24. Al-Nur/The Light
I/We begin by the Blessed Name of Allah
The Immensely Merciful to all, The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone.
24:01
This is a Surah that WE have sent down, and made its Injunctions mandatory to be applied in matters of ethics, mannerism, and morality,
and WE have sent down Clear Messages in it so that you may contemplate and enact.
24:02
The adulterous and fornicator female and the adulterous and fornicator male, where both are equally guilty of engaging in an extramarital relationship, flog each one of them a hundred lashes.
And let no compassion, pity, or sympathy for both of them keep you away from executing the command of Allah’s Religion, if you truly believe in Allah – the One and Only God of everyone, and the Last Hour.
And ensure that a group of believers witness their punishment.
24:03
After the punishment has been executed the adulterous or fornicator male will not marry anyone but an adulterous or fornicator female, or a polytheist female.
And the adulterous or fornicator female will only marry an adulterous or fornicator male, or a polytheist male.
But marrying someone guilty of adultery or fornication is forbidden for the believers.
24:04
And those who falsely accuse a chaste/respectable lady of an extramarital affair on circumstantial evidence but then do not bring four eye witnesses in support of their accusation,
then flog them eighty lashes,
and never accept their testimony ever again.
And those - they are the ones who have overstepped the limits.
24:05
Exceptions are those who later repent and reform themselves,
for sure, Allah is All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate.
24:06
And as for those...
The first main objective of Maqasid I Shari`ah is the completion of human’s necessity; in which protection of progeny (nasl) is the foremost purpose. The preservation of lineage is greatly emphasized by the Islamic Shariah and the Cairo declaration of human rights in Islam also supported the protection of lineage in Islam. All the articles of CDHRI covered the five basic human rights mentioned in Maqasid I Shariah. The research is focused on delineating the concept of protection of lineage as one of the main objective of Shariah and it is supported by evidences from Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam along with Quranic verses and traditions of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W). The aspects covered in the paper range from discussion of right of progeny as well as equal rights of progeny for male and female; rights of children with the hierarchy of their rights from the stage of fetus, having proper nursing, caring, education and a healthy beginning of life. The comparative analysis based on arguments of Shariah and the CDHRI proves that it is the basic objective of Shariah to protect all fundamental rights and right of progeny has the foremost significance in it.
The South Asian subcontinent has an unmatched geo-strategic salience. On the lateral plane it connects the Middle East with the Far East and on the longitudinal axis it is the gateway to the Indian Ocean for Russia, China and Central Asia. As a landmass, it dominates the oil routes from the Persian Gulf to the Bay of Bengal. It is also important because one fifth of the humanity resides in this region. The area has tremendous prospects for growth but its progress has been stunted because for the past six decades it has been wracked by wars and near warlike situations. It is a perennially instable region. At the heart of the conflict lies the unresolved issue of Kashmir. Since no solution seems forthcoming, this area is expected to remain turbulent in the near future. The nuclear explosions of May 1998 have impacted in various ways on the stability of the region. It has mainly created a state of mutual deterrence between India and Pakistan, which is somewhat akin to the situation that prevailed within the superpower equation during the Cold War. This form of fragile stability has its advocates and detractors. Some are of the view that due to the short warning times and sudden spikes of tension witnessed in South Asian context, the likelihood of moving quickly up the escalation ladder and crossing the nuclear Rubicon are far greater than the East West conflict. There is, however, historical evidence that during Cold War was equally dangerous. There were a number of touch and go occasions, when nuclear weapons were brandished aggressively but better sense prevailed because of the specter of the ‘mutually assured destruction.’ Nuclear deterrence in short became the guarantor of strategic stability during the East West conflict. Carefully calibrated the fear of mutual destruction can keep stability in South Asia too. This study is devoted to understanding the dynamics of strategic stability based on the ubiquitous use of nuclear weapons in the South Asian scenario.