Dr Ibrahim Nagnoor
BENGALURU – Renowned thinker, writer and Islamic scholar Dr Javed Jamil has stressed the need of presenting Islam to the whole world as a system of “Holistic Peace for the whole humanity” with wisdom along with intellectual aggression without being offensive and application in all the fields.
Addressing a two-day Dawah Workshop organised recently by Karnataka Jamaat-e Islami here, Dr Jamil also called for positive interaction with all the religions and right-thinking people.
He said Islamic scholars “need not be apologetic and defensive but should explain their viewpoint using intellectual aggression but without being offensive towards others.” He added that they must be proactive not reactive while dealing with the issues confronting the world. He argued that the first requirement is “Aggressive Critique of Current Ideologies” focussing on the issues rather than the people. The role of the forces behind the problems needs to be exposed, he said. He also explained his theory of economic fundamentalism with some detail about its effects
He said the kind of democracy, which is currently in force at the world level, has in fact turned into “corporatocracy, which means a government of the corporate run by the agents of the corporate and for the corporate”. He argued that while Indian secularism in essence is positive, which gives importance to all religions, the Western secularism means total negation of all religions. He argued that the forces of economics are anti-religion because the fear of God is bound to have a “negative” impact on the commercialisation of human susceptibilities including alcohol, drugs and various kinds of sex outside the traditional family system.
Dr Jamil emphasised that Islamic scholars then need to present Alternative Islamic Paradigms and Programmes with the ultimate vision of establishing Holistic System of Peace. The focus should be on the “beauty of results” rather than on the apparent “beauty of methods”, he explained. If any model or system is bad in results, it cannot be called a good system, and the ultimate criteria of the results should be the survival of life with betterment of health, minimisation of crimes and minimisation of social problems including economic inequality and issues related to families and individuals.
Dr Jamil explained that while the modern constitutions mainly talk of fundamental rights and somewhat about fundamental duties, Islam has three-dimensional system comprising fundamental rights, fundamental duties and fundamental prohibitions.
Dr Jamil also attacked the scientific philosophies, which under the effect of atheistic forces of economics, try to present the system of universe without God and argued that “God is the Ultimate Designer, Creator, and Lord of the universe and the universe cannot be created and administered effectively without One Who knows everything in advance and has the power to plan and enforce the Laws of Nature”.
Dr Jamil further stressed the need of aggressive response, with full facts and figures, to the attacks on Islam related to status of women, capital punishment, Jihad etc.
Dr Jamil’s one-hour talk was followed by a question-answer session. He emphasised the need of positive relations with other religions. In an answer to a question, he said that they need to be told in no uncertain terms that “Prophet Muhammad was not the founder of Islam but was the final step and final ambassador of God in the evolution of Islam, which began with the first man, Prophet Adam. He said that “Islam” is an Arabic word meaning “Attaining peace through total submission to God” and most of the other major religions of today, in their original forms were earlier versions of Islam, though the language varied with the region they belonged to.”
