Renewal embraced at Ramadan majlis

Reshaping ideas and accepting change by being prepared to embrace the times is the way forward for a modern Islam, says a leading Moroccan scholar.

Dr Mohammed al Jabri, second from left, speaks to the audience at Al Bateen Palace.

ABU DHABI // Reshaping ideas and accepting change by being prepared to embrace the times is the way forward for a modern Islam, a leading Moroccan scholar told a Ramadan majlis yesterday. The concept of tajdeed, or renewal, can meet resistance in the face of those who wish to hold on to traditional ways of thinking, said Dr Mohammed al Jabri, in a lecture at the Ramadan majlis of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

"The Arab mind [today] is the product of Arab cultures. It continues to reproduce [the same ideas]. For as long as it does so, it will be difficult to have renewal from within," said Dr Jabri, a scholar of philosophy and Islamic Arab who formerly taught at Mohammed V University in Rabat. "The only way is to critique it from outside its boundaries of thought. It's important to embrace a way that is new to Arab thought, where different people share their opinions and thoughts and discuss them, rather than try to prove that they are right.

"This is the kind of renewal we need. This is the tajdeed we need." Tajdeed is different to the concept of reformation, which in the Islamic context means islah, or to fix and correct, and is more about re-evaluating Islamic ideas to suit the times. Scholars have, however, disagreed on whether new ideas that arise among Muslims are heresy, or a way of tajdeed. Dr Jabri focused his lecture on the idea that Arab thought has been held back because it does not yet accept the possibility that absolute truth does not exist, that only God is absolute.

He used an example from his teaching days at university in Rabat, when he said he was struck by the importance of knowing the other side of the coin, rather than getting stuck trying to prove one's ideas were right. "I concluded that each side becomes convinced they know the truth because they are ignorant of the other. "We need a new way of conversing, like divorcing the idea that one's opinion is the truth. Only God has the truth. We need to move past the idea that there is an absolute truth."

According to Dr Jabri, this is the main factor holding back Arab thought today and that in order to move forward and embrace constructive tajdeed, the Arab world must reinvent its way of thinking. "We must rewrite history... forget conflicts of the past and move on. Our capacity to forget is a blessing from God," he said. He pointed to many attempts in various Arab countries for tajdeed, including Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia and the UAE. But they will not have a major effect unless they converse with each other and form a common platform that has a general Arab identity, not just a country-specific identity.

"The idea of Arab does not yet exist. There are no Arabs, only Arab countries. We can't say that all these attempts fall under one umbrella: the Arab culture. No, they are specific to each country." The UAE, which prides itself on following "the moderate, middle way of Islam", is encouraging discourse about the revival of Islam, and making its practices relevant for worshippers who live modern lives.

The Emirates invited 30 religious scholars from 11 countries to give lectures and sermons throughout the country during the holy month, a decades-old tradition. [e-mail]