Alija IZETBEGOVIC

President of the Presidency of Bosnia and Hercegovina

THE ISLAMIC DECLARATION

A Programme for the Islamization of Muslims and the Muslim Peoples

Sarajevo, 1990
 Alija IZETBEGOVIC
President of the Presidency of Bosnia and Hercegovina

THE ISLAMIC DECLARATION

A Programme for the Islamization of Muslims and the Muslim Peoples

Sarajevo, 1990
 3

THE ISLAMIC DECLARATION

A PROGRAMME FOR THE ISLAMIZATION OF MUSLIMS

AND THE MUSLIM PEOPLES

OUR GOAL: The Islamization of Muslims

OUR MOTTO: Believe and struggle

BISMILLAHIRAHMANIRRAHIM!

The Declaration which we today present to the public is not

prescribed reading, intended to demonstrate to foreigners or

doubters the superiority of Islam over any particular system or

school of thought.

It is intended for Muslims who know where they belong and

whose hearts clearly tell them which side they stand on. For such

as these, this Declaration is a call to understand the inevitable

consequences of that to which their love agd allegiance bind them.

The entire Muslim world is in a state of ferment and change.

Whatever whatever form it eventually takes when the initial

effects of these changes is felt, one thing is certain: it will no

longer be the world of the first half of this century. The age of

passivity and stagnation has gone forever.

Everyone is trying to make take advantage of this time of

movement and change, particularly foreign powers, both East and

West. Instead of their armies, they now use ideas and capital,

and by a new mode of influence are once more endeavouring to

accomplish the same aim: to ensure their presence and keep the

Muslim nations in a state of spiritual helplessness and material

and political dependence.

China. Russia and the Western countries quarrel as to who

among them will extend patronage and to which part of the Muslim
 4

world. Theirs is a pointless dispute. The Islamic world does not

belong to them, but to the Muslim peoples.

A world of 700 million people with enormous natural re¬

sources. occupying a first class geographical position, heir to

colossal cultural and political traditions and the proponent of

living Islamic thought, cannot long remain in a state of

vassalage. There is no power which can check the new Muslim

generation from putting an end to this abnormal state of affairs.

In this conviction, we announce to our friends and enemies

alike that Muslims are determined to take the fate of the Islamic

world into their own hands and arrange that world according to

their own vision of it.

From this point of view, the ideas contained in the Declara¬

tion are not absolutely new. This is rather a synthesis of ideas

heard with increasing frequency in various places and which are

accorded about the same importance in all parts of the Muslim

world. Its novelty lies in that it seeks to promote ideas and

plans into organized action.

The struggle towards new goals did not begin today. On*the

contrary, it has already experienced shihada* and its history con¬

tains pages of the suffering of its victims. Still, this is

mainly the personal sacrifice of exceptional individuals or

courageous minor groups in collision with the mighty forces of the

Jahiliya* . The magnitude of the problem and .its difficulties,

however, required the organized action of millions.

*shihada: martyrdom. Jahiliya: the godless. Period of darkness

prior to Islam. (Translator's note).
 5

Our message is dedicated to the memory of our comrades who

have fallen in the name of Islam.

Sarajevo, 1970
Jumadi-1-awwa1. 1390

Do we wont the Muslim peoples to break out of the circle

of dependence. backwardness and poverty?

Do we want them to step out confidently once more on the road

to dignity and enlightenment, to become the masters of their

own destiny?

Do we want burning courage, genius and virtue to burst forth

again in all their force?

Then we can clearly show the way which leads to this goal:

The generating of Islam in all areas of personal individual

life, in the family and society, through the renewal of

Islamic religious thought and the creation of a united

Islamic community from Morocco to Indonesia.

This goal may seem remote and improbable, but it is nonethe¬

less realistic, because it is the only one located within the

bounds of possibility In contrast, every non-Islamic programme

may seem to be close and within range of its target, but for the

Islamic world this is pure utopia, because these programmes lie in

the realm of the impossible.

History demonstrates one fact clearly: Islam is the single

idea which has been able to excite the imagination of the

Muslim peoples and to instil in them the necessary measure of

 - 6-

discipline, inspiration and energy. No other ideal, foreign to

Islam, has ever managed to hold sway in any meaningful way either

in the culture or at state level. In fact, all that is great or

noteworthy in the history of the Muslim peoples has been done

under the banner of Islam. A few thousand tried warriors of Islam

forced Britain to withdraw from Suez in the 1950s, while the

combined armies of the Arab nationalist regimes are now for the

third time losing the battle against Israel. Turkey as an Islamic

country ruled the world. Turkey as a plagiary of Europe is now a

thirdrate country, like a hundred others throughout the world.

Just like an individual, a people that has accepted Islam is

thereafter incapable of living and dying for any other ideal. It

is unthinkablle that a Muslim should sacrifice himself for any

king or ruler, no matter who he might be, or for the glory of any

nation or party, because the strongest Islamic instinct recognizes

in this a kind of paganism and idolatry. A Muslim can die only in

the name of Allah and for the glory of Islam, or flee the

batt1efield.

Periods of passivity and stagnation in fact mean the absence

of an Islamic alternative or unreadiness on the part of the Muslim

population to take the uphill path. They are the negative

expression of the spiritual monopoly which Islam holds over the

Islamic world.

While accepting this situation as an expression of the Will

of God, we positiviy state that the Islamic world cannot be

renewed without Islam or against it, Islam and its deep-rooted

 -7-

precepts on man's place in the world, the purpose of human life,

the relationship between God and man arid between man and man.

remains a lasting and irreplaceable ethical, philosophical,

ideological and political foundation for every authentic action

taken towards renewal and improvement of the state of the Muslim

peoples.

The alternative is stark: either a move towards Islamic re¬

newal, or passivity and stagnation. For the Muslim peoples, there

is no third possibility.
 -8-

THE BACKWARDNESS OF THE

MUSLIM PEOPLES

CONSERVATIVES AND MODERNISTS

The idea of Islamic renewal, which understands Islam as cap¬

able not only of educating human beings but also of ordering the

world, will always have two types of people as its opponents.- con¬

servatives who want the old forms, and .modernists who want someone

else's forms. The former drag Islam back into the past, the

latter push it towards an alien future.

Despite differences, both categories of people have something

in common; both see Islam only as a religion, in the European

sense of the word. A certain lack of feeling for the finesses of

language and logic, and an even greater failure to grasp the

essence of Islam and its role in history and the world, lead them

to interpret Islamic belief as religion, which for a very special

reason is quite erroneous.

Although it may seem a reconfirmation of the fundamental

truths on the origin of man and his mission, the Islamic approach

is quite new in one aspect - that of its demand for the conjunc¬

tion of faith and knowledge, morals and politics, ideals and

interests. By recognizing the existence of two worlds, the

natural and the interior, Islam teaches that it is man who bridges

the chasm between them. Without this oneness, religion tends

towards backwardness (the rejection of any kind of productive

 -10-

closed to knowledge and ever more open to mysticism, theologists

have allowed much that is irrational to be written in this book,

things totally foreign to Islamic learning, including sheer super¬

stition. It will be immediately evident to anyone who knows the

nature of theology why it has been unable to withstand the tempta¬

tion of mythology, and why it has seen even in this a certain

enrichment of religious thought. The monotheism of the Qu'ran,

the purest and most perfect in the history of religious learning,

has been gradually compromised, while in practice a distasteful

trade in belief has emerged. Those who call themselves inter¬

preters and guardians of the faith have made a career of it - a

very agreeable and profitable one - and without many qualms of

conscience have come to accept a state of affairs in which its

messages have not been implemented at all.

Theologians have turned out to be the wrong people in the

wrong place. Now, when the Muslim world is giving all signs of an

awakening, this class has become the expression of all that is

gloomy and sclerotic in that world. It has shown itself to be

quite incapable of taking any kind of constructive step towards

making the Islamic world face up to the adversities which press

upon it.

As far as the so-called progressives, westerners, modern¬

ists and whatever else they are called are concerned, they are the

exemplification of real misfortune throughout the Muslim world, as

they are quite numerous and influential, notably in government,

education and public life. Seeing the haJJs and conservatives

 - 11-

conservatives as the personification of Islam, and convincing

others to do likewise, the modernists raise a front against all

that the idea represents. These self-styled reformers in the

present-day Muslim countries may he recognized by their pride in

what they should rather be ashamed of. and their shame in what

they should be proud of. These are usually "daddy's sons". -

schooled in Europe, from which they return with a deep sense of

their own inferiority towards the wealthy West and a personal

superiority over the poverty-stricken and backward surroundings

from which they spring. Lacking an Islamic upbringing and or any

spiritual or moral links with the people, they quickly lose their

elementary criteria and imagine that by destroying local ideas,,

customs and convictions, while introducing alien ones, they will

build America - for which they have an exaggerated admira-tion -

overnight on their home soil. Instead of standards, they

introduce the cult of a standard; instead of developing the

potential of their own world, they develop desires, thus opening

the way to corruption, primitivism and moral chaos. They cannot

see that the power of the Western world does not lie in how it

lives, but in how it works; that its strength is not in fashion,

godlessness, night clubs, a younger generation out of control, but

in the extraordinary diligence, persistence, knowledge and re¬

sponsibility of its people.

The main problem, therefore, is not that our westerners used

alien forms, but that they did not know how to use them, or - to

put it better - that they did not have a sufficiently developed

 -12-

sense of what was right. They failed to choose the useful product

and took over instead the harmful, suffocating byproduct of an¬

other civilization.

Among the props of doubtful value which our westerner takes

home with him are to be found various "revolutionary" ideas,

reform programmes and similar "rescue doctrines" which will "solve

all problems". Among these "reforms" are examples of unbelievable

shortsightedness and improvization.

Thus, for example, Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, who was obviously

a greater military leader than a cultural reformer and whose

services to Turkey should be reduced to their proper measure, in

one of his reforms prohibited the wearing of the fez. It soon

became evident that changing the shape of their caps cannot change

what is in people's heads or habits.

Many nations outside the Western sphere have been facing the

problem of how to relate to this civilization for over a century:

whether to opt for outright rejection, cautious adjustment or

total unselective acceptance*. The tragedy or triumph of many of

them has hung on how they have responded to this fateful question.

There are reforms which reflect the wisdom of a particular

nation and others which signify betrayal of itself. The examples

of Japan and Turkey are classics of modern history in this

respect.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, both

countries provided a picture of very similar "comparable"

countries. Both were ancient empires, each with its own

 -13

physiognomy and place in history. Both found themselves at

approximately the same level.of development; both had a glorious

past, which indicated both great privilege and a heavy burden. In

a word, their chances for the future were about equal.

Then followed the well-known reforms in both countries. In

order to continue to live in its own way and not in another. Japan

tried to unite tradition and progress. Turkey's modernists chose

the opposite path. Today, Turkey is a third-rate country, while

Japan has climbed to a pinnacle among the nations of the world.

The difference in the philosophy of Japanese and Turkish re¬

formers is nowhere more evident than in the question of the

alphabet.

While Turkey abolished Arabic writing, which because of its

simplicity and just twenty-eight characters is one of the most

perfect and widespread of alphabets. Japan rejected demands by its

Romaya to introduce the Roman script. It retained its

complicated system which subsequent to the reforms, contained 880

Chinese ideograms in addition to 46 characters. No one is

illiterate in modern-day Japan, while in Turkey - forty years

after the introduction of Roman letters - over half the population

cannot read or write, a result which should cause the blind to

regain their sight.

And that is not all. It soon became evident that what was

issue was not simply the alphabet as a means of register. The

true reasons, and thus the consequences, were much deeper and more

significant. The essence of ail human civilization -and progress

lies in continuation, not in destruction and negation. Its way

writing is the way in which the nation "remembers*1 and endures :r

history. By abolishing the Arabic alphabet, all the wealth of thJ

past, preserved in the written word, was largely lost to Turkey,

and by this single act the country was levelled to the brink of

barbarianism. With a series of other "parallel" reforms, the nev

Turkish generation found itself with no spiritual prop, in a kind

of spiritual vacuum. Turkey had lost the remembrance of its pas-:

Whom did this profit?

The supporters of modernism in the Islamic world, then, were

not wise men who sprang from the people, who would know how to

implement in a novel way the old ideals and values under changed

circumstances. They rose up against the values themselves and

often with icy cynicism and astounding shortsightedness, trampled

on what the people held sacred, destroying life and transplanting

an imitation in its stead. As a consequence of such barbarity in

Turkey and elsewhere, plagiary nations emerged, or are in process

of emerging: countries where spiritual confusion reigns, feature¬

less and with no sense of where they are going. Everything in

them is derivative and artificial, lacking in force and enthus¬

iasm. like the false glamour of their Europeanized cities.

Can a country unsure of its identity, of where its roots lie,

have a clear picture of where it is bound or what it should be

striving for?

The example of some of Attaturk’s reforms may seem drastic.

At the same time, they represent a pattern for the western

 , o£ the Islamic world and the way in which
approach to prob ems ^ invariably means

westerners thin, to -corr.*" ^ painstaking work on

alienaticn, ‘ elevation o£ the people, an

^ ^ ffi°ra ds the ,xternal and the superficial,

orientation toward of . Muslim country in

What was meant y e feU into the hands of

which the administration of pub that freedom?

nf Derson? How did they make

^ riceptinp foreign modes, tho.ht - » ,f

political support the mouths of their new

«— countries voluntarily^ spiritual and

administrators, acquiesce ^ ^ philosophy,

material independence was and aiien support.

- ”‘ -r^—ce. hut they dtd not

These countries kind ls primanly

, cince freedom oi a y
achieve real freedo . which has not first won
spiritual. The independence of P P ^ ^

this is soon reduced to an anthem and

factors for true independen Muslim peoples.

for true independence of the mu
The struggle for tru

then, must begin anew everywhere.

THE ROOTS
\\J\J i.
OF HELPLESSNESS
-

two types - conservatives and modernists - provide t

TheSS tW° W nt state of the Muslim peoples-

key to understanding the current
 However, they are not the only cause of this state. Taken

further, both facets are the manifestation of a deeper cause.-

degradation or rejection of Islamic thought.

The history of Islam is not only, or even mainly, the histaj

of a progressive affirmation of Islam in real life. It is just

much a story of incomprehension, neglect, betrayal and abuse of

this idea. Thus the history of each and every Muslim people is

simultaneously a chronology of brilliant achievements and

victories, of grievous mistakes and defeat. All our successes a-tf

failures, political and moral, are only the reflection of our

acceptance of Islam and how we have applied it to life. A

weakening in the influence of Islam on the practical life of the

people has always been accompanied by their degradation and that

of social and political institutions.

The entire history of Islam, from its first beginnings to our

day, unfolded under the inexorable influence of this coincidence.

Something of the unalterable fate of the Muslim peoples and one of

the laws of Islamic history is to be found in this parallel.

Two characteristic moments in Islamic history - one from the

age of its ascendancy, one from the age of decadence - very

clearly illustrate this effect.

Muhammad (peace be upon him) died in 632 A.D. Less than a

hundred years later, the spiritual and political power of Islam

extended over a huge area, from the Atlantic Ocean to the river

Indus and to China, from Lake Aral to the lower reaches of the

Nile. Syria was conquered in 634, Damascus fell in 635, Ctesiphon

 17-

in 637, India and Egypt were reached in 641, Carthage in 647,

Samarkand in 676, Spain in 710, Muslims were at the gates of

Constantinople in 717, and in 720 in southern France, There were

mosques in Shantung by 700 and about 830. Islam arrived in Java,

This unique expansion, to which no other can be compared

before or since, provided a space for the development of Islamic

civilization in three spheres of culture: Spain, the Middle East

and India, a period of history covering about one thousand years.

What do Muslims mean in the contemporary world?

The question could be phrased another way: how far are we

Muslim?

The answers to these questions are linked.

We are enslaved: at one point in 1919, no single inde¬

pendent Muslim country existed, a state of affairs never regis¬

tered either before or after that date.

We are uneducated: in the period between two world wars, no

Muslim country had a literacy rate of over 50 per cent. At in¬

dependence, 75 per cent of the people of Pakistan, 80 per cent of

Algerians and 90 per cent of Nigerians could neither read nor

write. (in contrast, no one in Islamic Spain of the tenth and

eleventh centuries, according to Draper, was illiterate.)

We are poor: gross national income per capita in 1966 in Iran

was 220 dollars, in Turkey 240. in Malasia 250.in Pakistan 90. -in

Afghanistan 85. in Indonesia 70. as against 3000 in the USA. The

share of industry in the national income of most Muslim countries

varies between 10 and 20 per cent. The number of calories in the

 -18

daily diet is an average 2000, compared to 3000-3500 in Western

Europe.

We are a divided community: instead of a society without

either misery or luxury, Muslim society has turned into the

opposite. In contradiction to the Qu'ranic command "...that this

wealth should not remain within the circle of the rich among you"

(Qu’ran 39/7), property gradually passed into the hands of a small

number. Prior to agrarian reform in Iraq in 1958, out of 22

million dunum* of arable land, about 18 million dunum (82 per

cent) were held by the great landowners. Meanwhile, 1.4 million

peasants had no land at all.

This was the state of affairs which some have called with

reason "the night of Islam". In fact, that night began with the

twilight of our hearts. All that has happened to us or is

happening to us today, is only the echo and repetition of what has

previously happened within ourselves (Qu'ran, 13/12).

We as Muslims cannot be subjugated, uneducated, estranged

from one another. We cannot be renegades from Islam. All our

defeats, from the first at Uhud to the latest on Sinai, confirm

this.

The phenomenon of the abandonment of Islam, most frequently

seen in the suppression of Islamic thought from active and vigil¬

ant life and its reduction to transience and passivity, can be

most clearly observed by taking the Qu’ran, the central truth of

Islamic ideology and practice.

*dunum: about one-tenth of a hectare (translator's note)

 It should be remarked that every advance of the Islamic

peoples, every age of refinement, began with the affirmation of

the Qu’ran. The expansion of early Islam, whose miraculous course

I have already mentioned and which in the course of two genera-

tions brought it to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in the West

and to the outer reaches of China in the East, is not the only,

but is the most glorious example. Ail major swings in the course

of Islamic history confirm this parallel.

What was the position of the Qu'ran at the time preceding the

age of stagnation and retreat?

Devotion to the Book did not cease, but it lost its active

character while retaining what was irrational and mystic. The

Qu'ran lost its authority as law while gaining in sanctity as an

object. In study and interpretation, wisdom yielded to hair¬

splitting, essence to form and grandeur of thought to the skill of

recitation. Under the constant influence of theological formal¬

ism, the Qu'ran was read less and “learned" (recited) more, while

commandments on struggle, uprightness, personal and material

sacrifice - harsh and repellant to our inertia - dissolved and

vanished in the pleasant sound of the Qu'ranic text learnt off by

heart. This unnatural state of affairs came to be accepted as the

norm, because it suited an ever more numerous group of Muslims

who could neither break with the Qu'ran nor summon the strength to

order their lives according to its dictates.

The psychological explanation of the exaggerated importance

given to recital of the Qu'ran may be found in this fact. The

Qu'ran is recited, interpreted and recited, then studied and

 -20-

reeited again. One sentence is repeated thousands of times in

order not to have to apply it once. An extensive and pedantic

science has been established on how the Qu'ran should be

pronounced so as to avoid the issue of how to practice it in daily

life. Ultimately, the Qu’ran has been turned into naked sound

without visible sense or meaning.

All the reality of the Muslim world, with its discrepancy

between word and deed; its debauchery, dirt, injustice and coward¬

ice; its monumental, empty mosques; its great white turbans,

devoid of ideals or courage; its hypocritical Islamic catchphrases

and religious posing; this faith without belief is but the

external reflection of the fundamental contradiction in which the

Qu'ran found itself, in which burning allegiance to the Book was

gradually combined with total neglect of its principles in

practice.

The situation of the Qu'ran is the first and most important

cause of backwardness and helplessness among the Muslim peoples.

Another cause of universal importance is education, or rather the

system of upbringing in the broadest sense.

For centuries now our peoples have been deprived of educated

people. Instead, they have two other types, equally undesirable:

the uneducated and the wrongly educated. In no Muslim country do

we have a system of education sufficiently developed and thus

capable of responding to the moral understanding of Islam and the

needs of the people. Our rulers either neglected this most

sensitive institution of any society, or left it up to strangers.

 -21-

The schools to which foreigners donated money and personnel, and

thereby curricula and ideology, did not educate Muslims, not even

nationalists. In them, our budding intellectuals were injected

with the "virtues" of obedience, submission and admiration for the

might and wealth of the foreigner; in them foreign tutors

fostered a vassal mentality in the intelligentsia, which would in

the future replace them with extraordinary success, because the

latter would feel themselves to be foreigners in their own country

and behave accordingly. It would be most informative to discover

the number of schools and colleges which are held, directly or

indirectly, by foreigners, and to reflect on the reasons for this

extraordinary generosity. The curricula of these institutions

should be gone into in depth and examined for content, perhaps

even more so for what they fail to contain. It would soon be

clear that the real question is not whether our intelligentsia

wishes to find a path to its people, to their real inclinations

and interests, but whether, constituted as it is, it can find that

path at all. What is at stake are the values and ideals which

have been imposed on' it. and the psychological gap which has been

created. Iron chains are no longer necessary to keep our peoples

in submission. The silken cords of this alien "education" have

the same power, paralyzing the minds and will of the educated.

While education is so conceived, foreign wielders of power and

their vassals in Muslim countries need have no fear for their

positions. Instead of being a source of rebellion and resistance,

this system of education is their best ally.

this system of education is their best ally.

-22-

The tragic gap between the intelligentsia and the people,

which is one of the darkest features of our overall position, is

re-entrenched from the other side. Sensing the alien and non-

Islamic character of the schools on offer, the people instinctive¬

ly reject them, so that the estrangement becomes mutual. Absurd

accusations are constructed as to the disinclination of Muslim

environments towards school and education. In fact, it is clear

that this is not a question of rejecting schools as such, but of

rejecting alien schools, which have lost every spiritual link with

Islam and the people.

INDIFFERENCE OF THE MUSLIM MASSES

The about-turn effected by modernists in a series of Muslim

countries was, almost as a rule, anti-religious and led by slogans

on the de-clericalization of political and social life. From this

aspect it is reminiscent of the struggle between the awakening

national states and the church in Europe on the threshold of the

Modern Age. But what meant progress and constitutionality for the

West, represented an unnatural process in the Islamic world, one

which was incapable of effecting constructive change. Declerical-

ization and nationalism had no positive aspects here, and were in

fact merely a negation. Foreign in origin and matter, they were

the reflection of a pervasive spiritual sterility. With them, the

curtain rose on the last act in the drama of the Muslim world.

From the situation which ensued, this act could be called: “a dual
 “23-

Every renaissance occurs as the result of creative contact,

affinity or internal concord between the thinking and leading

elements in a society on the one hand, and the populace at large

on the other. The leading group represents will and thought, the

people the heart and blood of any great undertaking. Without the

cooperation or at least consent of the ordinary man, all action

remains superficial, lacking in strike force. The sluggishness

of the masses can be overcome if it is merely the consequence of a

natural resistance to hard work, danger and struggle. It is

impossible to overcome if it represents a rejection of the very

ideals of the struggle, because it per5ceives that ideal as

opposed to the most intimate wishes and feelings of the masses.

It is the latter case which may be observed, to a greater or

lesser extent, in all Muslim countries where modernists attempt to

implement their programmes. They flatter and threaten, plead and

goad, organize and reorganize, change names and personalities, but

run up against the stubborn rejection and indifference of ordinary

people, who make up the majority of the nation. Habib Bourgiba -

mentioned here simply as being representative of a widespread

tendency - wears European clothes, speaks French at home, isolates

Tunisia not only from the Islamic but also from the Arab world,

restricts religious training, calls for the abolition of the

Ramadan fast "as fasting reduces productivity", while he himself

drinks orange juice in public in order to set a suitable example.

After all this, he wonders at the passivity and lack of support :n

the part of the Tunisian masses for his "learned" reforms.

Modernists would not be what they are if they did not demonstrate

this type of blindness.

The Muslim peoples will never accept anything which is

expressly opposed to Islam, because Islam is not just a collection

of ideas and laws but has transcended into love and feeling. He

who rises up against Islam will reap nothing but hatred and

resistance.

By their acts, modernists have created a state of internal

conflict and confusion in which any programme - Islamic or foreign

- becomes impracticable. The masses want Islamic action, but

cannot carry it through without the intelligentsia. An alienated

intelligentsia imposes a programme, but cannot find enough people

prepared to contribute blood, sweat and enthusiasm for this paper

ideal. The opposing forces cancel each other out and a stage of

powerlessness and paralysis sets in.

There is an order, a dynamic, a prosperity, a progress which

could be brought about on this ground and in this part of the

world, but this is not the order, progress or prosperity of Europe

or America. The indifference of the Muslim masses is not indif¬

ference at all. It is the way in which folk-Islam defends itself

against outside, alien assault. Wherever there was the least

prospect of an Islamic struggle, the ordinary man proved his

readiness to fight, suffer and die. This was the example given by

Turkey in the liberation struggle against Greece, following defeat

in World War I, the heroic resistance in Libya against Italian

occupation, and the recent examples of struggle against the

 25-

British in Suez, the war for the liberation of Algeria, for the

retention of Indonesia and for Islamic influence in Pakistan.

Wherever the masses had to be aroused, Islamic slogans were used,

however temporarily and insincerely. Where there is Islam, there

is no indifference.

The manifest feelings of the Muslim masses need an idea which

would move and direct them, but this cannot be just any idea. It

must be one which corresponds to their deepest feelings. It can

only, therefore, be an Islamic idea.

There is no chance that the Muslim masses and their present

intellectual and political leadership could agree on someone among

them renouncing his ideal, regardless of how long this state of

expectation and indecision may last. There is only one possible

way out: the formation and grouping of a new intelligentsia which

thinks and feels Islam. This intelligentsia would then fly the

flag of the Islamic order and, together with the Muslim masses,

take action to bring it about.

 -26-

II

THE ISLAMIC ORDER

RELIGION AND THE LAW

The Islamic order: what does this mean, translated into the

language thought, spoken and felt by our generation?

The briefest definition of the Islamic order defines it as a

unity cf religion and law. upbringing and power, ideal and

interest, the spiritual community and the state, willingness and

force.

As a synthesis of these components, the Islamic order posits

two fundamental assumptions: an Islamic society and Islamic

governance. The first is the matter and the second the form of

the Islamic order. An Islamic society without an Islamic

authority is incomplete and without power,- Islamic governance

without an Islamic society is either utopia or violence.

Generally speaking, a Muslim does not exist as a sole in¬

dividual. If he wishes to live and survive as a Muslim, he must

create an environment, a community, a system. He must change the

world or himself submit to change. History has no instance of any

truly Islamic movement which was not at the same time a political

movement. This is because Islam is a religion, but it is at the

same time a philosophy, a moral system, an order, a style, an

atmosphere — in a word, an integrated way of life. One cannot

believe in Islam and act. do business, enjoy one s leisure or rule

 -27-

in a non-Islamic way. This state of discordance creates hypocrisy

(praising God in the mosque, betraying Him outside it), or unhappy

people full of conflict (unable either to break with the Qu'ran or

to find the strength to fight and change the circumstances in

which they live), or a monk-like, eccentric type of individual

(who withdraws from the world because the world is not Islamic),

or, ultimately, those who in their dilemma break with Islam and

accept life and the world as find them, or rather, as others have

made them.
The Islamic order is a society freed of this conflict, a

framework of relations in which the Muslim finds himself m

complete harmony with his surroundings.

To the question: what is a Muslim society? we would say it

is a community composed of Muslims, and we think that this says it

all, or almost all.

The meaning of this definition is that there is no system of

institutions, relationships and laws disparate from the people who

are its object of which it could be said:' this is an Islamic

system. No system is Islamic or non-Islamic of itself. It is

only so because of the people who compose it.

A European believes that society is ordered by the rule of

laws. Since Plato's ‘’Republic", and the various utopian idea

which followed up to the most recent - Marxism - the European

spirit has been searching for one scheme, one pattern, which,

by simply altering the relationships between people or groups,

would give birth to the ideal society.

 -28-

In the Qu'ran, on the other hand, there are relatively few

real laws, and much more religion, and requirement for practical

action in keeping with this religion.

A multiplicity of laws and a complex legislature is usually, a

sure sign that something is rotten in a society and that it should

stop passing laws and start educating people. When the rotten¬

ness of the environment surpasses a certain point, the law be¬

comes impotent. It then falls either into the hands of corrupt

executors of justice, or becomes the subject of open or concealed

trickery on the part of a corrupt environment.

Wine, gambling and sorcery - once widespread and deeply

rooted vices throughout the entire Middle East - were eliminated

for a lengthy period from an enormous region by a single Ayet of

the Qu'ran, and by a single explanation: God had forbidden them.

As soon as religion weakened, intoxication and superstition

returned with unabated vigour, to which the incomparably higher

level of culture by now obtaining offered no obstacle. America s

Prohibition Law, proclaimed in the name of contemporary science

and implemented with all the force of one of the most highly

organized communities in the world, eventually had to be abandoned

in the 'forties, after thirteen years of futile attempts, full of

violence and crime. An attempt to introduce prohibition into

Scandinavian countries ended in similar failure.

This and many similar examples clearly demonstrate that a

society can be improved only in the name of God and by educating

man. We should take the one road which surely leads to this
 -29

objective.

While in principle confirming the spiritual, interior

approach in all of its manifestations, Islam, however, did not

content itself with that. It endeavoured to tear the devil's

weapon out of his hands. If. in what concerns man's relationship

with the world, Islam did not start with man, it would not be a

religion; if it were to remain at that, it would be simply a

religion, merely repeating Jesus's teaching on the ideal and

eternal aspect of man's being. Through Muhammad, (peace be upon

him) and the Qu’ran, Islam addressed the real man. the outside

world, nature, in order to evolve as a teaching on the complete

man and on all aspects of life. Faith allied itself to the law,

education and upbringing to power. Thus Islam became an order.

ISLAM IS NOT JUST A RELIGION

In this particular, which marks an indisputable turning point

in the evolution of religious teaching. Islam differs from all

other religions, doctrines and philosophies. It provides a new

point of observation and a special approach, reflecting its

entirely original philosphy. The lynchpin of this philosophy is

the requirement that man must simultaneously live an interior and

exterior, moral and social, spiritual and physical life, or more

precisely, that he must willingly and in full awareness accept

both these aspects of life as the human definition and meaning of

his life on earth (Qu'ran 28/77). Translating this requirement

into the language of everyday life, we could say; he who believes

 30-

that life should be ordered not only by faith and prayer, but by

work and knowledge, whose vision of the world not only allows but

demands that temple and factory stand side by side, who considers

that people should not only be fed and educated, but that their

life on earth should be facilitated and promoted, and that there

is no reason to sacrifice either of these objectives to the other

- this man belongs to Islam.

This, together with faith in God, is the main message of the

Qu'ran, and in it is all of Islam. All else is mere development

and explanation. This aspect of Islam, besides containing the

principle of the Islamic order, the conjunction of religion and

politics, leads to other significant conclusions of enormous

fundamental and practical importance.

First and foremost of these conclusions is certainly the

incompatibility of Islam with non-Islamic systems. There can be

neither peace nor coexistence between the Islamic religion and

non-Islamic social and political institutions. The failure of

these institutions to function and the instability of the regimes

in Muslim countries, manifest in frequent change and coups d'etat,

is most often the consequence of their a priori opposition to

Islam, as the fundamental and foremost feeling of the peoples in

these countries. By claiming the right to order its own world it¬

self, Islam obviously excludes the right or possibility of action

on the part of any foreign ideology on that terrain. There is,

therefore, no lay principle, and the state should both reflect and

support religious moral concepts.

 -31

Every age and every generation has the task of implement¬

ing the message of Islam in new forms and by new means.

There are immutable Islamic principles which order re¬

lations between people, but there is no Islamic economic,

social or political structure which cannot be changed.

This is only the first and most important conclusion in

approaching Islam as an integrated order. The remaining three,

equally important but less preclusive, are.-

First: by opting for this world, Islam has opted for the best

possible ordering of that world. Nothing which can make the world

a better place may be rejected out of hand as non-Islamic;

Second: to be open to nature means to be open to learning.

In order to be Islamic, any solution must fulfil two conditions:

it must be maximally efficient and maximally humane. It must

therefore reflect the reconciliation of religion and science in

its highest form;

Third: by pointing to one link between religion and learning,

morals and policy, the individual and the collective, the spirit¬

ual and the material - questions which divide the contemporary

world - Islam regains its role as the intermediary of ideas, and

the Islamic world as intermediary among nations in a divided

world. By promising "religion without mysticism and learning

without atheism", Islam can interest all people, no matter who

they are.
 -32-

THE ISLAMIC ORDER IN OUR DAY - ARGUMENTS

There are immutable Islamic principles which define the re¬

lationship between man and man, and between man and the community,

but there are no fixed Islamic economic, social or political

structures which have been handed down once and for all. Islamic

sources contain no description of such a system. The way in which

Muslims will carry on an economy, organize society and rule in the

future will therefore differ from the way in which they carried on

an economy, organized society or ruled in the past. Every age and

each generation has the task of finding new ways and means of im¬

plementing the basic messages of Islam, which are unchanging and

eternal, in a world which is not eternal and subject to constant

change.

Our generation must accept that risk and make the attempt.

Aware of the inevitable imperfection of definitions of this

kind, and restricting ourselves to principles which at this moment

seem to be of greater importance, I present them here in the

following order:

1.

(MAN AND THE COMMUNITY)

Islamic society is an organized community of believers.

There is no purely scientific, revolutionary, socialist or other

solely external salvation for man and society. Any salvation

which does not imply a turning towards the interior life, the

reshaping of man, his spiritual rebirth - impossible without God -

is fallacious.
 -33-

An Islamic society cannot be founded simply on social or

economic interest, nor on any other external, technical basis. As

a community of believers, its nucleus contains a religious and

emotional factor of belonging. This element may be most clearly

seen in the Jam'as,* as the fundament of Islamic society.

In contrast to a society, as an abstract community with

external relationships among its members, the Jama ‘a is an

internal, tangible community, founded on spiritual membership,

where contact between people is maintained by direct, personal

acquaintance. This is man to man, not an anonymous member of

society towards another equally anonymous member of the same

society. As a means of recognition among people and of bringing

them closer together, the Jama 'a contributes to the solidarity and

internal harmony of society, while helping to free the spirit of

the loneliness and alienation resulting from technology and

growing urbanization.

Besides this, the Jama ‘a creates a kind of public opinion

which acts without the use of force, but nonetheless efficiently,

against potential violators of social and moral norms. In the

Jama'a, no one is alone, and this is so in a double sense: he is

not alone to do whatever he likes, nor is he alone, left to

himself to find his own moral and material support. If one Muslim

does not feel the closeness of others, that Muslim society has

failed.

* Jama'a: Muslims, the Muslim society (translator’s note}

 -34-

Islam wants man to offer his hand to man, naturally and

sincerely. Until this is accomplished, nothing has really been

achieved. Islam does not agree to the perpetuation of a situation

in which the state must intervene by force to defend people from

one another. This is a situation which Islam may accept only

conditionally and temporarily. Force and the law are only the

tools of justice. Justice itself is to be found in the human

heart, or it does not exist.

2.

(EQUALITY OF PEOPLE)

Two facts of major importance - the oneness of the Deity and

the equality of man - have been laid down so clearly and explicit¬

ly by the Qu'ran, that they allow of only a single, literal inter¬

pretation: there is no god but the One God; there is no chosen

people, race, or class - all people are equal.

Islam cannot accept the division and grouping of people

according to external, objective measures such as class. As a

religious and moral movement, it finds unacceptable any different¬

iation between people which does not include moral criteria.

People must be distinguished - if they are indeed different -

primarily by what they really are, which means by their spiritual

and ethical value (Qu'ran, Surah 49/13). All just people,

regardless of how they earn their bread by day. belong to the same

community, just as blackguards and wrongdoers of all kinds belong

to the same "class", regardless of their political affinities or

place in the work process.

 35-

Class distinction is equally unjust, morally and humanly

unacceptable, as national and other division and differeritiati

among people.

3.

(THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUSLIMS)

“Muslims are brethren" (Qu'ran, 49/10). In this message, the

Qu'ran points to the goal, which because of its distance, provides

a source of inspiration for a constant' surge forwards. Enormous

changes must take place within people and without, in order to

reduce the distance on the road to the brotherhood so proclaimed.

In this principle, we see both the authorization and obliga¬

tion of the Islamic community to establish appropriate institu¬

tions and undertake specific measures, so that the relationship

between Muslims and real life may assimilate an increasing number

of the elements and features of brotherhood. The number and kind

of measures, initiatives and laws, which a truly Islamic admin¬

istration could introduce by referring to the principle of

brotherhood of all Muslims, is practically unlimited.

I would mention here great differences in social standing, in

property, with feudalism as the most drastic case. The relation¬

ship between the vassal and his feudal overlord is not a brotherly

relationship, but one of subjugation and dependence. As such, it

is in direct contradiction to the Qu’ran and this principle.

 -36

4.

(UNITY OF MUSLIMS)

Islam contains the principle of the umma. i.e. a tendency to¬

wards the unification of all Muslims in a single community -

religious, cultural and political. Islam is not nationality, but

it is the supranationality of this community.

All that divides people in this community, whether related to

ideas (sects, mazhab . political parties etc.), or material (great

differences in wealth, social standing etc.), is opposed to this

principle of unity and as such must be restricted and eliminated.

Islam is the first, and pan-Islamism the second point which

defines the boundary line between Islamic and non-Islamic

tendencies in the Muslim world today. The more Islam orders a

community's internal, and pan-islamism its external relations, the

more that community is Islamic. Islam is its ideology, and pan-

Islamism its policy.

5.

(PROPERTY)

Although Islam recognizes private property, the new Islamic

society will have to unequivocally declare that all major sources

of social wealth, particularly natural resources, must be the

property of the community and serve the welfare of all its

members. Social supervision of sources of wealth is essential in

order on the one hand to prevent the accumulation of unmerited

wealth and individual power, and on the other to ensure a material

 -37

base for development programmes In various areas, which the com¬

munity will undertake in keeping with the increasingly greater

part played by an organized society. Although differently dis¬

posed and implemented, the participation of society in solving an

ever greater number of common tasks is equally great in the USA,

the Soviet Union or Sweden, which shows that this is not a ques¬

tion of ideological or political approach, but a necessity which

springs from the life of human communities in the contemporary

world.

Private property is subject to yet another restriction based

on an explicit command of the Qu'ran - the need to use it for the

common good (Qu'ran, 49/34). Islam, therefore, does not recognize

private property as understood by Roman Law. In contrast, private

property in Sharia Law has one privilege less (ius abutendi - the

right to abuse) and one obligation more (that of using wealth for

the common good). The practical consequences of this difference

for a truly Islamic government are far-reaching. Based on this

and the dictate of the Qu’ran cited above, all legal and practic¬

al measures may be taken against abuse or failure to use private

property. The elimination of injustice, inequality and particu-

iarly luxury and extravagance in the midst of misery, as something

which devastates the community and separates people, will become

at one point the criterion for the survival of the Islamic order

and a gauge of the real values of the ethical and social stand¬

points it represents.
 -38-

6.

(ZEKAT* AND INTEREST)

Of all socially-charged Islamic regulations, one commandment

and one prohibition are specially significant: the commandment of

Zekat and the prohibition on charging interest.

The Zekat evidences the established principle of mutual

responsibility and concern people evince for the fate of another.

Once proclaimed, this principle can become the basis for new and

various forms of solicitude in keeping with society's rate of

development. Its needs and contingencies.

in the Muslim world today, the Zekat is the private affair of

each individual. In the present social and religious climate, it

has ceased to function. Its absence is evident at every turn. In

the Islamic order, the Zekat is an institution of public law.

whose functioning must be guaranteed by all available means,

including the use of force.

By forbidding the charging of interest (Qu'ran. 278/279). an'

invariable norm of the Islamic order was established, involving

the banning of any income from annuities and of parasitic life¬

styles, i.e. the achievement of wealth purely on the basis of

land as contradictory to the moral basis on which the Islamic

public order rests.

* Zekat: poor-:•rate (translator's note)

 -39-

7.

(THE REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLE)

Apart from affairs of property, Islam does not recognize any

principle of inheritance, nor any power with absolute prerogative.

To recognize the absolute power of Allah means an absolute denial

of any other almighty power (Qu'ran, 7/3, 12/40). ’’Any submis¬

sion of a creature which includes a lack of submission to the

Creator is forbidden" (Muhammad, peace be upon him) . In the

history of the first, and perhaps so far the only authentic

Islamic order - at the time of the first four Caliphs - three

key aspects of the republican principle of government may be

seen.* (1) an elective head of state, (2) the responsibility of the

head of state towards the people and (3) the obligation of both to

work on public affairs and social matters. The latter is

explicitly supported by the Qu'ran '(3/159, 42/38). The first four

rulers in Islamic history were neither kings or emperors. They

were chosen by the people. The inherited caliphate was an

abandonment of the electoral principle, a clearly defined Islamic

political institution.

8.

(THERE IS NO GOD BUT THE ONE GOD)

Insofar as we consider the establishment of an Islamic order

an incontrovertible and invincible aim. the more assuredly do we

reject the immunity of public personalities, regardless of their

 -40

merits or the positions they may occupy. The Islamic order in

this sense is a synthesis of absolute authority (related to the

programme) and absolute democracy (related to the person).

Islam does not recognize any man as all-seeing, all-knowing,

infallible and immortal. Muhammad himself was fallible, and as

such was reprimanded (Qu’ran 80/1-12). From this point of view,

the Qu'ran as a book is realistic and almost .anti-heroic. The

adulation accorded to personalities, as frequent these days as in

the past, both East and West, is absolutely foreign to Islam as it

represents a type of idolatry (Qu'ran, 9/31). The true gauge of

each man’s value is his personal life and the ratio between what

he contributes to the community and what he receives from it. All

glory and thanks are due only to God, and the true merit of man

can only be judged by Him.

9.

(UPBRINGING)

As religion is the basis of the Islamic society, upbringing

is not only one of its functions, but the state of its existence.

Tnis is above all a religious and moral upbringing through the

family and then through all stages of schooling.

The special task of the Islamic order is to fight for the

successful elimination of all forms of anti-upbringing. Islam

forbids, and the Islamic order will take specific measures to

eliminate:
 -41-

- all forms of alcoholization of the people

- public and secret prostitution

- pornography of the spoken word, in pictures, on film and

television

- casinos, night clubs, dance halls and all other forms of

entertaininment incompatible with the moral tenets of

Islam.

10.

(EDUCATION)

An important part of this type of integrated upbringing is

the schooling of the new generation, the instilling of habits of

work and training. Along with unity, education is the second most

decisive factor for the faster empancipation of the Muslim world

from its present inferior position. The Muslim countries do not

have sufficient capital. This being so, they should invest what

they have in that most profitable of all investments: education.

There can be no true independence without the ability to

apply and use the advance of science while continuing to promote

it. When it first made an appearance, Islam studied and amassed

without prejudice the collective knowledge left behind by earlier

civilizations. We do not know why the Islam of our day should

behave differently towards the processes of Euro-American

civilization with which it shares such a long border.

This is not a question, then, of whether or not we want to

accept science and technology - as we shall have to accept them

 -42-

if we wish to survive - but whether we shall do so creatively or

mechanically, with dignity or with inferiority. The question in

this inevitable development is rather if we will lose or keep our

individuality, our culture and our values.

In the light of these facts, we can with certainty say that

education in the present-day Muslim world is the institution most

in need of urgent and radical, qualitative and quantitive

change. Qualitative - for education to be set free of spiritual,

and sometimes material dependence on strangers and that it may

begin to serve for the upbringing of Muslims as people and members

of the Islamic community. Quantitive - to remove chronic

shortages in this respect and in the shortest possible time to

create condi-tions where schooling and training will be within the

reach of all young people and all strata of the population. In

the initial stages, the mosque can again serve as a school. If

our educational programmes do not fail, there is no field in which

we can be defeated.

11.

(FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE)

The upbringing of the people, and particularly means of mass

influence - the press, radio, television and film - should be in

the hands of people whose Islamic moral and intellectual authority

is indisputable. The media should not be allowed - as so often

happens - to fall into the hands of perverted and degenerate

 -43-

people who then transmit the aimlessness and emptiness of their

own lives to others. What are we to expect if mosque and TV

transmitter aim contradictory messages at the people?

This, however, does not at all mean that a spiritual

dictatorship can be created out of the Islamic order, where only

the powers-that-be would proclaim truths to a drab, mass-produced

younger generation. It only means that there are some elementary

standpoints and basic rules of behaviour, which must be respected

in all circumstances. Because of the proclaimed principle of

freedom of religion (Qu'ran, 2/266), Islam expressly forbids any

physical or psychological enforcement in questions of faith and

conscience. Furthermore, the principle of ijma (consensus)

renders this unnecessary. (“My people cannot agree in error" -

Muhammad, peace be upon him). However puritanical Islam may be

from the moral aspect, its openness to nature and joy makes it

free-thinking, as all its history bears witness. As it

recognizes God, but no dogma or hierarchy, Islam cannot turn into

a dictatorship and any form of inquisition or spiritual terror is

thereby done away with.

The Islamic rebirth cannot begin without a religious

revolution, but it cannot be successfully continued and

completed without a political one.

Our road does not begin by winning power, but people.

1
 -44

12.

(ISLAM AND INDEPENDENCE)

There is no Islamic order without independence and freedom,

and vice versa: there is no independence or freedom without Islam.

The latter has a double sense: first, independence is real and

lasting only as the result of winning spiritual and ideological

independence and if it is a sign that a people has found itself,

discovered its internal strength, without which the independence

it has gained cannot be meaningful or' longlasting. In the

affirmation of Islamic thought in practical life, each Muslim

people experiences this identification with the self, a spiritual

emancipation, as a condition of social and political liberation.

Secondly, the real support which a Muslim people gives to the

regime in power is in direct proportion to the Islamic character

of that power, the further the regime is from Islam, the less

support it will receive. Un-Islamic regimes remain almost totally

deprived of this support and therefore have to seek it, willy-

nilly, from foreigners. The dependence into which they sink is a

direct consequence of their non-Islamic orientation.

These facts determine the character of the Islamic order as a

democracy, not a democracy in form, but as reality, as a consensus

of opinion. This kind of democracy exists only where the govern¬

ment turns ideas and action into what the people feel, where it

acts as a direct expression of their will. The establishment of

an Islamic order is in fact a supreme act of democracy, because

 45

it means the realization of the deepest inclinations of the Muslim

peoples and the ordinary man. . One thing is certain: regardless of

what some of the wealthy and the intelligentsia may want, the

ordinary man wants Islam and life in his own Islamic community.

Democracy here does not come from principles and proclamations,

but from facts. The Islamic order does not use force simply

because there is no need for it. On the other hand, the un-

Islamic order, sensing the constant resistance and hostility of

the people, finds a solution in having recourse to force. Its

transformation into a dictatorship is more or less the rule, an

unavoidable evil.

i3.

(WORK AND STRUGGLE)

The Islamic society must take upon itself the task of mobil¬

izing both human and natural resources and pass measures which

will encourage work and activity. The survival, power or weakness

of an Islamic society is subject to the same laws of work and

struggle as any other community and enjoys no God-given privileges

in this respect (Qu’ran. 5/57).

Two things must be eliminated from the psychology of our

public opinion: belief in miracles and expectancy of help from

others.

There are no miracles, save those brought about by people,

through work and knowledge. There is no *mahdi who will rid us of

'mahdii religious leader, messiah (translator's note)

 -46-

our enemies, banish misery and sow enlightenment and prosperity as

if by magic. Mahdi is the word for our own laziness, or rather

for the false hope which grows out of a sense of helplessness in a

situation when the magnitude of the difficulties and problems are

out of all proportion to the means of fighting them at our

disposal.

Relying on the help of others is another form of supersti¬

tion. We have gained the habit of searching for and finding

either unselfish friends or sworn enemies among certain non-

Islamic countries, and calling this foreign policy. When we

realize that there are neither real friends nor real enemies, when

we begin to blame ourselves more and the "cunning plans of our

foes" less for our problems, the signs will be that we have begun

to mature and that a new age, more free of disappointment and mis¬

fortune, is at hand. In any case, even if there were people

prepared to give aid without seeking disproportionate political

and material favours in return, this would not change our

position. Wealth cannot be imported into a country. It must be

earned within it on the basis of work and effort. What we wish to

accomplish we must do alone. No. one can - or wants to - do it for

us.

This foundation for this programme of work and activity can

be the source of supreme encouragement. The natural wealth and

prospects of the Islamic world are enormous. Only one part of it

- Indonesia - is the third wealthiest compact territory in the

world, after the USA and the USSR. The Islamic world taken as a

whole occupies first place in this regard.

 -47

By announcing a rebirth, we are not announcing an age of

peace and security, but one of unrest and trial. There are too

many things crying out to be destroyed. These will not be days of

prosperity but of self-respect. A people which is asleep can be

awakened only by blows. Whoever wishes our community well will

not try to spare it struggle, danger and misfortune. On the

contrary, he will do his best to ensure that that community begins

to use its own forces, test all the possibilities and take risks

as soon as possible - in a word, not to sleep but to live. Only

an alert and active community can find itself and its own road.

14.

(WOMAN AND THE FAMILY)

The position of woman in Muslim society must be changed

everywhere in keeping with her task as mother and natural educator

of the younger generation. An uneducated, neglected and unhappy

mother cannot raise sons and daughters capable of instigating and

leading the rebirth of the Muslim peoples. Islam must take the

initiative of recognizing motherhood as a social function. Harems

must be abolished. No one has the right to refer to Islam as a

reason to keep women disenfranchised; abuse of this kind must be

brought to an end.

Such attitudes do not represent a Western feminism, which has

displayed a tendency to impose the measures, whims and mastery of

a depraved element among the female sex. Neither is this equality

in the European sense. It is an underlining of the equal values

 -48-

of men and women, together with the underlining of the differences

between them, which should be preserved. The principle of equal

values is a direct result of the rules on equal religious and

moral duties explicitly referred to in several places in the

Qu'ran (particularly Ayet 33/55).

Civilization has made of woman either an object for use or

one demanding servitude, but it has taken away her individuality,

which alone may cause her to be valued and respected. By neg¬

lecting motherhood, it has deprived woman of her most basic and

irreplaceable function.

In.these times, when the family is in serious crisis and its

values are being questioned, Islam reaffirms its allegiance to

this form of human life. By contributing to the security of the

family nest and excluding external and internal factors which

destroy it (alcohol, immorality, irresponsibility), Islam protects

in a practical way the real interests of the normal, healthy

woman. Instead of an abstract equality, it ensures women love,

marriage and children, with all that these three things mean to a

woman.
Family and marriage law, as formulated in the early centuries

of Islam, needs to be re-examined in conformity with present-day

requirements and the point reached in the human and social con¬

sciousness. The tendency should be to curb polygamy as much as

possible so as to eventually eliminate it completely from

practical life, while restricting divorce and working towards the

more efficient protection of women and children in both cases.

 -49

15.

(THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS)

In the struggle for the Islamic order, all means are per¬

missible except one - crime. No one has the right to defile the

good name of Islam or the struggle by the uncontrolled and super¬

fluous use of force. The Islamic community should once more

confirm that justice is one of its keystones. The Qu'ran does

not command us to love our enemies, but it categorically tells us

to be just and to forgive (Qu'ran, 4/135 and 16/126). The use of

force must comply with this principle.

Formula: the aim justifies the means has become the cause of

numberless crimes. A noble aim cannot command unworthy means; on

the other hand, the use of unworthy means rnay diminish and com¬

promise any aim. As our moral strength increases, the need for

force declines; when it comes to taking sides, this is the weapon

of the weak. What cannot be accomplished by force may be achieved

through generosity, consistency and a courageous bearing (Qu'ran,

16/125, 26/34-35).

16.

(MINORITIES)

The Islamic order can only be established in countries where

Muslims represent the majority of the population. If this is not

the case, the Islamic order is reduced to mere power (as the other

element - an Islamic society - is missing) and may turn to

 50

violence.
The non-Muslim minorities within an Islamic state, on con¬

dition they are loyal, enjoy religious freedom and all protection.

Muslim minorities within a non-Islamic community, provided

they are guaranteed freedom to practise their religion, to live

and develop normal !y, are loyal and must fulfil all their com¬

mitments to that community, except those which harm Islam and

Musiims.
The position of Muslim minorities in non-Islamic communities

will always in reality depend on the strength of the international

Islamic community and the esteem in which it is held.

17.

(RELATIONS WITH OTHER COMMUNITIES)

Relations between the Islamic and other communities through

out the world are based on the principles of: 1. Freedom of

religion (Qu'ran 2/256): 2. Strength and a decisive and active

defence (Qu'ran, 8/61-62. 42/39-42. 2/190-192): 3. A ban on wars

of aggression and crime (Qu'ran, 2/190-192. 42/42); 4. Mutual

coop¬
eration and acquaintanceship among nations (Qu'ran. 49/13); 5.

Respect for obligations and agreements undertaken (Qu'ran.. 94) and

6. Mutuality and reciprocity (Qu'ran. 9/8).

 -51-

III

PRESENT-DAY PROBLEMS OF THE

ISLAMIC ORDER

THE ISLAMIC RENAISSANCE - RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL REVOLUTION?

The Islamic order is a conjunction of faith with the social

and political system. Does the road to it lead via religious

renewal or political revolution?

The answer to this question is that Islamic rebirth cannot

begin without religious revolution, but it cannot be successfully

continued and completed without a political one.

This answer, which defines Islamic renaissance as a twofold

revolution - moral and social, but where religious renewal has a

clear priority - follows from the principles and nature of Islam,

not from the dismal facts characteristic of the Muslim world

today.
These facts speak of the seriousness of the moral state of

the Muslim world, of depravity, the rule of corruption and super¬

stition, indolence and hypocrisy, the reign of un-Islamic customs

and habits, a callous materialism and a disturbing absence of

enthusiasm and hope. Can any kind of social or political reforma¬

tion be directly initiated in circumstances such as these?

Each nation, before being called upon to play its part in

history, has had to live through a period of internal purging and

the practical acceptance of certain fundamental moral principles.

All power in the world starts out as moral firmness. Every defeat
 -52

begins as moral failure. All that is desired to be accomplished

must first be accomplished in the souls of men.

What does religious renewal mean as a prerequisite for the

Islamic order? Above all, it means two things: a new conscious¬

ness and new will.

Religious renewal is a clear awareness of the real purpose of

life, why we live and for what we should live. Is that purpose a

personal or a common standard, the glory and greatness of my race

or nation, the affirmation of my own personality or the rule of

God's law on earth? In our case, religious renewal means in

practice the "Islamization” of people who call themselves Muslims,

or whom others usually call by that name. The starting point of

this ''Islamization’’ is a firm belief in God and the strict and

genuine observance of Islamic religious and moral norms on the

part of Muslims,
The other component is a readiness to carry out the

imperatives imposed by awareness of the goal. Religious renewal

is therefore a quality of moral involvement and enthusiasm, a

psychosis of the power of mind over matter, a state of live,

practical idealism in which ordinary people become capable of

extraordinary feats of courage and sacrifice. It is a new quality

of faith and will in which everyday measures of the possible cease

to have value and in which the individual and the entire group

rise to a high degree of sacrifice for their ideal.

Without this new state of spirit and feeling it is impossible

to accomplish any real change in the present-day Muslim world.

 -53-

When considering these matters, the dilemma inevitably arises

- albeit only for a moment - that a shorter way to the Islamic

order would be by taking power, which would then create the

appropriate institutions and carry out a systematic religious,

moral and cultural education of the people, as a prerequisite for

building an Islamic society.

This is mere temptation. History does not relate any true

revolution which came from power. All began with education and

meant in essence a moral summons.

Besides, the formula which confides the establishment of the

Islamic order to some power or other does not answer the question

as to whence that power came. Who is to set it up and implement

it, and of what kind of people will it and its institutions

consist? Who will ultimately check the behaviour of that power

itself and how can it be prevented from turning monstrous and

self-serving instead of serving those in whose name it was

instituted?

It is feasible to exchange one group in power for another,

and this is an everyday occurrence. The tyranny of the one can be

traded for the tyranny of another, the owners of the wealth of

this world are interchangeable. It is possible to change the

names, flags, anthems and slogans for the sake of which all this

is done. But it is not possible by this means to come one step

closer to an Islamic order, as a new experience of the world and a

different relationship between man and himself, others and the

wor1d.
 -54

The idea of constantly calling on some power or other for

help has its roots in the natural tendency of man to avoid the

initial and hardest phase of the jihad - the struggle against

oneself. It is hard to bring up people, and even harder oneself.

By definition, religious renewal means beginning with the self,

with one's own life. In contrast, violence and force always have

someone else in mind. That is what makes the idea so seductive.

Any movement, therefore, which has the Islamic order as its

main objective, must above all be a moral movement. It must

arouse people in the moral sense and represent a moral function,

which uplifts and makes people better. This is the difference

between an Islamic movement and a political party, which may

represent a unity of thought and interest, but does not include an

ethical standard or involve people morally.

The priority given to religious renewal has, inter alia,

obvious support in Islamic sources.

First, the Qu’ran says that interior rebirth is a prerequis¬

ite of any change or improvement in the state of a people (Qu'ran

13/12).

Second, this rule was confirmed in practice in early Islam

and the struggle of Muhammad, peace be upon him, to set up the

first Islamic order in history. -This is indicated by the fact

that the Qu'ran in the first thirteen years discussed and

emphasized only questions of belief and responsibility. During

this time it did not begin to consider any social or political

problem or to formulate any kind of social law founded on Islam.

 We expect three more important things from religious renewal:

1 Only religious renewal can create the determination that

the provisions of the Qu'ran, particularly those aimed against the

more deep-rooted social ills or which are embarrassing for the

wielders of power and wealth, must be applied unhesitatingly and

uncom-promisingly. Religious renewal means that they will be

carried out without violence or hatred, as all, or a huge majority

of the reborn society, will understand and welcome them as the

implementation of God's commandments and in the cause of justice.

2. The Islamic renaissance cannot be imagined without people

prepared for enormous personal and material sacrifice, with a high

degree of mutual trust and loyal cooperation. What is it that can

ensure that effort, self-sacrifice and casualties on one side will

not be used in order to bring about the domination and ambition of

another? What can prevent a recurrence of the tragedy of moral

failure, so frequent in recent Islamic history? Every order,

including the Islamic one, will always resemble more closely the

'people who establish it rather than the principles they -proclaim.

3. Because of its colossal backwardness, the Islamic world

will have to accept a very fast tempo of education and industrial¬

ization. Accelerated development is always accompanied by

symptoms such as: despotism, corruption, destruction of the

family, the quick and unwarranted attainment of riches, the coming

to the forefront of resourceful and unscrupulous individuals, fast

urbanization and a breaking with tradition, the vulgarization of

social relations, the spread of alcoholism, drugs and

 -56-

prostitution. The dam against this flood of anti-culture and

primitivism can only be constructed from a pure, strong faith in

God and the practice of religious commandments by all classes of

people. Only religioun can ensure that civilization does not

destroy the culture. Sheer material and technical progress, as

some cases have clearly demonstrated, can vere into an open return

to barbarianism.

ISLAMIC GOVERNANCE

Stressing the priority of the religious and moral renewal

does not mean - nor can it be interpreted to mean - that the

Islamic order can be brought about without Islamic governance.

This means only that our way does not start by taking power, but

by winning people, and that Islamic rebirth is first a revolution

in education, and only then in politics.

We must therefore be first preachers and then soldiers. Our

weapons are personal example, the book, the word. When is force

to be joined to these?

The choice of this moment is always a tangible one and

depends on a series of factors. There is, however, a general

rule: the Islamic movement should and can start to take over power

as soon as it is morally and numerically strong enough to be able

to overturn not only the existing non-Islamic government, but also

to build up a new Islamic one. This differentiation is important,

because overturning and building do not require an equal degree of

psychological and material readiness.

 -57-

To act prematurely in this regard is just as dangerous as to

delay.

To take power due to a fortunate set of circumstances,

without sufficient moral and psychological preparation or the

essential minimum of staunch and well-trained personnel, means

causing another coup d'etat, and not an Islamic revolution. (The

coup d'etat is a continuation of the un—Islamic policy on the part

of another group of people or in the name of other principles).

To delay in taking power means to deprive the Islamic movement of

a powerful means of attaining its aims while offering the un-

Islamic authorities the possibility of dealing a blow to

the movement and dispersing its personnel. Recent history

provides sufficient tragic and instructive examples of the latter.

We shall ignore the “realism" which regulates the Muslim

peoples to an inferior position and leaves no room

for any hope.

History is not only the story of constant change. but of

the uninterrupted actualization of the impossible and the

unexpected.

PAKISTAN - AN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

When speaking of Islamic governance, the example of Pakistan,

today the only declared Islamic republic, cannot be omitted.

We applaud Pakistan, regardless of certain failings and

difficulties , because it is the outcome of this desire to

 -58

establish an Islamic order and because those who conceived and

brought it about were clearly led by an Islamic idea.

Pakistan is the dress rehearsal for the introduction of an

Islamic order under modern conditions and at present rates of

development. Islamic protagonists should learn what should and

should not be done from the example of Pakistan.

The negative experience of Pakistan - and negative exper¬

iences are always more important - can be summed up in two points:

1. Insufficient unity and structure of the organizing forces

who put Iqbal’s idea of Pakistan into effect. Soon after the

birth of Pakistan, it was obvious that the Muslim League had

gathered together a hodgepodge of different elements, without any

unified ideas on crucial questions such as the ordering of state

and society. From this point of view, the League was hardly more

than the average political party. Faced with the great dilemma of

Pakistan, it was unable to maintain unity.

2. A formalistic and dogmatic approach to the implementation

of Islamic assumptions in practice in Pakistan. Scholars and

jurists, instead of turning to the burning question of education,

exhausted their energies to the point of division on questions of

how rigidly Sharia criminal and marriage law should be applied.

While endless discussions were held as to whether a thief should

have his hand cut off or simply be sent to prison, an identifiable

form of stealing - corruption - became rampant and led to the

crisis which shook the foundations of the state of Pakistan.

The lessons from twenty years of Pakistan's existence are

clear:

Firstly, the struggle for an Islamic order and a thorough re¬

construction of Muslim society can be led only by tried and true

individuals at the head of a resolute and homogeneous

organization. This need not be any kind of political party from

the arsenals of western democracy, but rather a movement founded

on Islamic ideology, requiring unmistakeable moral and ideological

criteria from its membership.

Secondly, the struggle for the Islamic order today is for the

essentials of Islam, which means ensuring the religious and moral

education of the people along with the basic elements of social

justice. Form at the present moment is of secondary importance.

Thirdly, the function of the Islamic republic is not

primarily to declare equality among men and the brotherhood of all

Muslims, but to fight for the implementation of these high-minded

principles. Awakened Islam, wherever it may be, should grasp the

flag of a juster social order and make it clear that the struggle

begins with war on ignorance, injustice and poverty, a war which

knows neither compromise nor withdrawal. Should it fail to do so.

the flag will be taken by demagogues and false saviours of.

society, in order to bring about their hypocritical objectives.

These lessons have a bitter taste. We still believe in

Pakistan and its mission in the service of international Islam.

There is no Muslim heart which will not bound at the mention of

something as dear to us as Pakistan, even if this love, like

any other, knows fear and trembling. Pakistan is our great hope.
 -60

full of trials and temptations.

PANISLAMISM AND NATIONALISM

In one of the arguments for an Islamic order of today, we

said that the tendency to gather together ail Muslims and Muslim

communities in the world was a natural function of the Islamic

order. As things stand today, it means a struggle to create a

great Islamic federation from Morocco to Indonesia, from tropical

Africa to Central Asia.

We know well that mention of this vision annoys a certain

type of person in our midst - people who call and consider

themselves realists. All the more reason to emphasize this aim

loudly and clearly. We prefer to ignore this "realism" which

condemns Muslim peoples to a permanently inferior position,

leaving no room for endeavour or hope. Its source is in cowardice

and respect for the mighty of this world. The masters, it says,

should remain masters, and the vassals, vassals. History, as we

have said, however, is not only the story of constant change, but

of the continuous achievement of the impossible and the

unexpected. Almost everything which goes to make up the

contemporary world looked impossible fifty years ago.

Obviously there are two kinds of realism.- ours and that of

the weak and cowardly. We think that there is nothing more natural

or real than the requirement that Muslims should unite in various

ways in order to solve their ^omrnon problems and gradually

approach the creation of certain supranational structures -

 economic, cultural and political - in order to achieve coordina¬

tion and mutual action in certain important fields. This idea

seems unreal to our "realists'1 (read: weaklings). They sanction

the status quo, which to our understanding of realism, is a

glaring example of the unnatural and absurd. We find it, for

instance, absolutely unacceptable and unreal that in this day and

age of concentration and association, one people - Arabs - should

be broken up into thirteen units of state; that the Muslim states

stand on opposite sides on a number of significant international

questions; that Muslim Egypt is unconcerned about the sufferings

of Muslims in Ethiopia or Kashmir; that at the height of the con¬

frontation of the Arab countries with Israel, Muslim Persia

maintained friendly relations with the aggressor, etc, etc. If

anything is unreal, then it is not the unity of Muslims, but its

absence - the state of division and- discord, in fact, we find

today.

There is no historical objective - unless one that is in con¬

tradiction to natural -or historical facts - which people cannot

bring about through joint will and effort. The utopia in which

they believe and for which they strive ceases to be utopia. Our

weaklings, on the other hand, can neither believe nor work - the

explanation for their degrading "real ism". When they say that

Muslim unity is a dream which will never come true, they are only

expressing the helplessness they themselves feel. The imposs¬

ibility is not in the real world, but in their hearts. The idea

of the unification of all Muslims is not someone’s invention. nor

 -62*

the vain wish of any reformer or ideologist. It is embedded in

the Qu’ran under the well-known axiom: “Muslims are brothers’*, and

has been preserved and renewed in men's minds by Islam through the

common fast, the pilgrimage to Mecca and the Kaa'ba as a unique

spiritual shrine, thus creating a constant, identical feeling of

belonging and communality throughout the Muslim world. Anyone who

has ever gone down among the ordinary people following a disaster

in a faraway Muslim country will see for himself just how strong

this feeling of sympathy and solidarity is.

How is it, then, that this “folk pan-Islamism“, undoubtedly

present in the shape of strong feelings of the masses, does not

have much effect on the everyday life and practical policy of the

Muslim countries? Why does'it remain as just a feeling, never

rising to real awareness of a common destiny? How to explain the

fact that although news of the sufferings of Muslims in Palestine

or the Crimea, in Sinkiang, Kashmir or Ethiopia arouse feelings of

dejection and unanimous condemnation everywhere, at the same time

action is either lacking or is not at all in proportion to the

feelings which exist.

The answer to this lies in a fact which contradicts the

feelings of ordinary people: deliberate action by leading circles,

trained in the West or under Western influence, has been not pan-

Islamic but nationalist. The instinct and con-sciousness of the

Muslim peoples have been divided and opposed. In this state of

affairs, any significant action would be and will

remain impossible.
 Contemporary pan-Islamism is therefore primarily an endeavour

to attune consciousness and feelings, in order for us to desire

what we are and to reject what we are not.

This situation determines the character and fate of national¬

ism in the contemporary Muslim world.

Everywhere in the world nationalism has occurred in the shape

of a widespread movement of the people, the affirmation of their

inclinations (music, folklore and particularly language). The

Muslim countries, however, usually evince a stunted form of this,

or even a kind of non-national or a-national nationalism. The

explanation should be sought on the one hand in the fact that the

general feeling has absorbed pan-Islamism, and on the other that

nationalism here is conceived as a substitute for Islam and as

such has always represented an anti-Islamic movement. Finding

itself in natural conflict with the. people's past and traditions -

which are always and only Islamic - nationalist movements in a

number of Muslim countries actually carry on a kind of de-nation¬

alization, very similar to their colonialist predecessors. The

position of the Arab language, for instance, in some Arab

countries - at least as far as the attitude of the nationalist

administration is concerned - is not much better than at the time

of the Anglo-French occupation. If anything is done in this

respect, it lack enthusiasm, or it is the work of forces which

have yet to be born. (By comparison, the Jews successfully

introduced an almost forgotten language - Hebrew - into Israel).

The reason for this attitude towards Arabic is simple: as the

 -64

language of the Qu‘ran and Islamic civilisation, it is more the

instrument of Islamic than Arabic, pan-Arabic or other general¬

ized nationalist feeling. The protagonists of nationalism have

correctly assessed (or intuited) this and found an unprecedented

solution: they and their administrations speak the language of tne

previous occupiers(i) In the Muslim world there is no patriotism

without Islam.

These conclusions confirm in their own way that nationalist

ideas in the Muslim world are of un-Islamic origin. This is most

apparent in the Middle East, where the pioneers of nationalism are

Syrian intellectuals and Christian Lebanese, educated at the

American Institute (primarily the Syrian Protestant College) and

at the University of St. Joseph in Beirut. An examination of the

spiritual and historical roots of Attaturk’s movement in Turkey,

Sukarno's pancha sila* in Indonesia, the Baath party in some Arab

countries (particularly some of its off-shoots) and a whole series

of nationalist and “revolutionary" groups throughout the Muslim

world, confirm this conclusion. Pan-Islamism has always spring

from the very heart of the Muslim people, while nationalism has

always been imported goods.

The Muslim peoples, therefore, have no "gift” for nation¬

alism. Should we shed tears over this?

Even if we were to ignore for a moment the salient truth that

the principle of a spiritual community is superior to that of a

nation, we would have to, in view of the moment at which this

message is being written, advise our peoples not to try to

*paneha sila: five basic principles (translator‘s note)

attain this '‘ability”. Even nations who have lived for centuries

in national communities will be required in future to gradually

adapt to new forms of common life, on a broader communal base.

Farsighted people in France and Germany are today advising their

fellow-citizens to feel a little less French or German, and a

little more European. The creation of the European Economic

Community -although this claim may seem unacceptable at first

sight - is the most constructive event in twentieth-century

European history. This supra-national structure is the first real

victory of the European peoples over nationalism. Nationalism has

become a luxury, too expensive for small nations, or even for

medium-sized or large ones.

The modern world is facing development which in a certain way

bears no comparison with the past. With its incredibly expensive

programmes of education, research, business, defence and so on,

this development demands a hitherto unknown and unguessed at con¬

centration of people and resources, and objectively speaking,

offers a chance only to the great nations, or to be mo^e precise,

to leagues, of nations. Two unions presently rule the world - the

American and the Soviet - while a third is on the way - the

European Union. A community which cannot gather together a popul¬

ation of 200 million and earn 200 billion dollars in GNP - and

these figures show signs of growing - cannot keep in step and will

have to make do with an inferior position. It will not only not

govern others but will be unable to govern itself. The rate of

development ceases to be a deciding factor. Its place has been

taken by these absolute figures. China's development is far below

that of France or England, but thanks to an enormous concentration

of people and resources, evidences a certain superiority in the

current race. This situation means a chance for the Muslim world,

undeveloped but large.

There is one more thing which urgently calls for concerted

effort on the part of the Muslim countries.

The economic and cultural backwardness of the Muslim

countries is deteriorating from day to day due to a sudden growth

in their populations. Two Muslim countries - Egypt and Pakistan -

currently have the highest birthrate in the world. According to

some estimates, 20 million Muslims come into the world each year.

If growth continues at the present rate, the Muslim world will

double within its present borders by the end of the century. Can

we welcome, feed, school and employ the millions still waiting to

be born? This dramatic demographic development, if unaccompanied

by equally swift economic and social progress, is full of

potential dangers and uncertainties. Over the past twenty years,

this "demographic inflation” has mainly absorbed any growth in

production, so that GNP in the majority of Muslim countries is

less today than two decades ago. This burst of population,

instead of being a factor of power in a united Muslim world, has

become a source of crisis and despair for the disparate Muslim

countries.

It is clear that the Muslim countries cannot deal singly with

with this problem. We can face this situation and simultaneously

 67-

compensate for the lost years of backwardness and stagnation only

through a new quality - unity. What the Arabs, Turks, Persians or

Pakistanis cannot solve on their own, Muslims can, in one, joint,

coordinated effort.

Each Muslim country can construct its own freedom and

prosperity only if by doing so it also constructs the freedom and

prosperity of all Muslims. Wealthy Kuwait and Libya cannot

survive as islands of prosperity in a sea of misery. If they do

- not evirice Islamic solidarity and a desire to assist neighbouring

Muslim countries, if they are led by selfishness, will this not

direct these countries towards similar behaviour? And this would

lead to the hatred and chaos so desired by their enemies. By

carrying out their Islamic duty, the wealthy Muslim countries are

acting in their own greatest interest.

The alternative facing every Muslim country is clear: either

to unite with other Muslim countries, thus ensuring survival,

progress and the strength to face any temptation, or to lag behind

more and more with every passing day, eventually falling into a

state of dependence on wealthy foreigners. The current historic

moment give unity a new dimension: it is no longer just a fine

idea on the part of idealists and visionaries; unity has become

essential, a necessity, the law of survival and a condition for

self-respect in the world of today. Those who for whatever reason

or motive support the present factionalism, are to all intents and

purposes on the side of the enemy.

 - 68-

CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM

For reasons of space, it is not possible here to explain the

attitude of Islam towards all major doctrines and systems outside

its own sphere. It is, however, necessary to explain its attitude

towards the two major religions: Christianity and Judaism, and two

ruling world systems: capitalism and socialism.

As far as Christianity is concerned, we differentiate between

Christ's teaching and the church. The former we regard as the

pronunciation of God. deformed on some points, and the latter as

an organization, which with its inevitable hierarchy, politics,

wealth and interests, has become not only non-Islamic, but anti-

Christian. Anyone who needs to define his attitude towards

Christianity should be asked to specify whether he means Christ's

teaching or the Inquisition. The church in its history has always

swung between these two poles. The more the church is the

expression and interpreter of the ethical teaching of the Gospels,

the further it is from the Inquisition, and thus closer to Islam.

We applaud the new tendencies in the church declared by the last

Vatican Council, because we consider that to a certain extent they

come closer to the original tenets of Christianity. If Christians

so wish, the future may offer an example of understanding and

cooperation between two great religions for the well-being of

people and mankind, just as the past has been the battlefield of

their senseless intolerance and strife.

The Islamic attitude towards Judaism is based cm a similar

principle. We have lived together with the Jews for centuries,

 69-

even building a common culture, so that in some cases we cannot

with certainty say what in that culture is Islamic and what

Judaic.

However, under the leadership of the Zionists, the Jews in

Palestine initiated action which is as inhuman and ruthless as it

is shortsighted and audacious. This policy takes only a momentary

and temporary state of relations into account, losing sight of the

constant factors and the general balance of power between Jews and

Muslims in the world. In Palestine it throws the gauntlet down to

the whole Muslim world. Jerusalem is not only a question for the

Palestinians, or even for Arabs. It is a question for all the

Muslim peoples. To keep Jerusalem, the Jews would have to conquer

Islam and Muslims, and that - thank God - lies beyond their power.

We would like to differentiate between Jews and Zionists, if

the Jews themselves summon up the strength to make this

difference. We hope that the military victories which they have

chalked up against the divided Arab regimes (not against the Arabs

and not against Muslims), will not totally darken their under¬

standing and that they will start to eliminate the confrontation

which they themselves created, in order to clear the way to a

common life on Palestinian soil. If, however, they continue along

the road of pride, which at the moment seems more likely, there is

only one solution for the Islamic movement and all Muslims in the

world: to continue the struggle, to widen and lengthen it day by

day, year by year, whatever the sacrifice or however long it may

take, until they are forced to return every inch of confiscated

 -70-

land. Any bargaining or compromise which might set at risk the

elementary rights of our brothers in Palestine is'treachery, which

could destroy the moral system on which our world rests.

These opinions are not the reflection of any new policy of

Islam towards Christians and Jews, dictated by a transitory set of

circumstances. They are only a practical conclusion drawn from

Islamic principles on the recognition of Christianity and Judaism

and taken almost world for word from the Qu’ran (Qu’ran 29/45.

2/136, 5/47-49).

CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM

What are the structural forms and political shapes in which

the Islamic febirth of our day is to manifest itself? Are any of

the forms of organization and society, characteristic of Western

civilization - representative democracy, capitalism, socialism -

good for Islamic society too, and will our society be inevitably

obliged to proceed through these and similar forms?

Over the past two centuries, the idea has taken firm hold

that every country must eventually turn towards representative

democracy. Recent developments, particularly in the inter-war

period, have proved the opposite in some cases and shown that

classical democracy is not an unavoidable stage in the evolution

of the social and political community. Similarly, there are those

today who attempt to prove that socialism is the essential

direction in which human society is moving, whether it likes it or

not. Contemporary developments in the so-called capitalist

countries in Europe and America, however, quite adamantly deny

this prophecy of historic necessity and point to unexpected

aspects of development. On the other side of the world, in Japan,

a leap has been made straight from a feudal economy into what

would in Europe' be called a higher form of capitalist monopoly.

The patterns people set in order to systematize historical

development have turned out to be very relative, and if any rules

exist for the development of society, they are obviously not of

the kind described by European thought of the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries.

This imaginary determinism acted to suppress the conscience

of the previous generations,- besides this, it was exploited as a

powerful psychological means of spreading ideas. In effect, the

system influences the state of a country only to the extent to

which it instigates or directly organizes work, which is the real

source of all wealth.

Freed from the psychosis of historical’ necessity and thanks

to the middle ground whic^i Islam occupies, we can without

prejudice consider the good and bad sides of the existing systems,

no longer as capitalism and socialism, but as certain practices of

contemporary societies.

Capitalism and socialism in their pure forms no longer exist.

The speed of development after World War II left them far behind.

Only a fossilized Marxist political economy, which is becoming

less a science and increasingly the handmaid of policy, continues

 72-

to repeat the original statement, as if nothing had occurred in

the world over the past fifty years. Judging by many significant

symptoms, the classic standards of what is capitalist and what

socialist will soon be totally inadequate to denote economic and

social phenomena in the immediate future.

If we accordingly refuse to be led by slogans and terminology

and take only the facts we see in the world about us into account,

we must admit the extraordinary evolution of the capitalist world

over the past thirty years: its dynamism, its ability to set

science and the economy in motion, while ensuring a high degree of

political freedom and legal security. On the other hand, we

cannot ignore the achievements of the socialist system either,

particularly in mobilizing material resources, in education and in

eliminating traditional forms of poverty.

In the same way. we cannot lose sight of the dark and

unacceptable side of their progress and the deep crises which

occasionally convulse both systems.

The pragmatic openness of Islam towards solving questions of

world organization gives it the advantage of being able to study

without prejudice the positive and negative experiences of others,

above all the USA, USSR and Japan. These three countries

represent, in principle and practice, three very different

approaches to solving elementary questions of prosperity and

power.
The development of capitalism in the past thirty years has

demonstrated the error inherent in some of the basic assumptions

 -73-

of Marxism. Here we would mention three:

1. The contradiction between productive forces and

production relations has not shown itself to be inevitable in

capitalism. Capitalism has not only overcome the contradiction,

but has enabled a hitherto unheard of development and take-off of

production, knowledge and labour productivity:

2. The working class in leading capitalist countries has not

opted for a revolution;

3. The relationship between being and consciousness, ’■base1'

and "superstructure" is not what Marx claimed it would be. We

have capitalism in Sweden and capitalism in Argentina. The

differences in the base, in these countries are differences of

degree; the differences in their superstructures (forms of

political power, laws, religion, ruling philosophy, art and so on)

are differences, in essence.

Development in the world, then, has not followed the path

mapped out for it by Marx. The advanced countries retained cap¬

italism while continuing to develop it. while socialism came to

power in a number of underdeveloped countries, which from the

point of view of Marxism, is an inexplicable anomaly.

How should we interpret the interest evinced by the under¬

developed countries for certain forms of socialist economy?

In the first place, this has shown itself to be useful when

organizing an extensive economy, appropriate to countries which

have no starting point, in that they have neither capital,

expertise, work routines or much else; secondly, more backward

 -74-

environments adapt more easily to the various types of restriction

(a lesser degree of personal freedom, centralism, strong govern¬

ment etc.) which always accompany certain types of socialism;

thirdly, although outclassed as a science, socialism has

survived as a myth and an adventure. This very important aspect

of socialism more than explains its greatly growing influence in

Catholic and Latin countries in comparison with Protestant and

Germanic ones.

In contrast, the pragmatic spirit of capitalism is more

suited to the rationalism of a developed society. It has been

proved that developed forms of capitalist economy function

successfully in a society with democratic forms of government, an

advanced level of culture and a high degree of personal and

political freedom. In conditions such as these, some of the more

inhuman aspects of capitalist economy can actually be considerably

neutralized without any major impairment of its efficiency.

So the imaginary inevitability of this system or that comes

to nothing. What is. in fact, inevitable is the continuous mobil¬

ity of the economy, based on the continued advance of science and

technology. The perfecting of the work process and its tools is,

it seems, the only activity in which people “must" engage in this

domain.

Accordingly, neither Islam nor the world at large is faced

with the dilemma of capitalism or socialism, as any such dilemma

is imaginary and artificial. There is. however, the question of

choosing and constantly working to perfect a system of relations

between property and production, which will be efficient and in

harmony with the Islamic understanding of social justice; which

will stimulate work and activity in the best possible way and

solve the problems posed by the inevitable development of

production and technology.

CONCLUSION

These are some of the main ideas and essential dilemmas of

the Islamic rebirth, which is taking increasing hold of people’s

minds as a general transformation of the Muslim peoples — moral,

cultural and political. In the rnidst of all the defeat and

disappointment, the Islamic rebirth is a name to inspire hope and

a way out for an extensive region of the world.

No Muslim for whom adherence to Islam is not sheer coinci¬

dence, but rather a programme and a duty, can reject this vision,

but many in their indecision will enquire: where are the forces

which will make it come true?

To answer this unavoidable question, we point to the new

Islamic generation who will soon come of age. This generation of

one hundred million boys and girls, born into Islam, growing up in

the bitterness of defeat and humiliation, united in a new Islamic

patriotism, who will refuse to live on old fame and alien help and

who will gather around aims which mean truth, life and dignity -

bear within them the strength to bring about this impossible

undertaking and to confront every trial.

 -76-

This generation could not have appeared before. The epoch

of illusion and error had to be lived through to the end. in order

to show the powerlessness of false gods, of various fathers of the

homeland and saviours of society, kings and mahdis. for them to

beat us on Sinai, endanger Indonesia, unsettle Pakistan, talk much

of freedom, prosperity and progress while creating only tyranny,

poverty and corruption - all this was necessary in order for us to

arrive at a time of sobriety, for a generation to be born to whom

it is clear that all this was but aimless wandering and that there

is only one way out for the Islamic world: to turn to its own

spiritual and material sources, which means Islam and Muslims.

The Islamic world today is an extraordinary patchwork of

peoples, races, laws and influences, but there is one thing which

is met in every corner of that world with the same respect and

loyalty: the Qu’ran, one feeling which is the same in Java, India,

Algeria or Nigeria: the feeling of belonging to the general

Islamic community. These two loyalties in the elementary feelings

of millions of ordinary people hold reserves of quiet energy and

represent something which is the same throughout the Muslim world

today. Because of them the Muslim world is even now an emotional

community of international dimensions, perhaps the only multi¬

national emotional (but not organized) community in the world.

As an integral part of these feelings and the result of the

long influence of Islamic ethics, we constantly meet, in the form

of folk wisdom, with vital concepts of human equality, social

 -77-

justice, tolerance and merhama* towards all life forms. These

facts do not of themselves mean a better and more humane world,

but they do mean the promise of one.

These feelings indicate that the Muslim world is alive, for

where there is love and fellow-feeling, there is not death but

life. The Islamic world is not a desert; it is virgin soil await¬

ing the ploughman’s hand. Thanks to these facts, our task becomes

real and possible. It consists of turning these feelings, now only

potential forces, into active ones. -Loyalty to the Qu’ran should

grow into determination to apply it; the Islamic community of

emotions should turn into an organized, aware community, and folk

humanism into clear ideas, which will become the moral and social

character of future laws and institutions.

Who will carry out this transformation, and how shall it be

done?

Every action taken in relation to events is social action.

Every successful struggle can only be a joint, organized struggle.

The younger generation will be able to carry out its task of

transformation only if its inclinations and idealism are poured

into an organized movement, in which the enthusiasm and personal

value of the individual will be correlated with methods of joint,

coordinated action. The creation of this movement with a single

basic aim and programme is an irrevocable condition and starting

point for rebirth in every Muslim country.

*merhama: mercy (transistor 's note)

 -78-

This movement will gather together what is built, raise the

unbuilt, elevate and call on people, define aims and find a way to

attain them. It will introduce life, thought and action

everywhere. It will become the conscience and will of a world

awakening out of a long, deep sleep.

In sending this message to all Muslims throughout the world,

we wish clearly to state that there is no promised land, no

miracle-workers or mahdis. There is only the way of work,

struggle and sacrifice.

In times of trial let us always have in mind two things.-

behind us stands God’s blessing and the consent of our people.

YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SAY THAT YOU DID NOT KNOW!