Daily Times

The great Asma Jahangir has passed away at a critical time in our country’s history. Her close friend Dr Ayesha Jalal says that Asma Jahangir will forever live in the canons of Pakistan’s democracy.  This is true but equally true is the fact that her death leaves a void when we needed her most.  She was the only one today capable of giving us a direction.  Who now is going to stand up to judicial overreach? Who now will speak truth to power?  It is hard to say.  Yet I do not want to repeat what has been said again and again about this great woman and epoch making figure, whose loss is every bit as grievous as the lost we suffered so soon after independence when Jinnah died and left us rudderless.  That she was a fearless advocate of the rights of minorities in Pakistan and beyond is known. That she was a feminist icon of global stature is also known. What we did not know was even in death, she would find a way to rile up the Mullahs and religious fanatics. I refer of course to that extraordinary moment when women and men came together to attend her funeral and pray together.

These mullahs, these contractors of religion, are in my opinion the biggest enemies of both Islam and Pakistan. For the last six days they have been going on and on about how an un-Islamic sin has been committed in an Islamic country simply because men and women prayed together. They argue that women are not even allowed to follow funeral processions and visit graveyards let alone be part of the funeral congregation.  To bolster this view, they selectively quote hadith to fool the illiterate masses. Is not distorting the facts and meanings of hadith and seerah a disservice to Islam?  The only authentic hadith is on the authority of Umme-Attiya, which is listed as 368 in Sahih Bukhari’s chapter No.23 i.e. Funerals.  It states, “We were forbidden to accompany funeral processions but not strictly.”  The rationale was to discourage the practice of wailing but then there are a number of hadiths that even allow that.  Ibn-e-Majah contains a hadith with sound and unbroken authority where Hazrat Umar (RA) reprimanded a woman for following a funeral procession.  The Holy Prophet (PBUH) immediately told him “Leave her, O ‘Umar! Verily her eyes shed tears, the soul feels the pangs, and the promised hour is near.”  It is clear that there was no strict prohibition.

We need new Asmas now to speak truth to power. She stood as a bulwark against dictatorships and then she stood as bulwark against judicial overreach. Asma Jahangir was an equal opportunity offender and she managed to win more times than she lost

Islam is not an ossified fossil but rather a living meta-system which evolves and which has its own principle of movement i.e. ijtehad.  It is this idea of an inherent evolving living faith that makes Islam a universal faith and not merely one wedded to 7th Century Arabia.  The spirit of Islam is found its timeless immutable principles and not by blind emulation of clerics and tradition. There is nothing in these essential principles that militates against modernity, democracy, secularism and gender parity. It is a civilization that informs the lives of more than a billion people and that is something that cannot be sustained by putting it in a straitjacket. Islam has been blessed with disagreement but that disagreement can easily deteriorate into conflict if we do not follow the most important command of our scripture:  La Ikrah Fid Deen – there is no compulsion in religion.  If we accept this as the basis of all our actions, we can use disagreements on theology, rules, and law of Islam to our advantage.

There can be a difference of opinion therefore on whether women should participate in funeral prayers or not, but this gives no one the right to issue spurious fatwas of kufr against the brave men and women who participated in that funeral.

Even though our greatest champion of these causes has passed away, I feel that in her death she has reinvigorated the progressive circles in the country in a way she could not even do so when she was alive. This is the great Asma moment which we must seize. The people of Pakistan are asking for genuine leadership to chart for them a course through the religious, political and legal mess we have made in the country. For those who seek to oppress Pakistanis, it is business as usual.  Remember Khatme Nabuwat was deliberately raised as an issue to hurt the democratic government and to punish Nawaz Sharif for attempting to assert his independence.  This tactic did not work, but it hits at the roots of Pakistan eating into them.  We need new Asmas now to speak truth to power.  She stood as a bulwark against dictatorships and then she stood as bulwark against judicial overreach.  Asma Jahangir was an equal opportunity offender and she managed to win more times than she lost.  This made her not just a great lawyer but a masterly community organizer and a political operator.  She brought this far and left us with this great Asma moment around which we can build our future struggles.  Let it not be said that we were found wanting in carrying forward the flag after Asma Jahangir fell.  March onwards towards democracy, freedom and human rights for all.

The writer is a practising lawyer and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School in Cambridge MA, USA. He blogs at http://globallegalforum.blogspot.com and his twitter handle is @therealylh

Published in Daily Times, February 19^th 2018.