I met and discussed with Sheikh
Rashid al Ghanoushi in Istanbul recently and it is unfortunate that he could
not make it to deliver the conference keynote address. They chose to name their
movement or party as al Nahdah which a more accurate term to describe and visualize
resurgence as its basis are Islamic ethics and reform.
As for the present discourse,
Islamic resurgence is seen as synonym with political Islam, with militancy. We,
of course, call it Islamic Renaissance – Nahdah
Islamiyyah.
When I wrote the book The Asian
Renaissance and I inferred to an Islamic Renaissance, critics point out to the
Florentine Italian experience (Florence is considered the birthplace of the
Renaissance) – which meant abandonment of moral values, and secularization. But
I qualified it as the resurgence of faith, ethical principles and moral values –
which is an integral part of our da’wah
- And who is fairer in speech than he who
calls to Allah and acts righteously and says: “I am a Muslim” (al Qur’an 41:33)
For Islamic Renaissance needs tajdid (renewal) and islah (reform). Before we talk about change,
this is the essence, the awareness, the effort to provide understanding. If we
do have this essence, we cannot bring about change – nor can we change
dictators. There has to be the enjoining of good and forbidding evil.
Adherence to arkan al Islam (pillars of Islam) and arkan al iman (pillars of faith) must be steadfast. This is the intellectual
tradition.
The great Sultan Salahuddin al
Ayyubi is a magnificent example of leadership of the ummah. The focus has
always been on Salahuddin’s statecraft. However, Dr AbdulHamid AbuSulayman
points out that change would not have taken place had there not been preparatory
work through mass education, public awareness and discipline. The experience of
Salahuddin sets a historical antecedent – the propensity to change – for islah and tajdid.
This is the prerequisite before
total reform. Reform or Reformasi
will not be meaningful if there is not effective da’wah, faith, values and of a public calling for meaningful
change.
In contemporary light, we see
this in al Afghani, Abduh and Ridha as well lesser known personalities like Abd
Rahman al Kawakibi. He is a Syrian reformer and IIIT is publishing works on
him.
We have to go to the basics of
understanding da’wah and acquiring
knowledge, in changes, in building character or syakhsiah. We have to advance the importance of governance, to lead
countries away from corruption and despotism. Change is not simply by removing
the ruler or the head of state, PM or dictator but change is by total reform –
justice and order according to maqasid syariah – priorities of the system of
justice.
We have been rather fortunate in
this region. Indonesia is unique and spectacular according to Arnold.
Islamization of the Malay Archipelago has been peaceful ( as illustrated by the
9 saints of Java). There has been a certain sufi
influence. It is known that there had been a series of dialogues and
negotiations between Muslims and adherents of other religions of that period.
Pak Natsir and the Masyumi movement holds to this tradition of inclusiveness.
(Pak Natsir after being appointed Indonesian prime minister was subsequently
imprisoned by Soekarno, a peculiar trait in this parts).
Islamic Renaissance consists of
intense and vigorous intellectualism, promoting commitment to return to the
fundamental principles of the Qur’an and Sunnah. We experience and refer to
this in our usrahs and tamrins – an important nexus –not dogmatic and not
Taliban like.
The Taliban were students raised
in the madrasahs – the particular madrasah
experience meant strict adherence and
rigid views. They were in a state of being too exclusive and always looking
at enemies – and not looking at governance and justice.
That is why the akliah tradition is essential (promoted
by Naqib al Attas and others) – which without it, is not a discernible element in Islamic Renaissance.
However down here, the discourse
is quite unique and peculiar – for instance the recent polemics on dogs. It
reflects our inability to refine our discourse or is it the purposeful
intention to confine Muslims here to irrelevant issues (suffering a siege
mentality). In 1936, 2000 people attended a conference, a debate on dogs hosted
by a Sultan. There is a photograph which showed the Mufti and the Sultan with
the Sultan’s dog in between them. This picture shows back then that this dog
issue should not be complex nor controversial.
100,000 people are killed in
Syria but it is not reported. Instead the recent dog issue is spun by TV3 for a
whole week! Clearly such are attempts to belittle the capability of Muslims to
engage in vibrant and vigorous intellectual discourse. There should be 5000
people attending discourses on morality, corruption and poor education.
Islah needs Islamic traditional knowledge be reexamined. Dr Taha
Jabir once wrote to al marhum Sheikh Muhammad al Ghazali on the need to
modernize ilm al turath (legacy or
tradition) – the fiqh and sufi texts. To research and reexamine
texts on governance. To repopularise al Shatibi’s treatise on maqasid syariah. Read up Ibn Ashur, Rasyuni,
Jasser Auda.
Islamic resurgence needs the
cultivation of strong Islamic education. As we mentioned of Salahuddin in his
confrontation with Europe under Richard the Lionheart's army. Salahuddin’s
strength came from a tradition of knowledge which flourished in that region. He
would not have emerged so if there had not been that tradition of knowledge, da’wah and tarbiyyah in the whole of Iraq of that era. Such awareness and
resurgence came from strong education.
The International Institute of Islamic
Thought delved on how to approach and reexamine the ilm al turath. For in the Western tradition, there exists the concept
of great books which scholars have to read, where Shakespeare’s work is
imperative. In our contemporary experience, there seems to be a
compartmentalization of being sufi
only, fiqh only or harakiy only. Corruption is not
discussed, instead the dog issue is debated.
Concerning the politicization of
our anger – how are we unaffected when women and children are being beaten and
killed in mosques? Turkey’s PM Erdogan calls al Asisi the pharaoh and refers to
Assad as a damned dictator. When
questioned, he said “Anwar, I have been prime minister for 10 years and I lead
a great country, prosperous with
impressive economic growth. But when I see mothers and daughters being killed,
do I keep silent? I have my integrity and I am dictated by my conscience.” Erdogan’s
priority now in Turkey is education and da’wah.
Whilst we should not be
distracted from the main thrust of programs of Islamic movements such as ABIM
and PKPIM, we need to cultivate this awareness, raise the level of
understanding, build the capacity to articulate issues more profoundly, always
being inclusive and be prepared to engage adherents of other religions or other
groups, Hindus, Buddhists, liberals, secularists. We must continue this tradition
of engagement and inclusiveness.
We have to focus our efforts to
promote understanding, public awareness through education, economic empowerment
and social justice. We seemed confused between a racist Malay agenda and a
Muslim just program. In the late 70’s PKPIM and ABIM were attacked by BTN in
particular that our universal Islamic message was not a ‘Malay’ message. They
failed to comprehend that the Malay character itself is an Islamic character. Erasing
Islam from the Malay character reduces it to a shallow level devoid of culture,
language and faith. They also failed to understand social justice.
It maybe our failure to give
depth to our intellectual discourse, to take a more tolerant and open view. Back
then, we read al Banna, Qutb, Masyhur, Jamaat and Masyumi. But we also read Nasr
and Faruqi. It shows our inclusiveness and intellectual strength. We promoted
Muslim scholarship. Our reading involved a broad spectrum including Izutzu and
others who were intellectuals who massively influenced that generation of the
day. We cannot curb our studies because we live in a multicultural world.
My detractors accuse me of being
too liberal and plural. But the essence and reference is still the Qur’an and
the Sunnah. If it clearly goes against this absolute reference frame, we shall accept
it.
On Orientalism, Edward Said was
the first to make a reference to Islamophobia and linking it to anti Semitism.
Hostility to Islam has historically gone hand in hand with anti Semitism –
nourished in the same stream, as he says it in 1985. Islamophobia is more insidious. It is racism in the most virulent kind – racism with steroids. It is
an attempt to exclude Muslims from public life, from having space, in economics,
in politics. Islamic worldviews, participation and concepts are rejected
outright.
This is the present calamity and
catastrophe in the Muslim world. Afghanistan
is virtually destroyed since long ago - by the Russians, by the Americans and
by the Muslims themselves. Now we are seeing Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Syria and by
extension Lebanon being destroyed. Next in
line they say is Tunisia. Even Turkey is threatened because Erdogan is
seen as capable, competent and articulate.
We have to remind ourselves to
get back to the basics – the fundamental basics of the struggle – massive exposure
to training and encourage the opportunity to discourse and debate – engaging in contemporary debate. Allow
as much space as possible for the brainstorming or fruition of ideas, thoughts
and information. As TS Elliot’s poem
says, Where is the life we have lost in
living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge
we have lost in information.
As we stress once more, Islamic
resurgence is meaningless without the essence of education, without tarbiyyah.
There are many things that enrage
us – election fraud, rampant corruption, price hikes. Seringgit dua kupang, badan sakit, ingat hutang - One ringgit
twenty sen, the body aches, thinking of debts. But this should not distract us
from the work of da’wah and the issues of the ummah.
Political activism is important. Tajdid and Islah begin with serious effort to promote understanding, justice,
freedom, gender equality, the principles
of maqasid syariah, economic justice
or equity. Justice comes with reform and democracy.
(jotted scribbles of Anwar
Ibrahim’s keynote address for the World Conference on Islamic Resurgence held
at Shah Alam)
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