A Message to Esteemed Scholars in the Field of Religion: The Responsibility of Scholars in Times of Crisis
The Islamic world today stands amidst a vast arena of crises: an identity crisis in the face of competing civilizations, profound cultural, economic, and social justice challenges, newly emerging questions in philosophy, theology, humanities, bioethics, and technology, generational rifts, the erosion of spirituality, and political and managerial failures that threaten the very existence of Islamic societies. Yet, what is our response to this formidable storm? All too often, instead of seeking solutions, sometimes we are busy drawing imaginary maps on the deck of a sinking ship.
A significant portion of those engaged in our religious sciences have become preoccupied with manufacturing artificial problems. It is as if certain intellectual domains have turned into workshops that incessantly produce abstract, hypothetical questions—questions with no direct bearing on the real pains of the Ummah. Hundreds of theses, articles, and books are written on philosophical, theological, or jurisprudential minutiae, without any tangible impact on solving cultural poverty, the crisis of the family, moral decline, religious alienation, or identity dissolution.
The great danger and error lie here: secondary issues take the place of primary ones, and the primary issues are pushed to the margins of oblivion. The intellectual energy of the scholarly community is expended on abstract polemics or unproductive (or minimally productive) sectarian disputes, while the real enemies—meaninglessness, aimlessness, moral collapse, and crises of meaning, security, and economy—are targeting the hearts and minds of the younger generation and the lives of the general public.
It seems the first step is the accurate identification of problems at various levels: at the individual level, the crisis of spirituality and ethics; at the family level, the rupture of relationships and the collapse of values; at the societal level, insecurity, injustice, and economic and cultural crises; at the level of the Ummah, weakness, backwardness, and injustice; and at the level of global interaction, humiliation, submissiveness, and the inability to effectively engage, contend, and defend the rights of Muslims.
Understanding the times (al-‘ilm bizzaman/zamanah-shinasi) means precisely mapping the real sufferings and pains of the people. This requires a dynamic system for the continuous monitoring of societal issues, questions, and priorities. It also necessitates comprehending the spirit of the present age—an age characterized by the acceleration of change, globalization, the mediatization of life, the dominance of instrumental rationality, and the profound thirst of contemporary humanity for meaning. Every era brings its own threats and opportunities, and understanding the times means discovering windows of possibility for presenting the eternal message in a living and comprehensible language.
From within this understanding, beneficial knowledge (‘ilm al-nāfi‘) is born. Knowledge that neither halts at the dry imitation of heritage nor rejects it, but rather, through rational and problem-oriented “ijtihad”, creates living answers for living problems. If we do not know what is happening in our time and what people are suffering from, our knowledge, however deep and complex, will become useless. History is replete with scholars who, at the most critical moments, were engrossed in abstract and fruitless controversies while the storm of events shattered the foundations of society.
Today, the choice is ours as well. One can remain in the safe margins of irresponsible knowledge, or step into the real arena and, with beneficial knowledge, become a balm for the wounds of the Ummah. I have often intended to write these words, but today, seeing an announcement for an academic conference in these crisis-ridden times, about a purely hypothetical and low-impact issue that has been debated for centuries, compelled me to write. It is lamentable that the talents of our researchers are thus squandered. Our academic journals are filled with irrelevant and ineffectual articles, while the Islamic Ummah grapples with security, political, economic, psychological, ethical, and doctrinal crises.
Typically, in response to such critiques, a ready-made, clichéd answer is always at hand: it is claimed that these are foundational discussions, and without resolving them, other issues cannot be solved. However, firstly, many of these discussions have been explored for centuries; secondly, they are either not foundational or have been sufficiently examined; thirdly, there exist other real foundational issues that are never addressed; and fourthly, even if these discussions are important, they are not a priority under current conditions. There are threats targeting our very existence that cannot be ignored. Not every utterance or writing is valuable; what matters is what knot is untangled by our speech and writing.
In conclusion, the path to salvation in this age lies not in the endless accumulation of information, but in profound rationality, practical wisdom, and social commitment. A scholar who is aware of the times is not merely a thinker, but a reformer; not merely knowledgeable, but conscious-hearted. The mission of a religious scholar is to serve humanity and to raise the banner of guidance in the darkest passes of history.
“I seek refuge in God from knowledge that brings no benefit.”
1404/10/15 (Solar Hijri)