The Catholic Prime Minister of the Caribbean island of St. T Vincent is reported (Trinidad Guardian, May 8th, 2004) to have entered into the Mt. St. Benedict (Catholic) Monastery in Trinidad for a spiritual retreat during which “ he would join the monks in praying five times a day”. There are many people in the Caribbean who have chosen to become Muslims by proclaiming that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger. When they do so they are taught, first of all, to pray ‘five times a day’. What is the origin of ‘five times’ daily prayers? We feel certain that there will be many, apart from the Prime Minister and the monks in the monastery, who will find this subject to be of compelling and abiding interesting.

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was forty years of age when Angel Gabriel appeared to inform him that he was a Prophet of the One God. Prior to that event he was, himself, unaware of this status of his, yet he never worshipped the idols of Arabia. There were others, known as Hunafa, who also refused to worship idols. They worshipped One God, made the annual pilgrimage (Hajj) to His Holy Temple in Makkah built by Abraham. And they sacrificed animals annually in commemoration of Abraham’s trial of sacrifice of his (then) only son, Ishmael, peace be upon him.

Sometime after that first visit, the Angel came one day and taught the Prophet how to perform ablution before prayer, i.e., wash hands, mouth, nostrils and entire face, then wash arms up to the elbows, then pass wet hands on the head, and, finally, wash the feet. The angel also taught him how to stand bare-footed in prayer, to bow down and to prostrate before the Lord-God. Some eleven years later, the Prophet was summoned in a miraculous celestial journey by night from Makkah to Jerusalem and then into the heavens to the special Divine presence. He then received the obligation of ‘five times daily prayers’ directly from the Lord-God Himself, and he returned to announce to all those who had faith in Allah Most High that the institution of (five times daily) prayers was the vehicle through which they, too, could journey to the divine presence.

Angel Gabriel subsequently came to him one day and led him in prayer five times - once in the early morning (after dawn but before sunrise), once in the early afternoon (after the sun had crossed the zenith but before mid-afternoon), once in the later afternoon (but before the setting of the sun), once after the sun had set, and finally in the early hours of the night (after twilight had ended). On each occasion he led the prayers at the earliest time possible. He then returned the next day and again led the Prophet in the same five times prayers, but this time he chose the latest possible time for each prayer. He then announced that these were the five times of compulsory prayer, and that each prayer was to be performed within the timeframe just established. In addition to these compulsory prayers there are, of course, voluntary prayers that could be performed at any time, but best of all in the early hours of the morning before dawn.

Since there is but One God, and hence but one Truth, and only one true religion (i.e., the religion of ‘Abraham’ from whose name the name ‘Brahma’ appears to have originated) the implication is that whoever worships the One true God must pray these five times compulsory prayers every day. Anyone who does not perform the five times daily prayers would eventually live an essentially pagan life since the compulsory five times daily prayers are the very foundation of the religious way of life.

When Jesus, the true Messiah, peace be upon him, returns, he, also, will pray to Allah Most High five times a day in the same way that Angel Gabriel taught Prophet Muhammad to pray, and in the same way that Muslims pray to this day (without chairs, benches, pews, etc.) They stand barefooted before Allah Most High in prayer, then bow down, sit flat, and prostrate themselves with their faces on the blessed earth. They do so ‘five times a day’, and will continue to do so, Insha Allah, in defiance of that godless world-order that is waging war on them, and regardless of the price they pay for that defiance. And they do so with the absolute conviction that Truth must eventually triumph over its wicked godless enemies.

They also recite in every prayer the opening Surah (chapter) of the Qur’an in which they ask to be guided “on the straight path – the path of those whom Thou hast blessed, not the path of those who earn Thine anger, nor of those who go astray.” It should be clear to our readers that those who are today waging unjust war on Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Holy Land and elsewhere, most certainly earn Allah’s anger, and those misguided Muslims or non-Muslims who support such people, while worshipping at the alter of a US Visa, or for whatever other foolish reason, are most certainly a people who have gone astray.

“As matters stand in the Muslim world today, it is the decline of religious leadership from the Islamic standard in a serious measure that constitutes a major cause of its inability with regard to its emergence from the abyss into which it has been descending since some time. The remedy for the situation is obvious.” - Fazlur Rahman Ansari, ‘The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society’

The Quranic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society (in two volumes) was written by the distinguished Islamic scholar Shaikh, Dr. Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari (1914-1974), and was first published in Pakistan in 1973 just a few months before his death in 1974. It is not only a masterpiece of modern Islamic scholarship, but it also courageously identifies serious deficiencies in contemporary Islamic scholarship as one of the major causes of the decline of the Muslim world. The author of the book, who holds a doctorate in philosophy, was a graduate of Aligarh Muslim University, India, where he studied philosophy and religion. He derived his Islamic philosophical and spiritual thought from the outstanding Islamic scholar, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, as well as from his spiritual mentor, Shaikh Abdul Aleem Siddiqui, and the great teacher who taught him Islam at the Aligarh Muslim University, Professor Syed Sulaiman Ashraf.

Dr. Iqbal had made a significant call, in a series of public lectures delivered in the 1930’s, for the “reconstruction of religious thought in Islam”. “The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society” was, in part, Shaikh Ansari’s PhD thesis, and it was perhaps the most outstanding contribution to Islamic scholarship by any of the students of Iqbal. It also represented a significant response to Iqbal’s call for that ‘reconstruction of religious thought’. Shaikh disclosed that Iqbal was himself the spiritual guide who guided him to the methodology with which he was able to pursue a sustained study of the Qur’an. It was that study which resulted in the production of this great work.

Even while he responded to Iqbal’s call, Shaikh did not agree that Islamic religious thought was so defective that it had to be reconstructed, and he attempted no such thing in this, his magnum opus. His view was that Islam had to be rearticulated in the context of the awesome challenges posed by the modern thought that originated from modern western civilisation. The world of religion, in general, and the Muslim world in particular, was subjected to cleverly formulated attacks on its integrity, and it was mainly because the scholars of Islam had so far failed to respond authentically and appropriately to those attacks that Muslim society was in a state of confusion, dangerous decline and disarray.

Shaikh commenced his book by identifying the forces that were responsible for the attacks. A Christian-Jewish alliance was waging an evil campaign of villification against Islam. He quoted extensively from Jewish and Christian scholars who were vilifying Islam, and in so doing identified a mysterious and sinister Euro-Christian/Euro-Jewish alliance.

Islamic scholarship responded to those Euro-Jewish/Euro-Christian attacks in two different ways, and Shaikh was critical of both methods of response. The first was a response that he termed ‘Islamic conservatism’. It represented a Muslim intellectual shut-down against western civilization. All intellectual shutters were closed to modern knowledge that was coming from the west. The justification for that shut-down was that it permitted the construction of an intellectual wall between Muslims and the modern west. That wall was constructed with the belief that such a strategy would protect and preserve Muslims from the greatest danger they had ever faced. But Europe was changing the whole world, including Muslim society, and as Muslim scholars emerged from conservative institutions of Islamic learning, i.e., the Dar al-’Ulum, they were almost always incapable of either understanding or responding correctly to the problems that modern Muslims faced. Such Islamic scholarship eventually became irrelevant to modern Muslims, and such scholars lost esteem and respect from their own modern-educated people.

The second response was that of ‘Islamic modernism’, and it went to the other extreme in an attempt to so modernize Islam that it could be accommodated in the modern world. Islamic modernism identified all areas of divergence between Islamic thought and modern Judeo-Christian western thought and then proceeded to brazenly subject Islamic thought to ‘a progressive re-interpretation’ in an effort to reconcile such divergence. Such scholars were eventually transformed internally into intellectual carbon-copies of their western Judeo-Christian masters. Even more lamentably, they were eventually externally transformed as well to imitate western dress - sometimes complete with jacket and tie, while abandoning the clothing that they traditionally wore as Muslims. They even shaved off their beards or reluctantly conceded a brief apology for a beard. In fact the Islamic modernist, male and female, left Islam and were no longer Muslims. Their friendship for and alliance with the Euro-Christian/Euro-Jewish world order resulted in their absorbtion as part of that society.

The Qur’an itself had prohibited such Muslim friendship and alliance with such Jews and Christians who themselves were friends and allies of each other. And it had declared that such Muslims had, in effect, left Islam and were no longer Muslims:
“Oh you who believe (in this Qur’an) do not take (such) Jews and the Christians as (your) friends and allies who themselves become friends and allies of each other. And whoever of you allies himself with them becomes, verily, one of them; behold, Allah does not guide such evildoers.” 
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:51)

Shaikh rejected and condemned both ‘Islamic conservatism’ and ‘Islamic modernism’. Indeed his book commenced with a chapter that directed attention to a “Christian-Jewish campaign of vilification” against Islam and proceeded to take Judeo-Christian western scholarship to task for their bias against Islam:
“… neither Hurgronje, nor the other orientalists, could cleanse themselves of the poison inherited from their medieval forefathers, with the result that the West, even after the debacle of Christianity, remains on the whole an inveterate enemy of Islam and Muslims and continues to spread poison against them through all the available media.”
(Volume 1, p. 2)

Shaikh searched within the Qur’an itself for the response to the challenge of western thought. This required study with an independent enquiring mind that was willing to admit that the Qur’an could yield new knowledge that might have escaped the attention or understanding of previous Islamic scholarship. Then when he located the response in the Qur’an, Shaikh then proceeded to use that Qur’anic response as a weapon with which to wage a mighty Jihad against the crusading Euro-Jewish/Euro-Christian west. He himself termed his response as ‘dynamic orthodoxy’.

But Shaikh was forced to recognize that the assault on the religious way of life had resulted in large numbers of Muslims not only suffering moral collapse, but being absorbed into the global secular world. This is emphatically so in respect of governments in the Muslim world, and is increasingly so in respect of those who have hoisted themselves ‘by hook or crook’ to leadership of Muslim communities:

“The truly-westernised, secularised, modernised Muslims, who are emerging as the major controlling force in many Muslim communities, are groping in the darkness of utter confusion; and in sheer ignorance they look greedily to fashionable un-Islamic and anti-Islamic ideologies and
modes of life for imitation and adoption.”

Muslim scholars and leaders who are but carbon-copies of the West are busy trying to modernize Islam so that it can be accommodated in godless way of life of modern western civilization. They create a creature called ‘Islamic Modernism’. Dr. Ansari denounced ‘Islamic Modernism’ and urged Muslims to grasp ‘dynamic orthodoxy’ instead (i.e., that which is firmly based on the Qur’an and Sunnah). ‘The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society’ is the best modern exposition of that dynamic orthodoxy in Islam.

An essentially godless Europe that had conveniently cloaked itself in medieval times in the garb of Christianity, and which subsequently and mysteriously discarded that Christianity for materialism in the modern age, was strangely armed with a scientific and technological power that appeared to be irresistible and indestructible. Europe used that power to take such military and political control of the Muslim world that the Islamic Caliphate was destroyed. Europe then proceeded to render it impossible for Muslims to liberate territory and to establish authentic Islam anywhere on earth. A relentless and merciless European attack on Islamic civilization that has continued uninterrupted even after the destruction of the Caliphate in 1924 has resulted in the subjugation of Muslims to European political control. This control commenced with Europe and then continued with the new Europe in America. Not only is Islamic civilization in a state of political and cultural disarray, but it is also fast approaching a state of total economic enslavement through European Riba disguised as ‘Capitalism’.

In the midst of all of this Europe succeeded in ‘liberating’ the Holy Land of Muslim rule and then in restoring the ancient State of Israel. After that, the Israelite Jews were brought back to the Holy Land by European Jews in the strangest and most mysterious ‘return’ of a people history has ever witnessed. Indeed, it has become clear that European control over the whole world was meant to make possible the return of the Israelite Jews to the Holy Land. The fact that Israelite Jews accepted this road back to Jerusalem and interpreted it as an act of fulfillment of a divine promise concerning the return of the golden age and the advent of the Messiah is indicative of their spiritual blindness. They were in fact deceived by the False Messiah (i.e. Dajjal). How should Muslims respond to the drama that is still unfolding? How should Muslims extricate themselves from their present predicament? The answer is that nothing can possibly explain the strange world of today, and nothing can save Muslims from its perils except the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the blessed Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him). Salvation depends upon the reconstruction of Muslim society as authentically as is possible. Authenticity depends upon fidelity to the Qur’an, and to the one who was sent to teach the Qur’an and to establish its guidance in a concrete model.

It is not now possible to take control of territory anywhere in the world in order to establish Islam as a ‘Public Order’ or ‘State’. Any effort to do so would provoke a response that would witness the entire world ganging-up to prevent the emergence of Islamic control over the State. The only exception to this appears to be the territory of Khorasan (of the time of the Prophet) i.e., territory located within the midst of Eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Western Pakistan, and the territories North of Afghanistan. It is significant that modern Europe never succeeded in conquering the heart of this territory. The British tried to conquer it and failed. Then the Russians tried and they also failed. The prophecy of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) indicates that Islam will reemerge from there as a force taking control of territory, and from Khorasan will emerge the Muslim army that would eventually liberate the Holy Land:
“Abu Hurairah reported that the Prophet said: Black banners shall emerge from Khorasan and no force would be able to stop them until they are inserted in Aelia (Jerusalem).”
(Sunan Tirmidhi)

But the world of Islam may not have to wait for more than a few more decades before that army triumphantly enters Jerusalem and liberates the long-suffering Palestinian people, Christian as well as Muslim, from Euro-Israili oppression.

How should Muslims respond to the relentlessly increasing attacks on Islam and on Muslim society these next few decades? How can they survive the next few decades if they cannot establish macro-Islam anywhere since they cannot take control of the State anywhere? The answer is that Muslims must concentrate on establishing micro-Islamic communities wherever they can. If such Muslim communities are to be established on the authentic foundations of the Qur’an and Sunnah, and are to survive the relentless and diabolical attacks of the enemies of Islam, they must strive to implement the entire guidance that emerges from the Qur’an and Sunnah. That guidance has to be extracted, classified and articulated in a manner relevant to the concrete situation facing Muslims today. This is precisely the task that Shaikh  Dr. Ansari has accomplished in his magnificent work.

Dr. Ansari also realised that the attack of the west extended beyond the intellectual to include the moral and spiritual dimensions of the Muslim personality. He identified a “crisis of character” that had overtaken Muslim society that, according to him, is “the deadliest poison to have ever paralyzed and killed human society”. He produced his great work in an attempt to articulate the Qur’anic moral code and its metaphysical foundation as the remedy for that crisis. He explained in the ‘Preface’, the basic purpose of the book:

“The basic purpose and function of this book is to state the Philosophy and the Code of Life as given in the Qur’an. That Code has developed, however, with morality as the central theme. And that should have been so. Because, the value-system which the Holy Qur’an has given establishes spirituality as the root, morality as the trunk, and all other aspects of life: economic, political, etc., as off-shoots of morality, whereby it ensures the emergence of the integrated and progressive individual and the integrated and progressive social order.

The central importance for morality that has emerged thus should impress upon the Muslims the central importance of moral struggle.

Viewed in that perspective, the present book forms a basic contribution in respect of extricating Muslim society from the Crisis of Character which has overtaken all classes of Muslims, and which is the deadliest poison that has ever paralyzed or killed any human community.

The method of exposition adopted is simple and direct. Moreover, personal comments have been kept at the barest minimum, so that the Qur’an has stayed in its august position free to explain itself. In the dynamic orthodoxy that has thus emerged lies, in the belief of the present writer, the salvation of Muslims and of humanity at large.”
(Volume 1, Preface)

The book attempts to respond to the tremendous challenge to the religious way of life in general, and to Islam in particular, which modern European civilization has posed ever since the time of the Crusades. That attack on religion is now culminating with men marrying men, homosexuals ordained as priests and rabbis, and the functional role of gender in society turned upside down. In other words mankind is now experiencing total collapse of the moral foundations of society, and it was for precisely this reason that the author presented so elaborately the moral code of Islam, and took care to argue as convincingly as possible, the rational or philosophical justification for that moral law and code of conduct.

He has also articulated the concept of Islamic spirituality with great care and quite some detail and in so doing he has answered critics who had not even emerged at the time that the book was written. But ‘spirituality’ cannot be achieved unless there is a prior moral struggle for the achievement of moral purity. One of the major achievements of this book is its detailed exposition and classification of the Islamic moral code. There is also great value in the beautiful explanation and guidance that it provides of the methodology of Tazkiyah, i.e., moral purification, and of Zikr, i.e., the fragrance which only true love can deliver when it embraces the heart and provokes in the privacy of the heart a constant remembrance of the beloved.

But the book has also made a stirring call for the creation of true leaders of the Muslim community. It is proper leadership that can deliver Muslims from their present predicament. The elaborate exposition of the moral code of Islam in the book can assist in the training and development of a new leadership. Here is his advice on the subject:

“The religious leadership that emerges thus in the Islamic Community is that of ‘teachers’ and ‘guides’ and not of ‘priests’. Every Muslim, without any considerations of colour, race, tribe, family, sex, and worldly status, can aspire—in fact, should aspire—to acquiring that status. The qualification he has to acquire for that purpose consists of sound knowledge of Divine Guidance, sound wisdom and sound spiritual and moral personality, as emphasized in connection with the Holy Prophet’s Mission:
“It is He Who has sent amongst the Unlettered a Messenger from among themselves, to rehearse to them His Signs, to sanctify them, and to instruct them in Scripture and Wisdom - although they had been, before, in manifest error.”
(Qur’an, al-Jum’ah, 62:2)

In short, he should be a miniature representative of the Holy Prophet’s Personality, and as such should be a spiritually, morally and intellectually illumined person. Whoever acquires this qualification will earn the respect and love of the fellow Muslims, and even of fair-minded human beings in general. Therein lies his leadership, which is obviously attained through the slow process of hard-earned merit. As such he becomes not only a teacher (mu’allim) but also a guide (murshid), capable of helping the people not only intellectually but also spiritually - assisting them in emerging from spiritual darkness into the Light Divine:
“Alif Lam Ra. A Book which We have revealed unto thee, in order that thou mightest lead mankind out of the depths of darkness into light - by the leave of their Lord - to the Way of (Him) the Exalted in Power, Worthy of all Praise!” 
(Qur’an, Ibrahim, 14:1)

… the teacher himself acting through the Light bestowed on him by God:
“Can he who was dead, to whom We gave life, and a Light whereby he can walk amongst men, be like him who is in the depths of darkness, from which he can never come out? Thus to those without Faith their own deeds seem pleasing.” (Qur’an, al-An’am, 6:122)

No other category of religious .leadership emerges in the Qur’anic Guidance. Those who possess only scholastic information, and are scholars of Islam in that sense, and do not fulfill the above-mentioned qualifications, are not entitled to religious leadership. Rather, they have been denounced by the Qur’an:
“O ye who believe! Why say ye that which ye do not? Grievously odious is it in the sight of Allah that ye say that which ye do not.”
(Qur’an, al-Saff, 61:2, 3)

Jewish religious leaders of yore have been similarly denounced:
“The similitude of those who were charged with the (obligations of the). Mosaic Law, but who subsequently failed in (personally acting according to) those (obligations), is that of a donkey which carries huge tomes (but understands them not) . . .”
(Qur’an, al-Juma’ah, 62:5)

At best, the scholastics can function only as formal transmitters of the information they possess, and nothing more. In the end, it is essential to note that no religious leader, not even the Super-Leader, i.e., the Holy Prophet Mohammed (peace be on him), can function in any way as the substitute for God or as a sub-deity: Also, no religious leader, however great, can possess any absolute authority over the Muslims, because absolute authority resides, among human beings, only in the person of the Holy Prophet, who alone is the absolute Leader of the Muslims for all time, and no one else; so that there is no room in Islam for the creation of sects around personalities.

It is urgent that Muslims pay due heed to the Qur’anic warning:
“And be not among those who join gods with Allah - those who split up their religion and become (mere) sects - each party rejoicing in that which is with itself!” (Qur’an, al-Rum, 30:31-32)

The prestige of Islam meanwhile suffers damage after damage and the millet as a whole courts defeat after defeat!

“The Qur’anic Fundations and Structure of Muslim Society” constitutes a textbook, workbook, and a veritable manual for survival of Muslims of the present age.

Who decides what is right and what is wrong?  The society?  Religion?  The Government?  I  myself?

And now we see a shift, in contemporary society, from principles of right and wrong to choices, decisions and risks, and therefore to subjective personal decisions, with little regard for wider consequences.  No longer is "man the measure of all things" - I am the measure of all things.  We need to carefully examine this shift because it constitutes one of the main underlying causes of crime.  One of the obvious solutions to crime would therefore be the concerted effort to reverse this shift.  

SECULARISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS 

Underpinning the prevailing culture in the world today is the philosophy of secularism, aimed, among other things, at the "loosing of the world from religious and quasi-religious understandings of itself."
Secularism is based on a tentative faith in the evolution of conscious, willing, rational man and of the other living creatures and of the rest of the universe out of Godless, causeless, completely non-rational, inert matter, on the basis of accident and chance.  In this false faith, Man is thus only an ephemeral speck of mechanical activity in a chance-order in a universe that is a mere accident.

Let us examine the unmistakable implications of this false faith. 

• there is no God ;
• there is no spiritual dimension to the human personality;
• there is no purpose to human life;
• this life is the be-all and end-all of human life, i.e. death is the total annihilation of life;
• there are no objective moral values - values are relative and changing as society or man decides.

WHAT DOES RELIGION TEACH? 

As opposed to these implications, at a seminar held in Cambridge, UK in 1990, representatives of Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam spelt out the following four common beliefs, in spite of doctrinal differences:

• Belief in a Transcendent Reality, God, who is worthy of worship.
• Belief in the existence of a spiritual dimension in every human being.
• Belief in the innate love for eternal values, such as Truth, Justice, Righteousness, Love, compassion and care towards all creation, which the spiritual self of each individual is innately endowed with by God.
• Belief in need for Transcendental Guidance."

[Muslim Education Quarterly - Cambridge, The Islamic Academy, Vol. 15, No. 4, 1998]

 WHAT AM I? 

The prevailing culture powerfully re-inforces the above-mentioned implications of secularism through popular music, literature, movies, TV and through the glamourised lifestyle that it projects.  However where does this leave me?   As Bertrand Russell put it, in "Free Man's Worship" (in his book, Mysticism and Logic): " Man is the product of the causes which had no pre-vision of the end they were achieving, that his origin, his growth, his hopes and his fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collection of atoms;  that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feelings can preserve an individual life beyond the grave, that all the labours of ages, all the devotions, all the inspiration, all the noon-day brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction  in the vast death of the solar system and the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried under a debris of ruins . . . ."

So here I am --- alive, but with no purpose to life --- alive, but doomed to total extinction at death (engendering in me hopelessness and despair) --- alive, but with no accountability after death --- alive, but with me being the final arbiter of what is "good" and "bad" for me, regardless of what the rest of mankind thinks --- alive in a hostile world, one that doesn't care what happens to me, one that forces me to make the best of this bad bargain by utilizing my cunningness to acquire maximum physical happiness for myself --- alive, but with values being what I decide.

In the secularism-based prevailing culture, Man thus believes that life has no purpose, that there is no accountability after death, so that if he gets away with anything here in this world he has gotten away.  Yet getting away doesn't really matter, for he believes he is heading for extinction --- if not today, then tomorrow.  And if he doesn't get away with doing that which gives him any sense of thrill  or pleasure, but which society holds to be an offence - it still doesn't matter, as pitiless and dark extinction is still staring him in the face.  So what, if it comes sooner rather than later?

I AM THE FRUIT 

When I have been brainwashed by the prevailing culture into believing that I and I alone, have the right to choose what is "right" for me and I have decided that whatever gives me pleasure is "right", why then would society object when I have chosen a life of crime and violence?  I am only the fruit of the trees, the seeds of which the prevailing culture carefully planted in the well-prepared soil and the plants of which, it painstakingly nurtured and pruned.  And tragically, while society continues to decry the type of fruit like me, it still continues preparing the same soil and planting the self-same seeds and nurturing the identical plants, through its projected lifestyle and through the entertainment media.

SUGGESTED SOLUTION 

If society is really serious about addressing the problem of crime, it has to stop focusing on dealing with only the symptoms, while ignoring their underlying causes.  It really needs to address how to stop producing fruits like the "me" just mentioned.  The false beliefs created by the secularism-based prevailing culture are certainly among the fundamental causes of crime.  The remedy is obvious - helping man to eradicate these false beliefs and to espouse the Truth.  While this is easier said than done, let us not be guilty of only twiddling our thumbs and pontificating, while the situation gets worse and worse.

THE HOLY QUR'AN --- GOD'S FINAL REVELATION  

The One True God, the All-Knowing, the All-Loving, the All-Wise sent guidance to every people in this world through the agency of selected human beings -  the Prophets (peace be upon them all) .  To some of them He revealed His Words.  The Holy Qur'an is God's Final Revelation and it is the only one about which He has given the assurance that He will guard and protect (and which He has guarded and protected in two ways, each of which would have been sufficient by itself - in writing, and by endowing it with the miraculous quality of easy memorisability so that it has been memorized completely by countless thousands, generation after generation).

The correct beliefs, that we need to espouse, which the Qur'an clearly informs us of, include:

1.    The universe was created by the Absolute, Infinite, One True God for a serious purpose and it certainly did not originate by chance.
2.    Life here in this world, even though fleeting, is but only a small part of Man's lifespan. It is, however, a preparation for the abiding phase of life in the Hereafter.
3.    Death, far from being the total annihilation of life, is only a gateway to the next level of existence, through which we must all pass.
4.    Life in this world, far from being purposeless, is the opportunity for us to strive to fulfil the purpose for which we were created, i.e.  the manifestation, in every sphere of our lives, of the relationship between the created being and the Creator, between the servant and the Master.  Thus it is God's Guidance that would take precedence and not our own individual whims and fancies and inclinations.
5.    The Ever-Loving Creator endowed man with a nature ( in Arabic, Fitrah) and guided him to a way of life that is in harmony with his Divinely-endowed nature.  Thus when man follows God's Guidance he is in harmony with his own nature and when he disobeys that Guidance he is in conflict with his own nature.
6.    A human being is comprised of five dimensions - the physical, the rational or intellectual, the aesthetical, the moral and the spiritual. God's Guidance constitutes that way of life which leads to the balanced and harmonious development of all five dimensions - with none being neglected.
7.    The One True God is the Possessor of all the dimensions of Highest Excellence to an Infinite degree.  And it is His Attributes that constitute the Fountainhead of all Values.  Thus Values are objective and not subjective and changing, and certainly not decided on by ME.
8.    There is the Day of Judgment, when all human beings will be resurrected and made to stand before the All-Loving Creator to give an account of their lives here in this world.  So that even if human beings were to succeed in evading  detection by man here in this world, they will still have to account for their actions in the Court of the Almighty, in which Court even the things which were hidden in the world would not remain hidden.
9.    Each human being has been allotted a period of time here in this world, the length of which is not known to us.  When that allotted period ends, the human being is transferred to the next level of existence, i.e., Death occurs.  Because we live in a world of causality, there is a cause of death-- sickness, accident, drowning, fire, etc. - but the underlying reality is that the allotted period had ended.

CONCERTED ACTION --- THE CRYING NEED

A hungry person cannot sate his hunger by only extolling the virtues of the food before him - a sick person cannot get healing from only describing the properties of the prescribed medicine.  Similarly a society beset by problems, including crime, cannot see any improvement from only knowing suggested solutions.  A concerted, conscientious, co-operative effort is needed on the part of parents, teachers, religious leaders, the media and the Government.  Procrastination, lethargy and inertia have to be left in the past.  NOW is the time for effort and striving, putting our trust in the One True God.  

Economic ghettos now spawn, to a very large extent, the present endless nightmare of gang and drug warfare, armed robbery, kidnapping, and wanton senseless murder. Those ghettos will dramatically increase when the US dollar collapses totally and the TT dollar faithfully follows its monetary Massa in that collapse. Inflation will increase dramatically, and so too will crime!  

Is it possible to replace the old corrupt politics of tribal patronage, the corrupt monetary system, as well as the corrupt system of money-lending on interest that has enriched some tribes while impoverishing others and creating ghettos? Our view is that constitutional reform should be primarily directed to the search for a plural model of a state appropriate for a multi-tribal plural society. Only such a 'power-sharing' model of state can now prevent the emergence of tribal economic and political dictatorship, and restore a tribal fraternity based on economic and political justice, tribal equality and a free and fair market. Only thus can we hope to extricate the ghetto from economic oppression and the resultant ever-increasing crime.

Islam recognizes justice to be the fundamental and indispensable moral value on which stable societies are built. It also exposes oppression (including economic oppression) as a destroyer of social stability.

"O you who have faith (in the One God)! Be ever steadfast in upholding (the standard of) equity (and this includes equal opportunity in a free and fair market), bearing witness to the Truth for the sake of Allah (Most High), even though it be against your own selves (i.e., perceived to be against your own interest) or your parents and kinsfolk (and this includes your tribe). Whether those concerned be rich or poor, Allah's claim takes precedence over the claims of either of them. Do not, then, follow your own agenda (and this includes your party or tribal agenda), lest you swerve from justice: for if you distort the truth, behold, Allah is indeed aware of all that you do!" (Qur'an, al-Nisa, 4:135). (Explanatory comments in brackets) 

From a corrupted economy - to the ghetto - to endless crime

When the market-place of jobs, of allocation of resources, and of buying and selling is corrupted, and when money itself, which is used to buy and to sell, is neither free nor fair, then opportunity presents itself for the elite in such a society to exploit those too weak or ignorant to protect themselves. That sick economy eventually creates ghettos, and the entire people pay a terrible price when such a society itself begins to unravel and collapse.  Eventually the law of the jungle rules the ghetto, and the ghetto then expands to embrace the rest of the society with violent crime. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) warned of such a time when "Harj would fall on your rooftops like rain". When asked "what was Harj", he replied: "(random senseless wanton) killing and slaughter to such an extent that the one who was killed would not know why he was killed, and the one who was killing would not know why he was killing - and every day would be worse than the day which preceded it." 

A man who could not read or write, and who never traveled outside of his native Arabia other than two business trips to Damascus, prophesied as such from the desert of Arabia more than 1400 years ago. Only a true Prophet of the One God could have prophesied so long ago that society would one day collapse to become the world in which we now live.

From the politics of patronage to crime

The politics of patronage, in which governments favor some over others, corrupts and destroys both the 'free' as well as the 'fair' market. In addition, those who benefit from state-sponsored patronage eventually become so internally corrupted that they believe they have a right to rob, kidnap and even murder in order to eat bread without having to sweat for it. The Qur'an has responded to declare that ". . . man is entitled to nothing except that for which he labored" (Qur'an, al-Najm, 53:39). This writer worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this country for some years and had direct experience of tribal patronage in employment, job promotion, diplomatic posting, etc., in that Ministry. The same was largely true of the rest of the Public Service, Police Service, Armed Forces, Central Bank, etc. Justice Vollney recently removed the cover of a garbage-bin to expose the stench in other places as well. This essay argues that the politics of tribal patronage breeds crime!

From a bogus and fraudulent monetary system to crime

Governments print utterly bogus and fraudulent non-redeemable paper-money and then impose it as legal tender in the market. In so doing they create wealth out of nothing. They will one day face severe divine punishment for such blasphemy. When such money loses value, it results in inflation - which can be described as 'legalized theft'. As prices constantly increase, the value of wages for example decrease, and people are robbed of the just value of their labor, goods and property. The Qur'an has specifically prohibited such 'legalized theft':

" . . . do not deprive people of what is rightfully theirs by diminishing the value of their things (such as their labor, merchandise, property etc)." (Qur'an, al-'Araf, 7:85; Hud, 11:85; al-Shu'ara, 26:183)

The falling value of money (that was created out of nothing) destroys the free and fair market as it results in a massive and unjust transfer of wealth. The masses are ripped off and their 'loss' becomes the 'gain' of a predatory elite. It eventually breeds rampant crime. The wickedness is compounded when governments around the world are required to submit to the authority of an International Monetary Fund which has mysteriously banned the use of gold as money (Art. 4 Section 2-b of the Articles of Agreement). And so, although ruthless despicable enemies have mercilessly attacked the Zimbabwe dollar, and although that country is a major producer of gold, yet it cannot introduce gold coins in the market to solve the problem of runaway inflation since such a natural solution is unjustly prohibited by the slave-master's so-called international law.

From lending money on interest to crime

The Qur'an, like the Bible before it, has prohibited the lending of money on interest: "O you who have attained to faith, fear Allah and give up all the Riba (i.e., interest on loans) which is outstanding if you are truly believers; and if you do not do so, then take notice of a declaration of war from Allah and His Messenger" (Qur'an, al-Baqarah, 2:279). 

'Lending money on interest' is not a business transaction since the money-lender is largely immunized from suffering loss. As a consequence, when modern banking (and this includes credit unions) embraces an economy, wealth no longer circulates through such an economy. The rich remain permanently rich and grow constantly richer. The poor, on the other hand, suffer the oppression of permanent poverty while they grow constantly poorer. The Qur'an has established rules that ensure that:

".  . . wealth does not circulate only between the wealthy amongst you" (Qur'an, al-Hashr, 59:7). 

Prophet Muhammad has cursed all four, and has declared that they are all equally guilty: "the one who takes interest, the one who pays interest, the one who records the transaction, and the two witnesses to the transaction." 
The 'chickens eventually come home to roost' when such societies pay the price for the money-lender's economic injustice in rampant uncontrollable violent crime such as armed robbery, kidnapping and wanton senseless murder. That is precisely the state of this society today. Cuban President, Fidel Castro, once described the world economy in similar language: "Never before did mankind have such formidable scientific and technological potential, such extraordinary capacity to produce riches and well-being, but never before were disparity and inequity so profound in the world." He responded to this economic oppression by declaring that: "another Nuremberg is required to judge the unjust economic order."

Political parties, governments, banks, businessmen, etc. who construct, support and justify a usurious economy will one day have to answer for the economic injustice that results. Unless they turn away from such economic injustice, crime will continue to haunt the whole society.   
The link between economic injustice and today's crime-ridden society would, of course, be dramatically broken when Jesus (peace be upon him) returns and gold and silver coins are restored as money, money-lending on interest is put to the sword, the hand of the thief is cut off, and justice prevails in a free and fair market. Truth would then triumph over all rivals. At that time those now waging unjust war on Islam and oppressing Muslims in order to preserve their barbaric economic and political dominance over all of mankind, would be consigned to the garbage-bin of history! 

published by Jama Masjid, San Fernando, and written by Islamic scholars Imran N. Hosein and Siddiq A. Nasir, that turn to the blessed Qur'an in an attempt to respond to rampant crime. 

Those who proclaim 'God's Supremacy' in their Constitution ("Whereas the People of Trinidad and Tobago have affirmed that the Nation of Trinidad and Tobago is founded upon principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God .  .  ."), and then proceed to defy Him by rejecting His Law and by substituting in its place their own contrary law as 'supreme law', are a people who knowingly commit blasphemy. That is precisely what this Caribbean State has done in Art. 2 of its Constitution: "This Constitution is the supreme law of Trinidad and Tobago, and any other law (including God's Law) that is inconsistent with this Constitution is void to the extent of the inconsistency." 

The Qur'an has declared blasphemy the only sin the Lord-God would never forgive, i.e., if one dies without prior repentance. A believer in the Lord-God who submits to the authority and law of the State as supreme over God's law, departs from the one true religion and joins instead, the mainstream godless herd of human cattle in their heedless drift to a terrifying end.

It is amazing, really, that western (i.e., Judeo-Christian) secular civilization that was born in Europe, and which most of the rest of the world now blindly follows, has dismantled every single divinely-ordained law of punishment and replaced it with a contrary secular substitute. Could this have occurred by accident, or is mankind being tested? Homosexuality is punishable in Allah's Law, and so too is abortion (except where a mother's life is in danger), adultery and fornication. The modern west is now legalizing marriages between men after having abolished all punishment for homosexuality, abortion, adultery and fornication. The wicked people who now rule the world (they were ruling the world until Russia was recently sufficiently provoked to stand up to them) not only impose their secular law to replace God's law but, in addition, they use their power to prevent any rival law from functioning. They destroy even the village Panchayat.

Secular chickens come home to roost

There are many in the modern secular world who, thoroughly brainwashed by the modern godless west, condemn and reject as 'barbaric' and 'uncivilized', the divinely-ordained laws of punishment in revealed religions. Yet so many of them respond with undisguised glee to Judeo-Christian America's state-of-the-art torture of innocent people in Guantanamo, the Abu Gharib prison in Iraq and elsewhere, and have no qualms about the use of depleted uranium bombs on innocent Iraqi and Afghan civilians in manifestly unjust warfare. Such people engage in selective morality that condones barbaric criminal conduct on the part of the state itself. It should hardly be surprising that the secular model of society around the world is now collapsing in the bloody embrace of ever-increasing crime. The 'secular chickens' are truly 'coming home to roost'. 'What is good for the goose is also good for the gander'. This constitutes an ominous vindication of 'Truth', of the sacred model of society, and of the divinely-ordained code of punishment that was established in the times of David, Solomon and Muhammad (peace be upon them all).

God's Laws of Punishment - Three Categories of Crime
In His wisdom the Lord-God has prescribed such punishment that result in constantly decreasing crime, whereas the modern secular society which has rejected those divine laws of punishment and replaced them with secular alternatives, is plagued with constantly increasing crime. In explaining in this essay the philosophy of punishment in the Qur'an, we seek to redirect attention to that sacred model of society and to remind readers of the relatively crime-free world they could have had if mankind had accepted divine revelation and Prophetic guidance and followed them.

We also seek through these essays to fulfill the Divine command to be shuhada 'ala al-Naas (i.e., witnesses of the Truth to mankind) so that those who are thus made aware of the Divine Law cannot plead ignorance of that Law on Judgment Day.  The Divine Wisdom has recognized different categories of criminal conduct and has prescribed punishment appropriate for each category. Thus some crimes are punishable with 'reformatory' punishment, others require 'retributive' punishment, while yet others demand 'deterrent' punishment.

Reformatory punishment

An example of punishment intended to reform the criminal is that prescribed for consumption of intoxicants such as wine (see the writer's book entitled 'The Qur'anic Method of Curing Alcoholism and Drug Addiction'). Punishment is inflicted at the last stage of a process which requires, firstly, that the individual be so educated that he would voluntarily abstain from alcohol on the basis of rational conviction of its evil. In the second stage, which is reserved for those who remain uncured, an effort is made to penetrate the inner spiritual core of the individual wherein is located all that he holds to be sacred. The spiritual consciousness is subjected to the equivalent of an electrical shock, and that results in a significant rate of success. It is only those who could not be reformed through both the external and internal methods who would be subjected to reformatory punishment. The public beating to which they are now subjected is not meant to inflict physical pain. Rather it is meant to so shame them that fear of more such punishment usually results in a cure. 

Retributive punishment

When a crime results in injury such as the loss of an 'eye' or a 'life', then the law of equity and natural justice requires the imposition of retributive punishment, i.e., an 'eye for an eye', or a 'life for a life'. The victim of a violent crime would thus have the satisfaction of knowing that the same injury he suffered would be inflicted on the criminal. But the law of retributive justice is tempered with monetary compensation which an aggrieved party can agree to accept in lieu of punishment on the criminal. That compensation is usually beyond the means of the criminal and, as a consequence, it is usually the family, tribe and community to which he belongs who pay the compensation. 'Compensation' in lieu of punishment, thus empowers tribes and communities with capacity for curbing crime.

Deterrent punishment

When, however, a crime has the potential of destroying the collective welfare of the people, such as acts of terrorism (and kidnapping is an act of terrorism), or such as theft and embezzlement which destroy the free and fair market, then the divine wisdom has ordained the imposition of deterrent punishment. The rationale on which such punishment is founded is recognition of the supreme moral imperative of preventing anarchy and injustice while preserving the social order. The Qur'an has warned those responsible for maintaining the social order and preventing terrorism such as kidnapping: "And fear tumult (anarchy, oppression), which afflicts not just the wicked in society but also the innocent: and know that Allah is strict in punishing (those who fail to maintain such social order as protects the innocent from crimes such as kidnapping)" (Qur'an, al-Anfal, 8:25). 
The Qur'an has prescribed, for example, that the hand of the thief should be cut off (Qur'an, al-Maidah, 5:38-9). I remember a Minister of Government confessing in 1986, in the wake of the resounding repudiation of the PNM at the polls, "all ah we tief"! If this law had ever been applied in this country, as soon as the first hand was cut off it would have put an end to all such corruption. 

The punishment for acts of terrorism such as kidnapping is so severe in its deterrent capacity that if implemented would have an immediate positive impact in putting an end to acts of kidnapping in this country. Large numbers of our people now resident abroad and too terrified to return home would heave a sigh of relief if God's law was given a chance to restore security and sanity to our society. The convicted terrorist is to be punished, in accordance with Allah's decree either by "being put to death, or crucified, or by cutting off his hand and foot on opposite sides, or by banishment from his society". (Qur'an, al-Maidah, 5:36) This is by far the most severe of all divinely ordained deterrent punishment. The gradation in severity of punishment affords the judge the flexibility of reserving the severest punishment for the worst such crime.

What should we do? How should we respond?

Those who still cling to the religious way of life despite the oppressive impact of the secular state and secular society must come together as Hindu, Christian, Muslim and others to disconnect from the dictatorship of the secular state. They can do so by establishing their own multi-faith micro-communities in the countryside. Such communities of faith would be built on moral and spiritual values. In order to survive, however, they would have to build an invisible wall around themselves to keep that godless decadent mainstream society at a distance. It is only in such a remotely-located community that the Panchayat can be restored, God's laws can be enforced, the community can be empowered to fight crime, and the world can then witness the creation of relatively crime-free society. 

Published by Jama Masjid, San Fernando, and written by Islamic scholars Imran N. Hosein and Siddiqa. Nasir, that turn to the blessed Qur'an in an attempt to respond to rampant crime.

WHAT IS FAMILY? 

The "Family" has been under a devastating, multi-pronged attack for many decades by the secularism-based prevailing culture.  "Family" used to be understood as the social unit based on the union of a male and a female, married to each other, and the offspring they beget or adopt (even if death of one of the partners, or divorce, subsequently, takes place).  

BLUEPRINT FOR THE ATTACK ON MARRIAGE 

Then the prevailing culture stepped in and launched a concerted attack on the institution of marriage and on its relevance in modern society.  The culture, invented in Hollywood and slowly foisted upon an unsuspecting world, was used with devastating effect.  And the blueprint for this freeing up of humanity from traditional restraints and allowing them previously unknown, undiluted sexual freedom and "happiness", was provided by Alfred Kinsey "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male - 1948 and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female - 1953",  purporting to show that there were no such things as "normality" or" abnormality" in sexual behavior. 

What was touted as serious scientific research was later revealed to be fraudulent research in Kinsey, Sex and Fraud, the Indoctrination of a People - Judith A. Reisman and Edward W. Eichel "1990 - Lochinvar - Huntingdon House, USA".  Among other things, it was shown that about a quarter of his male sample were prisoners, including hundreds of male prostitutes.  And that data from abusive and unlawful experiments conducted by paedophiles on children, some as young as two months old, was used.  By then, however, the damage had already been done.

RE-INVENTED EUGENICS MOVEMENT.

Eugenicists, like Marie Stopes in England and Margaret Sanger in America, had been endeavouring to stop "inferior" strains of human beings from breeding and damaging the racial stock, through birth control.  However when the truth about the Nazi programme to breed a master race emerged,  the eugenics movement went underground and re-invented itself as the Family Planning Movement.  The eugenicists, Margaret Sanger (who had coined the phrase "Birth Control" to create a race of Thoroughbreds) founded the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and then in 1952, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), with headquarters in London. 

So as Kinsey's reports were being accepted, the attack on marriage and marital fidelity was bolstered by this re-invented Eugenics Movement with the euphemistic name of International Planned Parenthood Federation, the policies of which, are carried out in each country by IPPF's member bodies.  For example, as far as sexual permissiveness is concerned, an IPPF report published in 1984 The Human Right to Family Planning stated that children from age 10 should have full access to fertility regulation, information and services with guaranteed privacy and confidentiality - i.e. without the consent of the parents.  Earlier, in 1972, the British Family Planning Association (a founder-member of IPPF) had published a highly permissive book for adolescents entitled Learning to Live with Sex, which ended with a list of contraception, abortion and homo-sexual agencies with the message, "All these places will treat your problems sympathetically and not tell your parents unless you want them to know."

THE SEX INFORMATION AND EDUCATION COUNCIL OF THE UNITED STATES (SIECUS) 

This body, closely linked to the population control movement, had its first director, Dr. Mary Calderone, re-iterate some objectives, which included:

merging or reversing the sexes or sex roles (interchangeability of male and female roles), liberating children from their families.abolishing the family as we know it. 

[THE SIECUS Circle - A Humanist Revolution - Claire Chambers -1997]

RESULTS OF THE ATTACK

 The attack on marriage and marital fidelity was so powerful that in many countries marriage was effectively removed from the equation.  So much so that when some teachers in the UK were asked whether they were teaching sex education from the point of view of married family life (as laid down in the UK Gov't Circular 11/87), they said it was no longer possible for them to do so, because a large number of children came from parents who live together but are not married, and it would therefore be insulting to the parents of such children to invoke "married family life" in the classroom.

So the "family" came to be understood as the social unit based on the union of a male and a female together with their offspring (i.e. marriage removed from the equation).

FATHER FIGURE LAMPOONED OR IGNORED

  While social engineering was proceeding through the attack on marriage and marital fidelity, the "father" in the family was being lampooned and/or ignored.  Is it only coincidence that for decades we were treated to cartoons like Dagwood, Jiggs, Andy Cap etc. portraying bungling buffoons as the father/husband figures?  And one consumer group in the US found that in prime time entertainment TV the majority of the programmes had no father figure and in the remaining minority, a majority had an ineffective father figure. Attack on the family from another angle!

YET ANOTHER ATTACK 

Simultaneously there was a crusade to motivate mothers against breastfeeding their babies.  "Manufactured baby food is better", "Breastfeeding will cramp your lifestyle",  "Your figure will be damaged through breastfeeding" etc.  So, en masse, mothers turned to artificial baby "milk", (giving up the Divinely provided nutrition for babies, always at the right temperature, always in the right concentration etc - mother's milk).  This compromised the physical health of even those babies who were fed as per instructions.  And in the poor countries, where large numbers of mothers could not afford the amount of baby "milk" needed, they diluted it below recommended levels resulting in malnutrition.  Even worse, since clean drinking water in not available in much of God's earth, babies were being fed polluted water.  By the time international agencies woke up the damage had already been done.  So now, only a minority of mothers nurse their babies on demand.

Apart from compromising the physical health of the young, the move away from breastfeeding caused serious, deleterious effects on the mental, emotional and social health and stability of children.  It has been found that non-breastfed children had greater difficulty in bonding with others, in establishing positive relationships with others, in respecting authority, etc.  This had the effect of, among other things, unraveling the social fabric of the family.

THE ATTACK CONTINUES 

The prevailing culture continued with its attack relentlessly - now attacking "union of a male and a female".  Homosexuality began to be vigorously promoted as acceptable alternative lifestyles and portrayed openly by the entertainment media.  So now there is no longer any need to have a union of a male and a female - there can be a union of two males or two females.

WHERE DO WE STAND TODAY?

  After decades of attack, the "family" has deteriorated into a social group based on the union of two persons (a male and a female, or two females, or two males) together with their biological or adopted children.  Or it is a social group of one adult (male or female) and biological or adopted children where that adult chooses to live without a partner (and not as a result of death of the partner or divorce).

This disjointed, dysfunctional family, in a prevailing culture, that propagates that the individual makes his own values and that she/he is doomed to extinction, if not today, then tomorrow (as death is the total annihilation of life) cannot, and does not, provide the individual with the badly-needed emotional and mental stability and with the strong inter-personal relationships that bonding in the "family" of yester-year used to provide.  The individual, left to fend for himself/herself may very well gravitate towards criminal gangs and anti-social groups, where he/she is accepted and accorded some measure of respect.

SUGGESTED SOLUTION

  Naturally, the obvious path for us to adopt is the striving to re-enthrone the "family" that is the social unit based on the union of a male and a female married to each other together with their biological or adopted children, in a culture that upholds and inculcates objective moral values and which teaches that every human being will be accountable for every single act of his or hers, on the Day of Judgment.  A concerted collective effort is essential to challenge our music and other forms of entertainment and our prevailing lifestyle, which all teach otherwise.  Are we bold enough to begin and continue such an effort?

THE QUR'AN ON THE FAMILY 

The Final Revelation from the One True God to mankind is the Qur'an, which He, the Almighty, has preserved against any change or tampering by enthusiasts, translators and would-be interpolators.  In God's Guidance, enshrined in this Final Revelation, the "family" is the building block of the community/society, as it provides the first and basic social environment for the individual.  The socio-moral discipline he/she acquires within the family would play a vital role in respect of his/her socio-moral behavior relating to the community, the country and humanity at large.

In constructing a strong community, we need to strengthen and re-inforce the building blocks - the families.  Any weakness in the family would, sooner or later, transfer itself to the community.

THE QUR'ANIC GUIDANCE FOR BUILDING STRONG FAMILIES 

This includes :

• Strengthening the foundation of the family - marriage, the goal of which is the attainment of peace, solace, tranquility of the spouses in each other's company. 
• Uncompromising emphasis on marital fidelity i.e. chastity of both husband and wife.
• Moulding the husband-wife relationship in accordance with God's Guidance.
• Establishing and developing parent-child and child-parent relationships in harmony with God's Guidance.
• Unswerving devotion and submission to the One True God on the part of all members of the family.

May the Infinitely-Merciful, Ever-Bountiful, Absolutely-Loving Creator bless us with the capability to strive as we aught to strive. Ameen!  

Published by Jama Masjid, San Fernando, and written by Islamic scholars Imran N. Hosein and Siddiq A. Nasir, that turn to the blessed Qur'an in an attempt to respond to rampant crime.