The book is titled Islam the West and the Challenges of Modernity. It is 342 pages long and is in my opinion one of the most important books to come out dealing with the subject in recent memory. Why is it important: A lot of times our scholars, intellectuals, and activists are bogged down in things that have little import on our daily lives; many times we notice that they fail to ask the “right” questions and to show correct understanding.

The loss of our Islamic community has been not only one in which we have fallen behind technologically, intellectually, militarily (symptoms of the greater disease) but one in which we have lost one of the distinguishing characteristics and abilities of that early generation of Muslims who spread Islam; Firasah. Firasah is keen insight, deep insight that is honed through observation, true understanding of people and the acquisition of knowledge. Firasah is a science and it is reported that Imam Shafi’ traveled to Yemen to learn it. This is exactly what Tariq Ramadan presents us with in his book.

Part I At the Shores of Transcendence and Part II The Horizons of Islam are enough to make it required reading as they deal with the practical and the spiritual aspects of Islam in relation to our context and modernity. Ramadan goes into a deep discussion about the “Objectives of Sharia” and how they can be achieved in today’s environment. Ramadan rejects the old categorization of the world into Dar al-Harb (House of War) and Dar al-Islam (House of Peace). Constructs that he believes have long outlived their usefulness. Instead, Ramadan puts forward the idea of economic resistance to neo-liberal economic policies that are destroying cultures and people; in fact he calls this world order the new Dar al-Harb.

The heart of the book though is Part III entitled Values and Finalities and deals in depth with the cultural dimension of the face off between Islam and the West. In it the Professor does something that not many Muslims have done; he analyzes the historico-philosophical underpinnings of the West and the Islamic world couples it with eloquent and fluid prose and does not feign objectivity.

The difference between the West and Islam and the place where the West and Islam part ways is between Doubt and the Reminder. The West consecrates or repudiates Faith through Doubt, (look at such opposites as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche) and this is a trend that exists from the earliest times since the fusion of Greek philosophy into the Judeo-Christian tradition.

The West says “[d]oubt is the trial of fire necessary to any real faith.” Tariq Ramadan replies this is not “audible” in all Civilizations especially Islam, “The experience of Faith in Islam is not…of a similar nature. We can find many Muslims who acknowledge not practicing their religion as they should, but very few are those who assert not believing at all…God’s existence is almost never doubted; this seems to be a natural daily given fact of men and women…it is a question of cultural divergences; over here meaning was given to doubt; over there meaning is in the reminder.”(p.221)

Islam has been spared the tension of the prevalent Western method of doubt. If any tension exists in Islam it is that between forgetfulness and the reminder. Ramadan brings it back to the beginning,

“In effect, in the first times of creation, the Creator gathered all human beings and made them testify, ‘And when the Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify touching themselves, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes, we testify’ – lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘As for us, we were heedless of this,’ (7:172). There exists therefore, at the heart of each mans consciousness, essentially and deeply, an intuition and acknowledgment of the Creators presence. Just as the sun, clouds, wind, birds and all the animals naturally express their submission, so does the human being have in himself an almost instinctive aspiration towards Transcendence. This is the idea of fitra…one finds it mentioned in Sura Rum: ‘So set thy face to the religion, a pure faith – God’s original upon which He originated mankind. There is no changing God’s creation. That is the right religion; but most men know it not” (30:30). (p.224)

So revelation then,

“[i]s tantamount to reminding us of the proximity of the Faith of Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and all the Prophets. To reveal is tantamount to giving life to the light that lies asleep in each person’s heart, one that forgetfulness put down and suffocated. Here, there is no question of an original sin, an eternal fault or a challenge to the Creator. The one who does not believe, the infidel (Kafir) is the one who is no longer faithful to the original pact, the one whose memory is sleepy and whose sight is veiled. In the notion of Kufr, in Arabic, there is indeed the idea of a veiling which provokes the denial of Transcendence. Only God decides about light or veiling for human beings. The latter’s responsibility lies in their permanent commitment to their intimate effort to making memory live.” (p.224-5)

This insight into the important cultural divergences between the West and Islam was illuminating and liberating. He goes on to talk about some more of the differences. In the West we have a tragic play going on of the man finding himself alone in the world, looking for some meaning, whereas Islam says you are never alone, there are signs near and far that remind you of Allah. The call to prayer reminds you that you are not alone; the month of Ramadan reminds you that you are not alone. Every verse in the Quran is an ayah or sign. His signs are visible everywhere.

Some questions this does raise though is when we must confront Al-Ghazali, most of his life story is one of struggle with doubt, what he called his “Malady of the heart,” and which he discusses in his autobiographical Munqidh min Al-Dalaal (Deliverance from Error). This methodology of doubt influenced Rene Descartes development of what would come to be known as Cartesian doubt in his Discourse on the Method.

Al-Ghazali put all sciences into uncertainty in order to reach the certain, and this paradox is something I wish to research more and reconcile with the tension of forgetfulness and reminder.

Prof. Ramadan’s intention was not simply to display the difference but to come to a true understanding of each civilization; civilizations that are now constantly facing off at each other. Without true understanding we can not come to exchange, and interact in a valuable and honest way; Prof. Ramadan’s book makes this more possible now.

MT Akbar