Islam and the contemporary world

An issue sprang up in the decade of nineties which concerned the legal status of “half-widows”, something very peculiar and characteristic to Kashmir context. Thanks to our classical jurisprudence texts which had discussed the matter, though in some round about fashion, which somehow helped our Ulema to frame their judgement and decide the marital status of half widows. But the spectrum of questions which Muslims face in modern world, be it Kashmir or elsewhere is not limited to half widows. There are issues and challenges arising out of the context we are living in which find no historical precedent and therefore call for fresh interpretation and explication of Islamic Jurisprudence in the light of permanent and timeless guiding principles of Islam. The question of Islam and its contemporary relevance has been debated across ages and each epoch has tried, in accordance with its epistemic and ethical prerogatives, to discover the meaning and relevance of Islam. The elan – the internal force of Islam has steered it successfully throughout ages and has guided the Muslim conscience and collective imagination to the shores of spiritual and material wellbeing. The claims of Islam to perennial relevance and the assertion of its timeless nature has been tested time and again, and history bears witness to the fact that the internal dynamics of Islam has never failed it in meeting the challenges posed to it by each passing day and each passing era. The illustrative works of, for example, Al Ghazali, Shah Waliullah and Muhammad Iqbal demonstrate amply the self-updating intellectual spirit of Islam which time has failed to dull or rust. Today and this age – the age we are living in, has once again sandwiched Muslims between their timeless religious truths and changing situations of the day. This age has fast forwarded at a speed unknown in human history and resultantly, the challenges have assumed the form of incessant shower, dropping over Muslim imagination and intelligentsia without any respite. To strike a balance between the flux of everyday life and the permanence of religious verdicts has turned out to be the most daunting intellectual challenge for modern day Muslim scholarship. How to be Muslim and modern at the same time is a question that looms large over the Islamic horizon. The same can be restated in the words if Islam and Modernity are compatible or not. It be reminded that by modernity we do not imply the intellectual and academic descriptions or allusions of the term, but imply by it the modes and mores of life that have become characteristic of modern times and modern man.

The fact has been stated beforehand that the spirit of Islam is timeless and perennial in nature and holds within it the capacity to meet any intellectual, ethical or civilisational challenge emerging anywhere at any point of time. But what irks Muslims as a pressing concern is to see these timeless teachings and principles playing out in practical life, in their daily issues, in issues they have to face day and night, the issues which are omnipresent and can’t be evaded as long as one breathes in this world. These issues confront a practising, and for that matter a professing Muslim in both the macro and micro aspects of his life. Are one’s prayers valid while one is putting on skin tight jeans pants , does make-up invalidate the ablution or should one take up insurance policy or not ? How shall Muslims conduct themselves with non-Muslim majority and what bearing does Shariah has on the issues we confront in isolation and congregation that are specific to modern times? Questions like these represent tip of the iceberg – the iceberg which accompanies the question of Muslimhood in modern times and around which is staked the credibility and actuality of “Being a Muslim” in modern world.

It is not that the Muslim scholarship has wholly turned its face away from the cluster of issues arising out of modernity, but the absence of a comprehensive framework and the lack of unified theory has at times dissipated at times, otherwise the worthy efforts of Muslim scholars. While we confront a phenomenon of any order and complexity, the desired response is to devise a parallel or counter-narrative which will by itself take care of the issues of lesser importance within the system. This is to say that a response should be principle driven which can be tailored and applied to the changing circumstances without having to start from ground zero. The general and dominant response to western and by extension to modern modes of life from Muslim scholarship has been either of total denial or uncritical disdain. Whatever finds itself associated with modern/ity is tagged as anti-Islamic, immoral, corruption of faith or put under such other categories. This has multiplexed the ideological confusion and practical chaos among Muslims, who, like other people find it impossible to enter the business of life without simultaneously addressing the hundred thousand issues of attendant modernity. In a world, so much heuristically described as global village, our relationship with people of different belief systems and participation in their joys and sorrows has become another sharper issue, with most of the scholarship out rightly condemning any such participation.

The Muslim conceptualisation of “the Other”, to summarise this problem, lies at the heart of the debate. Perhaps the point has not been too well recognised on part of Muslims that world order has undergone a paradigm shift and a total change in character during the past few centuries. The power equation and power dynamics between Muslims and the rest of the world has inverted since the time when Islamic jurisprudence was formulated which governed and regulated Muslim relationships with the rest of the world. To think that our relationships with other nations and civilizations can still be rooted in same conditions and clauses which we abided by some seven centuries ago is an unpardonable error. Ours has changed the status from producers of goods and ideas to consumers thereof during the past few centuries and these changes demand to be reckoned with.

With World Fiqh Academy and other such institutions passing rulings on an issue or two now and then, the problem is not going to see any sustainable solution and devoted Muslims will continue to linger in the midst of “Islam- Modernity Imbroglio”. The digital space is throwing up new challenges, not only in the form of online Nikah and divorce, but with economic concepts like Bit coin, crypto currency etc, not to speak of the ethical dilemma which the darker side of internet has put us in. Here again, instead of looking for bit-wise solutions, an overreaching and a total defining solution shall be the aim and agenda of our scholars. No doubt, the issues will continue to catch attention and receive proper treatment as they crop up, but the priority should be placed on fixing these recurrent issues in the paradigm of all inclusive Islamic ideology – which may imply neither total denial nor the slavish acceptance. To live means to adjust, accommodate, accept, acknowledge and at times resist, reject and rectify the ideas and moors flowing from other people , cultures and civilizations and this is the task which Muslims and Muslim scholarship needs wake up to in an attempt to mitigate the challenges of modern life and modern world.