The World after 9/11
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Muslim Peace Fellowship The World after 9/11
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Read Abdul-Hakim Murad's original article "Seeing with both eyes" |
Response to Abdul-Hakim Murad's "Seeing with both eyes" by Rabia Harris There is no doubt that [Seeing with both eyes] is the traditional mainstream sufi view, and brilliantly written, too. And yet, and yet.... This is a deeply conservative vision that holds adherence to the details of fiqh to be equivalent to adherence to the Sunna, while conveniently eliding the very human, non-Prophetic origins of that same fiqh. It has no room in it for social transformation, at least so far as I can make out, nor for looking with any sort of critical eye upon received truths to ascertain whether they are truths at all. The luminous romance of the Muslim past here given, while useful to counter the salafi version of history, is essentially just as flawed. The salafis look exclusively at the the social failures of classical Islamic civilizations, ignoring their spiritual successes, and go astray on the zahir side. This traditional conservative vision looks exclusively at the spiritual successes of those same civilizations, ignoring their social failures, and goes astray on the batin side--even while claiming to be in balance. The point neglected here is the same one neglected by the classical civilizations, which led to their dissolution: if the zahir of things is held static ("law and order" as a supreme principle, the shari`ah as a fixed system, social relations set in stone, the new in any department of life trivialized or suppressed) it favors the flourishing of the batin in the short run, but in the long run destroys it. Because stasis is death. Only movement manifests life. When there is no transformation, the zahir has indeed been neglected, and the entity dies. "To every people is a term appointed." Since the traditional vision cannot cope with movement, with change, and change is inevitable, its sense of the present is that *everything* (rather than just a given society) is always running down, converging upon destruction. This is too easy--and it has no Qur'anic justification. While the hadith literature contains a number of reports concerning the last days, to my knowledge it contains no significant statements about the course of history up until that time. Only Allah knows the date of the end of the world. Consequently, the pessimistic "religious" view is no more to be credited than the rosy secular dreams of progress it opposes. But the Prophet said, "The best of omens is the good omen." It is always better to think well of God. Return to MPF's The World after 9/11 |