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Aspects of Islam
Ron Geaves
Since 9/11 there is
a growing curiosity for Islam. At the other hand there is an increase in racism
and violence towards Muslims. A poll in 2004 however found out that only 10% of
the ‘white Britons’ had any contact with members of the migrant community.
Following questions
have to be asked: What is Islam? What do Muslims believe? Why does the Muslim
world appear to be in such conflict? Any attempt to understand the contemporary
sense of crisis within and without the Muslim world will need to be aware of
the inner struggles that are taking place and their causes.
The writer uses the
terms ‘traditional’ and ‘orthodox’. ‘Orthodox’ describes Muslims who go direct
to Qur’an
and Sunna.
‘Traditional’ indicates the majority who acknowledge the body of work
interpreting the Qur’an
and Sunna
and which incorporates local costumes.
The Western
media: a misrepresentation or a factual account?
In the Middle Ages, the Church projected a picture of Mohammed as
he was violent and permissive (with regard to Jesus who was a pacifist and
lived celibate). Islam was conceived as a heretical sect, for it was not in
accordance with Christian teaching. Above all they were alarmed by the rapid
expansion of Islam and the conquest of Christian territory. Especially the fear
for ‘the other’ helped maintain the ‘deformed image’ of Islam for centuries.
Also in present days this fear raises its head again.
The most common
elements of Christian polemic against Islam are:
·
Some
bible verses prove that the Qur’an is false revelation. But the same can Qur’an say of the
Christian scripture.
·
Mohammed’s
life was immoral, and therefore proof that the revelation was false.
·
Islam
is violent, proven by the military success of Mohammed.
·
Muslim
civilisation is a theatre of indulgence. This is most explicitly expressed in
the idea of loose sexual morals, debauchery and drugs and is dangerous to
Christian virtue.
From the 18th
Century onwards there was another way at looking at Islam. The Western world
wanted to come to terms with the Orient that is based upon the Orient’s special
place in European Western experience. Yet, the European academy study of the
East can be criticised as a method of dominating, restructuring and having
authority over the East (Said, 1978). Apart of the interest in the mysterious
Orient scientists wanted to find a biological basis for racial inequality and
provided an alternative way of denigrating the Oriental by explaining
backwardness, inequality and inability to match the West’s new capacities. Thus
scientists gave an alternative to Christian ‘myths’ of Islam’s degeneracy. Even
people as Richard Burton, who understood Muslims well was not free from
colonial ideas. E.g. “
In the 20th
C., Western scholars of Islam, as products of a colonial era, criticised Muslim
as having an innate difference between the Oriental and the Western mind, where
the Oriental mind rejects rationalism. These differences are primordial,
belonging to nature, rather than economic, politic or social circumstances. This
primordial idea still underlies the work of most of current Western scholars of
Islam after 9/11. They still posit Western democracy and the values of secular
humanism as the pinnacle of human achievement and in the process, still assert
the cultural, intellectual, political, economic and material supremacy of the West
over the East. None of this is presented as anything to do with relations of
power, but rather an innate superiority that leads to analyses that posit
Western civilisation contrasted with barbarism.
Any contemporary
negativity towards Islam has to be seen in the light of the history. Especially
after 9/11 have these fears and ignorance been risen again. Racism is not so
much anymore towards ethnicity, but rather towards people who follow Islam, “because
they refuse to integrate”.
A question to be
asked is also to which degree the media helps to persist
such view of Islam. In 1997, five years before 9/11, was found in the
‘Runnymede-report’ that ‘the media in particular are commonly Islamophobic.
The main concern of
Muslims with the Western media is that they tend to portray Muslims as either
terrorists or misogynists. The problem is that terrorist attacks are shown on
TV, but without any analysis or reflection on the individual situation that
provoked the event. So, it can become legitimate to perceive Muslims with
distrust and suspicion.
The
misunderstanding was/is not only one-way, although Muslims value Christianity
high for Jesus is a loved and respected prophet. Muslim criticism of
Christianity has been threefold:
1) Muslims think that Christian belief in a
tri-theistic God.
2) Muslims reject the idea of Incarnation.
“How can God be human and how can a
human being be
God?”
3) Christians have corrupted the monotheism of
Jesus, both textually and doctrinally.
Muslims have also
difficulties to understand ‘secular institutions’. Secular for them means
‘godless’ and therefore it leads to the idea of an immoral society. And Western
society, with its sexual permissiveness, capitalism based on interest, the use
of alcohol, crime rates, pornography, homosexuality, and child abuse is a sign
of it.
There has always
been Muslim polemic literature against Christianity. Since the colonial period
it is both a response missionary activities but also to help assert moral and
religious superiority in the face of political and economic decline.
Muslims are
returning to their religion and its traditions worldwide. They might form the
strongest resistance to the globalisation features, not so much because they
oppose the economic benefits from it, but because they see in it the
deficiencies that all the world’s great religious founders warned against.
How Christians and
Muslims represent one another in the media, or how secular media represents Muslims
has to be seen in the context of both the history of relations between the
cultures of Europe and the Muslim civilisations and the contemporary situation
of post-colonialism, especially since the events of 9/11 has transformed the
context worldwide. Problem is that the media is not very objective or informed.
Tabloids tend to be Islamophobic; liberal media
promote their oriental fantasies for fear being accused of Islamophobia.
In the meantime, the millions of devoted good Muslims tend to be forgotten.
Doctrine and
architecture: manifestations of tawhid (God’s unity and uniqueness).
The doctrine of tawhid (God’s
unity and uniqueness) is embodied in the first clause of the shahada
(the profession of faith that there is no God but God and Mohammad is His
Prophet), and proclaims ‘There is no god but God”. This not only means a
rejection of plural gods, but also that nothing should be put in the way of
divine rule.
Tawhid and its implications
The tawhid has a lot
of implications. First of all it is a statement about God’s unity and
uniqueness. This unity and uniqueness is manifested in nature, human
relationships, social organisations, worship and ritual and even the material
dimension of the religion. Allah is one, and has revealed his true religion to
numerous individuals throughout time and to all cultures. Each time it was
distorted by culture or polytheism. People are prone to forgetfulness and
weakness, but their innermost being is altruistic and drawn towards godliness. Din
(religion) is to work to fitra, the state of
oneness with God, and to overcome the human weakness and forgetfulness.
The unity of God is
also replicated in the human community. This unity is demonstrated through the
ritual life of the Muslim, especially in the salat,
the communal prayer, and even more in the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to
Makkah, where every person surrender its individual
identity into the religious community. Muslims look to this tahwid
also for setting up political structures, and all other things in life.
The Qur’an speaks of Allah as both transcendent and immanent.
Many Muslims emphasise the transcendence for fear of diluting tawhid. In this respect also architecture and art
unite with religion, for there is no image or representation of the sacred to
be found in the mosque or in Muslim sacred art. This emphasis on the
transcendence can even be overemphasised and lead to forms where love and
intimacy between creator and creature are nearly completely ignored.
Yet there is
immanence in Islam. God is manifested to his subjects through love and beauty. “He is with you where ever you may be” (Qur’an 57:4). For many Muslims the spirituality of Islam is
discovered in the presence of Allah within his creation.
The embodiments of tawhid
·
The
mosque (ß Mesquito (Sp.) or masjid
(Ar.))
It is a place of
ritual prostration, the act of submission that acknowledges the awesome
presence of God’s unity. The simple architectural features replicate the main
function as a place of prayer. Prayer requires wudu,
the ritual purification in which head, ears, nose, mouth, feet and arms are
washed. Then the worshippers can declare their intention to Allah, made to
ensure sincerity of worship.
The mosque’s
features reflect the tawhid in two respects.
1) The absence of images.
2) The way that the
mosque turns the worshipper to one single point, Makkah, by the qiblah, a niche in the wall to which the worshippers
turn for prayer.
·
The mazar or qubbah
The mazar are shrines where holy Muslims are buried.
Many people pray at these shrines, venerating them and asking them to intercede
for them and their cause. Though Islam doesn’t support holy places, these
shrines are seen as holy places and the saints as one in whom God lives
closely. Through the saints one can come closer to God.
There are Muslims,
especially in the Arab world, who dislike these practices. In the 18th
C. there was a revival movement who found that this veneration of saints
distracted Muslims from tawhid, as it was in Mohammad’s
days.
Conclusion
Though tawhid
points to monotheism the unity and uniqueness has divided the Muslim community
religiously and ideologically. Especially the political significance has been
noted by activists. There have been several revival and reform movements
throughout the history of Islam, which understood the reformation and the shari’a in its
own way.
The shari’a: the law of God or cultural construct?
Within Muslim
understandings of law, the shari’a is
perceived very different from Western perceptions of law. Shari’a
means ‘water-place’, for it is an essential requirement for human existence.
Its ultimate purpose is the common good, the welfare of all creation, but
particularly human beings. The judgements of the shari’a
are based on scriptural revelation and their goal is to maintain wholeness and
harmony, both at an individual and collective level.
For Muslims it is
axiomatic that the Qur’an
is untouched by any human input, and contains only the unadulterated words of
God. Mohammed is only the human ‘voice’.
It remains the last
and ultimate scripture, the fullest testament of God’s will and it is the
responsibility of the Muslim community to protect its integrity.
The verses of the Qur’an can be
divided into those delivered at Makkah and those
delivered a
Hadith (report of the sayings or deeds of the
Prophet passed on by his Companions. The Hadith collections are second only to the Qur’an as a
source of authority.)
The Qur’an does not
deal with every circumstance in life. Thus the Muslim turned to the Mohammad,
the Prophet of God, to imitate his words and deeds. Therefore it was essential
to find out which statements and deeds attributed to him were genuine. Only
then could the Sunna
(the way of the Prophet) be the second most powerful influence on Muslim life
after the Qur’an
and supplement the revelation.
By the end of
Islam’s first century Hadith
were beginning to proliferate. At that time already the Prophet’s infallibility
was developing as doctrine. Six collections Hadith were accepted as authentic,
with two having the most authority. To search for the authenticity was quite a
rigorous process.
Together the Qur’an and the Hadith provided a
root from which law could be derived. Where the Qur’an was specific, no further
elaboration was required; where the Qur’an gave only universal principals the Sunna provided
specificity; where the Qur’an
revealed commandments Muhammad provided examples of practice.
However, in the
course of time new circumstances and problems arose, for which Qur’an and Sunna didn’t
provide guidance. Therefore three mechanisms were developed:
-
Ijtihad Individual scholarly inquiry that goes back
to direct interpretation of Qur’an and Sunna
-
Ijma: Consensus of the community on matters of
law and practice
-
Qiyas: The use of analogical reasoning to
authenticate reinterpretations of Shari’a. (e.g.: the Qur’an says for a child not to say ‘Fie’ to his parents, but it can also prohibit other abusive words).
The four schools of Law
There are four
schools of law in Islam. Each school came into being by focusing on a different
aspect of revelation. The codification of the law into an organised and
disciplined body of knowledge achieved by deduction and consensus created a
structured discipline of Islamic jurisprudence.
Thus the Shari’a came to
be a comprehensive system based upon the revelation laid out in the Qur’an and the Sunna of Muhammad
and interpreted by the founders of the four Muslim schools of Law.
In addition, the
early scholars of jurisprudence acknowledged that the codification had to
provide the space for personal discovery and that for the system to be
all-encompassing it had to go beyond acts which were either forbidden or
permitted. A five-fold categorisation of actions was developed, going from
obligatory acts to actions which are prohibited, with in between actions which
are recommended, actions to which Allah is indifferent and action which Allah
frowns upon, but which are not forbidden.
Opponents and contradictories
Due time there have
been conflicts developed between the Ulema, as custodians of God’s law, and the various rulers of
Muslim territory. Absolute rulers tried to circumvent God’s moral restrictions,
and the Ulema
vied with them to keep the shari’a as central as possible. In reality, two parallel
systems of laws existed side by side. Rulers were allowed to develop their own
regulatory system as long it was not given the name shari’a.
The compromise was
not accepted by everyone. Some wanted to return to the basic elements and
simplicity of the Prophet’s time, modelling there lives on the lives of
Mohammad’s Companions. They sought for mystical closeness and rejected the
outward obedience of the law.
Others were
critical of the law implemented by the Ulema as they were in alliance with the corrupt rulers.
Therefore they wanted to engage in Ijtihad, and return to Qur’an and Sunna to determine shari’a.
Conclusion
Western and
non-Muslim scholars of Islam were cautious about the process of constructing
the shari’a.
How authentic were the traditions which were collected and what was the
relation between law-formation as a political exercise and the development of
Muslim theology? This questioning was much less done by Muslim scholars.
This critique
reached its highest point during the colonial time and after it, when more
Muslim nations became independent. What was the relation between the shari’a and the
state? There was an increasing call for an Islamic state, even though
historically it is not sure if this ever existed before. Yet, even though the shari’a is
developed from Qur’an
and sunna
(which are inviolable and eternal truths) a certain creativity for new
situations is possible.
The Umma: an homogenous unity or deeply
divided?
Introduction
Muslims claim that
Islam has no division between the sacred and the secular, but there is.
Foremost there is the titanic struggle between good and evil which began will
the creation of the first human being and will continue until the Last
Judgement and the vindication of God’s faithful. Connected to this central
duality is the dichotomy between the ideal and the real that is central to the
Muslim sense of struggle or Jihad.
Islam is the perfect religion and the practical and achievable way to meet the
ideal, and although it is possible to reach it, most fall short through
weakness or forgetfulness, enticed away by the distractions of the world.
The idea of Umma is linked
with divine judgement and an imperative for all beings to be gathered at the
final day. God also send human messengers to warn human beings, such as Ibrahim and Jesus. Thus the Umma can also be defined as a
people who have been provided with one or more messengers. But the succession
of prophets from Adam to Jesus was met by derision and disbelief by the
majority.
Before Mohammad the
Jews and Christians were blessed by God with messengers, but they turned away
from God’s stray path. However, they are not all condemned. There is a saved
remnant that ‘right’ before God. This idea of a saved remnant comes up again
later, in a different context, within Islam.
Mohammad had hoped
for recognition from the local Jews and Christians. When that didn’t happen he
turned away from them and directed his energy to the Muslim community. He hoped
for unity here, though he realised that the motivations of some newcomers were
not that honest. It is here that the idea of the righteous remnant reappears.
At this time it is addressed to the Muslims and not to the ‘People of the Book’. Later this idea is
taken up again by various revival movements, up to our contemporary time.
The myth of unity
Although Umma (unity) in
Islam is an ideal, it rarely ever existed. Some conflicts have old histories,
others are revitalised under the crises of modernity.
Muslims maintain
the myth of unity for it is difficult to admit that the ‘final revelation’ is
bedevilled by the diseases of its predecessors. Allah cannot send a new
revelation for the Qur’an
was the final one. Yet the belief developed though history that God will send a
special figure every one hundred year to restore unity. According to a saying
attributed to Muhammad the Muslim community would become divided in 72 sects,
of which one maintains true Islam. Of course each of the groups thinks of
themselves that they are the real Islamic group and the others are heretic
ones. The saying provides also the stimulus for every sectarian movement to
appear as each new reformer and his followers see themselves as the one that
maintains true Islam.
Another division is
the cultural division. Although there may be a unity before God, in all other
aspects such as class, ethnicity, gender, wealth and place of birth, Muslim
society could not obtain the consciousness of Umma as an overriding unity.
Arabs felt themselves superior to other tribes, for God had chosen an Arab for
His final revelation.
Even in Britain,
where a relatively new Muslim population has successfully forged an identity on
Islam, and where they could be said to have identified with ‘Islamic Ideology’
over and above ‘ethno-linguistic and racial backgrounds’, ethnicity has not yet
been subsumed. There is a desire for a united Muslim identity based on
religion, yet in reality there is little sign of trans-ethnic communication.
Muslims of different places of origin remain in their own enclave, attend their
own mosques, marry within their own national groupings and maintain their own
customs. And the divisions are even more finely tuned than simply national
backgrounds and loyalties.
Yet there are
politico-religious movements that attempt to promote an ideology that
transcends ethnicity and to unite Muslims together under the banner of
religion. It is within these movements that one find young Muslims from across
the ethnic divides, consciously identifying with a trans-national Islamic
identity and seeking to restore the unitary vision of the Umma. It is also amongst such
movements that one finds radicalisation, although not necessarily of a violent
propensity.
Islam and nationalism
Through the 18th
and 19th Century Muslims increasingly found themselves living under
the domination of Christian or (even worse) secular European rulers. This led
to a crisis to which the Ulema
were unable to react in an adequate way. Referring to cling to the traditional
ways, they retreated to the mosques and Muslim seminaries, a domain were they
could retain control. Though most Muslims agreed that Islamic revival was
necessary in order to restore the Umma, they disagreed the way this had to be done. This led
to polarisation and divided Muslims politically and religiously. Some were convinced that Muslims could
rediscover their power by rejuvenating the morality and ethics of Islam but
meanwhile learn from European development which had been made in science and
technology. Liberal and modernist reformers (19th-20th
C.) believed that creative interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunna was open to all Muslim in
order to discover the way to adapt Islam to the changing conditions of modern
society, thus permitting legal and social reform. In return, the Ulema accused the
reformers of introducing innovations from the Christian world which would
corrupt Islam.
A new intellectual
class of Muslims challenged the authority of the Ulema. Influenced by nationalism,
they stressed ‘loyalty to the nation’ rather than the Umma. In the 20th
Century, there was a fundamental shift of territorial loyalty to the nation
state.
After World War II
the occupied Muslim nations fought for and became independent. Yet the new rulers
were formed and educated in
Besides the
conflicts between the Western-influenced ruling classes and the traditional Ulema, there
exist a third major division. In the 20th Century revivalist
movements appeared with an agenda to remove Western influences from Muslim
nations. They asserted that the primary loyalty of Muslims should be the global
community of Islam, even if initially it meant the overturning of Muslim
governments and their replacement by an Islamic state and the implement of the Shari’a.
Conclusion
There are major
political and cultural divisions within Islam. Yet, there is a sense of
belonging which is maintained through the unity of Islam’s ritual and cultic
practices, such as salat, hajj and Ramadan.
Martyrdom: the Shi’a doctrine of suffering opposed to the Sunni doctrine of “Manifest Success”
Martyrdom is not
part and parcel of the psyche of all Muslims throughout history. It is more
associated with the Shi’a minority than with the Sunni. The Qur’an
mentions martyrdom in the context of the first Muslim deaths at the battles of Badr and Uhud after Muhammad’s
emigration to
Ruthwen argues that the Sunni regard Islam as a “triumphalist
faith”. At the contrary, the Shi’a, developed “myths and theologies for dealing with failure”.
Yet, most current suicide bombers come from the Sunni majority. Since the decline of Muslim power in the face of
Western political supremacy, Sunni “triumphalism” has been seriously challenged.
In Islam God
accompany humanity in history. The hope is to reach victory on Judgement Day.
In the early days
of Muhammad as prophet he was ridiculed a lot. When he fled from Makkah to
Of course, such a
theology has problems with failure. If the withdrawal of God’s grace is
permanent, the religious community has no justification for existence. If it’s
temporary, it’s a sign that the believers were lacking in the required
submission to God and must restore divine favour.
Soon after the
battle at Badr there was another battle at Uhud. Although Muhammad didn’t want to go on battle he was
persuaded by other Muslims. They met with heavy losses. It was interpreted as
had the Muslims disobeyed Muhammad who wouldn’t had
gone for battle.
The Qur’an provides
the biggest section on martyrdom after this battle at Uhud.
For those who remained steadfast and lost their lives, eternal reward is
promised in the afterlife.
Sunni success
This pattern of
victories and setbacks re-emerged again and again through history. So, every
time when there was political or military failure the Ulema called for religious
revival to regain God’s favour.
The biggest shock
for the Sunni came with European
colonialism. It was interpreted as a revival of Christian authority. How could
this happen as God had replaced Christianity by Islam as his new community of
salvation? The response throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was
a succession of regional religious revivals and reform of Islam.
The Shi’a
The Shi’a don’t
know the doctrine of “Manifest Success”. They have always been a minority
despised by the Sunni. The origin of
the division of the Shi’a goes back to the time of Muhammad’s death. The Shi’a believe
that Muhammad had chosen his son-in-law and cousin Ali to become his successor
as leader of the Muslim community. In Shi’a conviction Ali was blessed with a
charisma similar to Muhammad’s own. Yet,
after Muhammad’s death the elders of the tribes choose Abu Bakr,
one of the close Companions of Muhammad as their leader. Some Muslims were
opposed to it and never accepted the decision, for it was against the Prophet’s
wishes. These people became known as the Party of Ali, Shi’at Ali.
At the end, after
even two other Muslims had become leader and had died, Ali became the leader of
the Muslim community, known as the Fourth Caliph. Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite, a member of this radical reform movement who
found that Ali was not following God’s commandment. Now the caliphate was laid
into the hands of Mu’awayi, member of the Ummayad empire, and not in the
bloodline of Muhammad. Henceforth the Shi’a would view the mainstream of Sunni
Islam as an illegitimate empire that never could be the true people of God.
At the end of the 7th
Century, Hussain, Muhammad’s sole surviving grandson,
was killed in an attack. Ali, Hussain’s son could
escape and thus, according the Shi’a, the bloodline of Muhammad was ensured and
so the succession of the leaders of the Muslim community.
The Shi’a adopted a “doctrine of suffering”
after the multiple experiences of defeat, especially after Hussain
brutal murder. Therefore, it is in Hussain that they
discover the embodiment of their fate and their hope for ultimate success. The
event of Hussain’s death, known as Ashura became the
focus of a special kind of ‘passion’ piety wherein there is the hope and
vindication that Hussain’s tragic faith will redeem
the Shi’a faithful, but there is also a veneration of martyrdom. Every year
there are processions at the festival of Muharram and men and boys flagellate
themselves with whips and chains, glorifying the concept of martyrdom. The Ashura is
important for the Shi’a. It is ingrained in their religion and culture and it
dominates their history as the enduring memory, repeated in every act of
injustice felt to be perpetuated against them. Those who die in the cause of
Shi’a resistance to oppression are assured entry into paradise and held up as
followers in the footsteps of the Prophet’s blessed grandson, the prince of all
martyrs.
Jihad:
Islamic Warfare or spiritual effort
Introduction
Jihad is one of the
most misunderstood and misrepresented aspect of Islam, not only by the Western
media which refers to Jihad only in
the context of “terrorist attacks organised by so-called militant
fundamentalist Muslims”, but also by a minority of Muslims who interpret it
only in the narrow sense of religious war.
The origins of Jihad
The historic roots
of jihad are located in the events that took place in the birth of Islam, first
at Mohammad’s reception in Makkah and than in
When Islam grew the
key-division in the Arab society became between believer and unbeliever. Later
Muhammad was able to overtake Makkah and turned the
city into a Muslim city. It is in this period that Qur’an speaks most of Jihad and its consequences of martyrdom.
Jihad and the Qur’an
The Qur’an in Sura 22,39-40 refers to the
expulsion of Muslims from Makkah and gives them the
permission to take up arms against aggressors. Together with verse 2.190 it
provides justification for “defensive Jihad”,
where there is oppression and tumult, but there are restrictions and
limitations. Yet verse
After Muhammad
The main division
came about the issue of leadership, developing into the formation of the two
main Muslim branches Sunni and Shi’a.
When Islam expanded
and conquered empires had to incorporate into the Muslim fold the danger of
division rose. Not all became Muslim out of conviction. This gave rise for debate
over who was deemed as a hypocrite. The Kharijite
movements decided that hypocrites could be defined as non-Muslims and therefore
Jihad was permitted against them.
These Kharijite movements permitted assassination for
religious reasons and they declared Jihad as the sixth pillar of Islam. They
justified their actions with the theory of the ‘righteous remnant’. The Kharijite movement didn’t survive, but they left a lasting
legacy of a particular relationship between Jihad
and Umma
which was to be picked up again in the 20th century by Jamaat revivalist movements.
Cosmology of Jihad
Islam means
‘Peace’. It is understood as ‘obedience to God’, an act of surrender to Allah’s
will, a process which requires effort to maintain throughout life to the final
moment. Although it is not mentioned often in the context of Jihad, Islam begins with an act of
cosmic disobedience of Shiatan,
which result in the human race becoming a battleground between Allah and Shiatan. Unbelief
in Islam is an act of disobedience. The Muslim struggle is to obey God. Atheism
does not appear as an option.
When Muslims gather
in prayer throughout the world they believe themselves to be performing the
eternal rite of prostration and worship performed by heavenly hosts. Final
victory over Shiatan
will come when all human beings join in true obeisance to the creator by circumambulation
of the Ka’aba in the final days. Jihad takes place at
Jihad takes place
at the individual level in a struggle to purify the heart and avoid wrongdoing
whilst living by the tenets of God’s revelation. It is also performed at the
communal level, where Muslims support one another in promoting and maintaining
God’s religion. On the other hand it can also literally mean the defence of the
faith: an armed struggle against those who threaten Islam’s existence or
prevent a Muslim from worshipping in the described faith. Also the struggle for
justice and compassion will be included in this. But it is here that the
borders between the two become blur.
The promotion of Islam
It is the mission
of the Muslim community to spread and to promote the final revelation (Islam) to
every human being, Muslim as well as non-Muslim. In most parts of the world the
invitation (da’wa)
is directed to fellow-Muslims to bring them back to the faith. For radical
movements da’wa
is framed within a particular context in which Muslims are seen as fallen away
from the ideal practice from their religion and are called back to a purer
form. Radical leaders see that they have to take over the leadership of the
world once again, which rightfully belongs to the people true to revelation.
Political Islam
Colonialism in the
18th-19th Century altered the Muslim relationship with
The new revivalist
movements with their anti-West rhetoric distinguish rarely Western secularism
from Christianity. Thus the idea of an Islamic movement came about: a righteous
minority afloat in a sea of godlessness with an imperative to create Islamic
government. Jihad was the only way to
destroy authoritarian regimes and reform the Muslim world in a last battle
against the forces that denied God’s role as law giver and sovereign. Initially
the West was not the target, but Muslim society, calling for a new Caliphate,
reasserting an ideal of a united Umma that displaced the western concept of nation.
Violent Jihad
The idea of ‘Holy
War’ is not a Muslim concept, but a very loose translation of Jihad, borrowing on the Christian
concept of ‘crusade’. Muslims, however, can legitimately turn to violence for
the defence of religion. It also can move to the offensive in certain
circumstances (a type of pre-emptive strike). Only then war is morally
justified.
Spiritual Jihad
Even as the lesser Jihad (armed struggle) can be necessary,
of more importance and a duty of Muslims is the great Jihad. This is the
spiritual struggle against the forces of ego, the preoccupation with our own
selves and our own desires. After all, it was the original act of the devil’s
refusal to bow at Allah’s command. It is the devil within that needs to be juxtapositioned with the Qur’an’s affirmation that “Allah
is closer to the human being as the jugular’s vein”.
Conclusion
It might be
difficult for the Western world to understand the violence that can erupt from
some Jihadist groups, but they operate in their terms
within the paradigm of a defensive war. It is the struggle against evil in the
self and the evil in the society.
Muslim fundamentalism: A misnomer or the
heart of the faith?
Some questions will
be asked here: “Is it useful to label such movements as ‘Fundamentalist’? Is
the category ‘Fundamentalism’ in any sense within the context of Islam? To what
degree is so-called Muslim fundamentalism unique to the religion or part of a
universal religious response to globalisation of secularisation or corporate
consumer capitalism?”
Defining fundamentalism
If we have to
define it we have to move beyond the popular usage of the term by the public
and the media where it is used for some types of religion seen as anti-modern,
traditionalist, intolerant and reactionary.
Muslims are
suspicious of the term as it imposes upon their religion a Christian
terminology laden with theological baggage which cannot be transferred to
Islam. But any Muslim who takes his religion serious will refer to the Qur’an and will
therefore be labelled as fundamentalist. There are scholars who rather speak of
“revivalists, reformists, Jihadists, Islamists or
Islamic militant” rather than of fundamentalist.
Any examination of
the location of fundamentalism in Islam would need to explore both the vertical
and the horizontal approach.
Vertical approaches: the
historical context
The historical
context is not the only cause for fundamentalism, but it is an important one.
Observers of Muslim fundamentalism need to be aware of the following factors:
-
Cosmic
conflict scenario
Since the creation
of humankind there is a battle between Allah and Shaitan, for the hearts and minds
of human beings. Islam is the last revelation to be maintained in its purity
and totality.
-
Concept
of jahiliyya
Jahiliyya signifies a condition of idolatry,
godlessness, social injustices, immorality and dependence on the self as
opposed to obedience to the divine will. Some Muslims sees this happening in
the Western world and in the contemporary Muslim societies.
-
The
doctrine of “Manifest success”
Having
success means that one is on the straight path. Major failure is perceived as a sign of
divine displeasure and a marker that the Muslim population has left the
Straight Path”. Therefore, religious revival is necessary.
-
The Qur’an’s
justification of Jihad
Jihad is the response to the cosmic conflict and the struggle to overcome jahiliyya. When oppression from outside is felt
the call for a military struggle is stronger.
-
The Kharajites
The Kharajites movements supplied a model to those who would
struggle against perceived injustice and political corruption of the Muslim Umma.
-
The
repeated pattern of revival and reform
The doctrine of
“Manifest Success” leads to a pattern of religious revival as a response to
external crises. God’s revealed practices and beliefs must be kept pure. It has
become part of the traditional Muslim belief that Allah sends a reformer every
hundred years to maintain the revelation and destroy any innovatory departure
from it. Every movement with a charismatic leader can say that their leader is
the Mujaddid.
-
The
Mongol invasion and Ibn Taymiyya
(1268-1328)
The Mongol invasion
and defeat of the Muslims in 1258AD left the Muslim world devastated and led to
serious self-questioning. It led to serious reforms. One scolar,
Ibn Taymiyya,
called for a literalist interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunna and the observation of
Islam based on the period of Muhammad in
Ibn Taymiyya is seen
by many revivalist movements as the foremost inspiration and remains their
model of renewal and revolution.
-
The
decline of Islam
In the time of
colonialism, it was seen as that God awarded the Christians with “Manifest
Success”. Therefore, in the whole Muslim world significant Muslim figures
created movements to reform Islam. The most important is Muhammad ibn al-wahhab (d. 1791AD). He
wanted to form an Islamic state (now known as Saudi Arabia), but more
significantly a global religious movement that to this day remain influential as
it promotes the ideals of the founder throughout the Muslim world as the
authentic and pure form of Islam. This movement is known as ‘Wahhabism’.
-
Crisis
– the creation of Muslim nations
The armed Jihad-movements of the 18th-19th
Century disappeared and turned to their own people to educate them, attempting
to safeguarding them from popular Sufi practices and contamination from Western
culture and ideas. They lost their radical edge and became neo-conservative
forces in the world of Islam by the time independent Muslim states were created.
While the 20th
Century renewal movements do not differ much from other renewal movements
earlier on, are there some significant differences:
a)
The
West is perceived as having a crusader mentality against the Muslim world.
Muslims must respond by fighting against the Western neo-colonialism.
b)
An
Islamic government that fully implements the Shari’a is an imperative, based
on the Qur’an’s
call to live only in obedience to God.
c)
Muslims
who fail to implement an Islamic state governed by God’s law can be regarded as
non-Muslims and legitimately opposed even by the use of force if necessary. The
armed struggle against these non-Muslim governments can be extended to state-sponsored
members of the Ulema
and mosques.
d)
Jihad against such regimes is a religious duty and should be extended to
Western government who support these non-Muslim governments.
e)
Christians
and Jews are not seen anymore as “People of the Book” but as partners in a
Judeo-Christian conspiracy against Islam and the Muslim world. (Esposito,
1988:170-172).
Why these reform
and renewal movements became more focused on opposition to the West we have to
explore contemporary challenges focused around colonial and post-colonial
forces in the origins and evolution of the Muslim nation states.
Horizontal approaches: the
social and political context
We also have to
look at the wider political, social, economic and cultural contexts in todays
and in history’s context. Many Muslims have insisted that Westernisation
imposes a Christian model on Muslims and ignoring the unique nature of Islam’s
revelation, where governance and God are interwoven. Thus many Muslim thinkers
have called to be sifted out from Western models of secularisation and given a
unique Islamic mode of expression and development.
It is necessary to
understand the relationship of religion in de role of nation-building in the
post-colonial era and to place “Islamic fundamentalism” within the framework of
liberation movements.
Politically, a
number of world events in the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union
(Palestine-Israel, lack of support of the West to the Chechnya’s struggle for
independence, ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the Balkans, invasion in Iraq and
Afghanistan, presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia) have reinforced
conspiracy theories and the view that the USA and its allies have declared war
on Islam itself. Yet despite all this is the significant impetus of the conflicts
still local, continuing various national struggles to either establish Muslim
states or to give Muslim communities in multi-cultural areas more autonomy.
Fundamentalism and nationhood
Any literal
approach of any religion will justify the use of violence. This is not only
true for Islam, but for any religion. The link between nationhood, identity and
religion can also be found in different religion, such as Judaism, Hinduism,
Christianity, etc. Just think about Zionism in
Islam and nationalism
A big threat to
Islam was the foundation of “nation states”. It goes in to the idea of “Umma”. Especially
the concept of “secular states” provoked a crisis to the Muslims. There were
two major issues. First, not all the nations were to compete on the same level
with one another. Even after colonisation Western countries maintained a
relationship of dominance through economic and military superiority. Secondly,
Muslim nations felt uncomfortable with the new paradigm on religious grounds.
Rationalism and humanism gradually desacralised the cosmos. Another problem was
that when economic success was achieved it was often with the loss of local
culture.
The first attempts
to seek an Islamic solution didn’t seek an alternative to the nation state.
Rather, the new movements try to implement Islamic law to the respective
nations. In the last decades of the 20th Century many Muslim nations
were involved in the struggle how the nation should be structured and if the
nation should be secular or religious.
Islam and fundamentalism
Both, the vertical
and the horizontal approach have to be taken into account when we try to
analyse fundamentalism. When we look into the history of Islam, we see that
there have always been reform and renewal movements whenever Muslim society and
civilisation is under attack or in decline.
A number of
attitudes to the West have been shaped by the domination of the West in the
Muslim countries. While most Muslims are poor they are drawn towards Islamic
rhetoric borrowing from the Qur’an’s voice concerning social injustice and divine
retribution for the offenders. Most revivalist and reform responses seek more
peaceful methods of transformation. The most common response by Muslim nations
to the dominance of the West has been to duplicate as well as possible the
Western paradigm of material success. We find the more radical responses
towards this imitation by the rulers of Muslim nations. Any attempts to analyse
the causes of Muslim revivalism must be rooted in an anti-colonial and
post-colonial discourse, combined with attempts to redefine nationhood in
uniquely Islamic terms. New movements, such as Mawlana
Maududi and Sayyid Qutb, responded the Zeitgeist.
To see all revival
and reform movements as fundamentalists would be too narrow a focus.
Conclusion
To understand
something of Islamic revivalism and the violent events which have taken place
in last years we have to look at the horizontal as well as the vertical
approach.
But to understand
the complexity of the contemporary Muslim world, we also have to take into
account that there are at least four paradigms: the power political paradigm; the
reformist paradigm; the renewalist paradigm; mystical
Islam
The power political
paradigm describes the present condition of most Muslim nations, borrowed from
the Western conception of the nation state. This paradigm provides the
well-spring of contemporary Muslim revival in all its forms.
The reformist
paradigm seeks to re-establish Islamic values through seeking the essentials of
Islam and transforming social practices and belief in accordance with the
spirit of the religion, through reinterpretation of the Qur’an
and Sunna. The reformist paradigm may well harmonise
with Western human rights, issues of social justice, right of women and
ecological concern.
The renewalist paradigm tends to reject Western ideas and
lifting up Islamic solutions discovered by return to an ideal Islam, as it was
in the early Muslim communities.
Mystical Islam is
more known as Sufism. It advocates spirituality as the way to transformation,
both individually and socially.
The last three
paradigms could by some be labelled as fundamentalists. It is certainly true
that the revivalist paradigm dominated the scene for the last fifty years, but
there are signs that a revival of Islamic spirituality is taking over.
Muslims have to
remember (and many do) that the Qur’an is above all else a text to be used as a guidance on
submission to, and intimacy with God.
There are two
revivals happening in the Muslim world: political Islam (// fundamentalism) and
faith-based Islam who seek fundamentals for a concrete living Islam.
Muslim Women: Islam’s oppressed or victims
of patriarchy?
This chapter will
look at the situation of Muslim women, looking at western stereotypes and the
views of female perspectives from within Islam.
Muslim women argue
that their religion safeguards women and that the Qur’an provided rights to
seventh-century women that were not given to British women until the nineteenth
century. Western feminists see Muslim women as oppressed by patriarchal
cultures that need to be brought in line with (post-) modernist Western
culture.
Important is not to
generalise about the situation of women in Islam, but to recognise the
diversity of women’s experiences across the Muslim world. At the other hand,
the teachings of Qur’an
and Hadith
concerning women’s roles and her rights and responsibilities are shared by all
Muslims.
The historical context
In the Qur’an one can
find a whole chapter dedicated to women (Sura 4).
This has to be understood in the context of the first Muslim’s appraisal and
critique of the values and attitudes of the non-Muslim cultures that it founded
itself surrounded by and in competition with in Muhammad’s time. So, it had
more to do with the rival attitude of men towards women than with women’s
rights. The chapter on women might have been written to provide guidance to
Muslim males on how to treat their wives and daughters, rather than to a female
audience.
In the early years
of Islam, when Christian and other civilisation were conquered by Muslims, the
Muslims might well have taken over certain traditions of the old civilisation. The
adoption of the veil, for example, by wealthy Muslim women, was part of the
assimilation of “the mores of the conquered people”, pointing to its usage in
the Christian Middle East and the Mediterranean region, which was at their turn
influenced by the older female dress customs of ancient Babylonian,
Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures.
According Barbara Stowasser was the Medieval Muslim society far more
patriarchal than the early Muslim communities in Medinah
and Makkah. The original equality was lost as Muslims
conquered territories inhabited by earlier religions, such as Orthodox
Christianity and Zoroastrianism.
The Qur’an provides
no account of the creation of the first human pair that favours one over another.
The story of the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib only occurs in Muslim
traditional literature in the period following the Muslim conquests.
For many Muslim
women the following of the Qur’an and through the example of Muhammad and his
Companions, the understanding of their place in society is made authoritative.
They perceive Islam as the ideal to which their men have failed to match. It is
in following God’s will that men and women are equal.
The formative years
of Islam’s beginnings provide a number of high-profile women from amongst
Muhammad’s wives and descendents, such as Khadijah,
Muhammad’s first wife. She was a business woman from pre-Islamic
The colonial period
Muslim nations such
as
Many Muslims
embraced the western values and this translated itself in “remaking women”. Some
leading women took up the cause of emancipation. Yet these emancipating voices
belonged usually to the educated and represented the elite of Muslim society.
But even so, society changed, from “men being in charge for women” to “men
having responsibility for women”.
The post-colonial period
The post-colonial
period is marked by a repudiation of Western values and a reassertion of
Islam’s superiority. Muslims wanted to rediscover its original purity in order
to resolve the current world crises and fuel a renaissance of the Muslim world.
Also women reflected on their rights within Islam and searched for truly Muslim
role models of womanhood and this under the question of how to be ‘modern’
without being ‘Western’. How can Muslim women’s lives be transformed in ways
that are indigenous rather than borrowing from Western feminism? Thus they are
able to counter the charge by conservative elements in the Islamic community.
Another factor
influencing gender relations was the arrival of Muslim communities in the
Western world. Thus Muslim women had closer contact with Western women. On the
other hand, non-Muslims reacted hostile towards the increasing Islamic presence
in
The discourse of the veil
A big discussion in
the West is the veil many Muslim women wear. Often it is seen as a sign of
oppression of the male Muslims, but this is a bit a simplistic view. In the
last decades many young, educated Muslim women have chosen to wear it as a
symbol of resistance and cultural authenticity or as a conscious symbol of
their Islamic identity. Wearing the veil may be a rejection of the values of
the West and a resistance to the former European colonial period of de-veiling.
Often Western
feminists misunderstand the use of the veil and devalue local cultures by
insisting that their own way is the only way. Muslim women who wear the veil
often defend themselves by saying that it provides freedom, dignity and
assertion that women are not only to be perceived as sexual objects or
consumers of fashion. Yet such women should not be perceived as traditional.
It’s more likely that they will be active in challenging their men’s
understandings of Islam and demanding their full rights as given by Qur’an, Hadith ans fiqh.
They can also be critical about the freedom gained by Western women, seeing
them as exploited by consumer capitalism and reduced to sexual objects of male
lust.
Segregation of women
In public life
there seems to be segregation between men and women. This is also in mosques,
where often women are not allowed, or where they have a place separated from
the men. Often this is perceived by the West as discrimination.
Yet, though more
studies have to be done on the matter, some studies in
Notes of warning to the unwary
We have to be aware
how little we know about Muslim women. Often we perceive Muslim women as
oppressed, because we see them as victims of jihab or of arranged marriage.
But they themselves may not perceive it in that way.
We might think
present ourselves as an elite voice, somehow more knowledgeable and enlightened
than Muslim women itself and wanting to liberate them from the “oppression”.
Conclusion
For many Muslim
women it is not rejection of Islam that leads to their liberation, but rather
an attempt to restore the rights given to them at Islam’s inception. But there
is an ironical contradiction in it. The women who choose to follow their
religion seriously find themselves allies to various revivalist and reform
movements that also believe the same narrative but applied wider than the
women’s rights and which want often to create Muslim states. They often lack
tolerance for pluralism and have a tolerance for opposition that cause problems
for the diversity of opinion amongst Muslim women.
Some authors argued
that the emphasis on women in the twentieth century has more to do with the
political environment in the colonial and post-colonial periods than with a
genuine concern for women themselves. It is certainly that the renewed interest
in Islam has to be seen in light of Muslim attitudes towards the West and an
attempt to reassert the supremacy of God’s revelation over secular values.
However, it should be noted that Islamic feminism doesn’t show a united face to
the world.