The Duty of Intellectuals Toward the Nation
O Brothers...
A group of my
fellow professors, whose request I find difficult to refuse, have urged me to
speak to you on this blessed night in this flourishing club. The reputation of
Najd [a region in Saudi Arabia] is not known to us as despicable, but they
defined the subject of the talk in a phrase phrased by my brother, the
industrious Professor Abdul Salam Mazian: "How can intellectuals
fulfill their duty toward the nation?"
The professor, may
God forgive him, claimed that no one other than I could detail this subject and
give it its due. Had it not been for my high regard for him and my firm
confidence in his brotherhood, I would have said that choosing this topic was a
trap, disguised by that alluring claim. However, the professor’s past actions,
which I remember and appreciate, intercede for him in my eyes, specifically his
efforts to bridge the various cultures prevalent in this homeland, and in
reconciling intellectuals who are naturally prone to dissonance. Nay, I shall
profit further and count the professor as an example of the "greatest
common divisor" known to mathematicians; for he is among the distinguished
few who have tasted two cultures clashing in these parts and worked to
reconcile them for the general good.
Moving from
jesting with the professor to seriousness: this topic has stirred the interest
of the nation from both ends this year. Many have delved into it, and a violent
current of meanings connected to this subject has surged through public
opinion, manifested in actions before words. Clouds of debate, controversy,
questioning, and answering have inundated gatherings and communities, and
friction has increased between the two parties intended: the nation and the
intellectuals among its sons.
I claim to be
among those observing these movements within the nation and concerned with
recording them, because they are related to my intellectual, educational, and
guidance activities, and because I am closely connected to both parties,
knowledgeable of the duties each owes the other, and working to the best of my
ability to narrow the distance and remove the dissonance between them.
Therefore, my judgment on this new feeling in this nation is that it is the
offspring of sudden developments and events that are reshaping the entire
world, and that the first thing these events do is imprint minds and
mentalities with a new mold.
The State of the Nation and its Leaders
When a nation's
sense of need intensifies, its eyes turn toward its leaders, and its tongues
move to ask about its men. If the nation is fortunate and poised for goodness,
its men respond to the first call, and it finds its leaders at the forefront of
the ranks. But if it is wretched, destined for humiliation and abandonment, it
finds them playing and amusing themselves, or bickering and agitated, isolated
at the rear of the caravans, scattered on the fringes of the journey of life,
satisfied with the narrow circle in which they revolve, burdened by the
grueling restrictions with which life has shackled them. Thus, opportunities
are missed, the early pioneers triumph, the spoils of life are divided, and the
earth is replaced by another earth, while the nation and its men are estranged
despite proximity, severed despite the sanctity of neighborliness. They turn
deaf ears while the pain is encompassing, they feign blindness while the
affliction surrounds them, they argue while the warner is exposed [obvious], and
they dispute the sun while it is rising. Then, they awake having missed the
chance to act, hope destroyed, and the decree passed. This is our state and the
state of our nation with us, and the matter rests with God.
O Brothers...
This topic,
which I was forced to speak on, is a thorny one. The tongue does not tread upon
it without encountering renewed corpses, extended bodies, and obstacles that
stand between the throat and the tongue, and stumbling blocks that separate
human from human. Indeed, fairness among us is scarce.
Speaking on
this subject leads to stirring strings that have long been silent, to shaking
off dust that souls have settled into, and to criticizing traits of weakness,
feebleness, and languor that have nested in our souls until we have become
accustomed to them and relied upon them. Weaning ourselves from them has become
difficult, and we have dressed them in clothing other than their own, using
false descriptions and results, until engaging in opposition to them has become
seen as meddling in what does not concern us, and engaging with them [the
traits] is seen as throwing oneself into destruction.
We have
bestowed upon them names they do not deserve, until the one characterized by
them is called among us wise, rational, benevolent, peaceful, conciliatory, and
one who avoids doubts by indulging in lethargy and withdrawal.
These traits
existed in a group of our predecessors and were praised in their custom and the
language of their era. This was because they were luxuries in the life of the
nation, for the nation was united, its side was mighty, its pillars firm, its
position respected, its standing among nations elevated, its fields teeming
with men, and its treasuries overflowing with wealth. What harm could it
possibly do the nation if a group among them came to be peaceful, another
avoiding doubts, another ascetic, another abstemious, another devoted, another
worshipping, another inhabiting retreats, and another filling the circles of
dhikr?
A Lesson from History
Al-Ma'mun in
his era stood with the might of the Caliphate, and in its might was the might
of Islam. His hand overflowed with generosity to those transmitting and
translating the fruits of human intellect. What harm did it do Islam in his
time if a group in the nation preferred lethargy, isolation, concealment, and
withdrawal? What harm does it do the ship, if its captain is skillful and
vigilant, that all the passengers sleep?
Ahmad ibn
Hanbal and his peers in their era carried the Sharia, establishing, explaining,
and spreading it. Al-Bukhari and his peers undertook journeys to collect,
refine, and purify it. Tahir ibn Al-Husayn and his kind among the leaders
protected the frontiers and organized the forces. Al-Hasan ibn Sahl and his
kind managed public interests and collected funds. Abu Yusuf and Ahmad ibn Abi
Du’ad implemented justice and established punishments. Thumamah ibn Ashras and
his peers tended to the "House of Wisdom" in the nation and
cultivated virtues. Al-Asma'i, Yunus, Abu `Ubaydah, and their peers documented
and preserved the language. Al-Khalil, Sibawayh, Ibn Jinni, and their ilk
deduced its rules and mapped its metrics. Al-Jahiz and his peers clarified
Arabic eloquence and harnessed it for rational and transmitted knowledge.
An-Nazzam, Wasil, Bishr ibn Al-Mu'tamir, and their peers expanded intellectual
horizons, fertilizing them with critical thought and nurturing them with
various forms of debate, argument, and inference.
Thousands of
others undertook the other branches of life, filling its diverse fields. Does
it harm the nation if a group of them chooses the lethargy, withdrawal, and
other things that are the diseases of intellectuals today in this nation?
However, the
reality that people are ignorant of, and which I am informing you of, for I
know it better than you, is that those groups that deviated and withdrew from
public life in the days of Islam's glory were naught but groups unworthy of
life. They did not find space in the field of life because those fields were
teeming with the more worthy. Those groups did not withdraw from life out of
obedience and choice, but out of compulsion and necessity. They are groups
rejected by life, not ones that rejected life; they are groups exiled from
life, not ones that chose to abandon it.
There is a man
among the charlatan Sufi sheikhs in this era of ours, but he is clever in
deceptive speech. A disciple came to him and said: "I have divorced the
world to devote myself to you and your service." The Sheikh said to him:
"And what have you divorced from the world? Do you have sheep?" He
said: "No." He said: "Do you have a trade you abandoned for my
sake?" He said: "No." He said: "Do you have farming you
left for my sake?" He said: "No." He said: "Do you have a
wife and children?" He said: "No." He said: "Then the world
is what has divorced you, and you are the divorced one, not it."
Such is the
state of those groups from whose evil remnants we have inherited this lethargy,
this withdrawal, and this ignorance of the true nature of life. Wretched is the
inheritance, and wretched are the heirs.
Imam Abu Ishaq Al-Isfara’ini
toured Mount Lebanon at the beginning of Islam's decline. It was teeming with
worshippers isolated from the world. He addressed them saying: "O eaters
of grass! You flee here and leave the nation of Muhammad to have its religion
toyed with by innovators." His restriction to mentioning religion
indicates that the nation's worldly affairs were preserved. Had he been
resurrected in our time, he would have added the world to religion, for both
have been lost due to the lethargy of intellectuals.
Redefining the Role of the Intellectual
O Brothers...
This is an
introduction like a key to speaking on the intended subject. It is connected to
it, counted among its preliminaries, pointing to many of its fundamentals,
guiding to the example of the modernists compared to the ancients. If it is
long, my excuse to you is that the impromptu speaker cannot control his tongue
as the writer controls his pen. Let us divert this tongue from its current path
and try to drive it toward the subject matter. It is your right upon this
tongue that it speak the truth, even if against itself. If the truth angers
some, it is sufficient that it pleases reality. I did not stand before you in
the position of the speaker, nor you in the position of listeners, without the
Truth taking a pledge from us that speech be from conscience to conscience,
that we not prefer emotions over intellects, that we not exchange lying praise,
and that we not betray virtue in its name.
We are sick,
and part of the affliction of the sick person is the doctor's softness with
him. The doctor's softness is a betrayal of his art, a blemish on his honesty,
and an increase in affliction for his patient. What is the good of an hour's
softness for which the patient suffers years of pain?
I remind you of
the topic: How do intellectuals fulfill their duty toward the nation?
So, the
intellectual is the refined man, enlightened in thought, noble in mind,
independent in judgment, proceeding in his thinking based on the rules of
logic, not on the foundations of myth, informed about what is possible of the
world's affairs and history, and acquainted with a portion of the knowledge of
his era.
Culture may
broaden with a wealth of character and a abundance of information, or narrow
with the lack thereof. It may be divided according to gender, language, or
religious considerations; so, one speaks of Arabic culture or French culture,
and, for example, Islamic culture or Christian culture. I am speaking to you
about it according to what I taste of the spirit of the word in its Arabic
connotation, and what I know of its application in the high Eastern custom in
its current intellectual renaissance. If you see in my speech some
contradiction to its foreign meaning, my excuse is that I do not know the
extent of what is intended by it in that terminology. I am alerting you to the
fact that the meaning of the word in Arabic taste aims at the basis of culture
being good upbringing, sound perception, appreciation of things, soundness of
thinking and rational inference, and upright behavior in dealing with people.
It also aims at considering noble ethics before an abundance of information,
and perhaps this last point is where the Eastern and European views differ.
Read Also:
-
Emergence and Impact of Arab Intellectuals
-
A Model of Intellectual Sustainability
-
Intellect and Critical Thinking in the Quran
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Source: Athar
Imam Muhammad Al-Bashir Al-Ibrahimi.
