lightuponlight
31-12-2006, 10:55 AM
An 'Eid al-'Adha Message
By Imam Zaid Shakir
The story of Hajj (Pilgrimage) and the 'Eid which accompanies it focuses our attention on the story of Abraham, May the Peace of God be upon him. God mentions the origins of the Pilgrimage, when He orders Abraham, "And proclaim the Pilgrimage to all of humanity, they will respond, coming [to the Sacred House] on foot, riding every possible conveyance; coming from every distant path." [1] It is related that Abraham responded by saying, "My Lord! How can I call all of humanity when my voice will not carry that far?" God said, "Issue the call, and We will make your voice reach them." Abraham then stood at his station (Maqam) and proclaimed, "O People! Your Lord has established a house [for His worship], make pilgrimage to it!" It is then related that God caused the mountains to bow low in humility, and Abraham's voice traveled to the far corners of the Earth. Thereupon, every animate and inanimate creation responded, along with those who had been decreed to make the Pilgrimage until the Day of Resurrection, proclaiming, "Labbaykallahumma Labbayk! (We are responding in your dutiful service, O God! We are responding!). [2]
In choosing Abraham to make that awesome call, God honored him greatly. He further honored him with one of the most profound descriptions ever given to a human being. He says in Sura al-Nahl, "Truly Abraham was a nation, devoutly obedient to God. Naturally inclining towards the true faith, he was not amongst the idolaters. He was abundantly thankful for the blessings [God] bestowed upon him. He chose him, and guided him to the Straight Way." [3]
God describes Abraham as a nation. The exegetes mention many possible interpretations for this expression. One interpretation is that he was a repository of all good human traits and virtues. During his long and distinguished life, Abraham demonstrated characteristics such as chivalry, patience, honesty, loyalty, hospitality, graciousness, and most importantly, an uncompromising commitment to upholding the Oneness of God. As he was, so should we be. We should exert our utmost to embody these and other prophetic virtues. Furthermore, we should realize that it is our duty to call humanity to these virtues. God orders us, "Let there arise from you a community calling to all that is good." [4]
Another interpretation of the expression, "Abraham was a nation..." is that he was an upright leader whose example is to be followed. Similarly, the Islamic community should be an exemplar for all of humanity. God, Exalted is He, describes our community in the following terms, "You are the best community raised up for the benefit of mankind. You enjoin what is right, you forbid what is wrong, and you believe in God." [5]
The challenge of exemplifying the prophetic virtues, coupled with the challenge of calling humanity to those virtues requires that we rise to the challenge of leadership. Meeting that challenge will require a vastly enhanced base of both religious and worldly knowledge in our communities. Collectively, our entire community, men, women, and youth, has to aspire to heightened levels of educational attainment. As John Kennedy, Malcolm X, and many others have said, "Knowledge is power." We cannot deceive ourselves into thinking that we are in a position to even begin to lead humanity. To meet the challenge of leadership, we must meet the challenge of enhanced education and literacy.
This challenge is especially pressing for our religious leaders. Contributing to the solution to problems related to global development and population growth, medical crises such as AIDS and SARS, bioethical issues such as human stem cell research, cloning, and vivisection, and other contentious religious, philosophical, social, political, cultural, and economic issues will require scholars who are steeped in our intellectual tradition, conversant with contemporary intellectual currents, and capable of judiciously assessing controversial social issues and debates. It will also require scholars who have a deep relationship with God, or to use the traditional appellation, Ulama' 'Amileen. For as Ibn 'Ata Allah relates in his aphorisms, "Nothing you seek relying on your Lord will ever be difficult. And nothing you seek relying on yourself will ever be easy." [6]
As the Arabs say, "One lacking something cannot give it to others." If we lack knowledge of the vastness of our intellectual heritage, especially its jurisprudential principles and rulings, we will continue to be bogged down in unnecessary arguments and disputes which only serve to waste valuable time, sap vital energy, and create sometimes irreconcilable animosity and enmity in our ranks. If we continue to lack adequate knowledge of the world; its prevailing social, political, and economic systems; its prevailing religious, intellectual, and philosophical schools; and its prevailing cultural trends; then our ability to formulate a meaningful, constructive critique of those systems and schools will be greatly hampered, if not hamstrung.
Rising to this challenge will require a broad vision and tremendous courage on our part. Part of the broad vision needed by our scholars will involve having the ability to transcend current academic modalities and methodologies. Traditionally-trained scholars frequently hear from their university-trained brothers and sisters how important it is to move beyond the analytical limitations imposed by "fossilized" curricula, anachronistic methodologies, and a stultifying formalism. While such advice is well founded, those whose training has been in the western academy should realize that in order to maximize their benefit to our community, they will have to transcend the constraints imposed by work in the average academic department. The departmentalization of knowledge facilitates research, however, it does little to enhance our understanding of the many nuances and complexities present in a human society. An interdisciplinary approach to research will probably prove more fruitful in an effort to gain more socially relevant insights. However, the ultimate goal of our young scholars should be the creation of a non-disciplinary paradigm. Such a paradigm would surely be more reflective of the phenomena it attempts to explain.
In trying to break away from linear research methodologies strongly influenced by the philosophy of science, a discipline itself greatly influenced by physics, our young university-trained intellectuals will have to have the courage to creatively challenge reigning paradigms and the constantly-narrowing focus of research. Herman Daley suggests that the computer has made it possible for physicists to develop new models whose complexity opens up what was once one of the narrowest of fields to new and exiting interdisciplinary research modalities. [7] Perhaps our new generation of scholars can build on those insights and engage in research which allows us to creatively use Islamic studies and the social sciences to rigorously address the plethora of problems plaguing our Islamic communities and humanity at large.
Our young scholars will also have to have an a priori commitment to serve the public. American intellectual life has been radically transformed during the past half century. Before that transformation, the greatest minds in the fields of religion, politics, society, culture, and economics wrote in a vernacular which was accessible to the general reading public. Their ideas helped to shape both popular and political culture. The ideas of Reinhold Niebuhr, Daniel Bell, John Kenneth Galbraith, C. Wright Mills, Lewis Mumford, and Michael Harrington were not only made available in the very readable volumes they authored, they were also disseminated in the leading periodicals of the day -Harper's, Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The Saturday Evening Post.
Today, intellectuals are generally content to be academics, and as academics they exist in a world divorced from the world inhabited by the public intellectuals of the past. As Russell Jacoby writes:
To put it sharply: the habitat, manners, and idiom of intellectuals have been transformed within the past fifty years. Younger intellectuals no longer need or want a larger public; they are almost exclusively professors. Campuses are their homes; colleagues are their audiences; monographs and specialized journals their media. [8]
He further notes:
Academics write for professional journals that, unlike the little magazines, create insular societies. The professors share an idiom and a discipline. Gathering in annual conferences to compare notes, they constitute their own universe. A "famous" sociologist or art historian means famous to other sociologists and art historians, not to anyone else. As intellectuals became academics, they had no need to write in public prose; they did not, and finally they could not. [9]
The situation Jacoby describes would not be a cause for alarm were it not for the fact that the effective divorcing of intellectuals from public life has had a devastating effect on popular culture and politics. The current crassness which defines American popular culture and political discourse can surely be attributed, in part, to the lack of meaningful, accessible public intellectuals. If we Muslims are to reinvigorate our culture and our socio-political discourse, we will have to encourage and make a real space for the vital input of our intellectuals. For their part, those intellectuals will have to step forward and fill that space.
This call should in no way be seen as an appeal to our young intellectuals to lower their standards. Furthermore, in pointing to the example of intellectuals who were considered at the height of their respective disciplines yet possessed the ability to address the general public, we need not point to the likes of Daniel Bell. In our tradition, we have figures like Imam al-Ghazali. He was able to not only master the arguments of the most advanced philosophers and logicians of his age, and refute the same, in their language; he was also able to express complex theological ideas and issues in terms readily accessible and accepted by ordinary Muslims in works such as his Revival of the Religious Sciences. [10]
Abraham is described as being devoutly, and unflinchingly obedient to God. God says in the Qur'an that he was, "Devoutly Obedient..." [11] The believers are also noted for their strict obedience -among other characteristics. God describes them, "...those who are steadfastly patient, exceedingly honest, devoutly obedient, selflessly charitable, those who invoke the Forgiveness of God during the last reaches of the night." [12] Abraham, and all of the devout servants of this community, are people who obey God whether it is easy or difficult, whether they personally incline towards a certain act or not, whether in a state of security or fear, whether experiencing abundance or deprivation. True worship and devotion are unconditional.
Abraham was naturally inclined towards the worship of God, a strict monotheist. The magnitude of this characteristic is brought home to us when we realize that Abraham was alone in a world of idolatry. Despite that, he was prepared to sacrifice his life to defend and uphold the standard of the Oneness of God. In his days the idols that people worshipped were idols of wood and stone. Today, the idols people worship have changed. However, we should be opposed to idol worship nonetheless. Especially when that worship, in its modern manifestations, is proving extremely destructive to individuals and societies.
The modern and postmodern conditions have bequeathed unto humanity an array of "idols" which are worshipped besides God. Perhaps the greatest idol arising from our condition is the individual's worship of himself. In what sociologist Christopher Lasch describes as a "culture of narcissism," [13] it is easy to appreciate the penetrating question asked by God in the Qur'an, "Have you not seen one who has taken his vain inclinations as his god?" [14]
The havoc being wreaked on the western psyche and soul by a pervasive narcissism is beginning to manifest itself in our Muslim homelands. Much of that damage can be traced to the pervasiveness of western culture, a pervasiveness which has not emerged from a congruent belief and social system. In other words, what we see in our Muslim homelands is the tree of western culture grafted onto Islamic roots. Such a tree is destined to produce the sort of societal dysfunction and anomie we have seen prevailing in most Muslim countries.
We can see the extent of the pervasiveness of western culture in our lands when we consider that the political institutions which guide even Islamic movements and self-proclaimed Islamic governments are western institutions. We fight our battles using western military technology and tactics. We are educated in institutions patterned after those in the West. Increasingly, most of our urban populations are housed in western-styled, cement apartment blocs. We wear western clothing. We cultivate our lands according to western agricultural techniques. We work in western-styled factories -usually subsidiaries of western multinationals. Those of us who can afford to do so eat in western restaurants such as McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or local imitations of the same. We spend billions of dollars smoking and cultivating tobacco, a destructive habit popularized in the West. We spend greater billions on soft drinks, even when it affects our ability to purchase food and drink of real nutritional value for our families. We bring our sick to hospitals built and administered according to western models, utilizing western medicines and surgical techniques. We squander valuable time watching meaningless programs on television sets pioneered in the West, when not reading newspapers which utilize western journalistic techniques and advertising practices, or playing sports developed in the West. We relax to what is essentially western music, even though for the time being, most of the lyrics are still in our eastern tongues. Even our intelligentsia is unified by western languages, English or French, and not Arabic. In such a cultural milieu, it would be difficult to expect that Islam would have a deep impact on the lives of ordinary people. [15]
We do not intend for this address to become an irresponsible diatribe against the [16] West. However, many of the problems facing humanity, such as crushing national debts, grinding poverty, growing disparities between the rich and the poor, the continued and accelerating destruction of the environment, and our exponentially enhanced ability to kill each other with increasingly sophisticated and deadly weaponry, are all facilitated by an international environment shaped by increasingly hegemonic western institutions. As Muslims, we should have the vision and courage, Abrahamic courage, to work for a world that while acknowledging and benefiting from the many positive advancements bequeathed to humanity by western materialist civilization, work to minimize the damage caused by its negative, and darker innovations.
Abraham was also described as being grateful for the many gifts and blessings bestowed upon him by God. We read in the Qur'an, "He [Abraham] was abundantly grateful for the blessings [God] bestowed upon him." [17] Graciousness should have an exalted place in the life of every Muslim. In terms of material blessings, no group of Muslims have more to thank God for than those of us living in these western lands. More than any other group of Muslims, we have experienced the fullness of the meaning conveyed by the following verse, "And He has completed His Blessings upon you, in open and hidden ways." [18] Were we to attempt to enumerate or express the magnitude of those blessings, we would be unable to do so. Among the open blessings we could mention food, drink, potable water, sanitation, health, wealth, shelter, clothing, security, and despite certain well-publicized abuses, the overwhelming majority of us live under the protection of the law. Among the hidden blessings, we could mention education, understanding, discernment, psychological stability, and faith, the greatest blessing of all.
All of these blessings, and countless others we could mention are subordinate to two other blessings, which are frequently completely taken for granted, the blessing of existence, and the blessing of sustentation. Ibn 'Ata Allah expresses the immensity of those blessing in the following penetrating words, "[There are] two blessings that are not extraneous to anything in existence, and that are indispensable for every form of creation: the blessing of origination; and the blessing of sustentation." [19] No matter what heights of arrogance and ingratitude a human being may reach, there is no one who will go so far as to claim that he has brought himself into existence, or that she sustains her own life.
Therefore, we should fervently and without stint express our gratitude to our Lord. Imam Ghazali mentions that graciousness consists of knowledge, a state, and action. As for knowledge, it is a firm knowledge of the one who bestows all gifts, [God]. As for the state, it is the delight which ensues because of His [God] bestowing the gift. As for the action, it is undertaking that which is sought and beloved by God. Namely, pure, unadulterated worship and devotion. [20]
So let us go forward and rededicate ourselves to the worship of God and the service of humanity. Let us thank God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us with every ounce of energy we can muster, from the bottom of our hearts, and from the depths of our soul. Let us also remember, that God does nothing in vain. Our being Muslim at this critical juncture in history is not without purpose. Our existence here is part of a divine plan, and the deeper our understanding of that plan, the deeper our realization of the tremendous responsibility we shoulder. Our situation presents us with staggering challenges, and places before us daunting work. However, if we take up those challenges with the courage, determination, vision, and patience which availed Abraham throughout his life, like him, we may be blessed to change the course of history.
May God bless all of you with His choicest favors and gifts during these special days. May your Festival be Blessed! And may each returning year find these blessings and goodness renewed in your life!
Your Brother in Islam,
Imam Zaid Shakir
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Al-Qur'an 22:27
[2] For the full details of this event, see Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al'Adhim (Beirut, Sida: al-Maktaba al-'Asriyya, 1416/1996), vol. 3, p. 204.
[3] Al-Qur'an 16:120-121
[4] Al-Qur'an 3:104
[5] Al-Qur'an 3:110
[6] 'Abd al-Majid al-Sharnubi, Sharh al-Hikam al-'Ata'iyya (Damascus: Dar ibn Kathir, 1413/1992), p. 38, #35.
[7] See Herman Daly and John B. Cobb, Jr., For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Towards Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994), pp. 363-366.
[8] Russell Jacoby, The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe (New York: Basic Books, 1987), p. 6.
[9] Jacoby, p. 7.
[10] Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Ihya 'Ulum al-Din (Beirut: Dar al-Qutayba, 1412/1992).
[11] Al-Qur'an 16:120
[12] Al-Qur'an 3:17
[13] This term has been popularized by Lasch's book, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations (New York: W.M. Horton & Company, 1979).
[14] Al-Qur'an 45:23
source:http://www.zaytuna.org/articleDetails.asp?articleID=54
By Imam Zaid Shakir
The story of Hajj (Pilgrimage) and the 'Eid which accompanies it focuses our attention on the story of Abraham, May the Peace of God be upon him. God mentions the origins of the Pilgrimage, when He orders Abraham, "And proclaim the Pilgrimage to all of humanity, they will respond, coming [to the Sacred House] on foot, riding every possible conveyance; coming from every distant path." [1] It is related that Abraham responded by saying, "My Lord! How can I call all of humanity when my voice will not carry that far?" God said, "Issue the call, and We will make your voice reach them." Abraham then stood at his station (Maqam) and proclaimed, "O People! Your Lord has established a house [for His worship], make pilgrimage to it!" It is then related that God caused the mountains to bow low in humility, and Abraham's voice traveled to the far corners of the Earth. Thereupon, every animate and inanimate creation responded, along with those who had been decreed to make the Pilgrimage until the Day of Resurrection, proclaiming, "Labbaykallahumma Labbayk! (We are responding in your dutiful service, O God! We are responding!). [2]
In choosing Abraham to make that awesome call, God honored him greatly. He further honored him with one of the most profound descriptions ever given to a human being. He says in Sura al-Nahl, "Truly Abraham was a nation, devoutly obedient to God. Naturally inclining towards the true faith, he was not amongst the idolaters. He was abundantly thankful for the blessings [God] bestowed upon him. He chose him, and guided him to the Straight Way." [3]
God describes Abraham as a nation. The exegetes mention many possible interpretations for this expression. One interpretation is that he was a repository of all good human traits and virtues. During his long and distinguished life, Abraham demonstrated characteristics such as chivalry, patience, honesty, loyalty, hospitality, graciousness, and most importantly, an uncompromising commitment to upholding the Oneness of God. As he was, so should we be. We should exert our utmost to embody these and other prophetic virtues. Furthermore, we should realize that it is our duty to call humanity to these virtues. God orders us, "Let there arise from you a community calling to all that is good." [4]
Another interpretation of the expression, "Abraham was a nation..." is that he was an upright leader whose example is to be followed. Similarly, the Islamic community should be an exemplar for all of humanity. God, Exalted is He, describes our community in the following terms, "You are the best community raised up for the benefit of mankind. You enjoin what is right, you forbid what is wrong, and you believe in God." [5]
The challenge of exemplifying the prophetic virtues, coupled with the challenge of calling humanity to those virtues requires that we rise to the challenge of leadership. Meeting that challenge will require a vastly enhanced base of both religious and worldly knowledge in our communities. Collectively, our entire community, men, women, and youth, has to aspire to heightened levels of educational attainment. As John Kennedy, Malcolm X, and many others have said, "Knowledge is power." We cannot deceive ourselves into thinking that we are in a position to even begin to lead humanity. To meet the challenge of leadership, we must meet the challenge of enhanced education and literacy.
This challenge is especially pressing for our religious leaders. Contributing to the solution to problems related to global development and population growth, medical crises such as AIDS and SARS, bioethical issues such as human stem cell research, cloning, and vivisection, and other contentious religious, philosophical, social, political, cultural, and economic issues will require scholars who are steeped in our intellectual tradition, conversant with contemporary intellectual currents, and capable of judiciously assessing controversial social issues and debates. It will also require scholars who have a deep relationship with God, or to use the traditional appellation, Ulama' 'Amileen. For as Ibn 'Ata Allah relates in his aphorisms, "Nothing you seek relying on your Lord will ever be difficult. And nothing you seek relying on yourself will ever be easy." [6]
As the Arabs say, "One lacking something cannot give it to others." If we lack knowledge of the vastness of our intellectual heritage, especially its jurisprudential principles and rulings, we will continue to be bogged down in unnecessary arguments and disputes which only serve to waste valuable time, sap vital energy, and create sometimes irreconcilable animosity and enmity in our ranks. If we continue to lack adequate knowledge of the world; its prevailing social, political, and economic systems; its prevailing religious, intellectual, and philosophical schools; and its prevailing cultural trends; then our ability to formulate a meaningful, constructive critique of those systems and schools will be greatly hampered, if not hamstrung.
Rising to this challenge will require a broad vision and tremendous courage on our part. Part of the broad vision needed by our scholars will involve having the ability to transcend current academic modalities and methodologies. Traditionally-trained scholars frequently hear from their university-trained brothers and sisters how important it is to move beyond the analytical limitations imposed by "fossilized" curricula, anachronistic methodologies, and a stultifying formalism. While such advice is well founded, those whose training has been in the western academy should realize that in order to maximize their benefit to our community, they will have to transcend the constraints imposed by work in the average academic department. The departmentalization of knowledge facilitates research, however, it does little to enhance our understanding of the many nuances and complexities present in a human society. An interdisciplinary approach to research will probably prove more fruitful in an effort to gain more socially relevant insights. However, the ultimate goal of our young scholars should be the creation of a non-disciplinary paradigm. Such a paradigm would surely be more reflective of the phenomena it attempts to explain.
In trying to break away from linear research methodologies strongly influenced by the philosophy of science, a discipline itself greatly influenced by physics, our young university-trained intellectuals will have to have the courage to creatively challenge reigning paradigms and the constantly-narrowing focus of research. Herman Daley suggests that the computer has made it possible for physicists to develop new models whose complexity opens up what was once one of the narrowest of fields to new and exiting interdisciplinary research modalities. [7] Perhaps our new generation of scholars can build on those insights and engage in research which allows us to creatively use Islamic studies and the social sciences to rigorously address the plethora of problems plaguing our Islamic communities and humanity at large.
Our young scholars will also have to have an a priori commitment to serve the public. American intellectual life has been radically transformed during the past half century. Before that transformation, the greatest minds in the fields of religion, politics, society, culture, and economics wrote in a vernacular which was accessible to the general reading public. Their ideas helped to shape both popular and political culture. The ideas of Reinhold Niebuhr, Daniel Bell, John Kenneth Galbraith, C. Wright Mills, Lewis Mumford, and Michael Harrington were not only made available in the very readable volumes they authored, they were also disseminated in the leading periodicals of the day -Harper's, Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The Saturday Evening Post.
Today, intellectuals are generally content to be academics, and as academics they exist in a world divorced from the world inhabited by the public intellectuals of the past. As Russell Jacoby writes:
To put it sharply: the habitat, manners, and idiom of intellectuals have been transformed within the past fifty years. Younger intellectuals no longer need or want a larger public; they are almost exclusively professors. Campuses are their homes; colleagues are their audiences; monographs and specialized journals their media. [8]
He further notes:
Academics write for professional journals that, unlike the little magazines, create insular societies. The professors share an idiom and a discipline. Gathering in annual conferences to compare notes, they constitute their own universe. A "famous" sociologist or art historian means famous to other sociologists and art historians, not to anyone else. As intellectuals became academics, they had no need to write in public prose; they did not, and finally they could not. [9]
The situation Jacoby describes would not be a cause for alarm were it not for the fact that the effective divorcing of intellectuals from public life has had a devastating effect on popular culture and politics. The current crassness which defines American popular culture and political discourse can surely be attributed, in part, to the lack of meaningful, accessible public intellectuals. If we Muslims are to reinvigorate our culture and our socio-political discourse, we will have to encourage and make a real space for the vital input of our intellectuals. For their part, those intellectuals will have to step forward and fill that space.
This call should in no way be seen as an appeal to our young intellectuals to lower their standards. Furthermore, in pointing to the example of intellectuals who were considered at the height of their respective disciplines yet possessed the ability to address the general public, we need not point to the likes of Daniel Bell. In our tradition, we have figures like Imam al-Ghazali. He was able to not only master the arguments of the most advanced philosophers and logicians of his age, and refute the same, in their language; he was also able to express complex theological ideas and issues in terms readily accessible and accepted by ordinary Muslims in works such as his Revival of the Religious Sciences. [10]
Abraham is described as being devoutly, and unflinchingly obedient to God. God says in the Qur'an that he was, "Devoutly Obedient..." [11] The believers are also noted for their strict obedience -among other characteristics. God describes them, "...those who are steadfastly patient, exceedingly honest, devoutly obedient, selflessly charitable, those who invoke the Forgiveness of God during the last reaches of the night." [12] Abraham, and all of the devout servants of this community, are people who obey God whether it is easy or difficult, whether they personally incline towards a certain act or not, whether in a state of security or fear, whether experiencing abundance or deprivation. True worship and devotion are unconditional.
Abraham was naturally inclined towards the worship of God, a strict monotheist. The magnitude of this characteristic is brought home to us when we realize that Abraham was alone in a world of idolatry. Despite that, he was prepared to sacrifice his life to defend and uphold the standard of the Oneness of God. In his days the idols that people worshipped were idols of wood and stone. Today, the idols people worship have changed. However, we should be opposed to idol worship nonetheless. Especially when that worship, in its modern manifestations, is proving extremely destructive to individuals and societies.
The modern and postmodern conditions have bequeathed unto humanity an array of "idols" which are worshipped besides God. Perhaps the greatest idol arising from our condition is the individual's worship of himself. In what sociologist Christopher Lasch describes as a "culture of narcissism," [13] it is easy to appreciate the penetrating question asked by God in the Qur'an, "Have you not seen one who has taken his vain inclinations as his god?" [14]
The havoc being wreaked on the western psyche and soul by a pervasive narcissism is beginning to manifest itself in our Muslim homelands. Much of that damage can be traced to the pervasiveness of western culture, a pervasiveness which has not emerged from a congruent belief and social system. In other words, what we see in our Muslim homelands is the tree of western culture grafted onto Islamic roots. Such a tree is destined to produce the sort of societal dysfunction and anomie we have seen prevailing in most Muslim countries.
We can see the extent of the pervasiveness of western culture in our lands when we consider that the political institutions which guide even Islamic movements and self-proclaimed Islamic governments are western institutions. We fight our battles using western military technology and tactics. We are educated in institutions patterned after those in the West. Increasingly, most of our urban populations are housed in western-styled, cement apartment blocs. We wear western clothing. We cultivate our lands according to western agricultural techniques. We work in western-styled factories -usually subsidiaries of western multinationals. Those of us who can afford to do so eat in western restaurants such as McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or local imitations of the same. We spend billions of dollars smoking and cultivating tobacco, a destructive habit popularized in the West. We spend greater billions on soft drinks, even when it affects our ability to purchase food and drink of real nutritional value for our families. We bring our sick to hospitals built and administered according to western models, utilizing western medicines and surgical techniques. We squander valuable time watching meaningless programs on television sets pioneered in the West, when not reading newspapers which utilize western journalistic techniques and advertising practices, or playing sports developed in the West. We relax to what is essentially western music, even though for the time being, most of the lyrics are still in our eastern tongues. Even our intelligentsia is unified by western languages, English or French, and not Arabic. In such a cultural milieu, it would be difficult to expect that Islam would have a deep impact on the lives of ordinary people. [15]
We do not intend for this address to become an irresponsible diatribe against the [16] West. However, many of the problems facing humanity, such as crushing national debts, grinding poverty, growing disparities between the rich and the poor, the continued and accelerating destruction of the environment, and our exponentially enhanced ability to kill each other with increasingly sophisticated and deadly weaponry, are all facilitated by an international environment shaped by increasingly hegemonic western institutions. As Muslims, we should have the vision and courage, Abrahamic courage, to work for a world that while acknowledging and benefiting from the many positive advancements bequeathed to humanity by western materialist civilization, work to minimize the damage caused by its negative, and darker innovations.
Abraham was also described as being grateful for the many gifts and blessings bestowed upon him by God. We read in the Qur'an, "He [Abraham] was abundantly grateful for the blessings [God] bestowed upon him." [17] Graciousness should have an exalted place in the life of every Muslim. In terms of material blessings, no group of Muslims have more to thank God for than those of us living in these western lands. More than any other group of Muslims, we have experienced the fullness of the meaning conveyed by the following verse, "And He has completed His Blessings upon you, in open and hidden ways." [18] Were we to attempt to enumerate or express the magnitude of those blessings, we would be unable to do so. Among the open blessings we could mention food, drink, potable water, sanitation, health, wealth, shelter, clothing, security, and despite certain well-publicized abuses, the overwhelming majority of us live under the protection of the law. Among the hidden blessings, we could mention education, understanding, discernment, psychological stability, and faith, the greatest blessing of all.
All of these blessings, and countless others we could mention are subordinate to two other blessings, which are frequently completely taken for granted, the blessing of existence, and the blessing of sustentation. Ibn 'Ata Allah expresses the immensity of those blessing in the following penetrating words, "[There are] two blessings that are not extraneous to anything in existence, and that are indispensable for every form of creation: the blessing of origination; and the blessing of sustentation." [19] No matter what heights of arrogance and ingratitude a human being may reach, there is no one who will go so far as to claim that he has brought himself into existence, or that she sustains her own life.
Therefore, we should fervently and without stint express our gratitude to our Lord. Imam Ghazali mentions that graciousness consists of knowledge, a state, and action. As for knowledge, it is a firm knowledge of the one who bestows all gifts, [God]. As for the state, it is the delight which ensues because of His [God] bestowing the gift. As for the action, it is undertaking that which is sought and beloved by God. Namely, pure, unadulterated worship and devotion. [20]
So let us go forward and rededicate ourselves to the worship of God and the service of humanity. Let us thank God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us with every ounce of energy we can muster, from the bottom of our hearts, and from the depths of our soul. Let us also remember, that God does nothing in vain. Our being Muslim at this critical juncture in history is not without purpose. Our existence here is part of a divine plan, and the deeper our understanding of that plan, the deeper our realization of the tremendous responsibility we shoulder. Our situation presents us with staggering challenges, and places before us daunting work. However, if we take up those challenges with the courage, determination, vision, and patience which availed Abraham throughout his life, like him, we may be blessed to change the course of history.
May God bless all of you with His choicest favors and gifts during these special days. May your Festival be Blessed! And may each returning year find these blessings and goodness renewed in your life!
Your Brother in Islam,
Imam Zaid Shakir
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Al-Qur'an 22:27
[2] For the full details of this event, see Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al'Adhim (Beirut, Sida: al-Maktaba al-'Asriyya, 1416/1996), vol. 3, p. 204.
[3] Al-Qur'an 16:120-121
[4] Al-Qur'an 3:104
[5] Al-Qur'an 3:110
[6] 'Abd al-Majid al-Sharnubi, Sharh al-Hikam al-'Ata'iyya (Damascus: Dar ibn Kathir, 1413/1992), p. 38, #35.
[7] See Herman Daly and John B. Cobb, Jr., For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Towards Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994), pp. 363-366.
[8] Russell Jacoby, The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe (New York: Basic Books, 1987), p. 6.
[9] Jacoby, p. 7.
[10] Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Ihya 'Ulum al-Din (Beirut: Dar al-Qutayba, 1412/1992).
[11] Al-Qur'an 16:120
[12] Al-Qur'an 3:17
[13] This term has been popularized by Lasch's book, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations (New York: W.M. Horton & Company, 1979).
[14] Al-Qur'an 45:23
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