When I say, “the law is a tricky business,” different people will interpret the phrase differently. To an American, where the law is enshrined in people’s psyche as well as in a solid Constitution, people will not question the validity of the law but rather the power to manipulate it, to make it work for you, and to have your way in court. The respect for the law is never in question. Every four years (or eight, as the case may be) you see it in the inauguration ceremony where an outgoing president is next to the new one being sworn in. The law dictates that one is out and the other is in. Smooth as silk gets another interpretation.
As for us, we still struggle with the concept itself. I was privy to a “discussion” on the state of our affairs where I, in a rare moment of wisdom, was a listener. The first thing I noticed (yet again) was that everyone was an accomplished talker or thought himself to be so. The precise gender pronoun is intentional since no ladies were present to give their views. Alas, it was, as usual, an all-male affair — a state of affairs that has kept us without 50 percent of our intellectual abilities and potential for so long. The law was the topic or, to be more precise, the drift of the discussion.
Arabic is a brilliantly constructed language. It is flowery, vague, shifty, precise, and coherent. In short, it is what you want it to be. It is closely related to French, which is the language of diplomacy for the same exact reasons. English is more puritanical. It is the language of common sense, business, precision computer commands, and ever since English departed from the realms of Shakespeare and Keats, it has spread uncontrollably, while other languages remain in the realm of esoterica. It is enough to point out that everything in French and Arabic (and other languages) has a gender. That is why a car is feminine while a house is masculine in Arabic but feminine in French. Don’t ask me why it is so. In English, on the other hand, everything besides humans is it.
To my mind, everything that is codified in do and do not do is law, whether you call it a Constitution or Shariah. Whether we agree or disagree on the statutes of that law is another matter. I am interested in the concept.
After “behaving” for a long while, I put this proposal to the most vocal of our pedantic know-it-all. I asked, “Say you are in the middle of the desert and you somehow come upon a traffic light that is red, would you stop at that traffic light?” The answer was a flat no. I rested my case. Unfortunately there was no judge, and the jury system is anathema to our world.
The concept of reward is anathema to law. Let me explain. If you expect to be rewarded when adhering to any given law, it is obvious that you will not obey the law when there is no reward. That was clear enough to our early legislatures. Hence the punishment part. The issue, therefore, is the lack of respect. We fear and we expect — nothing more. Until we learn to “believe” and respect regardless of reward and punishment, I don’t think we are yet there.
