As the Speech of God who is Omniscient and Powerful over all things, the Holy Qur’an contains stories whence many a lesson can be learned.
This is because human behaviour exists in recurring patterns discernible to those who contemplate mankind’s history, whose spiritual faculties of the intellect and the heart are granted to know the consequences of affairs.
Thus, historical parallels are an immensely useful tool to steer away from man-made disasters.
The Plague of Justinian which appeared in the middle of the 6th century was a pandemic said to be among the causes weakening the Byzantine Empire, having killed one-fifth of its population in the capital city of Constantinople by the year 542.
The pandemic lingered for the next 200 years, claiming between 25 to 100 million lives.
On the eve of the Prophetic mission in the 7th century, waves of the plague were still hitting the Eastern Roman Empire, frustrating its ability to raise defences and wage wars.
This reversal of fortune also enabled the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate to defeat Byzantium’s armies several times, heralding Islam’s emergence as a world power.
Meanwhile, measures such as quarantine could not be instituted to contain the spread of infection as there had yet to come a learned understanding about diseases-causing microorganisms.
Many attributed the causes of diseases to visitations of an angry god, demonic activities, or miasmas of befouled air.
Yet, today’s world owes a great debt to Prophet Muhammad, whose injunctions recorded by Imam al-Bukhari (d. 870) as authentic Traditions (hadith sahih) laid the scientific foundation for modern epidemiology: (1) not to enter an area where an outbreak is declared, (2) not to leave if one’s locality is hit with a plague, and (3) not to mix the sick with the healthy.
Despite the military successes of Emperor Justinian I (d. 565 CE), whom the Plague of Justinian was named after, the Romans rebelled violently against his government due to three things: the oppressive taxes imposed upon them, the corruption of his leading officials, and the wanton cruelty of the public enforcers.
Observing the effects of Justinian’s wars, the historian Prokopios (d. 570 CE) writes that half of Constantinople was destroyed while 30,000 people died the entire week during which the Nika riots took place in the year 532.
This shows that a pandemic is not the only thing which can disunite a nation.
Many classical works on governance and statecraft such as Aristotle’s Secreta Secretorum (The Secret of Secrets) and Nizam al-Mulk’s Siyar al-Muluk (The Rules for Rulers) reiterate that justice and fairness is a formula for an upright government while widespread corruption and tyranny is a recipe for a country’s disintegration.
The Byzantine experience shows how corruption and oppression centrifugalise a nation in the similar manner the centrifugation of blood breaks it down to component parts.
In many cases, breakaway states suffer the most because of inexperience in self-rule, deprivation of federated resources, and depredations of stronger and more powerful enemies.
For example, the Balkanisation of the Ottoman Empire throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries adversely affected the millet system instituted to protect minority groups.
Similarly, the Breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992 precipitated the Bosnian War of 1992–1995 wherein more than 100,000 people were killed.
Indeed, the dangers of political centrifugalisation become pronounced when religious groups prove to be quarrelsome; communities share only brief history; ethnicities harbour mutual envy and hatred; and a common language is no longer spoken.
In a hadith narrated by Ahmad, al-Tabarani, and al-Bayhaqi and authentically transmitted from Nu‘man ibn Bashir, Prophet Muhammad reportedly said: “Unity is mercy; disunity is punishment.”
In a 2014 myForesight interview, scholar and educational thinker, Professor Wan Mohd. Nor Wan Daud, proposes that national unity can be fostered through early integration.
This can be achieved by a more wholesome mainstream education system which harmonises existing vernacular schools.
Furthermore, demagogues should be prevented from abusing the language because it can create confusion in knowledge wherein such divisive environment allows false leaders to centrifugalise the nation.
In particular, the Shari‘ah technical term ijtihad should not be (mis)used to mean “political manoeuvre” because it refers to a learned personal opinion after the exhaustive effort of looking for guidance in the Qur’an, the Prophetic Traditions (al-Sunnah), and the scholarly consensus (al-Ijma’).
Since politicians often act for the sake of political expediencies, they are liable to be punished if proven harmful to public interest.
On the contrary, God grants the scholar making an ijtihad double the reward if he hits the mark or single reward if he misses, but he is never faulted for a genuinely mistaken opinion.
In the spirit of Malaysia’s National Day, let us strive to treat the pandemic of disease and discord.