Islam was and is primarily an intellectual
and not an emotional movement. This assertion is, of course, not to be taken in
too narrow a sense, for however intellectual in its genesis, there has never
been any movement in the life of mankind which could divorced from emotional
element. It is, on the contrary, a curious fact of history that precisely those
movements which begin with a purely intellectual act - the enunciation of a
definite clearly outlined idea - very soon develop, and retain, a powerful
emotional momentum. But whatever connection between men's rational acceptance
of an ideology and there subsequent emotion-charged attempts at its realisation,
such movements forever retain the stamp of the intellectual origin. So
it was with Islam - and so, more recent times, with the Marxist movement
(although the latter's one-sided materialism and its implicit denial of the
value of human individuality set it entirely apart from the spiritual -cum-
social scheme envisaged by Islam).
In this sense, Islamic civilisation can
correctly be described as "ideological". It began with enunciation of
an idea by the Apostle of God and its acceptance by individual men and women;
and the surging emotion which at once engulfed all those who fell under the
idea's spell, though very important in itself, was only secondary to their
original, intellectual perception of the Quranic call:
"Say [O Prophet]: 'This is my way:
Resting upon conscious insight accessible to reason ('ala basirah), I am
calling you all unto God - I and they who follow me'" (Surah 12:108).
Hence, if it be true that Islamic
civilisation does not draw its nourishment from any racial or national sentiments
in the people it embraces, but only from their conscious acceptance of the
programme of Islam - then it is equally true that their knowledge of the
programme must precede their emotional readiness, or ability, to make it work.
Thus, Islamic life must remain an illusion until the Muslim community, or at
least an overwhelming majority within it, are fully aware of what the programme
of Islam really implies and are resolved to cooperate towards its fulfillment.
Awareness, as we have seen, is in this context of crucial importance. A mere
emotional adherence to Islam, an adherence, that is, without a clear
comprehension of its ideology - the shariah - can produce neither the ability
nor the resolve to make it work and practice. Nor can it create the "moral
habit" so indispensable to a truly Islamic life - namely, the ability to
decide instinctively, whenever an occasion arises, which of our impulses are
right and which are wrong from the viewpoint of Islamic ethics. As long as the
Muslims, or the majority among them, are aware of the spiritual and social aims
implied in the law of Islam and are convinced that an observance of this law
will lead them to a fuller, more satisfying life, the "moral habit"
engendered by the shariah is a powerful factor making not only for individual
righteousness but also for effective social cooperation and cultural progress.
It may, however happen - as indeed it did
happen - that at a certain stage of its development the community loses its
direct, popular touch with the premisses of the Law (the
"programme"), simply because generations upon generations of scholars
have added their personal deductions to the original, clearly-stipulated
ordinances of the Law, thus making it more and more complicated and remote from
the consciousness of the common man. The previous, community wide awareness of
the Law gradually recedes. Instead of knowing it, as his predecessors did,
through personal insight, the common man is forced to rely increasingly on
second-hand expositions of the Law offered by people who have specialised in
its study. The opinions of these mediators naturally differ in many points, and
the scrutiny of these different opinions requires a great amount of learned
labour, resulting in further additions to the original ordinances of the Law
and thus in an enlargement of its original scope. In the course of time the
structure of legal thought grows so alarmingly huge and complicated that even
the "specialists" are compelled to call a halt to further
development. This they achieve by the deciding quite arbitrarily, that the
early expositions and interpretations of the Law (say, up to the third century
of Islamic history) are henceforth to be regarded as "final". But,
unfortunately, even those early expositions and interpretations are so numerous
and in many points so conflicting that it is in practice impossible to present
them directly to the common man: again, only a "specialist" can
re-interpret and harmonise them - which is, of course, impossible without
further additions to, and super-impositions on, the original Law....
And so, for the common man, the shariah
becomes a remote affair. The element of consciousness - the direct awareness,
by every Muslim, of what the Law of Islam implies - is supplanted bu the rule
of formulas. Social cooperation is deadened into mere convention. The erstwhile
"moral habit" loses all its vitality and is transformed into an
automatism of customs and customary notions. As a result, all creative impulses
within the society slow down and cool down. The socioeconomic scheme becomes
less and less obvious and, therefore, real progress on its basis becomes
increasingly difficult and, in the end, stops entirely. Political power,
originally built on the Muslims' conscious adherence to the ideology of Islam,
gradually crumbles and gives way to all manner of tribal, dynastic and
sectarian squabbles. Economic decay sets in, followed by cultural stagnation.
Thought itself dies down and only vague emotion remains in the place of
one-time intellectual splendour. The society ceases to be cohesive in its
structure; with the loss of its ideological basis it loses, step by step, it
shape as well and becomes an easy pray to every kind of disruptive influence
coming from other civilisations. And when all this happens, Muslim society as
such is ready for dissolution.
It is not difficult to recognise that this is
precisely what has happened in the world of Islam - not only today and not only
yesterday, but for several centuries. The decay of Islamic civilistaion, the progressive
weakening of faith in Islam, the ineffectiveness of the Islamic teaching on our
actual lives - all this is almost entirely due to the fact that for centuries
the Muslims have been out of touch with the true premises of Islamic law. The
spirit of Islam is not being translated into practice because for nearly a
thousand years the common man has been prevented from knowing through
personal insight what the Law of Islam really is.
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