A
Bright Light of Islam
By Kaleem Kawaja
Washington, DC
Without doubt Imam Rohullah Khomeini
of Iran was one of the brightest lights of Islam
in the last one hundred years. Among other things
it was he who slowed down the rapid spread of
the cultural and psychological domination of the
West among Muslims restoring, in the process,
their self-respect across the globe. To quote
an editorial of the Washington Post following
his death in 1989: “Khomeini taught us a
few unpleasant lessons too. One is that the rigid
right-left pattern that we superimpose on the
politics of every country we behold around the
world, does not fit some of them at all. Another
lesson is that there are some political figures
who stand well outside the reach of blandishments
and pressures we have come to believe the leaders
of all systems, however inimical to us, will respond
to.”
Following the demise of the Ottoman empire in
the early twentieth century and the repeated humiliation
of Muslim armies in wars with Israel in the mid-twentieth
century, the Islamic model was on a universal
decline. The Western model was considered the
only one relevant for progress. Many Muslims started
having serious doubts in the Islamic model as
a hope for the future, even though they considered
it a good religious faith. It was Khomeini who
implored Muslims to reflect on the progressive
nature of Islam and have faith in its re-emergence
as a force of the future. He explained to them
that the Islamic ideal is as compatible with science,
technology, modernization and democracy as the
Western model. He persuaded them to stop blindly
following the Western system. He also demonstrated
the hollowness of Communism.
At first the outside world perceived Khomeini
to be either a zealot or an ascetic. About a year
after he assumed power in Iran it was widely believed
that soon either the Communists or the military
will push him and the clerics aside. For a man
who had spent the last fifty years studying and
teaching Islamic theology, Khomeini turned out
to be a shrewd, skilled and determined politician.
First he neutralized the Western elements of the
Iranian army, replacing them with nationalists.
Next, he persuaded the army to eliminate the God-less
Communists.
In about four years the Islamic revolution gained
complete control over Iran. The vast majority
of Iranians returned to the Islamic way of life.
People who talk of the violence that occurred
in the first year of the Islamic Revolution in
Iran, need to look at the French revolution, the
Russian Bolshevic Revolution and the Chinese Revolution
et al. A revolution that completely changes the
direction of a society and has a vast number of
enemies is not a Sunday picnic.
However, Khomeni was not infallible. Prolonging
the Iran-Iraq war after Iraq was convincingly
defeated and taking the US embassy personnel hostages
in Iran and holding them for over a year were
some serious mistakes that unnecessarily generated
hostility for Iran’s Islamic Revolution
in the West.
But Khomeni could be credited with significant
achievements in the remarkably short span of ten
years that he was in power in Iran. Muslims in
Russia, China, Britain, France, North America,
Australia and African counties began to feel proud
of their Islamic heritage and demonstrated renewed
faith in the Islamic philosophy. After almost
a hundred years, Western writers, intellectuals
and leaders started paying serious attention to
Islam.
Khomeni achieved this universal acceptance of
Islam not by rhetoric but by the actual practice
of Islam’s progressive and egalitarian teachings.
A few years after coming to power, he organized
the elections of the Iranian parliament, which
became a true governing body where all affairs
of the state and policies were discussed publicly.
The Friday prayers became another forum of public
discourse on the policies of the state.
Despite his great popularity in Iran, he refused
to rule and preferred to remain a guide for the
government. He steadfastly refused to allow any
member of his family to either join the government
or the ruling clerics in a dominating role. He
allowed equal opportunities to women to take part
in Iran’s political and social life, encouraging
them to speak out on issues. He especially asked
the men in power to honor Islam’s concept
of equality of genders.
Finally, in an act of statesmanship, he ordered
the constitution of Iran, which he had himself
prepared, to be reformed to allow a multiparty
system and reduce the influence of the clergy.
He even proclaimed that the leader of the nation
should be well versed in politics, economics,
jurisprudence and theology and not just be a senior
cleric. Yet, he refused to name a successor and
asked his followers to choose one from among them.
Khomeini was a sort of Pope, a real leader that
Muslims had not seen for a very long time. Like
Lenin, he represented something that would go
very far and would have a very wide impact on
the whole world.
He had a clear vision of the Islamic ideal and
what it could do for the dispossessed.
(The writer is a community activist. He can be
reached at: kaleemkawaja@hotmail.com)
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