World's Top 10 Public Intellectuals Muslims

Foreign Policy:

Rankings are an inherently dangerous business. Whether offering a hierarchy of countries, cities, or colleges, any such list—at least any such list worth compiling—is likely to generate a fair amount of debate. In the last issue, when we asked readers to vote for their picks of the world’s top public intellectuals, we imagined many people would want to make their opinions known. But no one expected the avalanche of voters who came forward. During nearly four weeks of voting, more than 500,000 people came to ForeignPolicy.com to cast ballots.

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No one spread the word as effectively as the man who tops the list. In early May, the Top 100 list was mentioned on the front page of Zaman, a Turkish daily newspaper closely aligned with Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Within hours, votes in his favor began to pour in. His supporters—typically educated, upwardly mobile Muslims—were eager to cast ballots not only for their champion but for other Muslims in the Top 100. Thanks to this groundswell, the top 10 public intellectuals in this year’s reader poll are all Muslim. The ideas for which they are known, particularly concerning Islam, differ significantly. It’s clear that, in this case, identity politics carried the day.

Granted, the poll's results are not the most objective, but they are still very interesting. For one thing, I was surprised to see how little I know about Muslim intellectuals - I didn't recognize the names of half the people on the list! If you're like me, take a few minutes to get to know the top 10 intellectuals - whether or not your support their thinking or ideology:

1. Fethullah Gulen
2. Muhammad Yunus
3. Yusuf Al Qaradawi
4. Orhan Pamuk
5. Aitzaz Ahsan
6. Amr Khaled
7. Abdolkarim Sorouch
8. Tariq Ramadan
9. Mahmood Mamdani
10. Shirin Ebadi

Tariq Ramadan on Qur'an

Recently, Imam Hassan al-Banna's grandson, Dr. Tariq Ramadan wrote an article which quickly spun through the online world, and was pusblished in the New York Times. I thought the article was a beautiful expression of what the Qur'an means, and how to understand it in an Islamic light.

"For Muslims the Koran stands as the Text of reference, the source and the essence of the message transmitted to humanity by the creator. It is the last of a lengthy series of revelations addressed to humans down through history. It is the Word of God - but it is not God. The Koran makes known, reveals and guides: it is a light that responds to the quest for meaning. The Koran is remembrance of all previous messages, those of Noah and Abraham, of Moses and Jesus. Like them, it reminds and instructs our consciousness: life has meaning, facts are signs.

It is the Book of all Muslims the world over. But paradoxically, it is not the first book someone seeking to know Islam should read. (A life of the Prophet or any book presenting Islam would be a better introduction.) For it is both extremely simple and deeply complex. The nature of the spiritual, human, historical and social teachings to be drawn from it can be understood at different levels. The Text is one, but its readings are multiple.

For the woman or the man whose heart has made the message of Islam its own, the Koran speaks in a singular way. It is both the Voice and the Path. God speaks to one's innermost being, to his consciousness, to his heart, and guides him onto the path that leads to knowledge of him, to the meeting with him: "This is the Book, about it there can be no doubt; it is a Path for those who are aware of God." More than a mere text, it is a traveling companion to be chanted, to be sung or to be heard."

Read on at Tariq Ramadan's Website.

Lessons from the life of Muhammad (peace be upon him)

How is Dr. Tariq Ramadan's latest book different from the many other sirah books out there? The insightful lessons drawn from the stories of Prophet Muhammad’s life nd applied to ours today is what, to me, makes this book unique.

The book doesn’t overwhelm its readers with names and dates (as other more comprehensive history books sometimes do). Instead the author focuses on the morals and the teachings that can be derived from the different incidences. He truly delves deep into the Prophet’s character, at the same time subtly correcting common misconceptions about our beloved Messenger and his message (jihad, treatment of women, interfaith relations, etc…)

I whole-heartedly recommend this book to Muslims and non-Muslims, young and old alike.

Below are excerpts from passages that particularly touched and inspired me.

The Orphan and his Educator
One evening, he [Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)] heard that a wedding was to be celebrated in Mecca and he wanted to attend. On the way there, he reported, he suddenly felt tired; he lay down to rest and fell asleep. … The One, always present at his side, literally put him to sleep thus protecting him from his own instincts… This natural initiation into morals, remote from any obsession with sin and fostering of guilt, greatly influenced the kind of education the Prophet was to impart to his Companions. … this teaching method is most valuable and reminds us that a moral sense should be developed not through interdiction and sanction but gradually, gently, exactingly, understandingly, and at a deep level.

Incidence with the blind companion(referred to in Surah `Abasa)
Thus the prophet is a model for Muslims not only through the excellence of his behavior but also through the weakness of his humanity… No one must ever let power or social, economic, or political interests turn him or her away from other human beings, from the attention they deserve and the respect they are entitled to.


Hijrah


Battle of Badr
The Messenger’s authority in human affairs was neither autocratic nor restricted… The Prophet gave his Companions, women and men alike, the means and confidence to be autonomous, to dare to address and contradict him without his ever considering it as lack of respect for his status. Through this attitude he showed them deep respect for their intelligence and for their heart…


Spirituality
He [Prophet Muhammad] thus invited them [the Companions] to deny or despise nothing in their humanity and taught them that the core of the matter was achieving self-control. Spirituality means both accepting and mastering one’s instincts…

Battle of the Moat [Ditch/Confederates]
Muhammad took part in the work [digging the ditch], and his Companions would hear him sometimes invoking God, sometimes reciting poems, sometimes singing songs in which they would all join. … the Prophet enabled the women and me in his community—beyond their communion in faith and ritual prayer—to commune through the voicing of emotions and the musicality of hearts articulating their belonging to a common expression of the self, a collective imagination, a culture.
…
All his Companions had witnessed, in all the circumstances of his life, that seemingly surprising blend of infinite generosity of heart, unambiguous determination in adversity, and strict management of time.

Death of his son Ibrahim
The trial of faith and of humanity, which made the Prophet shed tears, consisted precisely in learning how to find,…, the strength to face the finitude of the human, sudden departures, and death. The sign of the One’s Presence at the time of a person’s death lies not in the occurrence of any miracle but rather in the permanence of the natural order, in the eternity of His creation…

Final teachings
…faith would not leave them [the Muslim community], he said, but the world with its illusions would colonize them, and both would, unfortunately, coexist with them.

In History, for Eternity
The Messenger may have left the human world, but he has taught us never to forget Him, the Supreme Refuge, the Witness, the Most Near. Bearing witness that there is no god but God is, in effect, stepping towards deep and authentic freedom; recognizing Muhammad as the Messenger is essentially learning to love him in his absence and to love Him in His presence.

Hijrah...

"Hijrah is the exile of the conscience and of the heart from false gods, from alienation of all sorts, from evil and sins. Turning way from the idols of one's time (power, money, the cult of appearances, etc); emigrating from lies and unethical ways of life; liberating oneself, through the experience of breaking away, from all the appearances of freedom paradoxically reinforced by our habits--such is the spiritual requirement of hijrah.

Physical hijrah, the founding act of the first Muslim community and the axis of its experience, is now over and will not happen again, as Aishah forcefully explained to those in Medina who wanted to relive the experience. Umar ibn al-Khattab was later to decide that this unique event would mark the beginning of the Islamic era, which begins in 622.

What remains and is open to everyone through the ages and for eternity, is the experience of spiritual exile, which brings the individual back to him-or herself and frees him or her from illusions of self and of the world. Exile for the sake of God is in essence a series of questions that God asks each individual being: Who are you? What is the meaning of your life? Where are you going? Accepting the risk of such an exile, trusting the One, is to answer: Through You, I return to myself and I am free."

From In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad

A must-read for 21st century Muslims

The Christian Science Monitor called it one of the "Best Non-fiction Books of 2004". For those of you who know me, you've probably noticed my obsession with Tariq Ramadan's Western Muslims and The Future of Islam.

What do I like most about the book? Its comprehensiveness. The topics Ramadan discusses in this book include everything from spirituality to social commitment. He truly portrays Islam as a way of life; one that is not only compatible with but is necessary for the 21st century.

Ramadan does not just summarize texts or reword old ideas; he brings forth a new way of thinking. More importantly, it is one that is deeply rooted within Islamic scripture.

What makes this book more powerful is the language used. I will not attempt to rephrase Ramadan's words because I know I will fail miserably. I will however quote a few of my favourite statements from the book, in hope that this encourages people to read the book and think about the ideas and solutions proposed.

Introduction

"While our fellow citizens speak of this 'integration' of Muslims 'among us', the question for Muslims presents itself differently: their universal principles teach them that wherever the law respects their integrity and their freedom of conscience and worship, they are at home and must consider the attainments of these societies as their own and must involve themselves, with their fellow-citizens, in making it good and better. No withdrawal, no obsession with identity, on the contrary, it is a question of entering into authentic dialogue..." (pg 5)

Encounter with the Universal:

"The second teaching of the revelation is to invite individuals to a deep study of their own inner lives. The search for God and the sense of "the need of Him" may also arise from the indefinable work of looking inward that is required of each of us. The knowledge of God leads us to our self, and the knowledge of our self leads to God." (pg 13)


The Way (Al-Sharia)

"...the shahada translates the idea of "being Muslim", and the Sharia shows us "how to be and remain Muslim". This means that,..., that the Sharia is not only the expression of the universal principles of Islam but the framework and the thinking that makes for their actualization in human history." (pg 32)

Spirituality and Emotions

"Muslim spirituality, as we have said, is demanding and, through the Islamic teaching, touches all the dimensions of life. ... This humility [before God] should spread wide and deep through all areas of life: at every stage of working on one's self there will be a struggle against complacency, pride, and the pretentious human desire to succeed alone, using one's own resources (on the social, professional, political, or intellectual level)." (pg 122)

Toward a Reform of Islamic Education

"Public schools already teach the basic subjects, it is for Muslims to find complimentary, alternative, and original ways of providing the knowledge they judge to be essential to comply with the requirements of the message whose followers they are." (pg 137)

Social Commitment and Political Participation

"The liberating dimension of Islam insistently demands, on the basis of the universal principles, that reality be challenged in order that it be reformed, not that its deficiencies be added up in hope that we may at best adapt to them or at worst successfully protect ourselves from them. ... It is about getting out of the logic of exception and necessity and thinking of our presence in terms of faithfulness to principles in the strict sense." (pg 160)

"The globalization with which we are presented and that is imposed upon us today sanctions above all the absolute primacy of the logic of economics over every other consideration... The picture would be very dark were it not for a widespread movement of resistance: when faced with neoliberal economics, the message of Islam offers no way out but resistance." (pg 173)

Economic Resistance

"The rich countries, like the wealthy merchants of Mecca in times past, cannot fail to see a danger in local and national movements whose aim is to remove themselves from the "classical" economic system. ... The prohibition of riba, which is the moral axis around which the economic thought of Islam revolves, calls believers to reject categorically an order that respects only profit and scoffs at the values of justice and humanity." (pg 188)

"But zakah is anything but that: the levying of this purifying social tax,..., must be considered within the purpose of establishing a real system of collective solidarity and social security, women into the very fabric of society, that aims at freeing the poor from their dependence so that eventually they themselves will pay zakat." (pg 189)

Interreligious Dialogue

"Interreligious dialogue should be a meeting of "witnesses" who are seeking to live their faiths, to share their convictions, and to engage with one another for a more humane, more just world, closer to what God expects of humanity." (pg 208)

The Cultural Alternative

"To be Western Muslims is to confront reality with all its challenges and, sustained every day by the "need of Him", to take on all our responsibilities." (pg 223)