IF we wish to understand the true meaning of Islam and its application in a modern context, we have to opt for a new approach that might be termed the three-dimensional approach or 3D approach.

The three dimensions are: (1) the surrounding universe (the cosmos and its physical phenomena, system and revelations along with its social and human context); (2) the textual/ scriptural deliberations revealed to the prophets and messengers and the modes of their implementation at various times; and (3) the contemporary human intellect combining the heart and mind.

This is the core message I could extract from a recently published book, Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation written by Dr Tariq Ramadan, a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford.

The first two dimensions are described by Dr Ramadan as two separate revelations. The signs (ayat), either in the cosmos or in revealed scriptures/texts, both quite autonomously reveal their meaning to human intelligence. Adding human intelligence to the two revelations, the 3D approach establishes an autonomous and mutually collaborative status for each dimension and has the potential to fundamentally change our traditional perception of Islamic learning.

The conventional paradigm of Islamic learning reflects a one-dimensional approach that presents the image of divine revelation as consisting only of predefined orders. Humanity is placed at the receiving end and has no role except to receive, believe in and obey readymade revealed orders.

The conventional paradigm may be called the paradigm of divine commands and human obedience, and almost all the religious sciences in Islam during the mediaeval period of Muslim history developed under the impact of this conventional paradigm.

The same paradigm eventually nurtured religious dogmatism in Muslim societies and bestowed a special position on textual scholars (ulama/fuqaha) as the sole interpreters of divine commands mentioned in textual sources. Although some space was occasionally created by textual scholars for the expansion of religious law through the exercise of methodological reasoning (ijtihad), such efforts always remained minor adjustments responding to a pressing need or to difficulty in the exact implementation of the inherited traditional religious law.In almost all Muslim societies today, religious authority and legitimacy are still theoretically held by textual scholars while the implementation of religious law itself has practically shrunk or become almost non-existent, at least in the major areas of contemporary practical life. This has resulted in the decline of the applied religious ethics of Islam and has transformed it into a defensive, passive, behind-the-times and isolated ethics.

The 3D approach puts the real onus on human intelligence and its capacity to discern meaning. It makes every human being individually, and all of humanity collectively, responsible (mukallaf), demanding that they read and understand the meaningful phenomenal signs and indications (al-ayat ul-kauniyah) that humans, as intellectual animals, face almost everywhere in the open book of the universe. The same approach demands that humans reflect on the descriptive formulations (al-ayat ul-bayyinat) mentioned in the revealed scriptural sources.

The specific reflections involving human intelligence may rightly be called, in the words of Dr Ramadan, mirror reading. This mirror reading establishes a new relationship of humankind with divine revelation, either in scriptural sources or in the book of the cosmos that, through this new approach, should not be perceived as merely consisting of predefined commands which are to be blindly obeyed. Instead, it will involve human creative, analytical and critical capacity during the process of searching for the truth through studying the context of the surrounding cosmos, including its social and human context.

The role of revealed narratives in this process therefore would be to economise human intellectual effort through providing guidance (huda) and corrective reminders (dhikr), uplifting the human conscience (taqwa/tazkiyah) and, finally, showing man the right path (sirat-i-mustaqim). Hence, through this 3D approach, a new paradigm of Islamic learning develops that, against the conventional dogmatic attitudes, must initiate and promote intellectual activism.

This new paradigm may be called the paradigm of human curiosity in search of truth and of voluntary human obedience and wilful surrender to its demands and obligations that is the real sprit behind the meaning of the terms ‘iman’ and ‘islam’.

The 3D approach may potentially change the centre of gravity of religious authority and legitimacy from textual scholars to scientists who, at the same time, should also be well-versed in revealed textual sources. However, during the transitory period until scientists of such calibre can be produced, the gap may be filled by combined councils of both types of specialists in various areas of knowledge without assigning any privileged or sacred position to either group.

Meanwhile, this approach may change the conventional make-up of Islamic religious thought, which had veneered or glossed over inner content during the mediaeval ages, and should eventually enable Muslims to liberate themselves from the narrow bounds of national, regional, pan-Islamic or binary approaches such as dividing the globe into two territories of war and peace (darul harb and darul Islam).

Through this radically reformed approach, Muslims in a pluralistic and global scenario would be able to develop a visionary, committed and open ethics that would be able to question the world, its order, its achievements and its lapses and then be able to devise concrete modalities to transform the fundamentals of the applied ethics of global human society.

The writer is the former dean of the faculty of Islamic Studies at Karachi University.

drakhtarsaeed@hotmail.com