Islamic History and its interpretation

Islamic History and its interpretation

Dr. Burhan Ahmed Faruqi

Dec 1965

THE advent of Islam is a monumental in the history of mankind. It brought in its wake the most broad-based revolution in the concepts of human culture and civilisation.

Its emergencies caused a readjustment in the philosophies, institutional life, individual pursuits of spiritual nature, social objectives and international relationships. So colossal was the change in outlook brought into being by Islam that some of the principles of social organization propounded by Islam are just beginning to unfold themselves now after about fourteen centuries, e.g., the colour-conscious ness or the notion of racial superiority. Such evil were banished from Islamic society well over thousand years ago, which are being understood in their right perspective in the most civilized countries, today on a very abstract level of course.

In view of the fact it can be asserted that to form a correct view of Islamic History is an uphill task for the simple reason that it covers such a vast field and takes so complex tracks that to do justice to it requires an unususal endeavour.

Islamic History becomes all the more a delicate subject if we take history as the study of the development of human mind and not as a chronological account of the kings and their conflicts.

Islam is positively a turning point in the process of the development of humand mind.

Hence the treatment of the subject necessitates the analysis as to what is History, what is Islam? and what does the concept of Islamic History imply? what confusion prevails about Islamic History and why? How to interpret it?

THE TWO NOTIONS

There are two notions of history, viz.,

(a) that it is a narrative account of the past events, and

(b) that it is causal explanation of the rise and fall of nations and civilizations.

History as a narrative account of the past events is an outdated and out-moded concept, and as such it forms only a means to the purpose involved in the second notion.

There are three doctrines, about the second notion:-

1. That the movement of history has no direction, no end in view, therefore, it involves neither progress nor retardation. This view originates in the mechanistic view of the Universe under the impact of the hypothesis of mechanical causation, relevant only in the domain of physics.

2. That movement of history is gradually taking mankind towards its downfall. It is the movement of retardation. This view originates in Christian theology, as an impact of ideational culture according to which material progress is only deviation from the viewpoint of religion.

3. That the movement of history is progressive. Mankind is gradually moving towards its goal. This view has arisen under the impact of the hypothesis of evolution, which is a relevant hypothesis in the domain of biology.

This view again is given two interpretations, viz., that the movement of history is linear. That mankind is progressively moving and this movement is in straight line. The chronologically latest is the highest and the most perfect. Among contemporary interpreters of history Professor Toynbee has presented this view.

That the movement of history is on the whole progressive, no doubt, but every stage of this progress involves so many ups and downs in its movment and is therefore interpreted as "non-linear."

But what is rise and fall of the nation civilisation and what is the law which governs the process?

A group is said to be rising if their economy is complete, if they stand economically self-sufficient, occupy a cognisable place in agriculture, industry and commerce as producers, have a clear vision of the national objective and cultural ideal, are organised as a body politique and disciplined as a social order, have leadership in different fields of life, educationally they are advanced and have openings in all walks of life for the most deserving individuals to rise up to the highest status of life.

HISTORICAL MOVEMENT

And the group is supposed to be declining if their economy is incomplete. Agriculturally, industrially and commercially they are backward, their vision of objective and cultural ideal is blurred, lacking in organisation and discipline, socially disintegrated with dearth of leadership in every field of life, educationally backward, dominated and controlled by cliques of vested interests with no prospects in life for common man however distinguished he might be.

Every Ummat as unity carries within it two conflicting trends, namely, those of destruction and creation of decay and replacement of retardation and progress. The pre-dominance of the former leads to decline and that of the latter leads to rise. And opposition from outside constitutes a favourable circumstance for progress, for, it awakens the latent will and releases the counteracting forces, arouses opposition of opposition, and unfolds fresh sources of energy to meet the situation.

The law which governs the process of historical movement is that there are two groups with two objectives, having two different loyalities, besides which there are two organised volitions: there is a clash between the two organised volitions, to make the clash successful, they have two respective proframines. The The programme which guarantees fulfilment of larger interests is 'Haq' and the programme which is directed to preserve the vested interests is 'Batil'. When Haq and Batil come to clash the Qur'an so emphatically affirms the dominance of Haq over Batil that the Qur'an is forced to express the future tense in the past tense because of the degree of certainty involved therein.

The Truth has come and falsehood vanished....(Al-Qur'an)

But we are misled by our enemies for want of proper interpretation. So much so that our faith in our future is shaken: the vision of our ideal is blurred, our consciousness of the need of organisation is benumbed, the agencies of our cultural conveyance have grown confused and we are in a state of 'Drift,' searching our way in darkness of confusion, looking for regeneration of our decadent society towards the modern West, forgetting that not even today but for ever Islam alone guarantees to raise a society morally healthy, economically just, socially sound, and politically stable, intellectually leading, and culturally lasting.

The way in which the Western impact on our life has damaged us, is that we have begun to believe that we can survive only through physical forces and mechanised resources, and we have failed to see that no nation can survive unless it is in a position to take constant inspiration from the spiritual sources of its energy.

The only condition of our surviving and thriving is that we should trace our identity from Islam, and interpret our history in a way that the unity of Islam should not be lost sight of, because no group can survive after deviating from its ideological base and dissociating itself from the force that energises and dynamises it as a group.

Let us therefore determine what Islam is.

Islam is 'ideology' and 'order'. As an 'ideology' is Kitab, and as an order it is 'Sunnah'. That ideology is exactly 'Kitab' is evident from the Qur'anic verse:-

(لكل اجل كتاب) for every decisive moment there is (لكل اجل كتاب)  an ideology; and reverse of it, namely every ideology has a decisive moment) is equally Revelation is the source of this ideology and revolution for creation of Islamic order is the programme. Islamic society is a society based on the conception of the unity of mankind, 'constituted' of the individuals morally-struggling and spiritually- minded, 'directed' to immunize the individuals and society from all fears and sorrows, and integrated through its supreme most loyalty to Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him).

TECHNIQUE

The technique of the Revolution consists in the solution of the questions:

1. What typical conflict is to be intensified to get the loyalties defined and to form the groups that have to come into clash so that the clash should be decisive.

2. What guarantee is there that the clash would not end in sheer destruction.

3. What should be the programme that gives the assurance that the Revolutionary group would be gradually advancing in the direction of its goal and would remain in a position to avoid premature clash till it can invite the clash.

4. What typical reaction of Revolutionary efforts would follow, should be anticipated with indubitable certitude.

5. How to act and counteract towards each typical reaction so that the Revolutionary group must have the fullest control over the situation.

The Holy Qur'an meets all the requirements of success in the efforts of Revolution.

The all-embracing 'conflict' is the conflict of the (تصدیق) affirmation and (تکذیب) falsification of the Holy Prophet, as the standard of evaluation, and of his outlook, his ideal, his standpoint, his mission. and his programme.

The guarantee of success lies in the outlook that man is free, survives after death, that the world is a moral order, that God exists with a will to lead us to perfection adequate to our nature, and that He reveals his relevant nature and assures us of His Guidance, Help and Grace in the Qur'anic revelation.

The conquest of Mecca established the superiority of Islam as 'ideology' and 'order'.

As a culture Islam develops in an Islamic social order with Islam as an ideology, the basis of the society and the culture. The term culture is a borrowed expression, and therefore it is misleading. It is derived from the German word 'Kultur', as such it involves a metaphor of ploughing, sowing, growing and reaping. But what is ploughed is not the soil but the mind of the individuals, and what is sown is not the seed but ideas and what is reaped is the uniformity in the pattern of behaviour that imparts consciousness of unity to a group. Apart from the metaphorical sense it can be understood as equivalent to "Millat" for, when the Qur'an speaks of man it speaks of 'Ummat' because man has his origin in society and can develop in society. But there can be no society without Millat which imparts conscious- ness of unity to the group; therefore the Qur'an speaks of Millat where it speaks of Ummat. But in Millat is involved the possibility of deviation. Hence the Qur'an lays emphasis on the standard Deen. And when Deen in approximation with its ideal takes the shape of an externally existent order, the demand for an autonomous sovereign society, ie استخلاف فى الارض becomes indispensable. If we do not want to deviate from our own ideological base we should abstain from and jealously guard ourselves against the use of borrowed catchwords and phrases.

Islam as a Millat (culture) is further explication of ideology. The world outlook gives rise to the philosophical aspect of Millat that furnishes a solution to such questions as what is the nature of knowledge? How is knowledge possible? What is the nature of reality? And what is the nature of man? What are the modes of action befalling the place which man occupies in this universe? And what is the ideal that man is required to realise? The solution of these questions constitutes the philosophical phase of the Millat. But this is an effort at the ordinary human level as distinct from one made by the Prophet. Therefore it is not free from the possibility of deviation from the original that is the prophetic pattern.

Again the orientational phase of Millat emanates from the programme (an aspect of ideology). It comprises within it the means adopted to realise the ideal and actualise the norms. The third aspect of culture, viz., the evaluational aspect emanates from the standard of evaluation as an ingredient of ideology (Kitab) to assess the efforts of realising the ideal and actualising the norms.

There is a possibility of deviation in the cultural efforts because of human freedom: this effort takes place in space time dimensions and results in the rise and fall of nations and civilisations, which is a fact. History being the casual explanation of the rise and fall of nations and civilisations, the rise and decline of Muslim nations and Islamic civilisation can be explained on the basis of struggle based on the Islamic ideology and deviation of the Muslims from their ideological base.

Every society is confronted with two-fold conflict, viz., external conflict with the societies of conficiting loyalties, and the internal conflict, viz., the conflict with the individuals and groups within the society that have been led to deviate from their ideological base because of their vested interests. If the biolgical will of a society is not weakened a healthier group emerges out of itself from time to time to be able to counteract the trends of deviation within and counteract the extraneous forces directed towards the effacement of a particular society that is not prepared to surrender its distinctive features in 'ideology' and 'order'.

If the vision of the ideal is blurred, changes social, economic political and intellectual are allowed to permeate, the impact of alien cultures is met with no resistance, the vigilance is withdrawn from the agencies of cultural conveyance, the organised effort to resist the forces of disintegration within and without is given up and the groups and the civilisations are effaced from existence. The scholars of history, researchers and teachers who insist on their attitude of defiance of the ideological distinctions and cultural loyalties in pursuit of their vested interests contribute only to- wards the effacement of their groups and cannot be suffered in the cultural groups that have the will to survive.

After the conquest of Mecca the challenge put forth in the Quranic verse:

'He is One who has sent

His messenger with guidance.......

was established and it is with reference to this challenge that the Qu'ran calims:

'Today I have completed Deen for you...... But we cannot realise the import of the perfection of Deen without the reference to the implication of a part of the same verse, viz.,

'In despair today are they who disbelieve your religion. So fear them not, fear Me. This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you."'

The disbelievers are in despair as to the possibility of their ever being able to prevail over Islam; what is that which guarantees this result. In other words, in what does perfection of Deen consist?

How can the forces of decline be counteracted? What efforts have, from time to time, been made to undo the forces of decline? and with what degree of success! If we reject the interpretation of history advanced by the enemies of Islam, grasp the principle of voluntaristic dialecticism which governs the process of history, have the idealistic aspirations and fulfil the requirements of a successful struggle, there is no reason why should we fail to emerge as a group whose existence is acknowledged in the international situation.

The foregoing analysis brings out:

(i) That our History is the History of our ideological struggle and it should never be interpreted as the account of the events in the life of a racial or a territorial group.

(ii) That the process of history is governed by dialectical voluntarism and therefore we should not identify ourselves without dis- crimination as to which of the two conflicting groups is consistent in their behaviour with our ideological base and cultural loyalty.

(iii) That truth alone is to prevail and باطل .cannot prosper

Hence the attempt to trace the history of Pakistan from the excavations of Mohan-jo-Darro and Harrappa is no less pagan than that of tracing the history of Egypt from Pharaoh and pride in the Coptic Egyptian culture. What inspiration do they receive when they see a few clay utensils and a few clay made toy-horses, and seals? How is it that the sight of these objects fires the imagination of some of our historians to take pride in this cultural heritage? In fact it is they who have imbibed the spirit of the enemies of Islam and have assumed that there is no such thing as history of Islam. At an earlier stage it is history of Islam. The history of Omayyid and Abbaside periods is the history of culture and civilisation. The history of Iran is the history of Iranian nationalism. The contemporary history of Arabs and Turks is the history of Arab and Turkish racialism while the history of Indo-Pakistan is taken to be the history of events that took place on the soil of Indo-Pakistan sub-continent and that too in a manner that its division into periods robs it of the unity and identity so essential for history.

This attitude amounts to scientific dishonesty, political disloyalty, and cultural disintegrity because it is directed to jeopardise the historical judgment and deny the justification of the demand of Pakistan.

The study of history is so important for the survival of a nation that without identification with the past no confidence can be inspired in the destiny of a people. That is why history forms a part of the syllabi from primary class up to the post-graduate level.

If we do not correct our vision of history it will prove a force of national and cultural disintegration.