ON THE ROLE OF MUSLIM INTELLECTUALS

Abstract

Before delving into the subject of the role of Muslim intellectuals, we
should agree on what we mean when using the term.
The meaning of the word Muslim is well-known because it has been
defined in the Qur’an itself. According to Sfirut ul-Nisi, verse 125, a
Muslim is someone “who submits his whole self to Allah, does what is
good, and follows the way of Ibrahim.” And according to verse 136 of
the same sfiruh a Muslim is he who believes “in Allah, and His messengers,
and the scriptures which He has sent down to those before.” Finally,
Sfirut ul-Tuwbah says in verse 7 1 that believing Muslims “order what is
right and forbid what is wrong, observe their prayers, pay zakat, and
obey Allah and His messenger.”
The meaning of the word intellectual is more difficult to determine and
is not defined in the Qur’an. In fact, this term has been used only since
the late 19th century. For our purposes, I do not propose to define as
intellectual everybody who is “cultured” or academically trained-in
Arabic al-muthaqifin. Rather, I should like to restrict the term to what is
called in Arabic al-mufuqirfin: analytical minds who communicate, as
opinion leaders, through lecturing or publishing and do not just sit at
home, thinking and criticizing.
So we know what, or who, a Muslim intellectual is. But do such individuals
exist?
It is well known that the so-called elite of Europe, also of Kemalist
Turkey, came to believe that there was a contradiction between being
intelligent and believing in God. In fact, from the middle of the 19th century
to the present time, considered it Western and Turkish academics
considered it intellectually chic to be an agnostic or an atheist, in particular
if one was a leftist-as if intellectualism was a privilege of the Left,
and not to be found on the conservative Right.
This attitude, still pervasive today, goes back to the so-called Age of
Reason and the Enlightenment-budding with Descartes in the 17th ...