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 develop into overwhelming to the purpose of saturation. Muslims entered this debate searching for to know find out how to regain international relevance, if not affect. They struggled to pinpoint precisely the place and the way the Muslim agenda went astray. The colonisation of Muslim nations turned the closest and most handy goal to criticise and demonise. In consequence, Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century have been deeply absorbed within the technique of decolonisation. Analysing the basis causes of our decline and disintegration is undoubtedly a necessary 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 depart behind solely a bitter aftertaste? The place has all this discuss of decolonisation really 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’s additionally an appreciation for training, usually diminished 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 combination of Islamic rules into all fields of studying to realign trendy data 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 idea 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 vital problem to Eurocentric management over data.
The Eurocentric and Western dominance over international data, significantly in areas the place they’ve little legitimacy to steer, is obvious in lots of examples. Curators who oversee huge collections of Muslim manuscripts usually declare the authority to relate their historical past in accordance with their very own interpretations, which steadily 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 america at an exhibition of uncommon Qur’anic manuscripts, the place a non-Muslim lady 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 educational gatekeeping continues to bolster Eurocentric management over data.
Ismail al-Faruqi sought to rescue Muslim data from Western dominance. His imaginative and prescient was to “Islamicise” data by cleaning the sciences of ideas which can be basically incompatible with Islam. His theories have 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 educational discourse. Whereas al-Faruqi’s name to reevaluate our system of information was undoubtedly a step in the appropriate route, it doesn’t absolutely lead us to the final word aim of complete decolonisation.
What is required is a idea 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 idea of the desecularisation of information. This requires realigning data on the stage 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 idea of our epistemology.
In abstract, Islamic epistemology recognises three major sources of information: that which comes by the 5 senses, that which is derived from human mind, and that which is conveyed by 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 position in mastering these sources of information and disseminating them internationally. In Islam, data is rarely separated from Allah, who’s the unique supply of all data. In contrast to Western mental traditions that sought to separate data 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 data of the world.
Sadly, there’s at this time a deep stress within the Muslim world over find out how to distinguish between Islamic and secular data. Many appear to imagine that Muslims should bear a Western-inspired renaissance to reclaim previous glory, doing so with out regard for the afterlife, or akhirah. The issue is that Muslims do imagine within the akhirah, and this has created a self-imposed and false dichotomy, born of confusion 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 imagine this dichotomy is fake, and anybody accustomed to Islamic regulation, or fiqh, would recognise that. Islamic regulation 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 regulation, this statement alone ought to handle the doubts of sceptics. Muslims are beneficiant not solely as a result of it helps these in want, however as a result of they imagine such acts deliver immense reward within the akhirah. Charity, subsequently, isn’t 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 non secular.
I suggest that Islamic epistemology views all data not as secular or sacred, however as both helpful (nafi’) or extra helpful (anfa’). Any data that advantages a person, human or non-human, on this world is taken into account helpful. The Quran itself gives examples of such data: 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 data 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 helpful (nafi’) data, as these works serve human welfare on this life.
Information that advantages human beings within the akhirah is anfa’, or extra helpful. This contains data of reciting the Quran, understanding ritual worship, and understanding find out how to serve Allah. Establishing non secular colleges (madrassas), mosques, and zakat foundations, for example, belongs to this class of anfa’ data.
Muslims don’t have to create a false dichotomy in data, 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 data; 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 isn’t as far-fetched as secularists might need us imagine.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
