Monday, September 9, 2013

DR SIDDIQ FADIL: ISLAMIC RESURGENCE, CHALLENGES, PROSPECTS AND THE WAY FORWARD


We are deeply concerned about the future. We are future oriented people - al fikr al mustaqbal. We observe a shift from marhalah da'wah - reaching out  to marhalah dawlah - governance. We realise the problems confronting us and we are optimistic for the cause. But this time, our optimism has to be cautious optimism.

What we are really concerned about in the Islamic world is the quality of leadership. Leading a state is not the same as leading an Islamic movement. We have to prepare the future leaders of the Islamic movement taking into consideration the new realities that we are facing.

Indeed we have to go back to the basics. We can find in the Quran models of leadership. Daud and Sulayman a.s. presided over a great government performing their roles in good governance with knowledge and wisdom. Musa a.s. was confrontational and in opposition fighting Pharaoh until Musa  liberated his people to establish a new order. Yusuf a.s. participated in a non Muslim ruled government with a mission to reform. These are real models that we can learn from.

We are concerned with the problem of priorities - al awlawiyyat. Which should come first and what should be later.

We have to be concerned with the crisis of expectations - if we fail to meet the expectation of the people. And  sometimes people are unreasonable. This is what is happening in some parts of the world today.

We need to revisit our books and our texts. In the 60's we read Al Nadwi's ilal islam min jadid. But it is not sufficient to remain dependent on 60's literature. We need contemporary literature and we need to retool ourselves - equip ourselves with relevant knowledge of the day.

We ought to comprehend fiqh al taghyir - fiqh of change for we are working and fighting for change but we have not grasped fiqh al taghyir. It is urgent and imperative that we master fiqh al taghyir and fiqh al waqi' -fiqh of realities of the contemporary world, for the movement to be more realistic. We need to be able to articulate fiqh al ta'adudiyyah - understanding plurality and the realities of multi culturalism. We need to learn more on inclusivity.



(Scribbled notes from Closing Remarks of Dr Siddiq Fadil at the International Round Table Discussion in Shah Alam)

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