II. The law at WorkThe basic attitude that the law demands in human relationship is
respect for the dignity of man-for human personality which every
individual possesses equally and which has an intrinsic value. A
disregard of this value manifests itself in exploitation of other
human beings, either by damage to their person or to their
possessions. The exploiting nations are ruined:
How many a community, that dealt unjustly have We shattered, and
raised up after them another community. And when they saw the
consequences of their doings in the shape of their doom, they tried to
run away from it.
But it was said unto them: run not away but return to that wherein you
delighted and to your dwellings, that you may be questioned (as to
whence you had obtained so much wealth and the way in which you
had dealt with others).
They confessed there upon and said: Lo! we were wrongdoers. And
this their crying ceased not till We made them reaped corn, extinct
(21:11-14).
The consequences may take their time but are inevitable. The
universe was not meant to be without a moral order:
We created not the heaven and earth and all that is between them in
sport (21:16).
They have been created so that Our Law of Requital may be set in
operation (45:22).
When a people choose to take a life in defiance of the moral order,
there is actually no time lag between action and its decaying result on
their life process. But it may take some time for the effect to be
perceptible and to manifest itself in social and economic maladies.
Anyone stopping at the maladies in his analysis of the causes of a
nation's fall would only be reaching the obvious symptoms but not
the root cause – the ungodly way of life. The symptoms can be
suppressed without curing the real disease. This would be inviting
eruption of the disease in other and more dangerous forms. The
Qur'an, taking a comprehensive view of life, calls for a radical cure,
that is, a change of heart and a new orientation. When this change is
brought about, the symptoms start disappearing. The only cure for
social ills is a return to the path of righteousness and rectitude.
The Qur'an designates the Law of Requital as the Sunnah of God-
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 265