Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Saturday, April 20th, 2024

Peace and Need for New Approach in Religious Knowledge

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Peace and Need for New Approach in Religious Knowledge

Peace, which is a serious need in Islamic world mainly in Afghanistan, is in need of the political evolution in educational system in elementary and higher levels. The dictation of peace-making mentality and peaceful life will promote peace-loving mindsets in all aspects of social life and ensure serenity of collective life.  The higher level of education is supposed to create mentalities and ideas for organizing social orders and it is the most effective element that provides the sequence of fire-ceasefire theory and provides the ground for it.
Fire and ceasefire in Afghanistan have taken place mainly on the basis of religious tenets and theoretical preferences of sharia. In fact, there are irreligious tendencies behind the practical facts and these inclinations fan the flame and play a critical role in this regard. However, justifying the fire and ceasefire and persuading the warring parties will be possible only through religious doctrines and sharia.
Explaining the status of peace and peaceful life in sharia’s theoretical doctrines and jurisprudence (Fiqah) bears strategic significance. In higher and academic levels, the exact approach of sharia and jurisprudence should be considered deeply and reviewed again to determine the border between war and peace. This fact is necessary for finding out educational and religious supports for peace and institutionalizing it in different social fabric of society. The formal knowledge of jurisprudence (Fiqah – a field of study in Islamic sharia) has adopted an otherworldly approach towards war and peace and passes judgement over the human societies based on the same view. In other words, the theological propositions, which determine man’s position in the hereafter, is deeply imbedded in jurisprudence and deem the issues of hereafter as obligations for this world. The issues of polytheists, infidels and pagans will be judged in the hereafter. But this is a hot issue in jurisprudence and has stoked sectarian, tribal, racial, religious and political discriminations and tendencies through discriminatory interpretations, which originate from biased minds. This fact has led to violence in social relations.
The theological and otherworldly approach to jurisprudence might be one of the most serious and complicated issues throughout the Islamic history. Currently, it is believed that under the theoretical aegis of jurisprudence, thousands of thousands of people have lost their lives. The violence ushered in by fundamental groups around the globe, mainly in Islamic world, stems from the words and concepts of infidelity and polytheism and supported by theory of jurisprudence, which has resulted in deadly and bloody incidents. That is to say, the fundamental rights of mankind such as peace, the right to life and liberty and human’s dignity have been considered alienable based on the mentioned views and approaches. Death, violence and dishonor are carried out as jurisprudent task-orientation. Moreover, the implementation of the jurisprudent tenets are carried out for the fear of hereafter.
Based on such approach, jurisprudence and the Islamic tenets are not approved for organizing social relations and peaceful life but for finding out an immunity from divine punishment and analyzing it from fatwa and legal tenets. The formal knowledge of jurisprudence has failed to reconcile the legal propositions of sharia with men’s natural rights. It also failed to recognize mankind on the basis of being human and entitled them with peace, freedom, life and dignity regardless of theological categorization such as Moslem and infidel, monotheism and polytheism, Shiite and Sunni and so on.
The tendency of jurisprudence towards hereafter is the main reason that the otherworldly menace of sharia should be taken seriously. As a result of this approach, the natural and divine rights of mankind, which are supposed to organize social life, have been neglected. The legal principles and the principle of men’s natural dignity are approved for peace and peaceful life regardless of theological categorization. Therefore, concealing this fact will lead to large-scale catastrophes and terror in Islamic world and peace will be a strange issue in the history of Moslems.
Considering the aforementioned issues, a deep and fundamental change needs to be done in educational systems and jurisprudence for supporting and prioritizing peace. All educational institutions in the field of religious knowledge should be equipped on the policy of “the principle of peace”.  Moreover, the worldly and otherworldly issues must be distinguished, the principle of peace and peaceful life in Islamic and non-Islamic societies should be prioritized. To put it another way, these issues must be debated logically and supported by strong theological reasons and right-centered life in all social fabric of society so as to ensure a promising life. The Afghan government will have to smooth the path in this regard and spend part of the budget in providing sustainable peace.
There are noteworthy resources and capacities in religious texts that one can gain peaceful legal and social system in case of changing the jurisprudent presumption and approaches. To sum up, a peaceful life is possible far from theological and ideological presumptions. So, a fundamental change is needed in higher level of education and knowledge of jurisprudence. The government should pay more serious attention to this fact.

Mohammad Eshaq Arifi is the permanent writer of the Daily Afghanistan Ma. He can be reached at thedailyafghanistan@yahoo.com

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