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Black
Tuesday
By Mehru Jaffer
It was a beautiful night with a full moon. And I
melted away demurely into the silver light as I heard the first born declare that he wanted to take up
teaching as a career.
Fantasy took immediate flight as I imagined the
eternal abode of the child at the feet of a new truth each day. Wistfully I saw him walk through life in
wonderment, as a medium of that amazement called life, awakening the joy in countless other souls of creative
expression and knowledge. It was thrilling to see the 18 year old prepare so furiously for his graduation
from school, in June. Filling up forms for universities each day and concentrating on where he
could best study physics, is routine here. And then came September 11, to turn all anticipation into
anxiety.
It was dinner time in Jakarta when the first plane barged into New York's World Trade Center. All thought
of food and sleep evaporated that evening and I was reminded of my grandmother's dramatic exclamation at
moments she felt were extraordinary. If she were alive today she would have surely repeated that it had
seemed as if breath itself had split asunder with one
lot disappearing into the ethers of the self while the lot below dug in even lower, leaving a lengthy vacuum
in between that did not know what to do with itself. Parents, children, maid, and the mali immediately sat
down before the television screen all night long, quite mesmerised at what was going on, live, in New
York and Washington. When thought did return the first that came to mind, I noticed with amazement, did not
blame but mourned instead the malaise of the ummah. The memory of Malek Bennabi, Algerian philosopher who
died in 1973 came alive. Bennabi had spent his entire life trying to force Muslim society to look, and
transform from within. Bennabi was impatient with all those who blame the suffering of Muslims solely on
colonialism. He introduced the theory of colonisability, pointing out to that state of affairs
that made Muslims ripe for colonisation. Bennabi died repeating that real liberation of Muslim people will
come only from addressing the injustices introduced in the late 13th century within the community itself.
Islam started to crumble after 800 years of a glorious rule and Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun, the brilliant
founder of history and sociology who died in 1406 saw the fall of one Islamic dynasty after another in his
own life time. He wondered about the cause, concluding that societies thrive so long as there is solidarity
within the group (asibiyyah) and the dominant group is not complacent. Once the ruling class gets used to a
luxurious lifestyle it loses its vigour. At a time like this subjects are forgotten, much time is wasted
in jealousy, in fighting and the economy too declines. The stage is set for other dominant groups
to take control and to begin the entire circus all over again. Ibn Khaldun has left all these wonderful
thoughts in his masterpiece Al-Maqaddimah: An Introduction to History.
It is said that Boadbil, the Moorish prince of Granada had knelt before King Ferdinand in 1492 and handed him
the key to his city himself, also closing that day the chapter of nearly a millennium of Muslim rule in
Spain. The mother of the prince is quoted as having chided him at that time with, "You weep like a woman
for what you could not hold as a man."
The razing to the ground of Baghdad by Mongols in 1258 and the fall of
Granada some 230 years later are the two most lethal attacks on Islam from the outside. But
the slap that eventually stunned the momentous movement was an internal one, really.
For the end of the 14th century also saw religious scholars dominate Muslim society. They did not approve
any more of texts of all sorts being exposed to so many different varieties of interpretation. They
feared that the Koran open to interpretation by anyone undermined the authority of their own interpretation
of the divine word.
It took another 100 years to find solutions for all the ills that were collecting in society and
eventually it was decided that the concept of ilm (all learning) be reduced to mean only religious
knowledge. The idea of ijma (consensus of the community) crushed to consensus only of the learned
(read ulema) and to end forever all independent reasoning or ijtihad on matters of religion for all
members of the community. Taqlid or blind imitation replaced ijtihad and over time this has caused major
distortions within the Muslim mind. What is urgently
needed today is a generous oiling of the rusting motors of reason, speculation and innovation.
"The interpretation of the Koran was frozen in history. In the absence of new ideas, reflection and
understanding of changing circumstances, Muslim thought ossified and became totally obscurantist.
Consequently, Muslim culture lost its dynamism and degenerated while the Muslim community was transformed
from an open to a closed society," concludes Ziauddin Sardar in his excellent book, Muhammad for Beginners.
The rejoicing at the thought of my son wanting to spend the rest of his life in the pursuit of learning
includes the opportunity to open wide my own gates of
ijtihad as well. Therefore we continue to fill up forms and post applications to institutions around the
world. In the end he will go to any university that is
happy to teach him.
Even if it is the one in New York.
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