Justice is What?

In response to my article Calling for Nationalism, a friend has commented as below:

“I believe in fighting for justice. Whether that justice is to be won for a country, ethnicity, school of thought, religion or any other group of people. Us Muslims alone do not have divine right on justice.”

Brother, this passion for justice is commendable. This is reassuring and positive that there are people who aspire to fight for justice. It is indeed noble. Hazrat Ali (RA) said “a society can function on kufar system but not without Justice.”

Martin Luther King once said “Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere”.

However, Justice on its own carries no meaning; it has to be measured against something; a viewpoint, a rule or a law. But why? Let me explain; no two people, groups or countries on this earth agree upon what is just; one’s justice is other’s oppression.

For instance; Gay groups are fighting to call their union a ‘marriage’; they believe this is their fundamental right to do so. However others are saying that marriage traditionally refers to a man and a woman getting together, hence two men’s union should be called anything but marriage. The word ‘marriage’ carries a concept which should not be changed. Which group do you think is fighting for just cause here?

Talking drugs for instance, there are people in UK who support legalisation of drugs (cannabis, etc). Soft drugs are legal in neighbouring Netherlands. They say it is injustice to humans who want to use these. Opposing bloc says it is harmful to human health and increases crime hence it should remain banned. Who should we stand with here to support for justice?

Ethnic, religious, political groups like ETA (Spain), Tamil (Srilanka), Kurdish (Iraq, Iran, Turkey), Irish, Scottish, Palestinian etc etc are fighting for their rights all over the world and are declared terrorist or freedom fighters time to time depending upon the ‘need of time’.

Nudists demand they should be allowed to walk naked on streets; this is their human right. How about fighting for their right? (I am up for it:-)).

So, you can see each and every group, country, people & party believe that they are right hence demand for justice – yet no two of these agree what is just & what is not. Then how can we decide who to support for justice?

To summarise; we humans will always disagree on who is right or wrong based on our interests. We need an independent law, a reference point that defines the boundaries of right and wrong, and the just or unjust based upon it. So we could deliver Justice.

And what could be better than the Divine Law to define this? Allah’s law is the best upon which one can judge the justice.