...................continued from part 30
To pick up from where Maududi left us, nationalism is not compatible with Islam. But sad to say, most of the Muslim nation-states that have attained independence, adopt nationalism as their state ideology. The further away Islam is from the hearts of the Muslims, the stronger is the entrenchment of nationalism in their minds. Malaysia, is one of the Muslim majority states that where nationalism is the ideology of the ruling dominant Malay-Muslim political party.
One of the unconcealable feature of nationalism is that it degenerate into highly malicious and discriminatory self aggrandization, examples of which can be extracted from the Bosnian and Kosovo wars in the Balkan. For Muslims to profess such attitide is simply abhorrent and despised in Islam. The hadith below explicitly tells us why.
Narrated 'Aisha: The people of Quraish worried about the lady from Bani Makhzum who had committed theft. They asked, "Who will intercede for her with Allah's Apostle?" Some said, "No one dare to do so except Usama bin Zaid the beloved one to Allah's Apostle ." When Usama spoke about that to Allah's Apostle Allah's Apostle said, (to him), "Do you try to intercede for somebody in a case connected with Allah's Prescribed Punishments?" Then he got up and delivered a sermon saying, "What destroyed the nations preceding you, was that if a noble amongst them stole, they would forgive him, and if a poor person amongst them stole, they would inflict Allah's Legal punishment on him. By Allah, if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad stole, I would cut off her hand." (Sahih Bukhari:Book #56, Hadith #681)
This hadith simply exterminates any notion of subscribing to nationalism by any practising Muslim. The very characteristic of nationalism is profoundly described by preamble of the hadith, that is, any wrong doing if so committed by a member of the nation, then he or she is always spared punishment. In a wider sense, the notion of my country right or wrong is always the basis of the nationalist's sentiment. But in Islam, the basis of belief is that, Allah's command is always supreme.
Thus, no matter who, if Allah's commands are breached, then the stipulated punishments are carried out. Just like what the Prophet said:By Allah, if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad stole, I would cut off her hand. Meaning that Allah's laws are over and above all other laws and ideologies.
Thus, nationalism cannot be the creed for Muslims.
....................to be continued
