By William C.ChittickWilliam C. Chittick is a professor in the Department of Comparative
Studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Among his
publications are The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi
(1983), The Psalms of Islam (1988), The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles
of Ibn al-`Arabî's Cosmology (1998), Sufism: A Short Introduction (2000),
and The Heart of Islamic Philosophy: The Quest for Self-Knowledge in the
Teachings of Afdal al-Dîn Kâshânî (2001). He is also the author of
The Sufi Doctrine of Rumi: Illustrated Edition which was published by World Wisdom in 2005.
Professor Chittick is one the world’s leading translators and interpreters of the mystical poetry
Professor Chittick is one the world’s leading translators and interpreters of the mystical poetry
of Jalaluddin Rumi. He is also recognized for his translation and interpretation of the writings
of the great Sufi theorist and poet, Ibn Arabi.
The name ‘Islam’ refers to the religion and civilization based upon the Qur’an,
a Scripture revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the years AD 610–32.
About one billion human beings are at least nominally Muslim, or followers
of the religion of Islam. The modern West, for a wide variety of historical
and cultural reasons, has usually been far less interested in the religious
dimension of Islamic civilization than in, for example, that of Buddhism or
Hinduism. Recent political events have brought Islam into contemporary
consciousness, but more as a demon to be feared than a religion to be
respected for its sophisticated understanding of the human predicament.
Those few Westerners who have looked beyond the political situation of
the countries where Islam is dominant have usually devoted most of their
attention to Islamic legal and social teachings. They quickly discover that
Islam, like Judaism, is based upon a Revealed Law, called in Arabic the
Shari’a or wide road. Observance of this Law—which covers such domains
as ritual practices, marriage relationships, inheritance, diet and commerce—
is incumbent upon every Muslim. But western scholars have shown far less
interest in two other, more inward and hidden dimensions of the Islamic
religion, mainly because these have had few repercussions on the
contemporary scene. Even in past centuries, when Islam was a healthy and
flourishing civilization, only a relatively small number of Muslims made
these dimensions their central concern.
The more hidden dimensions of Islam can be called ‘intellectuality’ and
‘spirituality’. The first deals mainly with the conceptual understanding of the
human situation and the second with the practical means whereby a full
flowering of human potentialities can be achieved. They are important in
the present context because they provide clear descriptions of human
perfection and set down detailed guidelines for reaching it. If we want to
discover how Islam has understood the concept of perfection without reading
our own theories into the Qur’an or imposing alien categories on the beliefs
and practices of traditional Muslims, we have to pose our question to the
intellectual and spiritual traditions of Islam itself.
Muslims look back to the Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad
as the primary sources for everything authentically their own. These sources
provide a number of teachings concerning the nature of reality, which are
accepted by all Muslims and, as it were, instil the myth of Islam into the
Muslim consciousness. The most succinct expression of these teachings is
found in the Islamic testimony of faith: ‘There is no god but God, and
Muhammad is the Messenger of God/ All Muslims have faith in God and in
the Qur’an, the divine word brought by God’s Messenger. More generally,
according to the Qur’anic formulation, Muslims believe in God, the angels,
the Scriptures, the prophets, the Last Days and predestination. From these
basic objects of faith, the later authorities derive three principles that form
the core of all Islamic intellectuality: the declaration of God’s unity (tawhid),
prophecy, and eschatology, or the return to God. In theory all Muslims
agree on these concepts, but in practice they have interpreted their meanings
in a wide variety of ways. Naturally, the majority of Muslims have not been
concerned with anything more than the basic catechism. The interpretation
and exposition of the principles of faith have been left to those with an
intellectual bent, and it is these learned classes of society who founded the
various schools of thought in Islamic civilization.
Most of the vast literary output of the Islamic intellectual and spiritual
traditions over the centuries has dealt directly or indirectly with the question
of human perfection and the manner in which it can be achieved. Nothing
is more central to the concerns of the religion. But the Islamic world-view
differs profoundly from that of the modern West; before we can even begin
to ask what constitutes a perfect human being a few general trends in Islamic
thinking need to be brought out. Three of these are of particular interest:
Islam’s theocentric view of reality, its cosmological presuppositions, and its
idea of hierarchy.
a Scripture revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the years AD 610–32.
About one billion human beings are at least nominally Muslim, or followers
of the religion of Islam. The modern West, for a wide variety of historical
and cultural reasons, has usually been far less interested in the religious
dimension of Islamic civilization than in, for example, that of Buddhism or
Hinduism. Recent political events have brought Islam into contemporary
consciousness, but more as a demon to be feared than a religion to be
respected for its sophisticated understanding of the human predicament.
Those few Westerners who have looked beyond the political situation of
the countries where Islam is dominant have usually devoted most of their
attention to Islamic legal and social teachings. They quickly discover that
Islam, like Judaism, is based upon a Revealed Law, called in Arabic the
Shari’a or wide road. Observance of this Law—which covers such domains
as ritual practices, marriage relationships, inheritance, diet and commerce—
is incumbent upon every Muslim. But western scholars have shown far less
interest in two other, more inward and hidden dimensions of the Islamic
religion, mainly because these have had few repercussions on the
contemporary scene. Even in past centuries, when Islam was a healthy and
flourishing civilization, only a relatively small number of Muslims made
these dimensions their central concern.
The more hidden dimensions of Islam can be called ‘intellectuality’ and
‘spirituality’. The first deals mainly with the conceptual understanding of the
human situation and the second with the practical means whereby a full
flowering of human potentialities can be achieved. They are important in
the present context because they provide clear descriptions of human
perfection and set down detailed guidelines for reaching it. If we want to
discover how Islam has understood the concept of perfection without reading
our own theories into the Qur’an or imposing alien categories on the beliefs
and practices of traditional Muslims, we have to pose our question to the
intellectual and spiritual traditions of Islam itself.
Muslims look back to the Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad
as the primary sources for everything authentically their own. These sources
provide a number of teachings concerning the nature of reality, which are
accepted by all Muslims and, as it were, instil the myth of Islam into the
Muslim consciousness. The most succinct expression of these teachings is
found in the Islamic testimony of faith: ‘There is no god but God, and
Muhammad is the Messenger of God/ All Muslims have faith in God and in
the Qur’an, the divine word brought by God’s Messenger. More generally,
according to the Qur’anic formulation, Muslims believe in God, the angels,
the Scriptures, the prophets, the Last Days and predestination. From these
basic objects of faith, the later authorities derive three principles that form
the core of all Islamic intellectuality: the declaration of God’s unity (tawhid),
prophecy, and eschatology, or the return to God. In theory all Muslims
agree on these concepts, but in practice they have interpreted their meanings
in a wide variety of ways. Naturally, the majority of Muslims have not been
concerned with anything more than the basic catechism. The interpretation
and exposition of the principles of faith have been left to those with an
intellectual bent, and it is these learned classes of society who founded the
various schools of thought in Islamic civilization.
Most of the vast literary output of the Islamic intellectual and spiritual
traditions over the centuries has dealt directly or indirectly with the question
of human perfection and the manner in which it can be achieved. Nothing
is more central to the concerns of the religion. But the Islamic world-view
differs profoundly from that of the modern West; before we can even begin
to ask what constitutes a perfect human being a few general trends in Islamic
thinking need to be brought out. Three of these are of particular interest:
Islam’s theocentric view of reality, its cosmological presuppositions, and its
idea of hierarchy.
THE UNDERPINNINGS OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT
Islam begins with the statement ‘There is no god but God’, and all thinking
that has an Islamic element to it takes this ‘declaration of God’s unity’—the
first principle of faith—as its point of reference. In brief, God, the ultimate
reality, is one, and everything other than God comes from God and is related
to Him. No true understanding of anything is possible unless the object in
view is defined in relationship to the divine. All things are centred on God.
Theocentrism gives Islamic cosmology its peculiar contours and differentiates
it sharply from everything that goes by the same name in the modern
West. In the Islamic view, cosmology serves to describe the existential
situation of human beings in relationship to God and the universe, thus
allowing people to understand the purpose of life in the context of the
world around them. Interestingly, those traditional Muslims who still study
and understand Islamic cosmological teachings feel in no way threatened
by contemporary cosmology or the findings of modern science, since these
pertain only to one of the several worlds with which Islamic cosmology
concerns itself.
Muslim thinkers look upon the world with a view towards the symbolic
significance of phenomena. All things are—to use the Qur’anic expression—
signs (ayat) of God, pointing towards invisible realities lying beyond outward
appearances. In contrast, modern cosmology deals strictly with what the
Muslims call the visible realm (shahada) so it has nothing whatsoever to say
about the most significant dimensions of the universe, the unseen (ghayb)
realities that are hidden from ordinary sense perception. It might be suggested
that modern physics deals largely with unseen phenomena, but this would
be to ignore their inherent qualities as discussed in Islamic thought: everything
unseen is alive and aware. The invisible realm is not found in the outward
world of quantity and dispersion, but in the inward world of quality and
unification. It lies in that dimension of reality that stands beyond the inanimate
realm on a curve ascending from life, to consciousness, to enlightenment,
and beyond.
The cosmos as a whole—often defined as ‘everything other than God’—
derives from God and manifests His signs. Its invisible and visible dimensions
can be viewed either synchronistically or temporally. From the first point of
view, the universe might be compared to a vast globe, whose surf ace is the
sensory world and whose centre is God’s own Spirit, to which all the angels
and other invisible beings are subordinate.
Invisible things stand closer to ultimate reality than visible things. Hence
they are more real. They manifest God’s signs more intensely than the objects
of sense perception. Since angels are made out of the light of selfawareness,
they are direct manifestations of God, who is ‘the light of the heavens and
the earth’ (Qur’an 24:35). They possess the divine attributes—such as life,
knowledge, will, power, speech, generosity and justice—with an intensity
not found in the creatures of the lower worlds. At the opposite end of the
ontological spectrum, inanimate objects fail to manifest any of these qualities,
except in a dim and indirect fashion.
Those creatures that have both visible and invisible dimensions—such as
plants, animals and humans—possess the divine qualities in various degrees
of intensity. Hence, for example, the divine attribute of awareness is only
weakly present in a plant (and even then in a rather metaphorical manner),
while it shows itself clearly in the higher animals, and may reach intense
degrees of actualization in human beings.
It is important to note the special place of human beings in this picture of
the cosmos. The Qur’an expresses the peculiar human situation in its own
mythic language when it says that God created Adam by kneading a handful
of clay and breathing into it from his own Spirit. Hence human beings
represent a mixture of clay and spirit, darkness and light, ignorance and
knowledge, activity and passivity. In fact, all the divine attributes are present
in man, but they are obscured by those dimensions of existence that manifest
a lack of the same divine attributes. The most invisible dimension of the
human being reflects the divine light directly, while the bodily or visible
dimension reflects it only dimly or not at all. Between the divine Spirit and
the body stand many degrees of relatively invisible existence where the
divine attributes manifest themselves in all sorts of mixtures and permutations.
This whole intermediate domain of the human microcosm is often called
the soul or imagination.
When we take the temporal dimension of existence into account in
describing the Islamic cosmos, we perceive immediately that things have a
beginning and an end. At present we find ourselves situated within a visible
domain, but in the future we will enter into a realm known as the ‘next
world’ that is now wholly invisible to us. There human beings will face
reward and punishment for their activities in this world, or, as the intellectual
tradition prefers to put it, they will possess modes of existence totally
appropriate to their own true natures. Those who have followed a course in
life that has strengthened their inner participation in the luminous ontological
attributes of God will manifest openly and with great intensity the qualities
of existence that they have acquired, such as life, knowledge, will, power,
speech, generosity and justice. But those who have dispersed their spiritual
light and failed to orientate their lives towards the divine unity will remain
in a world of multiplicity and dispersion, far from the luminous qualities
which bring about happiness and wholeness.
A final guiding idea of the Islamic world-view is hierarchy. The cosmos
just described is ranked in degrees. Thus the angels, in respect to the intensity
of the divine attributes manifest within them, stand at a higher level than
other creatures, and the creatures whose bodily forms are present in the
visible world—human beings, animals, plants and inanimate objects—are
also ranked according to the same qualities. This ranking in degrees is
especially important in the human domain, where no two individuals possess
the same qualities and characteristics. Though all human beings are created
by God and are commanded to serve Him, nevertheless, ‘God charges no
soul, save to its capacity’ (Qur’an 2:286). Each person has a unique capacity
to receive God’s charges. This capacity goes back to a number of factors.
The intellectual tradition often describes these factors in terms of the degree
to which a person acts as a mirror for the attributes of God, and this in turn
is determined by a host of secondary causes related to factors such as heredity,
physical constitution, individual aptitude and environment.
Perhaps the most important of the divine attributes that human beings
manifest are knowledge and understanding. Certainly, as Franz Rosenthal
has shown in Knowledge Triumphant, no religious tradition places more
emphasis upon the importance of knowledge than Islam. The Qur’an and
the Islamic tradition recognize that no two people have the same degree of
knowledge, since the divine attributes have been distributed unequally among
creatures. ‘God has preferred some of you over others in provision’ (16:71).
That is why the Qur’an can say, ‘Above everyone who knows is a knower’
(12:76). The excellence of knowledge is stressed repeatedly. ‘Are they equal’,
asks the Qur’an, ‘those who know and those who know not?’ (39:9).
This recognition of differing human capacities has had profound practical
repercussions throughout Islamic history. For example, it has meant that
Islamic societies have never tried to coerce the masses into striving for the
highest ideals of the religion. Rather, Islam has set down the path of perfection
for those who have the interest and aptitude to undertake the arduous
journey themselves. At the same time, there has never been any suggestion
that knowledge has limits that might define an educated person. On the
contrary, the quest for knowledge is never-ending, and those with the
necessary preparedness must pay close attention to the advice which God
addresses to the most perfect and knowledgeable (in the Islamic view) of all
human beings, the Prophet Muhammad: ‘Say: “My Lord, increase me in
knowledge”’ (Qur’an 20:114).
THE ROAD TO PERFECTION
With these general presuppositions of Islamic thought, we can turn to the
specific question of human perfection. Islam’s three principles demand
the interrelationship of all things in a manner that is intimately connected
to human becoming. First, the declaration of divine unity demands that all
things come from God and return to Him. Hence, human perfection needs
to be understood as a harmonious relationship with all things established
on the basis of the underlying unity of reality. The second principle of
Islam—prophecy—sets down the path whereby perfection can be
actualized. The Qur’an and other Scriptures are God’s guidance, sent to
mankind in order to show the way to the perfect human state. On their
own—that is, without divine guidance—human beings remain ignorant of
the nature of their own selves, since human nature derives from the divine
nature, and God in Himself is unknowable. He is only known to the
extent He chooses to make Himself known. ‘God knows what is before
them and what is after them, but they comprehend nothing of His
knowledge save such as He wills’ (Qur’an 2:255). God makes Himself
known through the prophets, setting down the proper human relationship
with Himself and the cosmos.
The third principle of Islam, eschatology, deals with the actual mode of
the return to God. The prophets bring guidance in order that human beings
might attain to perfection and realize ultimate happiness, which depends
upon their being fully themselves—or fully human, which is the same thing.
A foretaste of ultimate happiness may be found in this world to some degree,
but for the most part it is stored away for the next world, where each
individual’s true nature will be made manifest.
The question of how the divine guidance revealed in the Qur’an should
be understood marks the point where the different perspectives within the
religion begin to diverge. But until very recent times, all Muslims have agreed
that the Prophet Muhammad embodies the divine guidance perfectly. To
follow the Prophet is to follow God. In the words of the Qur’an, ‘Say (O
Muhammad!) “If you love God, follow me, and God will love you”’ (3:31).
The codification of the prophetic model is known as the Sunna, the wont or
custom of the Prophet.
The Sunna can be viewed on a number of levels. To begin with, it lays
down the model for correct activity. The Shari’a, or Revealed Law, represents
those elements of the Sunna that are incumbent upon all followers of the
religion. Every believer must perform the five daily prayers, fast during the
month of Ramadan, pay the alms tax, and so forth. These activities were
legislated by the Qur’an in general form, while the Prophet, through his
specific activities during his lifetime, set down the details of how these rules
and regulations must be put into practice. This is not to deny a certain
divergence of views as to what the Prophet actually said and did. The five
major ‘schools of Law’ codify the traditional range of this divergence.
One of the many concrete results of the Islamic conception of hierarchy
has to do with the esoteric orientation of much of Islamic learning. The
sciences were not concealed from people, but it was recognized that not
everyone would be able to make full use of the available resources. Learning
was viewed as one of the chief means by which the way to human perfection
could be clarified and pursued. But few individuals have the interest or
aptitude even to come to an understanding of the full reality of human
perfection, much less to undertake the disciplined training that leads to it. At
the same time it was recognized that not all seekers would attain to the
same state of perfection, since each human being represents a unique capacity
for knowing and understanding, and God expects from each person only ‘to
the extent of his capacity’ (Qur’an 2:286).
In broad outline, this hierarchical view of knowledge and learning meant
that all Muslims were expected to follow the Revealed Law, since only a minimal
understanding of Islamic teachings, accessible to any sane person, was necessary
in order to put the basic injunctions of the Law into practice. Hence Islamic Law
defines an adult simply as a person who has reached physical maturity in control
of his or her rational faculties. All who become adults are required to observe
the injunctions of the Law, whereas before adulthood they are not answerable
to God for the Qur’anic commandments. From the point of view of the Revealed
Law, ‘human perfection’ can mean no more than careful observance of the
Qur’anic legal injunctions and imitation of the Prophet’s Sunna. The Law deals
only with activity and does not ask about intentions or the moral and spiritual
dimensions of the person who performs the activity. As far as the Law is concerned,
the right and wrong ways of doing things are at issue, not love for God and
neighbour or the moral attitudes and spiritual realization that are the inward
complements of correct action.
Islam’s intellectual and spiritual dimensions take the legalistic concept of
adulthood as the first step in a process of realizing the fullness of humanity,
a process that will occupy a person until the end of his or her life. The
Prophet had intellectual, moral and spiritual qualities that are more central
to human perfection than activity. Activity, after all, while answering to
certain outward circumstances, must be grounded in those inward and unseen
dimensions of the human being which precisely set human beings apart
from other creatures. But most human beings are hardly aware that these
invisible dimensions exist, and it does little good to tell them unless they
have the capacity to understand. And then they must discover the practical
significance of these dimensions for themselves.
The Law provides the framework within which the moral and spiritual
attributes potentially present in human nature can be protected and nurtured,
but it cannot guarantee their continued growth; nor will all people have the
capacity to devote themselves to developing and strengthening these qualities.
The Law stipulates the minimum requirements for living up to the divine
standards for mankind and for fulfilling the goal of human existence. If the
Law is observed ‘to the extent of one’s capacity’, God will see to it that the
person ends up in a happy state of existence after death. But capacities are
diverse. What is sufficient for salvation for one person may be insufficient
for another, since God demands ‘to the extent of capacity’. People may
observe the Law but nevertheless live below their capacities. In other words,
they may have the aptitude for developing their intellectual and spiritual
dimensions but fail to do so, being distracted by affairs of ‘this world’, that
is, anything that turns them away from activity for God’s sake and
understanding with a view towards God.
THE GOAL OF HUMAN LIFE
Those dimensions of Islam dedicated to providing the guidelines for the
development of the full possibilities of human nature came to be
institutionalized in various forms. Many of these can be grouped under the
name ‘Sufism’, while others can better be designated by names such as
‘philosophy’ or ‘Shiite gnosis’. In general, these schools of thought and practice
share certain teachings about human perfection, though they also differ on
many points. Here we can suggest a few of the ideas that can be found in
most of these approaches.
1 Human beings are God’s vicegerents (Khalifa) or representatives in this
world. The cosmos as a whole represents an infinitely vast display of the
signs of God. All the divine attributes are reflected in unfathomable diversity
through the myriad worlds and the creatures scattered therein. But human
beings are microcosms. Just as the universe reflects all the divine attributes
in an infinitely vast display, so also human beings reflect all the divine
attributes in a concentrated unity. Man is the mirror image of both God and
the cosmos. Since man finds all things within his own being and awareness,
he is able to rule the outside world. He recognizes all things within himself,
and, knowing them, is able to control them. This provides him with the
necessary qualities to be God’s vicegerent. But by the same token, he is
responsible for the manner in which he interacts with the creatures under
his power.
2 The model for attaining to human perfection, also called the ‘vicegerency
of God’, is set down in the divine word, that is—in the Islamic sense—the
Qur’an. Without following the guidance set down in the Scriptures, human
beings will fall short of their full humanity and fail to reach ultimate happiness,
which depends upon being true to their own nature. The divine
guidance revealed in the Qur’an is embodied in the Prophet Muhammad.
Thus his wife A’isha remarked that those who wanted to remember the
Prophet should read the Qur’an, since ‘his character is the Qur’an’. But
emulating the Prophetic model does not mean simply conforming to the
Prophet’s outward activity: it demands assimilation of his moral and spiritual
traits as well. In other words, the Qur’an and the Sunna represent
God’s guidance for the full actualization of human perfection on every
level, from the outward levels—those of activity and social concerns—to
the more inward levels, such as knowledge, morality, love, spirituality and
every human virtue.
3 All human attributes are in truth divine attributes. Just as the cosmos and
everything within it are nothing but the signs of God, so also man and
everything within him are God’s signs. Every positive trait displayed by a
human being derives from God. All human knowledge represents a dim
reflection of the divine knowledge, just as all virtues—generosity, justice,
patience, compassion, gratitude, love—are manifestations of divine qualities.
A human being possesses nothing positive which he can claim as his
own, since everything belongs to God. This holds for other creatures as
well, but human beings, because of their peculiar synthetic configuration
embracing all the divine attributes, are held responsible for their own choices
and activities. The fact that most of them dwell in heedlessness (ghafla) of
what they owe to God will not excuse them from being called to account.
(This concept of heedlessness, it should be noted, is as close as Islam comes
to the concept of original sin.)
4 People are profoundly mistaken when they identify anything positive as
their own. This holds not only for outward possessions, which are on loan
from God, but also for inward possessions, such as the positive attributes
and characteristics that go to make up their own specific identities. The only
thing human beings may rightfully claim as their own are those attributes
that define the distance that separates them from God. Existence and everything
that goes along with it—such as life, knowledge, will and power—
belong strictly to God, whilst non-existence and its concomitant qualities—
such as ignorance, need, death and weakness—belong specifically to the
creature.
5 Human beings on their own are nothing, but as representatives of God
they are everything, since they manifest all the divine names and attributes.
However, the fundamental nature of this ‘everything’ is itself indefinable,
since it is modelled upon God, who is ultimately unknowable. Full human
perfection involves the actualization of all the divine attributes present in
the human configuration, and hence it involves entrance into indefinability.
When human beings identify the positive contents of their persons with any
specific attribute or definition, they have failed to grasp their own true
nature. Perfection demands the shedding of all attributes and definitions,
since these are limitations. Perfect human beings manifest all divine attributes,
so they are defined by none of them. They employ each divine
attribute in the appropriate circumstances, recognize all things for what they
are, and interact with all creatures in accordance with the creatures’ realities.
6 Though in theory any human being can achieve the fullness of human
perfection, in practice only a tiny minority will reach it. Nevertheless, the
majority will benefit from the human state if they observe the Law and strive
to the extent of their own capacities, and they will benefit from all those
who achieve human perfection, since it is the vicegerents who act as intermediaries
between God and the cosmos, serving as channels for the divine
replenishment that sustains the world.
7 The purpose of the social order is to provide a stable framework within
which human perfection can be achieved, and all other goals are secondary.
The more a society forgets the purpose of human existence, the further it
moves from legitimacy. It is the duty of the learned to preserve to the fullest
extent possible the teachings and practices of religion in order that the
greatest number may attain ultimate happiness and the door to human perfection
may always remain open.
THE CONTEMPORARY SITUATION
The past two hundred years have witnessed profound changes in the social
and political situation of Islamic countries. For a great variety of reasons, not
the least being the pressures of western political intervention and cultural
colonialism, the Islamic intellectual and spiritual traditions have become
peripheral if not extraneous to the events taking place in the Islamic world.
The traditional educational system was structured in a manner which
encouraged a never-ending search for knowledge and established close
personal relationships between teacher and student, or better, master and
disciple. Education was viewed as a lifelong process of developing the
human personality in the fullest sense, especially its moral and spiritual
dimensions. The most gifted students were led by their innate desire for
learning and a system that emphasized praxis as much as theory to a personal
quest for tawhid, or the right relationship between themselves and God on
the deepest levels of awareness and existence.
As a result of the vast changes that have overcome the Islamic world, the
nature and goals of education have been radically altered. In order to meet
the challenge of the western powers, the political authorities have exerted
all their efforts towards training young people according to the norms of
western education. The great desire for ‘development’ has pushed most
traditional concerns into the background. Gifted students are attracted to
fields like engineering and medicine, while only a small minority follow the
traditional path of education. Even in former times, only a relatively small
number of the learned had the proper qualifications and aspirations to come
to an understanding of the nature of human perfection and enter into the
path of achieving it. Now practically all the young are drawn into fields that
yield quick and concrete results, and the possessors of the traditional learning
are hard pressed to transmit even the basics of the Shari’a. It has become
more and more difficult to find students prepared to receive the far more
sophisticated intellectual and spiritual teachings.
It is true that not all intellectually gifted young Muslims study modern
western disciplines, but even most of those who study their own traditions
do so in accordance with western norms of learning. ‘Critical editions of
texts’ are frequently published, but all too often the contents of these texts
are not understood, and certainly not perceived as a programme for human
life. To the extent that ‘objectivity’ in the western academic mode has become
established, the living spiritual tradition has been strangled.
Education is no longer an end in itself, a road leading towards the personal
actualization of the highest ideals of a religion. On the contrary, it has become
a matter of developmental policy. National and social goals take precedence,
and the very idea that there might be an individual road to human perfection
is ridiculed. Islam is no longer a wide road aiming at bringing about ultimate
happiness for the greatest number of people and human perfection of the
gifted few, but an ideological tool, subservient to the goals of political factions.
To the extent that any idea of human perfection is discussed in Islamic
terms, it is now orientated towards social and political objectives—objectives
inspired by those dominant currents in the modern world which see material
gain as the highest good.
Some western observers tell us that the highly visible movements found
in Islamic countries today represent a return to Islamic ideals. But those
more sensitive to the intellectual and spiritual dimensions of Islam know
that most of the visible activity represents an intensified destruction of Islamic
values. The Islamic concept of human perfection has been banished from
the stage, to be replaced by various types of outwardly orientated human
endeavour borrowed from contemporary ideologies. The traditional Muslim
quietly set out on a personal quest, while the modern zealot shouts slogans
from the pulpits with the aim of reforming everyone but himself.
The modernizing movements in Islam have been especially concerned
with reformulating the concept of human perfection. In order to ‘bring Islam
into the modern world’, it was necessary to provide a new portrayal of the
human ideal, the Prophet Muhammad. The Islamic tradition as a whole, and
the spiritual tradition in particular, had always recognized the supra-mundane
dimensions of the Prophet’s personality, dimensions that follow from the
very definition of human perfection. The early Muslim modernists, in their
zeal to set up a goal for human life commensurate with the idea of ‘reform’
in the western mode, set out from the beginning to ‘demythologize’ the
Prophet’s person. The tradition had long interpreted the Qur’anic verse ‘Say:
“I am only a human being like you”’ (18:110) to be a denial of Christianstyle
incarnationism and a confirmation of the idea that all human beings
are made on the divine model and should aspire to full perfection. For the
modernists, this statement was taken to mean that the Prophet’s aspirations
went no higher than their own. When he was commanded to say, ‘My Lord,
increase me in knowledge’, he had chemistry and engineering in mind. In
short, by rejecting the sublime dimension of the Prophetic personality, the
modernists were able to turn attention away from the possibility of perfection
in any mode but that defined by social and political categories derived from
the West.
More recently, certain modernist groups—including some perceived in
the West as fundamentalist—have attempted to overthrow the Prophetic
model completely, claiming that ‘the Qur’an is enough for us’. Without the
guidance of the Prophet and the traditional authorities, Islam becomes a
weapon that can be wielded by anyone for any purpose whatsoever. Human
perfection is what you say it is, and your view is as good as anyone’s.
In short, the entrance of Islam into the modern political scene has meant
the eclipse of the highest and most sophisticated dimensions of the religion.
An intellectual elite that had once, through teaching, writing and personal
influence, been able to keep the goal of human spiritual perfection always
in view has all but disappeared, to be replaced by ideologues with prescriptions
for human betterment foreign to the tradition. The survival of Islam as
a religion serving the highest human aspirations will depend largely upon
the ability of Muslims to reclaim this eclipsed spiritual heritage.
* This article appeared in the February 1991 issue and is reprinted with permission fromThe World & I, a publication of The Washington Times Corporation, copyright © 1991.
and political situation of Islamic countries. For a great variety of reasons, not
the least being the pressures of western political intervention and cultural
colonialism, the Islamic intellectual and spiritual traditions have become
peripheral if not extraneous to the events taking place in the Islamic world.
The traditional educational system was structured in a manner which
encouraged a never-ending search for knowledge and established close
personal relationships between teacher and student, or better, master and
disciple. Education was viewed as a lifelong process of developing the
human personality in the fullest sense, especially its moral and spiritual
dimensions. The most gifted students were led by their innate desire for
learning and a system that emphasized praxis as much as theory to a personal
quest for tawhid, or the right relationship between themselves and God on
the deepest levels of awareness and existence.
As a result of the vast changes that have overcome the Islamic world, the
nature and goals of education have been radically altered. In order to meet
the challenge of the western powers, the political authorities have exerted
all their efforts towards training young people according to the norms of
western education. The great desire for ‘development’ has pushed most
traditional concerns into the background. Gifted students are attracted to
fields like engineering and medicine, while only a small minority follow the
traditional path of education. Even in former times, only a relatively small
number of the learned had the proper qualifications and aspirations to come
to an understanding of the nature of human perfection and enter into the
path of achieving it. Now practically all the young are drawn into fields that
yield quick and concrete results, and the possessors of the traditional learning
are hard pressed to transmit even the basics of the Shari’a. It has become
more and more difficult to find students prepared to receive the far more
sophisticated intellectual and spiritual teachings.
It is true that not all intellectually gifted young Muslims study modern
western disciplines, but even most of those who study their own traditions
do so in accordance with western norms of learning. ‘Critical editions of
texts’ are frequently published, but all too often the contents of these texts
are not understood, and certainly not perceived as a programme for human
life. To the extent that ‘objectivity’ in the western academic mode has become
established, the living spiritual tradition has been strangled.
Education is no longer an end in itself, a road leading towards the personal
actualization of the highest ideals of a religion. On the contrary, it has become
a matter of developmental policy. National and social goals take precedence,
and the very idea that there might be an individual road to human perfection
is ridiculed. Islam is no longer a wide road aiming at bringing about ultimate
happiness for the greatest number of people and human perfection of the
gifted few, but an ideological tool, subservient to the goals of political factions.
To the extent that any idea of human perfection is discussed in Islamic
terms, it is now orientated towards social and political objectives—objectives
inspired by those dominant currents in the modern world which see material
gain as the highest good.
Some western observers tell us that the highly visible movements found
in Islamic countries today represent a return to Islamic ideals. But those
more sensitive to the intellectual and spiritual dimensions of Islam know
that most of the visible activity represents an intensified destruction of Islamic
values. The Islamic concept of human perfection has been banished from
the stage, to be replaced by various types of outwardly orientated human
endeavour borrowed from contemporary ideologies. The traditional Muslim
quietly set out on a personal quest, while the modern zealot shouts slogans
from the pulpits with the aim of reforming everyone but himself.
The modernizing movements in Islam have been especially concerned
with reformulating the concept of human perfection. In order to ‘bring Islam
into the modern world’, it was necessary to provide a new portrayal of the
human ideal, the Prophet Muhammad. The Islamic tradition as a whole, and
the spiritual tradition in particular, had always recognized the supra-mundane
dimensions of the Prophet’s personality, dimensions that follow from the
very definition of human perfection. The early Muslim modernists, in their
zeal to set up a goal for human life commensurate with the idea of ‘reform’
in the western mode, set out from the beginning to ‘demythologize’ the
Prophet’s person. The tradition had long interpreted the Qur’anic verse ‘Say:
“I am only a human being like you”’ (18:110) to be a denial of Christianstyle
incarnationism and a confirmation of the idea that all human beings
are made on the divine model and should aspire to full perfection. For the
modernists, this statement was taken to mean that the Prophet’s aspirations
went no higher than their own. When he was commanded to say, ‘My Lord,
increase me in knowledge’, he had chemistry and engineering in mind. In
short, by rejecting the sublime dimension of the Prophetic personality, the
modernists were able to turn attention away from the possibility of perfection
in any mode but that defined by social and political categories derived from
the West.
More recently, certain modernist groups—including some perceived in
the West as fundamentalist—have attempted to overthrow the Prophetic
model completely, claiming that ‘the Qur’an is enough for us’. Without the
guidance of the Prophet and the traditional authorities, Islam becomes a
weapon that can be wielded by anyone for any purpose whatsoever. Human
perfection is what you say it is, and your view is as good as anyone’s.
In short, the entrance of Islam into the modern political scene has meant
the eclipse of the highest and most sophisticated dimensions of the religion.
An intellectual elite that had once, through teaching, writing and personal
influence, been able to keep the goal of human spiritual perfection always
in view has all but disappeared, to be replaced by ideologues with prescriptions
for human betterment foreign to the tradition. The survival of Islam as
a religion serving the highest human aspirations will depend largely upon
the ability of Muslims to reclaim this eclipsed spiritual heritage.
* This article appeared in the February 1991 issue and is reprinted with permission fromThe World & I, a publication of The Washington Times Corporation, copyright © 1991.
REFERENCES
Danner, V. (1988) The Islamic Tradition, Warwick, N.Y.: Amity House.
Le Gai Eaton, Charles (1985) Islam and the Destiny of Man, Albany, N.Y.: State University
of New York Press.
Murata, Sachiko (1992) The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in
Islamic Thought, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (1975) Islam and the Plight of Modern Man, London: Longman.
Schuon, Frithjof (1963) Understanding Islam, London: George Allen & Unwin.
Danner, V. (1988) The Islamic Tradition, Warwick, N.Y.: Amity House.
Le Gai Eaton, Charles (1985) Islam and the Destiny of Man, Albany, N.Y.: State University
of New York Press.
Murata, Sachiko (1992) The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in
Islamic Thought, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (1975) Islam and the Plight of Modern Man, London: Longman.
Schuon, Frithjof (1963) Understanding Islam, London: George Allen & Unwin.
