|
About This
Book:
The call for a future Islamic civilization
should not be seen as an exercise in
re-establishing hegemony of the Muslim
people or an attempt to turn the clock
backward to the Abbasid Baghdad or the
Moorish Spain. What we witnessed in Baghdad,
Spain, Cairo, Istanbul or Delhi at various
points of history was a rich culture no
doubt in its own right, but it was not the
essence of Islamic civilization, if we
insist on using this term.
This book is intended to serve as a trumpet
to the dead and a call for united action and
not essentially to lay sole claim on Islam.
Islam which means submission to one God is
the religion of all the prophets from
Abraham to Mohammed and many others before
them. We Muslims do not claim monopoly on
submission although we are aware of our very
unique position as upholders of the Last
Revelation.
Envisioning a future Islamic civilization in
which submitters of all hue or Muslims of
various denominations and traditions join
hands on kalimatun siwa or agree to work for
common good is no easy task.
It needs repositioning on our part, from
being communitarian to prophetic. In
essence, it requires not only recasting
ourselves in a universal prophetic mode but
also demands from us to find new meanings
and implications of the Qur'anic terms. For
example, in a capitalist world of
free-market economy establishing Qur'anic
justice would demand no less than
redesigning the entire system. And in a
globalized and highly inter-dependent world
it would amount to refashioning the planet
as a whole.
Written as they were as wake-up calls to all
the inhabitants of this planet, Muslims and
non-Muslims alike, these articles when they
initially appeared as editorial pieces at
futureislam, they attracted the attention of
quite a good number of leading intellectuals
of our time whose inputs have been a
valuable source of inspiration to me. I have
learnt from them, as also from my own
readings of the text, that writing in
defense of Islam serves no purpose. Truth
needs no defense. Instead, we need to take
shelter under the truth. This book then is
no defense for Islam but an open invitation
to all to devise an effective defense in the
face of a crumbling capitalist civilization.
|
