Justice Minister's Remark

Minister of justice has remarked that judicial reforms will not yield desirable results without building the thinking and outlook of the masses. His candid comment is significant at a time when the the concept of reform and revival of the society is discussed throughout the country. However the dynamics of society and the factors that effects its coherency are not understood correctly by many. His remarks also suggest that the reform process is not an internally driven one from within the people. 

Islam recognises that society comprises of individuals but then viewed the relationship between them in three ways. These are, 

1. The predominant thoughts of the people carry 
2. The predominant emotions of the people carry 
3. The prevailing system of governance (capitalism, communism, Islam) 


The society experiences real progresses when all the three elements are in unison. By reforming just one component 
would only produce an incoherent enterprise full of contradictions that causes stagnation rather than progress. For instance, restricting sexual thoughts within the sphere of marriage is a concept Muslims carry. However if the prevailing system of governance allows sexual thoughts to pervade in all the spheres of the society, then such a society is not a progressive society due to contradiction between the thoughts which people carry and the thoughts promoted by the system of governance.

The same could be said about about the constitutional reforms. The laws and rules are solutions for the daily problems that people face. These laws and rules emanate from the outlook about life, i.e. from the ideology that established that authority and made it build on it. Thus, the constitution and the laws are a tool to ruling and not a basis for it. Revival of the society comes only through thought and not the constitution and laws.

This proverbial 'putting the cart before the horse' scenario manifests in all the layers of the on going reform process.

The stance of political parties:

The Islamic scholars in various political camps are of the view that they can rule and judge by Islam without creating the confidence of Islam in the hearts and minds of the people. Like the 'anti' camp, they are also vying for power or ready to share power with the ruling camp. If these scholars were to assume a position of ruling they will definitely find themselves in two precarious situations:

1) They would have to rule by Islam whilst the masses do not believe in the suitability of Islam. As said earlier, the increasing number of people attending the prayers in the mosque is not an indication of their willingness to be ruled by Islam. Therefore, to please the people, the scholars will be forced to rule according to the existing system and produce justifications for not ruling by Islam. The classical excuses would be 'Islam can be applied gradually', 'Islam is an easy religion'...etc. Short memory and hypocrisy would become common place. Thus painting a negative image of Islam in application and shattering the hopes of Muslims who supported their work. 

2) Sharing power with another camp which does not believe in the suitability of Islam as a comprehensive system.

Furthermore, discourses of these scholars suggest as if this country,27 years ago, was an Islamic state implementing all the rules of Islam and then came the dictator who ended the glorious rule of Islam. This is far from the reality of society. What has actually occurred during the last 27 years is that the country progressed (in the material sense) whilst a huge intellectual vacuum always existed in the system. This factor should have been taken into consideration by political parties when they are trying to build an understanding of our problems.

The educational system

The educational system also functions in an erratic manner. Every year, men and women are driven out of the country
in the name of ''studies'' without building the economic infrastructure. Most of the business and IT graduates are
not going to find suitable employment because the real demand in the job market is for construction labourers.

Conclusion

The Islamic scholars and intellectuals should work to build the thinking of the masses and create public opinion for Islam. They should be stop running comedy shows in which linguistic flair, poetry, Greek philosophy, Arabic proverbs are given higher precedence.

''As for the poets, the deviants follow them. Don't you see that they speak about every subject in their poetry, and that they say what they do not do? Except those who believe and perform righteous deeds, and remember Allah often, and reply back (in poetry) to the unjust poetry. And those who do wrong will come to know by what overturning they will be overturned.'' [ 26:224-227]

Related

Society and Individuals

Generating Confidence in Islam

First step towards revival 

Change

Is Education a way for revival 

Non-Ideological Societies

Maldivian Islam

Speaking the truth