How Important Is Islam?

...It deals with Islam not so much as a transcendent faith but as a guide to a "good society...

...Smith's assumption in this book is that something meaningful will emerge from the present turmoil in the Moslem world because Islam is alive and dynamic...

...Fifteen years ago, Wilfred Cant-well Smith wrote Modern Islam in India, one of the few serious attempts to discuss Islam on the basis of historical materialism...

...It may well be, as the author believes, that there is no great future for liberalism and Western humanism in the Moslem world, and he is certainly correct in playing down the importance of Western economic and technical help, which can never replace the progress of ideas and serious understanding...

...He comments on the harmful consequences of the glorification that characterizes so much of the literary output in Arab lands: "The more Arab greatness is simply something proven by modern Arab books about the past, the less possible it becomes to read criticism for the sake of what illumination it may purvey—let alone to produce self-criticism for the sake of realistic constructive action.' Smith describes yet another new element in modern Islam, its dynamism, the appreciation of activity for its own sake: "Lender the impact of rousing enthusiasm, not only does activity become furious but blind: also faith becomes intense hut contentless...

...In terms of its ability to cope with contemporary problems, both spiritual (such as the crisis of religion) and material (such as the political and social crisis), Islam is much less meaningful to many Moslems, especially among the intelligentsia, than Professor Smith and some other Western Orientalists assume...

...These and many other insights make this study extremely valuable: in addition, there are detailed reviews of Islam in Pakistan and India, subjects that have for one reason or another attracted little attention in the West...

...He draws attention time and again to the negative aspects of nationalism in the Moslem world: "To resist aliens, to work against their domination, even to hate or despise them is one thing...

...To respect all members of one's own nation, to envisage its welfare, to evolve an effective loyalty to that welfare, and to work constructively to bring it about, is quite another...

...The author does not ignore the crisis of Islam—it is, indeed, the central theme of his book...

...A healthy, flourishing Islam," Smith argues, "is important not only for the Moslems but for all the world today...

...This "youthful work" is now partly repudiated by its author, who has again written an important survey, immensely learned, highly stimulating and full of penetrating observations...

...Exclusive preoccupation with the Moslem world necessarily creates the impression that the present situation in the Moslem world is distinctly unique, different from the state of affairs elsewhere...

...But the subject of the book is an investigation into Islam in modern history—not an essay in the psychology of religion...

...It could be argued, of course, that people everywhere would be happier and human affairs more orderly if they still believed what they did in the Middle Ages...

...there is no end to the profundity, the ramifications and the variety of the world's great faiths...

...In societies that face the disintegration of the old, established values, traditions and beliefs, that must cope above all with modernization, the impact of the old religions and ideologies is less important than at any other time...

...It is the conviction of the present reviewer, however, that comparative studies in different areas—such as Indo-China, Ceylon or certain Latin American countries—would reveal great similarities with the Moslem world...

...Islam as a world religion is undoubtedly (as the author puts it) infinite...

...He is extremely critical of the apologetics that are so typical of the Moslem reaction toward the West— the attempts to demonstrate, for instance, that Western science is largely copied (if not stolen) from the Moslem tradition: "The basic disruption of apologetics is that it has diverted the attention of contemporary Islamic thinkers from their central task—the central task of all thinkers: to pursue truth and to solve problems...

...But even on this somewhat doubtful assumption an Islamic revival is not a foregone conclusion: The "something" that is being brought to birth may be a new and different creed...

...Its two main defects are a tendency to regard the crisis of Islam as something unique and, more generally, an inclination to overrate the importance of Islam in today's world...

...After all this, the author's hopeful conclusions appear somewhat incongruous and unrealistic: the belief that Islam is able to regenerate itself, that it may somehow show the Moslem peoples the way out of their spiritual dilemma and other crises...

...It would appear that the crisis of the Islamic world is Moslem in its outward form—but not in its content...

...This, however, is unlikely to happen, and it is most unlikely with regard to that major world religion, Islam, that has adapted itself least to the modern world, that promises more than all others as far as the organization of social life is concerned and precisely for that reason has been found most wanting...

...The Moslem segment of human society can flourish only if Islam is strong and vital, is pure and creative and sound...

...And the resulting vacuum may be filled by all kind of extraneous influences—the Leninist theory of imperialism, for instance, on the political level...