By Omar Javaid
From Islamic banks, Islamic Insurance, Islamic Funds, Islamic Economics, Islamic Schools, Islamic Democracy, Islamic Nations, to Islamic Music and Islamic swimwear, lots of things which are foreign to Islamic tradition and history are being introduced in the Muslim world with a label of Islam after a little alterations! The term 'Islamic' itself when attached to another term is a proof of that thing being of foreign origin though a little tweaked! we don't hear terms like Islamic nikah, Islamic baitulmal, Islamic shura, Islamic hajj, Islamic salah, Islamic Madarasah, Islamic Masjid; definitely not! because these are terms from the history of Muslim civilization...
The sudden influx of such 'Islamic' things indicates that many assume Islam's historical experience of managing the socioeconomic and political landscape of a world dominating civilization isn't sufficient enough to help solve contemporary problems!
Why this has been so? After ruling the world for 1300 years, Islamic Civilization collapsed by its own mistakes and was colonized by westerners which included British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Germans etc... these periods of colonizations imposed various foreign customs, institutions, even values, narratives and ideals on the Muslim world!
This period lasted for a few generations rendering the new ones disabled to retain their Islamic identity and form, furthermore Muslims had to rely on alien way of living to earn their bread and butter for many generations as well! The impact was so deep rooted that today after more than seven decades Muslim world is still predominantly clinged to the things brought to them by the colonizers!
Since bread and butter of the majority majority is largely dependent on the colonial institutions, therefore its near to impossible for them to replace the entire institutional framework with something new! The ulema, who 200 years before ferociously resisted the imposition of those institutions, have also now became relaxed while legitimizing the existence of such institutions!
Lets look a bit deeper! why the Institutional formation in history of Muslim world and western civilization are so different that we seldom see any similarity whatsoever! this disparity isn't just limited to these two civilizations! even if compare Chinese, Hindu, Roman civilizations with that of Islam's, then again we would see colossal differences!
This indicates that respective ideals, values, norms, customs, culture, traditions and of course the religion in each civilizations influence the formation and evolution of its institutions! Why did the Englishmen wanted to replace all local institutions of colonies like India with those which evolved in Europe? Simple because the local ones were not compatible with the ideals and values of the Englishmen! now those institutions which were later forcefully installed could be compatible with the ideals and norms of Islamic world? They can't be! if they were, then there would have been no need to enforce them! and that also to an extent that even an entirely new education system (in replace of traditional Madrasah system) was installed to prepare the locals to serve in those institutions! Akbar Ala Abadi description about this education system is worth a mention:
The above argument doesn't intend to propose that Muslims in the world today go back to ancient times! it needs to be understood that institutional formations in any society keeps on adapting according to changing demands however this adaptation is in between the two polls: (a) the ideals and values and (b) various endogenous and exogenous challenges and threats which push the society away from these ideals and values!
The ideals and values remain the same as they are the defining feature of a civilization, whereas the threats keeps on changing with time subsequently creating requirements for institutional transformations to preserve the ideals, values, norms, traditions against the challenges and the threats! The inability to adapt to changing circumstances eventually weakens the civilization! See 'Destiny Disrupted' in which Tamim Ansari has explained the formation and evolution of various socioeconomic and political institutions in Ottoman Empire and how their inflexibility later on allowed the empire to collapse!
Having said this the purpose of the socioeconomic and political institutions is to enable the stakeholders to conform to their respective ideals and values etc... the adaption, transformation of institutions is also centred around this core objectives, however the framework might change with ever changing challenges and threats!
But can this be done by tweaking the exterior of colonial institutions (build to serve a different set of ideals and values) and putting a label of 'Islamic' on them? Using a tractor for an emergency ambulance service, when the objective is to quickly deliver the patient to the hospital... would calling it "compassionate" ambulance service appropriate only by providing a comfortable bed to the patient while modifying the passenger seats!
What needs to be done is not so difficult to understand, i.e. to revive those institutions which doesn't require a label of Islamic to be called Islamic, some adjustment might be done to adjust to the challenges and threats against Islamic Ideals and values! if that's somehow not possible then at least one should strictly refrain from calling western institutions 'Islamic' despite some alterations are done to make them compliant to Islamic standards, why so? check this post as a case study, titled 'Islamic Banks and the Problem of Takasur'.
Author is a Gold Medalist in MS in Islamic Finance and has translated Phd thesis of Dr. Mufti Ismatullah sb which has been published in book form titled 'Money and Its form: An analysis in the light of shariah' by Darulishaat. Author is also a reader on Islamic and western history, philosophy, and political theory and frequently writes on the subject as well. He is also Vice President of a modest Interest free Microfinance organization called GEAR (www.gear.org.pk).
From Islamic banks, Islamic Insurance, Islamic Funds, Islamic Economics, Islamic Schools, Islamic Democracy, Islamic Nations, to Islamic Music and Islamic swimwear, lots of things which are foreign to Islamic tradition and history are being introduced in the Muslim world with a label of Islam after a little alterations! The term 'Islamic' itself when attached to another term is a proof of that thing being of foreign origin though a little tweaked! we don't hear terms like Islamic nikah, Islamic baitulmal, Islamic shura, Islamic hajj, Islamic salah, Islamic Madarasah, Islamic Masjid; definitely not! because these are terms from the history of Muslim civilization...
The sudden influx of such 'Islamic' things indicates that many assume Islam's historical experience of managing the socioeconomic and political landscape of a world dominating civilization isn't sufficient enough to help solve contemporary problems!
Why this has been so? After ruling the world for 1300 years, Islamic Civilization collapsed by its own mistakes and was colonized by westerners which included British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Germans etc... these periods of colonizations imposed various foreign customs, institutions, even values, narratives and ideals on the Muslim world!
This period lasted for a few generations rendering the new ones disabled to retain their Islamic identity and form, furthermore Muslims had to rely on alien way of living to earn their bread and butter for many generations as well! The impact was so deep rooted that today after more than seven decades Muslim world is still predominantly clinged to the things brought to them by the colonizers!Since bread and butter of the majority majority is largely dependent on the colonial institutions, therefore its near to impossible for them to replace the entire institutional framework with something new! The ulema, who 200 years before ferociously resisted the imposition of those institutions, have also now became relaxed while legitimizing the existence of such institutions!
Lets look a bit deeper! why the Institutional formation in history of Muslim world and western civilization are so different that we seldom see any similarity whatsoever! this disparity isn't just limited to these two civilizations! even if compare Chinese, Hindu, Roman civilizations with that of Islam's, then again we would see colossal differences!
This indicates that respective ideals, values, norms, customs, culture, traditions and of course the religion in each civilizations influence the formation and evolution of its institutions! Why did the Englishmen wanted to replace all local institutions of colonies like India with those which evolved in Europe? Simple because the local ones were not compatible with the ideals and values of the Englishmen! now those institutions which were later forcefully installed could be compatible with the ideals and norms of Islamic world? They can't be! if they were, then there would have been no need to enforce them! and that also to an extent that even an entirely new education system (in replace of traditional Madrasah system) was installed to prepare the locals to serve in those institutions! Akbar Ala Abadi description about this education system is worth a mention:
یوں قتل سے وہ بچوں کے بدنام نہ ہوتا
افسوس کے فرعون کو کالج کی نہ سوجھی
The above argument doesn't intend to propose that Muslims in the world today go back to ancient times! it needs to be understood that institutional formations in any society keeps on adapting according to changing demands however this adaptation is in between the two polls: (a) the ideals and values and (b) various endogenous and exogenous challenges and threats which push the society away from these ideals and values!
The ideals and values remain the same as they are the defining feature of a civilization, whereas the threats keeps on changing with time subsequently creating requirements for institutional transformations to preserve the ideals, values, norms, traditions against the challenges and the threats! The inability to adapt to changing circumstances eventually weakens the civilization! See 'Destiny Disrupted' in which Tamim Ansari has explained the formation and evolution of various socioeconomic and political institutions in Ottoman Empire and how their inflexibility later on allowed the empire to collapse!
Having said this the purpose of the socioeconomic and political institutions is to enable the stakeholders to conform to their respective ideals and values etc... the adaption, transformation of institutions is also centred around this core objectives, however the framework might change with ever changing challenges and threats!
But can this be done by tweaking the exterior of colonial institutions (build to serve a different set of ideals and values) and putting a label of 'Islamic' on them? Using a tractor for an emergency ambulance service, when the objective is to quickly deliver the patient to the hospital... would calling it "compassionate" ambulance service appropriate only by providing a comfortable bed to the patient while modifying the passenger seats!
What needs to be done is not so difficult to understand, i.e. to revive those institutions which doesn't require a label of Islamic to be called Islamic, some adjustment might be done to adjust to the challenges and threats against Islamic Ideals and values! if that's somehow not possible then at least one should strictly refrain from calling western institutions 'Islamic' despite some alterations are done to make them compliant to Islamic standards, why so? check this post as a case study, titled 'Islamic Banks and the Problem of Takasur'.
Author is a Gold Medalist in MS in Islamic Finance and has translated Phd thesis of Dr. Mufti Ismatullah sb which has been published in book form titled 'Money and Its form: An analysis in the light of shariah' by Darulishaat. Author is also a reader on Islamic and western history, philosophy, and political theory and frequently writes on the subject as well. He is also Vice President of a modest Interest free Microfinance organization called GEAR (www.gear.org.pk).
Dear OJ,
ReplyDeleteSalam!
Kindly correct it:
Afsos ke Firoun ko kaalij ki na soojhi
Youn qatal mein woh bachon ke badnaam na hota!
Or correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks.
i have seen the opposite :) mentioned in a book by Shahnawaz Farooqi sb
DeleteOh, the opposite does not make sense. Anyway, better you check that in the book of Akbar Ilah Abadi since these words belong to him, not to Mr. Shahnawaz Farooqi.
DeleteI am open to corrections, anyway!