1. Moral Roots of Islamic Civilization

The book “Islam at Crossroads” by Muhammad Asad deals with the fall of the Muslim world. It laments the imitation of the West which is in its spirit (materialistic) diametrically opposite to the Islamic spirit (spiritual and harmony between subtle and mundane). It argues that the imitation of the West can only be at the cost of Islam, the two being incompatible. It discusses the attitude the Muslims must adopt towards the West. It further argues that the practical aspect of the spirit of Islam lies in the Sunnah of the Prophet, which has been shunned for the visible impossibility of implementing its seemingly trivial aspects in life, the weakening of these foundations has weakened the cultural structure. It argues that adherence to Sunnah and the conscious acknowledgment of that exercise will bring the Ummah out of its lethargy.

The Book can be divided into the following parts:

1. Islamic Foundations are Moral in Nature [Click to Open]
2. The Spirit of the West is Practical Utility and Dynamic Expansion alone [Click to Open]
3. Historical Experiences [Click to Open]
4. Western Education and its Imitation [Click to Open]
5. Westernization is the reason for the onslaught on Hadith and Sunnah [Click to Open]
6. Sunnah and its Spirit [Click to Open]
7. Conclusion [Click to Open]

We are about to explore how the arguments are presented and how they develop as we progress through the book: Below is a summary of the first section “Islamic Foundations are Moral in Nature”

1. Intro:
   1. Economic interdependence of Nations and civilizations.
      1. Leads to Globalization and transfer of thoughts and cultural values.
      2. There is give and take in Economics but only give in Cultural values with Muslims being passive receivers.
         1. Passive receivers because nations and civilizations that are politically and economically strong exert stronger force on imaginations without being themselves influenced.
   2. Islam doesn’t just have a spiritual aspect which bends with different cultures, it has a self-sufficing orbit of culture and social system
   3. We must see if the foreign influence is in sync with these values or is poison to it. For this driving forces are to be seen.
2. To see core driving forces Asad first tries to establish the attitude towards the metaphysical mysteries of life (Purpose of Life). Two approaches can be used:
   1. Give up all attempts at understanding life in totality and rely on external experiences alone and limit conclusions to their sphere.
      1. This helps understand small fragments of life and increases in clarity as knowledge grows.
      2. This knowledge will only remain fragmented. These are Natural Sciences.
   2. Way of Religion.
      1. Leads man intuitively to a unitary explanation of Life.
      2. Assumes a Supreme Creative Being with a pre-conceived plan.
3. Conflict between Physical and Metaphysical which Religion solves while Materialism fails.
   1. Religious man knows that his individual action is integrated with a Universal Plan. This solves antagonism between inner Human Self and the external objective world of facts and appearances called Nature.
   2. Mechanism of soul (his intuition, his self) gives him ideals like justice, love, empathy etc, while at the same time he is faced with the Nature which presents harsh realities of bounty and cruelty, danger, and security etc. Soul suggests one way and the Nature works the other way.
      1. Purely intellectual and experimental science fail to solve the conflict.
      2. Self-Conscious self and irresponsible nature are brought in harmony by Religion, as manifestations of same creative will.
   3. This leads to deep feeling of spiritual security (a balance between hopes and fears) when one sees himself as part of the universal plan/destiny.  
4. All Religions solve this conflict, but Islam is different.
   1. All religions have the moral appeal to surrender to the will of God.
   2. Islam moves beyond theoretical to practical about how each one of us can reproduce the unity of Idea and Action, both in his existence and in his consciousness.
      1. Islam is a program of life according to the rules of Nature which God has decreed.
      2. It completely coordinates the spiritual and material aspects of life.
      3. No inherent conflict between bodily and moral existence of man and their mutual coexistence and actual inseparability is insisted as the natural basis of Life
         1. This explain why Namaz has physical aspect to it, of formalism and outwardness (mental concentration and bodily movements).
            1. In it we approach God with sum total of all of the faculties we have.
         2. Same for Tawaaf, action and thoughts are towards oneness of God as every circle has the same center.
   3. Concept of Worship as in Zaryat:56 that God created men and jinn to worship him cannot be restricted to prayers and fasting, thus extending to all the practical aspects of life.
      1. Life becomes one complex moral responsibility.
      2. Every act is performed as constituting a part of God’s universal plan/destiny.
   4. Islam is different that it not only defines metaphysical relation between man and God but also earthly relation between man and social surroundings. It does so by arguing
      1. Every action is worship, and this is the meaning of life.
      2. This meaning can be achieved only when life is not divided into material and spiritual, these must be brought together.
   5. Islam alone argues that individual perfection is possible here and now.
      1. Christianity postpones it till the suppression of bodily desires.
      2. Hinduism to continuous chain of rebirths to higher levels.
      3. Buddhism to annihilation of individual self.
   6. Islam alone makes possible to enjoy earthly life without losing a moment of spiritual orientation.
      1. Christian in theory is gloomy: evil represented by Shaitan and good by Christ.
         1. Shaitan: Bodily temptations. Body a playground for his influences.
         2. Jesus: Soul is eternal light, divine and good
         3. Everything in human nature which is material or carnal is direct result of Adam’s succumbing.
         4. Therefore, man must turn his heart away from this world of flesh.
         5. Human genius can conceive philosophical explanations of this Original Sin (and of Trinity) but a common man’s heart tells him daal mey kuch kaala hai.
      2. West: My kingdom is of this world alone. Christian: My kingdom is not of this world. Islam: “Our Lord, give us good in this world and the good in the hereafter”. (2:201)
5. Perfection is relative.
   1. Absolute perfection is divine.
   2. Human Perfection is purely individual which is not possession of all the good qualities but development of the already existing inner qualities.
   3. Everyone’s perfection is different.
      1. Christianity has standardized it into ascetic saint-men – This contradicts divinely ordained diversity.
      2. In Islam man can be ascetic or enjoy sensual pleasures within lawful limits.
   4. This liberalism in Islam is based on the conception that man is originally good and potentially perfect.
      1. Christianity: Born sinful
      2. Hinduism: Originally low and impure and must painfully move above the ladder.
      3. Evil is acquired:
         1. Surely we created man in the best structure………….and afterwards we reduced him to the lowest of low, with exception of those who have faith and do good deeds. (95:4-6)
   5. Redemption and damnation are individual as there is no hereditary sin.
6. Earth not as gloomy as Christian says, but do not attach too much value (as the West does) to it says Islam. Life has immense value but instrumental value. It is an organic stage to higher existence. Material prosperity is desirable but not goal in itself. Thus “goal of all our practical activities always out to be the creation and the maintenance of such personal and social conditions as might be helpful for the development of moral stamina”.
7. Justification of Islamic Imperialism and propagation of religion
   1. Every choice is choice between right and wrong, no in between. Hence intense insistence on action is indispensable element of morality.
   2. Individual Muslim has to see himself as if personally responsible for all happenings around him and to strive for establishment of right and abolition of wrong. (You are the best community that has been sent forth to mankind. You enjoin the Right and forbid the Wrong and you have faith in God. 3:110)
   3. Islamic Imperialism wasn’t for the love of domination, nothing to do with national selfishness and Muslim comforts at people’s cost.
   4. It only wants construction of wordly frame best suited for spiritual development.
   5. “Moral knowledge automatically forces moral responsibility upon man”. Philosophically differentiating between right and wrong without the urge to promote right is immoral.

Conclusion: Religious consideration is above everything and underlines everything in Muslim societies and civilization.

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