Defining Islam
in America - Part I
By Professor Nazeer
Ahmed
CA
Great civilizations renew themselves when faced
with challenges. They grow with adversity while
lesser ones recoil under pressure and disappear.
Islam is a great civilization. It has successfully
withstood the tests of history for fourteen hundred
years since the Prophet. It has renewed itself
with every crisis, and has moved forward opening
up new possibilities for the attainment of its
divine destiny.
There are six million Muslims in America today.
Roughly a third of these were born here; the others
migrated from all corners of the globe, from lands
as diverse as Nigeria and Pakistan, and have become
a part of this melting pot. Most came looking
for opportunity. Some arrived running from the
heavy hand of tyranny in their native lands.
Whether one was born here or came from distant
shores, in the post-9/11 climate, there are grave
concerns in the community. What is the future
of Islam in America in the 21st century? How will
it be molded by the historical forces currently
at work? What is our vision for the future of
Islam in America?
These are broad questions. And the answers to
these questions will have a profound impact on
the destiny of Muslims around the globe, indeed
on the destiny of man. In this series of articles,
we will examine the competing forces molding the
shape of Islam in contemporary America and will
offer a vision for the future of Islam here.
Civilizations are sustained by an underlying spiritual
matrix which provides the energy for their renewal.
Out of this ocean of spirituality emerge the transcendental
ideas that bind a people and provide the momentum
of their historical endeavors.
Man is first spirit. It is not the body that contains
the spirit. It is the spirit that surrounds the
body inside and out. The spirit is the source
of life, knowledge and power. The physical is
only an intersection with the spirit in time and
space. The body decays and dies, but the spirit
endures.
History is anchored in the ocean of spirituality.
It makes itself known through human effort in
the dynamics of time. Islamic history is no exception.
What is unchanging is the divine writ. It is timeless,
eternal. It makes itself known at every moment
and in every place through perceptible Signs in
nature, in human history and in the very souls
of men and women.
The source for Islamic spirituality is the consciousness
of divine presence. It is seeing with the inner
eye that God is the Light of the heavens and the
earth. It is searching for divine Signs in the
panorama of nature, in the matrix of human societies
and on the canvas of history.
Then there is the moving principle of history.
It is the struggle of man to apply the eternal,
unchanging principles in time and space. This
effort cannot be the same at all times and in
all places. The application of eternal principles
must meet the challenges of the place and the
times. The superstructure of an Islamic life cannot
be the same in America as it is in Egypt or Pakistan.
It requires a strenuous, unceasing struggle from
each society to apply the unchanging principles
in their own specific social, cultural and political
environment.
Spirituality is the antidote to the virus of materialism.
The biggest virus threatening the world today
is not bird flu. It is the virus of excessive
materialism driven by aggressive greed and shameful
corruption.
There is a rich tradition of spirituality in Islam
going back to the Prophet. It pervades Islamic
civilization.
When the world of Islam faced near extinction
in the thirteenth century, it was the spirituality
of Islam that saved the day. It was a century
when the drums of war beat across the entire Eurasian
continent and the Mongol invasions destroyed Central
Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria
and Eastern Anatolia. Great cities like Samarqand,
Bokhara, Merv, Ghazna, and Shiraz were obliterated.
Baghdad burned and its houses of learning destroyed.
In its gravest hour, it was the spirituality of
great sages like Mevlana Rumi of Konya, Shaikh
Abdel Qader Jeelani of Baghdad, Shaikh Shadhuli
of Cairo and Khwaja Moeenuddin Chishti of Ajmer
that provided a refuge for Islam. Not only did
their spirituality conquer the conquerors but
it took the message of Islam deep into India,
Indonesia, Africa and Europe.
Today, we face a different kind of challenge.
Our spirituality is under attack both from within
and from without. From without, there are those
who have made a caricature of Islam seeking to
marginalize it as a religion of extremists. Books
such as the Clash of Civilizations have become
best sellers. Their attempt is to isolate the
Islamic community, foster a sense of fear among
Muslims and derail the process of renewal.
These external attempts will not succeed. There
is more interdependence and cooperation among
nations today than there ever was in human history.
There are multiple nodes where civilizations interact
and nourish each other. And Muslim nations, despite
boycotts, threats and the use of force are a part
of this interconnected world.
Of graver concern are the attacks from within.
There is a fringe element among Muslims which
seeks to rob Islam of its spirituality and reduce
it to a set of rituals. Ancient monuments are
destroyed, living culture is ridiculed, literature,
art and music are dying, and an edifice built
over a thousand years by the loving hands of our
forefathers is demolished under the pretext that
it was innovation. A transcendental faith is reduced
to a set of do’s and don’ts, making
it a structure without spiritual supports, a body
without soul. Into this vacuum walks in materialism,
enslaving the body and mind alike, and reducing
man to his basal self. No wonder our children
are confused and adults are baffled.
It is tragic that we have scuttled our spirituality
and reduced our faith to a set of do’s and
don’ts, snapped our strings to tradition
and history, shunted ourselves from art, music
and culture and have created an edifice without
substance, a structure without spiritual supports,
like a sapless tree, making ourselves vulnerable
to a frontal assault from the forces of materialism.
We have surrendered the high plateau of spirituality
to other traditions while we exhaust ourselves
in circular debates about minutia and are bogged
down with issues of no consequence.
From spirituality springs ethics, the criteria
for what is good and what is bad. It is the mold
that shapes akhlaq (good character). It is the
basis of virtuous politics and sound economics.
It is the material for building bridges to other
faiths. It is the source of love.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Where there is a vacuum,
external influences rush in. Where there is no
spirituality, extremism creeps in.
Political and cultural issues demand our attention.
The world of Islam is burning at the fringes with
no fire engine in sight. The global sway of materialism
has obliterated old cultures, made languages extinct,
displaced music and poetry alike. National economies
have become subservient to globalization. The
reach of capital extends not just to raw materials
but to labor and means of production. Muslim lands
are no exception to this onslaught.
There are personal and societal issues concerning
the application of the Shariah in a secular structure.
There is need to accommodate science and technology
in a conceptual spiritual framework. There are
questions surrounding education and economics.
Personal and familial issues of marriage, divorce,
inheritance have to be balanced against the societal
demands for conformance and conformity. And there
is a need to build bridges across faiths in a
pluralistic society. Our vision for Islam in America
must be all-embracing and must address all of
these issues.
The foundation of Islam in America must be universal
spirituality that transcends the rituals and binds
all humankind into a shared brotherhood.
Fortunately, in our quest, we stand on the shoulders
of giants. Our attempt to define Islam in America
will draw heavily from the Turkish and Indo-Pakistani
experience. Of special interest to us are the
works of the Turkish poet Zia and our own Allama
Iqbal. Both of these sages drew their inspiration
from the spirituality of Islam. Zia was a primary
inspiration of the transformation of Turkey from
the Ottoman Empire to a Republic. The ijtihad
of Iqbal led him in the direction of a separate
legislature for Muslims of British India and ultimately
to the creation of Pakistan.
We will start our search at the same place that
Zia and Iqbal did, namely the spirituality of
Islam. But our answers cannot be the same. America
offers a different milieu and the challenges here
are different from those faced either by early
nineteenth century Turkey or mid-twentieth century
subcontinent. Zia’s intellectual pursuits
contributed to the secularization of Turkey. The
intellect of Iqbal led him in the direction of
a separate legislature for Muslims. By contrast,
as we shall see, our American quest will take
us in the direction of a spiritual democracy which
works within the paradigm of a democratic Republic.
(To be continued)
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