Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity. Tariq Ramadan

(Qur’ān, 2:286)

      … no soul laden bears the load of another. (Qur’ān, 17:15)

      Thus is life, and this trial is the lot of all human beings from the beginning of time:

      [He] who created death and life, that He might try you which of you is fairest in works; and He is the All-mighty, the All-forgiving. (Qur’ān, 67:2)

On the juridical plane, this implies an imposed rule in the modality of reading the Qur’ān and the Sunna as soon as it is stipulated that permission comes first. Everything that is not clearly prohibited by God is in fact allowed. ¹⁹ The prohibition acts both as a limitation as also an orientation. For, by the imposition of limits, the Creator reveals to man the dimension of meaning and points out to him a horizon of values whose respect will build his humanity and dignity. However, the prohibitions, when considered in their entirety, are restrained. What remains for man, in terms of field of action and engagement, is infinitely expanded. In this sense, Yusuf al-Qaradawi is right in clarifying that the original permission does not cover only the natural elements, the different meats and drinks, but also actions, habits, diverse customs, and, therefore, all social affairs. Everything is allowed except that which contradicts a stipulated or known prescription. The dignity of man tends, in its capacity, to blend the two attitudes: to respect the limits and to restore the gift of his humanity.

“That which is lawful is plain, and that which is unlawful is plain. Between the lawful and the unlawful there are matters of doubt which only a few people know. He who steers clear of them has preserved his religion and honour. But he who falls in these doubtful matters will indulge in the unlawful. He will be like the shepherd whose cattle graze around an enclosure in which they risk to fall at any time. Each sovereign possesses a reserved domain; that of God is all of His prohibitions. There is in the body a piece of flesh, which if sound, it renders all the body sound; but if it is corrupted the whole body will become corrupted; this piece of flesh is the heart.” ²⁰

      The conscience that the universe is given and wherein are the paths of gift, permission and trust, must come first. There is in a man a nature which is a benediction. It allows him to attain a serenity which is at the source of God’s pardon and love. Then, the conscience of limit must act and this in the inward conviction of being responsible before God and not in that of the primacy of his culpability. ²¹

3. The rights of God and the responsibility of men

      The whole conception of man that Islam offers, of his rapport with the universe and with others, derives from the three foundations that we have just presented. The principle of the Creator’s ownership, that of gerency, within which enters the idea of original permission are the substratum of the Islamic religion. “Submission” which is the literal translation of the word “Islam”, from the very moment when faith is expressed, is the acknowledgement of this essential order: to submit is to accept the freedom to be human and responsibles before the Creator; it is to make the limits one’s own:

Those are God’s bounds; keep well within them (do not transgress them). So God makes clear His signs to men; haply they will be godfearing. ²² (Qur’ān, 2:187)

      The order of the universe and the sacredness of the elements which ought to be respected, the limits that ought not to be transgressed, are in the consciousness of the faithful the rights of God on the whole creation. In Islam this consciousness is marked, from the beginning and beyond any adherence to a specific religion, by the acknowledgement of transcendence. Whosoever makes his way towards the origin will find in himself this natural aspiration (fitra) towards God:

And when thy Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify touching themselves, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes, we testify’ – lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘As for us we were heedless of this.’ ²³ (Qur’ān, 7:172)

      To make one’s life and freedom a daily witness of this acknowledgement is the responsibility of man. His manner, by memory and gesture, should be to sing the praises of his Creator with the same chanting that frees the flapping of a bird’s wings, the succession of days and nights, or a grain when it splits open giving life:

      The seven heavens and the earth, and whosoever in them is, extol Him; nothing is, that does not proclaim His praise, but you do not understand their extolling. Surely He is All-clement, All-forgiving. (Qur’ān, 17:44); It is God who splits the grain and the date-stone, brings forth the living from the dead; He brings forth the dead too from the living. So that then is God; then how are you perverted? He splits the sky into dawn, and has made the night for a repose, and the sun and the moon for a reckoning. That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing. It is He who has appointed for you the stars, that by them you might be guided in the shadows of lands and sea. We have distinguished the signs for a people who know. It is He who produced you from one living soul, and then a lodging-place, and then a repository. We have distinguished the signs for a people who understand. (Qur’ān, 6:95–8)

      To say that God has rights, is to say that the essence of man is at one and the same time free and responsible. Clearly, man has got the responsibility – the duty – to give an account of his freedom.

This formulation, paradoxical in appearance, conveys well enough the meaning of human life. God willed the order of the world as it is, He decided the diversity of colours and religions; it is the expression of His right. Man, being free, should acknowledge this order and respect, in the other, the right of God. So here we can see the perspectives reversed. There is here no question of tolerance ²⁴ that the believer may condescendingly have towards others. The right “to be” is given to all and the duty of each towards God is to acknowledge it. To give oneself the right to tolerate, is transgressing a limit … it is violating, inwardly, the right of God:

      To every one of you We have appointed a right way and an open road. If God willed, He would have made you one nation; but that He may try you in what has come to you. So be you forward in good works; unto God shall you return, all together; and He will tell you of that whereon you were at variance. (Qur’ān, 5:48)

      The differences of peoples and nations, the specificities of cultures, the particularities of customs are willed by God. It is a richness, but it is also a trial, in that it is difficult for man to conceive of and to live the difference in all its aspects. It is a fact and a challenge. The Qur’ān indicates here that the best way of pointing out and addressing this aspect of terrestrial life is to vie with one another in goodness. And this in all our acts and in the depth of our thoughts; with our gestures, words and hearts. There is no need for tolerance, for there is in everything and before everyone, in all horizons and colours, a need to witness the exigency of truth, goodness and justice.

       Notes

1. The Times and the French L’Express have increased this kind of title.

2. This shift in university specialisation is more and more frequent. The specialists of socio-political Islamic movements have become specialists of contemporary Islam. All this happens as if the Muslims of today do not think any more, do not rethink their sources and points of reference; from now on they are bent on reacting.

3. The Sunna, or the reported traditions of the Prophet (peace be upon him)