MUSLIM WORLD-VIEW — An Islamic Perspective

There is no doubt at all that such interpretations are invalid. But explanations and commentaries of this nature continue even today. Books, magazines, journals, radio, television and the internet—all these resources have, directly or indirectly, been used to perpetuate this mindset. Muslims find great appeal in the 'community-oriented approach', but such things are short-sighted, narrow-minded and closeted representations of reality that have no appeal for anyone else. For example, a TV channel called QTV (Quran TV) has become very popular among the Muslim masses. Although this channel carries the name of the Quran, it only serves to placate the Muslim community. Khushwant Singh, the famous journalist, wrote a column called ‘Spreading Islamophobia’ in the Hindustan Times a decade ago. Here is an excerpt from what he wrote: About the most disturbing phenomenon of the past decade is the widening divide between the Islamic and non-Islamic world […] I looked forward to the Pakistani Channel, QTV (Quran TV), to take the lead in this direction. I made it a point to tune in every afternoon to see and hear how it was going about its mission. I was sorely disappointed. I expected that it would address itself to non-Muslim audiences among which wrong notions about Islam persist. I found it focused entirely on Muslims, to assure them that their faith was better than any other and that anyone who disagrees is an ignoramus […] What Khushwant Singh says here applies to almost every Muslim writer and speaker. This mindset is responsible for Muslims having completely forgotten their goal of dawah. Fiqh or Muslim jurisprudence consists of the details of commands and laws, and hundreds of books about fiqh have been written over the years by Muslim scholars; yet, none of them contain chapters on dawah. The books of all other Muslim writers, including al-Ghazali, Ibn Taiymiya, Shah Waliullah, Jamaluddin Afghani, Mohammad Iqbal, etc. are similarly bereft of chapters on dawah. Due to this unnatural way of thinking, the Muslim ummah, once intellectually stagnant, is now in regress. The responsibility for this intellectual tragedy falls especially on the sectarian juristic concept of Dar ul-Kufr.