Values in Islamic International Legislation
In the Islamic epistemological model, values occupy a high position. Numerous evidences demonstrate this model’s efforts to establish and realize these values, aiming to elevate humanity and build civilization. These values have gained significant importance in Islamic jurisprudence, to the extent that Islamic legislation has adopted them as the ultimate goal and endpoint for practical rulings, political measures, and international conduct. Through this, the rationality and purposefulness of the legislation have become evident, along with its coherence and harmony. Consequently, these values have become the foundation for adhering to these rulings, a criterion for evaluating jurisprudential efforts and fatwas and the measure of their alignment with and fulfillment of those values.
Values Encompass Legislation and Its Essential, Necessary, and Enhancing Rulings in Service of Establishing the Religion and Building the Nation
Values have permeated the entire structure of legislation, scattered across its essential, necessary, and enhancing rulings, serving the of establishment of religion and building a nation that stands as a witness over humanity. Each level of these interests is closely linked to values, intertwined with the nation’s value system, and connected to the international legislative rulings through which the nation moves to embody stewardship and establish civilization.
Essential interests aim to preserve the nation's system so that its conditions do not resemble those of livestock. Necessary interests seek to regulate the nation's affairs in a proper manner, though not reaching the level of the essential. Enhancing interests aim to perfect the nation's state, ensuring it lives in safety and tranquillity, enjoys the beauty of its societal structure, and experiences intellectual advancement in the eyes of other nations, thus encouraging integration and closeness with it. (1)
Given the significant attention and care devoted to values, delaying their theoretical establishment or neglecting their practical implementation are both unacceptable. Such actions are prohibited as they contradict the definitive principles of Sharia and oppose the objectives of the legislator.
Values in the Islamic Model Flow through Political and International Legislation like Blood in Veins
The Islamic model integrates values and interests into a unified framework that encompasses interests aligned with inherent values. These values themselves rise to the level of interests because they are rational, established through observation, and their applicability to the realities faced by individuals through various forms of jurisprudential reasoning. This contrasts sharply with the Western model, which faces an epistemological, intellectual and moral crisis in balancing values and interests, resulting in different schools of thought that have veered towards either realism or idealism without a consistent or practical methodology.
In the Islamic model, values flow through political and international legislation like blood in veins. This is due to the intrinsic link between politics and innate human nature, as well as the technical definition that seeks righteousness as its essence and ultimate goal. This concept has extended to the discipline of the self and the care of family and descendants.
Moreover, these enduring values embedded within the Islamic epistemological model and embodied in Islamic civilization operate collectively and integrally within the Islamic system. This system gives rise to a vast array of concepts, rulings, experiences, and practices, which allow for the reconstruction of the foundations of international systems and laws based on a precise balance of international interests, especially in cases of conflict and aggression. This approach aims to prevent harm before it occurs, eliminate it after it arises, and mitigate it if it cannot be entirely prevented, through compensation regardless of who caused the harm or who suffered it. This approach respects the inherent dignity of every humanity, thus achieving the overall good for both human and international communities. This can be seen as one of the manifestations of God's decree to perfect His light worldwide by completing ethics and spreading compassion internationally, countering all forms of injustice and tyranny on earth.
These values begin with the recognition necessary for civilizational interaction, progress through cooperation, which necessitates human partnership, and culminate in solidarity, which ensures mutual benefit. Justice occupies the highest value in the Islamic epistemological model, through which rights become clear, contracts are established, and obligations are determined. Therefore, justice is not just a theoretical, idealistic, or vague concept; it is a well-defined principle firmly embedded in a comprehensive legislative system.
International Documents Crafted by Thinkers of the Western Model in International Organizations: A Form of Political and International Hypocrisy
The manifestation of values reflects the realism of Islamic legislation, considering the intrinsic nature of values in the innate human constitution. From the Islamic perspective, the human being is a creature inherently oriented towards values, both by nature of their creation and composition, and by nature of the purpose of the legislation revealed to them. In light of these two realities, Islamic legislation is defined within the political realm and the international context.
Values in Western International Legislation
Islamic values serve as a cohesive system, prioritizing justice as its cornerstone. Consequently, they stand out from as partial or selective values often associated with the Western epistemological model. Moreover, they reject any attempts to confine values within a particular time frame, place, group, or nation. This distinction stems not from the mere assertion of values like justice and equality, as legislations or nations often declare them. Rather, it stems from the underlying principles upon which those values are based. In Western legislations, justice and equality branch out from the individualistic approach, which glorifies individual rights while disregarding the rights of others. This division is reflected in various contexts, including the international context, resulting in the neglect of the rights of other entities, threatening the global order, and undermining international public interests. Hence, the Western model lacks legislative validity and moral superiority.
This model embodies fragmentation, division, isolation, reductionism, arbitrariness, and presumption, all of which contradict the comprehensive value of justice, dismantle its pillars, and establish a negative value system characterized by selfishness, aggression, disorder, and imbalance.
The intended intellectual and moral imbalance has resulted in the distortion of value systems, the disregard for the rights of nations and the interests of other countries in the foreign policy of Western states, and the disruption of the foundations of international relations and the rules of international law. This imbalance led to the invention of colonialism, which is essentially a heinous evil, extensive destruction, and widespread corruption on Earth. One of its prominent manifestations in contemporary reality is the Zionist project, which inherited the British occupation of Palestine and was built upon the ruins of a people, their heritage, and their sanctities.
The Battle of 'Al-Aqsa Flood' in Occupied Palestine Revealed the Flaws of the Western Model and the Exposed Claimed Values
If aggression against a single individual in the Quranic perspective is considered as killing all people, considering the consequences of this seemingly isolated crime which is actually an international one, how then can we view ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing spanning decades, evident to the entire world? They have also devised other forms of stealing the resources of other nations under the guise of “loans”, which conceals the strong devouring the wealth of the weak unjustly and oppressing the needy with usurious exploitation.
As for those international documents with eloquent wording and beautiful phrases crafted by the thinkers of the Western model in international organizations and foreign policy documents, they amount to nothing more than political and international hypocrisy, as they mask a dichotomy in the concepts of justice and right. This is revealed when these treaties and institutions, established to uphold them, are undermined when they conflict with their interests or the interests of their allies. (2)
The Islamic Project and the Question of Value Renewal in Light of the 'Al-Aqsa Flood'
Values represent a crucial methodological entry point in highlighting the flawed foundations of international relations and international law, which have been established on biased values and masked hypocrisy, which conceal a hidden bias against the interests of the Islamic nation in particular.
The "Al-Aqsa Flood" battle revealed the deficiencies of the Western model and the hollow nature of its claimed values not only within the Islamic nation but also within all nations, including the Western nation itself. This is due to the unwavering support for the Zionist occupation state, which has become a symbol and model of a rogue state that disregards human dignity, lacks mercy, and commits atrocities against children, women, and the elderly. It has committed every imaginable crime, making it the greatest international threat to humanity today by encouraging the destruction of all values that preserve human existence and global peace. Thus, it is the Islamic nation, with its values, and the Islamic law (Sharia), as a law of values, that are most qualified to fill this cultural void and establish a contemporary international system.
Humanity as a whole and fair-minded people in the West today are more prepared than ever to recognize the failure of the Western model in establishing an international system that achieves security and stability. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the proponents of the Islamic project to exert their efforts in conceptualizing the Islamic model in international relations rooted in values and oriented towards realizing interests. They should inspire within the Western imagination a desire to seek out Islamic values and transcend the false claims aimed at hindering cultural engagement with the West.
Fair-Minded Westerners Recognize the Failure of the Western Model in Establishing a Secure and Stable International System
In order to achieve this endeavour effectively, consultation with experts is necessary to devise appropriate means, such as drafting value charters and developing operational guidelines based on those value scales and ethical standards. These efforts should be undertaken by intellectuals and those involved in political work affiliated with the Islamic idea, within universities, think tanks, human rights institutions, and international organizations to expand the circle of interest in the Islamic value-based approach in international relations. It is undeniable that productive means have their desired objectives, and it is important in this context to commend and call for benefiting from the comprehensive effort contributed by the pioneers of the Islamic civilizational perspective, especially Dr. Saif al-Din Abdel-Fattah and Dr. Nadia Mustafa.
Furthermore, Islamic values must be employed in building international commonalities, such as the value of cooperation, which is explicitly commanded in the Quran. We believe it is more pronounced in the international arena due to the great interests and consequences resulting from international actions. Thus, the Quran describes the value of striving to save a single soul as saving all humanity, in contrast to individual or international murder, evidently and ultimately.
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(1) Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur, Maqasid al-Sharia al-Islamiyya (3/231-243).
(2) Muhammad Fathi al-Durayni, The Philosophy of the Principles of Legislative Policy Based on the Concept of Justice in Islam, (Huda al-Islam Journal, Syrian Ministry of Awqaf, Vol: 41, Issue: 5, 1997), 18-28.
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