Islamic
Renaissance Now
By
Hamid Golpira
03 December,
2007
Tehran
Times
The
Islamic world is at the crossroads -- either we have an Islamic Renaissance
now or we will experience many years of backwardness.
The Islamic
world has been in decline for over five centuries.
Once we experienced
a golden age, and there is good reason to mourn its loss.
But the Moor's
last sigh shouldn't last 500 years.
Something
must be done to rectify the problem now.
It seems
that we need a bit of etherealization, which is an expression used by
historian Arnold Toynbee to describe what takes place when a civilization
is flourishing.
So how do
we etherealize the Islamic world?
Well, first
we have to understand what we got right in the golden age.
To start
an Islamic Renaissance, we have to return to our roots, but this does
not mean returning to the past as Taleban-type elements would like to
do.
We have to
balance modernity and tradition.
And this
is what we got right at the advent of Islam and during the golden age.
We understood
and adapted to the times we lived in while maintaining our religious
ideals.
We had spirituality
and also academic scholarship and science.
Muslims never
had a great Dark Ages where science was superstitiously rejected like
the Europeans experienced.
However,
we are in the middle of a 500-year decline that is like a dark age.
We Muslims
have to understand that we live in the Information Age.
Yet, we must
learn how to balance Information Age modernity and Islamic tradition.
We should
not become materialists with little or no spirituality, like the Westerners,
but we should also not try to become spiritual people disconnected from
the times we live in.
Everything
is in the balance and we must learn to strike that balance.
The new Islamic
Renaissance must be an Information Age Islamic Renaissance because this
is the era we live in.
The beauty
of Islam is that it is adaptable to every era.
When the
Europeans were in the middle of their Dark Ages, the Islamic world reached
the heights of art, culture, science, philosophy, literature, architecture,
and many other fields.
Many historians
say the Islamic civilization actually inspired the European Renaissance.
So what went
wrong in the Islamic world?
The answer
is obvious.
We forgot
who we are. We lost our identity.
We lost sight
of that beauty of Islam which is adaptable to every era.
Most of the
Islamic world was colonized by the Europeans, and our identity crisis
became exacerbated.
After the
colonial era ended, we became the victims of neocolonialism.
Even the
minds of most Muslims have become colonized in the ongoing cultural
war.
South African
revolutionary Steve Biko once said: "The most potent weapon in
the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."
The Muslims
broke up into different groups.
One group
is influenced by the Westerners and tries to be secular materialists
like them. They are sometimes called moderate Muslims but most of them
are not very Muslim at all in reality.
Another group
rejects the West and has adopted a form of Islamic traditionalism that
is sometimes called fundamentalism but which is really not fundamentalism
because they are out of touch with the modern world, whereas the fundamental
teachings of Islam require Muslims to be in tune with the times we live
in.
A third group
rejects both of these approaches and opts for a form of Islamic mysticism
disengaged from the world, which is not really Islamic mysticism because
true Islamic mystics are engaged with the world and seek to help people,
especially the oppressed masses and those who are spiritually lost.
All of these
groups are going in the wrong direction, but each of them also has a
piece of the answer.
We Muslims
must synthesize these three approaches to regain our identity and start
the new Islamic Renaissance.
We must utilize
Information Age technology, but avoid getting lost in materialism.
We must hold
fast to the Islamic tradition and the Islamic law, the sharia, but avoid
stiff interpretations of the law, arrogant self-righteousness, and intolerance.
And we must
understand mysticism and live the mystical life, but avoid selfish individualism
and narcissistic fantasy.
If we can
do this, we can reconnect with the beauty of Islam which is adaptable
to every era, balance modernity and tradition, regain our Islamic identity,
and start the new Islamic Renaissance.
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