March 9, 2007
Understanding the Roots of Muslim Dilemma--I
Muzaffar Iqbal
Muslims are in serious trouble; no one doubts that. This is so obvious that men and women who otherwise hold the most divergent beliefs and ideas agree on this one point. Ironically, this universal consensus has emerged in the post-1950 era through an increasingly assertive and violent struggle which aims to dislodge the three centuries of history by fighting lingering manifestations of the colonial era. Yet, it will be a serious error to conclude that the contemporary dilemmas faced by Muslims are simply a result of their colonization, for these dilemmas predate that violent storm which arose from Europe and, taking Muslims by surprise, reduced the power and glory of their three vast empires to dust; certain men of foresight and understanding in the Safavid, Mughal, and the Ottoman empires were already conscious of the sapping of energy and vitality of their empires.
It is true that at that time no one predicted the nature and extent of the calamity that would soon overtake them, but there were people who clearly understood that a spiritual, intellectual, and moral decay had set in and that the Muslim world could experience some kind of catastrophe. This catastrophe came in the form of colonization and, in turn, has produced the worst dilemma Muslims have ever faced in their entire history.
The contemporary dilemmas faced by Muslims are a continuation of the historic process that started in the eighteenth century. They were not recognized then in precise terms, because they had not yet taken the present form. At the dawn of the eighteenth century the apparent glory and glamour of the three major empires, which had emerged in the traditional Muslim lands after the Mongol invasion, also hindered the realization of this calamity.
It is true that at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Ottomans were suffering defeats, but these defeats were in Europe, in areas which were being attacked by the Ottomans. And though Sultan Ahmad III and certain members of the ruling elite were conscious of the problems faced by the Ottoman empire, and they were taking steps to redress them, they did not think of these problems as anything that would bring the kind of calamity that came in the subsequent decades. In India, Awrangzeb was still alive and though occupied with internal conflicts, he was nevertheless the emperor of an empire that stretched from one end of the subcontinent to the other. Likewise, the Safavids under Shah Husayn were facing problems, but no one could predict that Husayn would be the last effective Safavid king.
All of this was to change drastically as the eighteenth century ran its course. By the end of that fatal century, the British, the Dutch, and the French armies were knocking at the doors of the Muslim world with a ferocity that would only increase in strength with time. This reversal of their fortunes was not merely outward or political; the entire Muslim world now began to feel the pressure of a new kind—the forces of modernity had arrived with their multi-faceted challenges and now there was no turning back.
Muslim societies had known internal strife, sectarian violence, even corruption of faith and practices before their encounter with the modern Western civilization, but what happened in the course of the eighteenth century—and this continues to our own times—was totally new. For the first time in their history, Muslims came under attack from a civilization built upon ideas, beliefs, and aspirations in direct opposition to their own. Built upon a conception of life and cosmos from which the Divine had been abstracted, modern Western civilization placed human beings at the center of all things and constructed an edifice that makes human reason the measure of all things.
Coming under the yoke of this civilization, Muslims now had to reassess their situation. The very nature of their crisis changed drastically; what they faced at the beginning of the eighteenth century was radically different from what they were facing at the end of that century. This change was not merely the displacement of a threat from a Nadir Khan to a British or French General; but a change in the very nature of the threat. What they faced now was an encounter of a new kind.
It is through understanding the basic nature of this new encounter that we can begin to understand the contours of the present dilemmas faced by Muslims. And it is by placing these contemporary dilemmas in their proper historic perspectives that Muslims can hope to produce an ebb that would carry back the ferocious tide which has swollen an entire civilization and its accomplishments during the last three centuries.
It is, therefore, the two centuries prior to 1950 which hold the key to a proper understanding of the dilemmas faced by Muslims today. What happened during those two centuries has produced the fruits that Muslims are harvesting now. This bitter harvest is not produced by a George Bush or a Tony Blair, they are merely prolonging the process their forefathers started in the eighteenth century. Likewise, the enlightened generals and self-proclaimed moderate presidents and kings who now rule the Muslim world, have not just emerged from thin air; they are the product of the same violent tide that disrupted centuries-old traditions, uprooted individuals from the spiritual and intellectual world of their forefathers, and produced a fissure with the primary sources of Islam.
(To be concluded)
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