Islam vs Marxism : Dr Ansari

Islam vs Marxism

Dr Muhammed Fazlur Rahman Ansari (ra)

 

THE PREAMBLE

 

The Marxist menace has been growing in the Muslim world, the political measures lately adopted by certain Muslim states notwithstanding. It has been growing and it must continue to grow so long as the social and political conditions remain what they are — so long as poverty, ignorance disease, exploitation and tyranny hold their sway in Muslim lands and die-hard imperialists like the French continue to keep large Muslim populations under their heels.

That is, however, the political aspect of the menace, with which persons of the academic sphere can hardly interfere with any tangible result. But the academic aspect also has suffered considerably. For instance, there has been no organized international move on behalf of the Muslim world which could pool all its intellectual resources and give it a specialized lead in this regard. Certain religious organizations have been doing some valuable literary work, for which every Muslim should feel grateful. But nothing substantial has been done to build up a genuine international movement which could undertake to fight the Marxist menace at least academically.

The present essay was written for the World Convention sponsored by the "American Friends of the Middle East" and held in Lebanon in 1954. The following four fundamental problems were laid down for exposition:

The spiritual assets in Islam and their significance for the individual, the family and society;

Social work based on religious concepts like Zakat;

The social challenge of Communism and Islam's answer to it;

How can Islam transmit its spiritual values to the younger generation? Hence the following line of discussion.

 

THE BASIC POINT OF DIFFERENCE:

 

It is a truism, as the Holy Prophet Jesus (Allah's blessings be upon him!) is reported to have said: "Man does not live by bread alone". It is this fact which is vital to every religion,—in fact, to Religion as such, — and it is this which distinguishes and separates Religion from Marxism for all time.

Marxism negates the belief in the existence of God, denies all the higher values of life and challenges the dignity of man. Grounded as it is in a Mechanistic Philosophy and a Behavioristic Psychology, it refuses to regard Man as anything more than an automaton, — a vanishing speck on the firmament of matter, or a mere plaything on the social chessboard.

It refuses to recognize Man's higher yearnings—his yearnings for communion with God, his yearnings for Truth, Love and Beauty, his yearnings for spiritual perfection, moral earnestness and social refinement—except as aberrations and sublimations of his economic wants, thus raising Psychological Perversion to the dignity of a Moral Principle. It recognizes only the validity of the economic value and of naked Materialism; and its Dialectic, though it appears to be endowed with what might only paradoxically be called self-consciousness, is, in the final analysis, actually a blind process. Thus Marxism stands poles apart from Islam. In fact, it is it’s very anti-thesis.

 

THE SPIRITUAL ASSETS OF ISLAM:

 

As regards the spiritual assets of Islam, they can be particularized only academically, because, practically speaking, the entire super-structure of Islam is spiritual in the sense of being God-conscious. The word "Islam" means "submission to the Will of God", or in other words, living a life for the sake of God. Thus a Muslim is he every aspect of whose behavior and every cross-section of whose activity—without any such distinction as that of "secular" and "religious"—is for the sake of God and in obedience to His Will and Commands. This is what we read in the Holy Qur’an:

"Say (O Muhammad!): Truly, my prayer and my sacrifice, my life and my death are (all) for

Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds: no partner hath He: This I am commanded and I am the first of those who bow to Allah's Will". (VI: 162, 163).

However, from the point of view of the problems before us, certain spiritual assets of Islam might be stressed: —

(a) In the first instance Islam regards the basis of all life as spiritual, and, though its approach to the problem of Mind and Matter is non-dualistic, i.e., unitary, in the realm of values it gives primacy to the spiritual, thus standing in violent opposition to Marxist Dialectical Materialism.

(b) While Marxism conceives life only in respect of its u-folding from the lower to the higher forms—just as, in the case of the individual, it gives primacy to Hunger and Sex and makes the entire life revolve round them— Islam stresses the fundamental diffusion of life from the higher to the lower values. Thus, it regards God not only the Ultimate Reality but the Really Real and orientates entire life in the concept of Love for Him. In the realm of human values,

Islam conceives the economic value emerging from the moral and the moral from the spiritual.

(c) This necessitates a belief in the Universe as a Moral Order, which Islam affirms with all the emphasis possible. According to Islam, the contradictions which exist on the material plane of existence harmonize themselves on the spiritual plane; and in its teachings concerning life-after-death and moral retribution in the form of Heaven and Hell, it proclaims that Virtue must ultimately triumph.

(d) The universe being a Moral Order, Man cannot but be a Moral Being primarily and essentially,— and that he is in Islam. Far from being a blind atom whirling in the storm of cosmic confusion or an impersonal mark on the unfolding tape of the cruel Dialectic, he is the possessor of an Individuality and a Personality, basically built up on the elements of Goodness, Truth and Beauty, as the Holy Qur'an says:

"We have indeed created man in the best make" (XCV: 4).

Essentially, he is not the slave of the instincts of Hunger and Sex but a being to whom the angels were ordered by God Almighty to pay homage, as we are told in the Holy Qur’an:

"And behold, We said to the angels: 'Bow to Adam', and they bowed down". (II: 34).

He is the apex of Creation and the master of all around him. So says thy Holy Qur’an:

"Do you not see that Allah has subjected to your (use) all things in the heavens and on earth, and has made His bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, (both) seen and unseen? Yet there are men who dispute Allah, without knowledge and without Guidance, and without a

Book to enlighten them!" (XXXI: 20).

And, again:

"And certainly We have honored the children of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure: and conferred on them special favors above a great part of Our Creation." (XVII: 70).

Islam has indeed raised Man to the highest pinnacle of greatness in Creation by calling him the Vicegerent of God on earth, to which the Holy Qur'an refers in these words:

"Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: 'I will create a vicegerent on earth'." (11:30).

(e) This being the dignity of Man, Islam gives him the ideal of harmonizing himself with the

Divine Life. Thus we have been told by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (God's choicest blessings be upon him!): —

"Imbue yourselves with Divine Attributes."

(f) Islam is the religion of Balance, Proportion and Harmony, to which numerous verses of the Holy Qur'an bear testimony, as for instance:

"Glorify the name of thy Lord Most High, Who hath created and, further, given order and proportion; Who hath ordained laws and granted guidance". (LXXXVII: 1-3).

And, again:

"God Most Gracious! It is He Who has taught the Qur'an. He has created man: He has taught him speech (with intelligence). The sun and the moon follow courses (exactly) computed and the herbs and the trees do adore (Him). And the Firmament has He raised high, and He has set up the Balance, in order that ye may not transgress the Balance." (LV: 1-8).

Thus Islam commands Man to affirm all the values of life—Spiritual, Moral, Intellectual,

Aesthetic and Physical— and to pursue them in a balanced way, aiding finally at Harmonious

Development.

(g) The principle of Harmony at the highest social level transforms itself into the well-known

Islamic doctrine of Human Brotherhood, which, in its turn, throws into broad relief the principle of Co-operation in contradistinction to the Marxist ideology of Class-War.

These, in brief, are the spiritual assets of Islam from the point of view of the present discussion, and they reveal the utter incompatibility which exists between Islam and Marxism.

 

INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY:

 

As regards the relations of the Individual and the Society, Islam gives to the Individual what belongs to the Individual and to the Society what belongs to the Society. The Individual and the Society have been conceived in it not as antithetic but as complimentary, the former realizing himself through the latter and the latter through the former. Indeed, in its unique system, Islam has steered clear of the shortcomings of both, cruel Individualism and brutal Collectivism, giving us a synthesis which is natural and rational.

Marxism is Collectivism in its brute form, with an iron regimentation bordering on slavery. As a theory of Social Atomism, it regards the Individual as the primary unit of the Social Whole.

But very soon it absorbs him in the concept of class-war and filially drowns his identity in the whirlpool of Social Expediency where the loyalty to the Politbureau over-rides all other loyalties, including that to the family-ties.

In Islam, the Individual is the spiritual unit of the Society, while the family forms the social unit. Thus the Individual has been regarded as basically a free being with a permanent identity and his moral struggle has been conceived as directed to the enrichment of his own Personality as well as that of other individuals, contributing, in the final analysis, to the enrichment of the human Society as a whole. As regards the Family, it occupies, in the elaborate code of Islamic ethics, a privileged position above all challenge, and Marriage, which forms the corner-stone in the superstructure of family life, has been declared to be a vital means, not only as regards the individual's social self-realization but also in connection with his spiritual perfection. Thus, for instance, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him!) says:

"Marriage is of my ways, and whoever turns away from my ways is not from me, i.e., is not a Muslim!"

Also:

"Marriage is half the Faith."

The teachings of Islam concerning the Individual and the Family are directly and logically related to the principles stated in connection with spiritual assets. Islam stresses the principle of Co-operation in contrast to the Marxist philosophy of Conflict, and genuine Co-operation cannot be possible except between free beings. Again, there can be no better training ground and no better nucleus for Cooperation than the Family. Hence the assurance of the basic freedom of the Individual and the sanctity of the institution of the Family in Islam.

 

SOCIAL SERVICE BASED ON RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS:

 

As already stressed, Islam is not merely a Religion but an elaborate Social Order, a self-contained Culture and a full-fledged Civilization. Consequently, the entire Islamic system of faith and practice ensures "Social Service based on Religious Concepts" by assimilating all the three basic concepts, namely, Man, Society, God into a harmonious Whole, in contradistinction to Marxism which confines itself purely to the problem of "Man and Society" and also in sharp contrast to the general religious thought which confines itself to the problem of "Man and God." Indeed, even the' purely devotional practices in Islam, like Prayers and Fasting and the Pilgrimage to Mecca, are social institutions and serve social ends.

Besides this basic characteristic of Islam, there is also a specific Social Code in which social service has been raised to the dignity of the highest form of virtue, just as the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him!) says:

"The best of you is he who is best to God's family, i.e., mankind."

Thus, while, besides the "Duties to God," "Duties to Self," "Duties to the Creation in General," we find a magnificent elaboration of "Duties to Others" (Individual as well as Collective) in the Islamic Moral Code, we also come across among the basic "Five Pillars" themselves an institution like the "Zakat," enthroned there as the very essence of Islam.

Zakat is the obligatory "Social Betterment Tax"— obligatory to the extent that its denial turns a person out of the fold of Islam—and it gives to Islam the distinction of giving to the world a system of "Organized Well-doing" in contrast to the haphazard form of Charity found generally in the practice of religious people. Comprising 2½% on all hoarded and productive wealth, it is essentially a state institution and is meant solely for the benefit of the poor and for the general weal, as the Holy Prophet Muhammad (may his memory be evergreen!) says:

"(It is) taken from their well-to-do persons and given to their poor people."

Unfortunately, during the present age of Muslim disorganization (due to various causes which may not be recounted at the present occasion), the institution of Zakat has become a private affair and is being practiced by very few Muslims. But, during the glorious period of Muslim history, it existed with all the splendour of its revolutionary glory. Indeed, as all students of Islamic history know, it succeeded even in the earliest stages of its establishment in transforming a veritable desert of poverty, destitution and suffering into a paradise of plenty for all. And it can be said without the least shadow of doubt that it can perform the same miracle even today if it is organized properly by the Muslim governments.

Zakat is not, however, the sole institution which Islam has given to us for the eradication of social evils. Rather, there is a whole set of laws which aim at the establishment of a healthy economic adjustment in society.

 

ISLAM’S ANSWER TO THE SOCIAL CHALLENGE OF COMMUNISM

 

And this brings us to "Islam's answer to the Social Challenge of Communism." Let it be said at the very outset that the challenge of Communism was born and has maintained itself upto this day solely because of the existence of the maladjustment of economic relations. The situation has been rife with unlimited exploitation and unbridled oppression of man by man, leading to wide-spread misery and helplessness and frustration, and finally giving birth to the fire of vengeance and revolt. The more fortunate among us have worshipped wealth, instead of worshipping God and serving the higher values, until the science of Economics itself has become virtually divorced from morals and other higher considerations. This is what indeed the majority of Economists of the modem world (excluding, of course, the protagonists of Welfare Economics) themselves admit. For instance, according to Marshall: "Economics is neutral between ends: the ends may be noble or ignoble, an economist is not concerned with it."

Islam's answer to the challenge of Communism may be conceived in a two-fold perspective.

Firstly, Islam stands for linking up economics with the moral and spiritual values. It does not believe that economic maladjustment can be genuinely resolved without taming the brute in man, namely, without bringing about a general moral and spiritual reformation. It holds that economics must be guided by such moral principles which are grounded in the highest Spiritual Truths.

Secondly, Islam regards 'Destitution' as a positive vice, and this is what the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him) says:

"Destitution is conducive to infidelity (i.e., the suppression of higher values").

This being the case, Islam directs its entire spiritual and moral force into the economic sphere with a view to eradicate the economic miseries of man through the widest possible distribution of wealth. The Holy Qur'an lays down the principle:

"Wealth should not be permitted to circulate among the wealthy only." (LIX: 7).

 

Being an Essay Written for the Muslim-Christian Convention held in Lebanon in 1954 by

Dr. Fazl-ur-Rahman Ansari Al-Qaderi (RA)