BLASPHEMY AND THE PROPHETIC CONDUCT
Maryam Sakeenah
Offensive criticism and mockery directed at the person of the Prophet PBUH is not of modern origin, although the Communication Revolution has made such content more easily accessible and widely available. In the earliest phase of his mission at Makkah, the Prophet PBUH was targeted for ridicule, insult and slander in the most heinous ways. While the Quran refers to these instances and responds by giving solace to the Prophet PBUH through faith or by elevating his honour in the ethereal realm, it never orders reactionary measures or punishment in that phase of Da’wah. The patience and forbearance of the Prophet PBUH in particular and the Muslim community in general at that time are well documented. Scholars of Islam explain this divinely sanctioned strategy of tolerance through the concept that when religion has not been firmly and completely established in a community, rejection or hateful speech against religion cannot be penalized. That is because before being made liable to accountability, everyone in the community must be given fair and ample chance to consider faith in its completeness and make a free, informed choice about it (Itmam al Hujjah). Religious law must also have been established as the law of the land, with everyone being made fully aware about the consequences of defying the law.
A very instructive and deeply inspiring example of how the Prophet PBUH dealt with hate and insult directed his way is when the Prophet PBUH came across a slur (meaning ‘The Blameworthy’) coined for him by twisting his beautiful name:
Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle
said, ‘Doesn't it astonish you how Allah protects me from the Quraish's abusing
and cursing? They abuse ‘The Blameworthy’ and curse ‘The Blameworthy’, while I
am Muhammad, ‘The Praised One.’ (Sahih Bukhari, hadith 3533)
The wisdom of this approach lies
in the understanding that those who commit blasphemy do so to spite their own
faces. Their blasphemy does absolutely nothing to take away anything from the
sublime, eternal glory of the Prophet PBUH. Therefore the paranoia to hunt down
and crack down on any blasphemous intent in any context is ill advised. The
Prophet PBUH and all sacred personalities are venerated passionately in the
hearts of millions and celebrated in the heavens. They do not need our puerile
attempts to defend their honour.
However, when blasphemous actions
and speech are pre meditated, planned and orchestrated in an organized manner
calculated to offend, provoke and sow the seeds of ‘fitnah’ in society, the law
has to act to check it and snub it effectively. When conditions of Itmam al
Hujjah are already present, the capital punishment has to be deployed.
Once again,
we have precedents from the Prophet PBUH for this.
It has
been narrated on the authority of Jabir that the Messenger of Allah said: Who
will kill Ka'b b. Ashraf? He has maligned Allah, the Exalted, and His
Messenger. Muhammad bin Maslama said: Messenger of Allah, do you wish that I
should kill him? He said: Yes. — Sahih
Muslim, 19:4436
On the
occasion of the Conquest of Makkah, the Prophet PBUH ordered the execution of Al-Huwayrith ibn Nuqaidh who was killed by 'Ali ibn abi Talib He was
among those who insulted the Prophet PBUH (Ibn Ishaq)
It becomes clear in the light of the above that while one-off incidents
of blasphemy in the absence of Itmam al Hujjah should not provoke us into a
furore of vengeance, organized blasphemy in Muslim societies must be dealt with
by Islamic scholars, the state and its machinery. The details of the laws for
the punishment of blasphemy vary slightly in the schools of Islamic jurisprudence
regarding its commission by Muslims or non Muslims, but all concur to the
applicability of capital punishment in major and organized instances of
blasphemy committed by Muslims in a Muslim society. In a situation wherein the
conditions for Itmam al Hujjah have been fulfilled and the Deen has been
established with the sovereignty of Islamic law, organized, deliberate and
repetitive blasphemy must be punished with death. However, each case must be
thoroughly examined by seasoned jurists, foolproof evidence gathered through
transparent investigation. When this is not done, laws are misused to victimize
for personal vendetta, innocents are made to suffer, vulnerable minorities
targeted unfairly and a mockery made of the law of Islam.
In the case of secular societies like France, while the examples and
laws cited above may not apply, what needs to be understood is that blasphemy
is a violation of human rights. In fact, it is one of the most excruciating
violations of one of the most sacred human sentiments: reverence on the basis
of personal faith. It is not about free speech and freedom of expression
because blasphemous content is not intellectual disagreement or critique, but
anti intellectual, ill intended, malicious, provocative and obscene invective
directed at the very seat of religious faith: the heart and soul. You can very
well be secular, but you must understand what faithful devotion and reverential
love means to those who believe; you must understand what the person of
Muhammad PBUH means to those who follow his legacy, and what it means to love a
prophet ‘more than one’s father, one’s children and all mankind.’[1] And you must understand
that satire targeting the deeply held faith of a community is not an exercise
in free speech but malevolent hate speech that violates the most fundamental
human rights.
It is this inability to understand, this stridently secular and blindly
apathetic perspective that guides the French state’s paranoid measures to
protect itself against its already marginalized Muslims. The mainstreaming and
state sponsorship of blasphemy in response to an act of violence perpetrated by
a Muslim individual only reflects callous insensitivity, ridiculous myopia and
a refusal to understand the deeper issues involved. Looking at the roots of French secularism and
democracy, these policies are a travesty of ‘liberte, egalite, fraternite’;
looking ahead into the future, these policies are dangerously self-destructive
for France, for Europe and the whole world.
[1] The
Prophet (ﷺ)
said "None of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father,
his children and all mankind." (Sahih Bukhari book 2 volume 8)
