MODERN MUSLIM WORLD

Module A
Foundation of the Muslim World

Topic No. 6
Understanding the Dynamics between Tradition and Modern Islam

o Aamir Yazdani
o University of Central Punjab
o Whatsapp: +92 3 33 42 36 501
o Email: aamiryazdani@yahoo.com
o Blog : www.aamiryazdani.blogspot.com
o YouTube: www.youtube.com/aamiryazdani
The Cultural Dimension

Muslims notice the daily coverage of Islam

by the Western media:
• fundamentalism,
• the situation of women,
• freedom of speech,
• and human rights
being the subjects that are almost
exclusively dealt with.

People “know” from now on because:

• television has shown them “the
images”,
• radio has reported “the statements”,
• and newspapers have confirmed “the
thesis”.

Of Islam as such nothing of substance is

known.

Orientalists have given way to political

scientists and “social researchers” who
have become “experts on Islam”. Such
shortcuts are perilous.
The West have the Indians
of North America and
Australia, the Aborigines.

These enthinicities do not

endanger the supremacy
of rationalist and
modernist points of
reference.

For the first time in two

centuries, and in a more
“confrontational” manner,
that even the Chinese or
Japanese horizon could
not pose, the Islamic
world contests the
universality of Western
values either by
relativising or questioning
them.

The West terms it as the

Clash of the Civilizations.
The
REFERENCE
TO CONTEXT
has to play a
pivotal role for
Islamic
understanding
in the Western
world.
PROMETHEUS1 AND ABRAHAM
(Athens & Jerusalem)
The West: Fire, Rebellion and
Tension

Since the Renaissance the two

fundamental sources of Western
culture are GraecoRoman and
Judaeo-Christian.
Greco-Roman Views
• Citizens should participate in
government by voting.
• Democracy can be protected by having
branches of government: a legislative
branch to make laws, an executive
branch to approve laws, a judicial
branch to resolve legal disputes.

Judeo-Christian Views
• Every person is born with worth and
dignity because they were created by
God.
• Every person has the ability to choose
between doing good and doing wrong.
• Every person has the responsibility to
help others in need and the community.
Historians,
researchers and
scientists have
reminded us of the
dominant place of
the Arab-Islamic
heritage in the
process.

Coexistence between
the two civilisations
(through Islam) has
participated in the
evolution of Western
culture.

These mutual
contributions
between the West
and Islam have to be
looked into through
the lens of Greek
mythology.
Greek Mythology:

The identification and competition which

exists between gods and men, has to be
seen through the myth of Prometheus, “the
great friend of men”, according to
Nietzsche’s expression.

The figure of the titan appeared for the first

time when, the gods, titans and men – were
separated.

In order to protect men, Prometheus tried

to deceive Zeus. From this moment on, the
rapport between gods and men and tension
will never disappear.

Prometheus sacrificed himself for men by

defying the gods. His is the first
transgression and the first chastisement.

From early on, this event was interpreted in

two completely opposing ways. But, deep
down, both ways acknowledge the reality
of conflict, challenge and tension.
Different Interpretations:

For Hesiod, Prometheus had

consecrated (to declare sacred) the
intervention of “evil” in the world.

According to his interpretation: “far

from being a benefactor of humanity,
Prometheus is responsible for the
present decadence.”

One notices a similarity between the

scope of this act and that of Eve and
Adam in the Judaeo-Christian
tradition: pride is a disobedience
which is, in itself, an expression of
evil.

Hesiod (Greek: 'he who emits the voice') was an

ancient Greek poet between 750 and 650 BC. He is
generally regarded as the first written poet
credited with establishing Greek religious
customs). 
Aeschylus, (pronounced; As
kuh luhs)(6-5 BC) presented a more
“modern” reading of this myth.

Here, Prometheus is a hero, the

supreme initiator of crafts and
sciences; he gives fire to men and
delivers them from the fear of
death.

It is through his opposition to the

master of the world, the Zeus, that
he offers to men the greatness and
peace of the soul. It interprets
challenge positively, which
legitimises rebellion.

Prometheus is the guide and

liberator in face of Divine
authority that subjugates wills.
Victor Hugo, interprets
this “word of a man”
facing progress: In the
immense shadow of the
Caucasus1. Since
centuries, through
dreaming, Led by men
of ecstasy, Humankind
marches ahead,
Marches on earth,
passes through, Goes,
at night, in space, In
infinity, in the
bounded, In the azure,
in the irritated tide, In
the glimmer of
Prometheus, The bound
liberator!

1. The Caucasian race is an
outdated grouping of uman
beings which usually included
ancient and modern
populations from all or parts of 
Europe, Western Asia, 
Central Asia, South Asia, 
North Africa, and the 
Horn of Africa
The figure of the titan,
represents the rejection of the
Divine order and the
affirmation of human
autonomy.

Machiavlli (pronounced: M aa
ki Velli) in the fifteenth-
sixteenth centuries, presented
the idea of the separation of
powers and the new relativity
of morality in the practice of
politics, go along the same line
of opposition where it is not a
question of negating the
primacy (most important) of
the Divine.

The approach of man’s

scientific and technical progress
seems an assault on heaven.

THE MYTH OF
PROMETHEUS “SPEAKS”!!
ISLAM TODAY
Nothing in Islam is opposed to
modernity.

Muslim thinkers and ulama’

who are opposed to modernity
and to the idea of change and
evolution confuse it with
Westernisation.

Hiding behind the “drifts of the

West”, they deduce that
faithfulness to the Message is
achieved by an “absolute” and
definitive interpretation of the
sources. Hence, the traditional
element of Islam.
Predicament!!:
The Qur’an and the Sunna, the
fundamental sources of the
Sharia, which always require
renewed interpretation in order to
respond to the needs of the time
and place, are reduced to
explaining the meaning of the
views elaborated by the Faqihs
(jurists) of the first centuries.
This way the risks of rupture
and non-dialogue are thus
multiplied.

Everything in the history of

societies and religions should
lead us to depth and nuance.

Muslims have themselves,

therefore, to discover the
challenges of their time.
As the first liberation:
• only an awakened, living
remembrance, which links
Revelation and reality, is a
faithful one.

• Faith is the light of life; one

which makes one see in order to
better orientate.

• Muslims should find this

challenge through dynamism
and renewal of religious
thought called tajdid.

• They should remember the

points of reference and the
capacity to act, reform and
build.
The second liberation:
Should enable us to
distinguish from the mirages
of Western technology and
the modernist ideology.

It should not confine us to a

nervous rejection of the West
that is from now on
demonised by reaction.
One must derive
benefit from
experiences at all
levels.

Islamic modernity can

avoid the crisis that the
West is going through
today.

The West has

modernized by
instrumentalising
everything. Capitalist
society tends to
dissolve the
conscience.
Islam offers faith and
conscience as the tools
of balance and limits.

There is no justice
without balance and
no humanity without
limits.
The third
liberation is part of
the human being to the
point of qualifying as
blind or dead anyone
who does not live faith.

Not to see except

through reason is
tantamount to
amputating oneself.

This is an abnormal
state for one who is
suffering an illness.
Islam can play its
role. It can present
its own renaissance
of the spirituality of
the women and men
of our world.

One should avoid

presenting the ‘clash
of the civilizations’
mantra, but see it in
the light of mutual
enrichment.
The West will look in
its own religious and
cultural points of
reference in this age
of modernity.

Islamic
Renaissance
depends on
our present
engagement.
Our daily
spirituality must be
nourished by the
exactness of justice.
The Ulamah of the
subcontinent
understood Islam
based on traditional
system.

These Ulamah were

ignorant of the
advancements of
the western
philosophy,
western theology,
new psychology
and new
technology.

In contrast to them
the new educated
mind was adopting
the western ways
completely.
Deobandi Movement:
Barelvi Movement:
The Deobandi movement developed as a
reaction to the British colonizaion in
The Barelvi movement became known as
India which was seen by a group of Indian
Barelvi due to their leader Ahmad Raza
scholars to be corrupting Islam. The Islamic
Khan who established Islamic schools in
seminary (madrassa) Darul Uloom Deoband
1904.
was founded, where the Islamic revivalist
and anti-imperialist ideology of  the
The Barelvi movement formed as a defense
Deobandis began to develop.
of the traditional mystic practices of South
Asia, which it sought to prove and
Darul Uloom Deoband became the second
support.
largest focal point of Islamic teaching and
research after the Al-Azhar University, Cairo.
In contrast with the Deobandi movement,
the Barelvis supported the Pakistan
In 1919, the political party Jamiat Ulema-e-
Movement.
Hind was formed. It opposed the partition of
India. Deobandi scholar Maulana Syed
As a reaction to the anti-Islam film
Husain Ahmad Madani helped to spread
Innocence of Muslims, about forty Barelvi
these ideas through his text ‘Muttahida
parties called for a boycott of Western
Qawmiyat Aur Islam’.
goods, while at the same time condemning
violence which had taken place in protest
A minority group later joined Jinnah,
against the film.
forming the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in 1945.
We should keep an eye
on the growth and
development of human
thought of our own
times.

The conclusions of the

nineteenth century
physics brought about
the destruction of
religion and old
theories.

They attacked them in

such a manner as
created an intellectual
stampede in the realm
of old theories and
religion.
Religion was
attacked and
criticized by :
Sigmund Freud:
"Religion is an attempt to master
the sensory world in which we
are situated by means of the
wishful world which we have
developed within us as a result
of biological and psychological
necessities.
Karl Marx:
19th-century German philosopher,
the founder of Marxism, viewed
religion as "the soul of soulless
conditions" or the “opium of the
Darwin:
people".
Evolution wrecked special
In the Marxist-Leninist creation.
interpretation, all modern religions
and churches are considered as
"organs of bourgeois (bor zhow
wa) (middle class) reaction" used
for "the exploitation of the working
class".
This led to the concept that religion was nothing more than
some blind beliefs based on unintellectual and illogical
rituals.

It might have been somewhat useful for man in the medieval

times, but was only an obstacle on the road to progress and
an instrument of oppression in the hands of the strong
against the week.

Iqbal contended on the basis of the existence of concordance

between religion, physics and other sciences. We can create
new angles of vision for the truth of religion.