veiled4allah: Islam and individual freedom

When I first mentioned that I was going to be blogging about Islamic libertarianism, darulharb posted the following question in my comments:

Modern understanding of libertarianism also places a great emphasis on individual (including, but not limited to, sexual) freedom. What would be the true Islamic state views on these? Jess curious.

Here is my response to him (also posted to the comments on that entry):

Fair question. Unfortunately, many Muslims do think that the state should be used to enforce every aspect of Islamic law, even veiling or prayer. I don't believe that this is correct.

First, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said "Actions are judged by their intentions". If I pray because I want to serve God, then I get the reward of serving God. If I pray because somebody told me to, then I don't get the reward of serving God. So forcing people to pray or complete other religious acts doesn't benefit them any in the Hereafter. Some people might say "well, at least they're praying and they'll benefit from it" but that's not true. More likely, they'll come to resent it and definitely not do it when they don't have to. That whole argument is completely void as far as I'm concerned.

Second, the Quran says "There is no compulsion in religion" (Surah al-Baqarat verse 256). In other places, it says that the Prophet's only duty was to convey the message, not to compel people to believe or to be in control over their actions (see for example Surah Yunus verse 99, Surah al-Kahf verse 29, and Surah az-Zumar verse 41). The hadiths also show that the Prophet (pbuh) followed these rules. He didn't force people to pray or wear hijab (modest Islamic dress) or do other things, he merely told them what was best for them to do and if they chose not to do it, that was on them.

I discussed the issue a bit here in specific reference to hijab. I believe the law should only be used to compel people if the aim is to prevent harm (to use an obvious example, it's right that there are laws against killing people).

The libertarian article touches on this briefly. The author, Imad ad-Dean Ahmad, writes (quoting ibn Khaldun) :

The purpose of the law is the preservation of civilization, that is "(1) of the religion, (2) the soul (life), (3) the intellect, (4) progeny, and (5) property"

That is, each person has a right to his or her religion, life, intellect, progeny, and property and the law's purpose is to protect these rights from being violated by others.

Acts that harm others or violate their rights should be punished by the law. Acts that harm only the self are God's exclusive preserve and people should leave it to Him.