by Amir Nour for the Saker Blog
Malek Bennabi, Modern Man and Covid-19
By: Amir NOUR[1]
“What surprises me most about Man is that he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived”.
(Author unknown)
The infinitely small assaults the infinitely vulnerable
When it comes to describing the current state of the world, a key word springs to mind almost automatically. This word is “uncertain” or “uncertainty”. As it is commonly understood, this concept is often associated with our inability to comprehend what is going on and therefore to exercise sufficient – if any – control over unfolding or looming events, or even over familiar occurrences that present themselves to us in new and unfamiliar features.
When faced with such unexpected situations, one is left with a deeply unsettling feeling of weakness and helplessness, which usually leads to a state of confusion and disarray.
Such hallmarks of today’s world are anything but new. They have only been exacerbated by the sudden and substantial shock inflicted on the global order by the Covid-19 pandemic that emerged at the end of 2019. To date, this terrible pandemic has affected more than two hundred million people worldwide, claimed the lives of several million more and wreaked socio-economic havoc across the whole world, thus triggering growing concern about the sustainability of an international order conceived, shaped and erected to a large extent by the victors of World War II.
This order has experienced steady erosion and is now brutally called into question, to say the least. Stanford University’s political theorist and author of the best-selling “The End of History and the Last Man”, Francis Fukuyama, admits that he has “never seen a period in which the degree of uncertainty as to what the world will look like politically is greater than it is today”. The chaotic management of efforts to combat this pandemic, in developed and developing countries alike, has brought to light fundamental questions about government competence, the rise of populist nationalism, the sidelining of expertise and experts, the decline of multilateralism and even the very idea of “liberal democracy”.
Yet, this major crisis did not come without early signs and warnings. In fact, a full year before the outbreak of the pandemic, more precisely on November 9, 2018, the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, delivered a rather prescient speech at a Security Council Open Debate titled “Strengthening multilateralism and the role of the United Nations”. Interestingly enough, this event took place just days before the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, a conflict which was a colossal global tragedy and a frightening harbinger of the bloody decades to follow. In this eye-opening speech which sounded like an urgent call for vigilance, Mr. Guterres said that multilateral efforts were under immense stress in a context characterized, among other things, by multiplying conflicts, advancing climate change, deepening inequality and rising tensions over trade, while still wrestling with the risk of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and only beginning to reckon with the potential dangers associated with new technologies. As a result, anxiety, uncertainty and unpredictability are mounting around the world, trust is waning within and between nations, and people are losing faith in political establishments, both nationally and globally.
Emphasizing that as a result of these negative developments, key assumptions have been upended, important endeavors undermined, and key institutions undercut, the Secretary-General observed that it often seems that the more global the threat, the less able we are to cooperate. He therefore sounded the alarm bell and stressed once again that global challenges and threats require urgent global approaches and solutions.
In the face of such a difficult context, Mr. Guterres saw no better solution than a return to international cooperation within a reformed, reinvigorated and strengthened multilateral system; one that needs to be more networked regionally and internationally and more inclusive through closer links with civil society and other stakeholders in order to be better suited and equipped to ensure peace and prosperity for all in a healthy planet.
Sadly, more than two years after this wise and visionary speech, the world is still far from having achieved the expected objectives aimed at strengthening multilateralism in defense of the collective security and well-being of the global citizenry. Likewise, no noteworthy change has happened inside the Security Council before which Mr. Guterres outlined his plan. As the world’s most powerful diplomatic body, it continues to be at the heart of global politics. However, despite the fact that there is virtually no limit to its authority, the Security Council’s overall performance – apart from the very reason for its existence, namely the preservation of the interests and peace among its five permanent members endowed with the decisive veto instrument – has repeatedly dashed the hope of the international community to build a fairer, more peaceful, and more prosperous world.
Given the gravity of the current global challenges, made even more pressing by the geopolitical, economic and social implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, decision-makers should reflect on how to make of this acute global crisis an opportunity for positive change. In the words of Noam Chomsky, one of the most prominent public intellectuals of our time, “we need to ask ourselves what world will come out of this” and “what is the world we want to live in”.
Malek Bennabi: the posthumous return of a visionary thinker
This haunting question has been brilliantly examined, from an Islamic perspective, by one of the greatest thinkers of modern times: Algerian Malek Bennabi[2]. Of all the increasingly numerous writings that we have been able to consult, we have found no better presentation and tribute to the thought of this exceptionally visionary scholar than that of Muhammad Adnan Salim.[3] Like him, we are convinced that the time has come to translate Malek Bennabi’s enlightened thinking on civilizational renaissance into action, just as the historic moment has arrived for its relaunch. In this age of globalization and explosion of knowledge, the conscience of Man is ready to seize it and human history is more and more ready to welcome it.
We are aware today of the great responsibility that is ours towards this favorable historical moment and of the need to bring Malek Bennabi’s thought out of the ivory towers where the “intellectual elites” have confined it, humming it in vain. It is imperative to place it in the hands of ordinary people in society. For speech is devoid of any force if it remains locked in a tower and does not circulate among people, in public places and in markets. It can only pass from theory to practice if its values penetrate the consciousness of Men and settle in their being to then be realized in their behavior and in their work. Unless they are so, words remain a simple vocal phenomenon, capable even of being abhorred by God, as stated in the Koranic verse “O you who have attained to faith! Why do you say one thing and do another? Most loathsome is it in the sight of God that you say what you do not do”.[4]
As Malek Bennabi asserted, what is required today is not to defend the authenticity of Islam, but quite simply to restore its effectiveness by activating its productive forces. The phase of transition that humanity is going through at the moment when it seems to be turning away from antagonistic nationalisms towards the idea of universalism, cannot be carried out without the Muslim. For it is in the consciousness of the Muslim that the uniqueness of the human race is anchored, leaving little room for racial discrimination, as affirmed in the Holy Qur’an: “O men! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware”[5], and confirmed by Prophet Muhammad: “You are all from Adam and Adam is made of clay”. Absolute values of right, good, justice and equality have also been firmly established in the consciousness of the Muslim, leaving no room for selfishness and duplicity.
In this critical juncture where Man is passing from the era of the industrial economy to that of the knowledge economy, we have no other choice but to enter fully into this transitional phase and play an active role in it. Without the Muslims, mankind will not be able to take this turn, follow the right path safely in order to reach the supreme Truth that is God. Indeed, do we not clearly see the world stumbling, looking at things with one eye like a one-eyed man, walking on one foot like a lame man, grappling with his wanderings like a lost man in a desert orientating himself neither with a compass nor with a guide?
In the middle of the last century, Malek Bennabi understood the crisis of Western civilization, its culmination in an impasse and the loss of the motivations of its existence; just as he understood that this civilization needed Islam to correct its orientation. He also found that the contemporary Muslim was in no way capable of bringing assistance to Western civilization because, he said, “water flowing at a lower level than a parched land cannot irrigate it unless if it rises above it”.
Concluding that the crisis of the Muslim comes down to a crisis of his own civilization, Bennabi outlined the role expected of him in the last third of the twentieth century, warning that the winds of civilization will turn away from him if he does not remedy his shortcomings according to the Koranic law “And if you turn away [from Him], He will cause other people to take your place, and they will not be the likes of you”.[6]
To be sure, the Muslim world has not been able to meet Malek Bennabi’s aspirations and expectations to date. It has not advanced one iota in this regard and today finds itself confronted with major challenges which threaten it in its very existence; which underestimate it to the point of ignoring it; which laugh at it to the point of ridiculing it; which demand so much of it that it becomes a subordinate; which treat it like a minor who does not know how to manage his affairs; which exercise over him the tutelage of a tyrannical master aspiring to get his hands on its resources and riches, to obliterate its identity, to separate it from its environment, to cut its ties with its history, to marginalize its language, to bastardize its values, to squander its heritage, to daze its emotions, to make it ignore its belonging, to erase its memory, to melt it in a mold that is not its, to occupy its land, to exile its children and to implant foreign elements in its body in order to replace the name “Muslim world”, its historical name of which it continues to be proud, by the names of “Greater Middle East” according to the American project, or of “Euro-Mediterranean Partnership” according to the European project.
Will challenges of this magnitude wake the Muslim world from its slumber, following the law of the “moment of despair” cited in the Holy Qur’an “When those apostles had lost all hope and saw themselves branded as liars, Our succor attained to them, whereupon everyone whom We willed [to be saved] was saved [and the deniers of the truth were destroyed], for never can Our punishment be averted from people who are lost in sin”[7], or following Arnold Toynbee’s “challenge and response”[8] theory?
From his grave, Malek Bennabi bets on this historic moment and hopes that the Muslim will not let it slip through his fingers, deeply convinced that it is Islam that constitutes the safest sanctuary for humanity, and that will deliver her from her defilements which today cause her the worst sufferings.
For Malek Bennabi, it does not matter whether the winds of deliverance blow from the East or the West, for this deliverance is a gift from God for all of mankind.
It is essentially against this background that we will try, in the following chapters, to sketch a perspective of the key ideas contained in the two conferences and in the last interview given by Malek Bennabi in Damascus and Tripoli respectively. He did so after having performed his pilgrimage to Mecca and shortly before his death on 31 October, 1973. We shall try and demonstrate that these ideas retain their full validity in today’s world, a troubled and increasingly uncertain world.
Note: This is the introductory chapter from Amir Nour’s forthcoming book, titled “L’Islam et l’ordre du monde: le testament de Malek BENNABI” (Islam and the Order of the World: Malek BENNABI’s Testament), first available in French with translations to Arabic and English planned.
- Algerian researcher in international relations, author of the book “The Orient and the West at the time of a new Sykes Picot”, published by Alem El Afkar, Algiers, 2014. ↑
- Malek Bennabi (1905-1973) is a thinker and writer who had devoted most of his life to observing and analyzing history to understand the general laws that underlie the birth, rise and fall of civilizations. He is best known for inventing the concept of “colonizability” (the inner ability to be colonized) and even the notion of “globalism””. ↑
- Syrian Muslim thinker, founder of the publishing house “Dar el Fikr”, Beirut, Lebanon. ↑
- Chapter (Surah) “as-Saff”, verses 2-3. ↑
- Chapter (Surah) “al-Hujurat”, verse 13. ↑
- Chapter (Surah) “Muhammad”, verse 38. ↑
- Chapter (Surah) “Yusuf”, verse 110. ↑
- In his masterpiece, the monumental “Study of History” in 12 volumes, written between 1934 and 1961 and dealing with the birth, rise and decline of civilizations, Toynbee puts forward an explanation based on the dialectical theory of “challenge and response”. According to him, only minorities and creative individuals can provide the social innovation necessary for a civilization to adapt to the new challenges posed by the physical and human environment. ↑
Uncertainty rules, OK? — Wehner Heisenberg
It is difficult to make predictions, even about the past but especially about the future. — Niels Bohr
The 20th century will be the American Century; the 21st will belong to those sleeping giants Russia, China and India. — Alexis de Toqueville, 19th century French politician
If we live in a time that seems (for the moment) more uncertain than usual, it is because see an immature but prematurely aged great power yielding ungracefully to a resurgent host of mature great powers.
Toqueville did not envision a resurgent great power status for Muslim nations; nevertheless, I think their future is bright for three reasons:
a) Because the resurgence of Russia and China has halted runaway Western neo-colonialism in the Middle East.
b) Because certain Muslim countries (Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq) have initiated more or less successful resistance to Western colonialism; either on their own initiative (resurgent Iran) or with help from resurgent Iran and Russia.
c) Because technological development by Iran have reminded Muslim nations of their contributions to science. However, this technological resurgence is seen also in non-Muslim countries of “the multi-polar world” eg, Russia and China. This reminds me of a prophecy by Paul Valery in the middle of the 20th century. He predicted that the West’s only advantage was neither spiritual nor political but merely technological; and that, in search of cheap labour, we were outsourcing that advantage to “the more populous, more hard working, more abstemious and more socially cohesive portion of the world”.
Perhaps the 22nd century will not belong to any one entity. Perhaps it really will be a multi-polar world where Muslim countries can do their thing alongside countries of every other kind.
Oh Boy!!!
I’m curious to see the comments that will appear to this “book introduction” ….
The Dalai Lama said something similar about men working all his/her life at a job he/she hates to save money for his/her retirement to finally retire paying with that money for nursing/medicating his/her final/terminal disease.
Einstein, in a different way, alluded to the “uncertainty” of our Universe being a “symphony of infinite probabilities” saying that:
“In so far as the laws of Nature are real, they are uncertain, and in so far they are uncertain, they are not real.”
All philosophical questioning ends up with “Who Am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?”
There is no conclusion, no final truth, and to expect any religion to give us the answer is asking for more dissention and tribalism.
Sure, all religions give us some guideline, some moral values for those who want to accept and adhere by them but it is still a question of “choice” which is uncertain and infinite if we want to respect “liberal democracy”.
The great challenge is “discernment” applied to any information to filter criterias by which I will make my choice.
That is a “conscious” act done at an “individual” level and also at a collective level through governance as much in business as in politics.
We are facing the greatest challenge now in our debate between “individualism and collectivism”.
It’s a very tight rope to walk on and both are needed.
As Mr Putin enounced so well lately:
extreme, utopic collectivism has been tried with miserable results and “liberal democracy” seems to be leading dangerously once again towards that “ideology”.
The western bloc has experienced capitalist individualism to quite extreme levels to leave us with great inequalities that that same “liberal democracy” deplores…
The Muslam way of selfishess could help??? In my humble opinion, it cannot help anymore then Christiany has and is helping. Too much is subject to interpretations of all kinds according to what “echo-chamber” you follow.
We’re back to tribalism.
Sorry to say, but in my opinion, it’s not God who will save us but the “responsibility” I apply to my “Freedom of Choice” in my own life.
Changes come from this act individually as well has collectively.
I choose to make my choices based on Love and Joy rather than Fear…
With Love and Joy,
the seagull
The secret to life and living is found in this simple sentence:
“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:13
and once you have this blessed Paraclete and one should spend as much effort in asking and pursuing God in Christ Jesus until one finds and receives Him you will then know and understand fully these words of St. Paul:
“But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thess. 5:4-10
All uncertainty about everything will vanish in a flash and peace which He gives will rule the heart and mind. I know it fully, indeed, I couldn’t have survived all these years without that blessed Paraclete in my life.
One does not have to travel very far ! Casino capitalism has its filthy little paws all over it! A morally bankrupt and politically broken, vision of the future.
The birth of what Hannah Arendt once called the horror of dark times. The politics of terror, a culture of fear, and the spectacle of violence dominate.
The emergence of a brutal modern-day capitalism, or what some might call neoliberalism. This form of neoliberal capitalism is a particularly savage, cruel, and exploitative regime of oppression in which not only are the social contract, civil liberties and the commons under siege, but also the very notion of the political, if not the planet itself.
As Michael Yates points out throughout this book, capitalism is devoid of any sense of social responsibility and is driven by an unchecked desire to accumulate capital at all costs. As power becomes global and politics remains local, ruling elites no longer make political concessions to workers or any other group that they either exploit or consider disposable.