CONTENT

182

CONTENTS

Preface

9 Introduction

19

Islamic History Through the Lens of Orientalism

31

Islam and the West—Dr. Philip K. Hitti

The Christian View

45

The Call of the Minaret, The Dome of the Rock—Dr. Kenneth Cragg, noted in Contemporary Islam

The Jewish View

71

Jews and Arabs—S.D. Goitein

The Sociological View

97

Islam and the Integration of Society—Montgomery Watt

The Secular View

111

Islam in Modern History—Wilfred Cantwell Smith

The Humanist View

136

Egypt in Search of a Political Community—Nadav Safran

The Modernist View

153

Modern Trends in Islam—H.A.R. Gibb

The Conspiracy of Orientalism

164

Islam and Pakistan—Freeland Abbott

Epilogue FUELOU

СОЙДЕИІ

PREFACE

I was born forty-six years ago into a pleasant and prosperous suburb near New York City. My ancestry was German and my family, through living there four generations, had become entirely assimilated to American life. My great-grandparents had migrated from Germany between 1848-1861 seeking brighter economic opportunities. Although of Jewish origin, neither my mother nor my father were observant, their Jewishness being purely nominal. Thus I was raised like my elder sister in a typical American environment and received an ordinary secular education at the local public schools.

My curiosity, interest and later my obsession with Islam can be traced back as far as when I was a child of ten who was fascinated with the historical relationship between the Jews and the Arabs. At first I was interested in the Arabs only so far as they had any impact upon the Jews and Judaism but it was not long before I discovered that the original Semitic heritage of the Jews since the days of ancient Greece had been much diluted and adulterated with 10 the civilization of Europe while until the rise of European imperialism in the 18th-19th centuries, the Arabs had preserved their Semitic heritage intact. I then reached the conclusion that the Arabs must be the only real Semites while the Jews were Semites in little more than name. After World War II when almost all of Christendom renounced its two millennia of anti-Semitism and rallied most enthusiastically behind the cause of Zionism, I could no longer identify myself emotionally with the Jews and began to think of myself as if I were an Arab! I then began a ten-year course of self-study of whatever books I could find on the subject to prove that the anti-Arab propaganda was not justified. In the public libraries of the schools I attended, there was no lack of material and throughout my adolescence in New York, I gleaned whatever books I could find on the Arabs and Islam from the numerous works all written from the viewpoint of the Christian missionary, orientalism or Zionism. Paradoxically, the more anti-Islamic propaganda I read, the more fervently I felt compelled to prove both to myself and to others that it was malicious and distorted.

As I neared adulthood, I became convinced that it was not the Arabs that had made Islam great but the reverse. Had the Arabs not embraced Islam, they would today be as insignificant as the Zulu tribes in South Africa; Arabic would be only another obscure primitive dialect, probably by now, long extinct. I was finally attracted to Islam because it alone among all the 11 religions of the world, offers the most satisfying and convincing answers to all the great questions of life while the extant teachings of other faiths are restricted and fragmentary.

Islam alone is all-embracing, giving total and comprehensive guidance on all vital aspects of individual and collective existence which being divinely revealed and self-sufficient, insists upon absolute moral values and most vehemently rejects the eclecticism, innovations and moral relativity I so much abhorred as responsible for the evil I saw all around me.

The more I studied Islam, the more I grew convinced that the implicit acceptance of this faith was the only road not only to righteousness and spiritual perfection but also the most potent medicine for mental health. Its demand that everything must be judged according to a single standard of absolute values, transcending the limitations of time or place, makes the individual an integrated personality. Islam demands that the individual devote his concentrated attention towards fulfilling his duties of worshipping Allah and his serving his fellow beings and abandon as useless all vain pursuits which distract him from that end. The purpose of life is to please Allah through implicit obedience to His Divine Law in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet and attain eternal salvation in the Hereafter. According to Islamic teachings, life is not a pleasure-trip but an examination. Every minute of our lives we are being tested by God for our faith or lack of faith and the suffering and 12 misfortune we endure on this earth is not the decisive calamity but only part of the testing. Allah did not put us here to be happy and enjoy ourselves but that we may succeed or fail in His examination, the final results of which will not be known until the Hereafter.

Islam encourages self-protection. Because the individual Muslim personifies Islam itself, Islam could not exist on earth without him. That is why the Muslim is forbidden to wilfully injure himself or commit any self-destructive act. He is not allowed to eat dirty foods like swine-flesh as these will impair his physical, mental and moral health. He is forbidden to drink poisonous beverages or consume intoxicants such as narcotics or alcohol which destroy the body and mind. He is not allowed to indulge in excess of any kind because these all result in self-destruction. Above all, he is forbidden to commit suicide under any circumstances. As life and death can occur only by Divine decree, Islam regards suicide as one of the most unpardonable sins because the taking of one’s life demonstrates a complete absence of faith in Allah and the Hereafter. Hence suicide among genuine believers is virtually unknown. The true believer places his total reliance upon Allah and performs his duties to obey the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet. He never suffers any sense of failure even if his efforts do not appear to bear fruit during his lifetime. The genuine believer in Islam is not jealous of other men because of their happiness, health or

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success because he cannot know what will be their fate after death. The true Muslim is the most courageous of all men because he fears only Allah and is certain that Allah is always near to protect him and since he knows that his fate has already been predetermined, nobody can cause his injury or death before its allotted time. Belief in this doctrine of predestination gives the faithful courage and strength of mind. Whatever happens, the genuine Muslim takes positive and constructive action. If it is a good thing, he will exploit its advantages. If it is a calamity, he should think only of its positive side because there is a lesson in every experience. When a Muslim is afflicted with some inevitable tragedy, he accepts it with serene resignation.

Unbelievers deceive themselves by attempting to flee from the inevitable. When they find themselves overwhelmed by adversity, they drown themselves in alcohol, narcotics or commit suicide. By attempting to flee from the inevitable, one only destroys his own mind and soul. Pessimism is forbidden in Islam because it kills hope and striving. To hope for death to finish earthly suffering is unlawful because by living longer, the Muslim may yet win salvation through an increase in his good works and thus expiate his sins while death ends these opportunities forever.

Thus the Muslim possesses everything he needs to make him happy. “Islam” literally means “peace”—peace with Allah, peace with one’s self, peace with one’s fellow beings and eternal peace in the Life Hereafter.

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Islam does not only result in the harmonious integration of the individual personality but the integration of his society as well. A specific environment with its own values is indispensable. As a realistic practical way of life, Islam assumes that the people who live according to its path will be living in an Islamically-governed society. Without an Islamic environment, the life of the individual becomes impossible or at least, extremely difficult.

Therefore whoever wishes to be Muslim must understand that he cannot devote himself to the practice of Islam except in a Muslim environment. The Muslim knows that his faith cannot hope to thrive under the domination of an alien, conflicting culture. This is why an Islamic government and an Islamic state are essential if Islamic injunctions are to be properly and fully enforced. The Muslim cannot possibly accept the Christian dictum: “Give unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things which are God’s.” Islam does not tolerate secularism. Everything belongs to Almighty Allah. Politics must be subordinated to moral ends rather than dictated by mere expediency. Islam believes above all in the rule of law under which ruler and ruled alike are equally subjected. In the Islamic state, the sacred Shariah is the sovereign. This prevents tyranny, lawlessness and social anarchy.

The result of Islamic teachings is to strengthen and cement all the human ties without which society collapses.

The foundation of human society is the family. Islamic teachings place great stress on the

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necessity for marriage, condemns celibacy and monasticism and makes every form of sexual relationship outside of marriage a serious crime deserving of the harshest legal penalties. In order to discourage all temptations for illicit sex, Islam demands modesty and decency in dress, sobriety and dignity in behaviour and bans the free social intermingling of the sexes.

All forms of obscenity, vulgarity and frivolity in the amusements are forbidden and the young esteem the old with respect. Older people are urged to treat children with love and affection. Husbands are taught to be kind and considerate to their wives and wives, loyal and obedient to their husbands. Children are taught to obey their parents in all except that which is sinful and even if parents be unbelievers, children are still obliged to treat them with cordiality and respect. Islam cements not only kinship ties but provides for mutual help and compassion with neighbours and all brethren in faith. Muslims retain with non-Muslims the common ties of humanity and the Shariah grants to all non-Muslims living under Islamic rule, their rights to the protection of their lives, property, their own religious laws and the right to perpetuate their religion and culture by living in their own autonomous communities and educating their children in their own schools. Even those non-Muslims who commit overt hostile acts against Muslims are entitled during Jihad to be treated with justice and fairness.

Islam divides men only on the basis of their belief. Islam

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recognizes no distinction for treatment of men because of social status, class, race, cultural or national origin. Nationalism and Islam are irreconcilable. Thus Muslim societies are to this day free from the greatest curse of the West—racial discrimination.

Despite the decay of Muslim civilization and the corruption of so many Muslims swayed by alien ideologies, Islam is still an active and vital force in the world today, the only formidable potential rival to the atheism and materialism of contemporary culture, boldly challenging all it stands for.¹ Furthermore, the bulk of the simple, common people and even a considerable number of the modern educated youth still retain their love and zeal for their faith and want it to prevail as the decisive factor in their individual and collective life. Thus if the non-Muslim finds the forces favouring Islam weak at present, he should understand that this is not due to any intrinsic deficiency or inadequacy in its teachings but only to the lack of effective organization and leadership.

The learned orientalists and shrewd politicians of the West are thoroughly aware of these facts. Hence, the special departments in universities and seminaries scattered throughout Europe and America dedicated to understand Islam only to enable its enemies to destroy it. These “Islamic Institutes” and “Islamic Research Centres” are now

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busy establishing their satellites in one Muslim country after another, the purpose of which is to subvert the Islamic cause from within and frustrate any attempts for a genuine Islamic renaissance.

After I embraced Islam I was dismayed to find certain scholars and political leaders within the Muslim community openly collaborating with the Christian and Jewish orientalists in repudiating the injunctions of Holy Quran and Hadith as obsolete and no longer relevant to the modern age. I knew that our so-called “progressives” must be traitors because their views as expressed in their public utterances and writings did not at all differ from the non-Muslim “specialists” on Islamic affairs and also because the former never fails to receive the most enthusiastic support from the latter. So dismayed was I by the anti-Islamic propaganda that had been fed to me since childhood that as soon as I embraced Islam, I was determined to compile a book exposing the full ugliness of this malicious prejudice for what it is. Hence this book, the fruit of many years of study in New York and Lahore, is the end result.

MARYAM JAMEELAH (Formerly Margaret Marcus)

Muharram 10, 1401 (November 19, 1980)