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

him from Baghdad to Cairo. When he was asked about the reason for such modification when Islam is but one, his reply was such that the realities of Baghdad were different to those of Cairo, and that laws which were valid in one place were not necessarily so in the other. In other words, he conveyed the fact that if the letter of the Qur’ān and the Sunna are one, their concrete application is plural and supposes an adaptation.

This job of adaptation, which is the work of jurists and is known by the name fiqh, regroups the whole of Islamic jurisprudence, as much for that which deals with aspects of worship as for that dealing with social affairs. If the rules which codify worship are never modified, it is not so when it comes to the treatment of social affairs. In the case of the latter, realities fluctuate and fiqh, when well understood, is a given answer made in a given moment of history, by a jurist who has “made an effort” to formulate an Islamic legislation. We should salute such a job, but we do not have to sanctify the jurist’s decisions or propositions. The issue of resolving the problems of modern life is one of the major problems facing Muslims today. ¹⁴ Often, they either mistake the spirit of the Qur’ānic injunctions with the sense that such or such a jurist had given to them in the first period of Islam, or find it very hard to think out a legislation which is drawn from the fundamental sources but which is at the same time really in tune with our time.

      We can see explicitly, from the beginning and up to the present time, that Islam has always required its faithful to concretely and rationally think their relation with the world and with society. Many Orientalists have pointed out that one of the specificities of Islam is the priority given, from the beginning, to juridical reflection rather than to theological consideration, and this because Islam, in its essence, blended together the private and public spheres and, consequently, the search for concrete answers was imposed. This blending reveals a particular conception of man and the universe.

      We have tried to show that nothing in Islam is opposed to the fact of apprehending change or to accepting progress, but it still remains that we have to put in evidence the specificities of the Islamic conception of the human being and of the universe. This is a question, in fact, of analysing some of the most general and absolute principles, which we have spoken about earlier, in order to measure how they can convey a certain idea of modernity, and which will not, nevertheless, be assimilated to its Western actualisation.

       III. God, Creation and Men

1. The Creator and gerency

      The existence of the One, Creator God is the dogma of Islam. The principle deriving from this is that the whole universe belongs to God Who is, by essence, the Owner. We find often reported in the Qur’ān, the expression:

      To God belongs all that is in the heavens and earth. (Qur’ān, 2:284)

      It is indeed the idea conveyed in these verses which associates the Divine ownership of the heavens and earth, the sacred dimension of beings and the elements of Creation, and lastly, the recall of the destiny of men:

      Hast thou not seen how that whatsoever is in the heavens and in the earth extols God, and the birds spreading their wings? Each – He knows its prayer and extolling; and God knows the thing they do. To God belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and earth, and to Him is the homecoming. Hast thou not seen how God drives the clouds, then composes them, then converts them into a mass, then thou seest the rain issuing out of the midst of them? And He sends down out of heaven mountains, wherein is hail, so that He smites whom He will with it, and turns it aside from whom He will; well-nigh the gleam of His lightning snatches away the sight. God turns about the day and the night; surely in that is a lesson for those who have eyes. (Qur’ān, 24:41–4)

      Thus, on recalling this dimension, the believer perceives that the whole of Creation is sacred and that he should use the elements with respect and gratitude. He is, as the Qur’ān says, but the gerent who should give account of his acts:

      It is He who has appointed you viceroys in the earth, and has raised some of you in rank above others, that He may try you in what He has given you. (Qur’ān, 6:165)

      Thus, man lives in a universe whose entire elements are signs whenever he remembers God. The elements are sacred as soon as the memory of faith is invoked. They become profane by forgetfulness and negligence. This shows how great is man’s responsibility. In addition to the trust of faith, he should give account of his management of the world. Such is the meaning of the Qur’ānic simile:

      We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to carry it and were afraid of it; and man carried it. Surely he is sinful, very foolish. (Qur’ān, 33:72)

      Man is certainly free, but it is a freedom which has its requirements in the fullest sense of the word. ¹⁵

2. The original permission

The whole universe is the work of the Divine Will. In the absolute, this work is good and reveals good for man. Nature welcomes him and nature directs him. It is a fundamental rule in Islam ¹⁶ to assert the priority of permission – and thus of freedom – in our rapport with the world and with men. This original per mission (al-ibāḥa al-aṣliyya) ought to be conveyed by a particular comprehension of our being in the world. Freedom and innocence are the first states of man in an open world; more intimately, in a given world:

      It is He who created for you all that is in the earth… (Qur’ān, 2:29)

      Have you not seen how that God has subjected to you whatsoever is in the heavens and earth, and He has lavished on you His blessings, outward and inward? (Qur’ān, 31:20)

      Man, thus, conceives of the universe, to which he belongs, as a gift and its elements as given benefits to his presence, and witnesses to his responsibility. The field of prohibition is very restrained in comparison to the horizon of what is possible. It is this that the reading of the Qur’ān confirms and what Muḥammad (peace be upon him) reminded his first Companions with:

      “What God has rendered licit in His book is certainly licit; what He has rendered illicit is illicit; and regarding that which He has kept quiet about, it is a bounty from Him. Therefore accept the bounty of God because it is inconceivable that God could have forgotten anything.” Then he recited the following verse of the Qur’ān:

… And thy Lord is never forgetful… (Qur’ān, 19:64) ¹⁷

In another tradition, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “God has prescribed obligations, do not neglect them; He has set limits, do not trespass them; He prohibited certain things, do not transgress them. He kept quiet about certain things, out of bounty for you, do not try to know them.” ¹⁸ Adam and Eve, both responsible for disobeying the only prohibition set for them by God, will be forgiven, that is after their act and their life on earth be a trial which takes its source from innocence and its meaning in responsibility:

      And We said, ‘Adam, dwell thou, and thy wife, in the Garden, and eat thereof easefully where you desire; but draw not nigh this tree, lest you be evildoers.’ Then Satan caused them to slip therefrom and brought them out of that they were in; and We said, ‘Get you all down, each of you an enemy of each; and in the earth a sojourn shall be yours, and enjoyment for a time.’ Thereafter Adam received certain words from his Lord. And He turned towards him; truly He turns, and is All-compassionate. (Qur’ān, 2:35–7)

      In this place of sojourn which is earth, man is born innocent and successive Revelations come to mark the way (Sharī‘a, in the original sense of the term) for him and specify limits. Each, according to his capacity, will be responsible for their respect and each shall account for his actions: