The Substance of Intellectual Revolution

What do we mean by Intellectual Revolution?

We must recognize that there is no more a single paradigm that dominates the collective thinking of the Muslim Ummah, but a plurality of paradigms (modernism, post-modernism, traditionalism, fundamentalism, etc) that are competing with one another for dominancy. This excessive competition is resulting in an sort of ‘intellectual anarchy’ within the Muslim Ummah where the elites have busied themselves with intellectual disputations resulting in alienation, confusion, and despair within the masses. The excess reliance on emotion and activism due to a sense of powerlessness has caused many Muslims to think without seriously contemplating the proper course of action. With all these different paradigms floating in the collective mind of the Ummah and since no clear course of action has presented itself and yet each group is pushing for activism, the end result is that all of the creative forces within the Ummah are collapsing into one another and expending valuable energy on otherwise wasted projects such as the establishment of an Islamic state or the integration of Muslims within a non-Islamic political system. Until and unless a paradigm that caters to the need of the Muslim Ummah as a whole, in other words, a Universal Paradigm, is developed, the Ummah will continue to degenerate into anarchy and chaos.

Why is a Universal Paradigm important?

It is the basis of a civilization, without which, a culture declines and is taken over by another one. In history, we can observe how the Mongols took the world by surprise and conquered vast amounts of territory and yet, within three generations or so, they were completely absorbed by the cultures of their subjects due to the simple fact that they had no independent culture of their own. If we examine our Ummah today, we should duly note that what happened to the Mongols is precisely what is happening today where many Muslim societies are mixing Islam not only with Western cultures, but other cultures as well, such as Hindu, Zoroastrian, Pagan, and other Jahili cultures. We ought to ask ourselves whether this intermingling of cultures is truly a strength as many modernists would argue or is it not a sign of the weakness of our Ummah? In fact, we should note that the aspects of these other cultures that are being borrowed are not substantively beneficial to the Ummah since we find that most Muslim countries are not borrowing at the level of ideas, technology, science, or power systems, but instead, are merely emulating the clothing, music, fashion, architecture, and foods of the powerful nations like monkeys emulate human beings. We should reflect on the words of Ibn Khaldun that he wrote in his “Muqaddimah” that the vanquished imitate their conquerors. Is this not precisely what the Muslims are doing today? What is the solution to this civilizational hegemony? Is it establishing an Islamic state? Obviously not since the foundations of the Islamic state relies upon the vitality of the traditions as embodied in the minds and bodies of the Muslims. What makes a Muslim community a strong community is not the Arabic calligraphy that are beautifully displayed in its Masjid or the size of its minaret or the beauty by which the Imam recites the Quran, instead, the strength of the community is defined by the hearts and minds of the believers. If the hearts and minds of the believers are filled with heedlessness, then the community as a whole will be heedless. If the believers have remembrance of Allah (swt) in the hearts and minds, then the community will as a whole will engage in social acts and transactions that embody the laws of Allah (swt). In other words, we must focus on the hearts and minds of the Ummah before we can focus on its body and we should not that our hearts and minds are in terrible states. Our minds have become disaffected with Islam as an intellectual system and our hearts have become attached with the dunya. The solution to mental servitude that our Ummah is making of to Western ideologies can only be intellectual in nature; in fact, nothing short of an intellectual revolution will suffice in liberating the Muslim minds which is in and of itself a necessary prerequisite for the political emancipation of the Ummah from tyrannical regimes and corrupt, unIslamic governments.

Intellectual Revolution, then, refers to efforts by a group of thinkers, in accordance with the traditional Islamic sciences, to examine all of the aforementioned paradigms and determine why they are all failing and, if need be, to create/re-create a dominant paradigm which can unite the thinking of the Muslims. As such, Intellectual Revolution has four components: Reconstruction of Islamic Knowledge – revives the traditions, Deconstruction of Western thought, Construction of Islamic Power Systems, Refutation of Deviant Groups. Reconstruction of Islamic knowledge entails the revival of the Islamic sciences in accordance with the boundaries of the Quran and Sunnah as understood by the Mujtahid Mutlaq Imams and those who followed them since the entirety of the Islamic sciences have been systematically formalized by them. Furthermore, it must be clearly explained that the seeking of knowledge is an obligation, of which some branches are fardh ain while others are fardh kaffayah. It is a travesty of times that the overwhelming majority of the Ummah is unaware of even what types of actions are obligatory upon let alone the knowledge of fulfilling those obligations. The only way the reconstruction of Islamic knowledge can occur is by reviving the Maddrasseh system of education and by developing programs of funding and scholarships that encourage Muslim youth living in the West to go overseas and acquire the best of Islamic education. The second component of intellectual revolution entails deconstructing Western power systems. Instead of Muslims falling into an ideological trap of whether or not Islam is compatible with such Western thought-systems as science, democracy, feminism, etc, we ought to question the authority of such systems. Any system produced by a human is inherently when compared with the Divine revealation that was sent to us by Allah (swt) through the Prophet (saw). Our religion is the Haqq and we ought not to be afraid to make the bold claim that every other system besides Islam is false. Deconstructing Western power systems requires those Muslims living in the West to rigorously reject the authority of the Western political discourse and to firmly attack the roots of their political concepts, especially this absurd notion of freedom. Islam demands submission from human beings to their creator, not freedom from their creator. If anyone claims that homosexuals have the freedom to do as they please, respond harshly with whether or not they would grant such ‘freedoms’ to mutually consenting adults who desired to engage in incest. The façade of ‘freedom’ must be pierced by brave intellectuals who have no fear of anything except Allah (swt). The third component of Intellectual Revolution is the thorough refutation of deviant groups, especially those groups that possess deviant aqeedah or lack an understanding of usool al fiqh, or question the authority of the Ulema without having studied their proofs. Special attention should be given to those who ascribe to the ‘modernist’ paradigm where they claim that there is no proof in the Quran and Sunnah for hijab or that homosexuality is not only not a major sin, but permissible or that women can lead men in salah and give khutbahs even though this is expressly mentioned to be prohibited in narrations. The method of responding to such groups must be based firmly on the Islamic sciences as well as rational arguments, which is why the reconstruction of Islamic knowledge is a necessary prerequisite for all of the other components of intellectual revolution. The last component of intellectual revolution is to develop a contemporary formulation of Islamic power systems (ie to provide sufficient proofs for the establishment of a Universal Islamic Government). As is it clear by the works of the Ulema such as Imam Tahawi, Imam Mawardi, ibn Khaldun, Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio et al, that the establishment of a Khalifa is a fardh kaffayah, there must always be a group of people within our Ummah working towards this goal. The method of working towards khalifa is not by hosting debates on college campuses or passing out flyers or by throwing protests against the actions of corrupt governments as some political groups engage in. The method of restoring the khalifa is by restoring the confidence of the people within such a system. Due to the effects of excessive Western propaganda that slander the image of the khalifa based on false information or incorrect assessments, the average Muslim is so afraid of the establishment of a khalifa that he would prefer living under non-Muslim rule than Muslim rule. This is a reflection of the low state of our Ummah. Brothers and sisters of Islam, ponder over this! Reflect on how in previous eras, the non-Muslims flocked to the Muslims for protection and rulership and note how the situation has reversed itself! With all these four components of intellectual revolution, the basis of the intellectual suppression of the Ummah becomes null and void and it is only then when talk of real change becomes feasible. When the masses realize that political systems are not solid, cemented, metallic structures but are constructed and comprised of human beings like themselves, it is only then that they will be able to realize that just as they can be constructed, they can be ‘deconstructed’ and ‘reconstructed’ as an Islamic one.

What is NOT mean by Intellectual Revolution?

It is not a scientific or technological revolution. We must honestly ask ourselves, is merely adopting Western science and technology going to benefit the Muslim Ummah when our power systems are completely dominated by the West either directly or indirectly? For example, lets assume a Muslim country acquires the ability to develop a Nuclear Weapon. Although this may be a technological breakthrough, if the government that wields such a weapon is no more then a puppet of some Western government or other, then in reality, then the development of such weaponry, or any technology for that matter, not only fails to benefit the Ummah, it in facts hurts it. If a Western country possesses ownership over the resources, manpower, and territory that are within Muslim lands, how does being at the bottom of the economic food chain benefit the Muslim Ummah? Furthermore, with regards to the foolhardy claim that our Ummah will be saved by “Science” when all our Muslim youth become doctors, engineers, or IFSM majors, if this was the case, then we would have certainly seen such a scenario in our history. Yet, if we observe our history carefully, the scientific flourishing that occurred during the golden age of Islam under the Abbassid Khalifa wasn’t the cause of the success of Islam, it was an effect. Furthermore, of what benefit is the use of a Western education when in fact most of the Muslims who get educated in the West, often stay in the West. Of those Muslims who get educated in the West and do go back to their country, they often carry more Western intellectual baggage back home then reverse. It must be carefully noted that the ultimate strength of the West is in intellectual ownership, not in resources, not in management of resources, not in technological innovation (since most of its scientific-technological process rests on the shoulders of foreigners anyhow).

The goal of Intellectual Revolution is to eventually produce theories of Islamic power systems in order to create valid alternatives to current power systems. Once a clear alternative is presented, then political revolution becomes possible. When political revolutions become possible, then the unification of the Ummah becomes possible and when the unification of the Ummah becomes possible, then Jihad does too. How intellectual revolution is a necessary prerequisite for political revolutions which are themselves necessary for the establishment of a Universal form of Islamic government that engages in dawah, jihad, and the implementation of the shariah will be discussed in the next article.