Introduction:
We begin with the praise of God-Allah, Whose greatness is not diminished by lack of recognition, Whose grandeur is not increased by praising. Peace be upon God’s last Prophet Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah, abundant peace.
[These, are our remnants we’ll leave behind, to tell everyone what we are… And so, when we are gone, consider the remnants we have left behind.]
We have been studying I
slam both informally – ‘under trees’ and self-study, and formally - in classrooms since childhood. On this page we wish to share with our brothers and sisters out there some of the little knowledge, wisdom and experience we have managed to gather along the way… The origins of these ideas is quite diverse and eclectic, so in most cases we will not cite any sources, but we invite everyone to feel free to contact us if they wish to discuss or develop any of the listed ideas further...
Today across sub-Saharan Africa, there’s still the naïve idea that in order to be educated properly someone needs to acquire or import his/her knowledge from the West. And for African Muslims, this has always involved yet another importation – that is, in order to be properly educated islamically, a Muslim needs to acquire or import his/her knowledge from the Muslim majority countries, especially the Arab ones! This importing of Western and Arab-Islamic knowledge has been going on since time immemorial and its effect and impact on the African mind needs to be critically assessed. Our contention is that most of this imported Western and Arab-Islamic knowledge has NOT been useful in yielding any intellectual and scientific progress or furthering the already existing indigenous intellectual activities within Africa and has in fact caused to arise within our societies and communities certain problems which we are having difficulties to cope with. Our Theory of Knowledge and Methodology:
To our understanding, there are four main conceptions of knowledge: 1. the ancient-medieval view, which we shall call the “rationalist conception,” 2. the modern view, which can be called the “critical conception,” 3. the “positivist conception” [which is the current dominant view in the West], and 4. The views on this page fall under the Qur’anic “hikmah” conception of knowledge. We contend that our conclusions will be based on the worldview derived from the Qur’an as a whole, but their proofs can be provided on the basis of individual verses. Since our expositions are the result of our experiences and understanding, reached via personal study of the Qur’an, they will not represent the Qur’anic perspective par excellence. For the pure Qur’anic perspective shall always remain the archetype of all secondary Qur’anic perspectives drawn from it by individual Muslims. We thus have to distinguish two Qur’anic perspectives: the “primary or archetypal,” which is embedded in the Qur’anic text alone and is independent of interpretation, and the “secondary or derivative,” which consists of the understanding based on or derived from the “primary/archetypal” perspective. All perspectives declared to be “Islamic” by Muslims including the ones on this page must belong to the second kind, for the archetypal perspective must remain an ideal which every interpreter tries to ascend. Our expositions shall also embody an implicit theory of knowledge, for all formal learning is based on a theory of knowledge. We call this a “theory” not in the sense that the Qur’an develops such a theory, for the Qur’an reveals the Truth [haqq] and not a theory. But since our understanding is derived from the Qur’an, as in the sense of the second/derivative perspective outlined above, it always has the mark of a human character – and thus can be either true or false, no matter how much comes from the Qur’anic text. Therefore it can always be characterized as a “theory.” Hence, the derived secondary Qur’anic perspective is primarily an interpretation that may have the character of a theory. It is within this framework we request you to understand and interpret the ideas on this page. Our definition: Religion [deen] is Divine Guidance for humanity. This means that religion is God-given and therefore, by definition, human beings do not have the authority to establish religion. In other words, humans cannot make and unmake religion as they wish. But although religion is Divine Guidance for humanity, it is not the kind of guidance that gives us a complete list of how we should behave in every given situation arising in life. If this was the case we would have to act as robots according to that list, in which case there would be no room for human intellectual creativity in any field. Religion as Divine Guidance bestows on us a fundamental state of mind called Taqwa. And Taqwa has two dimensions: one - the consciousness or awareness of the Divine Presence in our lives and in all existence; and two - the moral sensitivity in our behavior and actions. Religion provides us with the general guiding principles for both states of mind. Humans therefore feel the need to interpret these principles in order to apply them to different situations of their lives. It is this need of interpretation of the guiding principles of religion that gradually gives rise to an organized exposition of religion as a system of guidance. Incidentally, this intellectual understanding and systematic exposition of religion as a system of guidance is also defined as religion. We thus need to distinguish between these two facts: Religion as Divine Guidance and Religion as the interpretation of this Divine Guidance; the former is Pure Religion and the latter is the Religion Interpreted. We believe that there is no harm in interpreting the Pure Religion in different life contexts as long as this interpretation is not done to satisfy our human individual, corporate and societal egos [nafs] or according to our personal opinions and selfish desires. It is, on the other hand, inevitable and indeed required by God to do this kind of intellectual activity; a requirement that is clear in the fact that He [God] does not send His Guidance as a complete set of rules readily available to be applied to every minute detail of human life. It is in the face of this approach, then, we can say that when religion is interpreted it automatically becomes mixed with human characteristics. Are we spiritual beings having an earthly experience or are we human beings having a spiritual experience? The Worldview of Islam:
Islam does not concede to the dichotomy of the sacred and the profane; the worldview of Islam encompasses both al-dunyā [earthly life] and al-ākhirah [life beyond and after death], in which the dunyā-aspect must be related in a profound and inseparable way to the ākhirah-aspect, and in which the ākhirah-aspect has ultimate and final significance. The dunyā-aspect is seen as a preparation for the ākhirah-aspect. Everything in Islam is ultimately focused on the ākhirah-aspect without thereby implying any attitude of neglect or being unmindful of the dunyā-aspect. What we call reality in Islam is not what is often ‘defined’ in modern dictionaries as ‘factual occurrences’. But reality in Islam is ḥaqīqah. A factual occurrence is only one aspect in many of ḥaqīqah, whose sphere encompasses all of reality. Moreover, a factual occurrence may be an actualization of something false (i.e. bāṭil); whereas reality is the actualization always of something true (i.e. ḥaqq). We believe that upon birth, each one of us is given an unlimited potential and a choice whether or not to challenge ourselves to reach the heights of spirituality! At birth, each individual starts to seek what is believed in Islam to be innate [fitra], i.e., the re-union with one’s Creator. But during this earthly journey however, we often choose not to maximize our capacities. We forego that option and instead lengthen the process by becoming bound by meaningless and earthly chains… love of the dunia, materialism, and 100s of other isms which occupy and capture our attention during this earthly journey…
