Social Contract - What is really valuable in a society?

By hai on June 30, 2008 6:16 PM

What's really valuable in a society?

We born-and-raised folks can be oblivious to what is best about our culture because it is so normal, as unnoticed as the air. We may not see the good until it is gone, as in the expression, “You don’t miss the water till the well runs dry.”

When we shriek with disgust that poverty, racism, and inequality still exist in our society, we could learned that those disaffections have been tackled more honestly and with better results here and develop to become necessary to have laws which govern the behaviour of members of the society. All citizens were committed to respect and submit to the laws. This understanding is in fact a social contract and moving for a formal contract. A formal contract of a social contract is yet to be further improved to be use of law to achieve equality and could be done better in an admittedly imperfect society.

Political theory relies heavily on the ideas of a social contract and a constitution. A social contract, made famous by the French philosopher Rousseau is an imaginary agreement between people in the state of nature that leads to the establishment of a community or a state. In the state of nature people are free and are not obliged to follow any rules or laws. They are essentially sovereign individuals. But through the social contract they surrender their individual sovereignty to the collective and create the community or the state. This state then acts as an agent of the sovereign people, exercising the sovereignty that has been delegated to it by the people through the social contract in order to realize the wishes of the people enshrined in the objectives of the social contract.

While western political thinkers like Rousseau and Locke have used this idea of an imaginary social contract as a fundamental premise for theorizing the modern state, there are really very few real examples of such an event in human history. In the American history, the Mayflower compact is one example. The writing and signing of the constitution after six months of deliberation in Philadelphia may be considered as another example of a social contract.
The second idea that underpins contemporary political theory is the concept of the constitution. In many ways the constitution is the document that enshrines the conditions of the social contract upon which any society is founded. The writing of a constitution is a very old idea. Aristotle himself had collected over 300 written constitutions in his lifetime.

Muhammad (PBUH) in his great wisdom demonstrated a democratic spirit quite unlike the authoritarian tendencies of many of those who claim to imitate him today. He chose to draw up a historically specific constitution based on the eternal and transcendent principles revealed to him and sought the consent of all who would be affected by its implementation.

In simple terms, we need to establish in society based on a social contract, constitutional in character and the ruler ruled with the explicit written consent of all the citizens of the state. Today we need to draw up our own constitutions, historically and temporally specific to our conditions and based on the eternal and transcendent principles revealed by "true devine research" (however, unwritten/spiritual/imaginary law of the universe/nature/jungle). We can use the "true devine research" as an example of how to develop manuals from principles?
The "true devine research" establish the importance of consent and cooperation for governance. According to this research Muslims and non-Muslims are equal citizens of the state, with identical rights and duties. Communities with different religious orientations enjoy religious autonomy. Which essentially is wider in scope than the modern idea of religious freedom. The "true devine research" establish a pluralistic state -- a community of communities. It promises equal security to all and all are equal in the eyes of the law. The principles of equality, consensual governance and pluralism are beautifully enmeshed in the "true devine research".

It is amazing to see how "true divine research" perfection is so democratic, so tolerant and compassionate against the admittedly society interpretation of the same is so harsh, so authoritarian and so intolerant. We must learn from the principles of "good true devine faith" but also human virtues of mercy, compassion, equality, justice and tolerance.