European development and Muslim society [a must read]
 

Through most part of the 14th century onwards, Europe began to concentrate on man and his success in this world. The 14th century Renaissance was in effect the beginning of the intellectual development of the European man. Humanism, as it became known, was to shift the traditional approach of success in the hereafter to success in the very world we live in. The curiosity to learn and doubt whatever the church had imposed on the people of Europe, led to new opportunities. Those new opportunities led to the ‘Age of Discovery’. European ships set out to sail towards the Far East and in turn to discover the ‘New World’. Those events sparked the beginning of globalisation and later, colonisation. The ideas of Renaissance, the wane in Europe’s fortunes and the threat of Islam as the global power horde, tempted Europe to venture out. As time passed by, Europe began accumulating wealth from its colonies.

The early 15th century marked the dawn of a new era, the scientific revolution. That revolution presented the modern world view. The view that science could help answer the uncertainties and doubts surrounding man and nature was firmly established. In turn, it challenged the medieval world view that God created everything in the form of miracles. So, challenging the miracles was in essence putting the authority of God and the church to acid test.

It was to this authority that the Italian astronomer and mathematician Galileo was to submit his ‘heresies’. The halt of scientific growth in Italy nevertheless paved way for astronomical advances in science in the Netherlands, England and Germany. The scientific revolution was in no way the end of Europe’s quest for knowledge. Instead, it was only the beginning. Some 200 years later, modern philosophers defined enlightenment. This enlightenment was to replace God’s authority over men with knowledge’s rule over man. For these ëphilosophers’, knowledge and reason were to shape the moral and intellectual development of man. This knowledge was to put an end to superstition, prejudice and all that which the church had taught. Anything, which could not justify reason, was to be abandoned.

Science was to be the new religion of man. Enlightenment paved way for new scientific developments and likewise the ‘Modern’ Europe. Europe as we see it today has been shaped by some 500 years of intellectual thought dating from the time of the Renaissance. Materialism and secularism were the key elements of a successful Europe. Its development was in no way separate from the evolution of a new ‘West’. Collectively Europe, the Americas, Australia save Russia, form the west. As a result of all those developments, west was to emerge as a society, which was ready to sacrifice the present for the future. As according to Von Grunebaum in Medieval Islam: ‘We (the west) recognise the supreme value of change because we are afraid of stagnation.’

A society, whose development was the effect of an identity crisis amongst its inhabitants nearly four centuries back, was soon to be an ideal for mankind. Its achievements were being monastically observed and imitated by all. According to Gai Eaton: ‘The European Renaissance was, from the religious point of view, a rebirth of the paganism which Christianity had supplanted.’

The decadence or in other words the loss of spirituality in western life and thought made the modern European approach slightly impractical. In our part of the Muslim world, we cannot take the good things of western civilization and reject the bad things. A modern European approach to Pakistan and the Muslim world would present a galore of problems. Morality, tradition, religious and spiritual development are in essence, the structure on which the Muslim world rests. Introducing an element of want and change, would mean hampering a system which has stood in unison regardless of all catastrophic developments.

The Muslim way of life as according to the Shari’ah code of Islam, stands intact regardless of time. For the Muslim, it can be stated that time is stagnant.

In the Muslim world, development and modernity would have to take a different stance. Blindly applying European methods of life and politics, won’t grant us the revival we strongly need. What the Muslims need is an enlightened approach to materialism, so as not to become obsessed with it.

The Prophet of Allah (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) said: ‘I fear for you this world lest ye seek to rival one another in worldly gains.’ (Sahih Bukhari)

It is with this frame of mind, that we can avoid further Muslim degeneration. The West’s evolution lay in the circumstances it faced. Those circumstances can in no way be comparable to that of the Muslim world.

The Muslim world did not face a crisis regarding a mediator between God and the believer. Instead, it faces the problem of a divided Muslim brotherhood. An amalgamation of the Muslim world has to be strived for. The Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) preached a religion of peace and equality. There was to be no difference among an Arab, non Arab, and likewise a black and white, rich and poor except on the basis of God consciousness. Muslim countries have got to shoulder this responsibility of an equal brotherhood of Islam. The leaders of today have to look at their ideal—the Islamic ideal: Prophet Muhammad (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam).

An Islamic society placed firmly on the tenants of the Shari’ah and practising an economic system, which calls for an equal distribution of income, can then move forward and pave its way in the modern 21st century development. And with this development, God willing, Muslims might be able to match the glories of the golden Muslim era of the 8th and the 12th centuries.

The enigma of a superior Western civilization has weakened the spirit of a progressive Muslim backlash. What has been 500 years of western dominance, has been transformed into a multitude generations of defeatism into the heart of the Muslim society. It is the need of the hour to adopt a modern, yet pragmatic approach, which is rooted in Muslim tradition and present problems to cause a ripple in the oceans of Western capitalisation.