Essential Concerns of Muslim should be : Social Justice

There have, of course, long been Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, avowed atheists, and others involved in many social justice issues. Increasingly, they now find themselves standing shoulder to shoulder with many Muslim friends. The term “social justice” may be new to some contemporary Muslims, but what is not new is the theme of justice in Islam. Justice lies at the heart of Islamic social ethics. Time and again the Qur’an talks about providing for the marginalized members of society: the poor, the orphan, the downtrodden, the wayfarer, the hungry, etc.

It is time to “translate” the social ideals in the Qur’an and Islamic teachings in a way that those committed to social justice today can relate to and understand. We would do well to follow the lead of those Muslims who from the start have committed to standing up for the downtrodden and the oppressed.

Everyone knows that Muslims have always stood for the theme of Divine unity. Yet how many people have also realized that the Mu‘tazilites (who have greatly affected Shi‘i understandings of Islam) so valued justice that they identified themselves as the folk of “Divine Unity and Justice” (ahl al-tawhid wa ’l-‘adl)? In the Sunni tradition, there is a vibrant memory of the Prophet repeatedly talking about how a real believer is one whose neighbor does not go to bed hungry. In today’s global village, it is time to think of all of humanity as our neighbor. The time has come for us to be responsible for the well-being and dignity of all human beings if we wish to be counted as real believers.

The time has come to stand up and be counted. As Muslims and as human beings, we stand up to those who perpetuate hate in the name of Islam. We stand up to those whose god is a vengeful monster in the sky issuing death decrees against the Muslim and the non-Muslim alike. We stand up to those whose god is too small, too mean, too tribal, and too male. We stand up to those who apologetically claim that the beautiful notions of universal brotherhood and sisterhood in the Qur’an have somehow made Muslim societies immune to the ravages of classism, sexism, and racism. To all of these, we say: not in my name, not in the name of my God will you commit this hatred, this violence.

We stand by the Qur’anic teaching (5:32) that to save the life of one human being is to have saved the life of all humanity, and to take the life of one human being is to have taken the life of all humanity. That which you do to my fellow human beings, you do to me.

And yet again we recall that ours is one of engaging and challenging all the ideologies and institutions of injustice and inequality in the various communities in which we find ourselves. This means standing up to those who support and benefit from the Western hegemony over the rest of the world. The time has come for us to stand up to those who look at the world not as a single human family, but as “us” versus “them.”

The time has come to stand up to those who look down at others through an imperialist lens, those who favor a “globalization” that works to the exclusive benefit of multi-national corporations at the detriment of ordinary citizens. The time has come to stand up to those who proliferate the structures whereby five percent of the world’s population consumes twenty-five percent of its resources, while tens of millions perish in agonizing starvation. The time has come to stand up to drug companies who clutch their patents of HIV drugs while untold millions die of AIDS in Africa and elsewhere. The time has come to stand up to those who are rightly outraged at the murder of innocent civilians in the U.S.A. and allied countries, but easily dismiss the murder of innocent civilians in other countries as “unfortunate collateral damage.” To all of them, we say: not in my name will you commit these acts of violence that result in the death of so many innocents. That which you do to my fellow human beings you do to me. The time has come, and that time is now.

We cannot start committing to social justice tomorrow, because the tomorrow of social justice is the tomorrow of “I will lose fifteen pounds”: it will never come. There is only today. We are children of the present moment (ibn al-waqt). It is in this present moment we live, and in this present moment we have the choice to be fully human. It is for our decisions in this very present that we are held cosmically accountable, and will answer to God Almighty. Justice starts now, starts at this present moment, and it starts with each of us.