Edward Said, the distinguished literary and cultural critic said, “Exile is the saddest of fates. In premodern times banishment was a particularly dreadful punishment since it not only meant years of aimless wandering away from family and familiar places, but also meant being a permanent outcast, someone who never felt at home, and was always at odds with the environment, inconsolable about the past, bitter about the present and future.”
Our current predicament of self-quarantine as the result of COVID-19 has not yet reached the level of pre-modern banishment. Nonetheless, the most evocative bit, the flourish, “…someone who never felt at home, and was always at odds with the environment, inconsolable about the past, bitter about the present and future” resonates with me. The quote, culled from the 1993 Reith Lectures, is part of a thesis in which Said maintained that exile or a position “forced out” of a context to which one organically belongs imbues the critical examination of that context with acuteness. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 in the US and abroad has given us a share of that “exilic consciousness.” The entire world is being forced away from “family and familiar places…” and it’s been cause for introspection. In our current “exile” from normalcy, only with the most intentional hubris can we continue to see our nation as indispensable or impervious to collapse. History has known no such empire. Unfortunately, many of us have assumed attitudes which frustrate a meaningful engagement with history. By extension, scripture, whose coherence relies on historical memory, struggles to find a modern register in which the full scope of its wisdom can be appreciated: The Qur’ān states: {“Many were the Ways of Life that have passed away before you: travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who rejected the Truth”} [3:137] {“Do they not travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those before them? Allah brought utter destruction on them and similar (fates await) those who reject Allah”} [47:10] For fear that unimaginative thinking could interpret these verses as justification for religious chauvinism, a point of clarification is necessary. No nation in the Qur’ān was punished because it wanted to establish a society built on justice and pluralism. On the contrary, each destroyed people combined their rejection of the prophetic message with corresponding acts of iniquity: The people of Noah (insolence and mockery of faith), the people of Hūd (unjustifiable arrogance and making the audacious claim “no one is more powerful than us”), the people of Ṣāliḥ (intentional desecration of the signs of God), the people of Lot (sexual anarchy), the people of Shu’ayb (greed and financial exploitation of the vulnerable), Pharaoh and the Egyptians (claiming divinity and the enslavement and attempted genocide of the Children of Israel), etc. We can only speculate about the possible outcome if these communities had heeded the prophetic command to rectify their societal wrongdoing even if they continued to adhere to divergent religious beliefs. To be sure, the theological/philosophical underpinnings of a society and its morality/ethics have a direct relationship. This is undeniable. However, this trying time is forcing us to assess both the fragile nature of our world and our contribution to it. It would be a misguided over-simplification to conclude, “our world could be on the precipice of destruction, we’d better get to work proselytizing.” Formal acceptance of Islam is the best thing we have to offer humanity; it should never be the only thing. We’re unable to say definitively that COVID-19 is a manifestation of punishment. In actuality, we don’t know why this happening. We appeal to the limitless mercy of God. Nevertheless, calamitous times are best faced with self-examination. {“Fasād has appeared on land and sea because of what the hands of people have earned, that (Allah) may give them a taste of some of their deeds: in order that they may turn back”}[30:41] Repentance and the cultivation of personal piety are essential. Yet, when revisiting the concept of retribution in the Qur’ān, we see that reckoning is not predicated solely on personal piety. The communities which faced Divine punishment were guilty of corporate immorality. Put differently, yes; now is the time for us to reflect upon our sins. Each of us should be thinking about our moral inconsistencies and the lapses in our devotion. However, it’s equally important that our inventory transcend personal piety. What do Muslims, as a collective, mean to the larger community? Al-Nu’mān ibn Bashīr reported: The Prophet (upon him be peace) said: The parable of those who respect the limits of God and those who violate them is that of people who board a ship. After casting lots, some of them reside on the upper deck and some of them below. When those in the lower deck want water they pass by the upper deck and say: If we tear a hole in the bottom of the ship, we will not harm those above us. If those in the upper deck let them do what they want, they will all perish together. If they restrain them they will all be saved together. (Bukhārī) Our fate and that of our neighbors are inextricably linked. Extending the metaphor of the Prophet (upon him be peace), we are all aboard a single vessel. Together, we will either correct its course or prepare for the inevitable. I realize there will never be uniformity around a vision of Muslim civic-mindedness. Varying histories and priorities certainly produce varying approaches. Nonetheless, looking out from our newly adopted place of exile, our Ghār Hirā’, if the analogy stands, our vision should be sharpened. We must see more for ourselves than, to quote Martiniquais poet, Aimé Césaire, “a place at the rendezvous of victory.” How much of our work to hold the dominant culture accountable could possibly fall into this category? Undoubtedly, much of the denial of our entreé into the elite spaces, places, and privileges presided over by the dominant culture is the result of anti-Muslim bias and bigotry. However, in our fight to gain access, to be “centered”, as it were, might we be forfeiting our responsibility to critically examine or even transform that culture? Shamar Hemphill, Deputy Director at the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) and recipient of the 2019 El-Hibri Community Builder award, captured the sentiment best when he said: “When we begin to see substantive issues like the prison-industrial complex, social devastation in poor communities, and irresponsible American militarism as Islamophobic, then there is some utility in the term. A term denoting hostility to our faith should mean hostility to the values for which we stand.” Otherwise, it just becomes a term which denotes the dominant culture’s failure to validate our religio-cultural specificities.” From the inside looking out…it appears that we should be more interested in offering correction than seeking validation. Ubaydullah Evans Chicago 2020
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