ISLAM : A THIRD FORCE VIS-A-VIS
CAPITALISM AND COMMUNISM

Ejaz Faruqi

If we look at the globe, we find a continuous belt of Muslim population covering the belly of the globe from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. It is also a continuous stretch of Muslim countries except India where Muslims, though one million in population, are outnumbered by non-Muslims. Nevertheless, Indian Muslims have remained, throughout Muslim history, an integral part of Muslim consciousness. The Muslims ruled India for about seven hundred years and it was only the failure of the War of Independence in 1857 which culminated in the transfer of power to the British.

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the darkest period in the history of these Muslim countries. One by one, they were militarily defeated, politically subjugated and colonised by European Powers. With the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire in the Second World War, the circle was completed : the nadir of Muslim political power and the zenith of Christian political power in the world.

The world of Islam was now exposed to intellectual and cultural onslaught of the West which was basking in the glory of its military and political supremacy and of its achievements in the field of philosophy, psychology, science and technology. The practice of laissez faire had given to the individual an unfettered liberty, though at the cost of social equilibrium, previously unknown in human history, whereby a group of purely mercantile entrepreneurs had started raising armies and conquering foreign territories as was the case of East India Company. Life in the West was reshaping itself on a completely new set of values. It was an age of freedom of expression and thought and of scepticism in which religious doctrines and dogmas were under un­mitigated attack. Secularism, liberalism and laissez faire had be-come the foundations of Western society and started influencing the minds of the younger Muslim generation who were receiving education in Western institutions. This produced a section of Muslim intelligentsia who looked to the West for inspiration and adopted the Western way of thinking and life style. They understood Islam as represented by the Ulema, did not consider it meaningful in this-worldly life, and, therefore, relegated the role of Islam to the sphere of prayer and worship in order to have freedom to restructure their society on Western values. The tradition-bound intellectual foundations of Muslim society stood completely battered, and this led to a state of despondency about the meaningfulness of Islamic identity.

This weakened intellectual position of Islam suffered another blow at the hands of successful Communist Revolution in Russia which set in a new chain of thinking in a section of Muslim intelligentsia, who propagated an atheistic society structured on Communism. Communist Russia also subjugated Muslim states of Central Asia and annexed them to the Soviet Union. Pre­viously Islam was confronted with Capitalism which relegated religion to the private life of an individual. Now, Islam was faced with an atheistic system which claimed that religion was an obstacle in the way of organising a truly moral and ethical society.

This was the intellectual scene in the world of Islam after the Second World War. But, for the Muslim masses, the foremost problem was poverty, deprivation and loss of political and social rights. The real issue was to throw off the yoke of European rule. This could be done only by acquiring skills which enabled the Europeans to conquer Muslim lands. This attracted Muslims to the Western system of education. The issue of non-Muslim character of Western culture and civilisation became secondary, rather of no meaningful significance for people in slavery. The first and foremost objective was to gain independence. This political consciousness led to widespread liberation movements in all Muslim lands. Ideological differences between left and right, between secular-minded educated elite and religious-minded Ulema, between Communists and Capitalists, lost their meaning in the heat of struggle for independence. All joined together for the common cause. The Second World War loosened the grip of the Colonial Powers and the decade after the War witnessed the liberation of Muslim lands. It also witnessed the adoption of Communist system by the non-Muslim countries of Eastern Europe and East Asia.

After independence, the intellectual scenario, which had earlier been pushed to oblivion, re-emerged to the forefront. The issue came into focus due to the presence of two systems in the world--Capitalist and Communist. What was to be the chosen path? The ruling elite in the newly independent Muslim states were educated in the Western traditions of a rational and scien­tific attitude with a sceptical approach to religion. In fact, religion ceased to be meaningful in the Capitalist system. It was the cultivation of this rational and scientific attitude, devoid of spiritual element, which led to the acceptance of Communist ideology by a section of the educated elite. There ensued a struggle between the two groups, each striving to organise the state according to his own model. But, basically, it was the ques­tion of the Islamic aspirations of the Muslim masses. For com­mon man, physical and spiritual aspects of life are integral and he seeks spiritual atonement in Islam. The Western culture, which has been presented to the people, has been seen as hollow and deprived of moral and ethical aspects of life. There are bizarre cults which are coming up in the West, like Yogi and Sikh cults, and people see that even the West is in search of spiritual and physical integration. Communism is an atheistic system which does not admit of the spiritual aspect of life. So, neither Capitalism nor Communism becomes a model for the Muslims.

The Western-educated ruling elite were opposed by the Ulema who strove to establish an Islamic Order based on the interpre­tation of Islamic Law given by Muslim jurists who lived in the second and third centuries of Hijrah. The problems, with which those Muslim jurists were faced at that time, were different from the problems which are being faced in the modern age. Basically, the Arab society, at the time of the advent of Islam, was tribal and pastoral, and when Islam reached other lands, which had agricultural societies, the problems of those societies seemed more complicated and the jurists had to grapple with those prob­lems and had to reinterpret Islamic Law to apply its principles to an agricultural society. We are now living in an industrial age, and, on the same analogy, there is a dire need to reinterpret Islam to cope with the complexities of the modern society. The Ulema have not exposed their minds to the complexities and problems of the modern age. The common man, though ignorant of intellectual sophistications, does have a feel of the modern age and, by his intuition and common wisdom, does not believe that the Ulema can lead him to a system, spiritual as well as meaningful in this-worldly life.

The Ulema have also been demanding the right to oversee and overrule the legislature which consists of elected representa­tives of the people whom they do not consider competent and qualified to interpret Islamic Law and to pass legislation. They have wanted a supreme religious council to be vested with the power of overseeing and overruling the elected legislature. This goes against the spirit of the twentieth century, an age of democ­racy and ever-rising consciousness of peoples' rights. This is an-other tension and conflict between the Ulema and the people. All this has given rise to a feeling amongst the people that the Islam which is being presented by the Ulema will not be meaningful for them.

Nevertheless, in the 'seventies, there has been a great spurt of intellectual activity in the Muslim world to work for the renais­sance of Islam. A section of Muslim intelligentsia, though small in number, who were educated in the Western tradition of rational and scientific attitude, have turned to a deep, incisive and scien­tific study of Islam and are trying to reinterpret Islam in the modern way in order to meet the requirements of the modern age. They are rediscovering Islam as a system of life distinct from Capitalism and Communism.

There is a dire need to disengage Islam from the trappings of temporal traditions, as distinct from fundamental principles, which grew out of corporate living in the past. This is necessary to be able to understand and comprehend new political, economic and social relationships emerging as a result of new forces working in the world. The past traditions were evolved as a result of historical experience of Muslim society at a given time. Changes in political, economic and social relationships require reinterpretation of Islam, and this is the process which is called dynamism of Islam. Muslim society has passed through such historical experiences in the past. The most important and significant was the onslaught of Greek philosophy and literature which led the intelligentsia at that time to reinterpretation of Islam. In the twentieth century, the major problem is reorganisation of the whole Muslim society in the face of new emerging relationships in the social, political, economic and cultural fields in the world at large. A reorientation of mind is required to deal with the existential situation.

In order to unburden the mind of tradition-bound attitude and to create a positive atmosphere of intellectual investigation, it is necessary that ethical, social and economic values of Islam should be redefined and should be cultivated as distinct Muslim character. This will have to be done with reference to psychic, social and economic needs of the contemporary man. It has to be realised that “man in history” is not a static being but is a “continuous movement in time and space”. Cultural, political, economic and social institutions, catering to the needs of man in the bygone times, may not be relevant to the contemporary situation. Change is, therefore, the essence of human life and human institutions. The redefinition of ethical, political, econo­mic and social values of Islam is necessary for wholesome devel­opment of Muslim society in an atmosphere of universal justice and rightness. The redefinition of Islamic cultural pattern and emphasis on intellectual investigation will rid Muslim society of

sordid and romantic moods and generate an immense intellectual activity. This will make the mode of science compatible with the ecstasy of religious experience. Once the religious experience is conceived in the context of psychic needs of man, there will be no incompatibility between religious experience and intellectual investigation..

Until recently, there were only two intellectual forces, backed by political, technological and military power, in the world: Capitalism and Communism. Capitalism had a glorious past spread over two hundred years but in the process of aging. Communism was comparatively young, pulsating with vitality and energy. Lately, the world of Islam has emerged as an economic power to reckon with. It has yet to assert itself as an intellectual force.- Whereas, Capitalism has generated social tensions due to economic disequilibrium, Communism has created cultural tensions and intellectual disenchantment (or spiritual barrenness) due to regimentation. If Islam has to emerge as the Third Force, it has to combine its economic power with an intellectual thrust and vitality capable of resolving social and cultural tensions with which the contemporary man is faced. Political and military power will follow.