"The Caliphate and Imamate in Islamic Thought" Series
By Writer and Thinker Thaer Salama - Abu Malek
Episode Twenty-Nine: The angles and considerations that must be discussed when answering the question: Who has the right to legislate? - Part 3
From the perspective of good and evil, that is, from the perspective of its impact in the human eye, and in terms of undertaking it or refraining from it,
the angle of beautification and uglification is a matter of perfection and beauty, while the angle of good and evil is a matter of doctrinal or moral perspective, that is, imposing human values on the action and thing to describe it as good and evil,
Man called what harms him or what he hates of actions as evil, and called what benefits him and what he loves of actions as good, because of its effect on him, regardless of good and bad, as it is not relevant to him in this case, (i.e. the angle from which he looks here is the angle of the effect of his values in describing the action, not the angle of the perfection of the action or its opposite) and based on this view, he undertakes the action and refrains from it, so the correction of this view came that the action is not said to be good or evil according to hatred and love or benefit and harm, but rather the measure of being good or evil is the pleasure of God Almighty, and imposing values on that action to describe it as good or evil, and these values vary, and they are external to the action, therefore the action itself does not carry the attributes of good or evil, so killing is killing, described as good or evil by the external factors that surround it, such as killing the enemy and the friend, and by imposing values on that action such as differentiating between killing the Dhimmi and the Mu'ahid, and between killing the belligerent, and between killing those who are called civilians today in the land of war and between killing the fighters in the battlefield, so these are all subject to values that came from the outside to describe some of them as good and others as evil, and it is not from the action itself, so contemplate!. Therefore, values are what the action is described through as good or evil, and these values are the same as our saying: the Sharia is what judges good or evil, as for human values, making them the basis for judging good or evil is circular, and it is false, because they themselves need to be described as good or evil, meaning if we assume that capitalist values are what will be imposed on the action to describe it as good or evil, and these values are the product of the mind, and we agreed that the mind cannot judge the action as good or evil except by imposing external values, so these external values if they come from the mind itself, then they need something to describe them as good or evil or make them fit to describe the action as good or evil, and this is circular and circular is false and impossible! So it is necessary to take the ruling of good or evil from the Sharia, not from the mind!
Here the research is in terms of the measure of good and evil that people recognize, not in terms of the action itself. The truth is that the actions that occur from a person are not described as good or evil in themselves, because they are just actions that have no description of good or evil in terms of themselves, but rather their being good or evil came based on considerations outside the actions themselves, so killing a human soul is not called good or evil, but is called killing only. And its being good or evil came from a description outside of it. Therefore, killing the combatant was good, and killing the follower, the Mu'ahid, or the Musta'man was evil, so the first killer is rewarded, and the second killer is punished, even though they are one action that has no distinction. Rather, good and evil come from the factors that drive a person to do the work and the goal he aims to achieve by doing it. The factors that drive a person to work and the goal he aims to achieve are what determined the description of the work as good and evil, whether a person loves or hates, and whether he gets benefit or harm from it. Therefore, the description of the action as good or evil is for the Sharia, not for humans, and this is confirmed by the saying of God Almighty: ﴿So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, And whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it﴾ [Al-Zalzalah], so the Truth will hold people accountable on the Day of Judgment for an atom's weight of their actions as good or evil, and He is the one who initially determined for them their good from their evil, and He will hold them accountable for following what He commanded and refraining from what He forbade, so the description and judgment of good and evil is for the Sharia, not for the mind.
T- From the perspective of praising the action or blaming it, in this world, and from the perspective of reward and punishment for it in the Hereafter.
Also, if man were allowed to judge actions and things with praise and blame, the judgment would differ according to different people and times, as it is not possible for man to judge them with a fixed judgment. Therefore, God judges them, not man, the Sharia judges them, not the mind, as the mind has no role in this judgment from this aspect. However, the tangible observation is that man judges things to be good today, then judges them tomorrow to be bad, and judges things to be bad yesterday, and judges the same things today to be good, and thus the judgment on the same thing differs, and it is not a fixed judgment, so error occurs in the judgment; therefore, it is not permissible to make the judgment of praise and blame for the mind, nor for man.
It is not permissible to make the issuance of the judgment of praise and blame for man's innate tendencies; because these tendencies issue the judgment of praise on what agrees with them, and the judgment of blame on what contradicts them, and what agrees with them may be blamed, such as adultery, sodomy, and enslaving people, and what contradicts them may be praised, such as fighting enemies, enduring hardships, and speaking the truth in cases of achieving severe harm. Making the judgment for tendencies and desires means making them a measure of praise and blame, and it is definitely a wrong measure; therefore, making the judgment for them is a pure error; because it makes the judgment wrong and contrary to reality, in addition to the fact that the judgment of praise and blame is according to whims and desires, not according to what it should be; therefore, innate tendencies are not allowed to issue their judgment of praise and blame. And as long as it is not permissible for the mind to issue its judgment of praise and blame, and it is not permissible for innate tendencies to issue their judgment of praise and blame; then it is not permissible for man to issue the judgment of praise and blame, so the one who issues the judgment of praise and blame is God, not man, and it is the Sharia, not the mind.
Therefore, legislation and the enactment of laws must be for God Almighty, not for man or the mind! This is proven by the evidence of the Sharia, and it is proven by the rational argument,
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds.
