Sheikh Javaid Ayub
Islam, literally meaning peace and tranquility, of body and soul, of individual and society, of nations and the world as a whole. Peace is what is required and peace is what is desired, there is no way to peace; peace is the only way. A cursory look across the globe gives us an impression that whole of the world minus the Muslim states are in a peaceful state, and the Muslim world wonder in search of it. They are engulfed in conflicts, sectarian and otherwise, wars – political, economic or for space and influence. Their boarders are bloody and there seems no immediate respite. Syria is burning, and with it the whole Middle East. Turkey is targeted sometimes, so is Bangladesh. Afghans are dying so are Iraqis. Dooms day time is hovering over the whole Muslim world and cries can be heard from every nook and corner. The reasons for this whole mess are many, myriad in their nature and diverse as per their geopolitical scenarios.
Islam of today is projected to connote a plural outlook, an entity that exists and finds manifestation in many versions and forms. It is echoed with full valour that there are groups within groups and sects within sects, organizations within organizations and bands within bands. And among them are highlighted deep fault lines – troublesome and bloody. The Shia and Suni versions of Islam are looked as having a tremendous potential of escalating a total war among the Muslim states. Analyzing the current bloodshed in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Bahrain one can easily come to the conclusion that sectarianism plays an important part in the internal or domestic politics of all the above countries. However, approaching the conflict in the Middle East from a Sectarian perspective can distort the facts. The rise of ISIS as a powerful force, and the popularity and power it has been able to muster has energized it to speed up its destructive designs across the world. Whole Middle East seems to be on a smearing volcano.
Muslim blood flows across the East and West, North and South with no trace of halting. In an attempt to create a world of their liking they have rendered theirselves wordless, resulting in a very high premium on sheer survival. The extreme axioms like perfect social and political institutions make a perfect people have been granted a good currency. This is the backdrop that cultivated the concept of what is called as political Islam, to be a true emancipating force for the humankind under the present turmoil, chaos and anarchy. The idea is dubbed utopian in purview of the current circumstances. The diversity and pluralism in the world systems (social and political) is projected in such a manner to suggest that there is no single master idea and that there are many conceptions of good institutions for good life and a good society, and the goods seem to be incommensurable and incompatible.
Banning of books (of Syed Qutub, Moulana Madoodi and Yusuf Al-Qarzaie) and a crackdown on Islamists in Bangladesh are but manifestation of the principle that peace and security under a democracy or dictatorship or a dynastic rule is better than chaos and anarchy in search of Khilafa; choice is open and the time is crucial. Calculate the risks and be rational in making the decisions. It is added that search for a perfect society that will achieve all genuine goods and ideals is not only utopian but also incoherent. Why to suffer for some utopian bliss! ideas that advocate going back to some golden age of past require material support in abundance which one does not find as history has just one such example, that too 1437 years before; when will history repeat itself? The current world population constitutes a small percentage of the human beings ever lived on this planet. Death outnumbered the living, and accumulated wisdom of such a great number cannot be ignored.
One cannot muster the courage of going against the history – an accumulated wisdom of ages, and there can be no respite or escape by simply uttering that one is more interested in future rather than in past. There is no doubt that the past is over but it is indispensable to our understanding of what we experience today and what lies ahead for us tomorrow and thereafter. Muslim Ummah is fishing in troubled waters, waves after waves and currents after currents are hell bent to detract it from its goal. A sort of Dark Age has dawned over the Ummah and there are no efforts to come out from it.
Ideas gain currency and acceptance only when backed by some hegemonic power, Foucault’s power that produces reality, domains of objects and rituals of truth. Hegemony makes ideas relevant and meaningful, so as to prove that ruler’s ideas are indeed the ruling ideas. Theories require power to be applied, so do theorists for theorizing. The theory of “Clash of Civilizations” is to be backed to prove intellectual worth; thus enemies are created, conflicts manufactured, hyperbolic situations crafted, facts distorted, as theories are always for someone and for some purpose. Authenticity is debatable but truth demands authenticity. In our part of the world truth is produced by knowledge backed by power.
In the battle of truths that version supersedes and dominates which is akin to the mindset created by the power. Knowledge is power but the irony is that whole of the Muslim Ummah has little contribution in the production of knowledge. In the consumption of knowledge also, Muslims are very feeble. To come out of this baffling scenario and to get counted intellectual resilience is the need of the hour. Muslim world is not barren of intellectuals and human resource, but what is required is that efforts be systematized, accumulated and brought together so as to gain weight and power. Let we be not among those who are conjuring up visions of beautiful roses, but preparing no soil for the rose trees.
(The author teaches Political Science and can be reached at sunatjavaidps@gmail.com)
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