Burning Qur’an & The Huge Gap

Muslims all over the world are very much concerned about the burning of Qur’an that is likely to take place on Saturday’s 9/11 anniversary. A question, however, springs to mind as to why does the West (here symbolized by the Florida evangelical church) want to burn the Qur’an? It occurs to me that the West is not angry with Qur’an. It is actually angry with the Muslims who are not playing their desired role. The Muslims who at the most are engaged in debates – the era of which is long past. The Muslims who are not contributing their maximum to the total fund of knowledge and human experiences. The Muslims who are not doing their best for the progress of humanity and the development of the world – as they had done during the ascendance of their civilization. The West is angry with the Muslims because they are not engaging it more in meaningful dialogue and at the informed and intellectually higher level. The West is not interested in polemics and this is precisely what we are interested in. Hence there is a huge communication gap between the Muslims and the West. Being the upholders of the Books the Muslims were expected to take the initiative. They were expected to reach out. Oblivious of this fact, they started considering the world as their adversary. They forgot that they were the salespersons and the rest of the humanity was (is) their customers.

How could the West be angry with Qur’an which gave the foundations on which the West built a remarkable civilization? How could the West be against Qur’an which promotes the spirit of inquiry and inquisitiveness? How could the West be against this Book which constantly asks to reason and rationality i.e. RESEARCH? There is probably a huge communication gap here. What the West is trying to say we are not able to grasp it. In all such reactions the West and the whole world makes a statement which almost always we fail to listen and comprehend. The crux of all the issues we almost always miss out upon. This is because of our deep-rooted psychology of learning wrong lessons from the right stories. The question arises how long will we continue reacting in this manner? How long will we be going against the Book precisely because of which we are so angry? How long will we be ‘burning’ it ourselves and will get angry when others will do the same?

Why are the Muslims angry? The Muslims are angry because they (think that they) have appropriated Qur’an. They think that it is their Book. It is a false notion. Just as nobody can say that honesty is his personal property now onwards and the sunshine is a commodity that he exclusively owns, in the same manner no one has monopolized the Book. We, however, consider the Book to be ours and carry out everything contrary to it. We think that we can do whatever we want to do as it is our Book. It reminds me of Khwajah Hafiz Shirazi:

chooN na deedand haqeeqat rah-e afsaanah zadand

(When we do not see the truth, we take to the path of falsehood.)

Muslims are angry because they have been in deep sleep for long (what else closing the door of Ijtihaad is?). They are now being rudely awakened by the world and are seeing that the rest of the people have gone much ahead. Reaching to the same heights requires painful and patient hard work. Out of frustration, however, we take to the short-cuts. We forget the fact that the longest is actually the shortest. This is why we almost always misinterpret every phenomenon. And every incident. The (maybe rumoured) burning of Qur’an reinforces the fact that there is huge gap between where we should have been (benefiting from the same Book) and where we actually are. Not understanding this issue there is a communication gap with the West.

Our writers and speakers have played havoc. They have done just the opposite of what they were supposed to. They have thought and reacted in the same manner as the uneducated, uninformed and less fortunate ones do –forgetting the fact that the society had invested in them hugely for some reason. Our writers and speakers have shown the incomplete and distorted picture. They have shown the partial ‘truth’. Despite the fact that there is nothing like ‘partial truth’. It is either truth or falsehood. The burning of Qur’an, however, can serve as a catalyst for a much desired and much needed change in discourse and a tradition of learning the right lessons from the right stories. We can turn this negative into positive with a different outlook. We can utilize this opportunity to communicate with the West about what the essence and cumulative spirit of Qur’an is instead of reinforcing what the West already perceives of Qur’an – by and because of our reactions to such situations.

If ultimately we cannot stop anyone from burning Qur’an, let us then – when they burn Qur’an – we burn our false egos, our vain desires, our preconceived notions, our prejudices, our sectarianism, our groupism, our exclusivity, our isolationism, our communication gap, our comfort of opinion over the discomfort of thought and our emotionalism (jaahiliyyah) over reason and rationality (Islam).

Paradigm Shift Is(n’t) Easy

A paradigm shift is not easy. It has never been. The age old habits and patterns of thinking are not changed. It becomes even harder when we are faced with a huge number of highly educated who are not really educated – in absence of critical and scientific thinking. There was no need to talk about a paradigm shift if we had that education system which gave maximum expression to the human individuality and which did not divide between dunyaa and deen. The deep-rooted conditioning effects of generations will not be wiped out easily. This is why a paradigm shift is not easy. But precisely because it is not easy it is worth trying. I am not sure who are the soldiers of this battle.

No sooner we take one step forward we retract it again. We start on the path of paradigm shift. But quickly we remember that our University does (not?) have a minority character. All of a sudden it occurs to us that we need to decide the number of rak‘aat in taraaweeh. It starts agitating us that we need to respect our scholars more. It gives an impression that once we have accorded them enough respect (as if we have done less of that) all our ills will be automatically over.

Thereafter we start counting the existing Muslim colleges in the country forgetting the ones which we have not founded. After we have debated one specific issue for a while we get easily bored. And then change the topic. Then we start a flurry of emails on thousand and one other topics. We come up with a new idea every other day and leave it right there. We discuss a subject for a while then we suddenly remember the “balanced approach”. The “balanced approach” is very good and this is what our Faith stresses upon. But what a “balanced approach” is may actually require some more staying with this very approach. Sometimes a “balanced approach”, as we perceive it, may not really be balanced.

As an illustration, if someone catches an innocent person and asks a passer-by should he beat him to death or leave him completely unharmed only to hear from the passer-by that he should actually beat him half to death. This is our “balanced approach”. Our “balanced approach” has been not to take the analyses to the logical conclusions. The “balanced approach” abruptly ends the analysis. This is better because otherwise the accountability will be localized. And we will not be able to shift the responsibilities. And it might take us forward to a shift in paradigm. We do talk about change and then quickly recall that we have to undo our efforts and we have to perform the most desirable task of self-contradiction in a variety of ways. For instance, by resisting a different outlook and a slightly altered perspective. And a somehow variant way of looking at things.

No sooner we talk about the need of more colleges than we go back to the Aligarh Muslim University. No sooner we show some signs to talk about the “whole picture” than we get lost in the details. We ruminate on the meaning of paradigm shift for sometime and then leave it there. We leave it there because the “shift” is not easy. It is not easy because we have made it difficult. It is difficult because critical thinking is not our concern. Because one of the two hands is empty. If we really want a PARADIGM SHIFT we should listen to what Mr Kamran Ziauddin (kzfsak@hotmail.com +971504547486) says as reproduced below.