(A scholarly discourse with the prominent scholar of the Muslim world late Dr Mahmood Ahmad Ghazi) (Part II)
Dr Ghazi in this part of his interview with ‘Neday e Islam’ magazine talked about the most important challenges that the Muslim world is facing in the contemporary era and commented, “The blind imitation of the West and surrendering in front of its culture, as well as taking a defensive position towards it, is one of the most potential challenges for the contemporary Muslim world. Unfortunately a great number of people particularly those who are influential in the Muslim world, are living in this condition. Secularism is another big challenge that the West is pursuing to impose on Muslim societies. In order to succeed these challenges, the intellectual training of Muslim Uammah is highly recommended. Furthermore, the recovery of full confidence and trust on Islam among the Muslim themselves is vital.”
In response to the question what could be the best offer of Islam to the western world, Dr Ghazi added “At present the western world is facing serious moral corruption and promiscuity. Family system in the West is collapsed, and the moral values are sidelined. The souvenir of Islam for the West is not in the area of economic, though as result of it the economic objectives can also be materialized. However, Islam does not aim material success alone; instead it aims at spiritual and moral superiority, and making a balance in all aspects of life. Today, there is no balance in the life of westerners. The unique thing that the Muslim world can give to the West is moral and spiritual guidelines.”
The great scholar talked about American war on so-called ‘War on Terror’ and said, “The war that the West is engaged with, is not the war on terror. In fact it is a war against Islam and being used as tool to conduct evil and imperialistic programs. Unfortunately some simple-minded leaders of Muslim world are deceived by it, so that they are supporting this war. Under the guise of the war on terror, the western countries want to secure their national interests, and crash those potential threats who want to defy western civilization.”
Expressing his ideas about civilization dialogue between Muslim world and the West, Dr Ghazi said, “In my opinion the future of humanity is laid on tolerance and cooperation between West and the Muslim civilization, and this task can be achieved with the help of civilizational exchange; and the earlier it takes place, the better it gives results. It is also very necessary to hold these talks at all levels form religious leaders and scholars to literary men, writers, intellectuals and youth. However, under the pretext of dialogue, the term should not be used for imperialistic purpose, otherwise the situation will become worse and no progress will take place.”
Regarding the global financial crisis and its way-out methods, Dr Ghazi suggested that the present financial crisis that the world is engulfed into is the result of two causes: first, unordinary and irrational wars that the US leadership due to their clandestine plans and power-seeking nature imposed on Afghan and Iraqi nations. Second, the backbone of western economy is constituted by banking system which in turn its life is founded on interest. And the interest oriented system is relied on giving and taking loan based on nominal, paper-driven and unreal deals, that like a bubble continues to enlarge till the time that a pressure is applied on it. However, as soon as a small stick touches it, promptly it will blow up, and disappear. The treatment for the current financial crisis of the west is: first, it should give up its imperialistic policies. Second, in order to get rid of this crisis, it should adopt Islamic economic principles.
In response to the question about the possibility of repeating the experience of a united political leadership for Islam in the framework of Islamic Caliphate, Dr Ghazi pointed out that the achievement of this idea is very necessary, because if Muslims belong to a single Ummah, then they should have a central world political leadership too. And this is what we call Caliphate. The West, for a long time, feared from Caliphate system which was representing the majority of Muslim Ummah; that is why it (West) concentrated all its efforts for its disintegration. Towards this aim, the first step it took was to question the legitimacy of Caliphate. Unfortunately, by employing long internal and external efforts, the West became successful, and the Caliphate system after thirteen centuries was ended. The role of Muslims in the civilization and cultural arenas that is the coherent part of their global mission cannot be realized unless this political leadership is re-formed.
Prepared by: Muhammad Shahnavazi Far & Shabir Ahmad Samadani
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