Why the Muslim World is In Dire Straits
"This organic impotence is reinforced by moral, social and political paralysis, the former being the gravest since it, in a certain measure, determines the others. From the indisputable verity 'Islam is the perfect religion', the post-al-Muwahhid (1) man drew the deadly syllogism: 'We are Muslims, therefore we are perfect', that tends to sap all perfectability in the individual by neutralising in him all concern for attaining perfection. It is a long time since Umar bin al-Khattab regularly took stock of his conscience and often wept over his faults. One finds today reigning among the ruling class the most perfect moral quietitude, and no leader would be seen making his mea culpa in public.
So, the Islamic ideal of 'life and movement' has foundered in the pride and complacency of a bigot who believes to have realize perfection by performing his five daily prayers, without trying to amend or improve himself. The beings immobilised in their mediocrity and their imperfectible imperfection becomes thus, the moral elite of a society where verity gives birth only to nihilism. The difference is essential between verity as a simple theoretical concept enlightening abstract reasoning, and active verity that inspires concrete facts. Verity could even prove disastrous as a sociological principle when it no longer inspires action but paralyses it; when it no more coincides with the mortification of change but with the alibis of individual and social stagnation. It could then become the origin of a paralytic world which Renan and Father Lammens denounced, saying that Islam is 'a religion of stagnation and regression.'
Moral paralysis results in intellectual paralysis: when one ceases to perfect himself morally, one also ceases to modify the conditions of his life. Gradually, thought finds itself petrified in a world that no more reasons, since its reasoning has no longer a social object. The 'taqlid' or moral conformism implies a renunciation of the intellectual effort, of this 'jihad' that was the essential directive of the Muslim spirit in the great period....
.... Even in independent Muslim countries, thought has still not acquired its personality, its right to be stated, and its social value as the essential basis and means of action. In Algeria particularly, the thought is not an action but a motif of decoration, that is to say, something does not come under the law of formal and practical logic, but rather under that of the post-al-Muwahhid aesthetique.
The absece of a direct relation between thought and action implies blind, incoherent action and results in a subjective appreciation of facts - in their overestimation or underestimation. In the modern Muslim world, it has given birth, on the one hand, to a psychosis of the 'easy' thing that leads to blind action, and on the other, to a psychosis of the 'impossible thing' that paralyses action. In Algeria, the latter is based on three well-known axioms:
- We cannot do anything, because we are ignorant.
- We cannot realise that, because we are poor.
- We cannot undertake this work, because their is colonialism.
While men of good faith thus explain their incapacity, the charaltans use them for justifying their lucrative entyerprise of mystification, under the complacent regard of colonialism. However, the least effort of investigation would reveal that these supposed 'verities' are but a cover for certain myths."
- Malik Bennabi, "Islam in History and Society"
I like to call him the Muhammad Iqbal of Algeria.... That's right that deep, and the sad thing is the majority of Muslims don't even no his name... It is akin to Pakistanis considering Muhammad Iqbal as simply a poet.
************************************************** *********
(1) The post-al-Muwahhid period, according to Bennabi, "is the point of inflexion in the historical evolution, the reversal of the values of" the Muslim "civilization". He traces this period to the fall of the al-Muwahhid dynasty. They ruled over North Africa and Spain from 1130 CE to 1269. During this point of inflexion, according to Bennabi, the problem "is no longer the question of a change in political framework: it is the man himself, the civilised man, who loses his 'civilizing elan': and is thus unable to assimilate and create. It is no longer a question of institutions but of the human factor: these are men themselves who no longer know how to apply their genius to their soil and time. It is this fundamental synthesis itself that disintegrates and with it the social life that gives place to the vegetative life."
So, the Islamic ideal of 'life and movement' has foundered in the pride and complacency of a bigot who believes to have realize perfection by performing his five daily prayers, without trying to amend or improve himself. The beings immobilised in their mediocrity and their imperfectible imperfection becomes thus, the moral elite of a society where verity gives birth only to nihilism. The difference is essential between verity as a simple theoretical concept enlightening abstract reasoning, and active verity that inspires concrete facts. Verity could even prove disastrous as a sociological principle when it no longer inspires action but paralyses it; when it no more coincides with the mortification of change but with the alibis of individual and social stagnation. It could then become the origin of a paralytic world which Renan and Father Lammens denounced, saying that Islam is 'a religion of stagnation and regression.'
Moral paralysis results in intellectual paralysis: when one ceases to perfect himself morally, one also ceases to modify the conditions of his life. Gradually, thought finds itself petrified in a world that no more reasons, since its reasoning has no longer a social object. The 'taqlid' or moral conformism implies a renunciation of the intellectual effort, of this 'jihad' that was the essential directive of the Muslim spirit in the great period....
.... Even in independent Muslim countries, thought has still not acquired its personality, its right to be stated, and its social value as the essential basis and means of action. In Algeria particularly, the thought is not an action but a motif of decoration, that is to say, something does not come under the law of formal and practical logic, but rather under that of the post-al-Muwahhid aesthetique.
The absece of a direct relation between thought and action implies blind, incoherent action and results in a subjective appreciation of facts - in their overestimation or underestimation. In the modern Muslim world, it has given birth, on the one hand, to a psychosis of the 'easy' thing that leads to blind action, and on the other, to a psychosis of the 'impossible thing' that paralyses action. In Algeria, the latter is based on three well-known axioms:
- We cannot do anything, because we are ignorant.
- We cannot realise that, because we are poor.
- We cannot undertake this work, because their is colonialism.
While men of good faith thus explain their incapacity, the charaltans use them for justifying their lucrative entyerprise of mystification, under the complacent regard of colonialism. However, the least effort of investigation would reveal that these supposed 'verities' are but a cover for certain myths."
- Malik Bennabi, "Islam in History and Society"
I like to call him the Muhammad Iqbal of Algeria.... That's right that deep, and the sad thing is the majority of Muslims don't even no his name... It is akin to Pakistanis considering Muhammad Iqbal as simply a poet.
************************************************** *********
(1) The post-al-Muwahhid period, according to Bennabi, "is the point of inflexion in the historical evolution, the reversal of the values of" the Muslim "civilization". He traces this period to the fall of the al-Muwahhid dynasty. They ruled over North Africa and Spain from 1130 CE to 1269. During this point of inflexion, according to Bennabi, the problem "is no longer the question of a change in political framework: it is the man himself, the civilised man, who loses his 'civilizing elan': and is thus unable to assimilate and create. It is no longer a question of institutions but of the human factor: these are men themselves who no longer know how to apply their genius to their soil and time. It is this fundamental synthesis itself that disintegrates and with it the social life that gives place to the vegetative life."
posted by Asim at 8:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home