Anger as Human Nature – Sharī‘ah (Islamic Law), Shakespearean Perspective: A Way towards Effective Islamic Criminal Law and Legal Ethics (A Realistic Jurisprudential Approach)

Abstract

Abstract William Golding once said: “Look out; the evil is in us all” (Lambert, 1993). Deeply scarred by wars, feuds, oppressions, discriminations and murders, in short, the entire history of mankind gives a sharp impression that man by nature is devoid of any good. Every single act of his signifies that, besides others, man is mainly driven by the evils, especially of wrath. Owing to the negative human nature, the state of affairs of this world has been gloomy since year dot – a notion, despite their radical conceptual and methodological differences, is fast held by scriptures like the Holy Qurān, by the literati like William Shakespeare and psychology alike. Notwithstanding its concept of fitrāh, the Sharī‘ah refers to human nature as weak. William Shakespeare, redoing the Qurānic concept of human nature, illustrates the notion in his tragedies that man is more evil by nature. A close scrutiny of the works of the renowned psychologists reveals that psychology, more or less, mirrors the same concept of human nature, compelling researchers to further probe the issue. Critical analysis and in-depth scrutiny of all the three domains affirm that human nature is negative in many aspects. Underpinning the evils of anger, the three works concurrently recommend feasible cures to this evils – though requiring, at some levels, conscious efforts. Such cures create strong ethical values both at social and legal levels, creating a society where commission of crimes becomes less. While keeping the reliability of the findings, the present work opts for the content analysis approach – a familiar tool of qualitative research - to examine the secondary data, conscientiously collected from the Holy Qurān, work of William Shakespeare and the works of prominent psychologists.