9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?

Is it true that the Islamic mind (reason) is in a state of crisis as it is said to be in the writings of some researchers?

What are the effects of that crisis, and how widespread? And how can we overcome that crisis?

That the Muslim understanding is in a state of crisis is beyond any shred of doubt. It is something that is so glaring that anyone can notice and see it. The Ottomans, the sick man, are not too far off from us, but it seem that the last to perceive an imminent disaster are those who are most involved.

When we come across a sick person, we know he is sick from his pale face, from his inability to go about helping himself, from his weakness and lack of energy, and that is all true of the Muslim World. Indeed, even the most ignorant Muslims have noticed our ailments and crises – they write poems of complaint. I am in fact not the right person to survey the effects of that crisis or to diagnose it, although it is something that everybody, far and near, can observe. We destroy our homes with our own hands, and help each other in that, and we induce others to be aggressive against our brethren, who we count as adversaries we spend our money to crush, and are ready to offer our lives in slaying them, claiming that it is all in the cause of God. It is true of us what God said of the unbelievers: "The Unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder men from the path of Allah, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have only regrets and sighs; at length they will be overcome: and the Unbelievers will be gathered together to Hell (in our case the hell of the life we live,) (8, 36)." We feel our life to be hell; whatever we do seems to push us further back, all our efforts seem to be lost; we do not like, even in secret, to look inside.

But the last part of your question is the most interesting one: How to overcome that crisis?

It is of course the same with the other questions, that an answer to a question includes points relevant to other questions, and I lean on that when tackling the latter questions. So let me do this again here, and refer to the question above about history, Question Four. You said in that question: How would you relate world history to the Qur'an? How can world history support the Qur'an?

I thank you again, Mr. Rifa'ee: you point out forcefully the significance of history, and you say that it is I who say that history is the tutor. Yes, it is the tutor, and the only tutor who forbears the ignorance of the ignorant. Like the computer, history will not flare up or be passionate: most coolly it will say: that's wrong, try again, and will do that every time.

History is intellect. Our mind is in a crisis because we have a crisis with history. I once said about that the knowledge of those who do not know history cannot be reliable. The Qur'an itself accepts history as a witness for it: you see that, for instance, in expressions like: "See what was the end of those who rejected Truth, (43, 27)." Iqbal was the one who noted that history is the source of knowledge. It is known that to prove a case in law-courts you need a witness, and the Qur'an is accepting history to be its witness – it is virtually saying: To prove my truth and that I am telling the truth I refer to God's signs: You see this, for instance, in the following verse: "Soon will We show them Our Signs in the furthest regions of the world, and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth, (41, 53)." History is then the referent of the Qur'an; the signs of the world and the souls are described elsewhere in the Qur'an as the Days of Allah (e.g. 14, 5) Such days are the days when some peoples were defeated, some were crushed, others perished, and "those habitations of theirs, after them, are deserted," (the Qur'an, 28, 58)."

So when you ask how can we overcome this crisis? We overcome it by learning a lesson from what befell those who passed before us, and those who still live with us. In the Western world, they lived days like ours or worse – they waged against one another the bitterest of national, religious, regional and world wars; the clergy who read in their Scripture, Love your enemy, inflicted on their adversaries the harshest and severest pain; But how did they overcome all that? There are in that lessons for men of understanding, for those who have ears and minds.

There is no hope for us unless we take heed and learn how to integrate our interests, as the Europeans do integrate their interests, without any side losing anything; all are winners, and the style of conducting things is peaceful and scientific. So unless we learn this, and moreover learn how to condense history, we shall have to learn it after so much agony and anguish – for learn the lesson we must, even if after we have received all the suffering and loss that are there to receive. In fact history shall absolutely teach us, but it teaches with torture: "Such is the chastisement of your Lord when He chastises communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His chastisement, (the Qur'an, 11, 102)."

We need to keep abreast of the European event. It is something new in the world: nothing took place like this in the history of mankind, nothing at this scale. And what happens once is set to be a law, something that can be repeated, and copied by other people: it is this how laws are applied and put to the service of mankind.

Therefore I repeat, we must keep watchful of the European event, from beginning to end. It is happening under our nose, under our eyes, but yet we do not see and do not hear, as if what is happening has nothing to do with us, as if there is nothing to learn in it. How has Germany conceded to be part of this new union, with the short-term loss that it incurred? It is so because it has the perception to expect the long-range profit. How have they opened the boundaries and united the currency? This is not something that descends from heaven; it is not the clergy who are doing it: it is scientists, historians, sociologists and statisticians; it is they who present their information and facts. But science is ignored and despised in our part of the world; it is rather the use of force which we heed to. But what the Europeans are doing is much more momentous than the detonation of the nuclear bomb, although the bomb did help indirectly in bringing this about. But we do not have to follow in their steps, we do not have to produce the nuclear bomb before we can achieve what they have achieved.

Well, Mr. Al-Rifa'ee, I may have an inkling of the gloom and uncertainty that you have, but do you think that you will find with me the light and contentment? The historical knowledge is a free light and certainty; others have paid for this commodity, and we need only open our ears and eyes and have alert minds to get the commodity that is waiting for us. Jalal Al-Noori, an Ottoman social writer, once said: "Once you learn the elements of knowledge, no mountains and no rivers can hinder your progress." Our lost rights will be returned to us, our sons and grandsons will come back with much more than we invested. This is our solace in these dreary and turbulent days, which cause us to waste our money without gaining anything in exchange, which cause our women and orphans bitter sobs, and which cause our young men to pay with their blood, butting their heads against solid walls, all because their fathers had put their heads in the sand: a situation which the Qur'an describes with the words: "Truly they found their fathers on the wrong Path; so they too were rushed down on their footsteps, (37, 69-70)."

We have not as yet solved the problems, nor have we come up with conclusions; the utmost we have managed to do is to inquire: we ask and search – shall we ever overcome this crisis?

Yes, we shall, yes we will! God has said the truth when He said He knew what the angels did not know, that man will get over the making of mischief and the spilling of blood (inference from the Qur'an, 2, 30.) Indeed, we have something more than surmise, for we see evidence of this in the world; it will come true, and not too far off in the future.