Reclaiming the Tradition

Abstract

The issue at hand for every Muslim who takes hisher Muslim identity seriously is to work toward the creation and maintenance of Islamic knowledge. The commitment to this agenda should not, however, be seen exclusively as an exercise in constructing yet another knowledge structure, for then it would be an empty academic exercise. The full truth and force of Islamization of knowledge is captured only in its being understood initially as a political act. Only later is it to be understood as an act that, for its completion, requires Muslims to engage in academic exercises without, however, ever losing sight of the political import of the entire undertaking. The sense in which I am using the term “political” should not be understood in the narrow and parochial sense of belonging to a political party or an organization or even of being committed to some political ideology. I am employing the term to mean the exercise of power not for individual gains but for the betterment of the community viewed as a moral entity. Hence, the political is the realm within which moral debate takes place regarding the ends for which the community is to use power, by whom it will be exercised on behalf of the community, and how it will employ power to realize those ends. In this sense, the political becomes constitutive of the community considered as a moral entity. This understanding of the political is consistent with the Islamic view, which does not separate the political from the moral. In fact, in Islam political activity has legitimacy and makes sense only if undertaken for a moral purpose. In the West, the moral understanding of the political was the Cornerstone of Plato’s and Aristotle’s classical political theory, until it became marginalized as the West grew more secular and ...