During the last century, each Muslim and non-Muslim thinkers have centred their reformist discussions on decolonisation. The sheer quantity of books, articles, and seminars on this topic has grow to be overwhelming to the purpose of saturation. Muslims entered this debate searching for to know regain international relevance, if not affect. They struggled to pinpoint precisely the place and the way the Muslim agenda went off target. The colonisation of Muslim international locations turned the closest and most handy goal to criticise and demonise. Consequently, Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century had been deeply absorbed within the means of decolonisation. Analysing the foundation causes of our decline and disintegration is undoubtedly an important step in direction of self-correction and revival. The query, nonetheless, is how a lot progress have we made as an Ummah by endlessly repeating age-old analyses that go away behind solely a bitter aftertaste? The place has all this speak of decolonisation truly taken us?
I dare say it has led us to pursue aggressive efforts to additional secularise Muslim values and promote misplaced priorities, corresponding to pushing for a nation’s entry into the World Cup, constructing the tallest skyscraper, internet hosting music festivals, spending billions to recruit the world’s prime soccer gamers, and staging Formulation One races. As an afterthought, there may be additionally an appreciation for training, typically decreased to importing Western universities into the Muslim world. The numerous contribution of Ismail al-Faruqi, a distinguished Muslim thinker who championed the idea of the Islamisation of information, outlined as the mixing of Islamic rules into all fields of studying to realign fashionable information with a monotheistic worldview, has quietly light from focus. It has been more and more overshadowed by an apologetic stance in direction of liberalism.
In striving to regain international standing, we appear to have changed significant reform with superficial shows of progress.
In Western academia, discussions on decolonisation started with examinations of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s paradox of founding and later expanded to concepts corresponding to Frantz Fanon’s principle of spontaneity, Sukarno’s idea of guided democracy, and Ali Shariati’s paradox of colonisation. With Ismail al-Faruqi’s name for the Islamisation of information, Muslims got here to recognise that true self-determination should additionally contain a revival of Muslim epistemology. This aligns with the Peruvian scholar Anibal Quijano’s argument that decolonisation requires a crucial problem to Eurocentric management over information.
The Eurocentric and Western dominance over international information, significantly in areas the place they’ve little legitimacy to steer, is clear in lots of examples. Curators who oversee huge collections of Muslim manuscripts typically declare the authority to relate their historical past in accordance with their very own interpretations, which continuously diverge from the views of the unique authors and conventional commentators.
Because the founder and director of Darul Qasim, an Islamic seminary devoted to superior research within the classical Islamic sciences, I witnessed this right here in Illinois in the USA at an exhibition of uncommon Qur’anic manuscripts, the place a non-Muslim girl had been appointed to “inform the tales” of the texts. When a scholar from Darul Qasim corrected a number of inaccuracies in her account, her solely reply was a dismissive: “I’m in cost right here.”
One other instance entails a scholar from Darul Qasim who submitted a manuscript on classical Arabic grammar to a distinguished Western writer who refused to publish it, stating: “We can’t settle for this work as you haven’t cited any Western sources.” Such incidents spotlight how Western tutorial gatekeeping continues to strengthen Eurocentric management over information.
Ismail al-Faruqi sought to rescue Muslim information from Western dominance. His imaginative and prescient was to “Islamicise” information by cleaning the sciences of ideas which might be essentially incompatible with Islam. His theories had been grounded in a monotheistic method that built-in all sciences with the worldview of the Ummah. The idea gained traction and was promoted by the Worldwide Institute of Islamic Thought, a analysis organisation based to advance the Islamisation of information and embed it inside tutorial discourse. Whereas al-Faruqi’s name to reevaluate our system of information was undoubtedly a step in the precise route, it doesn’t totally lead us to the final word purpose of complete decolonisation.
What is required is a principle that goes past the Islamisation of information. I suggest digging deeper into what students name the coloniality of information, the persistent dominance of Eurocentric frameworks that proceed to form international mental thought, and advancing a principle of the desecularisation of information. This requires realigning information on the degree of its epistemology, not merely when it comes to politics or economics. Muslim students should tackle the duty of presenting and representing a coherent and efficient principle of our epistemology.
In abstract, Islamic epistemology recognises three main sources of information: that which comes by means of the 5 senses, that which is derived from human mind, and that which is conveyed by means of genuine and true reviews, corresponding to revelation to a Prophet. These three embody each supply of information identified to humankind, with instinct and desires additionally understood as merchandise of the mind.
Traditionally, Muslims performed a number one function in mastering these sources of information and disseminating them internationally. In Islam, information isn’t separated from Allah, who’s the unique supply of all information. In contrast to Western mental traditions that sought to separate information from God in pursuit of modernity and prosperity, Islam affirms that true creativity flows from Allah, and that innovations and improvements come up from honouring Allah’s information of the world.
Sadly, there may be at the moment a deep stress within the Muslim world over distinguish between Islamic and secular information. Many appear to consider that Muslims should endure a Western-inspired renaissance to reclaim previous glory, doing so with out regard for the afterlife, or akhirah. The issue is that Muslims do consider within the akhirah, and this has created a self-imposed and false dichotomy, born of bewilderment Islamic rules, that means Muslims should compete with the West whereas concurrently upholding the foundations of salvation. This perceived battle forces a synthetic wedge between what is taken into account Islamic and what’s thought-about secular.
I consider this dichotomy is fake, and anybody acquainted with Islamic legislation, or fiqh, would recognise that. Islamic legislation governs how Muslims act, react, and work together with the mundane world in ways in which have direct implications for his or her afterlife. Human actions on this world have penalties within the subsequent. Whereas this isn’t a treatise on Islamic legislation, this remark alone ought to deal with the doubts of sceptics. Muslims are beneficiant not solely as a result of it helps these in want, however as a result of they consider such acts deliver immense reward within the akhirah. Charity, subsequently, will not be merely a humanitarian worth, however a profoundly non secular one. Perception within the akhirah desecularises even the best acts of kindness, reaffirming how Islamic thought integrates the fabric and religious.
I suggest that Islamic epistemology views all information not as secular or sacred, however as both useful (nafi’) or extra useful (anfa’). Any information that advantages a person, human or non-human, on this world is taken into account useful. The Quran itself offers examples of such information: Allah taught Nuh (Noah) the craft of constructing an ark from picket planks that withstood an enormous storm, and taught Dawud (David) the talent of forging armour from iron. In each circumstances, the information is described as coming instantly from Allah, and subsequently, can’t be thought-about secular. Constructing bridges, highways, hospitals, and colleges additionally falls into this class of useful (nafi’) information, as these works serve human welfare on this life.
Information that advantages human beings within the akhirah is anfa’, or extra useful. This consists of information of reciting the Quran, understanding ritual worship, and realizing serve Allah. Establishing non secular colleges (madrassas), mosques, and zakat foundations, as an illustration, belongs to this class of anfa’ information.
Muslims don’t have to create a false dichotomy in information, for tawheed, the oneness of Allah, additionally encompasses the unity of information. With this understanding, there is no such thing as a have to desecularise information; relatively, we should acceptable it accurately in accordance with its utility on this world and the subsequent. The important thing lies in affirming the existence of the opposite world. I dare say that, in an age the place perception in parallel universes is entertained, life past this world will not be as far-fetched as secularists might need us consider.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
