The closing sentence of the editorial
merits some further comments. “In
that struggle, (i.e. between “those who would make Islam barbaric and
those who would keep it civilized”) the heirs of Socrates and the
heirs of al-Farabi must make common cause.” These words imply that
there is a similarity or equivalence between the historical journeys of
Western and Islamic civilizations. But this is definitely not the case.
Whereas Western civilization was formed by the appropriation and
assimilation of the Greek philosophical tradition, the Roman law, and
the Judeo-Christian heritage; Greek philosophy had only a passing and a
minimal impact on Islam. Unfortunately, the heirs of the Muslim
philosopher, al-Farabi (870-950 A.D.) have been dormant for almost an
entire millennium!
This is not to deny that in the early
years of the ninth century A.D.,
Baghdad
became the center of learning and the cultural life of the Arab-Muslim
Umma reached its zenith. There was a great deal of freedom for the
airing of various theological and philosophical views. Both Muslim and
Christian scholars participated in this movement. The impact of Greek
culture was great, but according to Dr. Mahmoud, an Egyptian scholar who
wrote a great deal on the subject of Arab-Islamic civilization, “only
a small group of intellectual elite felt this impact; the masses in
Baghdad
, and throughout the vast empire, were not influenced by Hellenism.”
For example, a group of intellectuals
known as “Ikhwan
al-Safa,” freely discussed in their letters some fundamental
theological and philosophical topics. We may regard them as Muslim
rationalists who sought to reconcile the tenets of Islam with Greek
philosophy. With respect to the date of the Qur’an, they posited the
doctrine that it was a historical record of Allah’s revelation. This
did not meet with the approval of the great legal scholar, imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal who
championed the doctrine that the Qur’an was uncreated, therefore
eternal! Several Caliphs who
were in power at the time, sided with the rationalists, by persecuting
and imprisoning Ibn
Hanbal. This event
in the history of orthodox Islam is known as the “Ordeal
of the Qur’an.” Later on, a new caliph sided with the
orthodox view, the Imam was rehabilitated, and his teaching about the
eternal nature of the Qur’an has prevailed to this day.
The tenth century A.D. proved to be the
age of the “Closing of the Muslim Mind.” The person responsible for that
“closing” was Al-Ghazzali (died in 1111 A.D.) This great Muslim thinker
represents a powerful reactionary force in the history of Islamic
thought. His influence on the Arab-Muslim mind and culture was to freeze
them in a mold that led to stagnation. In his book, Ihya’
‘Uloom al-Deen (The
Revival of Religious Knowledge), “Al-Ghazzali
defined every utterance a Muslim makes and every step he must take in
order to guarantee the orthodoxy of his Islam. Everything is spelled out
for the Muslim: how to eat, sleep, travel, fellowship with one’s wife
and child, etc. No room was left for any spontaneity in the Muslim’s
life. Al-Ghazzali closed the door of philosophy on the Muslims and it
has remained closed for eight hundred years!”*
There were strong attempts early in the
last century to “re-open the door of Ijtihad,”
but they have all failed. And here we are, one hundred years
later, the heirs of al-Farabi
do not seem to be much alive or of influence in the world of
Islam. On the contrary, it is the orthodoxy of al-Ghazzali that is
marching on. And whenever that I notice any attempt of some brave Arab
intellectuals to champion the cause of democracy and free speech, the
reactionary Salafists** rise up to silence them by speaking of the dire
consequences of “kufr” (unbelief) within the Islamic Umma.
So, I plead with Western columnists: you
owe it to your readers to do better homework when writing on this very
complex subject of Islam and the West.
*A quotation from the Arabic text of “The
Rational & the Irrational in our Cultural Heritage” by Dr.
Zaki Naguib Mahmoud. No specific publication date is mentioned in the
book; most likely it
belongs to the late 1970s.
**Salafist,
an Arabic word based on the root salaf, i.e. ancestors. Salafists
are those who champion a total commitment to Islamic orthodoxy
as defined by the great teachers of the early years of Islam.