Defining Islam
in America - 2
By Professor Nazeer
Ahmed
CA
Summary of part 2: Notwithstanding
the current hostile climate in the United States,
Islam in America has the freedom to transcend
the physical dimensions of color, language, origin,
nationality, and culture and construct a social
edifice that reflects the universal spiritual
dimension of man. It is a historical opportunity,
not available in Islamic history since the earliest
years of Islam.
Islam embraces the social, cultural, legal, political,
psychological and spiritual dimensions of man.
It is a composite rainbow of many colors. When
it is illuminated in time and space, one hue or
the other becomes radiant. The others are obscured.
As one scans the fourteen centuries of Islamic
history, one can find the accentuation of one
aspect or the other in different periods. The
Islam of the Companions was an integrated whole
reflecting the lessons they had learned from the
great Master. Then, as Islam spread and found
a home in Persia and Egypt during the late Umayyad
and early Abbasid periods, the various schools
of fiqh were founded and the legal dimension of
Islam was consolidated. In the eighth and ninth
centuries, there was a brief flirtation with speculative
philosophies when the Mu’tazalites found
favor in the Abbasid courts. The repudiation of
the Mu’tazalites in the ninth century gave
birth to the golden age of science and civilization.
It lasted until the Mongol onslaughts of the thirteenth
century. When Baghdad fell to Hulagu Khan (1258)
the curtain fell on the classical age and there
began the age of tasawwuf which found a welcome
home in India, the Archipelago, Africa and parts
of Europe. The pendulum swung towards jurisprudence
in the seventeenth century and this period lasts
until to this day.
The current anti-Islamic climate opens up vast
opportunities for creative applications of Islam
in the West. Islam in America cannot be the same
as it is in Indonesia or Saudi Arabia. It will
have its own modalities, its own culture, its
own taste and flavor.
It is the like the ocean and the waves. The ocean
contains all the waves. But not all waves are
alike. Some are high and mighty, and some are
gentle and frolicking. Each one manifests the
forces that it is specifically subjected to. But
each one is different in character.
A great religion is like a mighty ocean. It throws
up historical currents commensurate with the forces
acting upon a specific location and at a specific
time.
It was Ibn Khaldun, the father of historical sociology,
who first proposed a theory for the rise and fall
of civilizations based on asabiyah. In his view
civilizations are held together by forces of racial
and tribal cohesion (asabiyah). When these forces
are strong, as they are among the nomads, civilization
moves forward. When they are weak, as happens
when the nomads settle in cities and are softened
by the pleasures of city life, civilization withers.
This theory breaks down when applied to Islamic
civilization. Islam is against asabiyah. It discourages
associations based on race, color or origin pointing
out that God made mankind into groups only so
that they may know each other and celebrate their
differences rather than fight over them.
I have proposed, in my published books on Islamic
history, an alternate theory for the rise and
fall of civilizations based on internal renewal.
When faced with challenges, a great civilization,
such as Islam, has the innate capacity to renew
itself. Lesser civilizations recoil and perish.
The source for Islamic renewal is its spirituality.
It is embodied in the Qur’an and the example
of the Prophet. It asserts the transparency of
the physical but it emphasizes its utility as
a sign for divine Reality. This spirituality is
embodied in the Shahada. It is the mighty ocean
that generates wave upon wave of fresh ideas that
bring throw up in their wake the gems of renewal
upon the sands of time.
Age after age Islam has renewed itself. Such was
the case when the doctors of law codified the
schools of fiqh in the seventh century. Such was
the case when the empirical method flourished
in the age of science. Such was the case when
the awliya saved the day from the Mongol devastations.
And such was the case when Islam went through
a reformation in the seventeenth century and was
thrust back to its jurisprudence roots.
The Muslim presence in the West calls for fresh
thinking. The solutions that were developed in
Pakistan or Egypt in the previous centuries may
not apply here.
Man is first spirit. It surrounds the physical
inside and out. The physical is subject to the
vicissitudes of time. The spiritual endures. The
function of religion is to realize the spiritual
essence of man in the matrix of the physical world.
For religion to arrive at this station, it must
transcend the ritual and find the spiritual source
that feeds the rituals. Islam is first and foremost
a religion of the spirit. It asserts that the
purpose of man’s creation is to serve and
worship the divine. The social and political struggles
of Muslims must never lose sight of this transcendental
goal.
In spite of the current difficulties, America
offers a unique opportunity to realize the spiritual
potential of Islam. By necessity the Muslim presence
in America transcends physical differences. In
this land, the physical differences that separate
people from one another fade away. It is a melting
pot of nations and tribes. Islam in Pakistan has
a Pakistani flavor. In Egypt, it has an Egyptian
flavor. In Nigeria, it is Nigerian. In America,
where Pakistanis, Egyptians and Nigerians come
together in a common land facing a common destiny,
differences of race, language and tribe melt and
fade away. Out of this fusion springs a universal
Islamic personality transcending parochial loyalties
to race, color, language, tribe or national origin.
The opportunity that America offers would be a
dream come true for the reformers of the past
who struggled to find a universal Islamic personality
that transcended local differences.
As an illustration, we cite here the evolution
in thinking of one of the most celebrated thinkers
of the twentieth century, Mohammed Iqbal. In his
Reconstruction of Islamic Thought Iqbal started
with the premise that man is first spirit. But
during the elaboration of this premise, he stayed
within the traditional mold and confined the development
of Islamic civilization to the development of
Islamic law. He asserted that the principle of
movement in the structure of Islam was Ijtihad,
namely a vigorous struggle to apply Islamic law
to social and political issues. From this premise
he went on to assert, as had the Turkish poet
Zia, that ijtihad was not just the privilege of
an individual but the right of an elected legislative
assembly. As Muslims in British India were a minority,
he questioned how a non-Muslim assembly could
engage in ijtihad. Hence he proposed an autonomous
region in the North Western portion of British
India where the Muslims could exercise their collective
ijtihad. This line of thinking provided the ideological
foundation to the concept of Pakistan.
Two of Iqbal’s premises need reexamination.
The first one, namely that it is ijtihad that
is the moving principle of structure in Islam,
is only an assertion. While ijtihad as applied
to the Shariah is indeed one of the movers of
Islamic history, it by no means is the only one.
It is tantamount to asserting that the engine
that propels Islamic civilization runs on only
one cylinder.
Divine compassion has provided multiple engines
for the growth of civilization. Civilization is
a vehicle that fires on several cylinders all
at once. These include Adl (justice) and Ehsan
in addition to ijtihad in the domain of fiqh.
The second premise, namely, that ijtihad may not
be exercised by a non-Muslim legislature would
close the doors to ijtihad in a non-Muslim society.
In an environment such as that of the United States,
it is the law of the land that governs. Ijtihad
in the domain of fiqh has only a limited scope
and may at best be applicable to personal matters
and consensual contractual relationships such
as marriage, divorce and business.
On the other hand, the scope for Adl and Ehsan
is infinite and embraces in its fold even a secular
structure such as that in America. It offers unlimited
opportunities for civilizational growth as well
as interaction with other civilizations.
We commend the Muslims in America to embrace a
framework of Ehsan and stand firm, together with
their fellow citizens, for justice for all. Ehsan
must be the basis of Islamic spirituality in America
and the means for reaching out to people of other
faiths, indeed people who may not have any faith.
The fruit of Ehsan is Akhlaq, sound character.
The most perfect example of Akhlaq is to be found
in the character of our Prophet Muhammed.
Let the Muslims of America be the architects of
their own history on the basis of Ehsan. Ehsan
ought to be the principle of movement of Islam
in North America and the basis of a spiritual
democracy. (To be continued)
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