And here he is apologizing for the quaint custom of blood revenge.
We can cite many examples of how the state destroys blood ties, and even their genetic framework, not to mention their spiritual content. Those who watch TV and read newspapers will understand what I’m speaking about: abandoned children knowing nothing about their parents, let alone their ancestors; old people’s homes; property disputes between close relatives; brothers not meeting for years while living in the same city; internecine murders and incest — their enumeration is endless, but the essence of all this amounts to the catastrophic disintegration of family and blood ties in the so-called “civilised” nations living in states.
Everywhere in the world the state acts resolutely against the “barbarous” vestiges of blood revenge, and monopolises in its hands the feeling of vengeance that is natural to everyone, for the evil done to him and to his relatives. The state is against blood revenge, but Allah has prescribed it for believers. I cite the Qur’an:
“O ye who believe! Retaliation is PRESCRIBED for you in the matter of the murdered; the freeman for the freeman, and the slave for the slave, and the female for the female… And there is life for you in retaliation, O men of understanding, that ye may ward off (evil).” (2:178-179).
“And there is life for you in retaliation, O men of understanding”: these words from the Holy Qur’an clearly demonstrate that blood revenge is a precondition not only for the safety of an individual, but also for the preservation of blood ties, the cohesion of the family, the ancestral clan, the nation. By surrendering the right to revenge to the state, people lose the most important element preserving the family, the clan, the nation, from collapse.
Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi wrote in his «Bezels of Wisdom»:
“So, He (Allah) established in law the revenge in interests of preservation of mankind and restraint of those of this tribe who violate the Divine borders. “And there is life for you in retaliation, O men of understanding,” and they in fact are people who reached the nub of things, discovered the Divine laws and the laws of wisdom.”
I presume again to quote the opinion of À. Solzhenitsyn, writing in “Archipelago GULAG” about Chechen blood revenge: “We Europeans read and hold in contempt this wild law in books and at schools, this senseless, severe carnage. But it seems that this carnage is not so senseless: it does not separate the highland of nations, but strengthens them. There are not so many victims of the law of blood revenge — but it strikes a strange fear into all around! Every highlander who remembers this law will not dare to offend any other simply like how we offend each other when drunk, or because of dissoluteness, because of a whim? And all the more, which Chechen will risk coming into contact with another, and saying that he is a thief? Or that he is rough? Or that he is getting out of turn? You know that as for the answer there cannot be a word, not a curse, but a thrust of a knife into the side. And even if you seize a knife (but you don’t have it, you are civilised), you will not answer with impact to impact: you see that all your family may be involved into this dangerous process! The Chechens walk on Kazakh land with impudent eyes, pushing others aside with their shoulders — and “the owners of the country”, and those who are not the owners, all give way respectfully. Blood revenge radiates the field of fear — and this way strengthens the small highland nation.”
Let’s leave aside “impudent eyes” in the perception of Solzhenitsyn, as it is clear, that it is not an impudence, it is self-reliance on the part of the Chechens, the feeling of superiority above the morally run wild people, from whom the state has eradicated the ability to defend themselves and even the feeling of human self-respect. The stronger the state, the more unprotected, the weaker the man is, turning him from the free and harmonious creation of the Most High to some resemblance of a hothouse plant, and not maintaining the clash with the natural conditions of life. The state, assuming the regulation of interpersonal and public relations, gradually atrophies the ability of the man to defend himself, the feeling of responsibility in its true sense, and it turns out that the weak, unprotected “by their own armour” live under the powerful concrete hood of the state system. The state is an anti-civilisation, the legalised savagery when not moral laws, but rough external force, repression, becomes the superior regulator of human life. The people living in the state, begin to resemble trained animals controlled by the dosed combination of the whip and forage. But the moment the animal trainer leaves, that is when it has only to collapse even for a short space of time, and then the explosive release of the animal instincts happens, and the people begin to show what the state has brought up in them — recall the Bolshevik troubles in Russia with all the atrocities of the “civil war”, recall all the bloody revolts and outbreaks, recall, at last, the example of the power-cut New York, which I cited above. We should understand, that a real civilisation is established first of all in the souls of the people who are free and responsible for their word and acts. Education, religion, morals, honour, self-respect, respect for other people — these are the very “supervisors,” which keep the civilisation of the free people steadfast. And such people will not need human supervisors, repressive structures, or governmental bodies.
The lack of blood revenge is not just simple parameter of the wildness and humility of the people; blood revenge is the unique civilised form of punishment for grave crimes, because it prevents the people from blind and thoughtless acts following passions, which the Holy Qur’an calls the “zealotry of ignorance,” peculiar to disbelievers (48:26). “And if the Truth had followed their desires, verily the heavens and the earth and whosoever is therein had been corrupted” (The Qur’an, 23:71).
Everywhere in the world the state acts resolutely against the “barbarous” vestiges of blood revenge, and monopolises in its hands the feeling of vengeance that is natural to everyone, for the evil done to him and to his relatives. The state is against blood revenge, but Allah has prescribed it for believers. I cite the Qur’an:
“O ye who believe! Retaliation is PRESCRIBED for you in the matter of the murdered; the freeman for the freeman, and the slave for the slave, and the female for the female… And there is life for you in retaliation, O men of understanding, that ye may ward off (evil).” (2:178-179).
“And there is life for you in retaliation, O men of understanding”: these words from the Holy Qur’an clearly demonstrate that blood revenge is a precondition not only for the safety of an individual, but also for the preservation of blood ties, the cohesion of the family, the ancestral clan, the nation. By surrendering the right to revenge to the state, people lose the most important element preserving the family, the clan, the nation, from collapse.
Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi wrote in his «Bezels of Wisdom»:
“So, He (Allah) established in law the revenge in interests of preservation of mankind and restraint of those of this tribe who violate the Divine borders. “And there is life for you in retaliation, O men of understanding,” and they in fact are people who reached the nub of things, discovered the Divine laws and the laws of wisdom.”
I presume again to quote the opinion of À. Solzhenitsyn, writing in “Archipelago GULAG” about Chechen blood revenge: “We Europeans read and hold in contempt this wild law in books and at schools, this senseless, severe carnage. But it seems that this carnage is not so senseless: it does not separate the highland of nations, but strengthens them. There are not so many victims of the law of blood revenge — but it strikes a strange fear into all around! Every highlander who remembers this law will not dare to offend any other simply like how we offend each other when drunk, or because of dissoluteness, because of a whim? And all the more, which Chechen will risk coming into contact with another, and saying that he is a thief? Or that he is rough? Or that he is getting out of turn? You know that as for the answer there cannot be a word, not a curse, but a thrust of a knife into the side. And even if you seize a knife (but you don’t have it, you are civilised), you will not answer with impact to impact: you see that all your family may be involved into this dangerous process! The Chechens walk on Kazakh land with impudent eyes, pushing others aside with their shoulders — and “the owners of the country”, and those who are not the owners, all give way respectfully. Blood revenge radiates the field of fear — and this way strengthens the small highland nation.”
Let’s leave aside “impudent eyes” in the perception of Solzhenitsyn, as it is clear, that it is not an impudence, it is self-reliance on the part of the Chechens, the feeling of superiority above the morally run wild people, from whom the state has eradicated the ability to defend themselves and even the feeling of human self-respect. The stronger the state, the more unprotected, the weaker the man is, turning him from the free and harmonious creation of the Most High to some resemblance of a hothouse plant, and not maintaining the clash with the natural conditions of life. The state, assuming the regulation of interpersonal and public relations, gradually atrophies the ability of the man to defend himself, the feeling of responsibility in its true sense, and it turns out that the weak, unprotected “by their own armour” live under the powerful concrete hood of the state system. The state is an anti-civilisation, the legalised savagery when not moral laws, but rough external force, repression, becomes the superior regulator of human life. The people living in the state, begin to resemble trained animals controlled by the dosed combination of the whip and forage. But the moment the animal trainer leaves, that is when it has only to collapse even for a short space of time, and then the explosive release of the animal instincts happens, and the people begin to show what the state has brought up in them — recall the Bolshevik troubles in Russia with all the atrocities of the “civil war”, recall all the bloody revolts and outbreaks, recall, at last, the example of the power-cut New York, which I cited above. We should understand, that a real civilisation is established first of all in the souls of the people who are free and responsible for their word and acts. Education, religion, morals, honour, self-respect, respect for other people — these are the very “supervisors,” which keep the civilisation of the free people steadfast. And such people will not need human supervisors, repressive structures, or governmental bodies.
The lack of blood revenge is not just simple parameter of the wildness and humility of the people; blood revenge is the unique civilised form of punishment for grave crimes, because it prevents the people from blind and thoughtless acts following passions, which the Holy Qur’an calls the “zealotry of ignorance,” peculiar to disbelievers (48:26). “And if the Truth had followed their desires, verily the heavens and the earth and whosoever is therein had been corrupted” (The Qur’an, 23:71).
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