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the Message Continues ... 5/97
Newsletter for September 2009
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Modern Islamic Polity
in the Making
Dr. Murad Wilfried Hofmann
This is Dr.
Hofmann's
presentation at
Islamic Research
Institute. IIU,
The Intellectual
Challenge to
Islamic
Civilization
The topic not
only deals with
future
challenges: it
is a challenge
in itself¬ in as
much as it makes
me act like a
prophet. In that
role. I submit,
any Muslim must
feel
uncomfortable,
given that Allah
Almighty
and He
alone
is
Master of all
events. So let
me say not only
at the end but
now: wa Allahu 'alam
It is risky
enough to make
guesses about
future
developments. It
is even more
risky if one
does so without
first looking at
the past.
Because if we
have anything on
which to base
projections, it
is history, its
patterns and
lessons.
Islamic History:
Patterns &
Lessons
There are indeed
several
deductions to be
made for our
theme from
Islamic history:
Thesis No. 1:
Islamic historv
has always had
intellectual
component
Allah in His
Book instructs
people to
observe. ponder,
think, reflect,
and use their
rational minds
in order to
understand the
world and their
position in it.
In fact, the
Qur'an is the
only so called
holy script
which makes such
an appeal.
Consequently,
from its
inception, Islam
has been a
rational
religion par
excellence. And
it was this
rational appeal
and the
intellectual
reasonableness
of its doctrine
which account
for the fast and
vast expansion
of Islam during
its first
century.
Thesis No. 2:
Islam from the
beginning
provided
intellectual
training
True, Islam is a
religion and not
a philosophy,
and our founding
father Muhammad
(Rasul Allah)
was not a
professor of
theology but a
messenger.
Nevertheless,
Islam from its
inception
demanded
intellectual
activities, at
first mainly in
form of
collecting,
scrutinizing,
and
systematizing
the Revelation
and the
prophetic
Tradition, the
Sunnah.
In this context,
it was Muslims
like Hasan al
Basri (d. 801),
Malik b. Anas,
Ibn lshaq, al
Bukhari (810
70), at Tabari
(839 923) and
their colleagues
who raised
historiography
and linguistics
to a level never
reached before
and
jurisprudence to
the highest
level reached
before, i.e.
Roman Law.
Thesis No. 3:
Islam
Intellectual
leader for half
millenium
The story of the
development of
Islamic
civilization in
Thesis No. 4:
Islamic
orthodoxy was
not
un-intellectual
It would be a
mistake to see
things
differently by
claiming that
people like lbn
Hanbal (780
855), al Ash'ari,
Ibn Hazm or Ibn
Taymiyya
(1262¬1327) had
been anti
intellectual for
being orthodox.
This would be
tantamount to
calling Kant
(1724 1804) or
Wittgenstein
(1889 1951)
anti¬-rationalists
for denying the
possibility of
metaphysics.
Yes. Ibn Hanbal
tried to protect
Muslim doctrine
frm Greek
philosophy and
al Ash'ari
through his
radical critic
of epistemology
denied the
feasibility of
metaphysical
deductions. Yes.
Ibn Hazm
rejected qiyas
as a method for
extending Qur'
anic norms and
tafsir for
better
understanding
ambivalent
verses of the
Qur'an. And,
yes, lbn
Taymiyya
condemned that
Neo Platonism
and Gnosticism
had gained a
foothold within
Islam via sufi
circles. But
each of them
based his
position on
plainly
intellectual
analyses. Like
al Ghazali (1058
1111) before
them, they had
thoroughly
studied their
adversaries in
order better to
fight them.
Thesis No. 5:
Intellectualism
means Pluralism
Islam was born
into a
thoroughly
intolerant
political and
cultural
environment as
demonstrated by
the feuds
between
Within Islamic
jurisprudence,
half a dozen
schools of law (madhahib)
not only
developed
regionally but,
as in Makkah,
taught
simultaneously
an
intellectual
feat unknown to
any other system
of law before or
after.
In fact, Western
orientalists are
wrong when
insinuating that
Islam ever was
monolithic in
terms of space
or static in
terms of time.
Except for
tauhid and the
finality of the
prophethood of
Muhammad (rasul
Allah) almost
everything,
including the
modalities of
the other four
pillars of
faith, were open
to discussion.
The notion of
taqild
in and by
itself not at
all irrational
did a lot
of damage
through stifling
innovation even
beyond the
realms of al 'aqida,
'ibada and
mu'amalat. But
even during the
reign of taqild
the Muslim world
never fully
stopped
developing
intellectually,
also outside the
Shi'a, as proven
by people like
Ibn 'Arabi (1165
1240), al
Sirhindi (1564
1624), Shah
Waliullah
(1703¬62), and
Muhammad ibn 'Abd
al Wahhab (1703
87).
In philosophy,
intellectual
battles were
fierce, so
fierce that it
would lead to
libel and
slander suits in
criminal court
today. Just read
the devastating
critique of
philosophy by al
Ghazali (Tahafut
al Falsafiya)
and the equally
opinionated
reply by lbn
Rushd [1126 98 (Tahafut
al Tahafut)].
How refreshing!
And how
reassuring that
diversity of
opinion, as our
Prophet (rasul
Allah) put it,
can be a
blessing.
Needless to say
that Ibn Rushd
if he
lived and
republished his
views today
would
probably be
killed in the
name of Allah by
some
contemporary
Muslim fanatic.
Thesis No. 6:
Lack of
Pluralism means
decadence
I would be
dishonest if I
denied that
Islam has not
always been
pluralistic. The
conflicts
between A'isha
(614 78) and Ali
(598 661).
Mu'awiyya (d.
680) and Ali,
Ali and the
Kharijiyya were
not only intense
but bloody. So
were the
conflicts
between Umayades
(661 750) and
Abbasides
(749¬1258), the
Mu'tazila and
Ah'ariyya, Sunni
Muslims on one
side and Shi'i.
Abadi and Alawi
Muslims on the
other side, not
to forget the
bloody
suppression of
sufi extremism
as to the case
of al Hallaj.
It is clear,
however. that
these attempts
at making Islam
monolithic
resulted not
only in
destroying much
of its
intellectual
pluralism but
ushered in a
phase of
decadence of
which we have
been awaking
only recently.
Surely, Muslim
decadence was
the result of
several
contributing
causes,
including the
cultural
devastation
wrought by the
Mongol onslaught
and the Catholic
Reconquista in
Spain. Political
and economic
insecurity
virtually drove
Muslims
underground
intellectually:
They privatized
their religion,
popularized it,
and made it
rigid in the
most marginal
details.
This way, by
going into
hiding Islam
managed to
survive both
Western and
Soviet
colonization,
even in Albania,
Algeria,
Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan,
Chechenia, the
Kosovo and
China. This is
the good news.
The bad news is
that in this
defensive mode
Islam became
politically
irrelevant and
in its over
legalization
almost Talmudic.
In the process,
sufism, too. had
degenerated into
a folksy sort of
Islam whose
ritualism had
even ritualized
its original
spiritualism.
Another
contributing
factor to
Islamic
decadence
certainly had
been political:
The suppression
of religious
critique by
despotic rulers.
and despotism
became and
remained the
rule in the
Islamic world.
By developing
their own
administrative
penal law (at
taz’ir) rulers
emancipated
themselves not
only from their
Ulama but from
the Shari'a
itself.
Censorship
turned into
dependency until
finally, in the
20`" century the
Ulama were
rejected by the
young when they
started
organizing in
Islamic
Movements. To
conclude: There
is a rich
heritage on
which to draw
for rekindling
Islamic
intellectualism
in the 21"
century.
Hallmarks of the
Present Age
This being the
past what is the
present? The
contemporary
world for the
first time ever
has been
culturally
colonized by one
single
civilization
the
Occidental one.
At its origin
European,
reinforced as
the American Way
of Life, it is
Occidental
thought,
Occidental
technology,
Occidental
products and
mores. which
dominate the
globe. This
process has been
under way since
the late
Renaissance and
found its
intellectual
bearings in the
European
Enlightenment,
also known as
Project
Modernity.
In the process,
the world has
come to use one
single language
globally, namely
English. Neither
Greek nor Latin
nor Arabic ever
came close to
that feat.
All this would
not be peculiar,
except for its
scope since
superior
civilizations
always spread
automatically,
just as water is
running
downhill. What
is peculiar,
devastatingly
so, is the
Occidental
ideology, that
is being
globalized today
as well: The
first ideology
ever entirely
based on
atheistic
assumptions.
Kant's critic of
metaphysics and
his dismantling
of the proofs of
God. Marx's
defamation of
religion as
"opium for the
people" and the
ruthless Social
Darwinism
propagated by
Nietzsche are
now common
currency
as has
been terribly
proven by
Occidental
disasters:
WWI,
Stalinism, the
Holocaust, WWII
with Dresden and
Hiroshima.
Maoism and
ethnic
cleansing,
The modern scene
is however also
characterized by
the:
[a] post
Newtonian
physics ushered
in by Planck
(1858¬-1947),
Einstein (1879
(955), Hahn
(1879 1968) and
Heisenberg (1901
76)
[b] new
mathematics,
ushered in by
Frege (1848
1925)
[c] new micro
biology and
medicine and
[d] new
communications
technology
Bill
Gates gadgets
The 21st Century
& Islam
This being
today's
environment. and
the past already
described, what
may we expect of
the future for
Islam?
Assumption No.
1: Islam to be
universal
Given the
communications
revolution,
Islam
always
meant to be
universal
will de
facto become
universal in the
21" century.
Muslim
intellectuals
have already
invaded the
Internet.
Assumption No.
2: Wide Acclaim
for English as
Da'wah Language
If this does not
seem a
convincing
argument, read
any issue of The
Muslim World
Book Review or
ask world
renowned Muslim
scholars why
they publish
Islamic studies
in English.
Assumption No.
3: Muslim
scholarship will
move west
Clearly,
scientists will
seek an academic
environment
conducive for
their research.
That gives an
enormous
advantage to
places where
academic freedom
is guaranteed
and nobody will
be persecuted
for unwelcome
views put into
print. There has
been already an
exodus of'
qualified
Muslims
scientists to
Europe, the
United States
and Canada. Let
me mention only
people like
Prof. Muhammad
Hamidullah,
Fazlur Rahman.
Muhammad Asad,
Fathi `Uthman,
Taha Jabir al `Alwani
(8th Century) or
Rashid al
Ghannouchi.
It is no
surprise that
the first Nobel
Prize in natural
sciences, in
1999, conferred
on a Sunni
Muslim was given
to an Egyptian
working both, in
Germany and the
United States.
Assumption No.
4: Lay
intellectuals
will continue to
grow in
importance
The
corruptibility
of some Ulama
and their
marriage with
governments in
the past lead to
the prominence
of lay
reformers. Al
Afghani, Hassan
al¬-Banna,
Sayyid Qutb,
Muhammad Asad,
Muhammad Iqbal,
Abul
Ala al¬-Maududi,
Abbas Madani and
other leaders of
Islamic
Movements were
layman, that is,
not products of
traditional
Ulama training.
The head of the
Central Council
of Muslims in
Germany is a
medical doctor.
Medical doctors
are running
perhaps the
majority of
Islamic Centers
in America. The
head of CAIR is
a computer
engineer in
Santa Clara, the
head of the
Islamic
Information
Service in Los
Angeles a
Harvard trained
urologist. This
trend is bound
to grow
restoring to
Islam the old
ideal of a
religion free of
a professional
or even
sacramental
clergy and free
of an
institutionalized
church.
Assumption No.
5: The Muslims
will produce "occidentalists
In Madinah, the
Muslims
originally had
access to Jews,
and Christians
lived not far
away in Arabia.
Thus knowledge
about the other
monotheistic
religions was
locally
available.
Later this was
no longer so,
except in Spain
and Sicily, as
Occident and
Orient grew
apart. While the
Christians had
orientalists
ever since John
of Damascus (675
749) started to
defame Islam,
the Muslims
lacked Christian
specialists
until Christians
started to
convert to Islam
in large numbers
during the 20'h
century. This
provides a
unique chance
for Muslim
scholarship in
this field.
Assumption No.
6: Muslims will
tackle the
Sunnah issue
It is quite
obvious that the
Muslims don't
have a Qur'an
problem. But
they do have a
Sunnah problem.
Goldziher,
Margoliuth and
Schacht (1877
1970) were not
right in being
sweepingly
skeptical but
also not
entirely wrong
in asserting
that parts of
the body of
ahadith are
questionable.
Fazlur Rahman in
his Islamic
Methodology in
History may have
identified a
major cause for
this situation
by pointing out
that from the
time of al
Shafi'i (1211
82), the Muslims
felt obliged, no
matter how, to
project their
entire living
Sunnah back to
the Prophet.
At any rate,
equipped with
new methodology
for historical
critique,
including
computer based
linguistic
analysis, 21st
century Muslim
intellectuals
should be able
to reestablish
maximum
authenticity for
most of their
Sunnah.
Assumption No.
7: Once Sunnah
challenge is
met, Muslims
intellectuals
will come up
with convincing
models for an
Islamic State
and economy,
including the
protection of
human and
women's rights
Ever since
Muhammad (rasul
Allah) dictated
the
Constitutional
Treaty of the
Confederated
Republic of
Madinah, Muslims
rarely had to
make an
intellectual
effort in order
to cope with
issues of State
and government.
Al Mawardi and
Nizam al Mulk
(1018 92) are
cases in point.
Today's
intellectuals
face a different
challenge. They
can, but also
they must
develop from
scratch the
theoretical
bases of an
Islamic
"democracy,"
i.e. a State
which is neither
a theocracy in
the Shi'i sense
nor a monarchy
nor a community
without Shari'ah.
In doing so,
they must come
to grips with
the intellectual
challenge of
integrating the
Western notion
of human rights
into the
juridical
framework of
Islamic
jurisprudence.
Part of that
challenge
concerns the
task of
restoring to
Muslimat
worldwide their
Qur'anic rights,
last not least
through
reinterpreting
an Nisa: 3 and
34, and al
Baqara: 228.
Assumption No.
8: Muslim
intellectuals
will develop a
statute /or
Muslim dhimmi
The presence of
millions of
Muslims in non
Muslim countries
is a problem
never known
before in
Islamic history,
even after the
Catholic
reconquest of
Spain. Only
India under
British rule
experienced a
problem of this
magnitude.
These expatriate
Muslims need to
know how to
behave under a
foreign law as
far as issues of
marriage and
divorce,
inheritance and
burial, halal
slaughtering and
riba are
concerned. We
need nothing,
less than a
madhhab for
emigrant
Muslims.
Assumption No.
9:
Western
intellectual
Muslims hill
develop neat
methods of
da'wah.
For 200 years
the Muslim world
experienced the
consequences of
the Age of
Reason in
military,
industrial and
commercial
terms. without
understanding,
however, the
intellectual
background of
the Western
phenomena of
rationalism,
scientism, and
progressiveness
which made up
modernity.
Today, thanks
partly to
Colonialist
educational
efforts and
partly to Muslim
immigration into
the West, we
have a growing
number of Muslim
intellectuals
who can beat
Western ideology
its own ground,
by its own
rules.
This is perhaps
the greatest
challenge of
them all: To
dismantle the
fundamental
delusions of
Enlightenment
rationalism and
its
over¬confidence
in the
rationality,
maturity and
independence of
man. In other
words: To
dethrone
supposedly
sovereign man
and reinstall
faith in God in
full accordance
with the
foundational
assumptions of
modem philosophy
and science.
Muslim
intellectuals
must start from
Descartes, Kant,
Hume and Comte
without arriving
at Marx. Darwin,
Freud, and
Nietzsche.
Theirs is the
task of re
grounding faith
by pointing out
(i) the rational
stupidity of
atheism, (ii)
the ambivalence
of agnosticism,
and (iii) both
the probability
and plausibility
of the existence
of God and thus
the rationality
of faith.
Assumption No.
10: Muslim
intellectuals
will stop acting
apologetically
The process I am
describing will
necessarily
presuppose
and in
turn pro¬duce
Muslim
intellectuals
who are
assertive in
place of being
merely
apologetic. In
this respect,
Muslims of the
21st century are
really 200 years
away from their
Egyptian
brothers under
Napoleon (1769
1821) and 100
years away from
Muhammad Abduh's
(1849 1905)
apologetics.
Assumption No.
11: All Muslim
intellectuals
need is to he
intellectual
From what I said
one might assume
that Muslim
intellectuals
have a very
special role to
play. Well. they
do. But that
does not imply
that they must
all be Muslim
activists. Quite
the contrary.
For so long
Islam has been
associated with
poor, under
developed Third
World Countries
and with
unskilled labor
that our
religion is
considered as a
faith for the
less than
intelligent.
It is therefore
a major
contribution
towards the
expansion of
Islam if a
Muslim
intellectual
does no more
than to
demonstrate
quietly that one
can be a
successful
academic and
simultaneously a
convinced and
practicing
Muslim. Some of
the angry
reactions I
receive, and
other German
born Muslims, is
exactly due to
that syndrome:
How can one of
us, obviously
well educated
and not stupid,
opt for that
religion!
Assumption No.
12: Islam will
become the
dominant
religion of the
21st century
If my
assumptions are
correct, my last
assumption can
safely be to
predict that,
Allah willing,
thanks to the
impact of Muslim
intellectuals.
Islam may well
become the
dominant
religion of the
21st century, at
least in North
America, home of
the Note: The article was slightly edited for this website.
Khurram Murad Memorial Lectures
Modern Islamic Polity in the
Making
Dr.
Murad Wilfried Hofmann courtesy: Ali Abbas/CUII Group |
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