A Note On Some Recent Western Writing On Islamic Resurgence

Chapter 7 : Modern Islamic Discourse: Themes and Arguments

Based on the above theoretical consideration, I would like to investigate, albeit briefly, the main themes and arguments of the modern Islamic discourse, especially that of resurgence. The following are some of the underlying presuppositions and claims of this method: (1) First, since the emergence of Islam, the interpretation provided by various scholars of this religious phenomenon has given rise to different discourses.

Furthermore, within the Arabic language, the words used and the meanings of the words used differ from one discourse to another. (2) Second, these discourses have been conditioned by the concepts, mental formations, economic conditions, and political attitudes of their particular historical situation.

Therefore, in rendering a judgement on somebody's work, one has to pose questions about the historical conditions in which that discourse was produced. (3) Third, one has to study the different Islamic discourses of modern Islam in relation to the West. (4) The West as a conceptual category should be historically and philosophically defined. (5) This comprehensive method proposed should elaborate on the possible connection between ideology and discourse. [^41]

What is, therefore, the relationship between modern Islam and the West? Somebody may object to this formulation: how can we equate a theological construct with a purely political or geographic construct? The initial stage of this inquiry, however, is a matter of definition. What is the West? What is Islam?

What is the West? In dealing with the modern West, we are to discuss five salient movements: (1) Renaissance, (2) Reformation, (3) Industrialization, (4) Enlightenment , and (5) post-Enlightenment. I want to stress here that these movements are in essence philosophical movements. The philosophical underpinnings of the Renaissance were: rationalism, humanism, secularization. The Reformation led to the resurgence of individuality and the annihilation of the communal Christian spirit.

What is Islam? It is impossible, of course, to give a precise linguistic meaning to the term Islam. For analytical purposes, one could talk of this universal religious phenomenon in the following terms: (1) Islam as metaphysics; (2) Islam as civilization (it means different things to different people); (3) Islam as the "other."

I would venture to argue that the history of the modern Muslim people has been highly intertwined with that of the West. And, therefore, modern Islam cannot be understood except in relation to the modern West and all the movements that constituted this modern West, be they philosophical, cultural, economic, political, and military.

We can delineate three moments or phases in the interaction between modern Islam and the West: (1) the first is the military conquest of Muslim lands by Western powers. Muslims were weak militarily and politically. Their only response was to seek refuge in Islam as the source of their strength.

(2) The second phase witnesses the translation of European hegemony into a cultural and religious system. This phase is distinguished by the building of Western educational, cultural, and legal institutions that begin to replace the traditional Islamic ones. This is the phase of westernization. The third phase is that of post-colonialism, one distinguishing feature of which is the rise of both nationalism and religious revivalism.

What are the main premises of "resurgent Islam?" The following are some basic characteristics.

(1) Islamic resurgence has emphasized the role of reason in Muslim legal theory, and called for a renaissance of Islam in the modern world on the basis of a reactivation of ijtihad in the religious and legal sciences. The Muslims can achieve the ideals of Islam as a religion, as a Shari'ah and as a state, by opening the door of ijtihad. Furthermore, the neglect of ijtihad led some Muslims to become ignorant of Islam, and others to be attached to westernization and atheism.

(2) Second, Islamic revivalism has called for the reconstruction of the notion of authority, of the Islamic nation, which is a gradual "reconstitution of the Muslim Ummah," and the building of a comprehensive system of Islamic law, government, education, and ethics in the modern world. The reconstitution of the Ummah in the modern world was possible, if there were "a return" to the original sources of Islam.

(3) Third, it has called for the reconstruction of the sources of knowledge. The Qur'an and the Sunnah were the only sources recognized. The moral, doctrinal, and linguistic superiority of the "grand ancestors" or the Companions of the Prophet furnished the sole criterion according to which new ethical and social rules would be judged. Therefore, Islamic theory of life is characterized by simplicity and doctrinal unity. Many came to define religious reform as a triple unification of doctrine, law, and ethics.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was founded in 1928 by Hasan al-­Banna [^42] Al-Banna, who was greatly influenced by Rida, acted as a caliph in exile, as the supreme mujtahid in the community, as a political and spiritual leader and the interpreter par excellence of the rules of the Shari'ah.

From its inception, the Ikhwan movement aimed at finding "Islamic solutions" to the problems of education, economic organization, and social justice in society. It advocated an Islamic nation without separation of religion and state. Next, it proposed an Islamic educational system whose goal was to create the "Muslim individual, the Muslim house, the Muslim nation, and the Muslim government." Third, it created an economic infrastructure based on Islamic principles to solve social injustice.

In the midst of this heritage weighty with consequences, the mission of the Ikhwan was (1) to free the Islamic fatherland from all foreign domination, and (2) to help a free Islamic state arise in the Islamic fatherland. Al-Banna considered it the duty of each Muslim to help build such a state, "for as long as this state does not emerge, the Muslims in their totality are committing sin." In addition, they should work to reform the education system, wage war against poverty, ignorance, disease, and crime, and create an exemplary society which would deserve to be associated with the Islamic sacred law.

In conclusion, the above discussion has raised a number of questions that still await an answer. One way of passing sound judgement on the nature, growth, and current dispensation of Islamic resurgence is to study the theological and cultural underpinning of this phenomenon in addition to its political impact.

Notes:

[^41]. An extensive analysis of these notions is to be found in: Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi`, "Reflections on the Islamic Renaissance in the Modern Arab World: Some Methodological Questions," Islamic Culture, Vol. LXIII (3), July 1989, pp. 42-59, and his "Secularization, Islam and the Future of the Arab World: A Derivative Discourse," Peuples Mediterraneens, Issue Number 60 (July-September 1992), pp.177741.

[^42]. On Hasan al-Banna see, Ishak Musal al-Hussaini, The Moslem Brethren: The Greatest of Modern Islamic Movements (Beirut: Khayat's College Book Cooperative, 1956); Charles Wendell, Five Tracts of Hasan al-Banna (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Sa id Hawwa, al-Madkhal ila Da'wat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Amman, 1979); Ibrahim Ghanim, al-Fikr al-siyasi li al-Imam Hasan al-Banna (Cairo, 1992), and Rifa't al-Said, ,Hasan al-Banna: kayfa wa limadha? (Cairo, 1984).