COMMEMORATIONS

TRIBUTE TO IMAM KHOMEINI: STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE MUSLIM UMMAH, 15 YEARS AFTER THE AYATULLAH

The Academic Forum convenes programmes on Imam Khomeini (qs):a one day seminar at F.I.C Zaria  on June 5 and a 3 day conference at Katsina Polytechnic on July 2-4.Here Dr . M..M Abdulaziz  highlights the role of the Imam in contemporary global Islamic resurgence……

Imam Khomeini (Q.S)

The 15^th anniversary of the demise of Imam Khomeini gives us another opportunity to re-examine the trend that came into being after the revolution he guided and nurtured.

When he told Mikhail Gorbachev, the then leader of the Soviet Union, that their system was not compatible with human nature as such bound to collapse soon, and inviting him to Islam, nobody understood him at the time. Soviet Union then, was one of the strongest in the world. But it wasn’t a decade after this pronouncement before she collapsed, outliving the Imam by only a year.

One could confidently say that it was the Imam that single-handedly restored confidence to the Muslims in the power of Islam, after the terrible blow dealt to the Ummah by the colonialists.

When the Abbasid Caliphate collapsed in 1258CE, it seemed to many contemporaries then, that the Muslim Ummah would never recover from that terrible blow. But within the period of a century of that devastating surrender, the entire Muslim world was re-configured resulting in the establishment of three (3) powerful Muslim empires – The Ottoman, Safavi and Mughal. This realignment of the Muslim land was to last until the beginning of the modern era, when almost the entire Muslim land was colonized, by the Europeans that once again seemed to have dealt a final decisive blow.

Unlike the Mongols, who arrived the gates of Baghdad only through fearless zeal, and who had little by way of Science, technology or Philosophical learning, the 19^th Century colonizers of the Muslim world were self-proclaimed harbingers of a civilization that had attained supremacy in the production of scientific knowledge. This important difference was to determine many aspects of Muslim responses to colonization.

It has taken almost two centuries for Muslims to recover, albeit partially from this new attack, and unlike previous occasions this recovery is still not complete-for so many reasons. Firstly, the attack has remained sustained, even through with different faces and names. Secondly, a subclass of the Muslims had lost faith and assumed that because of the apparent magnitude of the Western hegemony, the encounter between the Islamic and Western civilization was a fait accompli, as if it had solidified in time for all eternity. These groups had apparently forgotten the past experiences of Islam and lack understanding of historical processes

Imam Khomeini succeeded where others failed in reversing this trend. When he started his call to Islam, the Muslim world was dozing and some Islamic movements were either reluctant to reveal their real aims, or still battling with methodology. Not long after the revolution in Iran, not only the movements but even the political leaders of so-called Muslim countries started to compete to prove their” Islamicity”. Even the miserable Saddam, whose enmity to Islam and Muslim scholars is common knowledge, knew that to appeal to Muslims he had to address them with verse of the Qur’an and the President of the United States is anxious not to miss a message of greetings to Muslims on Eid day.

Islam’s situation today is different from what it was 50years ago. Compared to 50 years ago, the world of Islam is today much more dynamic and forward looking, much more alive, enthusiastic and full of  hope, and much more in tune with aspirations and expectations of the young generations, the youth. Muslims of the world today are proud of their faith. Gone was the time that the Muslims had lost pride in Islam. This has changed today; all over the world, young people and intellectuals are proud of living in accordance with Islamic values, and of proclaiming the Islamic identity. According to Sayyid Ali Khamenei, the Rahbar of the Islamic Republic, this pride is a massive resource for the Ummah .

            As Imam Khomeini predicted, communism has been defeated. Today, Islam is at the centre of political affairs, and has established its own capability and power. It has shown that it can defend itself and be a positive, constructive force in public affairs for the Muslim Ummah.

The model of an Islamic state he set in Iran is both deeply rooted in the political traditions of Islam (being based on precedent within both the Sunni and Shi’i traditions) and also profoundly modern: both concordant with the realities of modern societies and aware of how any model of Islamic governance must be flexible enough to learn from experience. This is in stark contrast to the partial, formulaic and rigid understandings that have failed totally elsewhere, and which continue to be promoted by some movements. The Ummah must realize and acknowledge the qualities of this Revolution that have enabled it to survive where many movements have failed: the fact that it is based on a political understanding exemplified the ijtihad of Imam Khomeini.

Some initial expectations were unrealistic; Imam Khomeini repeatedly reminded Muslims that Iran could not "export" its Revolution; that it was the responsibility of others to "import" it, or do the necessary groundwork in their own countries to achieve similar results

The problem in judging the accomplishments and triumphs of the Revolution is the standard and criteria on which we base our judgments. Analysts usually try to judge the achievements of the Islamic Revolution by the very criterion against which the Revolution was launched; i.e. with the yardstick of liberal democracy. But if Iran is not to be judged by such standards, how are we going to judge it? According to what criterion can one hold Iranian politicians accountable for the good and bad of the past twenty-five years? Who is responsible for the current political crisis in Iran, and according to which principle? The answer to all these questions should be sought in the central principles of the Revolution: Islam and democracy. Iranian politics since the Revolution has been struggling for something for which there was no previous model: a democracy that is not liberal and an Islam that is not based on old concepts of politics but still safeguards the norms and values central to this deen. Any fair judge would admit that this is an onerous task, and many disagreements, quarrels and even fights could be expected to break out on the way. We should regard all these as a process of moving forward, of trials and errors, and of struggling to swim against the current, but never as defeat and retraction.

 The two main political factions now competing in Iran would not disagree that they both want democracy (though not the liberal brand of it), and they both want Islam, though not the Taliban variety. They even have no disagreement about what name they give their ideals. Both Ayatullah Khamenei and president Khatami have spoken of "religious democracy" as their ideal political system for Iran. But how a religion can be democratic and how a democracy can be religious, and what type of political system can support such a religion and such a democracy, are questions that still need to be answered    Again, it was Imam Khomeini that first and rightly identified

America as the great Satan while recently; Sayyid Khamenei identified Zionism and America as the greatest enemy of the Islamic world. “They are the worst, the most evil and dangerous of worldly shaytans, and they are completely and very openly united. They are the big idol that must be broken” he said.

It is a fact now that the world is clearly divided between Islam and the West. This they have identified by themselves, from Samuel Huntington’s theory of the ‘clash of civilization’, to recent pronouncements by top policy makers in the West. Says one of them; “there seems to be a growing paranoia between Islam and the West”. One American conservative even went to the extent of admitting that the whole clash is their fault. He says in a BBC interview that”, we got 9/11 because of our policies in the Middle East. If our troops were not in Saudi Arabia, if our intelligence were not all over there propping up their dictators against the will of their masses, if Bush did not openly support Ariel Sharon, and now this abuse of Iraqi prisoners, the terrorists would not be coming after us. There was no need for us to invade Iraq, because the terrorists are here in the US. They are here because we are there, if we had not gone there, they wouldn’t have come here”. This is a rare admission of guilt.

            The enemies of Islam are under no delusion that immense power resides within the Muslim Ummah, and as such they are too frightened to confront Islam directly. They fear this power, and so they fight it without acknowledging what it is that they are fighting. They have covertly and overtly tried to diffuse Muslim focus by either turning them against one another using the age old diversity within the Ummah, or by trying to force on the world their own picture of Islam, they do not want the real,  Islam to be seen. They want to restrict perceptions of Islam to two forms: either a form that has lost its own identity to the West, an eclectic Islam that would accept whatever the west wants, and propagate Western culture as Islam, having nothing to say for itself; or the backward form that has been seen in the Islam of the Taliban and al-Qaeda-empty of logic, full of strong fanaticism and devoid of compassion, rationality, knowledge and wisdom – so that every one hates, despises or fears Islam. These are the only two forms of Islam they want the world to see, and         which they propagate. They don’t want any one to see or recognize the Islam of those that seeks dignity power, justice and progress for the Islamic community: the form of Islam which builds life.

They give labels to this group, their adversaries. For instance, they expanded the meaning of errorism to include Muslim liberation movements, They intend to crush the Palestinians, by branding them errorists, they also try to delegitmise the struggle of the warriors of Lebanon, Iraq, Chechnya and every region of the Muslim world, confronting Colonialism and foreign interference in their home lands.

            It is very important for us today, to recognize our enemies, the reality and nature of these enemies should be made clear to each and every Muslim, all over the world. We should not allow secondary differences to deflect us from the chief and real enemies who fan such differences. This can only be a terrible mistake and would continue to lead to nothing but diversion and draining of the dynamism of the Muslims. Once again, we have to give credit to Imam Khomeini for establishing the 12th – 17th of Rabiul Awwal –the birth dates of the Prophet(s), according to various groups –as ‘unity week’, a time for scholars from all schools of thought and groups to come together and discuss issues of common interest to the Muslim Ummah.

            I will emulate Sayyid Khamenei by closing with this verse of the Qur’an, which summarizes our most important challenge and duty; “say, I exhort you only to do one thing: rise up for Allah’s sake in twos and singly” (34: 46)