With the departure of foreign forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban’s aim of re-establishing their ‘Islamic Emirate’ would not only continue the conflict but the world would now understand Islam through their policies and practices, many of them highly questionable from Islamic point of view.
Some diktats the Taliban have introduced in areas they control are already creating conflicts.
These champions of Islam want all men to grow their beards, stop smoking and give the names of their girls over 15 and widows under 45 so that eligible Taliban men can marry up to four wives.
Additionally they would have the option to divorce anyone at will to marry the replacement.
Smoking is injurious to health, so are marijuana, hashish, and poppy seeds.
Afghanistan is a significant global producer of methamphetamine. The country’s opium poppy fields are the source of the majority of the world’s heroin. Now, the crystal meth could eventually become just as big an industry.
The Taliban do charge the drug traffickers a tax. They earn $4m a year from Bakwa district alone, though they deny links to the drugs trade. They make over $2 billion annually through drug trafficking.
Their diktat to ban smoking while profiting from drug trafficking is a slap in the face of their faith. It is a mockery of every value that Islam promotes for human dignity.
If they are sincere in their efforts to ensure a healthy, smoke-free Afghanistan, they should begin with a ban on narcotics.
Their diktat about the growing beard is ridiculous. Beard is not a criterion to determine one’s commitment to divine guidance.
Muslims learn about facial hair not from the Quran, but through hadith – or sayings – attributed to Prophet Muhammad (s).
One such hadith stipulates: “Cut the mustaches short and leave the beard.” It is an ambiguous statement, and it is not an obligation. If it were so, most Imams would have their mustaches cut.
It was a recommendation to his companions in a society where everyone sported a beard. Many non-Muslims at the time of the Prophet had longer beards. No single incident exists in any book of hadith that the Prophet punished anyone for not cutting mustaches and trimming his beards.
The diktat of the Taliban is their subjective preference imposed in the name of God. If they punish anyone for flouting the rule in the name of religion, they will commit coercion.
Islam strictly prohibits intimidation in its name.
It is the obligation of those who understand the Quran and the Sunnah to challenge these Taliban’s diktats.
If the Taliban want to establish the Islamic Emirate, they must ensure the following.
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Religious freedom to all
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Human dignity to all, women included.
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Human rights for all
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Education to all
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Withdrawal of the offensive diktats
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Representation of women in all aspects of national life
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Banning the narcotics
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Ensure that the law and not the barrel of guns protects justice
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An economy that guarantees self-reliance
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A health system that secures the healthy future
Islam and monotheism make sense only when human dignity and rights are under the protection of the law. But, unfortunately, what The Taliban has done so far violates everything Islam stands for on human dignity and human rights.
✅Taliban is Unislamic. This is something me and you agree 💯 but for very different reasons. It’s similar to a Vegan and a muslim both not eating pork but for very different reasons.
As always, plz allow me to test my ‘freedom of speech’ as European experience with ‘freedoms’ has meant to tolerate views that are in agreement while censuring views that are in disagreement. 😊
Reading points 👆🏻1 to 10 in literal sense may seem benign and possibly true in case of Taliban but we shouldn’t be in any illusion that these are ideologically loaded terms . For example UN’s charter of human rights stance on sin of homosexuality or different roles and responsibilities men & women have in Islam so women are not burdened with more than what they can endure as “Equality” has imposed.
For any nation to become Islamic, Angel Merkel’s Germany or EU should not be the metric of success. European sustenance as ‘first world’ depends on exploitation of ‘third world’, whether its cheap retail goods made in Bangladesh’s sweat shops or back-end IT services from subcontinent or NATO forces ravaging Africa and Afghanistan. If four centuries of colonization has taught anything then hoping others to replicate EU model is perpetuating global misery to which feel-good charity and literacy can never be a solution.
Agreed, any nation aspiring to be Islamic should focus more on removing Harram like riba, fiat currency, UN dependency etc more than cutting beards but if the educated, well off muslims like us focus on ritualistic Islam while peddling liberalism’s political outlook without attempting to learn, articulate and promote Islamic political astuteness, unfortunately our failures will get reflected in wider ummah’s failures.
To conclude, Islam does NOT makes sense because of ‘Human dignity and rights’ but beauty of Islam is, it gives definitions for our existence such as what it means to be HUMAN, DIGNITY and qualifies RIGHTS and Alhumduli.llah Islam has not left mankind to manipulate VALUES to suit the desires of dominant era, ideologies and those in power