Movement concepts and the importance of knowledge

Our organisations are, whether we like it or not, concerned with the preservation of tradition. Tradition in our case is two fold: firstly—and this is the broader aspect—we are concerned with the preservation of Islam as a religion, with its beliefs, practices, ideas, and rituals.

Alongside this, Islamic Movement organisations emerged nearly a century ago with the intention of making Islam relevant to a new age, and a new generation of believers. It was not necessarily based on a premise of the error of all those who had passed, but rather on the belief founded on, among other things, the hadith that the exemplary model is that of the Prophet’s generation and the two that followed.

All other peoples and their ideas fell below this in rank, although a well-rounded organisation will—indeed must—have the intellectual capacity to show the necessary deference to all succeeding ages.

What relevance does all of this have to the present reality of our organisations? To put things simply: a great deal. The preservation of tradition necessitates that that tradition be alive in our communities: that we be thinking, reflecting people; not people who simply go with the flow.

We must actually understand our tradition—in both aspects mentioned above—in order to maintain its relevance, and this requires that we recognise the importance of this knowledge and know where it is to be sought, although for this final point, I will wait for another post.

The curious nature of this age is such, however, that it is almost no longer necessary to set foot in the Arab world to tread the path of sacred knowledge. The rise of reputable local scholars, scholarly websites, and easy access to literature should, in theory, allow our organisations to produce scholars of great depth and understanding without having to send their workers abroad for years on end.

We need to ask ourselves, in the interest of self-preservation, why this not happening.