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Main Challenges of the Islamic Civilization
The most fundamental
questions and challenges of the Muslim thinkers in the contemporary world are as
follows:
1 " The Threat of Alienation of the
Society from Islamic-Indigenous Identity
The arrival of the concepts and terms of the
alien culture in the Islamic societies and their acceptance by the scholars, who
were disappointed at the dictatorial rulers - who had distanced themselves from
the religious-indigenous culture " was spreading so quickly and irrationally
that the danger of the destruction of cultural identity became quite palpable.
On the other hand the approach of the Western culture to such human values as
freedom, justice, citizenship rights and the definitions of these concepts was
basically different from that of the Eastern Muslim man. Therefore the masses in
the Muslim societies were alien to these concepts, which were interpreted
through a Western outlook.
In every society, the scholars are the
representatives and delineators of the course of movement of the society towards
the future and they are the ones who intellectually feed the society. Therefore
if they distance themselves from the society, a gap will appear between them and
the masses. If this happens, the cultural foundations of the society will be
weakened and such a culture will lose its power of progress and fruition and
therefore cannot meet the needs of the society.
Under the circumstances, the identity and originality of the society are
gradually eroded and a society without an identity cannot take any action to
reform its body. The Muslim scholars had realized that without a scientific
study of the basic concepts and principles of their own Islamic culture, and
without revival and theoretical elaboration of such concepts as Islamic
brotherhood, Islamic ummah, freedom and justice in Islamic viewpoint, etc.
vis-à-vis the alien concepts and terms of the Western culture, Muslims will not
find their answers within their own indigenous culture and the end result will
be stagnation of growth, dynamism and development of Islamic thought. Inevitably
such a man will resort to the alien culture and ultimately as a result of
conflict between indigenous cultural attractions and those of the alien culture,
his mentality will be more and more split.
2 " Expansion of the Sphere of Power of Dictatorial Governments in
Islamic Societies
The ruling system as well as the theoreticians of the ruling
powers in the Islamic countries had well realized that the alien concepts did
not enjoy an historical and cultural background in the Islamic countries. As a
result they lacked any theoretical backing and firmness of interpretation.
Therefore in a crafty measure they changed their nature and through combination
of these concepts with their own legitimizing issues transformed them into new
instruments for the legitimization of their own authoritarian rules. They
expanded the sphere of their dictatorship and hid their violent face under the
veneer of deceiving masks. Such concepts as progressive dictatorial rule, guided
democracy, superior civilization and such strategies as extremist nationalism
(chauvinism) pan Arabism, pan Iranism, etc. are among the most prevailing ones
during this stage of political history of the Islamic world.
“Self-centeredness of authoritarian rulers in the world of
Islam stems from this fact. For instance, self-centeredness in development
justifies the political order through referring to economic disorderliness;
nationalist self-centeredness on its part justifies relies on the role of the
leader by referring to the need to resist foreign factors and military
self-centeredness which previously used to rely on the justification of
conquest, now emphasizes on the necessity of preservation of order through
resort to the force.”[4]
Imam Khomeini states: “In our time, the words and logics
have been misplaced, open political atmosphere is in fact the very suppression
and all-out censors. The “great civilization” is in fact savageries worse than
that of the medieval ages. The reconciliation government kills the people with
tanks, cannons and machineguns.
Independence
is military, economic and cultural dependence.”[5]
Solutions
Under the critical circumstances, Muslim scholars have laid
the foundation of a reformist movement based on the indigenous-religious
elements of their society, which is designated as the movement for the revival
of religious thought.
The outstanding solutions forwarded by the Muslim
intellectuals in our contemporary world may be classified as follows:
1 "Return to Indigenous-Religious Culture
Commenting on the issue, Nouruallah Qeisary states: “The
ideas of Seyed Jamal uddin Assadabadi, attention to religious thoughts,
purification of Islam from superstitions, emphasis on the unity of Muslims in
the light of the Islamic decrees and principles, and encouragement of the Muslim
ulema to take political stances became a headway for an inclination which
entered Islam into the realm of politics and finally the leadership of the
political religious activities of the Muslims since 1960s by Imam Khomeini and
his book, Wilayat Faqih, a new theory of Islamic government, turned the
political Islamic tendency into the dominant tendency, uniting all the Muslim
fighters under a single banner to lead the historical developments until the
collapse of the Pahlavi regime and establishment of the Islamic Republic of
Iran.”[6]
2 " Struggle Against
Longstanding Dictatorial Rules in Islamic Societies
The dictatorial systems had become one of the main
obsessions of the Muslims thinkers. They considered the ruling dictatorial
systems as one of the greatest problems of the Eastern societies. However the
reason for the establishment of dictatorial rules in their opinion was not
confined to the authoritarian tendencies of the rulers. They maintained that
submission to dictatorship, as a component of the Eastern culture, had prepared
the grounds for the continuation of authoritarianism and dictatorship in these
territories. Therefore, the Muslim thinkers maintained that in order to
eliminate dictatorship, and prevent new dictatorial rules, the spirit of
submission to dictatorship should be eliminated. In a message to the world
Muslims, Imam Khomeini writes: “O, Muslims of the world, since you have been
inflicted with gradual demise under the domination of rulers, you should
overcome the fear of death and rely on the zealous, martyrdom-seeking youth who
are ready to defeat the frontlines of infidelity and inequity. Do not think of
preserving the status quo, rather think of getting rid of captivity and
redemption from slavery, for honor and dignity are achieved in the light of
struggle and the first step of struggle is determination.”[7]
3- Consolidation the
Cultural Elements of Society with Theoretical Backing
Many Muslim thinkers have tried to expand and develop the
theoretical foundations of religious beliefs through revision, analysis, and
purification of people’s religious beliefs in order to increase the
intellectual, convictional capabilities of the Islamic society. In fact, in
order to transform the metamorphosed indigenous-religious culture of the
Muslims, they tried to give a human-centered definition of this culture based on
the clear source of revelation. This culture enjoys richer theoretical and
rational foundations compared to the materialistic Western thought, particularly
with regard to sociopolitical thoughts of Islam and its ideas about man’s
dignity, individual rights, and his social status.
Islam is compatible with man’s primordial nature and its
principles aim to preserve his honor and dignity. Man’s status in Islamic
thought is so sublime that he is considered the “representative of God” on
earth.
It should be borne in mind that a calculated, diabolic plot
is being hatched by the arrogant camp, targeting the entire Islamic world. The
main objective of this plot is to project the Islamic culture and civilization
as an ineffective body and incapable of responding to man’s contemporary needs.
It also tries to make the Muslims believe that the main reason for the
backwardness of the Islamic world is Islamic culture and thought. The arrogant
camp did not confine its activities to this objective, rather through poisonous
propaganda it tried to make the Muslims believe that the only solution for the
salvation of the Islamic societies from backwardness and achievement of progress
and social-material welfare was bidding farewell with the Islamic thought and
turning back to indigenous-religious culture and in turn acceptance of the
Western culture.
Without any doubt the inroad of Western concepts and terms
as well as the presence of their agents in various social levels of the Islamic
societies as well as application of colonial, exploitative thought, based on
Western utilitarianism, underline the sensitivity of the prevailing situation
and the crucial responsibility the Muslim thinkers shoulder in confronting the
crises and directing the society towards acceptance, establishment and
continuation of Islamic cultural values.
Realizing the existing problem, the founder of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, called on the Muslim ummah to come out of the
cocoon of isolation vis-à-vis the cultural invasion of the aliens, and
encouraged them to dynamically revive the religious culture, for he maintained
that the religious cultural values are the most effective weapons of the Muslims
in this campaign:
“Islam is the religion of movement. The holy Quran is
movement. Movement from nature to the unseen, from materialism to spiritualism,
movement in the way of justice, and movement in the way of the establishment of
justice; unfortunately, those who wanted to plunder the East and captivated the
Muslim nations, made such a propaganda that even the Easterners themselves,
those who were ignorant of Islam and monotheistic books, believed them. The
monotheistic schools were all schools of movement, but they propagated to the
contrary and claimed that religion is the opium of the masses, that is, religion
has come to destroy the people… This is exactly contrary to the fact.”[8]
4 " Uniting Various Islamic Social Strata (Islamic Ummah)
The redefinition of the concept of Islamic ummah and
attempts to reinterpret it in accordance with the prevailing conditions and
requirements of today’s Islamic society will provide the Islamic ummah with a
suitable strategy to confront the intellectual and identity crises the Muslims
face and will also help them systematize and define the fundamentals of the
religious thought.
The incessant struggles and endeavors of the Muslims and
Muslim thinkers in contemporary era to revive the sublime Islamic thought among
the Muslims has to a great extent prevented the spread, invasion or progress of
Western materialistic thought in the Islamic societies, preparing the grounds
for the spread of self-confidence among the Muslims and their confidence on the
unlimited capabilities of the Islamic culture.
The Muslim thinkers had to offer an alternative
intellectual-cultural model. Particularly in the realm of sociopolitical thought
they had to offer a government model compatible with the religious-indigenous
cultural conditions of the Islamic society. However, the contemporary Muslim
thinkers enjoyed an advantage compared to other social thinkers of the
non-Muslim Third World countries, that is, the
experience of the Islamic civilization in the formation of religious government
in the early years of the advent of Islam by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Through
most perfect and humane laws, the Prophet (PBUH) could prepare the grounds for
the glory and grandeur of the Muslims and spread of the divine religion of Islam
across the world in the shortest possible time.
Therefore, Muslim thinkers enjoyed all necessary instruments
for the presentation of a suitable government model, based on the Islamic
principles and even had the experience of the establishment of the most perfect
model of religious government in their store.
What materialized in
the form of the greatest and most principled popular movement of the history in
the late twentieth century and astonished the entire world was the emergence and
continuation of the religious revolution of the Iranian people whose final
victory led to the establishment of a religious government in Iran.
By relying on the sublime religious values on one hand, and
using the disappointing atmosphere prevailing in Iran " which stemmed from the
intermittent failures of the internationalist movements such as nationalism,
Marxism, liberalism, reformism, etc. " on the other, the father of the Islamic
Revolution, Imam Khomeini, chanted the slogan of struggle against the
tyrannical, dependent regime and succeeded to depict a clear picture of the holy
Prophet (PBUH) of Islam, the infallible Imams and the society founded by the
Prophet (PBUH) [Jamiat un Nabi]
for the Iranian nation in order to
encourage them to rise against all manifestations of oppression, inequity and
dependency.”[9]
