We are orthodox Muslims. What does that mean? An orthodox Muslim is someone who accepts the historical traditional interpretation of Islamic texts and events. We believe in the authenticity of Islamic history and Islamic traditions. We believe that the Ulema and the Sufiya have conveyed and are conveying the true message of Islam as revealed to the Prophet (peace be upon him) throughout our history. The Ulema and the Sufiya are our leaders, teachers and guides. We are the servants of the Ulema and the Sufiya.
The imperialists are afraid of orthodox Islam. They fear us because orthodox Islam is the definitive critique of the secular modernist/postmodernist way of life – of the capitalist lifeworld and the capitalist system. When an individual, a society and a state becomes a part of the Islamic historical tradition it necessarily poses a universalizing challenge to capitalism/modernism/ postmodernism as truth and falsehood (Islam) and Jahiliya cannot coexist. The triumph of one must mean the defeat of the other.
The Imperialist Attack
In the Indo-Pak subcontinent, the imperialist attack on orthodox Islam began in the 18th century. In the next hundred years it flowered with the establishment of institutions such as Delhi College, Fort William College and what was to become the Aligarh Muslim University. Its leading proponent was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan a traitor who worked for British imperialists during the 1857 jihad and for forty years afterwards.
The main strategy of the imperialists and the quislings who were their camp fellows was to reinterpret Islamic history and traditions according to Western epistemological paradigms. Secularists had been very successful in reinterpreting Christian history and traditions along these lines during the ages of Reformation and Enlightenment. Christianity has been so thoroughly modernized that today Pope Francis is an enthusiastic advocate of homosexuality. The imperialists have also been eminently successful in modernizing Hinduism – as reflected in the emergence of Hindutva.
Sir Syed, Ghulam Ahmad Pervaiz, Khalifa Abdul Hakeem and their present day followers Javed Ghamidi and Waheeduddin Khan seek to delegitimize Islamic historical tradition and present a rational interpretation of our foundational text – the Quran. They challenge the authenticity of the corpus of all Hadith texts(the Sahah Sitta). They reject the authenticity of consensus (ijma) and show contempt towards the examples set by the companions and their followers (Asar-e-Sahaba-u-Aulia). They reinterpret Islamic teachings in the light of jahili knowledge system (phenomenology, hermeneutics etc.). They cast doubt on the intentions of the Ulema and Sufiya and accuse them of selfishness and bad faith.
Another group challenging orthodox Islam are the revisionists – and the revisionists unfortunatly include a section of the Ulema, too. Hazrat Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi (RA) used to justify socialist practices on Islamic grounds. Today Maulana Taqi Usmani proclaims Islamic legitimation for usury and speculative money and capital market transactions – he calls it Islamic banking. These revisionists reject Shah Waliullah’s (RA) teachings that Islam is a complete self-sustaining closed system and way of life.
Our Response
The purpose of the projects pursued both by the imperialists camp followers and the revisionists is to delegitimize Islamic historical traditions and introduce practices in the Islamic life world that are totally foreign to our history – such as capital market transactions and nationalistic political discourses. This is an attempt to modernize Islam and to subordinate it to capitalist epistemological and systemic governance. Imperialist camp follows and revisionists are following in the footsteps of those intellectuals who have paved the way for the subsumption of Christianity and Hinduism within the capitalism system.
To meet the challenge, we have to reject all rationalist/modernist/ postmodernist interpretations of Islamic texts and our historical traditions. Authentic Islam is that which has been revealed and is being revealed in our history. Interpretive methodologies as practiced in our knowledge systems are our social historical heritage. They must be safeguarded from imperialist abotage and their scope extended for analysis of problems that emerge today.
At the same time, we must seek to expose contradictions of rational interpretations and ethical and social behaviors. Rationality is not عقلیت – but the subjection of action and decision making to the evil commands of nafs-e-ammara (the baser self). We must reject rationality as a source for legitimating individual and social behaviors for in practice this amounts to a justification of the universalizing of lust (حرص و ہوس). Aqliat (عقلیت) should seek to serve revelation (وحی) not the Nafs-e-Ammara.
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