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It should never be forgotten that
in the present situation any form of criticism of
the modern world based upon metaphysical and religious
principles is an act of charity in its profoundest
sense and in accordance with the most central virtues
of Islam. Also one should never forget – considering
a certain attitude prevailing among some Muslims who
are afraid of being critical for fear of seeming discourteous,
or lacking in adab ( which in the traditional Islamic
language means at once courtesy, correctness of manners,
culture and literature ) – that the Prophet
of Islam ( upon whom be peace ) not only possessed
adab in its most perfect form but also a
asserted the Truth in the most straight forward and
naked manner. There were moments of his life when
he was extremely categorical, and he never sacrificed
the Truth for the sake of adab. Islam has
never taught that once should accept that two and
two makes five in order to display adab.
In fact, adab has always been the compliment
to the perception and assertion of the Truth in every
situation and circumstance. Once, an eminent spiritual
authority from North Africa said, ‘Do you know
what adab is? It is to sharpen your sword
so that when you have to cut a limb it does not hurt.’
It is this type of attitude that is needed by Muslims
in their discussion of the west and its challenges
to Islam. The Truth not only has a right to our lives
and our beings but also has the prerogative to ask
us to make sense to others and to express and expound
it whenever and wherever possible. Today we need to
be critical, even to the point degree of stringency,
precisely because such an attitude is so rare and
so much in demand.
What is lacking in the Islamic world today is a thorough
examination and careful criticism of all that is happening
in the modern world. Without such a criticism nothing
serious can ever be done in confronting the west.
All statements of modernized Muslims which begin with
assertion, ‘The way to harmonize Islam and …’
– whatever may follow ‘and’ –
are bound to end in failure unless what follows is
another divinely revealed and inspired world-views.
Otherwise, attempts to harmonize Islam and western
socialism or Marxism or existentialism or evolution
or anything else of the kind are doomed at the start
by the very fact that they begin without exposing
the system or ‘ism’ under question to
a thorough criticism in the light of Islamic criteria,
and also because they consider Islam as a particular
view of things to be complemented by some modern ideology
rather than as a complete system and perspective in
itself, whose very totality excludes the possibly
of becoming a mere adjective to modify some other
noun which taken almost unconsciously as central in
place of Islam. The rapid change in fashion of the
day, which makes Islamic socialism popular one day
and liberalism or some other Western ‘ism’
the next is itself proof of the absurdity and shallowness
of such an approach. He who understand the structure
of Islam in its totality knows that it can never allow
itself to become reduced to a mere modifier or contingency
vis-à-vis a system of thought which remains
independent of it or even hostile to it.
[The Western World and its Challenges
to Islam, Islam and the Plight of Modern
Man] |
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