One of the issues that engage one's attention, especially in light of numerous simplified discussions, is the acute difference over the doctrine of crucifixion in the Christian faith. The more Christianity sticks to the doctrine of crucifixion and considers it a symbol of love, sacrifice and redemption, the highly critical Muslims become of this doctrine and the more they consider it mere falsehood and fabricated lies. The incidental observer of such muddled discussions can by no means get to a satisfactory positive or negative significance of this vehement argument over the crucifixion incident.
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Man is born with intellect and understanding through which he is distinguished from other creatures. It is this distinction that the Qur’an refers to in Allah’s statement: “And He taught Adam all the names (of everything).” (Al-Baqarah 2:31)
The purport here, as far as I am concerned, was not to teach Adam how to pronounce the names of these things. For, man’s formation and ability upon which Allah created him do not indicate that. Rather, the meaning was the knowledge about names of things – in all languages – which our father did not see in his primitive civilizational condition.1 The occurrence of that in such condition has no impact on the history of man and there is no practical proof for it in known human natures and capabilities.
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The predecessors translated the best of human sciences and knowledge available in their time into Arabic language. They digested it along with their native Arabic language and, in the process; they produced the sweetness of Islamic civilization.
The question now is: How can this translation be done in today’s sciences? How can their translation attain the required substance? The answer is: We need to learn from our experience and from the experience of others. The translation should be done according to a civilizational plan and vision that helps our effort and actualize our goal in enriching our Arabic language in a way that will enable us respond to the emerging challenge – the scientific and methodological challenge. It is in this way that we can make an originally creative contribution in the light of our Islamic civilization and our solid Islamic identity.
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There is no doubt that the attention paid by the Centre for Islamic Research and Studies to the issue of Islamic presentational approach in this stage of the Ummah’s contemporary journey is, ideologically, of utmost importance. For, this Ummah has been beset by weakness, disunity and ignominy it has never experienced before throughout its history. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the enlightened Muslim scholars, thinkers, educators and educated elite to seriously feel a sense of responsibility. This is because; the presentational approach directed towards the Ummah, is not up to the required standard. The presentation is supposed to be accurate and effective diagnosis of the Ummah’s situation and serve as a guide to the remedy for its diseases, and as an illuminating hope for its future and the future of its coming generations. As long as this presentation has not risen up to this desired standard, it will remain – in its substance – mere idle talk that has contributed immensely to the degeneration, weakness and backwardness of the Ummah.
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I do not think that there are really many serious issues that are confronting the Ummah at this stage of its life as much as the problem about situation of Arabic language. This is because; the issue of Arabic language deeply and serious impacts the Ummah’s identity and its relationship with its human message and civilizational heritage as well as its future existence. The Ummah should either move forward or move backward, and live and give or recede and die. This matter has reached an extent that UNESCO is predicting the death of Arabic language - that comprehensive language of the Arab nation and the preserver of Islamic nation’s heritage and history. It is a mistake to believe that extinction of nations or death of languages is impossible. Rather, in some cases, it is easily possible. Then we will realize that the fate of Arabic language will be like that of Latin that, torn up into different local dialects that quickly metamorphosed into diverse and independent languages such as English, French and Spanish. In this case, Arabic language, if adequate care is not taken, can change into tens of different local languages with appellations such as Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, Moroccan and the like. Then the pessimistic, backward and disoriented Muslim Arab whose wish and identity had been distorted will no longer need anything of the classical Arabic – as we presently see – more than ‘Al-Hamdulillah Rabil-‘Alamin’ and ‘Qul Huwallahu Ahad’. He will then become like an ordinary Hindi, Pakistani or Tanzanian Muslim.
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I have made it clear in the past in my suggestions to Shaikh Hasan ibn Abdillah Al Shaikh (may Allah have mercy upon him) – and I am still reaffirming it – that lack of satisfaction with religious education curriculum in our schools – at that time – was not related to the time specified for the study of religion or to the topics that were being treated. The essence of disagreement is about the material that was being presented to the student, the recommended textbooks, educational and teaching methodologies being employed in teaching these books, and consequently, the kind of scientific and educational training given to teachers of Islamic belief and their social-religious culture and their inefficient performance.
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The Ummah was built on the foundation of tawhid, istikhlaf, the pursuit of knowledge, and personal and communal responsibility. Although it was once a leading creator of and contributor to human civilization, over the last few centuries it has become weak and backward to the point of crisis.
The awareness of the Ummah’s regression is almost 1,000 years old, dating back far beyond the challenges of European colonization and westernization. We can trace this back to Abu Hamid al-al-Din Ghazali’s Ihya’ `Ulum Falasifa (Revival of the Knowledge and Sciences of Religion) and Tahafat al- Falasifah (The Incoherence of the Philosophers). Since then, the Ummah has produced dozens of revivalist personalities and movements, such as Ibn Hazm, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn ‘Abd al-Salam, Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, the Muwahiddun, the Murabitun, the Mahdis of Sudan, the Sanusis of Libya, the Ottoman sultan Salim III, Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi, Muhammad ‘Ali, Jamal al-Din al-Afgani, Rashid Rida, Muhammad ‘Abdu of Egypt, Shah Waliullah and Muhammad Iqbal of India, Amir ‘Abd al-Qadir and Ben Badis of Algeria, and many others.
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We must realize that knowledge was the basic cause of the progress and development of the Ummah. At its very beginning Islam managed to build up the structure and character of the Ummah on the firm basis of knowledge acquired through its proper sources, namely, Divine revelation and active reason. Divine guidance endowed Prophet Muhammad (SAAS), with a clarity of vision that enabled him to weave an exemplary pattern of life. The Qur’an explicitly encourages the gaining of knowledge and education as well as the value of learning from experience. The first revelation calls upon the Prophet and humanity to seek education and acquire knowledge in accordance with Divine guidance: “Read and understand in the Name of thy Lord and Cherisher…”(Al Qalam 97:1)
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The Holy Qur’an offers many principles upon which social orders and organizations must be based for the guidance of mankind. It however, gives mankind a freedom to adopt manner of actualizing these orders and organizations in line with the demands of developments, changes of time and place, in the light of expansion of knowledge, human development and the changes, and the challenges that they bring about.
Recently, the attention of the Muslims scholars was drawn to one of the most prominent concepts, which is a vital social and political organ, and not a mere advisor to the political authority or seek a favor, a situation that led to its being disregarded and not reckoned with as fundamental in establishing a government. This organ is ‘Shura’ that embodies the principle of ‘Mutual Consultation’ and activates it in the Islamic political system.
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The importance of this discussion lies in the fact that it deals with the predetermined nature of the contemporary Islamic message. The Islamic civilization as well as the Muslim community by virtue of their formation in decades and epochs cannot prosper and flourish unless they represent and adopt a practical and real basis for their survival as well as for the mobility of their society and civilization.
If it is the basic criterion for reawakening of the Muslim community (Ummah), revival of Islamic civilization and its reconstruction in today’s changing and challenging world then the Muslim intellectuals, the theologians the scholars and those who have rational mind and operate the key of change and revivalism should not sleep unless they find out the reasons of the crisis the Muslim community is facing for rigid messages. They ought to welcome them in letter and spirit, adopt an active practical perspective for their self-satisfaction and enact them in their lives & progress of their societies.
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The remedy prescribed for a given problem is often inappropriate or insufficient owing to an erroneous diagnosis or a defective analysis. This applies most truly to the deficient diagnosis of the underdevelopment of the Ummah (the Muslim nation), an ailment from which it has been suffering for several centuries. The ailment does not seem to have responded to any treatment since Abu Hamid al Ghazaali’s (d. 1111) cry of alarm in Tahāfut al-Falāsifah [The Inconsistency of Philosophers] and appeal for a cure in Ihyā 'Ulūm al-Dīn [Revival of Religious Disciplines]. A major reason for the failure of both diagnosis and treatment is that the focus has been on the symptoms and so appearances alone have been targeted, in addition to the distortion of the dominant concept of civilization, and the inability of the approach used, limited as it is, to explore fundamental causes.
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The purpose of the present paper as well as that of the discussions which will take place in our meeting is to undertake a general review of the past endeavors and the accomplishments that the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIS) as to the goal it has dedicated itself to, namely to fill the gap of intellectual reform as a basis for the correction of the course of the contemporary civilizational Islamic reform project with a view to activating the ummah's abilities and guiding its course of action, insha-Allah.
Therefore, we need to stop for a while to reflect on what has been done, and why and how it has been done since the young Muslims, who migrated to the West for the sake of scientific knowledge, started this blessed intellectual reform process while their hearts were full of hopes, zeal, resentment, sadness and bewilderment.
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I used to find in the declining state of the Ummah vis-a-vis the surrounding world, the cultural and intellectual attacks against it, and the deteriorating status of human rights of Muslims, all together, as the dilemma which encounters the advocates of Islam and human rights. A notable matter is the �chastisement� of women as a prerogative of the husband and a way to resolve problems of the nuptial association that result from the recalcitrance and disobedience of women and their disaffection for and alienation from their spouses. I was always aware of the reasons and implications of that dilemma, in particular, due to its significance and relevance to the modern world.
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His vision for the university also included directing the building of the beautiful IIUM Gombak Campus with the firm idea of the Electronic University, with extensive usage of IT; as IT is perceived as an indispensable and effective link to the global system, as well as a means to increase the overall productivity of the University. In this regard, it was under the direction of Dr. Abdul Hamid Abu Sulayman that IIUM made it compulsory for IT courses to be included in all levels of the university’s academic programmes in 1988.
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Any Muslim intellectual who has a serious concern for the relatively deteriorating condition of the Muslim Ummah with respect to the Western World would be depressed and confused. However, the recent history of the Muslim World shows how many determined reformist movements played a positive role in changing the Muslim condition. But these movements met with partial or limited success.
It was in the late seventeenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, an ascendant Europe undermined and overran much of the Uthmani Dawlah (Ottoman Empire) and finally put an end to it, much to the shock and dismay of the Muslim World. The powerful European challenge and this drastic event elicited two contrasting responses from the Muslim elite and the masses. While many of them resorted to superficial imitation and initiated capricious copycat reform movements, some harnessed the rising awareness and the attendant spirit of resistance to launch more genuine efforts and reform movements. Understandably, these efforts were conflicting, emotional, and limited in their scope but they eventually helped Muslim societies to gain political independence in the post-World War II era. At the heart of these reforms and political liberation was the Muslim peoples’ desire to realize their Islamic, national, and cultural aspirations along with the hope of enjoying a standard of living comparable to that of the West.
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