SHARIA-Jeering Human Rights

Sharia is religious law and code of life in Islam and covers a wide area including family laws, economic, political, marital, criminal, military, dress code and even dietary, hygiene and purification. The Sharia law has always been under question because of it being extremely barbaric and misogynist. Its rulings fly in the face of Human rights and Feminism.

Sharia courts traditionally do not rely on lawyers. The plaintiffs and defendants represent themselves. Trials are conducted solely by the judge, and there is no jury system. There is no pre-trial discovery process, and no cross-examination of witnesses. A confession, an oath, or the oral testimony of a witness are the main evidence admissible in a case, written evidence is only admissible when deemed reliable by the judge. Testimony must be from at least two

witnesses, and preferably Muslim male witnesses. A woman's testimony is considered half as reliable as that of man. Forensic evidence (i.e., fingerprints, ballistics, blood samples, DNA etc.) and other circumstantial evidence is likewise rejected .Oral testimony of the eyewitnesses is solely preferred.

Sharia laws completely prevent freedom of expression and religion. Leaving Islam is a sin and a religious crime. If you Question your religion, you will face serious Blasphemy Laws and you might land yourself in jail  or even get executed. It does not stop here. Once any man or woman is officially classified as Muslim, because of birth or religious conversion, he or she will be subject to the death penalty if he or she becomes an apostate, atheist, agnostic or to convert to another religion. Before executing the death penalty, Sharia demands that the individual be offered one chance to return to Islam. In practice, as of 2011, 20 Islamic nations had laws declaring apostasy from Islam as illegal and a criminal offense.

-Under Sharia Law, if you commit adultery or fornication, you would be stoned to death.

-The punishment of theft or robbery is the amputation of your hand.

-Religious minorities in sharia states are treated as second-class citizens. They have  limited rights and are often forced to convert to Islam

Women and Sharia

Sharia laws are heavily misogynistic.

-Sharia permits the marriage of girls as soon as she attains puberty, sometimes it even permits below the age of 10. Just imagine the serious ill- effects on the physical and mental health of girls getting married at such ages. Think of the society that would evolve out of its consequences.

-Sharia considers a woman’s testimony half as reliable as that of man. This is followed in many countries including Pakistan and other Arab countries.

-A man can initiate the divorce just by oral declaration while if a woman wants to divorce her husband, the process is complex. Moreover, Child custody reverts to the father at a preset age, even if the father is abusive; women who remarry lose custody of their children

-Under Sharia Law, to prove that you are raped,either you require the confession of the one who raped you or you require four eyewitnesses who should have seen you being raped. A sheer non-sense. Forensic evidences are most likely to be ignored. Now this causes severe difficulties for women plaintiffs in rape cases. Sharia courts in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia in some cases allow a rapist to escape punishment by marrying his victim. Height of injustice! In some cases, the victim who complains is often prosecuted with the Sharia crime of Zina (adultery)..In 2012, a 16 year-old Moroccan girl, having been forced by her family and the government prosecutor to marry her committed suicide by swallowing rat poison.

-Sharia allows a man to beat his wife even if he fears or suspects suspects nushuz (disobedience, disloyalty, rebellion, ill conduct)

in his wife.So, in a way,when domestic violence is “divinely” allowed,one can guess the prolific cases of domestic violence in Muslim countries like Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Iran, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

- Domestic violence is so common that 85 per cent of women admit to experiencing it. 60% of all women report being victims of multiple forms of serial violence.

- A 2012 United Nations Women's study found that 33% of women in Egypt have experienced physical domestic violence in their lifetime.

-In Pakistan, reports claim domestic violence rates between 70% to over 95% in Pakistan. According to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in 2002, over 90% of married Pakistani women surveyed reported being kicked, slapped, beaten or sexually abused by their husbands and in-laws. Over 90% of Pakistani women consider domestic violence as a norm of every woman's married life. Between 1998 and 2003 there were more than 2,666 women killed in honor killings by a family member. These are just the reported cases, tip of the iceberg.

-Afghanistan is the only country in which the female suicide rate is higher than that of males.

-In Syria, found that 25% of the married women surveyed said that they had been beaten by their husbands

-According to a WHO, United Nations study, 30% of women in rural Bangladesh reported their first sexual experience to be forced.[52] About 40% report having experienced domestic violence from their intimate partner, and 50% in rural regions report experiencing sexual violence.

According to a 2004 study,undertaken by Ministry of Higher Education and Interior Ministry of 28 provinces of Iran, 66% married women in Iran are subjected to some kind of domestic violence in the first year of their marriage, either by their husbands or by their in-laws. 9.63%  women wished their husbands would die, as a result of the abuse they had experienced.

- I think Saudi Arabia is the torchbearer in stupidity. Not only it officially recognises Sharia Law , here women can’t even drive cars. Interestingly, women are permitted to fly airplanes even though they have to be chauffeured to the airport. Does that make sense?

To put in a nutshell, the condition of the Women in states strictly following sharia is terrible. Mostly,women are treated someone brought for satisfaction of lust and bearing child. Women do not have a meaningful identity of their own and are just puppets in hands of their male guardians. Sometimes the submissiveness is brainwashed but often it is forced.

In many Muslim countries, Police and judges often tend to treat domestic violence as a private or family matter or, an issue for civil courts, rather than criminal courts. Sometimes,they seem to sympathize with the husbands. Most women hide their bruises and don't report domestic abuse to authorities, often because of the social stigma attached to it or because of little or no hope of justice. 

So people should raise their voices against this cowardly barbaric system of justice practiced by early Arab pagans. Not only Sharia Law, but the very idea of  theocracy should never be considered as an option for any state. No major world religion or civilisation has been free of misogyny, inequality, or patriarchy.In secular states.Even in democracy and constitutionally secular states, religious tolerance should never be at the cost of universal rights.

TROJAN HORSE- HADITH AND SHARIA LAW

Muslims, in spite of being second in the demographic division of the world, are still the poorest and most uneducated and unemployed group. Why is the participation of the Muslim community in academic and professional fields, cultural arenas, creative fields and corporate world is abysmally low? Despite tremendous growth in the number of Muslims and Muslim flags, the muslim ummah is still at the pity of the western world. Government of muslim countries are indulged in ubiquitous corruption and killings of its own people and the common muslims often keep themselves indulge in inter-sect hatred and fights. In my view, the problem has one of its roots in hadeeths and hadith-driven Sharia Law.

The apocryphal hadith stories which governs islamic law and thought are mostly hearsays.Read this. 

On a whole, what hadeeths and hadith-based Sharia Law do is :

1. Degrades the status of woman in society, family and as an individual. Projects women as a puppet in the hands of fathers, brothers or husbands, overall a slave in disguise.

2.Promotes violence and violates human rights in many cases like killing apostates, infidels, beating  woman, stoning to death to adulterers, chopping off hands of the thieves.

3. Encourages fatalism-For example, there are Hadith that would have us believe that everything in our lives is predestined and we have no control over our decisions. The inference then is that God has chosen to deliberately lead people astray and then punish them for it, something that is unthinkable for any rational person.

4. Encourages superstition and corrupt religious practices.

5. Discourages creativity and innovation.(like do not draw sketches of creatures).Even discourages sports and recreational activities.

6. Promotes religious ilm but disregards worldly-knowledge .To put it in a nutshell, hadith culture creates a regressive environment.

7. Divides the whole world into- muslims and non-muslims i.e believers and kaafirs. Teaches us to take pride in being born a muslim and treat the kaafir as someone alien or hostile.

8.Demonise Prophet Muhammad, portray him as a man who slaughtered captives, robbed caravans, sold women and children into slavery, had sexual relations with captive women, tortured prisoners, married a nine-year-old, mandated war against non-Muslims, and who had some of his critics and rivals assassinated. Is it not Outrageous? Are we going to believe such slanders just because they are sacred hadiths.You can read some of the calumnious hadiths here. It’s just the tip of the iceberg On the contrary, Quran describes the prophet as someone of highest moral character.

68:4. And most surely you conform [yourself] to sublime morality.

33:21 Certainly you have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent exemplar for him who hopes in Allah and the latter day and remembers Allah much.

9. .The conflation of true islam with sharia laws has become so widespread and widely publicised that it not only keeps the non-muslims away from islam but also make many muslims switch to different faiths.

10.Needless to mention,if a faith is represented by such doctrines,it not only repels non-muslim away from islam but also seriously confuses newly converts to islam. , it’s no surprise that any person in his right senses will get offended by a faith being represented by such fictitious stories some of which you would find absolute bizarre. Many Hadith do in fact contradict the Quran, defy all reason or logic, or scientific truths or ethics.

11. It’s a truism that the hadiths which mostly potray islam as intolerant, patriarchal and misogynist religion; give  the anti-islamic people or groups the best opportunity  to malign the divine religion.

Historical records that the writings of the Rabbinic literature -the Talmud,did overshadow the Torah, which was revealed to the earlier Prophet Moses. The writings of Paul - the Epistles, did overshadow the Injeel 18 that was revealed to Prophet Isa. Similarly, today the Hadith literature has sadly overshadowed the Quran, something Prophet Mohammad always feared. Hadith is venerated and is upheld as the second source of jurisdication (often  first) by hidebound muslims.Fabricated hadith and Sharia Law are the major cause of downfall of muslim  community on,social, economical and educational grounds.

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HADITHS - THE LESSER KNOWN ASPECT

The Arabic word “hadith” literally means a story, or saying. Any story, or saying, from anyone.In Islam,it means collection of sayings and actions of Prophet Mohammad.

Sunni Muslims view the six major hadith collections as their most important. They are, in order of authenticity:

Sahih Bukhari, collected by Imam Bukhari (d. 870), includes 7275 ahadith

Sahih Muslim, collected by Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 875), includes 9200 ahadith

Sunan al-Sughra, collected by al-Nasa'i (d. 915)

Sunan Abu Dawood, collected by Abu Dawood (d. 888)

Jami al-Tirmidhi, collected by al-Tirmidhi (d. 892)

Sunan ibn Majah, collected by Ibn Majah (d. 887)

The first two, commonly referred to as the Two Sahihs as an indication of their authenticity, contain approximately seven thousand ahadith altogether if repetitions are not counted.

A Hadeeth is composed of two parts

1) Matn (Text)

2) Isnad (Chain of reporters or narrators).

The Muhadditheen (Scholars of the Hadith) have classified the Ahadeeth in four main categories.

1. Saheeh (Authentic/Sound)

2. Hassan (Good)

3. Da'eef (Weak)

4. Mawdoo (Fabrication)

Al Hasan al Hadith (the 'good' hadith) is a term used to describe any hadith whose text (matn) is absolutely true but whose narrators (isnad) do not pass the test of complete reliability and accuracy based on the stringent criteria established by the hadith compilers. Al Da’if al Hadith (the 'weak' hadith) is a term used to describe any hadith whose truthfulness in both text (matn) and transmission (isnad) is not absolutely beyond question.

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COLLECTION OF HADITH

Hadith collections began on a small scale during the Messenger's prophethood and accelerated tremendously a century after his death. The companions of Prophet Mohammad, tried to preserve his sayings and judgements mainly in the form of memory. So basically, Hadiths were originally part of the oral tradition of Islam. There were no written records of the Prophet’s sayings and deeds during the first century after his death but after two hundred years of transmission and circulation, they were crystallized into written form by the compilers of hadith (the muhaddithun). Forgery had been rampant during the caliphate of the Prophet’s immediate successors, and it only increased under the Umayyads, who considered hadith a means of propping up their rule and actively circulated traditions against Ali and in favour of Mu'awiya.  Ummayad dynasty was overthrown by the Abbasids more than a century after Muhammad's death. The abbasids were more theocratic than the Ummayads. They encouraged the development of the sharia and even employed the court theologians to advise the caliphs. The rise of sunna had begun in the ummayad period but it was the Abbasids who gave it the official recognition. But, there was still a gap between Quran and Islam as a complete way of life. The scholars sought to fill this gap from materials from other sources like the Roman law or even their own opinions. Abbasids even encouraged circulating Prophetic hadith which predicted the reign of each successive ruler. Some of the religious leadership concentrated on ensuring the unity of the Ummah through law and other institutions. Such unity has, no doubt, reigned in the Muslim World but at the cost of inner growth.

Some striking points about hadiths :

LONG TIME GAP (MORE THAN 200 YEARS): After the destruction of the Baghdad Caliphate and the breakup of the political unity of the Muslim World. It is striking that the compilation of hadith started more than 200 years after the physical death of Prophet Mohammad. By that time, many generations had passed. The compilation was nothing but collection of hearsays and stories that were passed on from generation to generation.

HAdiths  are based on memory and hearsays and oral transmission from generation to generation.The historical records of seventh century Arabia show that oral communication (based on memory) was the primary mode of transmitting literature, history, culture, social customs and local tradition from one generation to the next. Arabia had been a land that had neither paper nor the abundance of scribes to write anything down. It’s an undisputed fact that collection of hadith mainly started after more than 200 years of Prophet Mohammad. The Hadith compilers took the herculean task of travelling to different places, even door to door in order to collect any sayings of prophet Mohammad. The people used to share with them stories and sayings of Prophet Mohammad what they had learnt from their forefathers ,who, in turn, had learnt from their forefathers. It’s very practical that even the gist of the message is highly vulnerable of being distorted when it involves: numerous messengers & long time period. In case of Hadeeths, it involved both. Then, How could after more than 200 years of prophet's period, Imam Bukhari suddenly emerge in the scene and not only collect thousands of hadith but also manage to trace back to its source (i.e. the Prophet) by establishing all the links in a chain which cannot possibly have been genuinely reconstructed? How could Bukhari and other hadith-collectors manage to bridge the gap of eight generations? Who can guarantee that any narrator of the chain had not lied or not made any unintentional mistake in stating things. How could one be fully certain that the narrator fully remembered what he had heard from another narrator and that any of the narrators involved in the chain had not made even the slightest mistake in communication, thus passing verbatim message. If we talk of consecutive generations, How can one be so certain that the chain of narrators, through the oral transmission , had been successful in transmitting the same message verbatim from generation to generation, when even in the same generation, or say, even in the same year or month or day, people are often found unable to exactly reproduce one’s utterances.

COMPILERS AND NARRATORS

 No human is infallible. The compilers and narrators could have been biased and prejudiced in their choice of narrators ,in their choice of hadith’s matter(matn) based on their personal ethical, theological, rational or even political thoughts. The collectors of Hadith made very little effort to examine the internal evidences and the genuineness of each Hadith was determined by the characters and personalities who were alleged to be its transmitters. Who can guarantee that the fallible compilers and narrators involved, had never distorted or manipulated the message? If we talk about the matn, the matn was almost never questioned; only if the content of a tradition with a sound isnad was in flagrant contradiction to the Qur'an, it was rejected; if the content could in any way be interpreted so that it harmonized with the Qur'an and other traditions, it was left uncriticized.

Some other causes that led to the fabrication of hadiths were:

.POLITICAL CONFLICT AND SECTARIAN PREJUDICE: Corrupt political leaders and partisan theological parties began to exploit the existing hadith and sunnah in order to promote their own sectarian views especially after the reigns of the four Rashidun caliphs.The Shia’s, particularly in Iraq fabricated many hadiths in praise of Hazrat Ali.Hadith were also fabricated just to please the king. For example, Giyath ibn Ibrahim ibn al Nakh’I fabricated a hadith about virtues of pigeons, to please the Caliph Mahdi (who was very fond of pigeons).Various factions attempted to justify and/or propagate their own schools Of philosophical thought in the name of the Prophet, e.g. Sufic Orders, Qadariyah, Jabariyah, Rawafid, Ikhwan-as-safa, Mu'tazila, etc. These were the groups that appeared after the death of Hazrat Ali.

The desire to translate the underlying meaning also led to distortion of the verbatim.

Not only this, various factions attempted to justify and/or propagate their own schools Of philosophical thought in the name of the Prophet, e.g. Sufic Orders, Qadariyah, Jabariyah, Rawafid, Ikhwan-as-safa, Mu'tazila, etc.These were the groups that appeared after the death of hazrat ali.

Some hadiths  were fabricated to instill and indoctrinate strict piety (taqwa) among the believers.For example, there were narrators who invented hadiths on "the merits of each Sura of the Qur’an" when they found people deserting the Qur’an. For example, Abu Isma Nuh ibn Abi Marayam admitted fabricating Hadith on the virtues of each Surah of the Qur’an stating that people were over-occupied with fiqh issues to the detriment of the Qur’an so “I invented these hadith for the sake of reward (from Allah)”.

Some more points to consider:

1..If one believes that all the Hadiths in Sahih Muslim are authentic then he should read this hadith "Do not write anything from me except Quran. Anyone who wrote anything other than the Quran shall erase it." [Ahmed, Vol. 1, Page 171, and Sahih  Moslim, Zuhd, Book 42, Number 7147].This also reflects self-contradictory nature of Hadith-compilation.

2.Abu Hurayra narrated more hadiths than anybody else including Abu Bakr, Omar, Ali, and Aysha who lived with the Prophet all their lives.Less than three years before the passing away of the Prophet, Abu Hurayrah joined Islam.Still Abu Hurayra narrated more hadiths than all these companions of the Prophet altogether. He narrated 5374 hadiths. Ibn Hanbal quoted 3848 of  his hadiths in his book.Compare the number of hadiths given by Abu Baker i.e 142 to those given by Abu Hurayra while keeping in mind that Abu Baker

accompanied the Prophet for about 23 years, while Abu Hurayra accompanied the Prophet for less than 2 or 3 years. Some of the Prophets companions (Sahaba) and Aysha, the Prophet's wife, accused him of being a liar, telling lies about the Prophet just to make up hadiths and gain some status.

 3. Bukhari collected about 600,000 hadiths and accepted 7275 hadiths(They further reduce to 2762 Hadith without repetition) and considered 592,725 hadiths to be un-proven hadiths, lies and/or fabrications, that is almost 99% of what he collected .Similarly, Imam Muslim collected 300,000 hadiths and only accepted 4000 of them, and refused about 296,000, that is almost 99% of these collected hadiths .

Ask yourself: Is it possible for Imam Bukhari or Imam muslim to have meticulously considered over several lakhs of hadith texts to pick his so-called authentic 7275 hadith texts in his lifetime in an age when the camel journey was the only available means to cover long desert distances to collect prophetic sayings. Even if we assume that they actually did so , who could vouch that the hadith they considered worth of including were actually authentic and rest lakhs of hadiths were actually worth of rejection?

4.Why was the official compilation not made earlier, especially during the time of Prophet Mohammad or the righteous caliphs when the the eye witnesses, were still alive and all hadiths could have been well examined? Just because Prophet and all Caliphates prevented people from any such compilation because they feared such compilation would lead to too much honouring of the traditions and sayings and neglect of the Quran, a fear that unfortunately, has got justified to a great extent by in the contemporary world.

CONCLUSION

This gives us an idea of how much corruption entered or tried to enter Islam from the back door. Now we should understand one of the reasons why God promised to preserve, protect and safeguard Quran.

Quran 15:9  Surely We have revealed the Reminder and We will most surely be its guardian.

 Remember Allah promises to preserve and safeguard the Quran and no other text. Even after so many hurdles, some hadith ,might still be fortunate enough to maintain their authenticity but the darker side seems to be too overweighed. Needless to say, large number of hadith texts do in fact contradict the Quran, defy all common sense reason or logic, or scientific truths or ethics.Some are salacious.There are many hadiths which record conflicting accounts of the same event!See This

Instead of validating or invalidating  hadeeths on the basis of its historical roots or reliability of its isnad(chain of narrators),  why do not so-called scholars of islam validate or invalidate it on the basis of reason or ethics or on humanitarian and egalitarian ground. Progressive and Rational muslims should assemble and a serious recompilation of Hadith is needed if they are not completely done away with. Masses should be made aware about the fabricated aspect of Hadith. The issue is of paramount importance and need to be addressed immediately as it would shape the mind-set of  generations to come.