Islam Needs Critical Approach

 

By Nastik Durrani, New Age Islam

April 5, 2013

It is clear that the Islamic world is going through a very calamitous phase.  Political anarchy, corruption, economic recession, moral degradation, violence and lack of human rights are glaring everywhere.  These are some of the features that distinguish the Islamic societies from the rest of the world and the situation is indicative of further deterioration in coming decades.

One of the many differences between Islamic societies and progressive societies is the lack of independent thinkers and critics who could point out the societal maladies, particularly those societal maladies that are rooted in religion.

Every society has its own problems. Other societies also had their own set of problems in the past. However, they allowed their independent thinkers and critics to come forward. The thinkers and critics independently and freely criticised the social ills and pointed out the disorders and their causes including religious ones. For example, the Jewish society produced Spinoza, Karl Marx, Einstein and other legends. The Christian societies also produced great thinkers like Descartes, Kant, David Hume and Bertrand Russell. Some of these thinkers like Spinoza lashed out at religion and religious leaders and severely criticised them. But despite their harsh criticism, their thought and ideology were not gagged; rather their criticism was accepted with an open heart. Their lives did not face any threat for their criticism. Thier progressive thought got recognition and popularity in the social and political fields and ultimately they emerged victorious. It resulted in the reformation of those societies and they embarked on the path to progress.

In comparison, despite its maladies and social ills, the Islamic societies never allowed their reformers and thinkers to come forward especially in the last eight hundred years.

There is no denying that Islamic world has seen the period of progress and development called the golden age of Islam spread from 800 AD to 1200 AD. However, the reason for this seems to be the fact that after the death of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the four caliphs, the Islamic world fell into wrong hands. There is also no denying that the caliphs of Banu Umaiyya ruling the Islamic world (from 661 to 750) acted against the teachings of the prophet (pbuh) opposing Islamic Shariah except when the Shariah seemed to protect their interests. Otherwise, they concocted many ahadith (plural of hadith) to achieve their ambitions through the use of Shariah and used jihad for their expansionist wars, and tried their best to prevent non-Muslim elements from entering into the fold of Islam so that they could collect more jizyah from them.

During the Abbasid period that runs from 750 AD to 1250 AD, the Abbasids renounced Arab culture and adopted Persian culture. During this period the Persian culture was at its peak, enriched with cultural and civilisational traditions that were even older than Islam. It should be noted that the Abbasids gave more importance to science and philosophy than to religion. For example, the Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun (813 to 833 AD) denied the sanctity of the Quran and declared it a human book. His politics continued till Al-Mu'tasim (died in 842 AD) and Al Al-Wasiq (died in 847). The politics of Al-Wasiq was more painful for the Muslims. This earned him the title of Amir al-Kuffar (the leader of the infidels).

Thanks to the distance of the next generation from the origin of Islam provided the composite Islam to usher in the golden age and unconventional thoughts and views came into existence. We find philosophers like Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī also known as Rhazes or Rasis (August 26, 865 – 925) who even called the Prophet (pbuh) dajjal, cheat and imposter and declared the Quran a useless book. Instead he declared the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato and the science of Euclid’s and Hippocrates more important than the Quran and observed that they had more knowledge and wisdom than what was in the Quran and they could benefit the humanity more than the Quran which gave the humanity nothing except pain.

However, this situation did not persist for long and changes occurred because all the while the orthodox Islam was regaining strength, as soon the extremist version of Islam spread through the entire Islamic world thanks to the efforts of the extremist Islamist Imam Ghazali (died 1111 AD). Ghazali issued fatwas of infidelity (kufr) against great philosophers like Farabi and Ibn-e-Sina and proposed death for them after declaring philosophy kufr and philosophers kafirs. Fortunately for Farabi and Ibn-e-Sina, they had left the world before Imam Ghazali was born otherwise they would have met a tragic end. The famous proverb ‘He who adopted logi, turned kafir’ was attributed to Ghazali which demonstrates their enmity with logic and philosophy. Soon, extremism, ignorance and Salafism engulfed the entire Islamic world and the progressive Islam was done to death in its golden age.

So long as there is lack of tolerance and progressive thought is repressed, the Islamic world will not be able to come out of the stagnation in which it is mired till now. Any change is also not in sight. However, there is always a ray of hope hiding in a dark corner. Some Muslims who were expelled and embraced by the kafir West have been nurturing their abilities. The apostate-like Muslims such as Ibn-e-Warraq whose book ‘Why I am not a Muslim’ had shaken the Muslim world and Ian Hirsi Ali whose book has been a best seller on the global level have pointed out the stagnant nature of Islam and criticised it in the same way as other religions had been criticised in the past.

I want to attract your attention towards Samuel Huttington’s book The Clash of Civilisations on the war between Islam and other communities. This war has been going on since the advent of Islam and will perhaps continue for many more decades.  Islamic history is nothing more than a long drawn out bloody battle between the Muslims and the Kafirs from its beginning to the western imperialism which has quenched its thirst from the blood of billions of human beings in Asia, Africa and Europe.

Even America is not safe from the impact of this war now. Since 9/11, there have been twelve thousand acts of terrorism across the globe which finds their link to the Islamic organisations spread over the world and now these organisations cannot distinguish between a Muslim and non-Muslim. This war takes a thousand lives every year and the threat of the loss of another millions of lives is imminent. It is the Islamists who provide fuel to this war and it is they with whom its solution lies. Only a war against this terrorism and an antidote to this ideology spread by the Salafist terrorists who present it to justify their terrorist activities can avert this threat.

This war cannot be won by terrorist activities that these Salafist jihadi organisations are adept at nor can we expect any improvement in the condition of the Muslim ummah through this. On the contrary, this will push the Islamic world into further degradation and backwardness and the stagnant Islamic thought and the attitude based on hate towards humanity will be responsible for that.

Perhaps the next generation of independent and free thinkers of Islam will be able to win the attention of the world and there will be an end to the war between Islam and the other communities otherwise this clash of civilisations will inflict huge damages to humanity and ultimately Islam will be defeated.

URL:  https://newageislam.com/ijtihad-rethinking-islam/islam-needs-critical-approach/d/11027