Prof. Ali A. Firdausi
Any new ideology or movement emerges to challenge the existing social structure and its functions. The social structure deals with culture, class status, social roles and social institutions and the function of the structure is to control and regulate the components of the structure. Together they try to maintain status quo and resist change.
The Arabian peninsula had been ruled by Jews, Christan, Zoroastrians and Pagans at different period of historical time. Hijaz, now Saudi Arabia has two major geographical divide known as Mecca and Madina. During 6th century AD, as per the latest Saudi and French researches, the region was ruled by Jewish rulers, after the prolonged periods of strife between Byzantine and Iranian empires.
The Islamic history narrates the exploitative nature of the society full of corruption, exploitation, gender injustice and tyrannical rule of multiple tribal leaders having contemptuous dislike and hatred towards each other. The common men, the middle class and the poor had very tuff time, because they all were voiceless. In such a situation a man emerges, from within the same society, and raises his voice against the system and gets noticed by the rulers and the ruled, alike . The message was so strong that within span of a decade and a half large part of the region came under the control of the Prophet of Islam. And when he performed the only haj of his life, there were more than 1.25 lakhs Muslim believers gathered in the rocky terrains of mount Arafat.
A look at the reasons of rapid expansion of Islam, suggest the following, strong, possible messages of the, then, emerging Religion:
Social equality
The class distinction was denounced; all clans, rich and poor were treated at par . Even slaves were given better treatment. Belal was an Ethiopian slave but he was very prominent person. Belal is a very popular name among Muslims, even now.
Value of girl child
gender inequality and foeticide and killing of girl child was very common. The prophet said “those having two or three female children will stand next to me on the day of judgement”. The woman felt valued.
Divorce & remarriage
Islam is the only organized religion which made divorce and remarriage of divorced women and and widows. Earlier the men used to remarry and keep the first ones captive as they were not allowed to remarry. In fact out of eleven wives of the Prophet, only two were virgins. The rest were either widows, divorced or slave.
Share of women in ancestral property
This was again a revolutionary step which guaranteed share along with men. This move promised empowerment of the women folk
Forbidding interest on loans
Giving loans on compound interest rates to the needy was a major source of exploitation of poor by money lenders. Most of them were Jews. They lost their business within no time. This was also the reason that they vehemently opposed Islam, specially in Madina region, where they were in sizable numbers and doing roaring business.
Charity / Zakaat
Islam made it mandatory to contribute 2.5 percent of income from all movable assets, if the savings from those sources is equal to or more than the market value of nearly 80 grams of gold held, at least for a period of one year . This was and is the greatest contribution of Islam as every year millions of dollars are distributed across the world to the poor. Lakhs of Madarsa and orphanages get support from this source.
Above mentioned six postulates eminently contributed in propagation of Islam among the socially and economically disadvantaged poor men and hapless women, with its wider appeal for social emancipation and economic wellness. The attempts were so forceful that the citadel of existing system trembled, severely.
By Prof. Ali A. Firdausi ( Email: aafirdausi@yahoo.com)
(Jamia Hamdard)