Islam and Open Society bachir_prelim.pmd 1 07/10/2010, 13:33 bachir_prelim.pmd 2 07/10/2010, 13:33 Islam and Open Society Fidelity and Movement in the Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal Souleymane Bachir Diagne Translated from French to English by Melissa McMahon Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa DAKAR bachir_prelim.pmd 3 07/10/2010, 13:33 © CODESRIA 2010 First published in French as « Islam et société ouverte : la fidélité et le mouvement dans la pensée de Muhammad Iqbal », Paris : Maisonneuve & Larose Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop, Angle Canal IV, BP 3304 Dakar, 18524, Senegal Website: www.codesria.org All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission from CODESRIA. ISBN: 978-2-86978-305-8 Layout: Hadijatou Sy Cover Design: Ibrahima Fofana Printed by: Imprimerie Graphi plus, Dakar, Senegal Distributed in Africa by CODESRIA Distributed elsewhere by African Books Collective, Oxford, UK. Website: www.africanbookscollective.com The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is an independent organisation whose principal objectives are to facilitate research, promote research-based publishing and create multiple forums geared towards the exchange of views and information among African researchers. All these are aimed at reducing the fragmenta- tion of research in the continent through the creation of thematic research networks that cut across linguistic and regional boundaries. CODESRIA publishes a quarterly journal, Africa Development, the longest standing Africa- based social science journal; Afrika Zamani, a journal of history; the African Sociological Review; the African Journal of International Affairs; Africa Review of Books and the Journal of Higher Education in Africa. The Council also co-publishes the Africa Media Review; Identity, Culture and Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue; The African Anthropologist and the Afro-Arab Selections for Social Sciences. The results of its research and other activities are also disseminated through its Working Paper Series, Green Book Series, Monograph Series, Book Series, Policy Briefs and the CODESRIA Bulletin. Select CODESRIA publications are also accessible online at www.codesria.org. CODESRIA would like to express its gratitude to the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA/SAREC), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Danish Agency for Inter- national Development (DANIDA), the French Ministry of Cooperation, the United Na- tions Development Programme (UNDP), the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Rockefeller Foundation, FINIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), TrustAfrica, UN/UNICEF, the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and the Government of Senegal for supporting its research, training and publication programmes. bachir_prelim.pmd 4 07/10/2010, 13:33 To my mother To seek our points of departure by freely immersing ourselves in the problems themselves and in the demands that are coextensive with them. Edmund Husserl bachir_prelim.pmd 5 07/10/2010, 13:33 bachir_prelim.pmd 6 07/10/2010, 13:33 Contents Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... ix Preface ; ..................................................................................................................... xi Introduction .............................................................................................................. xiii Chapter I: A faylasûf of Today ........................................................ 1 Chapter II: A Philosophy of the Individual ..................................... 5 Self-affirmation ....................................................................................... 6 The Test of Consistency ....................................................................... 7 A Cosmology of Emergence................................................................ 10 Chapter III: A Philosophy of Action ................................................. 19 Movement and Action ........................................................................... 19 Fatum, Time and Prayer ......................................................................... 21 An Ethics of Consumption................................................................... 24 A Philosophy of Living ......................................................................... 27 A Philosophy of Tolerance ................................................................... 31 A Politics of Autonomy......................................................................... 33 Chapter IV: Fidelity and Movement ................................................. 39 On Science ............................................................................................... 39 Ijtihâd and Open Society ....................................................................... 46 Conclusion: On Modernity............................................................................. 51 Notes ........................................................................................................................ 57 References . ................................................................................................................ 69 bachir_prelim.pmd 7 07/10/2010, 13:33 bachir_prelim.pmd 8 07/10/2010, 13:33 Acknowledgements My father, Sheikh Diagne Ahmadou, introduced me to Muhammad Iqbal; he was also the first attentive reader of this work, inspired by his teaching of an Islam conceived in accordance with what Iqbal calls here 'The spirit of the caliph Umar'. My friends – Maziar Djoneidi, Catherine Clément, Philippe Gouet and Sémou Pathé Guèye – have given me the benefit of their comments. My thanks also go to all those with whom I discussed this essay during my period at Northwestern University, Charles Taylor and Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar in particular. I have not forgotten those who attended the seminar I devoted to 'Muhammad Iqbal’s philosophy of action' at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar between 1997 and 1999. Papa Amadou Ndiaye Bombé was one of them and he already knew, before leaving this world, how to think with Iqbal. bachir_prelim.pmd 9 07/10/2010, 13:33 bachir_prelim.pmd 10 07/10/2010, 13:33 Preface We must reread Iqbal. For a time we could imagine him forgotten, consigned to the oubliettes with the other figures of Islamic 'modernism' from the beginning of this century. But he had to come back. There are effectively some transient 'modernisms' which try to adapt a secular tradition to the fashion of the day. They create themselves within an immediate present, which they then find it hard to survive. There are others which start with a major detour, a return to sources, in order to discover how to be truly faithful to them in a novel historical situation. Iqbal’s thought is of this second character, a rare and powerful realisation of the genre in fact. Along his millenarian journey, he manages to establish a mutual and fruitful exchange between thinkers and texts that are quite distant from each other: Nietzsche and Bergson, Hallaj and Rûmi, and between those and still others, taken up in the context of rereading the Quran. So we still need to read Iqbal, each in his or her own way. Those of us for example – yesterday readers of Bergson, today of Heidegger – who are looking for an understanding of lived time, of historicity, beyond the objective, spatialized fixation of cosmic time, would find it worthwhile to reconsider all of that in the light of Iqbal’s reinterpretation of the Quranic conception of 'destiny'. And similarly, we readers of Nietzsche would benefit from the Iqbalian understanding of the overman, coming on the heels of the 'perfect man' of the Sufi tradition. Such ideas are current preoccupations in the contemporary West. But we also have shared reasons, Western, Muslim and Eastern merged together, in reading this remarkable man. Because our dialogues are troubled by a deep and mutual distrust. This distrust is partly derived from our own uncertainty regarding our identity, which sometimes gives us a feeling of insecurity under the gaze of others. It’s this feeling that can lead to a sort of hyper-confidence, tightening around a rigid identity, and the belligerent rejection of the other as the bearer of evil. To seek out and define oneself using references found in the other’s tradi- tion becomes impossible, becomes treasonous. But we all need to redefine ourselves, and we have a great deal to learn from one another in this search for a renewed self. This is why our current situation of frozen and distrustful relations is catastrophic for everyone. bachir_prelim.pmd 11 07/10/2010, 13:33 xii Islam and Open Society In this atmosphere of suspicion and anger, it is a joy to hear the voice of Iqbal, both passionate and serene. It is the voice of a soul that is deeply anchored in the Quranic Revelation, and precisely for that reason, open to all the other voices, seeking in them the path of his own fidelity. It is the voice of a man who has left behind all identitarian