ON THE ROLE OF MUSLIM INTELLECTUALS

Before delving into the subject of the role of Muslim intellectuals, weshould agree on what we mean when using the term.The meaning of the word Muslim is well-known because it has beendefined in the Qur’an itself. According to Sfirut ul-Nisi, verse 125, aMuslim is someone “who submits his whole self to Allah, does what isgood, and follows the way of Ibrahim.” And according to verse 136 ofthe 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 isright and forbid what is wrong, observe their prayers, pay zakat, andobey Allah and His messenger.”The meaning of the word intellectual is more difficult to determine andis not defined in the Qur’an. In fact, this term has been used only sincethe late 19th century. For our purposes, I do not propose to define asintellectual everybody who is “cultured” or academically trained-inArabic al-muthaqifin. Rather, I should like to restrict the term to what iscalled in Arabic al-mufuqirfin: analytical minds who communicate, asopinion leaders, through lecturing or publishing and do not just sit athome, thinking and criticizing.So we know what, or who, a Muslim intellectual is. But do such individualsexist?It is well known that the so-called elite of Europe, also of KemalistTurkey, came to believe that there was a contradiction between beingintelligent and believing in God. In fact, from the middle of the 19th centuryto the present time, considered it Western and Turkish academicsconsidered it intellectually chic to be an agnostic or an atheist, in particularif 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 ofReason and the Enlightenment-budding with Descartes in the 17th ...