According to Islam, one of the signs of the Last Day is the rising of the sun in the West. Of course, throughout history many people have interpreted the glory of the sun and the stars according to their own superstitions thinking that the universe is indestructible and will last for all eternity. However, according to the Quran this kind of perfect design that has lasted billions of years is the work of Allah who created everything and by his command, it will come to an end in a similar way. Also according to the Quran, the time when the universe, all forms of life from human beings to microorganisms, the stars and galaxies, come to an end is an hour. This is a particular hour used in the Quran to describe the Last Day. The Quran does not tell when it will happen, but only that there are many signs to be expected such as the Second Coming of Jesus, the killing of the anti- Christ (Dajjal), the appearance of Mahdi, and the dominance of Islamic morality throughout the world, including the increase in the number of wars, anarchy, poverty, adultery, prostitution, and sexual perversion, and the increased frequency of disasters and earthquakes. Many will recognize a similar list from the Christian New Testament, written six centuries before the Quran. Furthermore, Islam teaches that the world will suffer from many material and spiritual problems. In this view, the moral teaching of the Quran will prevail, and there will be great prosperity. The Last Day does not come until the sun rises from the West, and when this occurs, all the people will accept the Islamic faith.
Many Islamic scholars believe that this implies that Islam will spread in the West, meaning Islam will rise from the West. The British Labor Party candidate Sadiq Khan, a Muslim, has been elected Mayor of London. This son of a Pakistani bus driver now has become the mayor of the capital of England. Almost a century ago, a Muslim scholar, Said Nursi, argued that the future of Islam depends on the West. According to Nursi, the Muslims were in a deep state of collapse, but he posited that Europe was “pregnant with Islam” and that the West would give birth to a new Islam; this new Islam would solve the problems of Muslims. When we look at Europe as a whole, we note that the Muslim population is projected to grow from 44 million in 2010 to 58.2 million in 2030. In the United States the Muslim population is projected to increase from 5 million to 11 million.
Many Muslims think the West is the source of most problems that the Muslim world is facing today. Similarly, in the West, there is a perception that Islam is a threat to Western Civilization. So now many Muslims have come to realize that Islam is in a state of deep crisis. Because attempts to reform Islam have failed, Muslim countries have become lands of authoritarian systems of government and of tyrannical regimes, in lieu of democracy, equal rights, freedom of speech, and support for the people. These conditions have now forced the regimes to look for legitimacy elsewhere. Many of the hardliner Muslims could not practice their own religion in their home countries; most of them moved to Europe or to the United States seeking political asylum from an inhospitable environment of political tyranny and ideological oppression. Muslim intellectuals migrated to find refuge in the West including in the United States, where they can freely practice their religion.
The renewal of Islamic thought requires social and intellectual capital. The question is do Muslims have such a capacity to experience a rebirth of Islam? As a result of trying to gain such capital, the migrant Muslims, operating from host countries, are now trying to influence the primary texts of Islam in the Middle East. Many Muslims are now beginning to think like Said Nursi; traditional Muslims who live in the Middle East today cannot reform or reconstruct Islam, but the social, economical and political intellectuals living elsewhere are struggling for the capacity to reconstruct Islam. Those Muslims who live in the West are trying to develop a new theory of Islam that will appeal to everyone. Most of these intellectuals are not by training religious scholars and have not graduated from famous universities like Al Azhar University in Egypt, but are scholars trained in other fields such as medicine, science, engineering, law, politics etc. For example, Fettullah Gulen, who is very successful yet formally uneducated imam, approaches the Quran and other classical texts in Islam from historical, scientific, social, psychological, anthropological, and economical angles.
Actually the reason that most of the Muslim countries are underdeveloped lies not in the West but in Islam as understood and preached by the imams or mullahs. Many Muslims who are afraid to publish their works at home are doing so in the West including the United States. The situation is changing very fast because social media and electronic communication have revolutionized the production and distribution of knowledge. Muslims do not have to wait for an imam or mullah to arrive for consultation on theological issues. With the help of Google or any search engine, any verse or chapter of the Quran can be accessed from multiple sources, and readers can choose from among different interpretation. The traditional argument that Muslims’ religious leaders should be trained in Islamic schools or that only imams can interpret the Quran is no longer valid. That is why there is a war within Islam between hard core traditional Muslims and secular Muslims who are trying to reform Islam. Most of the traditional Muslim countries have become an area of survival. The historical heartland of Islam has lost its capacity, and, therefore, Muslim leaders who live in the West have an alternate opportunity to deal with the problems of Muslim countries by drawing devout followers who subscribe to their new brand of Islam.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
