Rethinking Islam & the West

by Ahmed Keeler

  Our post-empire world has left those who were colonised full of anger and confusion, and none more so than in the world of Islam.

  7

  THE AGE OF CRISES

  ISLAM

  Islamic civilisation contained within itself the power of cyclical renewal, and this world of such stability, strength and sustainability could only be conquered and destroyed from a source that came from outside, and as we saw in the previous chapter, this conquest came from the West. For the world of Islam, along with all the other non-European cultures and civilisations, the Age of Crises began with this destruction. The destruction was so thorough, and the world that replaced it so alien, that Muslims were traumatised and all but lost their memory.

  Nothing conveys this more vividly than what happened to Islamic architecture. In the 19th century, the Ottomans, demoralised by the apparent success of the West, abandoned their tradition, and replaced it with Western classicism. Years later, in the 1960s, a young Egyptian architect, Abdel Wahid el-Wakil, enrolled in the Architectural Department at Ain Shams University, Cairo. He wanted to study Islamic architecture. However, the course only included classical and modern architecture. Fortunately, he was introduced to Hasan Fathy, a lone figure who was single-handedly recovering the principles of the tradition. In the 1980s el-Wakil would realize these principles in a series of mosques of surpassing beauty. A dozen edifices were erected in Saudi Arabia over a decade, including the rebuilding of the Quba Mosque, the first mosque to have been built in Islam.

  Those Islamic lands colonised by Europeans had not only their architectural traditions but their entire cultures, to a greater or lesser extent, replaced by European models. Islam in India suffered a terrible destruction after the rebellion of 1857; the Muslim intelligentsia was decimated and the higher education system destroyed, leaving a dangerous vacuum. Those nations that remained independent, as we have seen, carried out the process of destruction upon themselves. With the collapse of Islamic civilisation, the synthesis that had brought together all the branches of knowledge in the contemplation of divine unity, fragmented. In this fragmentation, various possible approaches were separately expressed and the mereological principle was breached, with each tendency claiming for itself the whole truth. For example, ‘Salafi’ literalists have remained with the face value of the Scripture, mirroring the Protestant Reformation with their abandonment of the historic tradition and return to the source, while the neo-Muʿtazilite rationalists, now under the spell of modern science, have imposed their rationalist interpretations on the Revelation. Both tendencies deny the validity of Sufism, and, without the protection of the hierarchy of knowledge, true Sufism has become vulnerable and been made to appear extraneous to Islam.

  This destruction of a world that had been so successful and dominant for a millennium, led the traumatised Muslims to ask the question: how could this have happened? The most natural response was for Muslims to blame themselves. They had failed God, and God was punishing them. A trap was forming that would imprison the Muslim mind. Muslims could decry the moral decay that they could see taking place in the West, however, they were transfixed by the power of modern science. The myth that developed as part of the narrative of progress was appropriated by the Muslims: during Europe’s Dark Ages, Islam had made a major contribution to the development of modern science; without the Muslim contribution, the European Renaissance could not have taken place; after their ‘Golden Age’, the Muslims had declined, stagnated, fallen asleep, become all mystical; now they must wake up and catch up. The marriage between Islam and modern science became the great quest, one that has engaged and is still engaging the Muslim intelligentsia. It is a quest that is impossible of realisation, modern science having emerged out of the materialist mindset that has broken the balance and produced the Age of Crisis.

  We can see three stages which the cultures and civilisations of the world went through when faced with the irresistible power of the West. At first, they fought to defend their lands. In the second stage, once the land had been conquered, the people mostly submitted to their new rulers, with sporadic outbreaks of rebellion taking place and being ruthlessly crushed. The third stage is absorption into the Western system, or being left as an impoverished remnant. The absorption was achieved through the adoption of the sovereign nation state, Western education, and the power of modern science.

  The power of modern science first made its impression through military warfare. As states conformed to the new reality, the doors were opened to Western experts and specialists, who brought in their wake the whole modern package. Those nations that were not colonised, enacted upon themselves the process of westernisation. Above we saw what happened to Japan. The Ottoman Empire followed the same course. In the Ottoman Empire, the process went in stages: during the 19th century Western military experts came, and this was followed by a reformation of the education system and the codification of law. As we related above, the Ottoman sultans were so demoralised by the success of the West that they vacated their traditional palace and built a classical palace, in imitation of Versailles, nearly bankrupting the State. With their defeat in World War I, wholesale modernisation and westernisation took place, and the Ottoman Empire was reduced to the Turkish nation state. With this, the breakup of Dār al-Islām was complete.

  The fragmentation of Islamic civilisation has produced tyrannous nation states, and nation states that have descended into complete chaos. The symbiosis between farmers and nomads has been broken by modern agribusiness, leading to terrible conflict and massacres, such as in Darfur and across the Sahel. Young Muslims, assailed by the seeming success of the West and the chaos within Islam, are deeply confused and many are losing their faith. Zealous atheists are targeting them. Richard Dawkins, their high priest, is having his books translated into Arabic, Persian and Urdu, and made freely available. Another trend is the attempt to bring Islam into compliance with modernity; ever-changing modernity becomes the criterion by which to judge Islam. And the judgement often focuses on aberrational and criminal behaviour by Muslims that is, in fact, a rejection of Islamic values.

  All the traditional cultures and civilisations that were destroyed to make way for the modern world were reduced to chaos, conflict, confusion, civil strife and violence. However, the response to their destruction was mostly contained within their national borders, with the exception of Islam; since it has no national borders, the response has been and continues to be global, and of a scale and intensity exceeding all those that have gone before; the greater the unity, balance and stability of an entity, the greater will be the chaos, confusion, conflict and violence in its shattering. All shades of human response are taking place within the Muslim umma, from serenity, compassion and patience, to anger, violence and criminality.

  Among demoralised Muslims, witnessing the persecution and suffering of their fellow Muslims across the world, the phenomenon known as the Ghost Dance has surfaced. This originated with the Plains Indians of North America at the time when they were reduced to complete hopelessness. A saviour appeared bringing a message of hope and salvation; through the enactment of a particular dance, the ancestors would reappear and an army would sweep away the white man, the buffaloes would come back and everything would return to what it had been before the arrival of the white man. This rebellion, which spread across the Great Plains, marked the final tragic uprising of the Plains Indians. The phenomenon also inspired what is known as the Boxer Rebellion in China and precipitated the last major act of resistance to the European plunder of the Celestial Empire. With the Muslims, the same phenomenon has emerged in the vain attempt to recreate the Caliphate; an act so full of delusion, anger and revenge that it has transgressed every principle of the religion it claims to represent and has turned Islam in the eyes of the world into its opposite, to the horror and despair of most believing Muslims.

  And yet Islam continues to grow throughout the world. The univer
sal appeal of Islam is still alive. The Revelation speaks to all humanity and, as we have seen, was translated into a successful civilisation. The Muslim is at home in the world, he and she are truly global citizens. At this time, when all humanity is wracked by instability, suffering and fear, many Muslims, surrounded by a world in crisis, are finding inspiration and solace in the thirteen years of trials that the Prophet endured in Mecca, and are attempting to follow his example by responding with patience, forbearance, compassion and love for humanity and for His creation. For the sacred core of Islam remains intact and fully operative. Just as Islam was completely manifested in the time of the Prophet, and in its formation as a universal civilization, so it is perfectly formed as a haven from the storm that humanity is now passing through.

  THE WEST

  The Age of Crises has been a long time in the making and we have followed its trajectory from the collapse of Western Christendom until the storm that now encompasses us. What we have witnessed in each of the chapters of this book is not an ascent but a descent, from intense spirituality through humanism to an all-encompassing materialism. In Chapter One, it was from the sovereignty of God to the sovereignty of the individual; in Chapter Two, from a God-centred society governed by obligations, to a human-centred society asserting its rights; in Chapter Three, from religious contemplatives seeking to understand God’s purpose, to modern scientists attempting to understand how the material world came into existence and what it is made of; in Chapter Four, from Christian ascetic to modern consumer; in Chapter Five, from the sublime beauty of the cathedral to the chaos and ugliness of modern art; in Chapter Six, from Western Christendom on the edge of the civilised world, to world conquest by the reborn ‘civilised’ West, and to the West’s creation of the Modern World. Finally, in this chapter we arrive at the Age of Crises. At the root of this downward trajectory is the breakdown of Christendom. Once the walls were breached, there was nothing to arrest the ever-increasing descent into materiality, which is now spiralling out of control, and which has produced a world and way of life that is far from the ideals of Christianity.

  Our Age of Crises is the culmination of what is being described by the British Geological Survey as a new geological era:

  Humans are now drivers of environmental change on a scale that is unique in Earth’s history. Human-driven biological, chemical and physical changes to the Earth’s system are so great, rapid and distinct that they may characterize an entirely new era – the Anthropocene.

  With the splitting of the atom and the dropping of the bomb, humanity for the first time had within its power the capacity to destroy itself. Over the last seventy years that power has multiplied, following the chthonic principle that the deeper you delve into matter, the greater the forces that are released. With the ever-growing release of powers within the material realm, the crises have escalated and a once benign natural world is turning hostile and unpredictable.

  The meta-narrative which gave purpose to the Western world has fractured. Societies are divided. The middle ground of liberal democracy is failing. Artificial Intelligence is gradually taking over an increasing range of human occupations. The gulf between rich and poor is widening. Debt is mounting, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the modern way of life. Politicians are appealing to past glory, nationalism and fear of the outsider in their attempts to revive societies.

  But arguably the greatest danger is that the failure of modernity has given birth to a philosophy that threatens a complete breakdown of society. Postmodernism has entered the mainstream of the West and is disintegrating the social order; complementarity in human relationships has been replaced by uniformity; the sovereignty, liberty and human rights of the individual are now enshrined in a philosophy that has reduced everything to relativity. The love and inclusivity which is its justification, expresses a profound desire for a wholeness and integrity of which, ironically, it is the antithesis. All that holds the current fragmentation together is the dynamic of economic growth. Once this falters nothing will be left. But incredibly, the idea of progress is so powerful that it has managed to subsume postmodernism, which spells its demise, into its narrative.

  The West first attempted to impose Christianity, then its version of civilisation and then modernity on the rest of the world. And now, in what must be the last act of Western exceptionalism, the West is attempting to impose post-modernism upon humanity.

  However, there is still a great reservoir of compassion and thoughtfulness in the West. There is generosity in response to the crises taking place around the world, and many have devoted their lives to alleviating the suffering of those affected. Deep thought is being invested in trying to understand what is happening, and to find a better way of living sustainably on earth. Many are recognising the wisdom contained within pre-modern cultures, and are seeking to preserve, practise and promote traditional husbandry, health and knowledge systems. The awareness of the abyss facing humanity and the desire to retreat from the edge is growing day by day, as news of the escalating crises reaches every corner of the globe.

  CONCLUSION

  How has our understanding of Islam and the West been affected by changing our perspective from progress to balance? Essentially, the situations have been reversed; whereas in the narrative of progress, the Western arc was one of ascension and the Islamic arc one of stagnation and decline, in the new narrative Islam maintained the balance whilst the West broke it, descending ever more rapidly into the realm of materiality.

  For Muslims, their story ceases to be one of failure. Islamic civilisation provided an intellectual and environmental framework in which peace was achievable through all of life’s vocations. The Islamic principle of mīzān, in all its meanings of balance, equity and justice, was at the heart of this world and remains the bedrock of the religion. Islamic civilisation had a remarkable capacity for cyclical renewal and, as we have seen, its destruction had to come from an outside power. Now the Muslims are suffering the shattering of their world. But they are not alone; all the traditional cultures and civilisations had to be destroyed to make way for the modern world, and the first to be destroyed was Western Christendom itself.

  From the perspective of balance, the unreality of the modern West becomes clear. With the breaching of the mereological and chthonic principles, the balance was upset, and an aberrational world came into existence which is releasing ever greater powers of destruction.

  However, the warnings from within the West, and especially England, have echoed through the centuries. Marlowe’s Dr Faustus sells his soul to the devil in exchange for mastery over the intelligible universe; Marcellus in Hamlet declaims that ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’; Milton’s paradise is lost; Blake’s ‘dark satanic mills’ are destroying the spirituality of ‘this green and pleasant land’; Wordsworth describes how ‘Men, maidens, youths, mothers and little children, boys and girls,’ enter these new satanic ‘temples’ and are offered up as ‘perpetual sacrifice’ … ‘To Gain, the master idol of the realm’; and as a premonition of the terrible future of the new sciences, Mary Shelley creates Frankenstein’s monster. As we enter the 20th century, the warnings continue; for TS Eliot we are turning our souls and the world into a ‘Wasteland’, and the Irish poet Yeats sums up the chaos gathering between the world wars at the beginning of his poem ‘The Second Coming’:

  Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

  Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

  The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

  The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

  The best lack all conviction, while the worst

  Are full of passionate intensity.

  For the dystopic vision of the future we are bringing upon ourselves, we have Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

  In England, where the Industrial Revolution was born, there h
as been a constant desire to return to a past when communities were at home with nature and when the church and cathedral were at the centre of village and town life. Many people and movements have carried on the battle to preserve and restore our traditional environment and way of life in face of the ever-increasing encroachment of modernity: William Cobbett in his writings and campaigning; Pugin with the revival of Gothic architecture, and the Oxford movement with the restoration of the Catholic tradition; John Ruskin and William Morris in their attempt to recover craftsmanship and beauty in the face of factory-made products; and the many attempts at returning to the land and farming in a manner that is in harmony with nature.

  The beauty of our traditional environment and the buildings erected to the glory and worship of God are a constant reminder of the centrality of religion to our way of life through most of our history. This held true until the recent decades when the modern cult fully manifested itself and gave birth to the Age of Crises.

  GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS

  Mīzān – An Arabic term which can be translated as balance, justice, measure, harmony or weighing scales. It is a term which contains a spiritual dimension that is not conveyed by our secular understanding of balance. It is the lens through which this study has been made.