True Purpose of Islam in America
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
“What is the True Purpose of Islam?” This was a question put to me by Tim Kelley, author of the book, True Purpose, and a consultant to some of the largest corporations in the US and the Middle East.
I met Tim recently at an international conference in Salt Lake City. I found him to be a man of keen intellect with a novel approach to understanding the emotive issues facing organizations and social groups. We followed up our initial contact with a lunch in Berkeley, CA. The conversation was free flowing and it soon settled down to a discussion about ISIS and the rise of extremism as a global phenomenon.
“ISIS is an aberration”, I said to him, “it represents what Islam is not. Every scholar that I know of has spoken out against ISIS”.
“It is easy to condemn”, Tim responded. “Your scholars are not speaking up for what Islam is. Either they do not know or they do not understand America. What is the True Purpose of the Muslim presence in America?”
What indeed is the True Purpose of Islam? I posed this question informally to a gathering of educated Muslims. There were as many opinions as there were people who spoke up. “It is the five pillars of Islam”, one said. “It is dawah”, said another. “It is simply an economic necessity”, said a third. There was no consensus. Indeed, most Muslims are startled by the question, as if it is an affront to their sensibility and their self-righteous understanding (or misunderstanding) of their faith.
The question must be examined in the context of rising Islamophobia in Europe and America. A majority of Americans have a negative view of Islam. The American presidential election witnessed an unprecedented barrage of Islam bashing. Political correctness was one of the casualties of this election. Hate speech that was hitherto under the rug is now out in the open. It affects a broad spectrum of minorities, the Hispanics, African Americans, the LBGT community and others. Muslims, as the weakest social group, are a particular target.
A definition of Islamophobia must now include not just the fear of Muslims by (some) non-Muslims but the fear of (some) non-Muslims by (most) Muslims. Generalizations are facile and a broad statement like this needs qualification. There are a sizable number of people who are opposed to this madness of Islamophobia and are willing to stand up for Muslims as well as all other disadvantaged groups.
The America social milieu is more like a tossed salad than a melting pot of nations. It is more like a layered cake with discernable segments. A researcher can cut this cake vertically along economic strata or horizontally along racial and ethnic lines. Similarly, the American Muslim community is diverse and reflects the diversity of America. Roughly a tenth are of European origin. A quarter are African American. About a third are South Asians from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. About twenty percent are from Arabic speaking countries. Packaged solutions do not convey the consensus of this diverse group.
We live in challenging times. These are times that in historical retrospect mark a pronounced bend in the flow of human civilization. Globalization has exacerbated the disparities between haves and have nots. There are more billionaires today than at any time in history. And there is more destitution at the other end of the spectrum. Secondly, technology moves at the speed of light. Fewer and fewer knowledge workers perform the work that was done by millions in bygone years. Third, there is an inexorable and historical shift of economic and power away from Europe and America to Asia. The uncertainties of this convulsive caldron fosters fears and xenophobia among those who perceive that power is slipping away from them. Islam and Muslims come out at the bottom of the heap in these shifting sands of time.
While the destructions wrought by foreign invasions in lands as far away as Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have played their part, the Muslims themselves must take some responsibility for their failure to project a clear vision of Islam in these changing times. The privileged Muslim community in America, which has enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity for half a century, must bear a special responsibility. In retrospect, this was the time to articulate an inclusive, compassionate, global vision of Islam which is at peace with the other major faiths of the world and an enabler of a just and progressive world order. Instead, an exclusive vision of Islam was projected, propelled by petro-dollars and championed by parochial interests in the Middle East. The American Muslim community did nothing while this parochialism took roots and Islam itself took on the mask of an Arabized culture. A great religion that was the projection of the heavens on earth was reduced to unending debates about a tuft of hair on the chin or a piece of cloth on the head.
What then is the “True Purpose” of Islam? More specifically, what is the “True Purpose” of Islam in America?
History is a good teacher. It offers lessons but it does not provide answers. History does not repeat itself; it only offers distant echoes, modulated by the convulsions of time. God reveals His grace in ever changing ways; no moment is like any other moment. Man is provided the wherewithal to confront the onward march of time but he must discover his tryst through his own efforts.
Asked to define the true purpose for human creation, the Qur’an offers this guidance: “Ma KhalaqtulJinnaWalIns Illa Le Yabudoon.”(I created not beings of fire and beings of clay except to serve (worship) Me”). A Hadees e Qudsi states: “I was an unknown treasure. I willed that I be known. Therefore, I created”. Thus at the basic and universal level, the Qur’an defines the true purpose of human creation as knowledge, service and worship.
In the grand panorama of human struggle on earth to live up the divine mandate, one discerns the attainment of majestic peaks as well as deep and frightening gorges. Man toils. Sometimes he succeeds; at other times he flounders and falls. The Qur’an acknowledges this struggle: “You are toiling, O humankind! Toiling hard. Therefore, you shall soon meet Him” When humankind falters, divine grace intervenes and guides him anew. Hence the appearance of prophets, reformers and great men of wisdom through the ages. Their appearance marks discernible milestones on the onward march of human civilization.
Islam, as divine guidance, is a benchmark in this eternal saga of unfolding Divine grace. The Qur’an further clarifies the True Purpose of Muslims as a community that subscribes to Islam: “You are the noble spiritual community brought forth from humankind, enjoining what is most noble and forbidding what is evil”. The Qur’an further clarifies how to establish frameworks for the implementation of these guidelines in diverse frameworks: “God commands you justice and Ehsan and forbids what is obscene and that which is forbidden.”
The True Purpose of Islam is clear from the guidance of the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet. For the individual, it is knowledge, service and worship. For a community, it is faith, justice and beautiful works (Ehsan).
America offers a unique and historic opportunity for the implementation of this True Purpose which is to know, serve and worship God in a framework of justice and noble deeds. We are living through extraordinary times which test the mettle of civilizations. The response to the challenge of Islamophobia is neither excessive gloom nor a total denial of the growing storms on the horizon. The correct response is to make a realistic assessment of the challenges, take appropriate legal measures for the protection of individual rights as guaranteed by the Constitution, and use the historic challenges as an occasion to articulate a noble, loving, inclusive, compassionate vision of Islam that is at peace with itself and is an enabler of a just and beautiful order for all faiths and all the peoples of the world. In this grand endeavor, Muslims must reach out and respectfully engage “the other” and form coalitions of true purpose with like-minded people from all across the spectrum of cultures, faiths, races, creeds, orientations and political opinions.
The True Purpose of Islam in America is to know, serve and worship Him in a paradigm of justice and beauty. The enemy of this True Purpose is not ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Shabab or the Taliban. They are passing shadows on the sands of time. The real enemy is extremism and radicalization.
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