The dawn of the Islam
is deemed as one the universal revolutionary movements which manifested itself
in almost all the cultural, linguistic and geographical arena of the world.
Islam being a code of the whole life, and not simply way a of worshipping,
called for values of tolerance, sympathy, fellow feelings, co-existence,
universal brotherhood and most importantly self- abasement and denouncement of
haughtiness and sense of superiority. The communities around the globe who
embraced Islam have to a large extent endorsed these values and practice of the
same could be witnessed (to some extent) in their lives. However, among all the
communities/nations who embraced Islam, the Arabs whose land is considered as
the epicenter of the Islamic teachings, could be witnessed in least practice in
the observance of either of the aforementioned values. Whereas by most accounts
the disposition, manners and demeanors of the Arabs are in contravention of the
creeds. The Arabs’ iconoclastic disposition can better be understood if we cast
a critical glance at the Arabs’ society and general mindset in the pre-Islamic
era.
Most of the available
historical literature pertaining to Arabs manifestly reflects that the present
disposition of Arabs has its roots in the pre-Islamic time of Arabic society.
Arabs were very narrow minded they rarely tolerated each other, for most of the
time they strived for supremacy and leadership within their tribes and
ultimately among all the tribes prevalent in the era in general. This fierce
competition would always bring them to the brink of combativeness and
infightings. The concept of co-existence was by and large extinct. Intrigues
ridden mindset and frequent resort to the manifestation physical might were the
virtues highly admired in their society.
The degraded status of
women and ancillary entities such as slaves was order of the day. Women were
accorded a status no more than mere chattels for sexual pleasure. That’s why
each person had multiple wives in his life time. Having this mean view of women
in mind they therefore could not tolerate the birth of daughters, which they
could not see having had a conjugal relation with another man (as per their
view about the existence of women). However birth of the male baby was widely
welcomed as he contributed to the manpower which was handy in their ambition of
infightings on the one hand, and saving their grace on the other which
the female baby to them could not. The sub-human status and the ill- treatment
accorded to the slaves, covers a large proportion of the recorded social
history of the Arabs.
The haughty, arrogant
disposition and the flawed superiority complex which they are fixated on, are
narrated by numerous accounts of the pre-Islam history of Arabs. The celebrated
tribal leader Abu Jehal was when
beheaded in the battlefield he is reported
to have said that his head should be cut down at a point munch lower to his
chest, so that his head may seem bigger among the others, which will be known
as a head of a tribal leader amongst those of the ordinary people. Another account narrates
that when the uncle of the prophet of Islam, who had brought up the prophet ,
was suffering from death sickness and
breathing his last, the prophet approached him and pleaded him to recite the
Kalma of Islam so that prophet may recommend his salvation on the day of
the judgment. He replied that if he did so, the youngsters of the city will
laugh at him, and would think that he did it due to fear of death and
damnation. There are multiple accounts which narrate such stories of Arabs
symptomatic of arrogance, haughtiness, narrow-mindedness and ignorance.
Now if we critically
analyze the post-Islam Arab society, their disposition, manners, demeanors and
societal norms, we can arrive at the conclusion that the social structure,
norms, dispositions and attitudes of the Arabs are much the same as it had been
the state in the pre-Islamic Arab world.
The discourse that women
belong to a weaker sex, and have no role in the social, political and even
domestic decision making, is still prevalent in the Arabs ‘mindset. Women had
been disenfranchised for centuries and were denied due share in the political
affairs. It was very recently that the women participation to some extent was
acknowledged in the political affairs of the kingdom. Taking women more as an
object for sexual gratification and less as a partner of life, is evident from
their having multiple wives even today. They remain engaged with them only in
their heydays and enjoy it to full, and then divorce them with entitlement to
some financial and material provisions. It is one of the reasons of the growing
construction works in the kingdom, as they provide the divorced woman with a
separate house.
The infighting for
leadership, as it had been the case amongst the tribes in the pre-Islamic ear,
can still be observed. If we take the term of tribal supremacy synonymous with
its modern counterpart hegemony and tribes in the extended form of the
neighboring countries, it can easily be
observed in the Saudi’s disposition which is out to achieve the same by hook or
crook in the region. Saudi cannot digest rise of any other country in the
region, and this hegemony has been the bone of contention between the Iran and
Saudi. The Arabs’ mindset does not bar it from going to any length for
achieving the desired objectives. Being fixated with this threat, it was Saudi
which supplied fuel to the Afghan war in the 80s and 90s, the heat of which is
felt even today. They supplied the manpower to the war, financed the seminaries
in Pakistan and indoctrinated them to fight the war which will in turn check
the rise of Iran in the region. Again the kingdom antagonism towards the Asad’s
regime and its effort to oust the Iranian supporter from the region resulted
into the birth of the brutal entity like IS. The birth of IS is simply the
by-product of the Saudi’s anti Assad extremely antagonistic mindset. The same
is also true of Saudi’s involvement in the Yamen crisis.
Concentration of power
in a single hand was one of the features of the tribal system in the days of yore. Much the same situations ould be witnessed
even toady in the Arab society. In an era of wide spread democracy and
participative type of governance, the Arabs are still stuck to the rule of one
man and dynastic system, and almost no devolution could witnessed in their
system of governance. Whereas Islam never believes in the concentration of
power, rather in the creed of devolution. This concentration of power in a single hand and plutocratic
system of governance is the reflection of the mindset of the pre-Islamic tribal
system of Arabs.
Arrogance, haughtiness,
superiority complex and the belief in self importance are tenets of Arabs’
mindset which distinguish them from rest of the human beings. They believe that
they are the only species on the planet who deserve importance, the rest are
sub-humans. Tales of such disposition of Arabs are innumerable with the foreign
citizens who earn livelihood in Saudi and it is this section of the society
which is the worst victim of Arabs’ inhuman and inhumane treatment. They never
treat them as human beings, but readily available tools/machines worth of much
work. The female servants working in
their houses are subject to more ill-treatment and humiliation than their male
counterparts. Although no one is allowed to publicly raise voice against their
policies, yet the female are more victims because they lack access to other
employers and labor unions. Delayed payment, non-payment and forcibly reduction
of wages are the practices common to the wretched class of foreign laborers
working with Arabs.
Arabs are perhaps
leading their lives under the principles of epicureans. They too eat, drink and
enjoy. They have no quest for knowledge, economy and of building social
capital. Their parasitic dependence on
West for science and technology is evident. The IT sector is fed by the
Pakistani and Indian youth, whereas in the field of defense it is much like a
protectorate state of the US, and receives support from Pakistan as well.
A critical analysis of
the abovementioned factors demonstrate that little has been changed in Arabs’
society and mindset with the dawn of Islam. Islam stands for fair-play,
equality, brotherhood, sympathy, women elevated status, devolution of the
governing system and most importantly wants the believers to carry on a
ceaseless quest for knowledge. The Arabs are as they had been. Now if we cannot
find desired result for the above indicators, how we can conclude the impact of
Islam on the Arabs? The better answer could be that Islam has changed only
their way of worshipping and nothing else, earlier they would worship the
idols, which they had kept in the holy Kaaba, and in the post-Islamic period
the practice of idols’wroshipping was stopped.
Political issues of Pakistan.
SOCIAL ISSUES.
CRITICAL CURRENT ISSUES