“Immortality is the fruit of an internal struggle”
Chronicles of a (perplexed) believer.
“This religion will become strange again as it was at its beginning; then, happy are the foreigners, those who will revive my moral conduct after men have made it disappear.” This is how the Prophet of Mercy characterized our time. Elsewhere, he recalled that these same beings, strangers to the world of moral oblivion that is modernity, “will live their religion in solitude and anonymity, finding no one to lead them to good.”
The Prophet thus wanted to express and warn the generations of modern times of the difficulty they will have in identifying Islam in its reality, both doctrinal and moral; he thus gives the possibility of facing our time by emphasizing all the pains that will be experienced by those who seek good at the twilight of human history.
The difficulty will be all the greater since the Mohammedan community will number millions of souls. The strangeness will not be due to the few Muslims in a world that has been turned upside down and turned upside down, but rather to the confusion of the number and the divergences that will result from it. It is clear that we are there. Also, anything that can help us better understand Islam in its Mohammedan realities will be welcome. “Morning Islam”some would have said “virginal”has a characteristic that can help us approach it: the peace and harmony that it generates internally and in the depths of the soul. How many would be willing to offer all their fortune in order to benefit from this peace of heart?
A great many excellent works have been written on Islam, its doctrine and its practices; therefore, this set of chronicles, deliberately short, will not have the vocation to repeat what has been said and to do so in a more exhaustive manner. These chronicles are intended to be a moment, an instant, with a view to meditating on our relationship with Islam and to trying to glimpse its reality and its perspectives of civilization.
In this political and media hubbub that tries to grip us until we can no longer, a real heart-crushing machine, let us take a moment to be silent and understand. It will be a question of returning to notions, simple and essential at the same time, that traditional Islam has offered to Man so that he can find his metaphysical being. Man has a celestial vocation and existence has a price, that of immortality. Sir Muhammed Iqbal added that immortality is “the price of a spiritual fight” (Jihad al nafs) thus alluding to this statement of the Prophet recalling that “the true fighter is the one who wages battle against his ego – al moudjahid man jahada nafsahou”.
One of the boldest of Muslim theologians, Fakhr dine al-Razi (d. 1210), aptly stated that “Man’s actions depend on him during his earthly life (fi douniya a’amlouhou fih) but he will depend on them in the ultimate life (wa houwa fihim fi’l akhira).” In this we could adhere to the idea that there is a form of Islamic existentialism, if we understand by this that human existence brings man into being through his choices, but then we will have to add, according to the Muslim perspective, that man will have to answer for it before the “Ultimate Reality” : Allah. For the last revelation, it was a question of giving man, who is a psychological/mental being (al insan), the strength to transmute himself into a man-of-the-Lord (rabbani).
Religion is therefore essentially there to transform the human being and its language is performative. Let us also recall that Islam, like other revealed religions, insists on two dimensions of man: his inner and intimate universe structured by moral laws and that Sir Iqbal called the “knowing me” and his being from outside and acting, which Iqbal called the “acting self”. The Prophet summarized these two dimensions in a statement that is both intensely succinct and rich: “Say: I believe in God and seek righteousness.” The life of the aspiring believer is from there, oriented towards the two essential axes that structure and regulate his spiritual journey: God and living beings. Moreover, the thinkers of primitive Islam were not mistaken in establishing the framework of worship (al ibadate) and that of “our-being-in-the-world.” (mu’amalate) as the whole of earthly life.
The Muslim thus finds himself between his duties towards God and his duties towards his neighbor, the animal and plant kingdoms. The entire problem of the Muslim, therefore, is summed up in his relationship with otherness and this is why the Koran never ceases to associate with prayer (vertical elevation) horizontal deepening through the practice of charity and alms (zakate). Spiritual acuity, which is sincerity towards God, is revealed by our relationship with others, to such an extent that our social acts can give the lie to our belief: “Have you not seen the one who denies Religion – he is the same one who pushes away the orphan and does not feed the needy?” (Koran).
It is important to repeat that we must not let ourselves be caught up in the society of the image. This society confuses our views on the reality of the earthly worlds. The view of hidden realities must be reactivated; the Prophet having warned us about these supersensible views by saying to be attentive to their sagacity because they lookt “with the light of God” : “guard yourselves from the gaze of the believer because he sees through the light of God”. It is true that this society of the image disturbs us, to the point that it subjugates us and tires our hearts which survive in pain and oblivion. The Koran never ceases to call us to regenerate the eye of the heart. This spiritual sight preserves us from blindness to the supersensible world, and to the destiny of men.
At the crisis of “the Muslim man”, which has been present since the 17th century if we think of the historical disconnection, the greatest minds of Islamic thought have tried to provide several answers. But it is Malek Bennabi who will translate it best, in our opinion, by speaking of “renewal of the alliance” between the believer and Heaven (tajdid al mithaq bayna l’abd wa l’rabb).
Indeed, the modern Muslim has a faith but it operates neither on the cultural nor on the individual level. Nevertheless, it remains to define the modalities to catch up this delay. We are well aware that our daily life is unfortunately more complicated than the words that pass and follow one another. Thought is found in hearts but it is realized and experienced in our real world. However, the thought at work within our spiritual community in France is found in the few islands of moral resistance but which are unfortunately very little present in the “mosques”, which have become tombs in spite of themselves.
