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| GrandpExcerpt From My New Book - Justice: A Puzzle |
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| widadld |
| 08/15/03 at 05:29:14 |
| As Salaam'alaykum My new books are at the publisher's and will be released November 1, 2003 Below is an excerpt from book 4. Two Saudi officers have been living in a christian home in the USA while they study English at a University and attend a city police academy. "Grandma" a state police officer is explaining the USA Justice system to help her "boys from Saudi" pass an exam: Grandpa and Rose went bike riding so Grandma and the boys could have some quiet time for their discussion. Fahd, Abdul and Grandma quickly cleared the dining room table after breakfast and got down to work. “Part of your exam will be to write a short essay comparing your justice system with my country’s justice system, right?” Grandma asked. “Right!” the boys answered in unison. “We have had many discussions about your Shari’ah system of laws and Allah’s justice,” Grandma stated. “This is true,” the boys responded. “I have an idea that might help you to describe and contrast differences between the two justice systems,” Grandma announced with an impish twinkle in her eyes. Grandma got up and left the room. In a few minutes, she returned carrying two boxes. Box 1 was a 500-piece puzzle and Box 2 was a 1,000-piece puzzle belonging to Rose. Grandma set the two boxes in front of the boys and announced, “The first box is your justice system and the second box is my country’s justice system!” Fahd and Abdul looked surprised. They shrugged their shoulders and looked at Grandma with huge question marks in their eyes. They didn’t know what to say, so they waited expectantly for Grandma to explain. “Let’s pretend that the name of the puzzle for Box 1 is ‘The Muslim Way of Life’ and the Creator of the puzzle is Allah. The directions for putting the puzzle together are the Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet. The rules for using the puzzle are the Shari’ah and opinions of the Islamic scholars. Mercy, justice, fairness and truth are the four corners of the puzzle. What you see on the cover of the box is the puzzle put together correctly and it is a beautiful picture!” Grandma finished her description and waited to see if her boys understood her explanation of Islamic justice. “Ah... Hah!” exclaimed Abdul excitedly. The question marks had disappeared from his eyes. Fahd continued to look at puzzle Box 1 and the question marks remained in his eyes. Oh, dear. I hope I am not going to make things worse, Grandma thought with dismay. Before Grandma could say anything else, Abdul turned to Fahd and said, “My brother, one of the pieces of this puzzle could be our prayer, another piece could be the 5 Pillars, another would be punishment for sins and yet another might be punishment for crimes! Do you see what I mean?” Grandma looked anxiously at Fahd and was relieved to see his big, broad smile and the question marks in his eyes replaced by the gleam of understanding! “Yes! Yes! It is clear to me now. Ah…one piece of the puzzle could be Allah’s Mercy, another might be for halal foods, and another for good manners!” Fahd said with a voice filled with excitement. “Each piece of this puzzle is made of a substance that can not be changed by anyone, just as Allah’s laws cannot be changed.” Abdul rubbed his hands together showing his enjoyment of this puzzle lesson! “Soo... we understand puzzle Box 1?” Grandma asked. “Oh, Yes! This we understand, but what of the second puzzle box?” Abdul asked as he pointed at Box 2. Grandma chuckled. “Box 2 is also a puzzle. The title of this puzzle is ‘The United States of America Justice System’. The creators of this puzzle are many different men and women who have lived during the 227 year history of the USA. There are many more pieces to this puzzle, too. Do you know why?” “Is it because your people are always making or changing laws so the size of the puzzle pieces can change? There could be more or less puzzle pieces?” Abdul answered Grandma with two questions. “Yes, to both questions!” Grandma was pleased with Abdul’s reply. “The directions for the puzzle are all the laws in my country. Now here is where putting the puzzle together becomes confusing.” “How so?” asked Abdul. “There are 50 big puzzle pieces, one for each state in the United States. Each of the 50 big puzzle pieces is divided into 5 medium-size pieces. The 5 medium-sized pieces have names. The names are: Federal laws, State laws, County laws, City laws and Other laws.” “Other laws?” Fahd asked with surprise. “Yes. What is very tricky about ‘Other laws’ puzzle pieces is they are divided into many tiny pieces. The tiny pieces may have different names and none are the same!” “So there is nothing (laws) that is same in each of the 50 big puzzle pieces?” Abdul asked in amazement. “Well…. each of the medium-size Federal puzzle pieces is the same in all the 50 big puzzle pieces,” replied Grandma. “Why?” asked Fahd. “Because our Federal laws come from or are linked to the US Constitution and Bill of Rights which were written by the men who created my country,” replied Grandma. “Is there anything else different about this puzzle?” Fahd asked. “Hmm... Yes, there is,” replied Grandma. She watched the boys raise their eyebrows and shake their heads slowly. “The rules for this puzzle allow the 50 large puzzle pieces to grow bigger (more laws) or become smaller (eliminated laws).The judges in my country decide if laws are just. They decide what evidence is allowed in a trial. Our judges are the rules for puzzle Box 2.” “Then your judges decide on how much truth will be learned?” asked Abdul. “Yes,” replied Grandma. Fahd had another question, “Who are the people that write the laws; the men and women you spoke about?” “Oh, they are elected and their job is to write and pass laws. Ordinary citizens can write laws, too, and ask that their proposed laws be voted on in elections,” Grandma waited to see if there were any more questions. “When they write bad laws we can say they are defects in the puzzle?” Fahd grinned as he posed this question. Grandma and Abdul laughed loudly at Fahd’s joke. After Abdul stopped laughing he asked, “Is this all we need to know about your country puzzle?” “There are two other very important things to know. There are two rules that never change. Rule one says no one is allowed to write any law about sin. Rule 2 says that nothing about God is allowed to be in any law,” Grandma said this very dramatically so the boys would understand the differences between the two puzzles. Both boys looked indignant and then totally amazed when they heard this. “Without Allah I think your justice system will not be fair to people and will have many problems in it. Your people might have trouble deciding what is right and wrong because right and wrong might change just like the size of the puzzle pieces,” Fahd’s tone of voice was sad when he said this. Grandma looked at Fahd and Abdul staring at the two puzzle boxes. “Do you think that my example of the 2 puzzles will help you to write your essay?” “I will not have any trouble writing the essay now. Thank you for helping us, Mum.” Abdul and then Fahd bent and kissed the top of Grandma’s head. “We will go and get ready for Dhur (noon) prayer now. After prayer, we will study with Mohamed and our friends, okay?” “That’s fine, but don’t be too late. Remember your exam is in the morning,” answered Grandma as she watched the boys go out the front door. “Do you think the Muslim laws are better than our laws, Grandma?” Rose asked as she poked her head through the family room doorway. “What?! My goodness you gave me a start, Rose. When did you and Grandpa get back from your bicycle ride?” “My front tire got a flat so we came back. Grandpa is out back fixing the tire. I came in and heard you talking and I didn’t want to interrupt,” Rose answered with a guilty expression caused by having been caught eavesdropping.” Grandma ignored Rose’s slip in manners and replied, “According to the boys, the Shari’ah are laws made by God that do not change and are fair, just and provide mercy equally to all people. Our laws can change and are made by men and women. Justice is not always applied equally, mercy is not always considered, and religion is not permitted in any of our laws. The two systems are very different. I don’t know enough about the justice system in Saudi Arabia to tell you if one system is better than the other. I do think it is important to consider that their system is based on laws and punishments created by God and God doesn’t make mistakes. Our justice system in the USA may not be perfect but I think it is better than any other legal systems that men and women have made for governing people.” “I can see why Fahd and Abdul were confused about how our laws work. I got confused listening to the discussion!” Rose grinned impishly at her Grandma. “I suppose you are leaving to go and write all this in your Journal?” Grandma teased Rose. “Yep, that is exactly what I am going to do,” Rose called back as she headed towards her study-play room to get her Journal. *** What do you think? Wa'salaamu widad |
| Re: GrandpExcerpt From My New Book - Justice: A Pu |
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| Nomi |
| 08/17/03 at 20:50:23 |
| [slm] Its quite interesting and well versed. InshAllah people will really appreciate this work of yours. [slm] A brother in islam. |
| Re: GrandpExcerpt From My New Book - Justice: A Pu |
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| paula |
| 08/17/03 at 22:35:10 |
| [slm][size=2][font=Verdana][color=Navy] Smile..... quite enjoyable. I do pray many will benefit from your books & time.....Subhan Allah.... Insha Allah. Some very nice elements interlaced in your work, these are some that I felt: Clearity, suttleness, clean, warm, associative, & unbiased, very nice... Masha' Allah. [quote] “Other laws?” Fahd asked with surprise.[/quote] >>This one made me smile pretty wide. My expression every time I hear of another one of those (other laws) <<. I guess from the american law perspective where we often have difficulty is being updated on the laws themselves. Not the intension but the law that makes or breaks a person (of course getting into the court procedings is a whole other area to explore too). The first step in following laws are to know them. Ever Changing, always updating, varying from state to state add in so much complication. One would think 'common sense' would keep you headed in the right direction. Yet an ever increasing expression is heard all too often now,"common sense, isn't so common anymore". For a long time I have personally felt part of the high stress in our society is in fact our judicial system itself. Stress in itself is toxic. Sometimes it's not about justice, it's about law. I knew a couple that made a big move. Packed a whole 40 some years of life up & moved to another state (they were moving for job opportunities & change), just to move back to their original state after a short time. They said once they started to live there. The state & local laws were so different that they were not to their advantage & also somewhat frustrating. I knew another that said they would not do an interstate move again. All the time to learn the laws governing it was exhausting (not that compartive the laws were better or worse), but better time invested to stay put in one state. It's really interesting to look at. Jazak Allahu Khairan for sharing with us. [/color][/font][/size] [wlm] |
| 08/17/03 at 22:37:39 |
| paula |
| Re: GrandpExcerpt From My New Book - Justice: A Pu |
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| Kathy |
| 08/18/03 at 11:15:34 |
| [slm] How are you? Long time no hear! What age group is this story intended for and what market? For your country or in the US? |
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