Tariq Ramadan: What would traditional Sunni scholars say about him?

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate

Professor Tariq Ramadan is a creative intellectual and committed social activist. He was born and raised in the West to a religious family and has dedicated his life to forging what he describes as a "Western Islam" that allows Muslims to retain their core religious principles while fully engaging in Western society as good citizens concerned for the well-being of their countrymen.

Insightful Principles

Some of the insightful principles that Professor Ramadan puts forward for Muslims in the West are:

(1) The ideals of Western civilization and culture agree with many Islamic ideals.

Muslims often hastily assume that everything Western is un-Islamic, overlooking the many admirable qualities of Western civilization and culture. Tolerance, open-mindedness, respect for human dignity regardless of race and gender, justice, honesty, professionalism, and industriousness are all qualities that Muslims should recognize, appreciate, and emulate. Western society--like all societies, including Muslim ones--has its faults, but it is not--as some Muslims contend--Satan incarnate.

(2) Muslims should engage non-Muslims in a positive manner that highlights similarities rather than differences.

Ferreting out others' faults invites hostility and rejection; constructing a common ground of praiseworthy traits invites curiosity, dialogue, and admiration. The Qur'an teaches us to engage non-Muslims by highlighting similarities rather than differences: "Say: 'People of the Book! Come now to a word common between us and you, that we worship none but God, and that we associate not aught with Him, and do not some of us take others as Lords, apart from God.'" (3:64).

(3) Muslims must replace their complex of victimhood with confident goodwill and open-heartedness.

The way to defuse hostility is by capturing the other side's admiration, not by recrimination. The Qur'an counsels us to return harm with good, "Not equal are the good deed and the evil deed. Repel [your enemy's evil] with that which is better and behold, he between whom and thee there is enmity shall be as if he were a loyal friend. " (41:34)

(4) Muslims in Western societies must break out of their shells and make positive contributions to their societies.

The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "None of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." (Bukhari) Imam Nawawi explained that the brotherhood mentioned in this hadith is the brotherhood of humanity, not just the brotherhood of faith. The way to attract people to Islam is not self-righteous sermonizing, but sincere and selfless service. The only way to protect Islam in the West is to reach out to other people; a ghetto-like retreat--in addition to being a shirking of our responsibility--will bring hostility, not security.

(5) Muslims must side with the truth, not merely with other Muslims.

The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "Help your brother, whether he is oppressing or oppressed." The Companions asked, "We shall help him if he is oppressed, but how can we help him if he is the oppressor?" The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) replied, "Stop him [from his oppression]" (Bukhari) It is not a matter of siding with Muslims or non-Muslims; it is a matter of siding with the truth.

These are all Islamic principles that are recognized by traditional scholars of Sunni Islam throughout the Islamic world. These principles are particularly important for Muslims living in Western societies after the tragic events of 9/11, and Dr. Ramadan's advice is therefore both timely and insightful, and deserves our acceptance.

Reformist Thought

His keen insight into high-level strategy for Muslims in the West notwithstanding, Professor Ramadan is--as he describes himself--a reformist. He believes that in order for Islam to succeed in the West, Muslims need to go back their sources and reinterpret them in the light of unprecedented realities that they face in the modern world. Classical works of Islamic law are--in his view--unsuitable for Muslims in the West because these works were influenced by the cultures that their authors lived in and will hence stifle Islamic activity in the context of Western culture. He believes that present-day scholars in the Muslim world, too, are unable to give suitable answers for Muslims in the West. Muslims in the West therefore need to acquire knowledge from scholars in the Muslim heartlands and then chart their own course by creating a "Western Islam" that will allow Muslims to maximize the contributions they make to Western society. Such reformist tendencies are contrary to orthodox Sunni Islam.

Sunni Methodology

The methodology of traditional Sunni Islam is based on three premises:

(1) Allah has preserved his religion since the time of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) down to the present day. The reformist approach of "going back to the sources to correct mistakes perpetuated by Muslims for hundreds of years" goes against the divine promise, "It is We who have sent down the Remembrance, and We shall preserve it." (15:9)

(2) Scholars are the means by which Allah preserves His religion. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) explained this by saying, "Verily, Allah does not take away knowledge by plucking it out people, but he takes it away by taking [the souls] of scholars. " (Bukhari).

(3) Sacred knowledge is based on transmission from scholar to student in a continuous chain back to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). This is what the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) meant when he said that "scholars are the heirs of prophets" (Tirmidhi): knowledge and understanding is inherited from teachers, not merely inferred through one's own reason.

The Muslim Heartlands

Knowledge is a prerequisite for action, and unless our activism in the West is based on sound religious knowledge, it will be devoid of divine acceptance and help. Muslims in the West have yet to develop a rich scholarly tradition based on Sunni Islam and are hence highly dependent on representatives of this tradition in the Muslim heartlands. By charging that scholars in the heartlands lack the requisite knowledge to solve the problems of Muslims in the West, we are severing our source of sacred knowledge and going down the treacherous path of reform which will ultimately lead to the dying out of our religion in the West, either the slow death of liberalism or the explosive one of extremism. It is only by holding fast to the inheritors of our tradition that Islam will succeed in the West.

In summary, Muslims in the West (and, in fact, all over the world) should pay close heed to the many keen insights that Professor Tariq Ramadan offers in his commentary on the situation of Muslims in the modern world, but they should be careful not to compromise any of the principles of traditional Sunni Islam in the process.

And Allah knows best.

Hamza.