The serious reader must be prepared to think in novel ways. To this end, he must be prepared to absorb as readily as possible a whole range of new concepts and terms. Otherwise he cannot expect to profit seriously by a study of the culture; at most he will receive an impression of exotic quaintness, romance, or incongruity which does no justice to the human reality. Marshall G.S. Hodgson
In our analysis of social or religious phenomena, we introduce our conceptions, we make comparisons and we reflect. This chained process ultimately creates and introduces our conclusions. The questions now are: who does chain these elements into individual conclusions? do we realize the presence of individuality throughout the process? Are our conclusions judgmental? Do we perceive them as realities or do we allow other possibilities or other explanations? Do we reflect other images? Do we distance our selves? Do we hear other voices ? Of course not, and this is what is causing these dilemmas of today.
In depth, life was always seen to be a challenge and an attempt to understand the world and its complexities. Basically to know who you are and to whom you belong. In different occasions, the Moroccan philosopher and historian, Abdallah Al-Arwi chose to use the term confrontation to identify the challenging nature of life. Either within our communities or societies, we are always involved both explicitly and implicitly in a process of questioning. Be it in mythology, theology, art or literature, the questions on identity were and are still relevantly reflecting an immemorial concern that extends back beyond our memories and our history to live within our current obsessions with reality.
In the world of today, our logical response to the growing number of challenges we face in our Islamic world is to think of our existence beyond the limitations of the past. Definitely, history gives us a chance to see what has been constructed and how to assess the quality and stability of these constructions. History gives us a chance to reflect on our own experiences and see what was wrong. However, the challenge is to test our abilities of investigation and re-identification of our contributions from before the birth of the prophet Muhammed to the twentieth century. Our challenge is to trace the course of the Islamic civilization and re-interpret its historical development which would ultimately lead us to a better understanding of ourselves as Muslims and also of our larger Islamic world.
Of course, the presence of Islam in mostly bedouin communities has made a vital difference in the structures of rival tribes and made a truly new civilization. A civilization that could unify the peoples of the vast religion of Arabia and later Persia into one strong and unified community. This was the work of a remarkable man and this should be our focus.
The religious community was built up first and logically within an Arabian culture and an Arabian socially-influenced environment and then scattered throughout the Aramaic and Iranian borders and beyond. This community that carried the message of Allah and devoted its remarkable men and their spirits into the formation of a spacious and a ruling Islamic world is now falling apart. Here, the same persisting question arise: why? What did make of a camel nomadic culture that flourished and prospered in the sixth and seventh century and reach beyond the Roman and Sassanian lands to collapse?
In his book, Al-Sunna wa al Islah, Abdallah Al-Arwi tried to find some answers to this controversial question from philosophical and historical perspectives without necessarily trying to advocate or advance a religious discourse. “when we review jurisprudentially and theologically the religious books, we should concentrate on our inquiries and their consequence and not necessarily on the answers these books may have.” the purpose of course is to chain logically the different components of our culture and the sequence of its formation so we can understand who we are and what we are.
In Al-Arwi’s perspective, we can not understand unless we see beyond theology and ignore its focus on spirituality and sanctity. Theology in general models a unique human nature that favors mystery and prefers metaphysical obsessions. Theology, once falsely advocated, allows the mankind the possibility to live in the worlds of planets and stars and to relate spiritually to the world of creation. Here, we lose the balance and fall into loss. Here, politics supports and advances a disfigured interpretation of religion and leaves the people with an excessive obsession with misleading impressions of reality and a devastating obedience to illusion. At the end, this serves mainly a political aim to rule.
To read previous articles on the Islamic World: article 1, article 2
To be continued...
This work was inspired by “Al-Sona wa AI-Islah” of the great Moroccan historian and philosopher Abdallah Al-Arwi