Knowledge and decolonisation of the Muslim mind

“It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion. And sufficient is Allah as Witness.” Al-Qur’an 48:28.

During the last Jumah of last Heijrah year, we proposed to embark on the project of Decolonisation of the Muslim Minds this heijrah year and Alhamdulillaah we are in the new year with all the Grace of Allaah for which we must thank Him.

In this KHUTBAH, we are going to introduce knowledge, the biggest subject of life not only because we are University people whose business is the pursuit, deployment and use of knowledge, but because we are Muslims who inherited the fountain of knowledge from which “nothing has been omitted.” (Q6:38).

The following are the summary of the introductory conversation on knowledge according to the Qur’an.

Knowledge comes to man either from Allaah or from Shytan. If it is from Allaah, it leads to faith in and honouring of Allaah by purification of the soul through obedience to the Will of Allaah. That’s why when Allaah commands the angels to bow to Adam, they obeyed due to faith arising from knowledge.

But Shytan disobeyed due to his limited and faulty knowledge. He felt fire was better than clay which is made of earth, water, wind and fire. All of these will consume fire but Shytan didn’t know and thus became lost and qualified for hell. When Allaah ejected him from paradise and cursed him and consigned him into hell, he threatened, saying: “Because You have put me in error, I will surely sit in wait for them (i.e., mankind) on Your straight path.” (Al-A’raf 7:16).

The straight path is the religion guided by revelation. Today, both have been replaced with mere cultural and psychological attachments. Appearance seems to be the first means of identity of the believers today while psychological manipulation of the minds and use of magic, either in science or religion or both have replaced true knowledge of revelation. This was the situation when Allaah chose Muhammad for the revelation of the Qur’an.

This Qur’an has nothing to compare it with as it omits nothing without articulation. Shytan will, however, always fence believers away from the Qur’an and deodorize other sources of knowledge to the believers as they are made quite attractive as additional or complementary knowledge to the Qur’an. This is his method which he used to get Adam and Hawah to disobey Allaah and then got ejected from the paradise (Q20:15-127).

Shytan continued to fulfill his promise to lay ambush for human beings especially on the straight path of Allaah by using the scholars of the religions to interpolate the scriptures and replace them with speculative philosophy and magic. This was the situation when the Prophet reached Madinah and was overwhelmed by the tremendous material knowledge and prosperity of the people of the book. When the constant psycho spiritual war constantly unleashed on him was added to these, he was compelled to consider following them and opening up the faith for their acceptance and expansion.

Allaah objects and forbids him (Q2:120) and authenticates the Qur’an (Q4:166). The implications of this include: the fact that a believer in the Qur’an should not be overwhelmed by any material knowledge or prosperity. A believer should, therefore, not be so carried away with scientific evidence for the interpretation and or authentication of the Qur’an. A judo-christian conception and apologetic interpretation and presentation of Islam are not only indicative of following the Ahlul Kitab in disobedience to the command of Allaah, they also accelerate subscription to and slavish submission to cerebral feudalism also known as Colonisation of the Muslim minds.

The Qur’an is the framework of new knowledge that cannot be surpassed till the end of the world. The world was initiated into the wonderful psycho-cognitive and spiritual nature of true knowledge when an illiterate Prophet was commanded to “READ in the name of his Creator and Lord of mankind from clinging substance who teaches by the pen what man knows not.” (Q96:1-5).

The basis of communicative and man centred knowledge was and forever established. From then, scientific and other new knowledge became initiated. Although Shytan infiltrated the Muslim ranks and used the scholars to embrace Judo-Christian and Greek (and now satanic) knowledge, the Muslims still led the world spiritually, intellectually and politically for centuries. Muslim civilization amazed the world so much that when we were at the peak of civilization, Europe was in the dark ages.

A number of natural errors and human factors led to the closure of the gate of Ijtihad and the opening of the doors of Taqlid thus sealing the intellectual and other concomitant leadership opportunities for the Muslims. Attempts to reject foreign knowledge and reckless science led to stagnation as this resulted into the replacement of one mental colonialism with the other. The struggles and conflicts continue.

The consequences of this FITNAH include the overwhelming Muslim confusion each time there’s a call to action to liberate Muslims from tyranny, we become divided based on slavish submission to either Taqlid of the Arab mental colonialists or the modernist colonialists. We are torn between accepting Monarchy and democracy as tolerable political assumption and religion and opting for jihad without requisite conditions.

How did we get here? We got to this sorry and tragic situation after we got lost in the wilderness of confusion arising from the suffocation of the Muslim mental world.

Knowledge expanded negatively due to interaction with foreigners and the colonisation of the Muslim Mind leading to near Epistemicide. Nationalism combined with fear of losing the focus of Islam to reckless knowledge to make well-meaning scholars to close the gate of ijtihad. Mental explosion became inevitable as a result of the necessity of knowledge to expand. Human minds must be engaged. Brilliant minds had to resort to writing poems, fables etc to express knowledge in terms of islamising old pagan philosophy, mysticism and didactic fables.

Arud became the main focus of scholars who must continuously engage in the pursuit of knowledge while Fiqh and argumentations rapidly developed into balkanisation of the Muslim communities into schools of thought and their conflicts leading to further crises till date. The results include the tragic abandonment of the Qur’an and reckless embrace of poems, songs and fabrication of and correct citing of Ahadith as the hallmark of Muslim intellectualism. While all that may mesmerisze the Muslim small minds, the serious-minded Muslims got frustrated and sought functional knowledge in material education in order to be able to fit in and compete with the world.

Islamisation of knowledge became the main option to get out of the entanglement of confusion and frustration. It became clear that those who sought material education also became sandwiched between the Arab and Euro-American mental colonialists on one hand, and between these two and their African parents and teachers who constitute their local schools and homes into strong mental slave camps. The colonisation of the Muslim Mind continues till today.

How do we Decolonise the Muslim Mind? Decolonisation of the Muslim Mind must begin with the acceptance of the Qur’an as the only authentic source of correct knowledge and the rejection of other sources as equal or superior to it as Epistemicide and mental strangulation between the oriental and occidental colonialists.

To insist on over one thousand years old understanding or opinion to engage a 21st century octopus and satanic ideas already running in the veins of our Genz adults and children is to commit socio-economic and spiritual suicide. It is exactly the same case if we recklessly embrace sophisticated modern Kufr in Ribba-based economic life by islamising the capitalist financial institutions and its terrorising democratic religion as substitutes to the Khilafah.

The same mental slavery explains rationalisation or condemnation of military engagement of the kuffar in every sense of Gorilla war fare, mercenary business and proxy war in the name of Jihad. The rationalists may appear as realistic modern enthusiasts burning with and happy about the rebirth of the Muslim Jihadic spirit for physically confronting daunting arrogance and tyranny of the powerful kuffar. The objectors may condemn Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Book Harram. Hammas, Izbullah etc not due to the inherent contradictions of ownership, political objectives and financial/pecuniary interest infestations of these movements, but they may also be singing to the drum or drumming to the songs of the oriental and Occidental mental colonialists.

What is the way forward?
It is to sit down and re-learn the Qur’an and apply its pure Guidance, Proofs of Guidance and the Criteria (Q2:185) for every situation. It is to begin with a historical and sociological study of the Qur’an and the removal of colonial interpretations from the four main colonialists – the Arabs, the Persians, the Romans and the Africans. Results will be a free Muslim Community liberated from all mental encumbrances and ready to face the world the way the Prophet and the first generation faced the world in all-times-non- geographic Makkah and Madinah.

• Prof. Azeez is the Chief Imaam of Da’wah Front of Nigeria and University of Abuja Muslim Community.