Civil Disobedience

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Can we say that the sit-in in Cambridge is a form of Civil Disobedience?

I have learnt today from a sister that civil disobedience comes with the voluntary submission to the arrest and punishment by the authority, see here. Such is the nobility of a civil disobedience. But if the students demands that the University should not punish them for being disobedient to the authority, the sit-in has lost its nobility.

As students of this University, we signed the Matriculation Registration Form which reads:

"I promise to observe the Statutes and Ordinances of the University as far as they concern me, and to pay due respect and obedience to the Chancellor and other officers of the University"

Hence, the University's General Regulations No. 3 reads:

"No member of the University shall intentionally occupy or use any property of the University or of any College except as may be expressly or by implication authorized by the University or College authorities concerned."

For a student to break a contract after a signature has been put in, automatically, s/he will face the disciplinary procedure. For a muslim to break a covenant, it is as if s/he lower oneself to the status of a hypocrite because the Prophet Muhammad (saw) said:"There are three signs of a htpocrite: whenever he speaks, he lies; whenever he makes a promise, he breaks it; and whenever he is trusted, he betrayed his trust." (Agreed upon).

I do not mean to accuse anyone of being a hypocrite, I just despise the act of breaking a promise. Fair enough, some of them may have forgotten that they have signed the contract with the university on their first day because of the excitement in getting into the university. But, often we forget about all these regulations and rules, we do not try to understand them and find ways to achieve our goals through legal channels by manipulating the regulations so that it favours our side. We lose our intellect and coolness in handling the current situation because of our incompetence in reading, understanding and manipulating these regulation and working our way up the bureaucratic ladder to dialogue with the authority in a diplomatic way.

If we failed in achieving our goal by following the regulations or correct interpretation of civil disobedience, we still can walk away with dignity and inshaALLAH the effort that we put in will gain pleasure and blessing from ALLAH.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.