IS RELIGION POSSIBLE

User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 

Letter to Editor

Last Updated on Monday, 26 July 2010 16:54 Saturday, 24 July 2010 00:06

By
Fatima Saleem
The contributing author is a medical doctor, a graduate of King Edward Medical College,
Lahore, Pakistan.

“IS RELIGION POSSIBLE?”

This was a question raised by Allama Muhammad Iqbal almost a century ago. Then he himself gave a clear and precise answer and presented with clear-cut guidelines to make it possible in the modern world.

Iqbal perfectly eradicates qualms of the Islamophobes and outlines a design to moderate radicalization. Seculars, liberals wannabe or pretentious liberals (another class I have noticed!), extremists and fundamentalists should leave their stubbornness and settle somewhere in the middle. Why can’t we settle for a modern, moderate, non-theocratic Islamic Republic?
"Quran embodies an essentially dynamic outlook on life" he goes. “Quran considers it necessary to unite religion and state, ethics and politics in a single revelation much in the same way as Plato does in his Republic.”

We don’t need to be secular to have a modern outlook coherent with 21st century. Neither do we have to adopt radical approach, follow unsuited, inconsistent and irreconcilable laws, in order to prove faithful, practicing Muslims. Iqbal has a way out of it!

Iqbal has deep inspiration from the Turkish religio-political thought process. His Turkish inspiration is not limited to Rumi but he is also moved by their course of religious reconstruction and willingness to move to fresh religious interpretations.  To date, we can specifically see that Turkey is one Muslim state which is nominally secular, but practically Islamic!

He defies and criticizes older laws and revives the concept of Ijtehad and Ijma, with a view to rebuild upon the laws of Shariah in the light of modern thought and experience. As he says, “Equipped with penetrative thought and fresh experience, the world of Islam should courageously proceed to the work of reconstruction before them”. I am sure this is the Pakistan he meant, when he gave the idea of a separate Muslim ideological, ideal state. “Conservatism is as bad in religion as in any other department of human activity” he goes.

Imperative point here is; Ijtehad must only be done by “Khudi” indoctrinated, enlightened scholars and intellectuals open to innovation. Frankly, such individuals are scanty in the world today.(Imp: Along with other credentials, Khudi essentially includes surrender to one God & ultimate love for his Prophet(PBUH).Islam cannot get away without Muhammad(PBUH), it seems, I m sorry!!)

Iqbal’s pan-Islamic concept is not precisely what mullahs have portrayed for years. Iqbal understands the veracity and politics around. His concept is simple and pragmatic. He sensed that Muslim countries are too weak to be combined together to build a caliphate. Instead, as a first step, they should up-grade themselves independently. His impression of caliphate is that of “league of nations” i.e., somewhat similar to a UN body or say EU of our times. In his own words, “For the present every Muslim nation must sink into her own deeper self, temporarily focusing her vision on herself alone, until all are strong and powerful to form a living family of republics”

“It seems to me that God is slowly bringing home to us the truth that Islam is neither Nationalism or Imperialism but a League of Nations, which recognizes artificial boundaries and racial distinctions for facility of reference only and not for restricting the social horizons of its members”
Unlike mullahs “Ameer-ul-Momineen” monarchic dogma, he advocates caliphate to be a Republican type of government with power shared by one assembly, and not overruled by one person. Albeit, Supremacy lies with God.

His concept of democracy is a “Spiritual Democracy” - the ultimate aim of Islam. “As two hundred thick brains altogether cannot yield what a single visionary can”. He advocates spiritual enterprise as a fundamental leadership credential. Like Paulo Coelho rightly tweets, “Spirituality is not all about meditation and prayer, you have to act it!”. Following Iqbal, if we make nobility, integrity and honesty the criteria to choose our leaders instead of lingo-provincial based sectarianism, we can readily get out of this political turmoil for good and can have provident and farsighted men as leaders.

Nonetheless, all this sounds very idealistic and dreamy. But, then what else do you want a separate state for? And, at least we have been given an objective to accomplish, a challenge to encounter and an impossible to achieve.
This is peanuts, compared to what is encoded in his message. Pakistani intelligentsia, having degrees from the best universities all around the globe should build their self-esteem and come out of Islamophobia. They should understand the real spirit of Islam and for that, understand Iqbal to counter extremist thought process. If we aren’t doing it, who will?

However individual responsibility aside, but more than that it is the responsibility of the state to understand and dispense the right message and provide healthy, ambulant and yielding religious environment.