Punitive vs Preventive

Before this goes any further, let me clarify that I am no clerics nor scholars of Islamic law and my knowledge of Islam is incomparable to those who had studied about Islam all their lives.

Nevertheless, I am a Muslim, no less.

True, I have sinned and dear god, I wouldn’t want my sins to be known publicly because only God knows how shameful they are. Sins are between me and God, but what some people outside of Islam teachings don’t know is; it can be between individuals. For example, if you are rude to your parents, you have sinned towards them; and it can only be forgiven if your parents forgive you. That is just one of many situations you can sin towards others. But that’s not the point here, let us move on.

Laws and punishments have gone a long way and it is hard to say when it was born. There were canon laws, Roman laws, Catholic laws, ancient Egypt laws, and some even said since the dawn of mankind, some kind of laws have already been enacted, though it might not be well documented and written, a form of governance in a form of simple do and don’ts was present then.

How about Islamic laws? Compared to others, they are relatively new. During the Middle Ages, or as some dreaded to say; the Dark Ages of the Western World, Islam came and brought a whole new height of knowledge and order to the western hemisphere that it was because of that, the Westerners succeed in breaking the chains of the Dark Era. Well let’s not maul over it too much.

Now, we have the modern laws, which were adopted from the Western world; the Britain to be exact in our case. And Britain had their laws heavily influenced by Christianity, amongst other civilisations such as the Romans’. Modern laws are actually not independent from religious influences. Religions have progress alongside with the laws and the laws with religions. Before the colonisation era, traditional laws have already governed the land and they were effective. And fast forward to 1957, our laws are heavily adopted from the British government.

But we are talking about Islamic laws here. So, let us take a look deeper on that matter. In Islam, laws are called Syariah and each and every one of them has an objective and reason they are enacted and we call these Maqasid Syariah. Maqasid Syariah is divided to 5 main categories; to protect:

1.      The religion

2.      The lives

3.      The intellect

4.      The lineage

5.      The property

Just pick any law in Islam and you will see them to fall under one of these categories. And note how the Syariah’s function is to ‘protect’ these 5 categories. Hence, the nature and the essence of the laws are preventive and protective rather than punitive and fear mongering.

As I have mentioned before, sins are mostly between a believer and the God but it also can be between individuals. Some would say that if sins are between the God and His believers, then it is enough to be punished in the hereafter because well, there is where the punishments will be. No human holds any right to punish the sins somebody else did not commit to them. That’s ok, because that is your view on religions, your logic, your reasoning.

Is it wrong to hold an opinion? No, of course not. But it is stretching it quite a bit if you chose to publicly demonise a long, tried and tested laws and the philosophy behind it without knowing them, even the basics.

For starters, let’s take canning in Islam for example. It is nowhere near to the modern canning punishment.

I remembered my early days as a primary student. The police would come to the school with their trucks and buses and we would all swarm to see what they have to show. One of it was the canning tripods and, a video to complement it. Yes, as you can already guess, it was a real footage of a muscle-packed executor, swinging the inch-wide cane and as it hits the skin of the prisoner, the hips trembled so much and mixture of manure and urine starts to run down profusely. So much so that you began to actually feel sorry for him. And the demonstration stuck with me until this day and it reminds me of one of the consequences I would’ve face if I were to commit a crime. Unlucky for the prisoner, there are about tens of those to go.

But in Islam, the cane that is permissible to be used is not even an inch wide. The force? Well the executor is not allowed to separate his/her arm from the body. In easier terms, his/her armpit shouldn’t be visible. The canning cannot leave any permanent physical mark and scar Does it hurt? Of course not, relatively.

But, it is done publicly. This is only for sins related to adulteries. So, to further dissect it, one has to look into the effects of adulteries.

1.      Wrecking marriages

2.      Demolishing family institutions

3.      Spreading of sexually transferred diseases

4.      Abortions

5.      Unwanted children

And maybe some more that I might have missed. All of these effects are so prevalent today that nobody can deny that they are indeed heinous and if they were given options to choose from, they would opt for them to never happened at the first place. And then, maybe they would understand even a little about the philosophy behind such law. The objective here is to prevent and protect, rather to punish.

Because in Islam, it goes beyond an individual. It takes into account the wellbeing of the society as well. So, the ‘punishment’ is to prevent such thing from happening again, for the sinners to learn from it and for the society to take an example from. And that moment, the sinners are better than the audience because their sins have been lifted off. The punishment is not fear mongering, it does not hurt and it is not abusive and the premise of Islam is governing its believers by fear is hence illogical.

True, education is a more powerful tool. But education goes beyond formal institutions. This is an education in its own form as well. To execute the Syariah laws, the society must first be taught of the basics of Islam (for Muslims). Before the verses of laws were sent down, the verses of faith dominated the revelation. for a society to be ready of the laws, it must be first strong in its faith and knowledge about the religion. One step at a time.

If we are really serious about preventing crimes, we should be strengthening the education we give to the young generations, formally and informally. Not all Syariah laws are feasible in the current state of the society, such as the infamous chopping of the hands of thieves. That too, has so much regulations and it is hard for one to be punished as such. It is not easy to just chop a hand off. But that being said, public canning is feasible. We have the knowledge, the means, the executor and all the things needed. Maybe, in these days, more regulations are needed such as recording is prohibited or some sort.

Remember, the objective behind this law is not to be abusive and punitive, but to be preventive. Does it work? Yes, it has been tried and tested in Muhammad period, the companions’ period, Abbasiyah period and Uthmaniyah period. Although these periods are centuries ago, the social problems were all the same. The laws successfully prevent adulteries from becoming a social epidemic, like it is today.

It is not fair to deny one’s right to have an opinion but it is also not fair to judge the laws, let alone the entire religion when you don’t know enough about it. You can spew your logic all over it but it is your logic and it is not necessarily the truth. There’s a difference.

So, next time you are thinking of demonising an entire religion, be sure to do it informatively. Not by immature sentiments and premature understanding. Get a taste of others’ logics as well before you vomit yours. Let us not instill hatred between ourselves by spreading premature opinions. And for all Muslims reading such things, contain yourselves from vulgarities and hate speech. After all, that is not what the religion taught us.

If you want to argue, then argue it intellectually and if one party refuse to engage in similar manner, just simply walk away. I hope these words can shed a little light on this matter and to all of us; Muslims or not.

If you share the dream like mine; to see a harmonious society, then you can agree that the act of demonising ethnicities, religions, races, or even genders are the thing that is keeping us from realising our dream. Instead of criticising blindly, why don’t we try to understand each other. That is, if we are serious about it.