Islamic social justice

July 5, 2024

ISLAMABAD – WITH the rare exception of India and China on its eastern peripheries the ‘heart of the earth’, ie, Rome and Persia, was riddled with wars and was profusely bleeding. Conditions in Europe were also far from satisfactory when, to suture the world social fabric, Islam emerged onto the scene of history in Arabia.

Human history had come full circle. Judaism and Christianity were either addressing human problems on a limited basis or igniting sectarian wars, while old tribal sanctions were fast losing their sheen, and hence were unable to address the malaise. The times were fraught with tragedy when, in the words of Shah Waliullah, Islam appeared as a moral necessity for destroying the corrupt socioeconomic structures of Persia and Byzantium to build anew.

Amidst profound chaos, a man disenchanted with the human plight would occasionally go to a cave in Hira to get respite from the tragedy around him in the excessively mercantile Makkah — a city of stark socioeconomic disparities, which had relegated the disenfranchised segments of society to a diminutive existence. Then, a window opened from the ghayb (Unseen) which brought new life into this desert city, and indeed far beyond its environs. The entire Quran dawned on the heart of the Prophet (PBUH) and settled right and wrong with wisdom from God.

The religious experience of the Prophet emerged as a symbiosis of monotheism and socioeconomic justice. So lucid and vivid was Hazrat Muhammad’s first address to his community that the religio-political and mercantile elites took it as a warning. Pointing to the socioeconomic thrust of his message, H.A.R Gibb writes that the darker side to the prosperity of Makkah, ie socioeconomic inequality, was one of