Integration of the Muslim World: Problems and Prospects

The title is a research paper by Manzooruddin Ahmed published in “Pakistan Horizon”, Yol. 34, No. 1, (First Quarter 1981), pp. 3-15. The following is the full article.

Introduction

It may be stated at the very outset that the haphazard and hasty attempts to bring about the political integration of the Muslim World either on federal or associative or unitary or diplomatic bases are destined to fail. In fact, the groundwork for achieving this objective has to be prepared by promoting interstate cooperation within the Muslim World in the spheres of economic and social welfare. Once a material base for the unification is prepared, and as soon as the public opinion of the Ummah reaffirms its faith in the ideal of the Islamic Unity, many of the psychological and material barriers that presently divide the Ummah will automatically be removed, ultimately paving the way for further integration in the political and security spheres as well.

The Muslim leaders had been endeavouring in vain to work out grandiose projects of reviving the institution of the Khilafah as a necessary concomitant of Muslim Unity since its abolition in 1924. These projects failed to materialize partly because of the continuing intervention of the Western powers and partly due to their visionary content. Therefore, in order to thrash out a workable political organization for the Islamic Ummah, it seems imperative to take out the concept of the political unity of the world Ummah from the limbo of theology and abstract theorization in which it has so far been steeped and discuss it as a problem of practical politics.

Islam can be defined as a system of universal ideals and Islamic history represents the endeavour of the succeeding generations of the Muslims to implement these ideals in the space-time context. In whatever age the Muslims had lost sight of these ideals or had failed to grasp the real purport of these goals, or were unable to adopt appropriate modes of implementation, the curve of their progress had registered serious decline. But on the other hand, whenever they endeavoured to achieve these ideals with clarity of mind and courage, they had left their mark on world politics. This assertion is not made simply as a platitude, since it is an indubitable fact that the progressive decline of the Muslim civilization throughout history is merely a proof of the failure of the Muslims and is in no way an evidence of the failure of the Islamic ideals. Therefore, even in modern times, if the Muslims are willing honestly to understand these ideals in the context of the modern requirements and are ready to implement them, they can still arrest the march of history and remould it in accordance with the Islamic principles.

Theoretical Foundations of Muslim Unity

The first task for a bold and realistic re-interpretation of the political ideals of Islam is to re-defineand re-state these ideals in modern terminology. Many of the Muslim intellectuals today are generally prone to confuse these ideals with the modes of their implementation. The Khilafah was only a mode of implementing the Islamic ideal of political universalism ; however, the Khilafah was not the ideal itself. This mode was discovered by the ijma of the Companions of the Holy Prophet in accordance with the needs of their times. This early ijma on the institution of the Khilafah was in fact the embodiment of the collective reason of the Ummah. The question arises whether the collective reason of the Ummah is entitled to devise a more effective mode of implementing this ideal in modern times. This brings us to a point where we should determine the nature, mode, and scope of Islamic universalism.

The Qur’an is replete with the verses which emphasize the universality of the message of Islam. The object of this message is to organize the total range of human affairs on the foundations of a cosmic moral order; in other words, Islam is the moral orbit around which human life ought to revolve in order to realize the content of the Divine message. The social complex that emerges out of this inter-action between Islam and the human life is described in the Qur'an as the Ummah or Millah. The members of this Ummah are neither simply human biological units nor mere automatons. In fact Muminin are fully grown and morally conscious beings. The transformation of the individuals into an integrated Ummah occurs through an inner psychic process of what the Qur'an calls faith in God (iman bi' llah). By this process man does not lose anything but rather adds a new dimension to his personality. This is true because Islam aims at enlarging the moral stature of man. However, these individuals are not mere individuals, but they also constitute the integral part of the large whole, i.e., the Ummah.

The concept of Ummah in Islam does not recognize the dichotomy of liberty and authority. It is firmly rooted in the rule of Divine laws. The integration of the Ummah takes place on the basis of moral laws; and therefore, Islam does not emphasize other bases of integration such as geographical unity, common bonds of language, culture, history and traditions. Therefore, it may safely be asserted that Islam is the very anti-thesis of nationalism which localizes the area and scope of integration within a territorial society and brings about disintegration of the larger political unity. However, some advocates of Arab nationalism would like us to believe that Islam seeks to promote what Morgenthau calls “nationalist universalism’’. Or on the other hand, some of the Western orientalists have taken much pains to prove that Islam was at best a “national religion” which sought to bestow universality to the Arab consciousness by transforming it into what Hegel would have called “the world spirit”. In the first place,the idea of “the Arab consciousness” is too nebulous to have any historical validity. In a similar way the German Romanticists had engineered the notion of folk in the past. Later Nazism had made use of the mystique of the Arayan supermacy. Such concepts may be useful as agents of manipulating collective consciousness but it is doubtful if they have any roots in history.

In this connection, it may further be asserted that mere Arabic language cannot entitle Arabism to become universalistic. Therefore, if language is not the focal point of universal integration of mankind what else can constitute the principle of integration ? Ibn Khaldun in his Muqaddimah expounds his theory of Asabiya (group mind) as a basis of integration. However, he differentiates between kinship, religion, and royal authority as the bases of group mind. He holds the view that the new religious asabiya of Islam had, in fact, superimposed a new political unity upon the existing tribal foundations of the Arabian social structure. This reinforced the tribal asabiya and redirected its energy to seek a universal recognition. In other words, it was the historic confluence of Islam and Arabism which had led to the emergence of the World Ummah. This principle of integration implied two stages: (1) the transformation of the conglomeration of the Arab tribes into a psychologically cohesive and integrated Ummah ; and (2) the universalization of the Ummah itself. Shah Waliullah, however, gives a more logical theory of the social and political integration. He builds up his theory of irtifaqat as the true explanation of the social evolution. He conceives of four stages of development ii the social structure namely: (a) families; (b) villages; (c) city-states; and (d) the great Caliphate.

In his view the establishment of the Khilafah is the highest development of the political society. It is interesting to note that Shah Waliullah, unlike Ibn Khaldun, regards the emergence of the Khilafah as the culminating point of social evolution. At the same time he emphasizes that the Khilafah emerges out of the anarchy of the city-states.

Al-Farabi propounded his philosophical theory of societal integration on the Platonic model. According to Al-Farabi, the attainment of happiness (tahsil al-Sa'adah) is the summum bonum of human life. Man can attain happiness only in association with others in a nation or a city-state. Therefore, the political man attains perfection and happiness in some form of community. Al-Farabi classifies communities into three kinds, namely:

(i) the large-sized community (the ma’mura);

(ii) the medium-sized community (the ummah);

(iii) the small-sized community (the medina).

Al-Farabi had, perhaps, before him the Islamic experiment in the community-building process when he put forward his three-fold classification. At Medina, an ideal city-state was founded with Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as its “philosopher king”. This small city-state developed into an Islamic Ummah, and this Islamic Ummah in its turn was to become a World Ummah. The traditional theory of the Universal Khilafah as expounded by the Muslim jurist-theologians such as Al-Mawardi, and Abu Yala, maintain the universality and indivisibility of the Islamic state. They do not admit the legality of the co-existence of more than one Khalifah within the length and breadth of the dar-al-lslam. However, other jurists such as Khatib al-Bahdadi did not mind if there were even two Khalifahs in the far-flung areas of the dar-al-lslam. This was in fact a concession to an existing political reality. Ibn Khaldun generally adheres to the traditional theory but is still prepared to recognize more than one Khalifah in such a situation. As the frontiers of the Islamic state were pushed far and wide, the central government of the Khilafah failed to maintain effective control over the Wilayat: consequently the constitutionally subordinate amirs became independent sovereigns (sultans.) Political unity was substituted by a plurality of de facto sovereigns. However, the de jure sovereignty of the Khalifah was still recognized and thereby the semblance of unity and universality of the Islamic community continued to be maintained at least in theory. Thus, the political configuration of the Islamic community took on the form of a federalized government. Jurists like Al-Mawardi, Al-Ghazzali, Ibn Jama’a and Ibn Taimiyah readily recognized and rationalized the new situation in Islamic terms.

After having reviewed the sociological, philosophical and juridical theories of the Khalifah, we may attempt to draw conclusions in order to construct a rational theory.

(1) Islam’s ultimate objective is to unify mankind by erecting a universal community—the Ummah.

(2) Islam also demands the enforcement of the universal Divine Law in this community—the Shari’ah.

(3) This necessitates the organization of a government—the Khilafah.

(4) However, the formal structure of the government is left to the good sense of the community to design according to the needs of the age.

(5) Islam seeks to bring about the political integration of the Ummah on a universal basis so that it may become a World Ummah.

Planning New Concepts of Integration

In view of these principles, it is possible for us to work out a new concept of political order suited to the needs and conditions of the present day Muslim World. All attempts to bring about the desired unity of the Ummah in the twentieth century have failed for many reasons—political, economic and historical. One of the chief reasons of this failure has been the idea of reviving the Universal Khilafah of the early times. The planning for the political unification of the Muslim nation-states must be realistic and practicable. The planning should be based upon the recognition that the ideal has to be realized by stages. In order to do such planning, in the first place, an attempt should be made to discover the bases of unity between the existing Muslim independent sovereign states. This would involve a thorough survey of these states in respect of their political conditions, and economic resources. The methods and the media of communication and cooperation will have to be explored. In the second place, we shall have to determine the bases of cooperation between the World Ummah and the emerging world community.

World Government Approach

The advocates of the world government propose that the existing sovereign nation-states should be completely merged together to constitute a world government. This would involve the complete surrender of state sovereignty by the merging states so that these states would be reduced to the status of administrative provinces in the unitary system of government. This may be a good ideal to strive for particularly insofar as the Islamic Ummah is concerned, since the total integration of the universal Islamic Ummah is the ideal that has been set by Islam. But practically, in view of the existing conditions obtaining within the Ummah, any endeavour to call upon the Muslim nation-states to merge themselves to constitute a centralized unitary government would be doomed to failure. Therefore, this Is ruled out as an impracticable project.

The UN Approach

The world organization that is formed on the basis of the principle of association recognizes:

(1) The sovereignty of the existing states as the foundational principle, the associating states retain their claim to full sovereignty and independence.

(2) Such international organizations are formed on the basis of a multilateral treaty. The Covenant of the League of Nations and the Charter of the United Nations Organization are legally binding upon the member states simply because they have consented to adhere to the rules and principles contained in the respective treaties.

(3) It is organized to promote international cooperation and maintain international peace. It creates common agencies for international cooperation. Such international organizations are in fact associations of sovereign states.

If we propose to organize an association of Muslim states, these principles would serve as the basis: A charter will have to be drafted by the duly appointed delegates of the Muslim states at a conference. The Muslim states can form such an association within the meaning of the Articles 51, 52, 53, and 54 of the Charter of the UN. However, the principles of the new association of the Muslim states will have to be in conformity with the general principles of the UN Charter. At the same time, these principles will require rational adjustments with the general principles of the Islamic law.

This task will require hard research in comparative study of modern international law and Islamic law. For example, ‘aggression’ is not recognized by the UN Charter, but still war is recognized by the traditional international law as a legal method of settling disputes. These contradictory propositions will have to be reconciled with the concept of Jihad in Islam. The Charter of the new Association will also have serious repercussions for the constitutions of the member states. The basic ideals of the Charter will have to be incorporated within the respective constitutions. Pakistan’s Constitution already provides for promoting bonds of unity among Muslim states. Similar provisions will be required in the constitutions of the other Muslim states.

The structure of the organization would include an effective machinery for pacific settlements of inter-srates disputes, a Court for resolving legal disputes, a number of subsidiary agencies for inter-state cooperation, a headquarter and a Secretary-General. The composition of the General Assembly will be on the basis of ‘equal representative' but without veto. The decisions will be made by simple majority votes on procedural matters and 2/3rd majority on other matters. There may be no provision for a Security Council. The Permanent Standing Committee of the General Assembly would fulfill the functions of the Security Council. The Statute of the Court will have only compulsory jurisdiction and there will be no provision for the optional clause of the statute of the International Court of Justice. The Court may also act as the highest court of appeal in respect of inter-state disputes. The Court may also be authorized to give authoritative interpretations of the Islamic laws.

Integration on Federal Basis

There can be two forms of a federal structure for the proposed commonwealth of Muslim states: either ( I) a confederal structure which would be something more than the UNO and the British Commonwealth, and less than a federation in the strict sense; or (2) the federation of the USA type. The confederation is not very much different from the Associative theory of international organization and need not be discussed again.

After an examination of the existing federal states, e.g., USA, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Soviet Union, Brazil and India, we discover two kinds of federations: (a) peripheralized federation; and (b) centralized federations. The fundamental principles of federation are, however, common to both forms of federation. There is division of powers between the federal governments and the governments of the federal government leaving the reserve of powers to the state governments, for example USA. (ii) In some cases the constitution defines only the powers of the state governments and the reserve of powers are left with the federal authority e.g. Canada, (iii) The Indian Constitution enumerates division of powers into three categories: (i) federal list; (ii) the State list; (iii) the concurrent list. The peripheralized federation adopts the first principle and the centralized federation is generally based on the second principle. Therefore, the question may be raised whether the proposed Islamic federation should be a centralized or peripheralized federation. The Islamic state in its historical perspective had started its career as a strongly centralized and unitarized government, but was gradually transformed into a peripheralized type of federation with the shadowy Khalifah at the center. Such was the situation under the later Abbasid Khalifahs.

Since the Muslim states may not agree to surrender any significant part of their newly gained sovereignty, therefore, the proposed Commonwealth may only be organized as a peripheralized federation. The development of the federation into a centralized one may be left to the social, economic, political and technological pressures as i\. happened in USA. The peripheralized federation of the Muslim states will guarantee a large measure of ‘domestic autonomy’ for the federating states but at the same time it will insure their territorial integrity and political independence through a system of ‘collective security*. The Muslim Federation would also enable uniform economic development of the Ummah through effective mutual cooperation and common planning. Federation would also do away with the artificial economic barriers which divide the Ummah at present. But perhaps, the Muslim states, divided as they are among themselves, would not renounce their international status by joining in a federation. The force of nationalism is a potent factor in the affairs of the Muslim World today. These states are at cross purposes in respect of their national interests and the possibility of reconciling them is remote. The geopolitical factors divide rather than unite these states in respect of their foreign policy formulations.

Association of Zonal Federations

These and many other similar factors do simply point to the difficulties involved in bringing about the political integration of the Ummah on federal lines. However, federal device may very well be used by Muslim states in the geographically contiguous, and culturally and linguistically homogeneous areas within the Islamic Ummah. For example, the Arabic speaking people may merge themselves together into an Arab Un:on of States. Similarly, perhaps, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan may form themselves into a federal union ; or the Muslim people of Southeast Asia may forge a federal structure for themselves. These three great Unions, then , may form a larger Association of the Muslim people. Apart from organization, other methods of regulating international relations are diplomacy and international law. Diplomacy recognizes a variety of techniques by which power equations of the modern state system are regulated. These widely range from bilateral mutual defensive and noniggression pacts to the bloc-politics of recent times. However, the Muslim states have not yet been successtul in working out any inner system of balance within the Ummah. Differences in national interests accentuated by geography, strategy, and economic resources etc., have pressured these states to follow different courses of foreign policy. This fact complicates the problem of evolving a common outlook on intricate questions of world politics. The Arab states are still struggling to work out a stable political order among themselves.Whilesomeof these Arab states are still pinning their hopes on the Western powers for their very existence, some of them have decided to work with the bloc of neutralist powers. Turkey, on the other hand, is active partner in NATO. Afghanistan is counting on the strong support of the Soviet Union. Indonesia has been until recently neutralist. In view of such a variety of policy orientations of the Muslim states, it seems to be a difficult if not impossible task to bring them round a common policy towards the bi-polar world of today. In passing, a reference may be made here to one such inconsequential effort that was made in 1937 when the Saadabad pact was signed between Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.

In the context of the existing world power configuration, is it possible to conceive whether the sovereign states of the Islamic Ummah can unite at least on ideological foundations in order to form a third bloc which can serve as the balancer in the bi-polar struggle for power? Theoretically Islamic ideology can serve as the basis of common outlook among the Muslim people on world politics. But in practice the difficulty arises from the fact that all the Muslim states have not been able to recognize Islamic ideolcgy as a significant factor in their national life. Turkey has chosen the five-fold principles of Nationalism, Populism, Etatism, Republicanism and Revolutionism as the constituent elements of the New Democracy. In the Arab lands, Arab nationalism is the most potent force. The Iranian Constitution declares Shi’ism as the state religion, although these provisions of the constitution have now become obsolete. Indonesia in Southeast Asia is going secular. Malaya and Pakistan are the only two Muslim states which are still endeavouring to build up their national life in accordance with the tenets of Islam.

This picture of the Islamic Ummah presents a sad spectacle insofar as the majority of these states do not recognize Islamic ideology at all. Even those states which have formally declared to the world their resolve to reconstruct their national life on the truly Islamic basis, have not yet been able so far to define the content of the Islamic ideology. Therefore, the prospects for evolving a common approach among the Muslim states in world affairs on the basis of ideology appear somewhat dim. Then What ?

After exploring the scope of bringing about the political integration of the Islamic Ummah on the afore-menrioned bases, we are now in a position to conclude that the existing political realities of the Ummah do not favour the application of these principles. Therefore, it seems that two conditions are pre-requisite for achieving the ultimate goal of political integration of the Islamic Ummah : (a) a psychological climate which would ultimately pave the way for the emergence of the collective consensus about the desirability of the Islamic unity; (b) a sufficient material base upon which a supranational political order can be erected.

With a view to creating the psychological climate within the Ummah for achieving a general integration on different levels of social action, all endeavours should be directed to mould the public opinion in favour of the ideology of Islamic universalism. The primary and the foremost concept that may become the focal point of the emerging consensus of the Muslim intelligentsia is that of the Ummah itself. The World Ummah is the ideological community. The political organization of the Ummah has greatly varied from the extreme centralization of the early Khulafah to the complete balkanization of the Ummah into sovereign nation-states. The whole range of the changing pattern of the political structure constitutes the manifestation of only one of the many aspects of the Ummah. Therefore, even today the World Ummah is a reality inspite of its multi-national character. The other important point of psychological cohesion of the World Ummah is the Islamic universal Shari'ah. The universal application of the all-embracing Shari’ah law must produce the desired unity of mind, of will and of body within the Ummah. A common belief in the World Ummah and the Shari’ah will ultimately destroy the complex of separation that the idea of nationstate builds up. In such a context, the existing states within the Ummah will gradually unite for the efficient and effective implementation of the Islamic ideology.

The Islamic ideology in the abstract will not be achieved unless its constituent concepts are transformed into concrete symbols and institutions.

The adoption of a common flag and a common anthem will bring about a high degree of emotional integration of the Ummah. Similarly with the development of inter-governmental and private agencies for the purpose of promoting intellectual cooperation among the Muslim states, a greater harmony within the Ummah will emerge. In the concrete sense, it means that the national associations of lawyers, journalists, labour, employers, engineers, scholars, universities, sports etc., may gradually be developed into Islamic World Associations. This pre-supposes a high frequency of communication through different media, and a large-scale exchange of students, scholars, leaders and experts.

The recognition of one or more than one lingua franca within the Ummah may also create the desired psychological basis for achieving Islamic universalism. Arabic language may serve this purpose very well because it will easily be acceptable by all Muslims as it is the language of the Holy Qur’an. In addition to Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Malay languages may also be recognized as the official languages of the emerging order within the Ummah. This will be good because in modern times, the conception of unilingual state is becoming less important with the emergence of the multilingual states.

The psychological integration of the Ummah may also be brought about by promoting what is described by Werner Levi, “cultural diversity within social unity’’. This can be done by cultivating a broad complex of “positive toleration for cultural differentiation”. The Islamic Ummah today looks like a mosaic of cultures but inspite of the inner differentiations, there is still a stamp of the over-all social unity.

Islam in its historical encounters with the neighbouring civilizations, had integrated the new elements within the framework of the emerging Islamic Ummah under the impact of large-scale fusion that it had initiated.

However, the social integration never meant cultural regimentation, rather the good elements were assimilated by the Islamic Ummah. In the cultural details, a greater degree of autonomy was retained by the new peoples who had joined the Islamic Ummah. This is evident from the fact that even the Islamic law recognizes ‘urf and ' adat (customs and usages) as important sources of the Islamic law. Any attempt to impose cultural regimentation will in fact disrupt whatever ‘social unity' still exists in the Ummah today.

Bases of Economic Integration

In order to pave the way for achieving the ultimate political unification of the Islamic Ummah within the frame-work of supra-national order, such measures may be adopted which may bring about economic unification of the Ummah. This is very well borne out by the example of the European integration in the post-war period. The emergence of the Atlantic community would have been meaningless without the development of the European Common Market. Taking a clue from this example, the Muslim peoples may also explore the areas of economic cooperation among themselves. One big obscade in promoting economic cooperation among the Muslim states arises from the fact that these Muslim states are not uniformly on the same economic level. An economic survey of the Muslim World will only show sharp variations in the per capita national income, the population density, the economic resources and the industrial development. In addition to this, it is also true that due to the exaggerated emphasis on economic nationalism as the guiding principle of national development, the artificial economic barriers retard the free flow of commodities, raw materials, labour, capital and enterpreneurs. Moreover, because of the over-all relative economic backwardness, the Muslim states hopefully look forward for generous foreign aid from the advanced nations to be used as the magic pills for the speedy amelioration of their economic ills. This tendency to rely on the Western nations keeps them apart from each other in the economic spheres. In view of these formidable difficulties, the governments of the Muslim states should be mobilized to take immediate steps to create a permanent body of economic experts which may undertake intensive economic survey of the Muslim states, and co-ordinate their national planning activities with a view to attain uniform development within the shortest possible time. In the process of evolving a common pattern of economic development due attention should be given to encouraging a common policy of “economic austerity”, and greater emphasis on “heavy industries”. This would by and large make them independent of the advanced nations, and would ultimately result in the interdependence among themselves in the economic field. The economic development of the Muslim states should be planned in such a manner that the bulk of the “international trade” within the Ummah may increase appreciably. The common fiscal policies may be evolved in order to facilitate trade relations. The Muslim governments may as well seriously consider the abolition of the customs barriers in order to constitute a Customs Union. All these steps would no doubt gradually lead to the evolution of the idea of Common Market within the Ummah.

Another area of effective economic cooperation among Muslim states is that of communication. Although geographically Muslim states are chiefly located within the Afro-Asian continent, yet till recently these states were more or less separated from each other due to lack of communications. But now some attention is being paid to this problem by some of these states, such as Turkey, Pakistan and Iran. Still much is needed on this point. The governments of the Muslim states should collaborate with each other in order to link up different parts of the Ummah through a network of railway, air and sea communication system. For the free flow of news within the Ummah news agencies may be organized. Radio being a powerful media of communication, may very well be exploited by the Muslim states to mobilize the public opinion in favour of Islamic universalism. For this purpose Muslim governments may set up inter-governmental consultative bodies on radio programming.

However, no amount of planning in economic field will produce any desired results unless the planning is well grounded in the Islamic ideology. The economic aspects of Islamic ideology relate to the goal of achieving equitable distribution of wealth in accordance with the principle of Islamic social justice. This would in fact imply that the Muslim states will reorientate their economic policies so as to achieve a “socialistic pattern"of economy. The objective of Islamic socialism is to destroy the economic barriers which hamper social mobility from lower to higher economic strata. Only in this manner a balanced Islamic society can be reconstructed. If these economic implications of the Islamic ideology are uniformly accepted by all Muslim states as their directive state policy, economic integration of the Ummah will become easier.