Criticism of Islamism - Emphasis On Early Islam

Emphasis On Early Islam

Some critics, such as Tunisian-born scholar Abdelwahab Meddeb, have bemoaned the Islamist belief that true Islam was enforced for only a few decades of its 1400-year-long history, and this short period is what Muslims should imitate. Sayyid Qutb preached that Islam was no longer in existence and that it was "necessary that the Muslim community be restored to its original form," and follow the example of the original "Companions of the Prophet." These companions not only cut themselves off from non-Islamic culture or learning—Greek, Roman, Persian, Christian or Jewish logic, art, poetry, etc. - but "separating selves completely from past life," of family and friends.

Islamist belief on what constitutes original form varies. Abul Ala Maududi indicates it was the era of the Prophet and the four rightly guided caliphs. Qutb's brother Muhammad thought the only time "Islam was ... enforced in its true form" was during the reign the first two caliphs, plus three years from 717 to 720 A.D. For the Shiite Ayatollah Khomeini, the five-year reign of Caliph Ali was the truly Islamic era Muslims should imitate.

Meddeb protests that this excludes not only all non-Muslim culture, but most of Muslim history including the Golden Age of Islam: "How can one benefit from the past and the present if one comes to the conclusion that the only Islam that conforms to the sovereignty of God is that of Medina the first four caliphs? ... Can one still ... love and respond to the beauties handed down by the many peoples of Islam through the variety of their historic contribution?" He (and others) have questioned the perfection of the early era where "three of the first four caliphs ... were assassinated," while "enmities" and "factional disputes concerning legitimacy" were played out, and points out the celebration of rightly guided originated a century later with Ibn Hanbal. In the same vein, another author (Tarek Osman) complained of Islamists "excessive historical subjectivity that censored history and consciously (or ignorantly) overlooked the almost continuous embarrassing episodes of blood-letting and internal struggles."