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The
September 11th attack on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon provoked people of all stripes and every faith (including
Muslims) to understand the nature of Islam: a religion of more
than a quarter of the world's population, in 52 countries stretching
from Morocco to Indonesia.
A
close examination clearly points towards an increasing gulf of
values, aspirations and achievements between the Islamic world
and the West. While the West has become a dominant force in all
economic, political and scientific fields, the Islamic world has
been left behind.
There was a time when Islamic nations were the center of art,
architecture, science and economic progress, while Christian Europe
was mired in the dark. Science, mathematics and philosophy in
medieval Europe were made possible by the contributions of brilliant
Muslim scholars such as Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn Sina (Avicenna).
The fundamental question is: what has happened to Islamic
civilization since then? Why has there been a precipitous decline
in its influence and prosperity, especially in the last few centuries?
Are there inherent weaknesses in Islam that cannot address modern-day
challenges? Or have Muslim rulers and administrators corrupted
the basic tenets of the Qur`an (the sacred scriptures of Islam,
revealed to Prophet Mohammad – peace be upon him – by Allah during
the 7th century) to impose their own repressive regimes,
causing a perpetual backwardness of their subjects?
Main
dilemma
Muslims
believe that every syllable of the Qur`an is Allah's word, and
therefore there is no room for change, discussion or reinterpretation.
This leads to a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, this is
a matter of pride for Muslims. As compared to various versions
of the Old and New Testament, there is one and only one version
of Qur`an in all corners of the world. On the other hand, this
rigidity provides no room for Muslims to find solutions to problems
of the modern world from any other source than the Qur`an (and
Hadith – traditions concerning the Prophet Mohammad's life and
utterances). Because Islam is not just a religion but a deen(or
'way of life'), Muslims are obliged to resort to the Qur`an for
the solution to all of their problems. Beyond the spiritual and
ritual aspects of life, Muslims believe that Qur`an (along with
Hadith) contain complete guidelines for day-to-day activities
for all time.
Do
not blame Islam!
With
the exception of a few scholars and academicians, Muslims are
not willing to even entertain a notion of any limitations in the
original message of Islam. After all, for a believer, every syllable
of the Qur`an is the absolute truth for all people, all time and
all places. There is no room for any deviation and compromise.
Whenever Islamic societies fall under criticism in modern
times, Muslims always assert "We must not blame Islam, but blame
Muslims for not practising Islam." The question remains as to
why are Muslims unable to follow Islamic principles as laid down
in Qur`an and Hadith? And more importantly, why do they become
offended and respond through violence when anyone challenges the
relevance of these principles? A majority of Christians, Jews,
Hindus, Buddhists and others are willing to tolerate criticism
and try to respond to skeptics through dialogue. Or is it that
the Qur`anic principles can only serve as a source of spiritual
guidance, and (like all other Holy Books) cannot be applied in
today's complex world of heterogeneity, diversity and unpredictability?
The great Islamic civilizations of the past millennium have
shown that Islam indeed was a "complete" source of conduct in
this life and a means of spiritual connection with the hereafter.
Both of these elements could be practised simultaneously. But
the world has become more complex and heterogeneous. Solutions
offered by Islam were very well suited to the socio-economic need
of the past millennium. While Islam may have been ahead of its
time at the outset, the world has now moved ahead of Islam.
Is
Islam "frozen" in time?
Let
us examine some of the fundamental problems that the world faces
today in the areas of economics, politics and science, and see
what solutions Islam has to offer.
Economics:
Unlike other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism (especially
Gandhi's philosophy of "simple living and high thinking"), Islam
encouraged economic growth, prosperity and pursuit of a better
life. At the same time, Islam strongly required that believers
take care of the "have-nots." It also provided a very effective
mechanism of income redistribution. It minimized the possibility
of social inequality by establishing systems of zakaat
(an obligatory tax on well-off Muslims) and Bait-ul-Maal
(an agency for collecting and distributing charity and zakaat
among the needy). For centuries, economic progress and the pursuit
of material wealth proved consistent with Islamic principles.
In fact, they laid the foundation of the social welfare system
and progressive income taxation system now practised in Western
countries.
But Islam failed to address other issues of a modern economy,
principally: international trade based on comparative advantage,
globalization, a monetary system, banking, a fiscal system (beyond
zakaat), speculative investments (i.e., stock markets),
venture capital, interest, insurance, inflation, and research
and development.
Precisely these issues have become dominant concerns during
the last two centuries. In an earlier period, most of them did
not arise, or affected only a very narrow portion of economic
activity. During that era, societies were primarily agrarian.
The economy rested on land, with unskilled labor as the main means
of production. Therefore, even when capital was ignored or defined
only in kind (such as a ton of grain or a herd of sheep), this
did not prevent economic progress Commercial activities centered
on a medieval form of cottage craft and production, carried out
among family members. Transaction of goods used to take place
at the village market. Jurisdictional and international trade
was very limited. Therefore, Islam was in harmony with the prevalent
economic structure. It did not have to find innovative solutions
to emerging problems.
In the context of Islamic economics, the major problem is
that the Qur`an offers no blueprint for interaction between production
and distribution. It does not provide an explanation as to how
land, labour and capital should interact with each other to produce
wealth in a society. It prohibited riba, (generally translated
as "interest")—the precondition for the creation and circulation
of capital of a modern economy. Of course, capital is indispensable
to both research and technological advancement.
A few Muslim countries have established a so-called "Islamic
banking system," which in practical terms is not different from
any prevalent Western banking practice, although it employs different
terminology. For example, the term "profit-sharing" is used for
"interest." There are some innovations in the area of investment
risk sharing – mudaraba and musharaka– but the process
is cumbersome and has limited application, especially in a global
context.
Science:
The Qur`an does not oppose or impede most of the scientific progress
being undertaken today. However, it does not provide the rationale
for this development, either, nor does it tell us how to cope
with its social and moral consequences. If, according to Muslims,
all answers can be found in the Qur`an, then why did Muslim scholars
fail to invent and innovate in modern-day mathematics, physics,
chemistry, biology and interrelated disciplines? Without a single
exception, all of these developments have been taking place in
the Western world, at least in the last two centuries. Second,
why did Islam fail to provide rational answers, acceptable to
the majority of Muslims, to the social and ethical issues resulting
from these scientific developments? (I'm thinking of issues like
family planning, organ transplants, and cloning and genome research.)
Politics:
During its early period, Islam was very open in acquiring knowledge
from other societies. It was also very tolerant of divergent views
and opinions. The collection of books in Qurtabah library alone,
in alAndalus (Muslim Spain during 10th century), exceeded
the collections of all the libraries in Europe. These books were
not just explanations and interpretations of Qur`an and Hadith,
but covered a wide range of subjects by renowned scholars. The
West received the lost Greek philosophy and wisdom through translated
Arabic books. Debate and discussions were a common pastime in
the Muslim world. There were even groups such as the Mu'tazilah
in the 8thcentury, which were rationalist and used
to test the validity of a given Qur`anic verse according to maxims
of logic. On problems not directly covered by the Qur`an and Hadith,
ijtihad (or interpretations by any qualified jurist) used
to be practised on a regular basis. For example, on issues of
daily importance, there were four schools of law (Hanafi, Shafi,
Maliki and Hanbali) within the Sunni world alone. All were practised
side by side with equal importance. But the door to ijtihad
was slammed shut by the Abbasid rulers during 13th
century, and remains shut to this day. Does it make sense that
when the world is becoming more complex and challenging with new
problems in all spheres of our life, options to find solutions
from religious sources stay closed in the Sunni world, which represents
about 80 percent of Muslims?
In its early message, Islam also advanced the notion of ijma
(consensus) in the area of politics. It advised leaders to practice
shura (consultation) before making important decisions.
However Qur`an is silent on how the consultation should take place.
It also never laid down a clear mechanism of choosing leaders:
should they be selected, elected (or a combination of both)? By
a chosen few or by the masses? After all, Hazrat Abu Bakr became
the first caliph in Islam in a state of confusion, when the Prophet
Mohammad (peace be upon him) died. Hazrat Omar, as a second caliph,
was nominated by Hazrat Abu Bakr. Hazrat Uthman's selection as
a third caliph was controversial, and led to the division of Muslims.
A new sect formed, the Shiite, comprising followers of
Hazrat Ali, who became the fourth caliph after the murder of Hazrat
Uthman. Later on, monarchy became the norm in Islam with the establishment
of Ummayyad and Abbasid dynasties.
After
the French Revolution in 18th century, while the West
became successful in establishing a well-defined democratic system,
the Islamic world remained captive in the primitive political
structure of monarchy or authoritarian regimes. Presently, most
Islamic countries are ruled by kings, emirs, sheiks, sultans and
dictators. According to the Saudis, who claim to adhere to strict
Islamic law, the Qur`anic injunction to "obey Allah, obey the
Prophet and obey the ruler" justifies absolute rule.
The
real challenge
The
most daunting task for Islam is to explain and determine the status
of women, who make one-half of the world's population, in a modern
society. Other religions might have more restrictive positions
on women in their Holy Books, but no one imposes them as forcefully
in this age as Muslims do. According to the Qur`an, a woman's
input in a decision or as a witness is equal to one-half of a
man's. A husband can resort to corporal punishment on his wife
in certain circumstances. He can take four wives at the same time,
after meeting some conditions. Men have the right to "grant" divorce,
whereas women can only "ask" or request it. Men can marry outside
Islam, but women cannot. These statements are very clear in the
Qur`an, without any room for ambiguity.
The challenge is how to uplift the status of women in Islam
to fit modern life. Any attempt to bring this change would clearly
entail the violation of Qur`anic injunctions. The status quo,
on the other hand, would keep women captive and "unequal" to men.
The other key challenge is how to be "flexible" and "tolerant"
to other faiths without violating basic Islamic principles. Today's
world is a global village. People from all religions and ethnicity
live in large cosmopolitan cities, especially in the West. Harmony
and peace can only be achieved through respect and tolerance for
each other's belief and practice—even by those who are blessed
with the "ultimate truth," who logically reach the conclusion
that all others are "wrong."
The present state of intolerance in the Islamic world was
best lamented by a Kuwaiti professor, Ahmed al-Baghdadi. Writing
in a local newspaper, he states, "Muslim claims that their religion
is a religion of tolerance, but they show no tolerance for those
who oppose their opinions. … The Islamic world and the Arab world
are the only places in which intellectuals – whose only crime
was to write – rot in prison." (Cited in an op-ed column by Thomas
Friedman, The New York Times, November 23, 2001.)
For
a healthy society to function, it has to adapt according to changing
needs. The urge to possess the holy grail of "absolute" truth
has to be questioned. Social, economic, political and scientific
development are evolving and continuously changing. One can address
these challenges only by questioning, and leaving ones' mind open
to new options. Rigidity leads to backwardness. That is what happened
to Muslim societies. Their intellectual curiosity stands frozen
in the past millennium.
Muslims have to reflect upon current realities. They need
to ask some of the fundamental questions arising in today's world:
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Can a
Muslim be allowed to question some aspects of the Qur`an and
Hadith without losing his/her faith and perhaps head?
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Can a
scholar initiate ijtihad and suggest solutions to modern-day
problems that may fall outside the realm of Qur`an and Hadith?
For example, organ transplant, genome research, homosexuality,
stock market speculation, etc.?
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Can a
woman have "equal" rights and responsibilities (both in quantity
and quality) in marriage, division of assets, politics, education
and economic opportunities without violating the basic tenets
of Islam?
At
the end…is there a hope?
This
is the most difficult question to answer with any degree of certainty.
A large majority of Muslims still believe that the true Islamic
society was established and practised by the Prophet Mohammad
(peace be upon him) some 1500 years ago. They feel a religious
and moral obligation to recreate that society, to restore that
"golden age." The Islamic revolution in Iran against the Shah
in the early 1980s, and the Taliban's recent rule in Afghanistan
have been attempts to achieve this goal. After all, if the necessary
mode of performing each day-to-day activity is laid down in the
Qur`an and Sharia, then all Muslims need do is whole-heartedly
practice and implement them. They need to transform themselves
and society to conform to the Sacred Book. And if anyone wishes
to modernize Islam to suit contemporary reality, he has deviated
from the path of "truth," and he must be brought back into conformity.
Falsafay
Ghaalib (pseudonym) has a Ph.D. in Economics. He is associated
with a leading research organization in Canada.
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