The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets

THE VOICE OF MODERATE ISLAM

By Zakariya Wright

The deplorable acts of violence in recent years, perpetrated on civilian populations by some extremists in the guise of Islam, have occasioned a frenzied search for the voice of "moderate" Islam. As a result, there has been no shortage of Muslim notables to condemn the barbaric acts of terrorism involved in 9/11 or in the London transit bombings. Some of them have even been heard on Western media outlets. But the question of how terrorism might be eradicated from within Muslim communities threatens to degenerate into an ideological quagmire.

Western policy makers, and so-called Muslim progressives, seem to be voicing a variety of solutions revolving around the need for the "secularization" of Islam. Thus one hears about the need for an Islamic Reformation, the impracticality of Islamic Shari'a Law, the importance of non-religious based education, the need for democracy and respect for human rights in Islamic societies.

Certainly most Muslims are not opposed to such things as democracy and human rights. But for those genuinely concerned about the long-term fate of the Islamic world, we need to ask ourselves what exactly is our goal here? For the stability of our societies, we must demand more than merely a version of Islam palatable to Western tastes. Indeed, it sometimes appears that what such a perspective really is trying to say is: the least amount of the Islam, the better.

Muslims and others around the world are suffering from governments and leaders that are unable to take care of their own citizens, whose rule is often justified by ideologies that find little resonance among their populations, who are unable or unwilling to provide protection to religious and ethnic minorities, who make decisions on the basis of economic interests rather than moral imperatives or even historical knowledge. Islamic societies, like others, have historically rarely been without some of these problems. But it is undeniable that the current desperate state of affairs, if it did not begin with Western colonial occupation of Muslim societies, was at least exacerbated by European imperialism.

What can protect Islam from desperate ideologues who would manipulate it for political and/or criminal motives is 1) the removal of desperate circumstances and 2) the re-emergence of a class of scholars intimately connected with that normative code of behavior called the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Such scholars are uniquely able, due to their immersion in the very tradition with which terrorists and other ideologues are disguising their actions, to protect against the appropriation of religious symbols and texts for vulgar purposes.

Desperate circumstances are caused by oppression, where an individual's basic humanity is threatened. God says in the Qur'an, "Oppression is worse than slaughter," since by it, an individual finds it difficult to fulfill his purpose here on earth. "And I have not created Jinns and men, except that they should worship Me" (Qur'an, 51:56). In elaborating on humanity's essential purpose, a prominent Senegalese Shaykh, Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975), wrote, "Whoever does not attain the knowledge of the Merciful (God), his life has been in ruin for all time spent. I created these creations to worship Me (God said). 'To worship Me,' meaning 'to know Me.' Do not lesson your effort in acquiring the knowledge (of God), then you shall be astonished by the closeness of the Most Merciful."

As long as oppression is defined by material inequity alone, we are incapable of understanding why radicalized militancy, even among Muslims, often germinates in Western societies themselves, where future terrorists might not be in any great material want. Rather it is the marginalization of a group -- economically, socially, politically or ideologically (and often all four combined) -- that breeds radicalism. Whether with the Irish Republican Army, Leftist guerillas in Latin America, Islamists in Algeria or the al-Qaeda network, all religions and ethnic groups are capable of a similarly desperate reaction to marginalization. White Americans cannot expect the repeat of the somewhat historically unique experience of subjugating African Americans, who during centuries of oppression never employed the weapon of terror on a large scale. White Americans should be humbled by African American forbearance, instead of continuing to substitute cessation of injustice with calls for pacifism among people who feel affronted by American political, economic or cultural (dare we say religious?) hegemony.

The forgiving of one's oppressor, is certainly an inspiring phenomenon, applauded by all religions. As the Prophet Muhammad himself said, "You shall keep relationship with one who cuts himself off from you, you shall give to one who disappointed you, and you shall pardon one who oppressed you." But sadly enough, the inspiring cases of Prophets like Jesus and Muhammad, or others such as Salah al-Din (Saladin), Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela, are few and far between, and should not be taken as normative standards by which to judge the boundaries of human tolerance. Furthermore, the rhetoric of pacifism on the lips of the oppressor may sound a bit convenient to the ear of the oppressed.

The most important development for the emergence of any "moderate" form of Islam, and one that needs to be strenuously advocated by Western leaders, would thus be the establishment of justice in Muslim societies, since it is the existence of injustice -- injustice with real or imagine Western complicity -- that so radicalized those societies. The existence of injustice certainly does not justify terrorism, but terrorists are also human beings, and thus susceptible to desperate reactions when confronted with feelings of despair, alienation, anger and revenge.

The emergence of extremism and injustice in Muslim societies is inversely proportional to the degree to which a society has retained its Islamic scholarly traditions. While pre-modern Islamic societies were hardly perfect, there are several elements of Islamic orthodoxy prior to the nineteenth century, rarely practiced today, which likely promoted a degree of peace and stability within those societies. 1) Where Islamic law today can be easily manipulated or restricted on the basis of the whims of elites, scholars three hundred years ago were simultaneously independent from political elites but part of a larger canon of religious scholarship (called the madhhab) that provided some accountability against rulings contrary to the spirit of the tradition. 2) Where scholars and leaders today are usually unable to keep a check on the desires and lusts of their lower selves and egos, scholars in a traditional context were usually advanced in the science of the soul's purification (known as tassawuf, or Sufism) along with their legal expertise. 3) Where today people wait months or even years to have their cases heard in court, pre-modern Islamic courts were notoriously accessible and people-friendly, to the point that there are records of Christian patriarchs in Egypt reprimanding their constituents, especially women, for preferring Muslim courts to their own.

The body of traditional Islamic scholars, or the ulama, was famous for continuing traditions of moderation inherited from the Prophet Muhammad. Thus the reluctance to enforce capital punishment, for example, or the extreme wariness to carry out punishment in cases of sex crimes, or the tolerance of non-Muslim religious practice in Muslim societies, or even the severe prohibition against slander, were all moderating principals based on the Prophetic Sunnah, but which have nonetheless found themselves difficult to be codified in modern Islamic-based legal systems. While much has been written for and against the idea of traditional (pre-modern) Islam, it is undeniable that the type of extremism we are occasionally witnessing in the Muslim world today did not exist in societies still dominated by scholars rather than ideologues.

Paradoxically, since Islam first originated in the Middle East proper, it often appears that societies who have retained the greatest degree of traditional Islamic practice, in terms of scholarship and emphasis of the Sunnah's moderation, are those on the so-called fringe of the Islamic world, in Senegal or Malaysia for example. In such places, many scholars can trace chains of knowledge transmission (silsilah) back centuries in an unbroken succession of scholars to students to the Prophet Muhammad himself. The advantage of this type of learning is that Islamic doctrines are internalized and learned by actual contact, as the Sunnah was first learned from the Prophet, rather than constructed from a collection of statements in a book. Unfortunately, those that can claim such distinction in the Middle East proper are given little attention by Western media, and further sidelined by ideologues in their own countries.

The arrival of modernity in the Muslim world, an often violent imposition, occasioned the eclipse of the traditionally educated scholar. On the one hand, Western occupiers and Western-influenced elites (such as Muhammad Ali or Kemal Attaturk) murdered, exiled, imprisoned or otherwise marginalized independent scholars who would not condone the modernizing project. On the other hand, the temporary (and in some cases ongoing) fascination with Western material culture in Muslim societies served to delegitimize as backward any scholar grounded in inherited knowledge centered in the schools of jurisprudence ( madhahib) and Sufism.

The Islamic world is not in need of a Reformation, or secularization, but rather a re-emphasis of its own scholarly tradition. Essential in this endeavor is the rise of scholars who are capable of implementing the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad on all levels, and not just the un-contextualized regurgitation of sacred scripture in order to substantiate selfish desires. It is only through company with the people of truth and knowledge, the true scholars, who possess the aforementioned link of transmission back to the Prophet himself, that an individual may learn to implement the living Sunnah. In such company, the student will learn first hand of the Prophet's kindness to children, or mercy to animals, or concern for the orphans and downtrodden, or insistence on the fair treatment of women, or his patience with those who scorned him, or his pardoning those who had killed his own family, or his standing up out of respect for a Jewish funeral procession, or his quickness to smile.

These are the small details that are lost on both Muslim and anti-Muslim ideologues. But Muhammad is for Muslims the beloved of God and the creation, and there is no seemingly insignificant characteristic of his unworthy of emulation. His example is what guides and facilitates our life in this world. His is a light that is not gone from the world, but has been passed on, generation after generation. As he himself has said, "The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets." The voice of moderate Islam must thus be consigned to these thoroughly trained Islamic scholars.

Only when those possessing political and economic power in Muslim societies listen to such scholars, will Islam be capable of meeting the challenges of the modern world without compromising its own traditions. It is not a case of Islam versus the West, it is a case of Islam being allowed to become one of many voices, along with Western secularism or other religions, grappling with the ordeals of changing societies. Such an Islam will not find itself inherently opposed to most principals promoted by Western policy makers and human rights activists, but will find resonance in its own tradition for concepts like democracy, economic liberalization and the end to such atrocities as honor killings and female genital mutilation.

As for the immediate threat of terrorism, Westerners should realize that terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam is as much a crime against the religion of Islam as it is a crime against humanity at large. Muslim leaders cognizant of the peacefulness and tolerance inherent to their tradition certainly recognize that terrorism violates several fundamental Islamic precepts, not the least of which is the Qur'anic injunction to live in peace with one's neighbor (Muslim or non-Muslim). The recent acts of terrorism have killed innocent Muslims as well as non-Muslims, but in the end it is the over one billion Muslims who are facing the lasting distrust and alienation from the rest of the world as a result of these criminals. Muslim scholars must be empowered to combat the threat of terrorism from within their own societies. It has been the marginalization of traditionally licensed scholars (as opposed to tribal leaders donning the Mullah's robes in the modern period) that has led to the spread of injustice and the spiritual vacuum where terrorists operate. The long-term eradication of terrorism depends on the re-emergence of the Islamic scholars, not the further belittling of the Islamic tradition, its institutions and leaders.

The only alternative to working from within Islamic societies, through enlightened religious leadership, is the wholesale, military-backed implantation of secular regimes. The historical examples of France and Turkey, not to mention Israel or European imperialism in the Middle East, demonstrate to the Muslim mind that secular ideologues often engage in such violent means to enlighten non-willing participants in the secular project.

Islam is not only capable of reforming its own societies and rising to the challenge of modernity, it also offers the possibility of spiritual and societal fulfillment. It thus might even be said to offer a much needed reminder of the essential human condition in an age dominated by apprehension and the pursuit of base desires.

Source : http://www.islamamerica.org/articles.cfm/article_id/91/