Overthrowing Capitalism: A Ghazalian Perspective

The foundations for the rejection of the Western way of life was laid by Hazrat Shaikh al Mashaikh Imdadullah Muhajir Makki(may Allah bless him) the Amir of the 1857 jihad. Hazrat Qutub-ul Alam (may Allah bless him) insisted that the project for constructing an Islamic state was inextricably interlinked with the project of totally rejecting the Western way of life.

There are two essential elements in the Islamic revolutionary response to the West: First we must articulate a principled and practical rejection of capitalism as a way of life – its norms, regulation procedures and transaction forms. This involves the construction and consolidation of a religious society encompassing the cultural, economic and political life of the Muslims. Authority at all levels must be concentrated in the hands of the Ulema and the mosque and the madrassah must be developed as central institutional modes for organizing the Islamic systemic resistance to capitalism.

In a country such as Pakistan there are ample opportunities for doing this. A very large proportion of businesses are outside the capitalist order – they do not transact with financial markets and their owners do not seek profit maximization. It is entirely possible to develop a mosque / madrassah based system of tamweel for establishing a counter capitalist economy and for mobilizing the power of the bazzar for the over throw of capitalist order. This has been done in Iran and the Islamic movements of Indonesia and Malaysia have developed several institutional initiatives to achieve this end.

Similarly Islamic movements can utilize the power of the trade unions for delegitimating capitalist property. Unions under the leadership of the ulema should abandon the struggle for workers rights and higher wages within the capitalist system. They must seek the transcendence of capitalist order through an abolition of capitalist money and finance and the utilization of state resources for deconstructing capitalist property and delinking from globalized capitalist markets.

The Islamic movements aim at creating a universal state. We explicitly reject the possibility of carving and a niche for a Muslim state within capitalist order through struggles for national liberalization. We seek not liberation but humanity’s total submission to the will of God. An Islamic state is necessarily a Jihadi state. The democratic process may be a mean for the construction of such a state. But the Islamic state is committed to the total destruction of democracy and republicanism in all forms. This is because we reject the possibility of validating norms and practices with reference to ‘general will’ or ‘the will of all’. We regard the quest for autonomy as a quest for evil. Islam is the submission of the will of man to the will of God – all truth claims are validated with reference to God’s will, and to it alone. Islam is a reassertion of the pre Augustinian commitment.

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Such a comprehensive social and political struggle against capitalist order has to be firmly rooted in Islamic epistemology.

The fifteenth century of the Islamic era is one of accelerated disintegration of the capitalist way of life throughout the world. Western savagery can no longer sustain the pretense that it is a civilization. Today the Enlightenment project has all but collapsed. As Wendy Brown argues “the West is still grieving the loss of belief in progress, rights, freedom, reason. Yet it still holds these ideals to be irreplaceable” (p. 103). Foucault and Gadamar and Gray and Rorty and Taylor have shown that it is quite impossible to theoretically justify capitalist norms and practices. The Islamic assault on capitalism and on Western savagery is gaining momentum because of the inherent incoherences of modernist and post modernist discourses.

Reinterpreting Enlightenment epistemology and the projects built upon this epistemology makes no sense in these circumstances. Islamising social sciences produces only apologies for capitalist practices and liberal policies. This subordinates Islamic scholarship and the political strategy of Islamic movements to human rights imperialism at a time when the imperialist system is beginning to implode.

Moreover legitimating capitalist norms and institutions makes the construction and sustenance of Islamic individuality, society and state more and more difficult. Legitimation of capitalist norms and practices by Christianity led to the development of an individuality incapable of surrender to God’s will and dominated by the passions of avarice and jealousy. Marketisation of society has led to a shocking decline of sexual morality and a disintegration of family and community. Finally the liberal state has imposed capitalist oppression throughout the world slaughtering hundreds of millions of people in America, Australia, sub Saharan Africa, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Latin America for the subordination of these countries to global capital. Rejecting Enlightenment epistemology is necessary to avoid and to overcome moral decadence and physical destruction throughout the world.

Rejecting social sciences in particular must involve a recognition of the contingent character of capitalist individuality and rationality. It is not necessary that avarice and covetousness dominate human consciousness. Similarly the dedication of thought and practice to the pursuit of freedom and the maximization of power/pleasure is neither inevitable nor desirable.

Imam Ghazali (may Allah shower His choicest blessings on our master) provides a framework for demonstrating the incoherence of all unIslamic metaphysical and epistemological discourses. Unlike the Mutazila our Imam did not try to incorporate alien discourses into the Islamic system of knowledge. He developed a critique of Greek thought on the basis of Islamic principles – and demonstrated its incoherence in order to refute it and overcome and destroy it. This ensured that Islam was not submerged within an alien system of thought and practices but sought and achieved its total destruction in the Muslim world. The Ghazalian approach explicitly refutes the claim that the West is a superior or universal epistemological and moral civilization. It rejects the possibility of a dialogue with the West [1] . The Ghazalian approach does not see any of the streams of Western thought and practice as a continuation of Islam. The Ghazalian approach seeks the destruction of modernity and post modernity and of Western hegemony. It tries to pave the way for the deconstruction of all Western knowledge and practise by highlighting its incoherences. This can be done both by developing an internalist and an externalist critique of Western knowledge and practice.

The internalist critique of Western philosophy and of the social sciences is an attempt at demonstrating the incoherences of the presumptions underlying this analysis, their methodological incoherences their concealed meanings and implications and their lack of correspondence to reality. Such an internal critique can be developed by Islamic revolutionary workers familiar with Western thought.

Such internalist critique must be accompanied by the development of an externalist Ghazalian critique of Western philosophy and the social sciences. Presumptions, methodologies and practices and policies produced by social sciences must be critiqued from an Islamic epistemological perspective. This externalist Ghazalian critique can be developed only by the orthodox (i.e. rasikh-ul-aqeeda) Ulema and Soofia. It cannot be undertaken by Muslims who have not been methodically educated in the classical Islamic branches of knowledge.

Following in the footsteps of our master Imam Ghazali we will insha Allah develop this internalist and externalist critique to show the inherent incoherence of Western thought and practise and to destroy the intellectual and political hegemony of the West. This is essential for the triumph of Islam as the only universal civilization through transcending capitalism.

The incorporation of social sciences methodologies and associated rationalities and practices within the classical Islamic branches of learning is impossible because of a fundamental dichotomy in the presumptions underlying Islamic and Enlightenment epistemologies[2]. Islamic learning is grounded in belief in tauheed manifested in a recognition of the metaphysical and axiological ultimacy of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala).

This is the perception and assertion of the following truths:

•There exists a transcendent Creator and historical creatures separated by an unbridgeable ontological gap.

•The Creator’s will constitutes the creatures’ “ought to be” expressed in terms of both Shariati and Tariqa (s) as articulated in the continuing history of the ummah authenticated by silsilah and ijma.

•Human beings are necessarily required to submit to the will of the Creator. Human beings are capable of moral actions but actions are moral only to the extent to which they articulate man’s surrender to God’s will.

•The ‘normativeness of the oughts’ and the moral capability of human beings entail the necessity of judgment of intentions and action in the hereafter. Attainment of God’s pleasure and of rewards in the hereafter are the objectives of all human thought and action.

•Knowledge is essentially awareness of God’s will with respect to human being and human conduct.

Enlightenment epistemology is an outright rejection of these primary truths [3]. Similarly thee is no room for freedom, equality, self determination, human rights, tolerance, welfare and progress in Islamic epistemology and our classical branches of learning. Apologetic attempts at providing space for these concepts within Islamic epistemology are elements of the imperialist strategy to subordinate Islam to Western savagery. We reject Western philosophy and the social sciences because;

•methodologies underlying them are not value neutral. Their purpose is to justify and provide technologies of governance for capitalist order

•their conception of being and of the world sees man as creator, sustainer and sovereign

•Enlightenment philosophy and social science holds that man imposes order upon on the natural world through a process of self reflection. This makes empirical enquiry possible and the purpose of both self reflection and experimental enquiry is the actualization of human freedom and autonomy. The commands of the self cannot be evaluated except formally (on the basis of universalisability). Reason here is a means for obeying the universalisable commands of the un-knowable self

•The self judges and cannot itself be the subject of judgment. There is no room in Western philosophy and the social sciences for the recognition of God as sovereign law giver

•the social sciences are the practical methodologies articulating the philosophy of mechanism and utilitarianism

•the social sciences are committed to the flourishing and the satisfaction of the passions and not to the elimination of vice

•the social sciences legitimate and facilitate the functioning of capitalist order which seeks the universalisation of the passion to make money.

The purpose of social enquiry in Islam is the formation and sustenance of an individuality and of a society which voluntarily submits to God’s will. Such an individuality and society recognizes freedom as evil. Freedom is essentially al Bagh, (rebellion). Freedom is the choice of choice itself – the assertion of man’s (fictitious) authority and capability to subject the world to his arbitrarily willed (universalisable) preferences. The theoretical preference for preference is in practise the preference for capital – for in secular orders capital alone is universalisable and in principle limitless. That is why the social sciences legitimate and provide technologies for the creation and sustenance of capitalist individuality civil, society and capitalist states.

Attempts at practicing social science methodology within the constraints of the Shariah – as reflected in the writings of Maulana Maududi on Islamic government – legitimate capitalist practices at both the individual and the institutional level . They do not contest capitalist rationality but instead accommodate. Islam within capitalist order. Nineteenth century clergymen and modern Christian apologists within the Christian Democratic parties of Europe have presented similar arguments for reconciling capitalist practices with the ‘spirit of Christianity.’

Euben argues that modern Christian and Islamic fundamentalism may be seen as attempts at “re-enchanting” the Enlightenment rather than as anti Enlightenment movements because they limit and do not in principle reject Enlightenment rationality and the associated goals of freedom and progress [4]. The practise of Shariah constrained ideologies and technologies in Iran and Saudi Arabia illustrates how this opens up these societies to capitalist penetration. Religious individualities and Shariah constraints on market and state institutions become delegitimised and political authority is transferred from the ulema to the agents and representatives of national and global capital.

Social science is a product of Enlightenment philosophy and a technology for the legitimation and practise of capitalist governmentality. Islam is committed to the overthrow of capitalism as a way of life and rejecting social science rationalities is therefore necessary. Islamic social enquiry must focus attention on creating rationalities and methodologies which can foster the growth of Islamic individuality and the flourishing of the Islamic virtues within the context of the contemporary challenge with which the Islamic revolutionary movements [5] are confronted.

Islamic social enquiry seeks the transcendence of capitalist order through the universalisation of the practise of Islamic virtues in the life of the individual, the society and the state. The flourishing of these virtues and the contractual and institutional structures which sustain them has been the concern of the classical Islamic branches of learning. These branches of learning provide an appropriate paradigm for addressing contemporary issues with reference to the sustenance of Islamic individuality and society. Our social theorizing must be contextualized by and located within the traditional Islamic episteme. The ulema and soofia have zealously preserved the epistemological heritage of Islam. In the subcontinent the ulema of Barailly and Deoband have in extremely difficult circumstances comprehensively defeated the modernists and revisionists who sought to corrupt traditional Islamic learning by its incorporation within Western epistemes [6].

This magnificent achievement of the ulema and soofia makes it possible to continue Hazrat Qutab-al-Alam Imadullah Muhajir Makki’s project of integrating the quest for spiritual revival and the revitalization of Islamic learning with the organization of a movement of jihad against the West [7].

The development of an Islamic critique of the presuppositions and methodologies of the social sciences (the development that is of an externalist Ghazalian critique of Western philosophy and the social sciences) is an indispensable step in the deconstruction of Enlightenment and post Enlightenment epistemes and in conceptualizing contemporary issues on the basis of the assumptions and methodologies rooted in Islamic epistemology and in our classical branches of learning.

The development of an externalist Ghazalian critique of Enlightenment philosophy of the social sciences provides a basis for the expansion of the scope of the classical Islamic branches of learning. In particular the scope of Fiqh, Ilm-i-Kalam and Usul-u-deen need to be broadened to enable us to analyze contemporary problems and issues on the basis of Islamic ontological assumptions and within the context of Islamic epistemological methodologies. This broadening of scope must entail a construction on the basis of our inherited wisdom and an elaboration of the teachings on which there is general consensus. Theories articulated within this context must confirm to the maqasid-e-Sharia and be derived on the basis of methods and mechanisms sanctioned by the usul-I-fiqh for theorizing and for articulation of policy based on legitimately constructed theories. The ijtihad this entails is taqleedi-ijtihad – an ijtihad which confirms, elaborates and vindicates the ijmah of the Ummah [8] . Such ijtihad provides grounds for asserting Islam’s claims as universal history and as the world’s only civilization (Qutb 1974 p51-60). It provides an indispensable epistemological basis for transcending Western philosophy and social sciences and waging permanent jihad against Western savagery [9].

Our commitment to undertake permanent jihad against Western savagery reflects our principled rejection of the rule of capital. The West has rejected Christianity and embraced capitalism as a deen. It has rearticulated. Pharaoh’s age old claim – ana rub kum al ala. (I am your great Lord). The rule of capital rejects the sovereignty of God and proclaims the false doctrine of freedom (human autonomy and self determination). The theoretical preference for preference is in practise the universal dominance of the vices of avarice and covetousness. Western man is possessed by the devils of covetousness and lust. He has filled the world with sexual vice – pornography, nudity, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, AIDS. He has corrupted economic life by infusing riba and gharrar in all production and exchange transactions. He continues to slaughter hundreds of million of innocent victims – Red Indian, Vietnameses, Cambodians, Palestinian, Kashmiri, Iraqis and Afghans – in a never to be satisfied blood lust for freedom and plentitude. Western philosophy and social science justifies man’s rebellion against God, the explosion of sexual vice, institutionalized economic exploitation and human rights imperialism.

A carefully crafted revolutionary strategy to build an anti-imperialist, anti capitalist universal state in the Muslim world has reasonable chances of success in these circumstances. Our chances of achieving the overthrow of capitalist order are improved in countries such as Pakistan due to the incoherence of modernist discourse as articulated by the local supporters of American imperialism. Perhaps we are in the Narodnik stage of our revolution or in its 1883 (when Plekhanov set up the party) or in its 1902 (when ‘What Is To Be Done” appeared) or in its 1905. But its 1917 seems a distinct possibility because of liberalism’s inherent incoherences and vulnerability, its inability to justify the rule of capital, the moral degeneration that is its inevitable consequence and the continuing weakening of the client states.

The socialist revolution was defeated because socialism did not reject enlightenment ontology – the worship of man remained as central to socialism as to liberalism and capital cannot be transcended without rejecting man worship. The Islamic revolution is essentially a revival of the pre Augustinian commitment. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Islam represents an internal – not an external – threat to capitalism. It is capitalism’s definitive critique and not simply another attempt to re-enchant the capitalist world as the Jewish political theorist Roxana Euben fantasizes. Today Islam threatens. Washington as Christianity threatened Rome in the 4th century.

The priority concern at present must be to mobilize the masses to resist American hegemony and to raise the costs of American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and American support of the Zionist enemy. This must be accompanied by the struggle to de-legitimate capitalist and liberal norms and institutions and to struggle for the establishment of a non-national Khalifat. The coming together of all Islamic forces on the basis of Islam’s orthodox doctrines and practices with the mosque as the organizational focus and in resolute opposition to the rule of law of capital is possible and should be our goal.

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Notes:

1. This is not a rejection of the possibility of Islamic dawah to individual Europeans or Americans. As Islamic da’ee we invite them to reject the ontological and epistimological presumptions and participate in the task of destroying Western savagery. We reject the possibility of dialogue in the sense that we do not recognize the West as a civilization and reject the possibility of peaceful coexistence with it.

2. The incorporation of Islamic themes within the social science paradigm is also impossible for the same reason.

3. The ‘Islamisation of social sciences’ project glosses over this basic dichotomy.

4. See specially the last chapter of her book where this argument is fully developed

5. both movements of jihad and movements of khurooj: These movements and not the ummah, or Muslim states or other formations are the agents of change in the struggle against capitalist order.

6. On the other hand Hindu intellectual and spiritual leadership failed to preserve such incorporation. Modern Hindu fundamentalism thus poses no challenge to capitalism and Western savagery and the Hindu religion has been overwhelmed by nationalism in the same way that classical Judaism has been destroyed by Zionism.

7. Hazrat Muhajir Makki was not only a scholar and a renowned sufi saint he was also the Amir of the 1857 jihad.

8. The ijtihad undertaken by Barelvi and Dewbandi ulema in the 19th and 20th century is taqleedi ijtihad.

9. It is to be stressed that the tasks of developing an externalist Ghazalian critique and of expanding the scope of the classical Islamic branches of learning to address contemporary issues can only be undertaken by the ulema and soofia. I have not attempted this since it cannot be undertaken by Western educated Muslims.