I spoke with the author and he has given me permission to use his articles.
Bismillah ar Rahman ar Rahim
AOA
At the height of the WWII worried British asked Churchill if Britain was going to survive. “Are your courts dispensing justice” he queried in return. “Yes” confirmed the worried. “Not to worry then. Britain will survive”, said Churchill with supreme confidence.
Fourteen centuries ago, Imam Ali bin Abi Talib had famously said, "A system can survive with disbelief, but not without justice."
And global Justice is broke the world over - America, the Anglosphere, every Muslim land, especially the South Asians ones that is fortunate in having Bollywood deal with Muslim justice periodically - from 1939 Pukar to Mughal-e-Azam, and lately in 2022, very comprehensively detailed by Najaf Haider's piece in "Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories", an edited work by Ira Bhaskar and Richard Allen. However, none deal with the nature of justice, particularly in Islam.
In the following we deconstruct justice and make the argument that the present predicament in Pakistan has its roots 1400 year ago when justice as we understand it was murdered, and it is not going to go away without an external catalyst or intervention.
A: Justice
Socrates defines justice as "giving each his due". In Mohammedan Islam, justice is restoring violated rights that accrue from contracts as Mohammedan Islam is an ideology of covenants.
A retired Chief Justice of Ontario who I had befriended some 20 years ago once confided to me that no lawyer or judge in Canada could tell you the difference between "Law" and "Justice", though he admitted that south of border in USA the awareness was higher. His perception proved validated in my appearances before hundreds of Canadian and US judges litigating cases for myself or friends. Justice is Divine, but Law is man-made.
The America Republic was setup 250 years ago as a Socratic Republic against the Democracy of Frederick Lord North. However, in next 100 years it morphed back into a Democracy, and Courts of Justice into Courts of Law.
B: Primal Question of Existence
In nature around us, the Primal Question of Existence is Survival, Growth, Evolution (SGE). The Homo-Sapiens, woman or man, young or old, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, high status or low, ask themselves consciously or sub-consciously, the same following questions.
Survival: How best to spend the proverbial 3 scores and 10 years on earth,
and prolong them if possible,
Growth: To leave behind more than we came with - a large progeny,
Evolution: To beget those with a wider gene-pool, superior immune system,
for them to better survive and grow in their turn
C: Ideology, Religion
To answer this question, man in groups conceives socio-economic ideology, a unique sum of internally consistent and coherent strategies and beliefs that are optimal to the specific economic environment. Each ideology has:
• an ambient economic Environment
• an optimal wealth-generating Unit building block
• a central philosophical idea as the Axis
• a planning Horizon
• an Investment source/Input resource allocation strategy and
• an Output distribution formula.
When these strategies are tried broadly and pass the test of time, they become popular as Monarchy, Aristocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, Republic, or their economic counterparts Capitalism, Socialism, Fascism, Communism et al. If they acquire a spiritual icing they become religions, with rituals that bind people of similar economic outlook together, and when in harmony with nature, they aim at higher SGE. The most efficient and optimal of them achieve runaway success, and can be rightly named as Natural religions, notably the Abrahamic 3 Islams – of Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed AS.
Here is a summary of living ideologies/religions associated with the 3 Economic Environments.
Pastoral: Judahism, Umarite Islam
Agrarian: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Fatimite Islam
Exchange: Hellenism (Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy, Republic), Mohammedan Islam
D: Socio-Economic Isomorphisms
In the chart below, 6 inter-related sets of socio-economic interest [the economic Environments, planning Horizons, Unit wealth-generating building blocks, Objectives, defining Axes around which they revolve, and Jurisprudences] are placed on the horizontal syntagmatic axis. Elements in each set are shown on the vertical paradigmatic axis. The upward arrows within each set emphasize that elements are ordered directionally, and that relation defined on them have a monotonic sense of progression, chronology, size, hierarchy, sophistication.
The best way to explain the hierarchy, progression, and evolution inherent in the trio of Equity, Love, and Justice is via Solomon’s parable whereby a Just decision is superior to that based on Love or Equity in his famous dilemma to decide which mother should be given the disputed child.
The Law of Equity required the child split in two, for a child was considered property and there was no evidence to support the case of either woman. This would have been a most inhumane decision. But the true mother's Love was willing to forego the possession so that the child may live, therefore, had Solomon acted upon her feelings, the decision, though imperfect, would still have been a better one than a split. But of course, he used reason to arrive at the truth and a Just decision, giving each her due. Therefore, in jurisprudence, Justice is superior to Love that is in turn superior to Equity.
Furthermore, in men, justice, the virtue of virtues, tends to develop in old age when men have already tasted the fruits of their passion and satiated with the desire for “love”.
E: انصاف vs عدل (EQUITY vs JUSTICE) Parties in Early Islam
Within the Prophet's inner Cabinet there were those who hankered for the old Jahiliya practice of Equity, i.e. equal division of the war booty irrespective of merit or contribution. However, the Prophet AS resisted. The Quran says.
There are no less than 20 Ayat condemning Insaf (Equity):[8:1] They ask thee concerning (things taken as) spoils of war. Say: "(such)
spoils are at the disposal of Allah and the Messenger. So fear Allah, and keep straight
the relations between yourselves: Obey Allah and His Messenger, if ye do believe."
[4-95], [5-100], [6-50], [19-9], [24-11], [16-71], [16-75], [16-76], [32-18], [39-9], [39-29], [40-58], [41-34], [45-21], [57-10], [59-20] ...
Equity is from Old Testament/Talmudic (see isomorphism chart). The Prophet AS adroitly maneuvered both parties, but made clear that meritless Insaf (Equity) was outdated; he rejected it as being tribal, linked to a pastoral economy, and a drag on trade. Instead, Quran with countless Ayat confirmed the supremacy of Justice (Adl), obliquely condemning Insaf.
However, after his death the followers split in two.
عدل Justice Party: Free-Traders, women emancipators, pro-Christian, for Meritocracy, Knowledge Economy, and Peace, led by his daughter Fatima, to continue his ways of helping the poor.
انصاف Equity Party: Trade-monopolists, misogynists, anti-Christian, for Lawyerism, Nepotism, neocons led by his companion Umar for gore, glory, conquest, and colonialism.
Fatima died/was murdered within 70 days, and the Equity Party prevailed and established alliance with the yehud who also believed in Equity. They together established the Kaliphate, a cartel of Muslim muscle and Jewish money that sat smack in the middle of the Silk Road and milked East-West trade with oppressive Tariffs (Arabic word). It also proceeded to terrorize Fatima's (Prophet's) progeny, who began emigrating to India where their bulk of 50,000,000+ worldwide still live today.
Repeated efforts to free trade during Crusades failed. Finally, the Mongols decimated the Kaliphate in 1258, and Timurlane did an Encore in 1400 again to free trade. However, with 1453 conquest of Constantinople, when the Ottomans closed the Silk Road altogether, the Christians found enough courage to expel both Jews and Muslims from Spain, and were then free to find new routes to Asia making Muslims irrelevant to history.
The Justice Party Fatimites formed an alliance with Christians (even during the Crusades). Finally, a Fatimite Mustafa Kemal bin Ali Reza Effendi (Ataturk) buried the Kaliphate. Another Fatimite, Muhammad Ali Jinnah supported him by opposing the Kaliphate Movement in India (while opportunist Gandhi was for it, possibly under Jewish influence).
Christian Balfour in a brilliant move pit the yehud and Umarites against each other by creating competing land claim. Since the creation of Israel, Europe is finally at peace, and largely Jew-free. Brilliant Balfour killed 2 birds with 1 stone.
F: Morphing of Adl into Insaf and Latter's Prevalance
In 1939 Pukar and 1960 Mughal-e-Azam, the word repeatedly used for justice is not "Adl" but "Insaf" that has no mention in the Quran, indicating to what extent the idea of "Insaf" had infused Muslim terminology. In both works, the Law triumphs over love or justice, the element of "intent" so basic to justice is totally ignored, as if the decision is being made by a heartless computer. The SGE aim is totally absent, only Survival of the system is the goal.
This malediction pervades others too - the English Common Law is a continuation of the law of the Kaliphate of Talmudic infusion.
G: Pakistan
The ideology the present inhabitants of Pakistan inherit is from the Arab Kaliphate and Mughal Court whose concept of Justice was flawed into Insaf, a trait of gore, glory, conquest, and colonialism of the Old Testament, devoid of the Love of the New Testament and Justice of the Quran. Today, the main Party in Pakistan is aptly named Pakistan Tehreek Insaf - PTI.
The late Chief Justice Javed Iqbal (s/o Allam Iqbal) has at length spoken about the morphing of Justice during the first 4 Kaliphs of Islam, and its subservience to the Polity. Until the concept of Justice is de-constructed and reformed, and it is separated from the Executive, the Pak dilemma of misgovernance will continue, Insaf being incompatible with the demands of an era of Exchange that the globe is entering. Unfortunately, today's Indian Hinduism is also developing through the same route. BJP has played with the Indian jurisprudence under Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, as Netanyahu is doing it with Israel's.
H: Wrath of the Great Sinics
But there is hope. There are systems today that reject the current Anglosphere concept of Law and are redefining the global order to better reflect Justice. Confucian China, Christian Russia, and Fatimite Iran with Mohammedan/Socratic values are aiming at a borderless world of free trade with new jurisprudence that will replace the Corporate Capitalist "Rule Based" order in prevalence today.
It is unlikely that mainstream Muslims will reform easily, as 1400 years of misguidance cannot be erased in 14 years; an outside intervention may become necessary. The Muslims have stuck their fingers in every behind – Christians, Hindus, Africans, Europeans. However, one people they could neither subdue nor convert are the Sinics, the very ones who have put Muslims in their place, not once, but twice, to open trade.
First, the Mongols in 1258 decimated the Arab Kaliphate, murdering all able-bodied males (750,000 of population of 2 millions of Baghdad), re-opening trade for a while. 150 years later Timurlane did the same, reducing Anatolian Turks to zilch, again forcing open trade, but after 1453 conquest of Constantinople, the Turks blocked trade altogether, pushing Christians into starvation, forcing them to find new routes (finding new lands in the process).
Today, East Asia again cannot survive without trade, and with BRI/CPEC, is re-opening New Silk Road anew. Sinics are peaceful people, but uphold Justice, do not like being pushed around, and can become incredibly cruel if cornered. If Paks do not stop blowing up Chinese teachers and engineers, it is likely that like the Mongols and Timurlane, the Chinese may do a hat-trick, doing away with some 5-6 crore Paks as is their wont.
In any case, Pakistan in 10 years will be a very different place when the Chinese-plutocrats assume middle management in govt and industry, now returning @ 6-7000 per year. Are the Pak Anglos, used to power so far, ready? Within a decade, PMLN, PPP, PTI will all be history under a 1-Party secular Republic modeled after China, the Mohammedan Dream of Jinnah may come true.
