Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium

13. The Role of Muslims in the New Millennium

221 The Role of Muslims in the New Millennium 13 THE ROLE OF MUSLIMS IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM Mohamed Aris Othman We have just emerged from an American century, whatever that means. It could have been a German century had the Allied forces lost the Second World War, or a Japanese century had Hiroshima and Nagasaki been spared the atomic bomb. What happened, of course, happened by the will of Allah. The point is that military superiority was one of the deciding factors in the determination of world power on the cusp of the present millennium. What about this new millennium? It could be an Asian millennium — and by Asia, of course, Australia is included. For Muslims, there is nothing very special about the new millennium. It will merely continue an arbitrarily defined periodization and pose even greater challenges for Muslims in particular and the world in general. However, Islam could be a unifying force for the entire world, in the sense that it could be used to foster a meaningful relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims. To wield such a force, Muslims must be advanced in all fields. In this chapter I will discuss the challenges that Muslims face in the new millennium. There is a need to resolve the issue of the reconstruction of knowledge in line with the Islamic vision so that this knowledge can be fully utilized for the needs of the ummah. In Islamic universities this is being achieved by integrating courses on revealed knowledge (such as Fiqh and Usuluddin) with human and physical sciences courses. While 221 Mohamed Aris Othman 222 being prepared for professional careers, students are also being exposed to the religious vision. Muslim intellectuals were preoccupied with this issue in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The effort to reconstruct knowledge is in line with the need to produce professionals in all fields who are morally upright. There is also a need to reduce friction among Muslims. In this context, the ummah should not be divided by trivial differences, and the ummatic vision should be fully exploited. Moreover, there is a need for non-Muslims to understand more about Islam, which will bring them into a closer and more meaningful relationship with Muslims. Lack of knowledge was the fundamental problem that was faced by Muslims in the previous millennium, and this caused various socio-economic and political problems for the ummah. It is the task of all Muslim intellectuals to resolve this issue. The Muslim call for the reconstruction of knowledge happened as early as the Abbasid Khulafa (eighth century CE), when scholars were charged with the task of reconstructing Greek, Persian, and Indian knowledge in line with the Islamic vision. At the Second International Conference on the Reconstruction of Knowledge in accordance with the Islamic Vision, which was held in Islamabad, Pakistan, in Rabiul Awal 1402/January 1982, the participants agreed to conduct a post-mortem of the dilemma that was faced by the ummah, and their poor intellectual, political, and economic conditions. Islamic minds must be awakened, and various territories must be explored to ascertain how the general principles of knowledge reconstruction can be applied to the Arts and Sciences. There is a need to reform and develop Islamic thought and methodology, and the basic content, principles, goals, and values of the Islamic vision.1 In this exercise, it will be important to re-examine and remould knowledge in line with the Islamic vision. Indeed, it will be important to integrate modern disciplines into the Islamic vision. There is a definite need to promote the contributions of Muslim social thinkers in the fields of Sociology, Anthropology, History, Political Science, Psychology, Communication, and English. Knowledge of the Qur’an and Sunna must be applied to the contemporary situation. Islamic religious disciplines need to be humanized in the sense that they must be relevant to contemporary issues. Islamic religious knowledge can, for example, address the issue of environmentalism, and many political issues can be addressed from Islamic perspectives. Thus, Islamic religious knowledge can also be a science to solve human problems.2 223 The Role of Muslims in the New Millennium By the time that the Third World Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1404/1984), it was clear that the need to reconstruct knowledge in line with the Islamic vision had gone beyond the frontiers of academia, and had become the concern of the general public...