لطفا منتظر باشید ...
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--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--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]
