The Jurisprudence of the Living Oracles

Men of pristine conscience have always been 'led aright' by the oracles; they have always believed in equality of all men; in freedom and justice. Here then is how a genuine effulgence of faith might illumine the road of the law. From primeval times, religion has exalted the value of individual personality and has summoned men to understand their neighbours as nearly as possible after the manner of God's understanding, for - we are told - in his eyes, all men, created in his image, are equal and alike; yet every man is distinct, unique, and filled with the splendour of human dignity. This is religion's own insight. Applied wholeheartedly to the law, it would help us shape decisions of individualised and creative justice. Applied throughout the comity of nations, it would hallow the pursuit of a free, righteous and compassionate world - the ultimate consummation of Jurisprudence. … Judges in the administration of justice do have considerable discretion, influenced by their conscience, learning and their angle of perception with implications for a free society. These factors invariably indicate and inform the best course that intelligent judges may esteem and just judges adopt. For they would be strengthened to be creative, even within the frame-work of the law, valiantly allying with that which is correct and just, since they would know that the law must not be applied under any circumstances whatever, to protect wickedness and wrongs in the community. … The philosophical premise of Jurisprudence is animated not by abstractions, but by practical evidence and precedents in life situations. The cases discussed in this book are but few of many similar ones. The Supreme Court judgment in the Fela Anikulapo Kuti case completes the judicial record of a “buck-passing” case, where precepts of Justice for innocent victims of state brutality and oppression were adjudged strangled by technicalities for the redress of their unjustified infractions. … From the foregoing, it is crystal clear that law as a living social institution cannot be and is not the ass. Rather, the ass is found in the judge who forecloses justice through his own inept and subaltern perception of his function in the temple of Justice. Lest we forget, no one wholly puts off his true self when he puts on the robe. … "Religion", says Marx "is the opium of the people". But Marx was speaking from a political standpoint. Both Engels and Karl Marx had articulated the philosophical scientific world-outlook ideology for an effective indoctrination of proletarians in their struggle against the bourgeoisie. Marxist-Leninist rejection of religion is therefore primarily for political reasons. Karl Marx, together with his friend and associate Engels were great political-economy scientists and philosophers; their philosophical base was dialectical materialism and historical materialism. Their anti-religion philosophy was not for religious reasons, but for the immoral, oppressive, unjust and the hypocritical use to which its bourgeois adherents manipulated religion. They had been born in a religious Christian community, in Germany. Engels, born in 1820 in Barmen came from a wealthy family of cotton-spinners deeply religious and conservative. Growing up in one of the biggest Rhenish industrial centres, Engels saw the hopeless poverty of the working man. To survive factory competition, craftsmen and artisans laboured from dawn to dusk, many seeking comfort in schnapps. … Pietism, the most fanatical of Lutheran trends, had strong roots in this part of Prussia: its exponents were intolerant and narrow-minded, branding as "evil" all non-religious literature. … The antithesis to laws and legal systems predicated on the values of the jurisprudence of the Living Oracles are the cruel laws like those of apartheid, anti-Semitic, slavery and similar inhuman laws. All through history, unjust, and 'ungodly' laws and systems have invariably consumed their protagonists and advocates. The fiery social, economic and political revolutions that spread through Europe from the 17th century to the early part of the 20th century, in which monarchs were beheaded, parliaments sacked, kingdoms overthrown from within and without had one common denominator - oppression through harsh and unjust laws!!! … The authority of the Heavens or, in other words, the jurisdiction of Heavens over the earth is total and binding. Successive generations and individuals are merely agents of primordial events in the cycle: historical and contemporary events, mysteries and some developments have constantly proved this. Our space age has got used to the idea of a universe 'out there' and to the possibility of exploring it from earth. Is it the place 'out there' the Bible means by 'heaven'? Not really. … Chairman Malik was among those in the minority favouring a reference to God, but in accordance with secular sentiment in the modern world, "God" was excluded from the final text. …