The Idea of an “Islamic Way of Life” and the Twentieth Century Islamic Movements

6. The Idea of an “Islamic Way of Life” and the Twentieth Century Islamic Movements

The world of Islam also received the impact of Western ideas in the field of social sciences, and Muslims began to propound Islam as a system of life. Islamic teachings were projected as an all-embracing “system of life,” and movements in different lands were launched to implement and put into practice this system of life.

These twentieth century revivalist movements started almost simultaneously in Muslim countries from Indonesia to Egypt. They were similar in a number of ways. Indeed it would not be far from true to say that they were all animated by a single conception of religion. It must be admitted, in all fairness, that these efforts imparted credibility to Islam as a code of life superior to other ideologies, and have weakened the influence of the West upon the young.

There were other factors which helped to limit the influence of Western ideas and culture. The sweeping military and political victories of the Western colonial powers were checked with the passage of time and in many countries were met with forceful and sustained nationalist freedom movements. Consequently Western countries were forced to withdraw their political hegemony from occupied lands.

Though political influence and economic domination in the form of defense pacts or military and monetary aid programs are still very much there, almost the entire Muslim bloc has got ride of the yoke of direct rule by imperialist powers. In many Muslim countries nationalist freedom and self-rule movements were launched, and these invariably appealed to religious sentiments of the people for sparking off feelings of nationalism. There was no alternative to this, as Muslim nationalism had no anchorage other than Islam. This appeal to religion, however, was more like a slogan than an existential concern for the Islamic faith. Yet it did strengthen the idea of the revival of Islam. 

At the same time, the hollowness of Western civilization has been clearly brought out by the two disastrous world wars, so that even the West has come to consider the foundations of its own culture as ill-conceived and misguided. Materialistic atheism reached its logical culmination in the forms of socialism and communism, and moral as well as religious values were reinterpreted in purely economic terms. This alarmed Western peoples themselves, and they began to propound a new philosophy of humanism which was quite sympathetic to spiritual values. 

In the realm of science new physical theories shook the very foundations of Newtonian physics and Euclidean geometry. Matter was no longer considered as something permanent and tangible, and the former absolute faith in mechanical laws gave way to less rigid views of the universe. This made easier to affirm metaphysical beliefs, and gave support to religion.

Supported by these factors, movements for “Islamic Renaissance,” “establishment of government according to the Will of God,” and “enforcement of the Islamic system of life” were started in various Muslim countries. Of all these, the Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslemoon, which began in Egypt was the most prominent in point of quantitative strength and emotional fervor. The Indo-Pak subcontinent’s Jama`at-e-Islami however, occupies a distinguished place among these movements, based as it is on a solid and strongly defended thought-system.

These movements have been active in Muslim countries for more than thirty years and a substantial number of Muslim youth has been influenced by them. But it is an irony of history that practically none of these movements has achieved any remarkable success. Rather it seems as if they have outlived the span of their lives, and the moment is not yet ripe when the fond hopes for the renaissance of Islam can be realized. Egypt’s Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslemoon has met almost complete disintegration within the country, and its few remaining members are scattered all over the Middle East and Europe. The Indo-Pak subcontinent’s Jama`at-e-Islami fared no better, a greater portion of its potentialities having been spent up in the politics of Pakistan. At the moment it has hardly any program other than joining hands with various political parties in the struggle for democracy.

One may think that the real cause of the failure of these revivalist movements lies in the impatience of their leaders. That is to say, they perhaps hastily, without first changing the minds of a considerable number of the country’s intelligentsia, took part in active politics, which resulted in premature clash with the national leadership and the so-called “progressive” elements. But in truth their failure is a direct result of their misconceived notion of faith and the error in their view of Islam.

Source: Islamic Renaissance - The Real Task Ahead
To be Continued....