Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity

Tariq Ramadan

• Publisher: The Islamic Foundation
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780860373117
• eBook ISBN: 9780860374398
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

Tariq Ramadan attempts to demonstrate, using sources which draw upon Islamic thought and civilization, that Muslims can respond to contemporary challenges of modernity without betraying their identity. The book argues that Muslims, nurished by their own points of reference, can approach the modern epoch by adopting a specific social, political, and economic model that is linked to ethical values, a sense of finalities and spirituality. Rather than a modernism that tends to impose Westernization, it is a modernity that admits to the pluralism of civilizations, religions, and cultures.

Table of Contents:
Foreword
Introduction
History of a Concept
The Lessons of History
Part 1: At the shores of Transcendence: between God and Man
Part 2: The Horizons of Islam: Between Man and the Community
Part 3: Values and Finalities: The Cultural Dimension of the Civilizational Face to Face
Conclusion
Appendix
Index

Tariq Ramadan is a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford and a visiting professor in Identity and Citizenship at Erasmus University. He was named by TIME Magazine as one of the one hundred innovators of the twenty-first century

Part One

At the Shores of Transcendence
Between God and Man

At the Shores of Transcendence

In our Introduction we identified that for the women and men of the West, Islam seems to be resistant to any idea of modernity. We read such notions in the first pages of certain American, English and French magazines when they address the rise of Islamism in titles such as Islam or Modernity, and Islam or Democracy. ¹ That is when the formulations are not more exclusivist or sentencing. The backdrop that is drawn is the expression of a kind of face to face between Islam and the West. A face to face whereby the latter is attributed a positive quality, representing the principle of openness and respect for humanist and democratic values. Inversely, Islam seems as negatively marked by archaism and tradition, of being locked up in old dogmatic categories, the denunciation of women, a barbarous penal code (rendered as Sharī‘a), and the denial of the freedom of peoples. At the threshold of the third millennium of the Christian era, the terms of the alternative are clear.

When one looks at the state of Muslim societies, it is impossible to annul by a stroke of the pen the critiques made against us. They are well-founded when they evidence certain astonishing reflections and behaviours which we justify in the name of Islam. Among these are the privilege of Kings and Presidents, expedient justice, the illiteracy of women along with a variety of discriminations, each one more painful than the other, the narrow traditionalism of some ‘ulamā’ who decide and resolve questions away from any human reality in an absoluteness which only God knows. The facts are there, one must acknowledge and take account of them. However, one must ask whether the debate on Islam has been launched on clear and sound methodological bases. To consider and take into account only the shocking daily events, or more broadly, the state of Muslim societies in order to conclude, in a definite fashion, that Islam cannot respond to contemporary problems is both erroneous and reductionist. It limits Islamic Studies (Islamology) to the social sciences; it also makes the specialists of the latter the specialists of contemporary Islam. ² More clearly, this is tantamount to making an in-depth study of the fundamentals of Islam (of which we often know nothing, but which we speak about without having anything of substance to say) which then allows us to measure whether there really exists an incompatibility between Islam and the acceptance of the principles of modernity as they are actualised in the West. Such study, nevertheless, is the means to understand the wealth and abundance of ideas which mobilise people today in Muslim societies. This in order to bring about a society which can live with its time, on economic, political, social and cultural levels, without denying or betraying its points of reference.

I. The Qur’ān and the Sunna ³

The Qur’ān is, for Muslims, the Word of God revealed in stages to the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him) during the 23 years of his mission through the intermediary of the Angel Gabriel. ⁴ In this sense, therefore, the Qur’ān represents for them an absolute word that gives and takes meaning beyond the events and contingencies of history. It is, for the believers of Islam, the last message to mankind revealed by God, Who had in the past sent innumerable Prophets and Messengers, among whom were Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. The Qur’ānic text is, before anything else, a reminder ⁵ to mankind so that they revert back to original faith in God and so that they assume an acceptable moral behaviour. More than a third of the Qur’ān is composed of the expression of “tawḥīd”: faith in the unicity of the Creator Who does not beget nor has He begotten. We also find mentioned in the Qur’ān the histories of other Prophets whose narrations convey the fact of the unique essence of the different messages and their continuity. All these passages give rise to the spirituality which should accompany the believer: their absolute dimension is logical and legitimate in itself. A number of verses in the Qur’ān speak of Creation, the universe and other verses insist on the modes of relation that men should undertake between themselves or towards nature. In fact, the Revelation deals with all spheres of human activity: of the economic order, the social project, and of political representation. It is this specificity which may, if not understood in the context of the Qur’ānic strategy for change, cause some problem. The Word of God is absolute and definitive, its application to given situations is governed by built-in rules and a mechanism that ensures the harmony, the application between the objectives and principles behind the injunctions and their specific application in given situations.

That is how the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him), his Companions and the first jurists have understood it. The Qur’ān came down by instalments and the revealed verses which addressed specific situations to which the community of believers around the Prophet (peace be upon him) had to face up to also had a universal significance. As such, on the one hand these revealed verses were relative answers to dated historical facts; they also represented the revealed absolute, the eternal meaning of the formulation, the general principle which comes out of the same answer. It is this which was held by the first jurists, after AbūḤanīfa and al-Shāfi‘ī, ⁶ as the notion of “maqāṣid al-Sharī‘a”: the objectives and principles of orientation of Islamic legislation.

It is a question of a later conceptualisation of what Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and his Companions naturally understood and applied. When ‘Umar, upon succeeding Abū Bakr as the head of the Muslim community, decided, during the year known as the year of famine, to suspend the punishment of cutting off the hands of thieves, he was following exactly the principle enunciated above. To maintain the application of this punishment would have meant a betrayal of the objective of the Revelation which alone is absolute (even if this could be seen as falling short of the letter of the Qur’ān). ⁷

There are in the Qur’ān nearly 228 verses (out of 6,238) which deal with general legislation (constitutional law, penal and civil codes, international relations, economic order, etc.). ⁸ These injunctions lay the fundamental norms of behaviour and define the four corners within which legislation takes place. Built in is a mechanism for change and evolutionary guidance. General and absolute principles ⁹ which were hidden behind the specific answers given to the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century. The Qur’ān, therefore, offers directing principles, principles of orientation. The latter are, in essence, absolute, since for the Muslim, they have come from the Creator Who indicates to man the way (the Sharī‘a) ¹⁰ is to be followed in order to respect His injunctions. These principles are the point of reference for jurists who have the responsibility, in all places and at all times, of providing answers in tune with their environment without betraying the initial orientation. Thus, it is not a question of rejecting the evolution of societies, the change of modes and mentalities or cultural diversities. On the contrary, the Muslim is obligated to respect the Divine Order which has willed time, history and diversity.

He brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living, and He revives the earth after it is dead; even so you shall be brought forth. And of His signs is that He created you of dust; then lo, you are mortals, all scattered abroad. And of His signs is that He created for you, of yourselves, spouses, that you might repose in them, and He has set between you love and mercy. Surely in that are signs for a people who consider. And of His signs is the creation of the heaven and earth and the variety of your tongues and hues. Surely in that are signs for all living beings. (Qur’ān, 30:19–22)

The stages of creation of the heavens, earth and human beings and the diversity of idioms and colours are signs of the divine Presence and should therefore be respected. The interpolation of all human beings follows the same sense:

O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female, and appointed you races and tribes, that you may know one another. (Qur’ān, 49:13)

Thus, man who has faith, has to acknowledge, at the very moment when he is busy with the affairs of humans, the facts of historical evolution as well as the diversity of cultures and worship. To face up to his responsibilities as a believer is to comprehend the horizon of this complexity, and to activate himself to find, for his time and country, the best way of establishing harmony between absolute principles and daily life. The Sunna of the Prophet (peace be upon him), the second source of Islamic law, allows one to approach the objective of the Revelation. In fact, by analysing what Muḥammad (peace be upon him) said on such or such an occasion, or how he acted, or again what he approved, we are in a better position to understand the meaning as well as the extent of the Divine injunctions. ¹¹ In the same vein, jurists have exerted themselves to extract from the sayings, deeds and decisions of the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him) the principles which allow Muslims to live with their time and environment while still remaining faithful to his teaching.

At first sight, the constant reference to the Qur’ān and the Prophet (peace be upon him) might seem as an obstacle and as a negation to change, and this is manifested by the will to see applied today a legislation which is 14 centuries old. What we have just said, however, is proof that this understanding is too reductionist and corresponds neither to the teachings of Muḥammad (peace be upon him) nor to the attitude of the ‘ulamā’ (scholars) of the first era. The establishment of general principles is a fact which is proved in the modalities of juridical readings of the Qur’ān and the traditions, and confirms, if there was need for confirmation, the requirement of “the effort of personal reflection” (ijtihād) in situations which neither the Qur’ ā n nor the Sunna mention. ¹²

II. Ijtihād: Between the Absoluteness of Sources and the Relativity of History

When he had to pronounce a ruling, the first Caliph, Abū Bakr, referred firstly to the Qur’ān, trying to find whether there was an applicable text. If he did not find one there, he would take into consideration the life of the Prophet – according to his memory or that of his Companions – in order to discover a similar situation for which the Prophet (peace be upon him) might have pronounced a specific ruling. If at the end of his enquiry the two sources remained silent on the case in question, he would gather for consultation the representatives of the people and agree with them on a new decision. One which was rationally independent but respectful of the spirit of the first two sources.

This step-by-step procedure received the approbation of Muḥammad (peace be upon him) himself when he sent Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal to the Yemen to assume the office of Judge. On the eve of his departure, the Prophet (peace be upon him) asked him: “According to what are you going to judge?” “According to the Book of Allah”, answered Mu‘ādh. “And if you don’t find the ruling therein.” “According to the tradition (Sunna) of the Prophet of God.” “And if you don’t find the ruling therein.” “Then I will exert my effort to formulate my own ruling.” Upon hearing Mu‘ādh’s answer, the Prophet (peace be upon him) concluded: “Praise be to Allah Who has guided t...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• An Entire Life
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three Values and Finalitie
• Conclusion: A Triple Liberation
• Appendices
• Index