Islamic modernism

PRISTINE Islam was a scientific statement of man’s role and relation to God and the universe. This movement of moral initiative was intent to create a world moral order with the instruments of state through socioeconomic principles of the Quran, which involved active goodwill and cooperation of its adherents. The upshot of this sociopolitical order was to reflect equality which all people share in the eyes of God. The Prophet (PBUH) succeeded in establishing an egalitarian moral order in Arabia.
When he departed, Islam was all set to launch its ‘world career’ beyond Arabia. Thus, under the Prophet and the first two caliphs, the interests of the community and the state were identical and indivisible. During the third caliph’s rule the integrity of the state was shaken, and so was that of the community. During the fourth caliph’s period the state was dismembered, and so was the community.
Religio-political wars harmed the community, particularly socioeconomic and political reforms. To Ibn Taimiyya, the period till 425 AH is considered the most creative time for the development of Islamic disciplines, ie, law, theology, hermeneutics etc, which he terms classical Islam. From the fourth century onwards, conjecture replaced scientific outlook and neo-kalam, neo-fiqh, neo-mysticism took root and since ijtihad and ijma came to an early stop, the inner integrity of Islam suffered; indeed, mutually opposed ‘Islams’ developed throughout the latter centuries.
Ghazali struck an organic link between law, theology and mysticism but he sacrificed positivism and collectivism at the altar of personalism. He condemned reason as against faith to stem the aggressive tide of science and philosophy. But his temporary measure assumed permanence in orthodox Islam, while with Ibn al-Arabi’s speculative philosophy, he tore asunder the symbiotic existence of reason and intuition, with reason condemned to oblivion in the interests of so-called infallible intuition (kashf). What Ibn al-Arabi forgot was that reason is both perceptive and formulative and Sufi intuition needs to be rehabilitated to stay accountable to true reason.
Ibn Taimiyya’s fresh approach to the Quran and seerah reinvigorated positivism and collectivism of Islam. He went unheeded for centuries till the 18th-century reformer Ibn Abdul Wahab ‘resurrected’ him piecemeal, suited to his capacities and necessities. However, it was Sheikh Sirhindi who owned Ibn Taimiyya in almost all aspects of Islamic thought. It can be argued that he rescued reason and reality of the world from the iron grip of Sufism.
Two great 18th-century reformers — Ibn Abdul Wahab and Shah Wali Allah — sensed that the rot had set in on the realm of Islamic intellectualism and vehemently endeavoured for course correction. However, the encounter with the imperial West forced Muslims to reformulate Islam as a social proposition to make Islam again a socially geared religion.
Here the great 19th-century reformer Syed Jamal al-Din Afghani enters the arena. Neither enchanted nor haunted by Westernism, he appreciated the dynamic impulse, constitutionalism and scientific attitude of that culture but condemned its materialistic metaphysics. He said Islam is neither the enemy of reason nor science, and it fell to Sir Syed and Mohammad Abduh to prove this statement. Both flung open the door of petrified tradition to fresh air, yet the formulation of Islamic modernism was far from their capacities. So, the none-too-sober character of Islamic modernism provoked a comparably none-too-thoughtful radical reaction.
As a corollary, Islamic modernism split into two opposing movements — the one that accepted secular moderni­­ty, the other that assumed fundam­entalism. This is what happened both in the subcontinent and the Middle East. As a related development, says French scholar Jacques Berque “Today, all too many militants and intellectuals, are proponents either of an authenticity with no future or of a modernism with no roots.”
Allama Iqbal enhanced the legacy of Afghani. His magnum opus, Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, wherein Abduh and Sir Syed fail to find a place even in the footnotes, proves to be the linchpin of Islamic modernism.
However, Islamic modernism as a systematic thought found full expression in Dr Fazlur Rahman’s constructs. He was the epitome of traditional as well as modern learning. Mystic tradition supplied him with vast reservoirs of faith, and modern learning equipped him with intellectual prowess. His belief in intellectual egalitarianism gave him the courage to speak and write the truth with no holds barred. In his discourse, revelation, reason and reality of the world are tuned to the same wavelength. As a lighthouse his legacy seems enough to lead the fleets to harbour. Are we ready to take the plunge?
The writer is an academician.
Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2024