[Essay]: Lackluster Muslim Intelligentia & the Psychological Displacement of our Values"

 

"Loss of The Muslim Intelligentia & Psychological Displacement of our Values"

I am certain that anyone who understands the psychological underpinnings of colonialism understands the displacement of our archetypes and ideals. Of what it means to be cultured, glorious, tempered, mannered, good even, moral and righteous too, courageous even. & The acceders can’t help but think on the lines of the mongerers for it is a question of human survival.  We muslims now have our own nation-states, yet we continue to live with a slavish mindset.

Attempts have been made to trace history and revitalize our cultures to what they were. To wishfully set in motion all the anachronistic customs possible to be implemented today. Abul Kalam had highlighted the follies of ‘qadamat-parasti’ as well as the need to sail in the tide of the times. A goal worth striving for in these times would be to be amongst the shapers of the tide of time despite the uncertainty.

To return to the roots of what made our past great & to transform the present anew. Not mind-less backgazing, but a retrieval of vitality, of moral and intellectual vision.

Principles. It is to our guiding principles that we must return. My goal here is only to lay out the problem; to demarcate and depict a picture of the Muslim refinement we must superimpose upon our decaying self-image. More precisely: a renewal in the cultivation of character and conduct, forming an elite not of birthright, but of refinement. Open, unbarred & rooted not in exclusion, but in distinction, necessarily keeping our democracy in check. Cicero best noted that a just system requires all three: the wisdom of the refined, the voice of the people, and the strength of the executive. In our own times, such balance is overdue.

To resist the archetypes flung upon us by global capital and secular consumerism, we strenuously need revive our own. Humans model themselves upon what is seen. And we have allowed ourselves to be seen too little. The cultureless materialism, the sterile ambition, the irreverent sarcasm; icons of this age are all too hollow of soul for us to follow.

Though bounded by culture, religion supercedes our sphere of life & gives us the values and wisdom we ought to strive for. Culture gives but an incomplete answer. Firaaq's visions of reclaiming the Indian Heritage offer a beautiful glimmer of hope. His visions, unfortunately, offer only a glimmer. The founding of Pakistan upon religion was but a poignant insight of our forefathers’ wisdom in regards to the constitution of our identity.

The matter of ‘The Pakistani Dream’ & ‘Pakistani Exceptionalism’ is also easily solved by this. The principle, if understood would proceed internationally to lead people to this very answer, this solution.

This 'class' of people I speak of must be grounded, for currently we are trees rootless with a multitude of direction to sprout in. The Persio-Arabic base trained in the tolling bells of the modern seem to me to be the answer in this regard. An embodiment of the pragmatic yet profoundly sober values of the Islamic tradition. Refined, dignified, & honored. Not for class, creed or tribality, but revered for piety & intellectual sobriety. We live in an age of open learning and cheap access which we need to put to our use. If the right will is planted, refinement may grow even in dust.

Versed in Arabic to deliberate upon the Qur’an, the Sunnah. Leisurely fluent in the flowerful Persian of our tradition. Capable in the analytic clarity of English to trace the outlines of the modern world. Such an answer may sound strange but it isn’t strange at all. Our land has bore such individuals before. The Jamaluddin Afghanis, The Abul Kalams, The Khairis, The Obaidullah Sindhis and the Unparalleled Iqbal.

We’ve been dominated intellectually, and above all it stems from the education imparted to us. These men were refined in every sense of refinement. Forward, yet mindfully footed in tradition, who with their lives were the living argument for the place of Islam in the modern world.

The English Man had already claimed the minds of the younger generation by the time we realized what he had done. Today, our ‘elitist’ schools are farthest from tradition; and our tradition also slyly sneered at. (which is a crisis of misrepresentation too, no less). The systems we're in still shape psychology, Yes, but this shouldn't mean for us to accept the passivity of such a condition. The task at hand should be to cultivate souls to resist all that gnaws at the soul.

For this to change, an education reform is needed, with the spirit of Sir Syed. An elite grounded in the aforementioned tradition must be presented to the world. To the masses at the very least. That they again envy what is truly to be envied. Goodness, Character, Virtue, Strength. How different these appear now in contrast to our colonial uprooters. (and there is no double-speak here either.)

To achieve such a goal, alongside education, new aesthetics may also be adopted. And ‘new’ perhaps may be very well be what is classic, for not a lot is truly new. The cultivated elite, leisurely elegant, sets the living standard for the masses. Sherwani perhaps could be considered in this regard. Not to be adorned cosmetically, but as a sort of cultural rearmament. a response to existential and psychosocial erosion that today presents itself in spiritual weariness, ethical ambiguity, and empty material aspiration.

All for a dignified character, a mind virtuous with the Persio-Islamic wisdom. A mind that takes up debates modern as well as grips the reigns of the present world. Broad, not narrow. Brave, not fearful. Not of bookish arrogance, but of gentle resolve. that which knows where we come from, and where we wish to head. Not exactly a return to the past but a retrieval of what was best in us, brought forward with grace.

خاکی و نوری نہاد، بندۂ مولا صفات

This has to be done methodically, carefully and pragmatically. To shape generations to come. It were these sorts of men, bright and active in the politics of the 20th century subcontinent. & it is them we are at a loss for. Today they are a dying breed & speak a language people my age are ignorant of. 

پیام ا امید ا زنداں درکار ہے
سوز ا وفا, امید ا جفا درکار ہے

سوچ عمل, کردار کی انوکھی تصویر
دل اصحاب, واسفے مصطفیٰ درکار ہے

Systems have changed before, & the human heart still craves meaning. We're not forming new vocabularies anymore. & we're not thriving intellectually either. We're decaying on borrowed substance, and the borrowed is also pitiful, shallow and squalid. All that I have presented here, rightfully contains my hope for the future.