Once Upon a Time in Andalusia

[SIZE="4"]Once Upon a Time in Andalusia[/SIZE]


[SIZE="2"]PART II[/SIZE]

[SIZE="2"]The Meaning of Life in Andalusia [/SIZE]Our philosophy would serve for nothing if it were not able to link these three things which I have tried to join in my 'Harmony of science and religion':
A Science, founded on experience and logic, to discover reasons.

A Wisdom, which reflects on the purpose of every scientific research so that it serves to make our life more beautiful.

A Revelation, that of our Qur'an, as it is only through revelation that we know the final purposes of our life and our history.


The unity of the Abrahamic tradition and the critical approach to philosophy are expressed with the same force, in the work of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who was a contemporary of Ibn Rushd. At the synagogue before the Torah, he said:


If for Ibn Rushd the Holy Book is not our Torah but the Qur'an, we both agree about the contributions of reason and of revelation. These are two manifestations of one same divine truth. There is only a contradiction when one is faithful to a literal reading of the scriptures, forgetting about their eternal meaning.

In Andalusia, Islam takes a new dimension with Ibn 'Arabi, nicknamed Muhyi al-Din (the one who gives life to faith). What interested Ibn Arabi was not what a man said about his faith, but rather what this faith makes of that man. He states:


God is unity. The unity of love, of the lover and the beloved. Every love is a wish for union. Every love consciously or unconsciously is a love for God.

Bear witness to this presence of God within yourself, of God's creation, which never ceases. The act is the exterior manifestation of faith. Islam recognizes all the Prophets as messengers of the same God. Learn to discover in each man the seed of a desire for God, even if his belief is still dim and sometime idolatrous. Help to lead him towards the fullest Light.


Ibn Rushd endeavours to bring to light the universal message of Islam overshadowed by regional traditions, when he defines the best society as, 'That where every woman, every child and every man is given the means of developing the possibilities God has given to each of them.' The power to establish it 'will not be a theocracy, like that of the Christians of Europe, a power of religious accomplices or tyrants: God says in the Qur'an, "He has breathed into man His spirit". Let us make Him live in every man!' When asked about the conditions ofsuch a society, he answers: 'A society will be free and pleasing to God, when none acts either out of fear of the Prince or of Hell, nor the wish of a reward from a Courtesan or of Paradise, and when no-one says: This is mine.'

Islam in Andalusia gave birth to a number of spiritual giants who have shown that humanity has no future without the warmth and the spiritual values that emanate from the belief in the transcendence and oneness of God. Men such as Ibn Massara of Cَrdoba (883-931), for whom man was responsible of his own history; Ibn Hazm of Cَrdoba (994-1064) who was a pioneer of the comparative history of religions; Ibn Gabirol of Malaga (1020-1070) whose fundamental work was the synthesis of the Jewish faith and the philosophy of Ibn Massara; Ibn Bajja (1090-1139) with whom the Islamic philosophy xvas presented in a systematic way with its own direction; Ibn Tufayl from Cلdiz (1100-1185) whose central theme was the relation between reason and faith.

All these men of knowledge, wisdom and faith stand as memories to a glorious past when true Islam was preached and practised; a time when the beautiful example of the Muslims won them fame and respect; a time when these peace-loving people would rise simply because injustice was being practised and would fight in the name of God with a strength that led handfuls of believers to victory over armies of non-believers.

[SIZE="4"]Once Upon a Time in Andalusia[/SIZE]


[SIZE="2"]PART IIII[/SIZE]


[SIZE="2"]The Style of Life in Andalusia[/SIZE]

Andalusia was unique in terms of its tangible accomplishments in all spheres of life. Learning was emphasized, marked by a fascination with science, the Arabic literature and the philosophical discourse on reason and faith. In the world created in the land of Andalusia, there was commercial wealth, wealth in terms of consumption, and wealth of productivity and exchange. There was also a wealth of information, thanks to the libraries of Cَrdoba and a wealth of thinking about the meaning of life, God, and material things. And there were even poets who sang to all the ways of wealth.

We will restrict ourselves to a brief description of the scientific and technical achievement, and a more detailed account of the Mosque of Cَrdoba as it is one of the first monumental expressions of Muslim rule, and arguably the building that most fully embodied an image of the Muslim hegemony in Andalusia.

[SIZE="2"]Scientific and Technical Achievement[/SIZE]

When discussing the scientific development in Andalusia, one cannot separate it either from the contributions of the other great civilizations, nor from the wisdom and faith that inspired the efforts of all researchers in Andalusia: science is One because the world is One, the world is One because God is One. This principle of tawhid commanded all aspects of scientific research in Andalusia as well as in other parts of the Islamic world, at its period of apogy. The following are some of the achievements of such a philosophy of life.

The first attempt to fly was in Cَrdoba by Abu Abbas al-Fernass. Al-Zahrawi, born near Cَrdoba in 936, was one of the greatest surgeon of all times. His encyclopedia of surgery was used as a standard reference work in the subject in all universities of Europe for over five hundred years. Al-Zarqalli, who was born in Cَrdoba, devised the astrolabe: an instrument which is used to measure the distance of the stars above the horizon. The astrolabe made it possible to determine one s position in space and the hours of the day, to navigate and to call the faithful to prayer at the given time.

Al-Idrisi, who was born in Ceuta in 1099 and studied at Cَrdoba, drew maps for the King Roger II of Sicily in which he used methods of projection to pass from the spherical shape of the earth to the planisphere that were very similar to those used by Mercator four centuries later.

The agricultural and irrigation methods of the Muslims of Spain were revealed by the great Italian engineer Juanello Turriano, who came to Andalusia to study the hydraulic and agricultural techniques of eleventh century Muslim Spain to solve his problems of the sixteenth century in Italy.

[SIZE="2"]The Great Mosque of Cَrdoba[/SIZE]Oh! Holy Mosque of Cَrdoba
Shrine for all lovers of art
Pearl of the one true faith
Sanctifying Andalusia's soil
Like Holy Mecca itself
Such a glorious beauty
Will be found on earth
Only in a true Muslim's heart.

[SIZE="4"]Once Upon a Time in Andalusia[/SIZE]


[SIZE="2"]PART V[/SIZE]


[SIZE="2"]Who Killed Islam in Andalusia[/SIZE]

The scientific and philosophical learning of the Andalusians was channelled off beyond the Pyrenees, to irrigate the dry pastures of European intellectual life. Students from Western Europe flocked to the libraries and universities set up by the Muslims in Spain. This decisively changed the European mind, and it is no exaggeration to say that Western civilization owes its regeneration to the intellectual energy released by the dynamo that was Islam. The period of regeneration, which started in Florence in sixteenth century Italy, is referred to by the West as the Renaissance. It was a direct result of another European Renaissance which began at the university of Cَrdoba in ninth century Spain. This profound truth of our common history becomes clear when we know how to listen to the music of the stones of Cَrdoba. There is, however, a fundamental difference between the two 'renaissances': the one which started in Cَrdoba was based on faith and was conscious of the universality of the divine; the one which began in Florence was made against God with its essential project of secularising all aspects of life.


The reasons leading to the death of the Cَrdovan-type renaissance generated by Islam, can be understood best by reference to the causes of its success. Islam owed its spectacular success entirely to the teachings of the Qur'an and the example (Sunna) of the Prophet Muhammad (s). The active vigour of the system was neutralized as soon as the Muslims relegated the Qur'an to the status of a treatise on dogmas, and the Sunna became a mere system of laws and a hollow shell without any living meaning. In his Muqaddima, Ibn Khaldun condemns the methods of education practised by some of the fuqaha' of Andalusia when, he says that, instead of helping the student to 'understand the content of the book on which he is working', they force him 'to learn it by heart'.


The Maliki school of thought (madhhab) was so dominant in Andalusia to the point that no other madhahib were taught, and knowing by heart the Muwatta' of Imam Malik and its commentaries was enough to make a faqih a renowned scholar. This closure of the door of ijtihad (independent judgement), which would have been condemned by Imam Malik himself were he to witness it, was encouraged by most of the rulers of Andalusia for it implies an unconditional obedience to the established power. It led to an intellectual degeneration, the treatment to those spiritual giants mentioned before illustrates this best. Ibn Massara was forced to exile; Ibn Hazm was evicted from Majorca; al-Ghazali's books were burned; the universal library of al-Hakam II was thrown into the river; Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushd were expelled; and Ibn Arabi evicted. All these acts were not performed by Christians, but by fellow Muslims! These were but signs that this grand structure represented by Islam which had weathered many a storm, had reached a stage when its inner vitality had been slowly sapped away and one powerful blast might well uproot it from the soil on which it has been thriving for centuries.


The early Muslim conquerors in Spain had a mission which made it impossible for them to be selfish, cruel or intolerant. The moment this was lost on their successors, their clannish spirit replaced their unity of purpose. At one time there were as many as twelve Muslim dynasties. That was a signal for collapse. The Muslim society came to represent a decadent social order incapable of dynamic growth and with no capacity for effective resistance. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for any society to survive a serious external threat. The Muslim rule over the Iberian Peninsula started to shrink on account of the treachery of the different Muslim Princes until Granada fell to the hands of the Crusades on 2 January 1492.


When Abu Abdullah the last king of Granada, looked at the Alhambra for the last time, tears came into his eyes. At this, his aged mother Aisha said: 'Abu Abdullah Cry like a women for a kingdom you could not defend as a man.' But our history should play a more inspiring and guiding function than to reminisce about the past. When one sees all these marvels, and all these palaces left in Andalusia-one wonders: Surely, there must have been injustice, there must have been oppression. As Abu Dharr said to Mu'awiya: '0 Mu'awiya! If you are building this palace with your own money, it is extravagance and if with the money of the people, it is treason'. We should not glorify our past and our ancestors regardless of their mistakes. Our study of the history of Islam should be more objective, and not a mere justification of all acts by our predecessors.

[SIZE="2"]Conclusion[/SIZE]

We must aim to ensure that the tragedy of Andalusia is not repeated. To do that we must not address our children: Once upon a time in Palestine... Once upon a time in Bosnia... We need a true Islamic Renaissance that will lead us to the eternal and universal Islam. An Islam that is the constant appeal for resisting all oppression because it excludes any submission other than to the will of God and holds man responsible for the accomplishment of the divine order on earth. An Islam, in the words of Roger Garaudy, whose principles are:


in the economical field: God alone possesses,
in the political field: God alone commands,
in the cultural field: God alone knows.

It is for us to respond to this eternally living call: without imitating the West and without imitating the Past.


[SIZE="2"]References:[/SIZE]

*The Holy Qur'an, Translated and Commented by Abdullah Yusuf Ali.

*Ibn Rushd, On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, trans. by George F. Hourani, 1960.

*Roger Garaudy, 'For an Islam of the XXth Century', Report presented at the 1st International Conference of Muslims of Europe, Seville, 18-21 July, 1985.

*Roger Garaudy, L' Islam, en Occident, Editions l'Harmattan, 1987.

*Khola Hassan, The Crumbling Minaret of Spain, Ta- Ha Publishers, London, 1988.

*Pamphlet about the Calahora Tower in Cordoba, 1988.

*Ali Shariati, And Once Again Abu Dharr, trans. by Laleh Bakhtiar and Hussain Salih, The Abu Dharr Foundation, Tehran, I 985.

*Titus Burckhardt, Art of Islam, World of Islam
Festival Trust, London, 1976.

*J. D. Dodds (ed), Al-Andalus, The Art of Islamic Spain, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1992.

*W. Montgomery Watt, A History of Islamic Spain, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1967.

[SIZE="3"]AN ISLAMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE [/SIZE]: BBC Documentary Film

February 2007

Watch the BBC Documentary Film here:
An Islamic History of Europe التاريخ الإسلامي في أوروبا


In this 90-minute BBC