Fair View

Details: Written by Abdelwahab Elmessiri; Category: FAIR VIEW; Published: 31 August 2005; Hits: 9439

It is important that we, as Arabs - both Muslims and Christians -, examine our position towards the Nazi genocide of the Jews. As Muslims and Christians, our stance is incontrovertibly clear. Our religions (Islaam, Christianity and Judaism) all contain strong prohibitions against murder. The ’Qur a~n says, “… that whosoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land, it is as if he had slain mankind entirely.” (The Holy ’Qura~n, chapter of Almaa-idah, verse 32)

Details: Written by Abdelwahab Elmessiri; Category: FAIR VIEW; Published: 01 May 2005; Hits: 9858

12. Reviving Islaamic Relativism:

The new Islaamic discourse is aware of the basic philosophical question in the modern world, that is, the question of epistemological relativism that leads to nihilism. It replaces it with what may be termed “Islaamic relativism”, which asserts that there is only one absolute, the Almighty. But His absoluteness implies the relativism of everything else. However, by virtue of the presence of the absolute God outside relative time, He becomes the centre of the universe, bestowing on it purpose and meaning. This means that while the world is itself relative, it does not fall into relativism, nor does it become meaningless. Islaamic relativism is a “relative relativism”, not an absolute one. Thus, there is a simultaneous awareness of the irreducibility of truth to matter and of the relativity and impermanence of some of its aspects. In other words, there is an awareness of a certain interrelatedness between the absolute and the relative that does not necessarily result in a nihilistic negation of the absolute. Any human discourse, the discourse of the Muslims included, is primarily and ultimately a set of endeavours, assiduously exerted by human beings, living within time and place, to comprehend the world of man and nature, and for each to interpret his sacred text. But human hermeneutics, the bearers of the new Islaamic discourse would argue, is different form the sacred text.

Details: Written by Abdelwahab Elmessiri; Category: FAIR VIEW; Published: 01 April 2005; Hits: 9900

3. Reviving the Islaamic World View:
The bearers of the new discourse, on the other hand, are not content with importing ready made Western answers to the questions posed by Western modernity. They have developed a radical exploratory generative discourse that neither attempts to reconcile Islaam with Western modernity, nor does it preoccupy itself with searching for the points of contrast (or similarity) between the two.

Details: Written by Abdelwahab Elmessiri; Category: FAIR VIEW; Published: 01 March 2005; Hits: 11745

As for the bearers of the new Islamic discourse, the situation is quite different. Most of them had their intellectual formative years in the fifties and had their first encounter with modern Western civilisation in the sixties.

Details: Written by Abdelwahab Elmessiri; Category: FAIR VIEW; Published: 01 February 2005; Hits: 10596

Some people tend to view Islam as if it were a monolithic or uni-dimensional entity. Islam is undoubtedly the faith of transcendental monotheism, the belief in Allah, (the one and only God), who transcends both man and nature. But monotheism does not lead to monism; on the contrary, it leads to plurality and diversity.

For from a strictly Islamic point of view, except for God, everything else exists in variety. Therefore, there is not one single Islamic discourse, but rather a variety of discourses that manifest the various endeavours (ijtihad) of the Muslims, within a specific time and place, to understand the world around them and to interpret the Qur’an.