In the Name of God, the
Compassionate, the Merciful
The era of classical Islam is over. It
effectively ended with the dismantling of the Caliphate in
the 1920s. Islam has entered the modern or post-Caliphate
era.
Contrary to the views of the modernists
and progressivists the ending of the era of classical Islam
was a falling away from a former sanctity, a descent into
modernity which is characterized by confusion, profanity,
decadence, forgetfulness and spiritual decline.
At the same time, contrary to the views
of reactionaries and restorationists, the ending of the
classical era and the fall into modernity was inevitable and
cannot be reversed. Movements to restore the Caliphate and
reinstate other features of the classical era are futile and
destructive. Movements that cling to classical forms are in
denial as to the realities of modern circumstances.
We have no choice but to find a
legitimate response to the modern impasse. The modern era is
- perforce - a new era of ijtihad, a quest for a new
settlement of Islamic expression that is appropriate to
modern circumstances and modern challenges.
One of the features of the end of
classical Islam is the stagnation and decay of the
traditional schools of law (madhabs). Most Muslims no longer
subscribe to a single madhab anymore and are searching for
new forms of guidance. There are no prospects that the
madhabs will be restored.
Another feature of modern Islam is the
globalization of the Ummah and the dissolution of any
meaningful notion of Dar al-Islam as a geographical bloc.
There are no prospects that the Dar al-Islam will be
restored. The old certainties have gone. As geo-political
entities both Dar al-Islam and Christendom have been swept
away.
The realization of these facts and the
transition to an effective and legitimate modern Islam has
been and continues to be hampered by the ideology of
Wahabism and the Wahabi control of the Muslim Holy Places
along with neo-Arabism, nationalism and other profane
ideologies which have infected the faith.
The most encouraging development in
modern Islam has been the establishment of large Muslim
communities in the West. It is the mission of these
communities - those who have crossed the historical
threshold - to address the realities of modernity and to
shape a viable Islam for today. It is in these communities
that an Islam relevant to the challenges of modern times is
most likely to take shape.
Therefore, in submission to Allah, the
One, the Everlasting Refuge:
We seek to reinterpret the traditional
categories of 'Abode of Peace' and 'Abode of War' so that
the 'Abode of Peace' is understood not as a distinct
geographical bloc but as any jurisdiction in which Muslims
are free and safe to practise all the essentials of their
religion and to understand the 'Abode of War' as any
jurisdiction in which this freedom is thwarted. We reject
the idea that Muslims are some exotic species that can only
live in a special habitat.
We seek to promote a recognition of
Islam, not as an "exotic", "alien" or "eastern" religion,
but as an occidental religion in the same family as
Christianity and Judaism and understood, where appropriate,
through its consonances in and contributions to the Western
tradition. We reject the idea that Islam and the West are
locked into an inevitable "clash of civilizations".
We seek to foster an Islam with a broad
and sympathetic view of the Abrahamic family of religions
and in which there is engagement with all four scriptures,
Torah, Psalms, Gospel, Koran with the Koran understood as
the final scripture, the Criterion and the inviolable,
uncreated Word of God.
We seek to remove cultural, linguistic
and other obstacles to a legitimate and viable Western
expression of Islam while remaining true to the essence of
the religion and keeping its fundemental forms and tenets
intact and elucidated in new but appropriate ways.
We seek to avoid all fundamentalist,
regressive, restorationist and extremist viewpoints and to
develop expressions of Islam outside of the ideological and
financial influence of Wahabi Saudi Arabia which are not, at
the same time, so liberal that they violate the core values
of Islam.
We seek to find within Islam a universal
perspective in which Islam, as both first and last
revelation, is regarded as encompassing the primordial and
perennial spiritual heritage of all mankind and is therefore
understood to be intrinsically ecumenical.
We seek to reassert an Islam in which the
remembrance of God is understood as the essence of Islamic
spirituality, in which all Muslims are free to remember God
in their own way, true to their own conscience, and in which
the Koranic promise "Remember Me and I will remember you" is
taken as the essential Islamic covenant.
We seek to nourish an Islam with a
sympathetic view of Sufism, the Sufi heritage, the Sufi
saints and the continuing work of Sufi brotherhoods in
contrast to political Islam and other forms of
externalism.
We seek to cultivate an Islam that
promotes unity among Muslims and understanding between
Sunnis and Shias, a tolerant Islam that regards the Shia as
brothers in the faith, that respects and values the Shia
tradition and that avoids divisive sectarian
viewpoints.
We seek to develop an Islam that employs
the Koran as the test for the authenticity of hadith and
that brings the criterion of the Koran to the full wealth of
the wisdom traditions preserved in centuries of Hadith
literature.
We seek to encourage an Islam that offers
an intelligent and penetrating critique of modernity,
science, technology and the industrial world order and that
responds to the modern crisis by reference to primordial
truths unswayed by the presumptions of progress and profane
ideologies.
We seek to articulate an Islam that
asserts the divine character of Law and that understands the
Sharia not as an ossified medieval code of jurisprudence but
as a bedrock of universal principles in conformity to which
Muslims are to strive live wherever they may be.
We seek to advance an Islam that is true
to the revolution initiated by the Prophet - peace be to him
- in the status of women and that promotes a truly equal
polarity between man and woman, respecting their contrasts
and their complements, without conceding to decadent
genderlessness, "gender wars" and destructive and hateful
forms of feminism.
We seek to formulate an Islam in which
all adult Muslims are deemed capable of forming valid
opinions based on Scripture, the Sunnah, and the intelligent
application of God-given reason to the many tools of
ijtihad.
We seek to uphold an Islam in which there
is no priesthood, that is wary of entrenched clerical
structures, and in which every man and woman is spiritually
responsible for their own souls as both servant and deputy
of God.
We seek to further an Islam that rejects
the idea of the Islamic State and that sees the task of the
modern era as transcending territorial limitations - and the
institution of the nation state - to make Islam into a truly
global brotherhood.
We seek to nurture an Islam that offers
an appropriate response to the modern ecological crisis with
an emphasis on ecological stewardship as a duty of mankind
as God's deputy (caliph) on earth.
We seek to champion an Islam with an
unflinching commitment to economic and social justice and in
which the exercise of generosity, fairness, charity and
mercy are paramount values.
We seek to stimulate a revival of the
Isamic humanities and Islamic arts to counter-balance the
influence of science and technology upon contemporary
Islamic thought.
Above all we seek to reiterate the
metaphysical heart of the Islamic faith and to place the
inner within and the outer without.
We strive to create a community of
Muslims who are centred in God, who live in submission to
His Will, who are devoted to remembrance of Him, who are
sincere in faith, who embody the God-created dignity of
humanity in themselves and in their actions, men and women
who are intelligent, discerning and spiritually and
culturally literate, who are responsible and useful beings,
and who offer mature and relevant perspectives on the many
crises of modernity as leadership to Islam in these troubled
times.
Unto Him is the real prayer! - Koran
13:14
Eid al-Fitr, 1428 AH
