evidence of natural complexity and cultural diversity in favour of the monotheistic experience. The Truth is one and indivisible. The history of nature and the history of civilisations bear irrefutable testimony to this fact.

Then Noah advised his people not to submit to and worship idols, which were five in number, named Wadh, Suwa, Yaghuth, Yauq and Nasr. According to the Quranic commentary of Allama Syed Naeemuddin Muradabadi, there were many idols which they worshipped but these five were considered to be exceedingly majestic by them. They were in the form of a male, a female, a lion, a horse and a vulture.

One can look at these idols in a symbolic and anthropological way. The symbols reflect that the society in which Noah preached was essentially an agricultural one. The symbols of male/female deities speak to procreation, fertility and the productivity of crops. The symbols of lion and horse represent the political power and authority of the society while that of the vulture may have a connection with the occult. From the symbolism of the idols, Noah appears to have lived and preached in Mesopotamia.

These idols and their mythology were later on transferred to Arabia and each one of them was adopted by the polytheist tribes of Arabia for the purpose of worship (Kinzul Iman).

The most stunning aspect of Noah’s invitation to monotheism resides in his art of persuasion and patience. He would keep inviting his people to the path of Truth and piety day and night, morning and evening.

His people would ridicule him. They would hurl insults upon him. They would harass Noah and his disciples. They would threaten him with a social boycott. They would abuse him and warn him of dire consequences for negating their idols.

But Noah and his followers would stick to their faith. They would not budge an inch for fear of insult, abuse and boycott. Noah would consistently, patiently and peacefully persuade his people to become monotheists and abandon their polytheistic practices. Noah’s wisdom lies in the technique of persuasion when faced with falsehood.

The writer is a social scientist based at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

ahmadelia@gmail.com

The first part is concerned with the balanced organisation of his biological structure by God. The material used for this purpose is referred to as mud, clay or dust (teen in Arabic).
According to the Quranic discourse, God applied His own hands to construct the face of Adam.

Once the biological structure was proportionally put in place by God, He then breathed His soul into the tangible physical structure. This brought Adam to life.

The second episode is concerned with the proclamation of Adam’s superiority over the creatures of light and fire (malaika and jinn). These creatures were asked to prostrate (offer sajda) to Adam as a token of recognising his superior knowledge.

The malaika (angels) objected to the Almighty’s choice for Adam’s deputyship on earth but were satisfied when Adam displayed his superior knowledge to them on God’s command. So they all prostrated before Adam in the Divine assembly except one, a jinn described as Shaitan and Iblees in the Quran. He refused to prostrate.

God asked him why he did not prostrate, to which Iblees replied that he was superior to Adam as God had created Adam from mud and himself from fire. Hence Iblees was asked to leave the Divine assembly. But Iblees was cunning. He begged God for an immortal life to mislead and misguide the children of Adam, except those who protect themselves from his devilish allure. Hence Iblees was granted limited immortality to misguide Adam and his progeny.

The third episode took place in the life of Adam after his proclamation of deputyship in the Divine assembly. This was the intrusion of Iblees in heaven, into the blissful life of Adam and Eve, who had been living there in a state of internal peace and harmony. They were closer to the angelic existence and were both still unaware of the biological and sexual desire present in their bodily system. They were also informed not to go close to the ‘forbidden tree’ and save themselves from Divine displeasure.

But Iblees was cunning enough to approach them. He allured them with his sweet rhetoric, telling them they were restrained from tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree so that they may not be able to attain angelic existence or an immortal life. They were tempted by Satan’s narrative and tasted the fruit of the forbidden tree.

Hitherto hidden biological and sexual desires overcame them. They simply disobeyed and lost their pure state of existence in heaven. Iblees was very happy at this great achievement and thought he was successful in failing the Divine choice of Adam as deputy. This episode, however, laid a permanent foundation of a dialectical struggle between the children of Adam and the offspring of Satan on earth.

Adam needs to rediscover his lost purity on earth. Meanwhile, Satan and his progeny continue with their evil ways to stop him from attaining lost immortality. Adam and Eve were sent to earth to restructure their lost purity and immortality by invoking the names of God, the Merciful and Forgiving.

Iblees was, however, unaware of Adam’s superior knowledge and his ingrained ability to seek forgiveness (tawba) for his misdeeds. The act of seeking forgiveness from God purifies the transgressor.

The essential difference between a satanic and human act lies in the fact that man revisits his mistakes and sins and repents. God loves those who repent and forgives them because of His innate and infinite mercy. In this way Adam and his children on earth became symbols of hope and good.

Those who do not revisit and repent their misdeeds are following the path of Satan. They are the symbols of darkness, despair, tyranny and evil. All evil and disorder on earth is perpetrated by these evil, satanic forces.

The touchstone to differentiate the children of Adam and the followers of Satan is very simple. The children of Adam seek forgiveness and amend their mistakes. They seek purity of thought and action. They are those, as mentioned in the hadith, who do not harm other human beings by their hand and tongue. On the other hand, the tribe of Satan thrives on plunder, killing, hatred, disorder and death. They indulge in orgies of destruction every day. They plan day and night to ruin the peace of cities. God and the Prophet (PBUH) have shown their displeasure towards those who perpetrate evil in the peaceful cities.

The satanic forces would invite you day and night to lead an immoral life. They would create fear in you to submit to evil and immoral commands.

In fact one aspect of our civilisation is an abundance of fear. We are driven by fear to blind obedience. For example some of our teachers lash out at us if we question them while our politicians tell us to obey them or else. Hence fear is a weapon.

The writer is a social scientist based at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore.
ahmadelia@gmail.com

It has become ever more pertinent to reconnect with this common heritage of prophetic wisdom from all religious traditions of the world. This is a curious soul’s well-justified need based upon the past 300 years of man’s misconstrued historical progress modelled after a materialistic heaven on earth.

One can visibly see the social devastation gradually unleashed by the forces of unabated materialism on human cultures, on nature and on the earth in general.

What were the common attributes of the great prophets of the past? Firstly, they all were deeply connected with God. They showed a method to all human beings for an inward connectivity with God. They taught that an inner discovery of God can be witnessed if one knows how to invoke divine mercy.

The method these prophets taught was prayer and hymn. They taught men and women to call out to God at every instant of their lives, over and above the specific times of prayer and worship. The prophets taught everyone to look into the mechanisms of one’s ego. The application of this simple reflective technique would reveal the beauty of God.

The Quran has testified to this inner psychological connectivity when it states that God is nearer to man than his jugular vein.

The second attribute common to all the prophets and wise men was their unanimous and unequivocal refutation of evil and a programme for a simple, moral life.

Just look at the life of Gautama Buddha. He laid the foundations of a simple life. He advised his disciples not to harm any living creature on earth, plants and insects included, take care of fellow human beings and spend a life of reflection, self-control and meditation.

Now look at the life of Prophet Moses. He challenged the tyrannical rule of the pharaoh over Bani Israel. He asked the pharaoh to stop his atrocities and injustices targeting the Children of Israel otherwise he would face dire consequences. Moses was successful in achieving liberation for his tribe, who were suffering under the slavery of an unjust Egyptian king.

Moses always asked his people to pray to God, eat permissible food and be kind to parents. The great prophet would ask his tribesmen to engage in prayers at home and invoke the glorious names of God day and night.

Now just reflect on the words “jugular vein” employed in the Quranic verse. These are symbolic in both meaning and context. The safety and continuity of human life depends upon the healthy functioning of the jugular vein. Similarly, the spiritual and psychological sustainability of a person totally depends upon inner reflection on God.

The inner peace and harmony which has disappeared from contemporary civilisation can be restored if mankind could find its lost jugular vein, which is nothing else but a reflective reunion with our inner essence.

The revealed words of the Quran with which it opens its discourse with human beings are Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem, (In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful). The Holy Book introduces human beings to a God who is merciful and kind and closer to his soul than his jugular vein. These are the two defining attributes of God’s ‘personality’ in the Quran. In Surah al-Anam, God says that He has “prescribed mercy for Himself”. On the basis of the scholarly authority of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Gilani in his book Ghuniya-tu-Talibeen (the objective of seekers), a hadith has been narrated by him, in which the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has reportedly said that this single verse of the Quran was brought to him by the archangel Gabriel who was accompanied by a procession of 75,000 angels brightly dressed in divine light.

Therefore, anyone hoping to seek God inwardly must invoke His infinite mercy and boundless generosity. All worldly mercies and generosities shown by human beings to each other are nothing but the smallest drop taken from the boundless ocean of divine mercy.

These inspired words of the Quran teach us a simple reflective psychological technique to uncover the centre of our soul. Once one gets access to the centre of one’s soul, one becomes quiet and calm and is in harmony with one’s inner world. All historical contradictions and psychological conflicts evaporate into thin air.

The symbol of the jugular vein tellingly uncovers our biological programming to us. It exposes the biological necessity to connect our egos spiritually with God. The symbol of the jugular vein tells us that God has not abandoned us. One can rely in one’s moments of joy and crisis, in rejection, in loss and loneliness, only on God. That calling out to Him and Him alone, incessantly, repeatedly, purifies us.

Then why run after the optical illusion of an earthly heaven, populated with the idols of greed, vulgarity, falsehood, lust and inequality?

Prophetic wisdom is nothing else but a lost treasure of mankind. It has never left the human ego because of its unique biological programming of being closest to and nearest to God.

The smoke of greed, which has been rising from the chimneys of technological civilisation for the last 300 years, has just marred this inner mirror. The mirror is there, the light is there. We need to take a small first step and see the difference.

The writer is a social scientist based at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

ahmadelia@gmail.com

God says in Verse 12 that, “And certainly We gave wisdom to Luqman [and said] be thankful to God. Those who are grateful are grateful [for their own soul]. And whoever denies, then God is free of need and praiseworthy”.

The innate ethical sense programmed in a human being commands him or her to be thankful to God. This act of thanksgiving makes a person humble and generous to fellow human beings. Those who show compassion and warmth to the creatures of God are the true manifestations of ethical sensibility.

The act of thanksgiving purges our egos from feelings of evil and whisperings of all sorts, hate, jealousy, revenge and oppression. This ego-cleansing activity has been termed by the Sufis as takhliya. Some spiritual teachers have made it mandatory upon their students to engage in takhliya every night and prepare a balance sheet and diagnose and rectify in case some evil feelings towards a fellow creature have crept into one’s thoughts and feelings.

The visible psychological effect of this purging gradually makes an ego recipient to the pain and suffering of fellow creatures.

The real value of thanksgiving is thus revealed in one’s own ego transforming and becoming humble. The permanent psychological advantage thus lies in humility and not pride and prejudice. It connects a person with God.

Then Luqman engages in a conversation with his son from verse 13 onwards. He advises him, “…Do not indulge in an act of association (shirk) with God. Shirk is the greatest injustice”. The next verse urges man to be kind to his parents: “…His mother carried him bearing weakness after weakness…. Be thankful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the [final] destination”.

Parental care is thus incumbent upon a person under all circumstances, except in case one’s parents force one to engage in an act of association (shirk) with God. The right of parental care is inalienable because God says that one should keep worldly relations with one’s parents in a decent manner even if they force one to indulge in shirk, but one must not engage in it at any cost.

The intactness of familial organisation is irreversibly connected to parental care. The sociological implication of ethical sensibility can be seen here very explicitly that bears upon the social foundations of human societies. The act of being thankful to God and one’s parents not only cleanses one’s ego but keeps the social system healthy, clean and dependable.

Verse 16 takes up the problem of evil very squarely. Luqman advising his son says, “Oh son! If the [evil] is equivalent to a mustard seed and remains hidden inside a rock or in the heavens or in the earth, God shall bring it forth. Verily God is subtle and aware”.

Those who think that they can get away with doing evil or hide it from divine accountability are mistaken. God has made examples of evil individuals and evil civilisations that transgressed and committed tyranny against others. The best practice Luqman advises his son is to stay away from evil.

Verses 17 to 19 describe the behavioural attributes of a person which have far-reaching moral, cultural and social consequences for a harmonious and healthy society. Luqman advises, “Oh my son! Establish prayer, and command good and forbid evil and be patient over what befalls you….” The next verse advises “And do not turn thy face away from people and do not walk in insolence on the land. Verily, God does not like the arrogant and the boastful”. Verse 19 says that “And be moderate in your pace and lower your voice. Verily the braying of the donkey is the most disagreeable of sounds”.

The practice of prayer connects one with God. This spiritual connection has a logical corollary: that one practises well and avoids evil in life. This also leads one to be patient and bear the pains, discomfort and losses in one’s life.

This patience is then reflected in interpersonal life and psychomotor activities of a person. One walks in harmony and talks with temperance. The attributes outlined by Luqman help create an ethical personality that is likeable. The ethical individual thus created would form the basis of a trust-efficient, interdependent and harmonious social fabric. The ethical and self-aware individuals then turn out to be the building blocks of a socially aware and critical collective.

This ethical model is absent from our collective life. Our public discourse and our textbooks promote pedagogy of loud speech, arrogance, complaining, discrimination and impatience etc. Our personality building discourse in classrooms as well as personality testing methods are based on alien ethical concepts.

For example, aggressive, competitive and self-confident are considered to be the core values of a successful manager. So management books are replete with examples of ‘aggressive managers’ who achieved success in their life by subscribing to utilitarian ethics, and which only focus around the notion of self-interest. One must pause here and ask what kind of ‘success’ one is looking for.

Similarly, TV talk shows, which promote loud speech and violent aggression, are highly rated and liked. Thus, our crisis is ethical and not of a political or economic nature.

The writer is a social scientist based at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

ahmadelia@gmail.com

But the most important aspect of the Quranic discourse is the unveiling of the spiritual dimension of Adam. God addresses the angels and reveals His intention that He has decided to send Adam as His representative on earth (2:30).

The angels collectively object to this selection on the grounds that Adam will shed blood on earth and create disorder. God replies to this angelic objection by saying that “…I know which you know not”.

Then Adam, on orders from God, demonstrates his competence to comprehend everything and name things micro as well as macro (2:31-32). The biological Adam became the spiritual Adam when the divine touch was applied to him (7:11). Therefore Adam became a perfect combination of knowledge, soul and desire.

It was the desiring aspect of Adam which made him vulnerable to the allurements of Satan (Iblis). Adam and Eve tasted the fruit of the forbidden tree; this revealed the deviant dimension of their self, rooted in their biological structure, which led to disobedience and compromise on their immortality.

This also revealed the dialectical aspect of Adam’s nature. That he was capable of unleashing good and evil from the core of his being simultaneously. That now he has to rediscover lost immortality by a subtle synthesis of knowledge, soul and desire. This was the beginning of the historical Adam on earth.

Shaikh-ul-Akbar Mohyieddin Ibn al-Arabi in his book Fusus-ul-Hikam has opined that God chose Adam to be His representative on earth because he (Adam) reflected the essential attributes of the divine in his cosmological design. He was chosen by God to be the microcosm for the entire creative process.

He was the mirror of realities in which the possibilities of the macrocosm (cosmos and its constituents) perfectly found expression. The microscopic and macroscopic dimensions of the cosmological processes are programmed in his very being.

The key to this cosmic treasure chest lies within the very being of Adam.

His ontological attributes, which include knowledge, soul and desire, equip him sufficiently to engage with all levels and all forms of cosmic realities. The strife between good and evil is primordial. It co-evolved with the very origin of the tribe of Adam on earth.

The first blood was shed by the son of Adam. Cain murdered Abel. He did this because his nature was a combination of knowledge and desire. He was after power and domination. Abel refused this killing allurement because his nature was a combination of knowledge and soul. He let his brother kill him because he had an innate sense of empathy, altruism and self-sacrifice.

This was the first historical scuffle of good and evil. The subsequent history of the race of Adam bears testimony to the dialectical engagement of self-corruption and self-purification, between accumulation and distribution of wealth and between hate and love.

According to the Biblical narrative, Cain thus founded the first city. The city became a symbol of inequality, domination and control of fellow men. On the contrary, Abel’s worldview of a nomadic life upheld equality, sharing and empathy as the basis of human existence on earth.

Most of the social, economic and political problems of the tribe of Adam on earth are connected with eternal struggles between the two opposing worldviews. Slavery, violence, genocide, oppression and accumulation of wealth are the legacy of the tribe of Cain. Peace, meditation, freedom, spiritual liberation and mutual sharing of economic resources are the characteristic attributes of the tribe of Abel.

Those who follow the worldview of Abel may not be millionaires, but they are more close to their self, more peaceful at heart and more kind and generous to their fellow brothers and sisters. Whatever they possess — social or economic capital — is open for all. They share it with all human beings without any discrimination on the basis of colour, race, language, sex and nationality.

They rise at midnight and pray to God. They seek forgiveness and mercy from God. They tremble at the thought that they might have been unjust to someone and seek guidance from God.

The cultural contradictions of our age are also rooted in our historical legacy. The desire to control the entire resources of the earth is ceaseless and unending. The power to dominate and enslave people is abundant. The combination of knowledge and desire has become the dominant paradigm of our global civilisation. Those who fit into the ‘myth of competitive advantage’ are allowed to exist. Those who cannot must carry the burden. They must suffer and perish.

One can witness the global economic peril of inequality in societies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. On the other hand, much of the global wealth and resources are controlled by a few nations of the world.

This time around the tribe of Cain has arrived on the bandwagon of globalisation. The external impetus to this is provided by meek nations who let the powerful take control of their economy, agriculture, manpower and natural resources.

The internal strength to this mammoth economic giant is injected by the almighty multinational corporations, the unequal control of knowledge and technology, the powerful neo-capitalism of global stocks and share markets, and the marketisation of pleasure by all sorts of objects, foodstuffs, brands, beliefs and bodies. The indomitable footprint of the tribe of Cain is everywhere.

The writer is a social scientist based at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

ahmadelia@gmail.com

Every word uttered during this act liberates us from fear and pain. However, the most important attribute of prayer resides in its ability to let us become part of the great cosmological interdependence created by God. Our prayers put us in direct communication not only with the Absolute Being, but also other creatures of the world.

Prayers are as necessary a part of human existence as the rising of the sun for the general sustainability of life on earth.

The cognitive programmes of the human self are so coded by God that man likes to connect with this ultimate reality in the darkness of night. Do the words whispered and spoken loud or resonating in hearts have any consequences? They do seem to possess an affective and cognitive importance.

Clinical research published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice has shown that repetitive and sequential cueing to human infants makes them respond to those stimuli. These infants respond to sequences of laughter and anger. Psychologist Jean Piaget has also conducted studies with children on their concept of God.

He has argued that children relate to God the way they relate to and understand their parents. Their understanding of God is connected to and shaped by their understanding of their parents and their role in their life. However, they experience a transformation in their cognition of God when they realise the ‘fallibility’ of their parents.

They start associating omniscience and omnipresence with the being of God. In fact, praying to God is nothing but a psychological reflection of our childhood cognitive resonances with that living reality, which gives meaning and broader relevance to our finite being within the general scheme of the cosmos. We are grounded in our prayers. This removes from ourselves the burdens of personal, cultural and historical incongruities.

The Quran also points to this cognitive programming of the human ego to reach out for God. In one of the verses of the Holy Book, God speaks to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and informs human beings that if they shall seek Him, their prayers shall be answered.

God hears the call of human beings and responds to them. Prayer thus creates an ontological relationship between the human and the divine. The words uttered in the darkness of midnight with joyful pain in the heart and tears in the eyes make a person the centre of the cosmic design. His heart resonates with the divine.

Prayer also indicates that there is a cosmic register which records our joys and pains without any alteration. The Quranic verse, “…We are closer to him [man] than [his] jugular vein” (50:16) testifies to this effect. Where else should human beings look for the healing of their pains, fears and losses, if not to the ‘Closest One’?

We discover when the moment of death arrives that we spent our entire lifetime seeking worldly status, power and money. We were enamoured with childhood games and chased butterflies which were never meant for us.

All religious traditions of the world have been engaged with this ceaseless desire to communicate with the living reality of the world. The Hindu yogi, the Buddhist bhiksu, the Christian monk and the Muslim fakir all have yearned over the ages to understand the cosmic soul and find effective ways and means to establish grounds of communication.

Some through self-mortification, some through meditation, some through sheer solitude and some through invocation have established authentic psychological practices which not only enlighten one’s ego but help in linking with the living reality of the cosmos.

The energy which is experienced by the praying ego can also be felt by other creatures of the world. The Quran testifies to this fact by telling us that the birds would join Prophet Daud in his prayers (38:17-20).

The Quran consistently through the exemplars of the prophets teaches every human being how to pray, using what words and at what time and seek which of God’s blessings. One can read in the Quranic text prayers for seeking forgiveness, prayers for thanksgiving, prayers for seeking knowledge, prayers for moral and spiritual growth, prayers for peace and purity of heart, prayers for bounty and giving, prayers for learning to worship God, and prayers for protection from the hidden evil of the world. Everything in the world knows its forms of prayer and remembrance of God.

Prayer leads our ego to the centre of our being which is nothing but a continuous participation in the cosmic nexus of eternity, life and immortality. According to the mystic Abdul Karim Naqshbandi, the words uttered during prayer and invocation from the lips of a mortal (man) makes him immortal and eternal because of the very intensity and energy of these words.

The mystic Bayazid Bustami states that God lives in the broken heart of a praying ego while Jalaluddin Rumi says in his famous Masnavi that the rhythmic beats of the goldsmith’s instruments are nothing but the reverberations of the living and praying heart.

The midnight prayers and solitary weeping do make a difference. They link us to the only true source of all life — the eternal and living God.

The writer is a social scientist based at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

ahmadelia@gmail.com

Are these financial instruments really riba-free (interest-free)?

Do these instruments conform to the juristic and ethical frameworks laid down by the Quran, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the imams of the leading schools of thought?

If the analysis shows otherwise, then why not do ‘modern’ banking instead of labelling riba-infested products as ‘Islamic’ and selling them as halal and riba-free?

The theoretical problem arises out of our inability to comprehend the meanings of two words ‘riba’ and ‘ba’ah’ used in the Quran to strictly prohibit the former and clearly permit the latter. There are two verses in the Quran which deal with the concepts of riba and ba’ah and adjudicate reasons for their subsequent prohibition and permission.

The Quran clearly refers to the inherent psychological nature of men, which ordinarily thrives on boundless greedy profiteering and moneymaking without personal labour and effort. So the Quran clearly describes in a verse this human weakness and declares that those who approve of riba are “possessed by Satan” (2:275). It is strictly forbidden and instead one should engage in ba’ah which requires personal labour and effort.

The second verse of the Quran explains the economic rationality of riba and declares that it is forbidden because it leads to profiteering and moneymaking in a multiplication mode of economic exchange (3:130) which does not involve labour and effort by the owner of the economic resources.

Therefore, one should engage in socially and ethically permissible economic activity of ba’ah. On the other hand, the practice of riba leads to unprecedented social and economic inequalities which create an unjust society, which the Quran and the Prophet disapprove of in manifest words.

Ba’ah is permitted because it is based on rational, ethical and mutually agreed contracts of economic exchange, sharing risks, benefits and liabilities and profit (land, labour, capital, commodity or intellect). The law of riba and ba’ah applies equally and universally to both tangible and intangible economic resources. In simple terms, riba is an irrational, exaggerated, labour-less and unethical accumulation of wealth in a multiplication mode, while ba’ah is a rational and socially and ethically agreed economic exchange of labour and money.

The actual labour and work done by a person is weightier and considered a sacred trust, for according to a hadith the worker is a friend of God.

Now let us illustrate by an example to show what it means to accomplish a riba-free economic exchange. I own one acre of land and I give it for cultivation to a peasant on mutually agreed terms. A riba-free land-tilling agreement between me and the peasant would be something like this: the owner of the land should provide the water, seed, fertiliser and protection in case of natural calamity hitting the crop and distribute ushr forthwith.

The peasant would cultivate the land with honest labour, take care of the field, protect the crop against dangerous animals, sell it at a fair market price and distribute the profit equally with the owner of the land. This land modaraba and the transaction thereof will be a completely riba-free economic activity. The peasant shall be duly compensated for his labour in case he opts out of the transaction before the maturity of the crop.

Let us now analyse a so-called Islamic financial product offered by Islamic banks in Pakistan. The product is known as ‘car modaraba’. The Islamic financial product is a nomenclature shift from the routine banking sector offering the same product as ‘car-leasing facility’. All terms and conditions of the modaraba contract are analogous to the car-leasing agreement, favouring the Islamic bank rather than the end-user. It is a misnomer to call it modaraba because the Islamic bank is not the first owner (in this case the car maker/manufacturer is the true owner).

The Islamic bank thus does not fulfil the qualification of ownership required to enter into a ba’ah with the buyer (in this case end-user of the car). The bank is not a seller in principle, rather a supplier of the car as a middleman and making profit in a multiplier exchange mode from a product which is produced by another party in the first place.Now this Islamic bank imposes all sorts of conditionalities to secure this so-called modaraba contract with the car buyer — in fact a consumer of the car, not a worker as per Islamic framework. This includes car price, car rent (another term for mark-up), takaful (name change for insurance), processing fee, binding contract and capping on further usage of the car. Is this modaraba transaction fair to the parties, free of multiplier mode of economic exchange, sharing liabilities and benefits? The answer would be an emphatic ‘no’.

An economic transaction would be considered riba-free if it avoids multiplier mode of moneymaking, profit-taking and capital-creation. According to Islamic economic rationality, labour is mightier than capital because it creates economic value. On the contrary, Anglo-Saxon liberal economics rests on the reverse proposition (adhered to by banks in Pakistan, both ‘Islamic’ and ‘modern’), which holds that capital creates value and therefore the worker must lay in bondage to capitalistic domination.

The vicious cycle of capital accumulation is perpetuated by multiplier mode of economic exchange. No sector of the economy is exempt from this multiplier effect and hence infested with all the attributes of riba.

The writer is a social scientist and teaches at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

ahmadelia@gmail.com

The commodified global culture and the lifestyle embraced by it is no more sacred and revered by consumerist human beings.

There are three historical forces that have transformed the notion of commodity beyond all bounds of imagination today. These are free market economy, electronic capital and information junk.

Take the case of free market economy first. There were times when charity was part of almost all known human societies in the world. It was an act of magnanimity and generosity and performed for its intrinsic human value. Today the case is reversed.

Charity is now marketed by huge organisations engaged by the social corporate sector. The acts of charity add value to the balance sheets of the social corporate regime.

Awards, scholarships, loans and all sorts of monetary contributions are marketed by marketing agents of the mighty social corporate conglomerates. They also perpetuate a global commodified worldview and a power régime, which is unjust and
morally corrupt to the core. No local economies and/or worldviews can withstand the barrage of this global domination of the social corporate sector. Thanks to the inherent nature of the free market economy there are mechanisms to commodify every act, whether tangible or intangible, including charity and philanthropy.

Electronic capital is another glaring force of the commodified global culture today. There were times when gold coins standardised economic and religious exchanges. People were unaware of words like inflation, price-hike and stagflation, GDP,
GNP and ERM. Electronic capital has changed all this. Now capital moves impersonally in huge cycles of electronic exchanges between agents who even do not know each other’s identities and origins. The capital continuously moves to high ebbs of profit and accumulation of monetary benefits.

It has facilitated the marketing of almost everything under the sky; from human bodies to human souls, from sex to music, from religious beliefs and convictions to political agendas. Those on the lower side of the ebb who cannot do much about it must continue to suffer. If one cannot make intelligent decisions and cannot market one’s neurons-capital effectively, one is subjected to utter frustration and suffering.

There is no way and there is no modern human society that can escape the commodified electronic capital and the reign of commodified global economic domination of neurons-capital. If you can play effectively with the global cycles of electronic capital, by whatever means, you are successful. The age of neuro-capitalist society has become dominant and those who still muse over some kind of socialist or moral revival are mistaken and need to take a refresher course in social history.

The third significant aspect of commodified global culture is the Troy of information junk. We witness on the Internet and on social networking websites a mammoth display of information junk. There were times information was considered a sacred trust to be shared amongst human and humane societies. People would die guarding this sacred trust of information. Now we face a different case.

If for one month one monitors the Internet information junk sites on the World Wide Web, one can discern a social pattern in the usage of Internet and social networking websites. The pattern includes hate-preaching of all sorts, ethnic, religious, political, sexually gratifying stuff, followed equally by religious and political hate consumption materials. Knowledge and its dissemination no more constitute a sacred trust.

A globally commodified storm of information rages of use and abuse. An overwhelming number of people no longer connect with each other personally and spiritually. We are now linked by social information networks of use and abuse. In the process, human beings have lost their most precious asset; their identity based on quest of knowledge. Humanity may thus become an object of ridicule as we exist in a perpetual flux of information-grounded hate literature of all sorts. There were grand stories and storytellers during the classical age. They believed in honour, self-respect and alms-giving out of sheer responsibility towards the fellow needy. Today the contemporary commodified global information junkyard has made one just an information consumer and generator. We do not thrive on the pleasure of great storytelling of moral values anymore. Instead we thrive as insects of a market of information junk.

We consume beliefs, we consume justice, we consume freedom, we consume democracy, we consume terror, we consume sex and finally we consume violence. There is no escaping this harsh reality of commodified global culture. Either we are part of it or else we must perish in pain and solitude. The information junkyard has taken away from us a decent sense of being human.

We connect with each other as information consuming beings driven by either self-interest or a profit-loss logic. We are irreversibly tattooed with symbols of this information junk.

The global anti-Christ of commodified pleasure, profit making and consumption has led to the alienation of man from the centre of his being. He has become oblivious of his destiny on earth. He no more likes to engage in a discourse of knowledge, wisdom
and mortality. Like Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, everyone is after ‘a piece of flesh from Antonio’s heart’. For this precise reason, one may even have to sell one’s commodified soul in order to satiate the body’s hunger and thirst.

The writer is a social scientist who teaches at the School of Business and Economics, University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

ahmadelia@gmail.com

This multi-colour mosaic of history is etched with cultural images of the rise and fall of empires established across the globe.

Empires are the highest cultural forms of civilisation-making ability. They are significant because they invest symbolic
meaningfulness in human activities. In pyramids, temples, mosques, skyscrapers and churches, synagogues and monasteries, we witness the zeitgeist frozen.

The worldviews which inspired human souls are littered in broken palaces and abandoned gardens. The great cities of the world stand oblivious from human memory, where once glory, dance, music and laughter reigned supreme. What causes the rise of great ‘empires’? The pattern is simple and unmistakable. Human society experiences the birth of a great soul, followed by a profound idea. This creative synthesis leads the unleashing of collective will to move and transform society and nature.

This is then followed by the growth of cultural activities of city-building and architecture, agriculture, industry, literature, arts and music. Finally the new civilisation expands and colonises the neighbouring societies. This then translates into the myth of super-civilisation of the times, which does not allow sharing and cooperative social living with the neighbouring civilisations. This produces conditions of war, conflict and perpetual fight for domination over weaker cultures.

But this zeal of dominant empire to conquer and dominate also jeopardises its own existence. The point of no return thus reaches for the dominant empire to wither away to where its predecessors lie buried.

Paul Kennedy writes that when a great empire loses balance between butter, guns and investments it is then time for that power to say adieu on the theatre of world history. Military overstretch, he further asserts, creates an economic mess culminating in eventual downfall of the great powers. The power once praised becomes a casualty in the hands of depleted resources. This directly makes the law of decline operative on a particular empire.

We just have to look at the Ottoman, Mughal and the British empires. They all bear testimony to this historical insight of Paul Kennedy. On the road to decline one finds signposts of Rhode islands, Marhatta lands and the Nazi fury. Every empire at its zenith becomes a victim of its self-delusional historical immortality. Yes, they do achieve immortality but only in moth-eaten history journals of libraries.

Arnold Toynbee comes up with another interpretation of the ultimate demise of empires. He says that every empire at its time of glory is faced by an ‘internal proletariat’ which challenges its mighty power and hold on world resources. This conflict with internal proletariat weakens the might of the empire and we witness its eventual decline.

There are two more great historians who have tried to explain empires: Oswald Spengler and Ibn-i-Khaldun. Spengler looks at the empire as one of the cultural-expression form of human creative energy which is bound to wither away after fulfilling its eventual destiny. Civilisation as its frozen product needs to be appreciated and enjoyed. It is a continuous cycle of rise and fall; there is no metaphysical mystery in it.

Ibn-i-Khaldun looks at the problem in a psychological-cultural context. He asserts that when a ‘group-feeling’ becomes strong enough in a human group, the empire is bound to rise. When this group-feeling gradually weaken due to luxuries of civilised life in cities, the empire gradually steeps in decline. However, he makes the observation in line with Spengler that the ‘rise and fall’ is a cyclical process. It takes approximately 300 years for a dominant empire to decline and decay.

There are profound insights in the observations of these great minds. What are we doing when we are on the ‘rise’ as individuals? Are we aware of our eventual decline and decay? If we are conscious of our decay, how are we leading our lives?

Do we share our intellectual, financial and personal resources for the well-being of our fellow human beings? Or do we consume and then perish leaving our bank accounts to be plundered and consumed by others?

Do we share our extra piece of bread with a hungry person? Are we ready to share our clothes, shelter and knowledge with those who do not own these things? Are we ready to listen to the cries of the depleting ecological system and its
consequences? Are we ready to change and listen to our hearts and stop killing innocent human beings who do not agree with our worldviews?

The human civilisation today is faced with global challenges and if we do not respond responsibly and intelligently, we are doomed as the human species. No history shall inherit our world.

The writer is a social scientist based at the School of Business and Economics, University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

ahmadelia@gamil.com