Global Intifada

The following articlesare my first systematic attempt at explaining my theories of intellectual revolution, revival through the Islamic sciences, global Islamic revolutions, and the establishment of a Universal Islamic government.

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The Role of Intellectual Revolution in the Unification of the Ummah

Out of all the generations of the Ummah of Muhammed (saw), ours is the one that finds itself in dire straits, facing an enemy without form; tyranny and incompetence at almost all levels of our respective governments and institutions ; the absence of Islamic governance in our countries, let alone a universal one; brazen economic disparity between a handful of elites and the impoverished masses; constant interference by foreign powers within every aspect of our Islamic culture; and perhaps the most serious challenge of all and that is jahilliyah on an unprecedented level where entire segments of our Muslim community lack the knowledge of the basics of Islam such as the beliefs embodied in our aqeedah, knowing the rules of recitation of the Quran, not knowing more then a handful of Surahs, being unaware of the preservation of the Quran and Hadeeth through a sound and precise methodology, incapable of grasping the rules pertaining to worship, and lacking knowledge of our rich Islamic heritage. As time progresses, more and more problems are appearing and it seems that our collective body has entered into the terminal phase in the decline of its health where nothing short of death is imminent. And yet, although nothing but darkness appears in our future, it is in conditions such as these, when we find ourselves at our lowest ebb, that leaders arise, assess the situation, develop a plan of action, and turn the tide. And now is precisely one such time when an intellectual revolution is brewing in the collective mind of the Muslim Ummah.

Whether we like it or not, based on the gripping series of events that have unfolded in recent years, the various Islamic groups, factions, and communities all over the world have become simultaneously realized that we have been provided a window of opportunity to unite our Ummah. However, rhetoric aside, we must query into the meaning of unity: do we mean unity in thought or unity in action? Unity in action, which is the type of unity that seems to be currently emphasized by our leaders, intellectuals, and activists, is impossible without first attaining some sort of unity in thought. After all, is it not self-evident that collective action necessitates that first a coherent and pragmatic course of action be laid down? In fact, why is unity in thought pertinent at all? If the 20th Century with its clash of ideologies such as Communism, Capitalism, and Fascism and Democracy is not clear enough evidence of the authority of ideas, then merely turning to the time of the Prophet (saw) and examining the seerah will elucidate the role of ideas in human behavior.

An idea is like an idol. What makes an idol an idol is that some sort of concept impresses itself within the mind of a human being causing him to overlook the blatant fact that an idol is man-made and cannot possibly be divine. A person may look at an idol, and although he recognizes that it was made by human hands and can be destroyed by human hands, he worships it. The inherent nature of a human being, unlike other animate and inanimate objects, shows that he is capable of ideation: developing, understanding, and modifying concepts. Why do people worship idols, support or reject the war on Iraq, or vote for a President? All of these have to do with how we think. Furthermore, if we were to undergo a comprehensive scrutiny of the sources of the fitnah that are dividing our Muslim Ummah, we would be forced to conclude that the greatest sources of our Ummah’s decline lies in collective intellectual anarchy and stagnation. Why is our Ummah divided into 52 states instead of being under one Universal Islamic Government? Is it because of natural historical processes? No, it is because of an ideology known as nationalism. Why are Muslims rejecting the Shariah and adopting Western forms of government and economics? It is because of the ideology known as Democratic Capitalism and the theory of modernity. Why are Muslim women throwing off their hijabs and calling for reform of ahkam that pertain to them? It is because of the ideology known as feminism. Although all of these ideologies, through powerful institutions, media, and public officials scream “Freedom! Freedom!” in our face, isn’t it obvious that our Ummah is the furthest thing from being free? Not only are we no where near being free, we are the most colonized and suppressed people on the face of the earth! Our colonization, however, is no longer in the form of direct control by foreign powers, but rather, we are under intellectual colonization, the colonization of concepts. Furthermore, we must recognize that we as an Ummah lost the battle against colonialism long ago and are entering in the more serious phase of conquest: the phase where the victorious party imposes its will, traditions, and culture on the defeated party.

Although our Ummah has been clearly defeated on the battlefield not once, but many times, we still have hope since we have not yet lost the intellectual war. It is quite possible that the tide will turn and this is only possible by putting our trust in Allah (swt) and pushing for intellectual revolution. What is meant by intellectual revolution? 1) The Reconstruction of Islamic Knowledge, 2) The Deconstruction of Western Thought, 3) The Construction of Islamic Power Systems, and 4) the refutation of deviant groups. In the upcoming series of articles, intellectual revolution will be further explained, how exactly it will unite the Ummah, and the pivotal role that the American Muslim community shall play in establishing a Universal Islamic Government

The Substance of Intellectual RevolutionWhat do we mean by Intellectual Revolution?

We must recognize that there is no more a single paradigm that dominates the collective thinking of the Muslim Ummah, but a plurality of paradigms (modernism, post-modernism, traditionalism, fundamentalism, etc) that are competing with one another for dominancy. This excessive competition is resulting in an sort of ‘intellectual anarchy’ within the Muslim Ummah where the elites have busied themselves with intellectual disputations resulting in alienation, confusion, and despair within the masses. The excess reliance on emotion and activism due to a sense of powerlessness has caused many Muslims to think without seriously contemplating the proper course of action. With all these different paradigms floating in the collective mind of the Ummah and since no clear course of action has presented itself and yet each group is pushing for activism, the end result is that all of the creative forces within the Ummah are collapsing into one another and expending valuable energy on otherwise wasted projects such as the establishment of an Islamic state or the integration of Muslims within a non-Islamic political system. Until and unless a paradigm that caters to the need of the Muslim Ummah as a whole, in other words, a Universal Paradigm, is developed, the Ummah will continue to degenerate into anarchy and chaos.

Why is a Universal Paradigm important?

It is the basis of a civilization, without which, a culture declines and is taken over by another one. In history, we can observe how the Mongols took the world by surprise and conquered vast amounts of territory and yet, within three generations or so, they were completely absorbed by the cultures of their subjects due to the simple fact that they had no independent culture of their own. If we examine our Ummah today, we should duly note that what happened to the Mongols is precisely what is happening today where many Muslim societies are mixing Islam not only with Western cultures, but other cultures as well, such as Hindu, Zoroastrian, Pagan, and other Jahili cultures. We ought to ask ourselves whether this intermingling of cultures is truly a strength as many modernists would argue or is it not a sign of the weakness of our Ummah? In fact, we should note that the aspects of these other cultures that are being borrowed are not substantively beneficial to the Ummah since we find that most Muslim countries are not borrowing at the level of ideas, technology, science, or power systems, but instead, are merely emulating the clothing, music, fashion, architecture, and foods of the powerful nations like monkeys emulate human beings. We should reflect on the words of Ibn Khaldun that he wrote in his “Muqaddimah” that the vanquished imitate their conquerors. Is this not precisely what the Muslims are doing today? What is the solution to this civilizational hegemony? Is it establishing an Islamic state? Obviously not since the foundations of the Islamic state relies upon the vitality of the traditions as embodied in the minds and bodies of the Muslims. What makes a Muslim community a strong community is not the Arabic calligraphy that are beautifully displayed in its Masjid or the size of its minaret or the beauty by which the Imam recites the Quran, instead, the strength of the community is defined by the hearts and minds of the believers. If the hearts and minds of the believers are filled with heedlessness, then the community as a whole will be heedless. If the believers have remembrance of Allah (swt) in the hearts and minds, then the community will as a whole will engage in social acts and transactions that embody the laws of Allah (swt). In other words, we must focus on the hearts and minds of the Ummah before we can focus on its body and we should not that our hearts and minds are in terrible states. Our minds have become disaffected with Islam as an intellectual system and our hearts have become attached with the dunya. The solution to mental servitude that our Ummah is making of to Western ideologies can only be intellectual in nature; in fact, nothing short of an intellectual revolution will suffice in liberating the Muslim minds which is in and of itself a necessary prerequisite for the political emancipation of the Ummah from tyrannical regimes and corrupt, unIslamic governments.

Intellectual Revolution, then, refers to efforts by a group of thinkers, in accordance with the traditional Islamic sciences, to examine all of the aforementioned paradigms and determine why they are all failing and, if need be, to create/re-create a dominant paradigm which can unite the thinking of the Muslims. As such, Intellectual Revolution has four components: Reconstruction of Islamic Knowledge – revives the traditions, Deconstruction of Western thought, Construction of Islamic Power Systems, Refutation of Deviant Groups. Reconstruction of Islamic knowledge entails the revival of the Islamic sciences in accordance with the boundaries of the Quran and Sunnah as understood by the Mujtahid Mutlaq Imams and those who followed them since the entirety of the Islamic sciences have been systematically formalized by them. Furthermore, it must be clearly explained that the seeking of knowledge is an obligation, of which some branches are fardh ain while others are fardh kaffayah. It is a travesty of times that the overwhelming majority of the Ummah is unaware of even what types of actions are obligatory upon let alone the knowledge of fulfilling those obligations. The only way the reconstruction of Islamic knowledge can occur is by reviving the Maddrasseh system of education and by developing programs of funding and scholarships that encourage Muslim youth living in the West to go overseas and acquire the best of Islamic education. The second component of intellectual revolution entails deconstructing Western power systems. Instead of Muslims falling into an ideological trap of whether or not Islam is compatible with such Western thought-systems as science, democracy, feminism, etc, we ought to question the authority of such systems. Any system produced by a human is inherently when compared with the Divine revealation that was sent to us by Allah (swt) through the Prophet (saw). Our religion is the Haqq and we ought not to be afraid to make the bold claim that every other system besides Islam is false. Deconstructing Western power systems requires those Muslims living in the West to rigorously reject the authority of the Western political discourse and to firmly attack the roots of their political concepts, especially this absurd notion of freedom. Islam demands submission from human beings to their creator, not freedom from their creator. If anyone claims that homosexuals have the freedom to do as they please, respond harshly with whether or not they would grant such ‘freedoms’ to mutually consenting adults who desired to engage in incest. The façade of ‘freedom’ must be pierced by brave intellectuals who have no fear of anything except Allah (swt). The third component of Intellectual Revolution is the thorough refutation of deviant groups, especially those groups that possess deviant aqeedah or lack an understanding of usool al fiqh, or question the authority of the Ulema without having studied their proofs. Special attention should be given to those who ascribe to the ‘modernist’ paradigm where they claim that there is no proof in the Quran and Sunnah for hijab or that homosexuality is not only not a major sin, but permissible or that women can lead men in salah and give khutbahs even though this is expressly mentioned to be prohibited in narrations. The method of responding to such groups must be based firmly on the Islamic sciences as well as rational arguments, which is why the reconstruction of Islamic knowledge is a necessary prerequisite for all of the other components of intellectual revolution. The last component of intellectual revolution is to develop a contemporary formulation of Islamic power systems (ie to provide sufficient proofs for the establishment of a Universal Islamic Government). As is it clear by the works of the Ulema such as Imam Tahawi, Imam Mawardi, ibn Khaldun, Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio et al, that the establishment of a Khalifa is a fardh kaffayah, there must always be a group of people within our Ummah working towards this goal. The method of working towards khalifa is not by hosting debates on college campuses or passing out flyers or by throwing protests against the actions of corrupt governments as some political groups engage in. The method of restoring the khalifa is by restoring the confidence of the people within such a system. Due to the effects of excessive Western propaganda that slander the image of the khalifa based on false information or incorrect assessments, the average Muslim is so afraid of the establishment of a khalifa that he would prefer living under non-Muslim rule than Muslim rule. This is a reflection of the low state of our Ummah. Brothers and sisters of Islam, ponder over this! Reflect on how in previous eras, the non-Muslims flocked to the Muslims for protection and rulership and note how the situation has reversed itself! With all these four components of intellectual revolution, the basis of the intellectual suppression of the Ummah becomes null and void and it is only then when talk of real change becomes feasible. When the masses realize that political systems are not solid, cemented, metallic structures but are constructed and comprised of human beings like themselves, it is only then that they will be able to realize that just as they can be constructed, they can be ‘deconstructed’ and ‘reconstructed’ as an Islamic one.

What is NOT mean by Intellectual Revolution?

It is not a scientific or technological revolution. We must honestly ask ourselves, is merely adopting Western science and technology going to benefit the Muslim Ummah when our power systems are completely dominated by the West either directly or indirectly? For example, lets assume a Muslim country acquires the ability to develop a Nuclear Weapon. Although this may be a technological breakthrough, if the government that wields such a weapon is no more then a puppet of some Western government or other, then in reality, then the development of such weaponry, or any technology for that matter, not only fails to benefit the Ummah, it in facts hurts it. If a Western country possesses ownership over the resources, manpower, and territory that are within Muslim lands, how does being at the bottom of the economic food chain benefit the Muslim Ummah? Furthermore, with regards to the foolhardy claim that our Ummah will be saved by “Science” when all our Muslim youth become doctors, engineers, or IFSM majors, if this was the case, then we would have certainly seen such a scenario in our history. Yet, if we observe our history carefully, the scientific flourishing that occurred during the golden age of Islam under the Abbassid Khalifa wasn’t the cause of the success of Islam, it was an effect. Furthermore, of what benefit is the use of a Western education when in fact most of the Muslims who get educated in the West, often stay in the West. Of those Muslims who get educated in the West and do go back to their country, they often carry more Western intellectual baggage back home then reverse. It must be carefully noted that the ultimate strength of the West is in intellectual ownership, not in resources, not in management of resources, not in technological innovation (since most of its scientific-technological process rests on the shoulders of foreigners anyhow).

The goal of Intellectual Revolution is to eventually produce theories of Islamic power systems in order to create valid alternatives to current power systems. Once a clear alternative is presented, then political revolution becomes possible. When political revolutions become possible, then the unification of the Ummah becomes possible and when the unification of the Ummah becomes possible, then Jihad does too. How intellectual revolution is a necessary prerequisite for political revolutions which are themselves necessary for the establishment of a Universal form of Islamic government that engages in dawah, jihad, and the implementation of the shariah will be discussed in the next article.

The Road to Revolution

It is self-evident on both rational and spiritual grounds that the establishment of a universal form of Islamic government is a necessity for the Muslim Ummah. It is also self-evident that we are furthest away from the implementation of this obligation than any other generation and future generations will continue to degenerate unless we awaken ourselves from the slumber that has paralyzed us and take direct action now. Unfortunately, the Ummah has several major obstacles towards achieving the necessary momentum that is required to establish such a government. One major obstacle preventing the unification of our states is the imposition and sustained support of the nation-state system. The nation-state system, unlike other obstacles towards unification which are largely intellectual in nature, is also a physical boundary that prevents the allocation of resources, movement of troops, and other valuable processes that could potentially be developed by the consensual decision making that would occur under a revolutionary Islamic government. It is imperative then, for all of the activist movements that are currently operating in the Ummah to make it an open objective to do everything in their power to eliminate this system and replace it with Islamic international order.

The method of bringing down the international nation-state system has two components since the system itself has two components. The first component is the intellectual justification for the creation and maintenance of this system through the ideology of nationalism. The second component of this system is the overt and covert support that these states and their respective governments are provided by Western governments. The only way of removing the intellectual roots of the nation-state system are by attacking the ideology of nationalism and the only way to expose the actions of Western governments who support the nation-state system is for intellectuals and historians to work together to create an extensive study of the history and effects of colonialism on the Muslim Ummah. Thus, it is inherently obvious that the first step towards a unified Islamic government is through an intellectual revolution. Since intellectual revolution has been discussed in previous articles, it will suffice to review that there are four components that are necessary to instigate a massive paradigm shift within the hearts and minds of the Ummah: 1. Reconstruction of Islamic knowledge from traditional sources, 2. the Deconstruction of Western power systems, 3. The Refutation of Deviant groups whose goals and objectives are antithetical to the establishment of a Universal Islamic Government, and 4. The formation of Islamic power systems.

Now the query may be posed: what is the relationship between an intellectual revolution and a political revolution? Any true political revolution, if it is to besuccessful, must be grounded on firm political concepts, material objectives, and within the boundaries of certain morals. A revolution without clear objectives and a precise methodology to carry out such a program of change, will ultimately flounder and dissolve into anarchy and chaos. We as Muslims are prohibited by our Shariah from rebelling against rulers if they have not threatened the implementation of the Divine Injunctions and if we lack an alternative to the existing order. No matter how tyrannical a government may be, tyranny is still better than anarchy. Furthermore, if our objective is to establish a universal form of Islamic government, then we must recognize that it is not one or two governments that must be overthrown, but many governments of various social, economic, cultural, and sectarian backgrounds. Does this render revolution impossible? No, on the contrary, Islamic revolution is not impossible, it is inevitable. The way to address the momentous task of bringing about change throughout the entirety of the Muslim Ummah is to focus on those states that, if they underwent an Islamic revolution, would have a powerful effect on states and populations beyond their borders. In other words, we ought to ask ourselves: which states would be absolutely fundamental to the formation of a Universal Islamic Government? There are five such states: Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and Malaysia. These five states have not been arbitrarily chosen but by critical analysis can be shown to be the five most dominant states within the Ummah today. If any one of these states underwent an Islamic revolution, they would have an immediate impact on their neighbors. The goal is not to create revolutions in these five states and forget about the rest of the Ummah, but rather, it is through the instigation of Islamic revolutions in these 5 states simultaneously that we hope to bring about a domino effect in other Muslim states and governments. If Kuwait or Nigeria or Tajikistan underwent Islamic revolutions, they would have little or no effect on their surrounding territories, let alone the Ummah which means that foreign governments that are opposed to a unified Ummah will be able to step in rather easily and quell these rebellions to their hegemony. However, if a revolution occurs in a country that has close intellectual, financial, and cultural ties with many other countries, it will undoubtedly have an effect on the surrounding territories as well. In order to instigate such a revolution and preventing it from rampaging out of control into either tyranny or anarchy, it is absolutely essential that a cadre of intellectuals that are well-trained and equipped in the traditional sciences as well the Western ideologies that provide the moral and rational basis for their power systems, must be formed.

The only location where potential revolutionaries from these five states can meet is in the very place where the battle of ideas is raging within the Ummah: in the West. If articles by RAND corporation and the Nixon Institute have not made it apparent, the heart of intellectual warfare is occurring right here in places like America where certain governments are desperately attempting to formulate a model of Islam that is compatible with Western ideologies in hopes of exporting it to the rest of the Ummah. Recent events like women giving Jumaah khutbahs or openly espousing the permissibility of homosexuality in Islam or the recent phenomenon of think tanks like the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy hosting workshops and conferences in Muslim countries are to be expected given the expectation that the only way to subdue Islam to Western hegemony is through the formation of a ‘civil democratic Islam’. Thus, whether we as Western Muslims choose to or not, the responsibility of developing an intellectual revolution falls squarely on our shoulders. Unlike other communities, however, we do have the minds, the monies, and the manpower to achieve this. For example, the first component of intellectual revolution, the reconstruction of Islamic knowledge, can occur through developing Islamic schools that are, in essence, a fusion between the maddrasseh-style education that one receives under the Ulema and the private school model of the West. The end product of a child who goes through such a system will attain the spiritual benefit of acquiring knowledge from unadulterated sources while also attaining the necessary vocational skills required to function in society resulting in individuals who are not only intellectual liberated, but financially as well so that they can actually carry out a program of change. In other words, graduates from such an educational system will become natural activists. Furthermore, the MSA’s and other Islamic youth organizations at the Collegiate level can play a pivotal role in instigating Islamic revolutions by providing the manpower for propagating the ideas of Islamic revolution as well as by taking active steps to instigate such a revolution by participating in the intellectual debates that are occurring in the Ummah today. Instead of sitting idly and allowing the Modernist school of thought to parade across the US and the rest of the Ummah, MSA activists can stop and take a direct role in challenging the moral, intellectual, political, and Islamically legal foundations of the justifications of Modernists who attempt to ‘hijack’ the shariah. Furthermore, after the College level, the formations of Think Tanks dedicated solely to the deconstruction of Western ideologies and construction of Islamic power systems can utilize the experience of these activists to create works that can provide future fuel for the upcoming Islamic revolution. Lastly, the American Muslim community has many resources at its disposal to communicate with the other communities within the Ummah through the internet, radio, television, and educational programs.

Whether we like it or not, the American Muslim community is going to be used as a model for the rest of the Ummah. Either it will be a ‘civil democratic Islam’ or it can be a ‘revolutionary Islam’. The choice is up to you, as an individual, what you want it to be. You can choose, through your actions, to help unite the Ummah or through your inaction, help propagate its defeat.

I apologize if the series of articles on this topic have come off as vague or unclear since they are a summary of a much longer series of articles. May Allah (swt) grant us taufiq. Ameen.

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