THOUGHT CRIME
Abominable Accusation
IMAM IBN TAIMIYAH AL-HARRANI (661-728 CE) was born in Syria. Among Muslims, he generally occupies the position of a very important religious scholar. He has been given the title of Shaikh-e Akbar or ‘The Great Shaikh’, and his books are given the status of authoritative reference works. In the famous Arabic digital library al-Maktaba ash-Shamila, there are 154 books by him.
An article by an Arab scholar Muhammad Habash is available on the Internet. It is titled: ‘Ibn Taimiyah and 428 fatwas under the title: [A person will be asked to] seek repentance or otherwise will be killed’. The author has made an in-depth study of Ibn Taimiyah’s books. In his article, he shows which actions Ibn Taimiyah has, according to his own way of thinking, declared to be crimes that supposedly merit the death penalty. Muhammad Habash cites Ibn Taimiyah’s words in this way: “Such people would be asked to repent, but if they do not repent, they shall be killed”. According to Muhammad Habash, this phrase of Ibn Taimiyah’s appears 200 times in his collection of fatwas or legal opinions, and if other books by Ibn Taimiyah are also included, the number of such “crimes” would amount to 428.
Now, which are these “crimes” that Ibn Taimyah refers to. All of them are what could be called “thought crimes”.
Muhammad Habash cites some examples from fatwas by Ibn Taimiyah which are given below:
Ibn Taimiyah says, that if a person does not say that God is on His throne above the skies, he will be told to repent, and if he does not do so, he shall be killed.
In Islam, thought crimes are actions that do not deserve
If a person says to someone else that he relied on him or that he trusts him, he will be told to repent, and if does not repent he shall be killed. If a mature person does not perform one of the five obligatory prayers or abandons one of the agreed-upon religious obligations, he will be told to repent, and if he does not, he shall be killed.
A person who does not say that God is above the seven heavens will, on account of this, be declared a non-believer and shedding his blood will be lawful. He will be told to repent, and if he does not, he will be executed.
A person who says that the Quran is created will be told to repent. If he does not, he will be beheaded.
A person who does not adhere to the Shariah will be told to repent, and if he does not, he shall be killed.
A person who claims that he has a way to reach God other than the Shariah given by the Prophet Muhammad, through which he can obtain God’s good pleasure, will be told to repent, and if he does not, his head will be chopped off.
According to Muslim consensus, to eat a snake or scorpion is forbidden. But, Ibn Taimiyah argues, if someone considers it permissible to eat these, he will be told to repent. If he does not, he shall be killed. If someone says that God did not speak to Moses, he will be told to repent. If he does not, he shall be killed.
The phrase ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Great) is not written in the Quran and all Muslims accept this fact. If a person thinks that ‘Allahu Akbar’ is written in the Quran, Ibn Taimiyah opines, he will be asked to repent, and if he does not, he shall be killed.
If someone delays the obligatory prayer to engage in hunting or to serve his teacher, so much that the sun sets, he must be punished. According to the majority of the ulema, Ibn Taimiyah argues, if the person does not repent it is compulsory that he be killed.
The fatwas of Ibn Taimiyah unfortunately were not looked at critically by the later generation of the scholars (ulema). On account of this, even after the passage of 700-odd years, no scholar worth mentioning has written a book against this. Instead, despite the sort of claims that Ibn Taimiyah makes, he continues to occupy a very big position among the leaders of the ulema.
With regard to the issues for which Ibn Taimiyah has given fatwas calling for the death penalty, it is instructive to note that not a single of these “crimes” is mentioned in the Quran or Hadith. Yet, despite this, why did Ibn Taimiyah and other ulema call for punishment for actions that are not mentioned as crimes in the Quran and Hadith? The reason for this is that these ulema did not distinguish between a “social crime” and a “thought crime”. In accordance with the teachings of Islam, stiff punishments have been laid down for social crimes. But in Islam, thought crimes are actions that do not deserve punishment at all.
Thought crimes are, in essence, a misuse of the freedom that God has blessed human beings with. If such misuse of freedom by a person is not physically harmful to someone, then the person will not be held punishable for his thoughts or beliefs. As is mentioned in the Quran: “This is the truth from your Lord. Let him who will, believe in it, and him who will, deny it.” (18: 29)
The fact of the matter is that in the later period of Islam, the notion of dawah, of calling people to God, disappeared. Muslims began thinking that a person who does something wrong—whether in word or deed— must be given stern punishment. But this concept is completely alien to the Quran and Hadith. According to the Quran and Hadith, there is punishment for social crimes, but for one who expresses his difference through words, Muslims’ response should be in the form of exhortation and counselling, and not punishment.
The notion of stern punishment emerged in the later period of Islam, when Muslims had established their political empires. In the initial period of Islam, the response to such a situation was different— it was a peaceful, dawah-based response. But in the later period of Islam, Muslims came to think that because they now exercised political power, they had to reply to such a situation with force. This concept was against the Quran. The Quran is completely based on the concept of peaceful dawah, not on the principle of violent punishment. In this matter, this verse of the Quran enjoys the status of a guiding principle: “So, [O Prophet] exhort them: your task is only to exhort, you are not their warden.” (88: 21-22)
This verse of the Quran employs the word musaytir, which means a warden, that it is to say someone who forcibly enforces something. In this Quranic verse it is ordained, in absolute terms, that the Prophet’s and believers’ responsibility is only to share wisdom with people in a peaceful manner. Thus, the responsibility is not to enforce their ideas or beliefs on others through coercion. They should not imagine that they are warders over people. The above Quranic verse makes it eternally binding that in matters of thought they have absolutely no right to use force against others. Their responsibility is only to exhort people in a spirit of genuine well-wishing. The result is totally the domain of God.