Advantages
of Islam
Question:-
People, Muslims and others have made
references to problems existing in the United
States and Europe and
suggested that Islam addresses them. However, not only are these references not
specific, but when I look at Islamic countries I see the opposite. They have
more problems than we do. Now there may be a few things about which Islam might
improve things, but for the most part it seems like Muslim countries are doing
worse. Can someone offer some specific examples?
A Muslim:-
Islam is a complete code of life. It provides
instructions for individual as well as collective life. Unfortunately foreign
imperialism and colonialism destroyed Muslim states and thrust upon Muslim
countries its own order for the advantages of the imperialists. So Muslim
countries are not doing better but worse. Unless Islam is implemented in letter
and spirit in any country, tangible benefits it brings to the society, cannot
be demonstrated. Therefore, Muslim thinkers have been striving for the
establishment of Islamic order, in countries like, Egypt,
Pakistan, Indonesia, Algeria
and Sudan.
An Agnostic:-
Even though I'm not a Muslim, I'd like to
take a stab at this, as this is a subject I have been giving some thought to
recently. For my own part, as I have grown a bit more socially conservative,
I've gained a new respect for what Islam might be able to offer to people on
certain levels.
A dear friend of mine living in Western Europe has complained that the over-sexualized
nature of the culture (and the general atmosphere of nihilism) makes for an
environment that she does not want to raise her child in. As we have discussed
the subject, I have been forced to admit that even if she moved to America, there
is no guarantee that her child will grow up in an environment any different
from the one she desires to escape. Now she's contemplating the idea of moving
to a neighbourhood with a large Muslim population, so her child can go to a
school with a lot of Muslims, with the hope being that, *maybe*, there will be
less of an influence on her child in terms of Western debauchery.
This story might offer the groundwork for one
possible answer to your question. The entire world seems to be moving towards a
collective secular nihilism (I mean it in the sense of not caring about family,
community or the future, and living only for the sake of intoxicating oneself
and gratifying one's genitals). Europe, as well as the Western hemisphere, has
become saturated with this lifestyle - it is celebrated in the popular media
and it is difficult to find those pockets which are not run over with such a
vapid philosophy of fierce individualism and the search for immediate pleasure
being the only things which are still sacred.
Now, of course, much of the Muslim world is
in a struggle to not be overcome by the same forces (I'm sure that anyone who
has been to some Muslim capital cities such as Tehran,
or even Baghdad
before the start of the current war, could testify that such places are far
from devoid of the same problems). Aside from the discussion with my friend
alluded to above another factor that got me thinking about this subject was
reading a piece, by an Orthodox Jew (and staunch Zionist), commenting on
France's attempts to ban the hijab from public schools. To my surprise, the
author of this piece did not defend the proposed rule. Now, the author of the
piece was not exactly pleased with the Islamic world as a whole, yet he
nonetheless expressed a positive view of behaviour patterns typical to Muslims
vis a vis the behaviour patterns typical to the secular French. He railed
against a system which, he felt, made attempts to prevent young Muslim girls
and women from protecting their chastity, and then he made a statement that I
found shocking (paraphrasing): "the secular Western world celebrates a
woman's right to choose, but apparently does so only if the choice she makes is
to kill her unborn child; the freedom to choose to dress modestly and avoid
aspects of a culture which seeks to turn her into a sexual object is not a
right she should be afforded."
There are several books available now on the
subject of the "Islamic threat" in Europe.
Others might consider such books to be alarmist, but I think they are somewhat
prescient: Islam is a threat to the status quo in Western
Europe. Western Europe is weak -
it is sick. The culture there is dying (even the current Pope of the Roman
Catholic Church has alluded to this on a few occasions). They have so many
beautiful churches, yet they are mostly empty. They have so many interesting
toy makers, yet many Europeans love their dogs more than their children (and a
growing number are subscribing to the philosophical position that you shouldn't
have kids, as that will cut into the time you can spend having fun or getting
ahead in life). They preach to the world about women's rights, yet the
objectification of women as purely sexual objects is nearly universal in their
popular media.
Such a widespread worldview is bound to do
exactly what it has done in Western Europe:
lower birth rates and create an aging population which needs to import labour.
So Europe has spent decades importing Muslim
labourers, who have higher birth rates, and who have a stronger sense of family
and communal pride. On top of that, the secular Europeans are ingesting their
own cultural and philosophical poisons and a greater rate than are
European-born Muslims, therefore the secular European population continues to
die while the Muslim population grows (or at least remains stable). Thus many
feel secular Europe is in a slow process of
handing the reigns over to the European Muslim community. I once heard a
Christian say "Europe has turned its back
on the Church - maybe it should be handed over to the Muslims".
For my own part, I agree with the
"alarmists" at least in the sense that violence is *possible*. That
is, in our lifetime, we might see a Western European nation descend into civil
war and implode under the weight of its Muslim population. However, I also
think the prospect of Islam growing in Europe
*might* blossom into something truly beautiful. I say this because, at present,
at least the elite in Western Europe have a notion of human rights and freedom
which contains many very positive aspects that should remain in place, while,
on the flip side, Islam might succeed where Christianity, thus far, has failed:
in bringing some semblance of a moral core and sense of familial piety back to
modern Western Europe. So the question is, will these two contradictory
cultures destroy each other? Or will they give birth to a hybrid culture with
all their positive and beautiful aspects on display?
Comment:-
The Islamic rules connected with sexual
modesty are meant to support sexual morality and that morality is essential for
the protection of the family where the psychological welfare and development of
the children, the next generation is best carried out. It is also essential for
the welfare of the society which is a network of families. It is becoming
obvious to those interested in the subject that a great many social,
psychological and even environmental problems that Western nations are
suffering from are connected with sexual immorality, dysfunctions and
depravities and the disintegration of families. This includes neglect, abuse
and cruelty to children, and the development of neurosis, inadequacy,
psychopathy, perversions, loss of moral sensibilities, anti-social and
aggressive behaviour, vandalism, criminality, prostitution, seduction, rape,
trafficking in women, and mutual violence between the sexes. Poor family life
leads to emotional frustration, insecurity, lack of love, loss of self-value
and low self-images. These lead to increasing escapism in sensuality, fantasy,
illusion, alcoholism and drug taking, or in various forms of compensatory
behaviour such as the pursuit of material wealth, power and prestige, attention
seeking or attachment to things, persons, institutions etc. that are considered
sources of power and significance. There is psychological isolation,
self-centredness and alienation. There are also economic and ecological
consequences because the disintegration of families causes the multiplication
of households and material demands that places increased pressure on resources.
It is not just a question of sexual morality
but of the whole social system of which that morality is an integral part. And
that is an integral part, with the economic and cultural system, of the whole
way of life, the general attitude of mind and relationship with Reality.
Consider, for instance, the present global
financial crisis. It seems to be connected with Usury and the fact that people
in the West, particularly the USA
have got themselves into huge debts. Because of the materialistic and
sensualistic attitude and the desire for immediate gratification they have
borrowed money from Banks and sold their future for the present. They have
mortgaged their homes and enslaved themselves. When interest rates rose and
they were unable to pay interest their houses were repossessed. Over 2 million
Americans have lost their homes and thousands lose theirs in the UK every month.
The whole system is based on competition,
exploitation, expanding profits, on "taking" as opposed to unity,
compassion and "giving". People put their money into banks in order
to be paid interest - extra money for no equivalent production. The Banks must
lend out money to make profits and pay the clients. The profit made from
interest is again put into banks to do the same. Money accumulates but
represents the same number of goods. Borrowing simply causes an increase in
demand, prices to rise and reducing the value of money and earnings. The
lending of money is, therefore, good for industry to keep prices high (in order
to keep profits high), or to sell goods promoted by propaganda and advertisement
and pressure salesmanship.
The price of goods is equal to the profit +
the cost of manufacture which includes wages. But because Industry is owned by
a relatively few people the workers are a modified form of what were slaves in
the past that can be taken on to obey or to be discarded when unprofitable. The
total wages they get, being less than the total price of goods they produce,
they cannot in fact buy all the goods.
The accumulation of unsold goods which
represent loss of profit will eventually throw them out of employment. And the
money will accumulate unused in Banks. Thus the economic trinity, the three
aspects of the economy - workers, money and goods - are separated instead of
being coordinated. It is not difficult to see that to prevent this state of
affairs by those who lose profit there is pressure to sell whether or not the
goods are required. Hence materialism and consumerism and the pursuit of
pleasure and instant gratification dominate the whole community at the expense
of social, psychological and environmental welfare. It cannot be otherwise.
There has to be constant expansion. But this, the limited resources of the
planet, cannot sustain.
In the developed West,
only a small proportion of resources used are usefully employed. The major part
is waste. There is an enormous quantity of wrapping and packaging, multiple
purchases of the same products that cannot be used at the same time (clothes,
cars, electronic equipment etc), production and sale of useless objects,
built-in obsolescence, shoddy products that breakdown but cannot be repaired
because the parts are unavailable or the cost of repair is greater than new
purchases , unnecessary car journeys, transportation of goods and workers over
long distances instead of local industries, wastage of food in most households,
junk mail, spam on the internet, telephone salesmanship and so on. The values
and Way of Life that the economic system creates lead to numerous stresses and
physical, social and psychological diseases that have to be dealt with and this
also absorbs great quantities of resources and human efforts which do not
appear as the cost of production. The Centralisation and hierarchical organisation required to run the system leads to oppressive remote control and the
loss of individual responsibility and control.
Though Islam does not require equality of wealth, it
certainly requires incentives and that people should be rewarded according to
their actions. All are equal in this. However actions are judged according to
the good they do. It is forbidden to trade in anything that is harmful.
Property is a trust. Greed, wastage, hoarding and disruption of the ecological
system are forbidden. Investment is encouraged but Usury is forbidden and
spending in charity is encouraged. Each human being is responsible for himself
and for others in the community and slaves are to be freed. Thus partnerships
rather than employer-employee relationships are more compatible with
Islam. This means that the
difference between wages, salaries and profit should not exist and workers
cannot be thrown out on the scrapheap. Human dignity is restored.
The whole system is maintained by the
political system which is run by a power group that also runs the industries,
the culture, the medium of information and the legal system. It controls to a
large extent, consciously and unconsciously, the physical and cultural
conditions in which people, including themselves, are brought up, and therefore,
the experiences, the ideas and values, the minds and the conscience as well as
the action and behaviour, the entire way of life
of the people. There is a vicious circle with decreasing flexibility, a trap
with an escape route or key that is becoming increasingly inaccessible. Owing to the hierarchical organisation that concentrates power into the hands of the few and renders the
majority relatively powerless, the government and its agencies and the various
Corporations conduct most affairs in secret which allows them to commit all
kinds of crimes with relative impunity. The power lies in such institutions as
the military, the police, the Secret Services and the Bureaucracy and these do
not work for the community but are instruments of the State, which tends to be
an unintelligent machine that is, and is seen to be, a quite distinct alien
body.
Islam requires mutual consultation in all things and
because it places emphasis on truth it requires research and the advice from
those who have the knowledge, ability and virtue. Secrecy in what concerns the
community, political deceptions and intrigues and much regarded as normal in
the conduct of secular politics can be regarded as serious crimes, and would be
so regarded by more enlightened peoples. It would be a distinct advantage that the military
and police ceased to be organisations distinct from the community
but would consist of citizens in rotation.
All human systems
depend on three inter-dependent factors:- (a) the psychological, (b) the social
and (c) the physical and environmental. The Social factor can be further
sub-divided into the Ideological, the cultural and the organisational aspects.
The Ideological aspect contains Values, Meanings and Facts. There has been
great progress in factual knowledge in the West. But an understanding of values
appears to have declined. Instead of the concept of the Good that refers to a
fundamental purpose – the spiritual development and welfare of man
– there is the concept of Freedom, Civilised behaviour and Democracy.
Freedom appears to be understood as a right to self-indulgence. In fact,
freedom itself has be morally judged – freedom is good when it used to do
good and evil if it used to do evil. That is why there is punishment. Civilised
behaviour simply means that people are adjusted to live in cities. But there is
much crime and oppression in cities. If it is to have any value it ought to
mean the ability to live in harmony, and this should have three aspects –
the inner psychological, the social and the environmental. Democracy ought to
mean that people have control over their own lives and that they are not
controlled by others. This is obviously not the case in the West.
At a more
fundamental level there is a difference in the Modes of Thinking that involve
metaphysics, epistemology and logic. There is a bid difference between the
Islamic Tawhidian, Unitary mode of thinking and the Secular Disintegrated mode
of thinking. The Secular looks at things in isolation from other things and its
thinking tends to be linear A > B > C >…N. It is true, of course
that owing to our limitations we experience things in small portions, but we
process this to create a picture, a world view to various degrees of comprehensiveness.
But this tends to remain in the sub-conscious or unconscious level. Vague
access to it is generally known as intuition or inspiration. Though all thinking involves analysis,
association and synthesis, differences can be caused by placing conscious
emphasis on one of these. From the Islamic point of view all things derive from
a single source and form a single system which, though it has parts that are
also systems, the parts are interact directly or indirectly and are dependent
on the whole. Not only A >< B <> C etc. but a factor A under
condition B will cause C and the condition B may consist of a set of factors
b1, b2, b3 etc. It could be that C is a result of the combination of other
factors. So though we may know that a cause A can lead to an effect C, the
existence of C does not prove the existence of A, nor does it disprove that
some other effects D. This means that thinking has to be 3 dimensional. The
Linear thinking simply traces a track through this as if by a thin beam of
light in a dark room. To see the whole picture we need to expand consciousness.
If we represent Reality by a large circle R, then we can draw a very small
circle M within it to represent ordinary human consciousness. M needs to be
expanded in space, time and categories of existence (e.g. quantities,
qualities, possibilities, modalities etc.). It is not just a question of seeing
things in the context of the Universe as a whole – Islam recognises
heavens - but also in Time – The Quran speaks of the Hereafter, in comparison
with which our life span on earth is insignificant. And Islam has its own
categories of thought described as Attributes of Allah.
This is not to say
that Analytical and Linear thinking is not useful for some purposes. But one of the consequences of this form
of thinking in human affairs is that side effects are not taken into
consideration. It is recognised for instance that many malfunctions and
diseases in the West are caused by a wrong way of life. But this is generally
understood as consisting of dietary faults, lack of physical exercise and
environmental pollution. It is supposed that these can be dealt with separately.
The inter-dependence of the various aspect of life is ignored. It is supposed
that these can be cured without appropriate changes in thinking including the
attitudes, value system, the organisation, the economic and political
systems and the whole culture and psychology. Without this unexpected
consequences that might also be harmful will have to be dealt with later.
The basic problem
globally, however, that requires urgent rectification is a psychological or
spiritual one. Owing to an increasing number of distractions and cultural
pressures human consciousness has becoming hypnotised and narrowed down to
various isolated objects, ideas, institutions and habits of feeling, thinking
and actions. This also produces disintegrated schizophrenic psyches both in the
individual and the community – groups that have different sets of partial
knowledge and do not therefore communicate or understand each other. When attention is trapped in
that way then awareness of the wider and deeper reality, the unity that lies
behind the diversity and connects things together becomes impossible –
the universals are sacrificed for the particulars. In the past, when life was
less elaborate and complex, most people still had the possibility of at least
some consciousness, though vague, of Universal truths. But this sensitivity
appears to have been lost owing to the increasing superficiality brought about
by increasing multiplicity and speed of life. That is also why words have
become more important than experience and why God and other religious concepts
have ceased to be understood. The principles such as Justice, Compassion and
Truth are merely words that may have intellectually apprehended connotations
but not objective realities that govern the conduct of life. Man can be said to
be mainly "spiritually asleep" to various degrees and many are even
"spiritually dead".
The Western System
is seen by an increasing number of thoughtful people as being incompatible with
the welfare and development of human beings and, therefore, destructive and
unsustainable. If the welfare and development of humanity and even its survival
is to be achieved there has to be a revolutionary change. I cannot see that
there can be any adequate change that is not along the guidelines provided by
Islam. But it is unfortunate that Muslims in general have departed from Islam
and do not present a good example and that there is a global conflict with
Muslims that prevents understanding. But this might change when increasing
problems increase suffering so that minds are forced to look round for
solutions.
Islam provides a
comprehensive self-consistent system in its ideology that is totally different
in its assumptions, techniques, values and goals from the Western ones. But it
has not yet been implemented under modern conditions. To do this it will also
require a set of competent people who understand it and can adapt it in the new
conditions of life created by science and technology. This will require some
experimentation and trial and error.
Critic:-
It seems to me and
many others that the main problem with Muslim countries is the fact that Islam
provides no or a very inadequate educational system. Without this no progress
can be made and the result is stagnation.
Answer:-
This is not true.
In fact, one could say that Islam IS a comprehensive educational system, the
primary mission of the Prophet (saw) was to educate and the Quran is a text
book with that function. The purpose of that educational system was human
development. But its discipline was not confined to schools and colleges but
involved the whole of the way of life – the culture, the social relations
and the interactions with the environment.
One of the main
problems in the West appears to be an inadequate educational system that
concentrates on knowledge and intellectual skills, the purpose of which is to
fit people into the economic and political machine designed for material gains.
It ignores emotional and psychological welfare and morality altogether. An
ideal Islamic educational system would concern itself with the development of
the whole person physically, mentally and spiritually, and with the conduct of
life and its progressive adjustment to Reality,. Its goal would be the
integration and autonomy of the person and the expansion of his consciousness,
conscience and self-control and his creativity, initiative and responsibility.
It would provide a comprehensive self-consistent framework that co-ordinate
facts, meanings and values within which all experiences can be interpreted, and
motives and behaviour can be guided. It would provide the techniques and skills
whereby the individual can deal with his own inner psychological life, conduct
a harmonious and useful social and cultural life, including marriage and family
that occupies a major part of life, and also enable him to act in responsible
manner towards the environment and its creatures and resources.
Certainly these are
ideals that have not yet been generally approached or generally understood in
any Muslim country, except in small pockets, but this can only change gradually
when appropriate conditions come into existence. This could happen in the
future.
Question:-
How do you see the
problems connected with recent events in Pakistan
and Middle East? Is there an Islamic solution
for these? And why have they not been applied?
Answer:-
There are certainly
Islamic solutions as the Prophet (saw) has demonstrated in similar conditions
in Arabia. But solutions have to be
implemented by people and if they lack the understanding and the motivation and
the appropriate ability, how can solutions be applied?
Islam requires that
devotion and loyalty should be given above all things to Allah, but people have
attachments to all manner of different things, thereby falling into divisions
and conflicts about relative trivialities. Islam requires people to seek
knowledge and to judge by and obey the objective truths provided by the
Creator, but people pursue their own subjective whims or adopt various foreign
criteria and values. Islam requires mutual consultation in all affairs and
bases itself on the community of like minded people, but governments base
themselves on compulsion and territory. The Kurds, for instance want to be
independent and run their own affairs but the Turkish, Iraqi, Iranian and
Syrian governments will not let them because like Western Nationalism they are
based on territory and domination. The Kurds, in order to obtain their freedom
are forced to form a Liberation Army that is called Terrorist by the
oppressors. But when these States mount campaigns against them, then they are
hypocritically warned against incursions into sovereign territories by the US
Government supported by its allies that have done exactly the same.
Islam requires that
Truth, Compassion and Justice, even against oneself should govern all affairs.
But we see that the US
forcing its will on Iran,
forbidding and accusing them of developing weapons of mass destruction which
they themselves possess in massive quantities, threatening and imposing
malicious actions. It is the US
that has invaded, destroyed and committed mass murders in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is not Iraq or Iran
that threatened or invaded the USA.
There is no question here of self-defence. Almost everyone agrees
that those who are invaded have the right to resist and destroy the invaders,
but the US
calls those who do so terrorists only if it against them. All this criminality
is supported by conditioning and defaming propaganda, mass deception,
intrigues, subterfuge, sabotage and dirty tricks. Other States undoubtedly
indulge in similar criminal and immoral activities to various degrees even if
it is only to retaliate and defend them selves. It is impossible that the
condition of the world can improve while these conditions persist. But there is
nothing in the Secular World that can counter it.
In Pakistan
we have at least six different but overlapping groups in a struggle with each
other and several sub-groups within them. Firstly, there is the minority that
holds most of the wealth and power in the country. They are educated in the
West or in the Western style and have adopted Western values and modes of
behaviour. They have little in common with the rest of the population, are
indifferent to them, and tend to be rather depraved. Secondly, we have the
Military and other employees who are under the control of authorities
physically and intellectually as well as in their motives and conscience. Then
we have a third group of people who claim to be Muslim but neither practice
Islam or know much about it, but tend to be hypocrites to various degrees.
Fourthly, we have a group that do study and practice Islam to various degrees
and have hopes of establishing an Islamic State. But there are conflicting or
non-cooperative sects within this group. Fifthly, we have a group consisting of
various degrees of militant extremists whose narrow views and fanaticism
contradict or nullify the very faith they claim to support and whose actions
tend to be counter-productive and produce opposition. This group also falls
into several factions. Sixthly, we
have a section of the population that is uneducated and poor and whose mind is
occupied wholly with the business of acquiring the basic necessities of life.
They become pawns in the struggle between all the other groups.
When conditions
exist where people are inter-dependent and cannot live according to their own
values either because these are unrealistic and require domination of others or
they are made inter-dependent by an imposed regime, then Unity can only be
gained by the imposition of an external coercive method, a dictatorship that is
inherently unstable, as opposed to a natural inner organic cohesion that is
stable. This disunity also creates and invites predatory forces that wish to
manipulate and exploit the conditions for their own advantage.
Where ever in the
world there is political chaos the hand of the US government is almost certainly
to be found, though they hypocritically claim to be champions of Democracy, the
right of people to determine their own affairs. Pakistan is ruled by the
Dictator General Musharraf supported by the first group, the ruling class, and
is seen as an American puppet receiving vast quantities of money from them that
maintains the military by which his power is exercised. All opposition parties
were suppressed and their leaders imprisoned or banished. It is, therefore,
perfectly understandable that opposition to both this Dictator and the
Americans should grow. It stimulated recruitment to the extremists who joined
the Taliban and Al Qaeda in large numbers. They are certainly not all
“terrorists” as the self-deceivers wish to think, but many
genuinely see it as their Islamic duty to strive in deed, speech or thought,
against the invaders who are correctly seen as aggressors. Unfortunately, the action of
the extremists who kill, injure and destroy indiscriminately is
counter-productive in that it creates opposition even among the majority of
Muslims. This, of course, provokes the US and encourages support for them into
the very actions that give rise to these movements. We have a vicious circle.
The world has become a stage for the conflict between two Terrorists organisations and the Pakistan Government is an agent for one of them - namely the US.
Apart from the invaders who are legitimately resisted, a large part of the
population, those of groups 1 to 3, is regarded as traitors, collaborators with
the enemy, particularly by the extremists who regard them also as legitimate
targets. Similar conditions exist in many Muslim and other countries.
When some of
Musharraf's oppressive actions increased opposition to the point of threatening
his power, then the US
support shifted to Benezir Bhutto, a leader of one of the many parties, one
accused of corruption and another supporter of the US. This aggravates the situation
leading to increasing turmoil. Obviously the stupidity of those who run the US government
has prevented them from learning that their hypocrisy and interventions have
the opposite effect to those they want. And Muslims have not yet learnt that it
is their own stupidity that creates the conditions that afflict them.
“….Verily, Allah changes not the
condition of a people until they change that which is in their heart. And when
Allah wishes misfortune for a people there is no averting it, nor have they a
protector beside Him.” 13:11
“O you who believe! You have charge of your
own souls; he who errs can do you no hurt if you are rightly guided. Unto Allah
will you all return, and He will declare to you the truth of that which you
did.” 5:105
Question:-
I understand that
you are speaking about the Islamic ideal and not about the Muslim people. But
are you saying that there is nothing in the Western civilisation that has value
and that it should be replaced with Islam?
Answer:-
Not at all. It is evident that Civilisations rise
because they learn from others and add to this. But they also fall. This is
because they become unbalanced by concentrating their efforts on one of several
aspects of a whole. That which gives them an advantage then tends to lead to
destruction. It is evident that the superiority of the West depends on three
things:- Knowledge, Technology and
Organisation. But human beings consist of body, mind and spirit and their
affairs depend on three factors (a) the Physical and environmental (b) the
Social, including the value system, the culture and the social interactions,
and (c) the Psychological, the state of their consciousness, conscience, self-control.
It is not generally realised that a great number of
the Fundamental Factors which have created and led to the superiority and
domination of the Western World were introduced into it through contact with
Islam. The following could be mentioned:-
1. The idea of Unity behind multiplicity: the
distinction between the objectively real and the apparent, the desired or the
superficial.
2. The existence of order, law, proportionality and
harmony in the Universe. Science is a study of this: the concept of change and
development, continuous creation, natural cycles, and yet the existence of
something permanent and unchanging behind all these.
3. The scientific attitude. The need to seek knowledge
and to apply it, rather than to indulge in abstract purely intellectual
speculations as the Greeks did: the need to observe, think, measure, experiment
and calculate: the requirement that knowledge should have beneficial
application.
4. The need for education, experience and development
of faculties.
5. The supremacy of ideas rather than persons and
personalities. The Quran, not the Prophet, the message not the messenger has
the primary importance.
6. The supremacy of the Law rather than of kings and
rulers in human affairs. The need of a judicial system which is independent of
Governments. The Quran also provides an independent Constitution.
7. The need for loyalties higher than those limited to
narrow clan or tribal boundaries. Islam is, therefore, regarded as having
introduced the concept of Nationhood. However, it is wrongly supposed that
Islam introduced nationalism in the Western sense with its association with
imperialism. Nor did it introduce ideological loyalty into the world, though
this transcends nationalism. Islamic loyalty should be firstly to Allah and to
the community of Muslims only because of this.
8. Since the Quran is Arabic, the effect was to create
a Universal and common language through which people could understand one
another. There is a need for a common world language. In a technological and
commercial age this is English. But since life is more than these, English may
have certain structural limitations. There is reason to believe that Arabic has
a structure which allows relationships between concepts to be more in accord
with the relationships in nature.
9. The people were united not through external
compulsions but through the social disciplines which were integrated into the
religious practices. The religious or spiritual practices were integrated into
the social institutions, thereby ensuring their permanent influence.
10. The belief in human ability and creativity flows
from the notion of vicegerency. The idea of personal responsibility not only
for every action but also for everything within ones sphere of influence,
however, also needs to be added.
11. Religious and ideological tolerance. People of
other faiths found greater freedom under Muslim rule than even among their own
regimes. This tolerance does not merely mean that people with whom one
disagrees are accommodated, but that different things are suitable for
different people, and even that they may also be right.
12. The removal of all class and racial distinctions:
the equality before the law and brotherhood of all citizens.
13. The need for mutual consultation, agreements,
contracts and treaties, in short, the Democratic spirit.
14. The emphasis on the pen and the written word in
order to make permanent and indisputable records of transactions etc.. The
Quran itself is a written word.
15. The improvement in the status of women. It is only
very recently when industrialization and modern states were formed that the
status of women in the West began to improve. However, the differences in the
nature and function of the sexes has no been understood.
Certain other factors, also integral to Islam, have
not been established even in Muslim countries or anywhere else:-
1. The paramount importance of a national and communal
spiritual life: the need for self-discipline and psychological development.
This aim needs to be incorporated as an integral part of Political policies.
2. The idea of balance, and avoidance of all extremes.
3. The need to cooperate with nature and reality
rather than to try to dominate or exploit it.
4. Respect for the agency of others. The avoidance of
coercion, domination, conditioning and manipulation of other people: the
incorporation of diversity and flexibility in a unitary system. This
unification of the world should not, and probably cannot be done until it is
certain that the direction of development is the correct one or that variety
and flexibility is incorporated in the system. Otherwise disaster for mankind
will follow.
5. Respect for the planet, its ecosystem and other
life forms: concern for the welfare of all things: the responsible and
economical use of resources: the avoidance of waste, vanity and greed.
6. The unity of religion, mankind, and indeed, of all
life.
7. The unity and inter-dependence of all aspects of
life, the economic, social, political, cultural and spiritual.
8. The inter-dependence and reciprocity of all things.
This Principle, which follows from the notion of Unity, is as important as the
Principles of Conservation and Relativity, which also follow from Unity.
9. An understanding of what it means to be human. The
establishment of an objective ideal and purpose in life. The understanding of
the real meaning of success and failure.
10. Objective values. The understanding of the proper
meaning of notions such as freedom, property, wealth, purpose, success,
usefulness, truth, goodness, beauty.
11. Since all things, including religions and
civilisations rise because of an impulse and then degenerate, being replaced by
others, methods must be studied and applied which will impart the necessary
impulses to continue steady development. This is made necessary and urgent by
the fact that the world is moving rapidly towards uniformity and unity, If this
happens then no replacements for a degenerating civilisation will be found.
12. Western systems have also been unable to solve the
following problems:- addiction to alcohol, drugs and violence; crime and
delinquency; neurosis, psychosis. and psychopathy; the frustrations and social
disruption caused by surplus women; disharmonious relationship between the
sexes; gambling; selfishness and greed; sexual immorality and perversion;
superstitions, prejudices and faults in thinking; social problems connected
with the gap between the generations; the increasing gap between rich and poor:
industrial and political unrest: racial prejudices and conflicts: economic
depressions and the misery they bring: the problems of organisation regarding
the power of the state and individual freedom.
The establishment of suitable principles to deal with
all these aspects of life remains a task for Islam.
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