Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity. Tariq Ramadan
of each human being. To the one who is a carrier of faith, this comprehension is made in a perpetual concern for balance.
… but seek, amidst that which God has given thee, the Last Abode, and forget not thy portion of the present world; and do good, as God has been good to thee. And seek not to work corruption in the earth; surely God loves not the workers of corruption. (Qur’ān, 28:77)
Thus, society ought to allow each person not to neglect “(his) share of life in this world”. Society must be thought of in terms of the function of the individual, and it ought to offer him the possibility of fully living the requirement of his humanity. In other words, it should enable each individual to choose and know the situation well enough. It is, therefore, a question of not being mistaken about the content. To choose in ignorance and illiteracy is not really choosing, to steal while suffering from destitution and misery is not really stealing, and to respect under constraint and repression is not really respecting.
2. The Family
The family remains the constitutive point of reference for everyone. Equally, the modern epoch is characterised by the will for independence, freedom and individualism. One must make oneself on one’s own, fly with one’s own wings as soon as possible, and in this sense the familial space becomes something of a prison. Yet, to listen to any mother or father, we are persuaded that what everyone wants as best for their children is a balanced, open and serene familial environment. Daily life today, however, makes things increasingly difficult: couples are separating, break-ups are multiplying and imbalances increasing. No one is pleased at this state of affairs, any reading of divorce, and single-parent family statistics can only be accompanied by bitterness and anxiety. Is this the price we have to pay for modernity? Are we facing an irreversible process against which the fight is in vain? Real, answers should be found to these urgent questions. The Islamic point of reference is, in the most clearest of fashions, opposed to this splintering process. If modernity can only be obtained at this price, then we understand why the Qur’ān and the Sunna reject the actualisation of such modernisation. Similarly, if the whole world is caught in the rising of this vogue, being ashamed to refer to the family, then the Muslim, wherever he is, should remind others of its importance, its meaning and its finality. The family makes the human being. To ask man to be without family is tantamount to asking an orphan to give birth to his own parents. How can man do it? Do we have the right to give this lie to our children only and then remain passive? The Islamic point of reference requires exactly the opposite attitude from us.
Islam does not depart from the sense of this priority. It is an obligation for all Muslim societies not to spare anything in their effort to preserve those structures which allow for respect of family life. This includes work, education, taxes and allowances and even policies of urbanisation which we know today can have a huge impact on the private lives of city dwellers.
The general orientation within the family is that of complementarity and this should be lived from a starting principle of equality. The Prophet (peace be upon him) had clarified this: “Certainly, women are the sisters of men”, and both have the same duties and rights before God and will be rewarded in the same way:
And the Lord answers them: ‘I waste not the labour of any that labours among you, be you male or female – the one of you is as the other.’ (Qur’ān, 3:195)
In this equality, each will have to give account of his conscience and his life. However, it is together that the first social nucleus must be built, the first home of sociability and the first normative structure. In all this, marriage and the family are of an affective essence. It is love, tenderness and peace which give sense to things.
And of His signs is that He created for you, of yourselves, spouses, that you might repose in them, and He has set between you love and mercy. Surely in that are signs for a people who consider. (Qur’ān, 30:21)
Between a man and a woman there must be a relation of consultation, discussion and mutual participation. 3 The Qur’ān even goes as far as to indicate that the father and the mother should consult one another as to whether or not the mother should continue breast-feeding their child.
… a mother shall not be pressed for her child, neither a father for his child. The heir has a like duty. But if the couple desire by mutual consent and consultation to wean, then it is no fault in them. (Qur’ān, 2:233)
If consultation is required in such a precise context, then it is only to be expected in the larger affairs that concern the couple. If the man is the respondent of the family, in that he is asked to respond to its material needs, this has nothing to do with the notion of “the chief of family” who alone decides for, and sometimes against, the rest of his family. We shall say later a few words about those cultural habits of a certain number of countries with Muslim majorities that attribute to Islam attitudes which in fact Islam reprobates.
Children’s respect for and towards their parents, in light of Islamic points of reference as also that of the savants (‘ulamā’), is one of the fundamentals of religion. This to the extent that the gratitude of filiation is understood as second condition of the truthfulness of faith after worship of the Creator. The Qur’ānic verse in this regard is clear:
Thy Lord has decreed you shall not serve any but Him, and to be good to parents, whether one or both of them attains old age with thee; say not to them ‘Fie’ neither chide them, but speak unto them words respectful, and lower to them the wing of humbleness out of mercy and say, ‘My Lord, have mercy upon them, as they raised me up when I was little.’ (Qur’ān, 17:23–4)
The Prophet (peace be upon him) never ceased to remind his Companions of the importance of the family, that of parenthood and the gratitude which children should accord them. The following ḥadīth is well known by Muslims. Abū Hurayra reported that a man came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and asked him: “O Messenger of God! Who is most deserving of my company?” He replied: “Your mother.” The man again asked: “And then who is next?” “Your mother”, came the answer. The man again asked: “Who is next?” He said: “Your mother.” “And then who is next?” The Prophet said: “Your father.” 4 The recommendation here is explicit and further underlines the threefold role of the mother. The space of this “home” is to be created and society must offer to each one the means of this finality.
We also find in Islamic legislation other general principles which deal with the family. This is, for example, the case with that which deals with marriage 5 and inheritance. 6 Here again, they are to be understood in relation with the whole social order which must allow their respect in justice. So if one of the rules relating to private life provokes an injustice because of the general social order (poverty, shanty towns, etc.) the public powers ought to anticipate appropriate planning. This can either be by the temporary suspension of a rule, or by a compensation – financial or otherwise – until social reform has re-established things. 7
3. Social Organisation: The Principle of Justice
We have, above, insisted on the responsibility of the individual, and it is a fact that the organisation of society rests on the degree of consciousness of those individuals who make it up. There is not a single element in Muslim worship, from prayer to pilgrimage to Makka, which does not emphasise and give priority to the dimension of the community. To practise one’s religion is to participate in the social order and, thus, there cannot be a religious conscience without social ethics and, nothing is more explicit in Islamic teaching. Yet, to say this is still not to say everything. One must again specify the modalities of social action as well as the place of reference to authority.
In the Islamic conception of human being, what characterises man is the fact of his being able to choose and, in so doing, to be responsible. On the moral plane, human liberty holds in itself the sense of a certain number of obligations. Any society must consequently offer to each individual the possibility of responding to the requirement of these obligations. Thus, it clearly appears that individual duties before God will be conveyed, on the social plane, by as many fundamental and intangible rights. Without making an exhaustive analysis of