Can We Ignore Questions Like: Is Islam A Political, Fascist, Totalitarian Ideology

A Story by New Age Islam

Shah Waliullah’s Hujjatul Balegha is similarly full of reflections on the nature of prophets’ work, not just Prophet Mohammad’s but that of prophets in general

In the course of a discussion on the subject of Jihadism, on another thread, I had asked a regular contributor: "Do you consider Islam a political, fascist, totalitarian ideology or a spiritual faith that accepts not only myriad interpretations of Islam but also other faiths and calls them all Islam?”

The person concerned did not reply despite repeated reminders. But Mr. Ghulam Mohiyuddin responded, thus helping our discussion go forward, though in a different though related and important direction:

“An honest answer would be that we want to underplay or explain away the political aspects and emphasize and re-affirm the spiritual and moral aspects of Islam. There may be disagreements on what Islam is, but there should be no disagreement on what we want Islam to be. As I have said before, all religions are works in progress.....”

By Ghulam Mohiyuddin - 4/23/2013 12:41:25 PM

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My response was the following:

Dear Ghulam Mohiyuddin Saheb, “You are saying and indeed practicing what Sufia-e-Karam, Oqala-e-Islam have been doing through the ages, just hinting at some reflections, even guiding us in a certain direction and leaving it at that, either keeping quiet or saying that this should not be discussed in public: “that we want to underplay or explain away the political aspects and emphasize and re-affirm the spiritual and moral aspects of Islam.”

Poet-philosopher of Islam, Allama Iqbal, for instance, merely said in his “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam,” "In fact, revelation, as Bergson rightly says, is only a higher kind of intellect4" and moved on without discussing the nature of revelation further. Shah Waliullah’s Hujjatul Balegha is similarly full of reflections on the nature of prophets’ work, not just Prophet Mohammad’s but that of prophets in general, hinting that they were perhaps great reformers of their era in some way in touch with a divine source of inspiration and so scriptures should not be treated as tape recordings of Divine instructions to be followed literally.

These and some other basic issues have been reflected upon by the authorities in Islamic learning and left un-discussed, un-elaborated in public.

I would like to submit that this is no longer possible. Today, everything is public. We are living in an age of media, internet. There is an explosion of communication facilities available to all. Books that could be found only in some remote libraries in big cities are available in our homes, on our cell phones, even if we are living in a remote desert village or on a mountaintop. The result is that many Muslims today who were content to be social, cultural Muslims before, have now started articulating their questions in an erudite manner. Erudition is on one’s fingertip today.