Abdul-Hamid Ahmad Abu Sulaiman

There is no doubt that the attention paid by the Centre for Islamic Research and Studies to the issue of Islamic presentational approach in this stage of the Ummah’s contemporary journey is, ideologically, of utmost importance. For, this Ummah has been beset by weakness, disunity and ignominy it has never experienced before throughout its history. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the enlightened Muslim scholars, thinkers, educators and educated elite to seriously feel a sense of responsibility. This is because; the presentational approach directed towards the Ummah, is not up to the required standard. The presentation is supposed to be accurate and effective diagnosis of the Ummah’s situation and serve as a guide to the remedy for its diseases, and as an illuminating hope for its future and the future of its coming generations. As long as this presentation has not risen up to this desired standard, it will remain – in its substance – mere idle talk that has contributed immensely to the degeneration, weakness and backwardness of the Ummah.

Members of this Ummah are not bound together by a single race, colour, region or language, yet they share in common the misfortune of backwardness, disunity, corruption, weakness and downfall of public institutions. The only interpretation for this sorry situation is the common culture shared by peoples of this Ummah and the way this culture addresses members of this Ummah and its generations.

In spite of the difference among the Muslims scholars, thinkers and reformers that the Ummah is suffering from, at least, a thousand-year old existential crisis, the major problem is what Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali has diagnosed in his two great works: ‘Ihya Ulum ad-Din’ and ‘Tahafut al-Falasifah’. In the first work, he made it clear that the Ummah’s religious culture and thought were suffering from a crisis; and in the second work, he indicated that the Ummah’s philosophical and civilizational culture and thought were suffering from a crisis.

 Since that time (a thousand years ago) until our present time, the Ummah continues to suffer from crises that kept increasing with time though its efforts in confronting the challenges of these crises kept diminishing. This is in spite of the occurrences that have taken place in its history, from that time till today, such as emergence of reform movements all over the places. Although, the Ummah has undoubtedly benefitted from these movements, they have certainly not awakened the Ummah; neither have they stopped the degeneration of its situation. This means that the cultural crisis and the crisis of Islamic presentational approach – in its religious and universal aspects – are still there and the reform efforts made so far have not been not deep enough, neither have they met the desired level. If it indicates anything, it is the fact that there is still a long way to go as far as reform efforts are concerned.

This project is heavily dependent on the effort of the reformers. There is a dire need of giving intellectual aspect of the reform a wider role so that it could partake in reforming the Ummah’s thought and culture, and the resultant intellectual, social, psychological, sentimental and educational distortions that made the greatest part of the Ummah’s thinking – in its substance, impact and practicality – mere idle talks. For, this thinking emanates, in most of its aspects, from distorted thought and culture, and distorted mentality and sentiment in which words are not matched by action.

The present-day reform movements’ focus on politics, means and tools are not but a mere attempt at escaping from confronting the reality with required passion and courage. This phenomenon is as a result of the hindrances created and used to cover the Ummah’s cultural deficiency and methodological inefficiency of its thinking and education in the general inherited Islamic intimidatory presentational approach.

The political action movement alone, without reviving the waning Islamic thought and sentiment, cannot solve the Ummah’s problems neither can it really help in developing its energy and capabilities. As a result, depending on the political action alone – in the light of the current cultural and universal struggles – will only lead, in many cases, to unintentional energy sapping and wasted efforts. And the consequence will be continuous degeneration of the Ummah and increase in the crises it is suffering from.

Hence, a chance must be created for ideological, intellectual, educational and sentimental aspect to play its role in the reform project and intensely and courageously present effective and sound Islamic vision for the Ummah. This vision should properly represent the Ummah’s situation, guide to ways by which this situation can be corrected, and give the Ummah a hope in the future, overcoming – in the course of that – cultural hindrances and intimidatory orations that have their origins in lethargic ages in which overemphasis was laid on texts that are taken in their superficial senses and quoted out of context, thereby misusing the religion by turning it to ‘sacred subjugation’ from its being ‘sacred guidance’.

Therefore, actualization of educational and intellectual reform, and subsequently, the reform of Islamic presentational approach, is the foundation and the starting point towards the Ummah’s reclaiming of its creedal wellbeing, sound ideological methodology and pure intellectual culture and healthy educational attitudes. It is then that the Ummah can reclaim its Islamic civilizational and cultural impetus.

Consequently, one of the most important reform efforts of this stage is that political reformers should actually give a chance to ideological criticism to play its role in the reform project; and to contribute in resuscitating the Ummah’s values that had been dead, in awakening the Ummah’s latent energies and in giving its excellent impetus a fresh life. This will provide the ‘political reformers’ the strength, energy and achievement.

Hence, it is pertinent to start from intellectual aspect by understanding the reasons for the failure of intellectual efforts in reforming the ‘Modern Islamic Presentational Approach’ and elevating it to the level of the civilizational crisis which the Ummah is currently experiencing. In order to achieve that, it is inevitable to understand the nature of the presentational crisis, the depth of its roots and the elements and impediments that make solution to the inefficiency of this presentation – up to till today, as a result of the resistance from the rigid traditional thinking and domination of rash superficial ‘political reform’ – one of the most difficult things that should be confronted. This understanding will enable the Ummah put a stop to its own decline, prevent its existential crisis from getting deeper and more complex and protect it against getting weaker, more disunited and more humiliated.

The distortion of the ‘Presentational Approach’ and its negative impacts started – as far as we are concerned – when men of Al-Madinah School were defeated; firstly, by members of the political elite of the racial and tribalistic Arabs; and later, by the racist non-Arabs. It was then that the coffin of the spilt that occurred between the Islamic intellectual elite and the political elite was nailed. This crack and estrangement succeeded in imposing academic inertia on the intellectual elite. The inertia gradually changed the ideology of practical application, independent judgment, reform and creativity – that were the hallmarks of the first generation –into that of a closed textual ideology in which signs of independent judgment were lacking. It became an ideology that was based on imitation whereby, according to some of them, a weak text that is probably not really authentic was given priority over an opinion based on judgment, and weak text was regarded a proof. This was in spite of the fact that the rejected opinion could essentially be an interpretation of objective analysis and a product of a precise general vision, or – in the case where analogical deduction could not produce the result that concurred with the spirit of the Shari‘ah and its general rules – dependent upon Istihsan[1] based on consideration of the spirit and goals of the Shari‘ah.

So, this conceptual and intellectual decline should naturally reflect on the type of the presentational approach and its goals, on its impacts on the general Muslim outlook and on the development of a Muslim’s mind, sentiment and personality.

The distortion of the general vision of any people or society is one of the most serious calamities that could befall nations and societies. This is because it represents the framework that activates the Ummah’s concepts, values and efforts. Without the general vision, the society will be like a person who has unique tools for productivity but these tools are a bundle of scattered pieces. However good the quality of the tools may be, they cannot be of any productive use as long as they are not properly arranged and assembled. This is the situation of our values and concepts that are the treasures of our civilization. In spite of our affinity to them, our pride in them and our incessant talk about them, our life is devoid of their proper usage and practical application. For, these concepts and values are different components of a tool that represent the vision of the Ummah. They are meant to be activated in the Ummah’s practical life. Therefore, if the vision is disjointed and distorted, the parts (i.e. the values and concepts that are its components) will lose their effectiveness. They become useless in the life of the Ummah; just like a dismantled tool whose parts are scattered.

Distortion of the presentational in those historical circumstances came as a natural result of the ideology of estrangement that occurred between the intellectual leadership and the political one. This, generally, has nothing to do with the intentions. Hence, the inevitable consequence of transformation of religious oration – from that of idea, thought, reflection, conviction, interaction, practice; expression of effective general and comprehensive vision that generates an ability to undertake Jihad and independent judgement and reform and creativity, and able to deal effectively with the changes of time and place – into an intimidatory and suppressive oration that emanated from one-sided and partial vision. As a consequence, the presentational approach became distorted, hiding – as a result of intellectual weakness – under the cover superiority of religion. It also led to exaggeration in adhering to the religious texts without purposeful general vision, without comprehending the factors of time and place and without adequately understanding the readings of the text in relation to the universe.

In most of the situations since that time, the Ummah’s presentational approach had been based on heaps of weak reports narrated by careless people, fraudsters, story-tellers and people with ulterior motives. Equally, it had been based on misinterpretation and confusion of authentic texts that were actually meant – in many cases – for the deniers of the truth, the disbelievers, the arrogant ones and those who waged war against the Muslims. So these distorted and partially quoted texts – as a result of weakness of the intellectual elite who had been made subservient to the political elite – were directed to the generality of the Muslims – who had already been overwhelmed by abject poverty, ignorance and diseases and plagued by the terrorism of the autocratic political elite with their corruption, tyranny, subjugation and oppressions.

That was how it became easy to subject this intimidatory religious oration for the service of the political elite and their personal interests, as well as their ideological, intellectual and sentimental perversions; and the intimidatory religious oration was added to the political terrorism to perfect the project of making life difficult for the Muslim populace and worsening their humiliating situation. The ultimate goal was to make them compliant and weaken their determination to uphold their rights, participate in decision-making in matters affecting them, protect their institutions, formulate policies of their societies, and manage their resources, their nations’ wealth and their own efforts through spirit of justice and solidarity.

Since the beginning of the battle of creation of confusion in presentational approach during the era of the Umayyad, the message of Abu Dharr Al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him) – he was an eminent graduate of the school of the Prophetic Message – which he sent to the founder of the Umayyad kingdom did not come in vain. When the then commander of the faithful, Mu‘awiyyah ibn Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him) stood on the pulpit, addressing the Ummah concerning its resources and the Muslims treasury and calling these resources, ‘Allah’s money’, using that term to allude to his sole right to dispose the same, making use of religious formalities. It was then that Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) stood up in opposition and promptly corrected him, having been inspired by sound foundations of the Ummah’s universal vision and its noble message. He admonished Mu‘awiyah and reminded him of the right that Allah gave to the Ummah concerning its resources and wealth; he reminded him that the Ummah’s rulers and their relevant employees were obliged to appropriately manage these resources and return them to their rightful owners; he reminded him of the necessity of engaging in mutual consultation (Shura) with the Ummah concerning them. He said – in words recorded by history and the light and echo of which shall abide forever –: “No, it is rather the Muslims’ money!” 

Therefore, finding the Ummah today – at the end of a long journey – in a state of division, negativism and backwardness should not be surprising. This is because; its universal vision has been distorted, its thinking and methodology have sunk to the lowest level, its culture has been tarnished, its institutions have collapsed and the morale and sentiment of its children have been crushed and their sense of pride and honour has grossly declined. Most of the Muslims – as we are witnessing today– have been overwhelmed by selfishness, individualism, lack of sense of collectiveness and solidarity. The view of an average Muslim concerning work and striving in life has actually become negative and devoid of civilizational dimension and spiritual significance. He has become a consuming human being with weak civilizational and leadership impetus. This has led his Ummah to become a marginalised, consuming and weak nation. This pathetic situation is an inevitable result of the distortion of the Ummah’s general presentational approach culture. The book of Fiqh is an embodiment of the Ummah’s presentational approach culture because it represents the substance of the Muslims’ background, their religious concerns and their civilizational identity. It also (directly) addresses the Muslim, not on the basis of his being a member of the Ummah, but on the basis of his being an human individual. That is the role the book of Fiqh is supposed to play.

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