Systematization of "the Thought"

Which Era are We Currently in?

We are on the verge of a new era.

The period of “resurgence” in Contemporary Era which lasted more than a century is now on the point of finishing. Muslims consumed totally the savings of the first four and five centuries i.e. the shining era of Muslim civilization in the following seven or eight centuries, and finally faced the consequences of decaying and collapse in all respects. Nevertheless, after mid-19th century, they felt the need to return to their “roots” in a similar way Europeans did in 15th century, and experienced somewhat of a “state of renaissance.” At the beginning, the ulema and the intellectuals of Muslim world was deeply influenced by the call for “Returning to the Roots” and were at pains to defend Islam against the harmful effects or fallacies of Western Thought. Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh were the prominent “symbolic figures” of this endeavor. However, their discourse was “apologetic” in essence; that is, they could not carry out strong attacks against the central concepts of the thought they criticized, and moreover legitimized their position mostly through them. The content of this endeavor was not original, but rather eclectic; and their discourse was not self-confident, but rather defensive. The style of discourse they used was something like that: “science is compatible with religion”, “Islam is not opposed to scientific progress”, “democracy is consistent with the Islamic principle of shura (consultation), etc.” So, it led to a kind of “reactionary apology” for their incompetency, which can best be summarized as follows: “it does not hurt to adopt the West’s technology; the problem is to adopt the western culture.” With this reactionary stance, the ulema or Muslim intellectuals could surely not have won the hearts and minds of Ummah and, so was the result. This group which is generally known as “Muslim modernists” soon lost their position in Muslim world and the newly emerged “secular” elite took the leadership. After that, the Ummah witnessed secular-nationalist governments all along the twentieth century.  

However, we observe that the “apologetic” discourse of the intellectuals in the first period gave its place to an attentive and careful one in the course of time. The fact is that this is accomplished by Mawdudi-Qutb discourse that became stronger gradually in the period, and later dominant discourse in Islamic circles by 1950s. And in it there are not only serious criticisms of central concepts of Western Thought but also a clearer content and sophisticated discourse in respect of central concepts and basic aims of Islam. But the problems associated with having a good grasp of “original language” has not still been solved. Even if the Qutb's discourse strongly signalled that he succeeded, to a great extent, in doing this when he said that “Muslim has no nationality except his belief” and “Islamic society is, by its very nature, the only civilized society,” Mawdudi still sees no problem in alleging that Islam can fairly be named as a “teo-democracy.” Another feature of this period is that Muslim intellectuals or the Ulema could not have a good grasp of the central concepts of “modernity” and were not able to criticize it competently whereas they made a significant progress with regard to having good knowledge of Islamic concepts. The dominant discourse in this period is in the form of “apology” characterized by such statements: “Islam is a manifesto for freedom”, “what Muslim needs today is to become an individual” and “Islam is compatible with the concept of human rights.” And this proves that Muslims are still in capable of using “the original language” competently. Nonetheless, there are strong signs that the process of evolution of Muslim thought continues. For example, though the aim of cleansing Islam of superstition in the formulation of Qutb's “Unique Qoranic Generation” is described as an “abstract” goal, the content of this conceptualization has been strengthened and enriched in time by means of bringing initiatives concerning the criticism of Muslim tradition, the position of Muslim schools of thought, and sufism. Likewise, eventhough the “worship” which can be called most central concept of Islam in appraising the human deeds is examined in Mawdudi’s Four Term from Islamic perspective alone, some Muslim intellectuals made in time in-depth analyses which draw a clear contrast of the concept with that of “freedom” which may be called again the most central concept of Modernity in this field. And it can be fairly argued that these examples demonstrate the fact that the process of the Systematization of the Thought keeps going. So, when we look at the grand scheme, we can say that Contemporary Muslim Thought has been evolving into a robust ideology even if the development occurs slowly and gradually. As for us, it can be said that we are in a transitional period. We believe that the attempts to purify Muslim language from the words which originally did not belong it or the efforts to use the original language competently signify that we are on the verge of a new era i.e. the Systematization of the Thought. Muslim Thought is, now, at the point of passing a stage of “purification.” This process will be completed when we reach the aim of purifying Muslim language from foreign elements and have a good knowledge of, and learn to use the “original language.”