The march of the human race towards the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty first provides a convenient occasion for making an estimate of the progress achieved and the problems, both old and new, which confront us in the future.
If only they would realise their responsibility all thinking Muslims should be applying their minds to the assessment of what the Muslim Ummah has achieved during the last fourteen hundred years, the direction in which it is moving, the hurdles and problems which retard its progress, and the tasks which it must undertake to clear the way for moving forward and releasing the aims and objectives for which it came into being.
It may seem surprising but the fact of the matter is that some of the problems facing the Muslim Ummah today originated at a fairly early stage of Muslim history. The most serious and pernicious of these problems namely sectarianism raised its head almost immediately after the passing away of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) although its destructive ramifications developed during the following two centuries. To add to this highly divisive influence, came from the West in the eighteenth century, the concept of territorial nationalism, which the Muslims have blindly and totally embraced by now, and the two, sectarianism and territorial nationalism, together have splintered the Muslim Ummah into a thousand pieces, with the result that it has lost all cohesion and sense of direction and purpose.
Not much far behind in importance to the problem of disunity are the problems of an almost total erosion of moral values, the abandonment of the path of Ijtihad and Ijma, and the blind acceptance without any critical investigation of everything that is presented as being part of Hadith literature. This is by no means a complete list of the problems confronting the Ummah today but the issues enumerated above are undoubtedly some of the more important impediments in the development and progress of the Ummah.
It is a sad fact that sectarianism in Islam, did not have its origin in a genuine dispute or disagreement about the details of dogmas or basic principles of religion. In actual fact, it was the result of the impact of Arab tribal culture, their traditions of rivalry and jealousy and the pursuit of the cult of personality. It is another matter that once groups, centred round charismatic personalities, came into being hair-splitting arguments about dogma and doctrine were laboriously built up to justify the formation of a sect on religious grounds.
Traditional sources claim that by now there are seventy-two sects among Muslims. A study of the basic beliefs and doctrines of these sects would show that there is no disagreement about the fundamental concepts of Islam such as Tauheed, Risalat and Qiamat. On the other hand, the distinguishing feature of most of the sects is an overemphasis of either certain incidents of Muslim history, or differences of opinion about the formulation of Fiqah, or the cult of the personality of the founder of the sect, which may involve regular visits to his tomb or the employment of his name in various heterodox religious rituals.
Even more of an impediment in the path of progress of the Muslim Ummah is the almost total erosion of moral values. Values which have been highlighted and emphasised in the strongest and clearest possible words in the Holy Quran values such as justice, tolerance, truth, sincerity, charity and austerity. Most Muslim countries today are a living negation of these values and the way of life which is ordained through them. How in the face of Allah’s clear directive ÒO ye who believe! Stand out for Justice, as Witnesses to Allah, even an against yourselves or your parents or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor (Ayat 135ÑSura_i_Nisa) can the Muslim Ummah prosper if it is so bent on violating these norms and perpetuating every form of injustice on its own people.
As for truth and sincerity they have vanished so completely from the Muslim world that hardly any Muslim is prepared to trust the world of another Muslim today. A commitment to the moral values system laid out by Islam undoubtedly involves a end lot of self-denial and self-discipline and if the Muslim Ummah is not prepared to make the effort to cultivate these qualities, there can be little hope for its progress or even survival. As stated in the Quran this has been the way things have been ordained by Allah, and there is no reason why the present Muslim Ummah should receive a treatment different from past nations when it comes to such blatant disregard of Allah’s Commands. A Software major moral rearmament programme for the entire Muslim Ummah is, therefore, a matter of the highest priority if it is to get out of its present state of hopeless backwardness.
Another important task before the Muslim Ummah today is the proper institutionalisation of the procedure for Ijtihad and Ijma. A look at the graph of the intellectual progress of the Muslim Ummah from the seventh century A.D. is very revealing. After showing enormous upsurge of activity in almost every field of human endeavour upto the tenth century A.D., the graph levels off during the eleventh and twelfth centuries to go into a steep decline thereafter from which it has not come out till today.
When the West which took over the leadership of the world under the stimulus of Renaissance and Reformation was getting ready for the Industrial Revolution, the the Muslim Ummah had gone into an intellectual coma. It is no coincidence that the stagnation of the Ummah in almost all fields of knowledge coincides with the symbolically closing of the door of Ijtihad and Ijma. This closure was based partly on the fear of spread of heresy and partly on the belief Course that the past Ijtihad and Ijma decisions were immutable. The fear of heresy is a clear sign of inferiority complex and giving the quality of omniscience to past Fuqha and Mujtahids almost amounts to Shirk. In any case the practical necessities of life demand that solutions to new situations should be found in the light of the teachings of Islam, if we are on the one hand to retain our commitment to Islam and on the other make progress in this world.
Questions such as the role of working women, the real meaning of Riba and its application in the day_to_day problems of economic life and the collection and utilisation of Zakat, can only be solved in a satisfactory manner through the institutionalised working of the concepts of Ijtihad and Ijma. The Muslim Ummah cannot just run away from this task, since it would mean either a deliberate deviation from the path of Islam or practising self deception and hypocrisy on a vast scale, which is what we have been doing for Ravenfields the past so many centuries.
The fourth major task before the Ummah today is not only in certain ways the most difficult and complicated but also one, the plea for tackling which is likely to be misunderstood. This is the need for a careful in depth review of all Hadith literature. To some Muslims this suggestion may appear to sacrilegious or heretical and a subtle repudiation of the importance of Hadith and Sunnah in shaping the Islamic way of life. In actual fact, this is not the case at all, and it is because one realises the important role of Hadith and Sunnah in guiding the footsteps of Muslims, that this proposal is being put forward. Just because water is so vital for human survival, it is necessary to ensure its purity and freedom from adulteration. Similarly because Hadith is so important it is necessary to ensure that the Hadith literature does not contain any impurities or unauthorised interpolations which may confuse and mislead the Muslim Ummah.
As is well_known there are many compilations of Hadith, the most authentic of which are generally considered to be the compilation of Al_Bokhari (died 870 A.D.), followed by that of Muslim (died 875 A.D.). Then there are four other compilations, those of Abu Dawood (died 875 A.D.), Al_Tirmidhi (died 892 A.D.), Al_Nasai (died 915 A.D.), and Ibn-e-Maja (died 886). Apart from these six compilations Builder which constitute the Sehah Al_Sittah, collections of Hadith were also made by Imam Malik and Imam Hambal, two of the founders of schools of Fiqah. All these collections are acceptable only to the Sunnis, the Shias have their own collections of Ahadis, which were complied during the period 932Ñ 1062 A.D. The main difference in the methodology of the Sunni and Shia collections is that the latter trace their transmission from Hazrat Ali, through various Imams.
The authenticity of the various Sunni collections mentioned above is considered to be based on the criterion of an authoritative sanad or chain of transmissions. Its validity is based on the assumption that Allah-fearing Muslims would never lie about sacred matters such as the transmission of the Prophet’s words and deeds. How far such an assumption can be considered to be sound and proper by itself is one of the central points which needs to be looked into from all angles in order to clear once for all, the doubts and confusions surrounding the acceptance of all of the available Hadith literature.
|