Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration and Identity explores the mighty continent of Europe by an academic whose origins lie in the Third World. Professor Akbar Ahmed, one of the renowned scholars of Islam, reverses the longstanding tradition of scholars from the Global North studying the Global South.

Professor Ahmed divides the book into three parts. Part I analyses the fundamental character of European society and its various identities; Part II dwells on the Muslim communities in Europe and elucidates their place on the continent; and Part III reflects on the major challenges the continent is facing and offers some incredibly prudent solutions to deal with them.

At the outset, the author juxtaposes the ideas of the twentieth century German sociologist, Max Weber, and those of the fourteenth century Arab sociologist, Ibn Khaldun, and critically examines European identity from their perspectives. He argues that Weber’s works, which evaluate societies on the parameters of modernity, fail to explain the recent developments in Europe, whereas Ibn Khaldun’s theories, which talk of tribal traditions and codes, perfectly sum up the state of affairs on the continent today.

Central to the analysis of Ibn Khaldun, the book highlights, was the nature of tribal society, which is defined through shared bloodlines and bound by what he called asabiyyah, or social cohesion. The book argues that the rise of right-wing politics across Europe is a sign of the re-emergence of the tribal nature of its society, which means that Ibn Khaldun provides the right framework for understanding the direction in which Europe is moving.

It highlights the predominance of the German culture and identity on the European continent and lucidly explains concepts such as Volk, Heimat, janteloven, and hygge that reflect what the author calls “Primordial Tribal Identity” among Germanic peoples. It is argued that these are the precise concepts that take predatory forms and target minorities when the continent is hit by economic and political instability, as is happening now.

The book also addresses, in great detail, “European Pluralistic Identity.” While doing so, the author elaborates the history and legacy of Muslim-ruled Andalusia, where knowledge and learning were highly regarded, and women and religious minorities were deeply respected. It highlights how ilm, or the Qur’anic instruction to seek knowledge, came to characterize the culture of Andalusia. As a result of what the author refers to as the “ilm ethos” of the erstwhile Andalusians, the region developed a pluralistic and inclusive culture, which in Spanish is called la convivencia, or coexistence.

This section of the book is particularly noteworthy as it underlines the direct, causal relationship between the ilm ethos and convivencia. The author rightly points out that “the urge to reach out to God through knowledge, which is embedded in the ilm ethos, is thus translated into an embrace of God’s creation irrespective of racial, religious, or class differences, which may be defined as convivencia.” It reminds us of the importance we need to give to understanding each other’s faith traditions if we want to do away with the conflict and intolerance that our world is today enduring.

The second part of the book explores the distinct Muslim communities of Europe, which are categorized as Muslim immigrants, indigenous Muslims, and Muslim converts.

The discussion over the condition of Muslim immigrants in Europe clearly refers to the stark difference between the character of British and French colonialism, and thereby the status of Muslim immigrants in these countries, the vast majority of whom have origins in their respective former colonies. It is diligently highlighted in the book that although both these countries, which exemplified European imperialism, have histories of atrocities against their colonial subjects, imperial Britain had a relatively inclusive approach which allowed its subjects to find a place and grow in British society while retaining their own identity with integrity; whereas, there was no such possibility for the French colonial subjects. As a result, while there are a number of immigrant success stories in all spheres of British public life, such as Baroness Sayeeda Warsi in politics, Sir Mo Farah in sports, Salman Rushdie in literature, and Abdus Salam in science, it is not possible to find Muslims excelling in such diverse fields in France.

With regards to the indigenous Muslim population of Europe, the book offers its readers a window into the native yet marginalized and forgotten Muslim communities of the continent. The author revives the memory of the horrific genocide against Bosnian Muslims in the early 1990s and quotes a very pertinent question by the former Mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic, as to whether the European response to it would have been as lethargic as it was if the Bosniaks had not been Muslims.

The social and economic conditions of other marginalized indigenous Muslim communities such as the Turks of Greece and Bulgaria, the Pomaks, and the Albanians; and the forgotten communities like the Tatars, the Roma, and the Cham are also fairly addressed in the book. Despite their long history of loyalty and service to their motherlands, they are not considered as part of the Volk in the nationalist, tribal imagination of Europe.

“The continent that centuries ago launched the crusades against the Muslim world and later colonized it is now, ironically, providing Islam with a new lease of life” (p. 306).

This sentence brilliantly encapsulates the significance of Muslim converts in Europe. At a time when referring to Islam as a religion of barbarity has become a norm, thousands of Europeans, especially women, are wholeheartedly embracing it:

“… Europeans approached the subject of conversion to Islam with intellectual seriousness and careful reasoning. They are in the tradition of the European philosophers in their quest for truth and meaning. … Their conversion is invariable a mixture of head and heart. It should also be noted that European primordial identity – which has reservations regarding morally vacuous materialism, consumerism, and globalization and defines differentiated roles for men and women – finds an echo in the attraction many converts feel toward Islam today” (p. 306).

The final part of the book deals with a range of matters of crucial importance, such as the effect of European primordial identity on Muslims and Jews, the impact of the repugnant terrorist group ISIS on the lives of European Muslims, and the imperative for convivencia on the continent.

This section of the book discusses in great detail how Jews were persecuted, and Muslims appreciated, throughout Europe’s history because of the typical attitude of primordial tribal identity towards religious and ethnic minorities. This attitude has been reflected in the works of German philosophers like Johann Gottfried von Herder. Herder believed that only those who lived in their own lands with the people of their own ethnicity and shared the same cultural traditions were deserving of respect, and therefore he disparaged the Jews for relocating to Europe and admired the Arabs for continuing to live in their original homeland in the deserts of the Middle East.

However, Ahmed notes that the establishment and the rise of the State of Israel has been a formidable force on European politics and perspectives. Simultaneously, the unabated chaos in the Middle East and the consequential refugee crisis have resulted in the dramatic reversal of relationships. Although anti-Semitism is still rife within European right-wing movements, the general European view of Jews, who are now settled in their homeland, is mostly positive; whereas even moderate Europeans view the Muslim community, who have been dislocated from their homelands, with suspicion.

A careful and comprehensive analysis has been done by the author on the issue of ISIS and the support that it garnered from some sections of European Muslims, which is reflected in the fact that over 5,000 of them travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the terrorist group. He argues “that supporters of terrorism are not monolith, and their paths to terrorism are different,” and divides “these Muslims into three categories: those immigrants with a tribal background, those with a modernist Islamic background, and European converts.”

The author gives a set of different reasons that these Muslims had/have for their support of the dreaded terrorist group. For instance, for those with a tribal background where taking revenge is part of the culture, marginalization, constant cultural humiliation, and an utter lack of opportunities in Europe drove some of them to seek revenge through terrorism. For those with a modernist Islamic background, the inability of elders to engage in serious intellectual debates meant they tried to find answers on the Internet, where some ended up reading literature posted by radical groups. Lacking proper guidance about their new faith and its doctrines, new European converts were not taught how to eliminate discrimination and injustice against their new fellow brothers and sisters in faith. In their efforts to find guidance, some were radicalized.

Ahmed’s book also points to the very important fact that support for ISIS is high in places where Islamophobia is high, and it is low where Islamophobia is low. It notes that given Southern Europe has some memory of convivencia and as a result has low Islamophobia, no European Muslims who travelled to the Middle East to join ISIS came from this region.

Based on the fieldwork findings, Professor Ahmed concludes his book with ten immensely valuable solutions. These are meant to contain the crisis that seems to be engulfing Europe. The first among them is reviving the ilm ethos and seeking knowledge about one another, which is extremely close to my heart.

Ahmed’s book is a must-read not only for students of anthropology and sociology but also for the decision-makers, in Europe and beyond.

Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration and Identity
By Akbar Ahmed
591 pages, hardcover
Brookings Institution Press (February 27, 2018)
ISBN: 978-0815727583

Although it is well known which aspect of the term knowledge in Islamic Sufism is most relevant in the context of this book, we deem it useful to mention some secondary matters, such as the different types of knowledge and its sources.

Knowledge, first of all, is dealt with in two categories: Knowledge without means or knowledge that is had without being acquired, and knowledge that is acquired through some means.

Every living being has its own peculiar characteristics and potentials. These characteristics and potentials are the sources of certain, innate knowledge-knowledge a creature has without having to acquire it.1 A human being’s being able to sense and perceive a lack of air, thirst, hunger, grief and joy, etc., a baby’s knowledge of how to nurse, a bird’s knowledge of how to fly and build nests, a fish’s knowledge of how to swim, young animals’ knowledge of how to avoid dangers, in short, these types of knowledge-knowledge of how to deal with the necessities of life, fall into the category of knowledge without means.

Knowledge acquired through the internal and external senses is included in the second category. Knowledge concerning the physical world is usually obtained through the five external senses-sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch-while knowledge about the metaphysical or incorporeal realm of existence is acquired through internal senses-the mind and heart with their faculties of thought, reason, spiritual discovery and experience, intuition, and so on.

As for the sources of knowledge or means of acquiring it, these consist of three, according to Islam:

1. The five external senses, provided they are sound.
2. True reports, of which there are two kinds: reports unanimously given by a group of truthful people of such a number that it is inconceivable that they have agreed to lie, and reports given by the Messengers of God, whom He has sent with special messages.
3. The third source of knowledge is reason. Axiomatic knowledge and the knowledge reached by using the mental faculties are included in this kind of knowledge.

Knowledge is also divided into two groups: that which is acquired through the mental faculties, and that which is reported knowledge. The first can be divided up into three categories:

1. Knowledge of such matters as health and education, which in Islam are regarded as incumbent upon every individual or a group of people in the community, according to the time and conditions.
2. Another kind of knowledge acquired through the mental faculties is knowledge of which Islam disapproves. Sorcery, divination and certain occult sciences are of this kind.
3. Sciences, such as geometry, mathematics, medicine, physics, chemistry, and history are included in the third category, the study of which Islam regards as obligatory on the community, even though not every individual, in order to dis cover God’s laws of the creation and operation of the universe and for the well-being of the community.

Reported knowledge is of two kinds: knowledge based on spiritual discovery and inspiration and knowledge concerning Islam and Islamic life. The second kind has been separated under four heads:

1. The knowledge of the fundamental principles, which include knowledge of the Qur’an, Sunna (the Prophet’s way of life, sayings, and confirmations), the consensus of the scholars (ijma’) and analogy or deductive reasoning. These are the sources upon which the rules of the Shari’a are based.
2. The knowledge of the subdivisions, which includes the knowledge of worship (the Prescribed Prayer, the Prescribed Alms-giving, Fasting, Pilgrimage and so on), the daily life of the believers, marriage and relevant matters, such as divorce and alimony (civil law), and legal penalties (criminal law), etc.
3. Primary sciences, such as language, grammar, semantics, composition, and eloquence, which are ways to properly understand the religious sciences, such as Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet), the interpretation of the Qur’an, and jurisprudence.
4. The complementary or secondary sciences, i.e. the sciences additional to the sciences of the Qur’an. They consist of sciences relating to the wording and composition of the Qur’an, such as phonetics and recitation; the sciences pertaining to its meaning, such as interpretation and exegesis, and those relating to its commandments, such as the abrogating and the abrogated, the general and particular, the explicit and implicit, the real or literal and the metaphorical or allusive, the succinct and the detailed, the clear and the ambiguous, the direct and firm and the allegorical.

As for reported knowledge based on spiritual discovery and inspiration, it has also been dealt with under two heads: the knowledge that occurs in one’s heart as a gift from God, and the knowledge that arises in the conscience. What we will study among the topics of Emerald Hills of the Heart is this kind of knowledge. Whether it is of the kind occurring in one’s heart as a gift from God or of the kind arising in the conscience, this knowledge is and must be based on the Qur’an and the Sunna. Any knowledge one finds in one’s heart or conscience which has not been filtered through these two pure sources is not reliable. It cannot be binding knowledge for either the individuals themselves or others, it cannot be considered as authentic, sound knowledge. This important point has been stressed by many great Sufi leaders. For example:

Junayd al-Baghdadi says: “All the ways that do not end in the Prophet are closed and do not lead to the truth.” He also reminds us: “Anyone who does not know the Book and the Sunna is not to be followed as a guide.”

Abu Hafs² explains: “Anyone who does not continually control him or herself in the light of the Book and the Sunna cannot be regarded as belonging to this way.”

Abu Sulayman ad-Darani³ warns: “I admit the truth of what-ever occurs to the heart only provided it is confirmed by the Book and the Sunna.”

Abu Yazid (Bayazid) al-Bistami4 admonishes: “I struggled against my carnal soul for almost thirty years and did not find anything more difficult for it to accept than the objective criteria of the Book and the Sunna. You should not be misled by anyone, even if they work wonders like flying through the air, rather you should consider their care in observing the limits set up by the Shari’a and following the commandments of the Book and the Sunna.”

Abu Sa’id al-Kharraz⁵ sums up the matter: “Any intuitive knowledge which is not compatible with the spirit of religion is false.”

Abu’l-Qasim an-Nasrabadi⁶ teaches: “The essence of the Sufi way is strict adherence to the Book and the Sunna, holding back from the misleading inclinations of the carnal soul and innovations in religion, being able to overlook the faults of others, not becoming negligent in one’s daily recitations to glorify and praise the Almighty, being strict in fulfilling the religious commandments without applying special exceptions or dispensations, and refraining from personal, insubstantial opinions regarding religion.”

The Sufi leaders give knowledge precedence over the spiritual state of the Sufis, because that state depends on knowledge. Knowledge is the heritage of the Prophets, and the scholars are the heirs thereto. The Prophetic saying, “The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets,”⁷ is the highest of the ranks recognized for scholars.

The knowledge of the truth or knowledge that leads to the truth is the life of the heart, the light of the eye, the cause of the expansion of the breast (with peace, exhilaration, and spiritual happiness), the stimulus to activate reason, the source of pleasure for the spirit, the guide of those bewildered as to which way to follow, the intimate friend of the lonely, and an invaluable table of heavenly foods offered on the earth and one to which the angels show great respect.

Knowledge is an important step toward belief, a standard to distinguish between guidance and error and between certainty and doubt, and a Divine mystery manifesting the truly human aspects of a person.

There is no exaggeration in the following saying of a friend of God:

A human being is truly human with knowledge;
but without knowledge is entirely bestial.
Action without knowledge is purely ignorance;
so, O friend, you cannot find the Truth without knowledge.

By knowledge, the Sufis mean, rather than the familiarity that is reached with the mind, hearing and sight, the light and radiation that come from the realms beyond the material world and have their source in God’s Knowledge. This light pervades the spirit and bursts like flowers in the meadows of the innermost faculties of the person, and swells and flows in the gifts of the All-Eternal. In order to be able to receive this Divine gift, one should, first of all, turn with all one’s inner world to the Eternal Sun and, freed from the influences of the body and carnal pleasures, lead a life at the level of heart and spirit, and open one’s breast to God, the Ultimate Truth, with belief, love, and attraction, and then one should be able to rise to a level where one can be taught by God through inspiration.

As declared in the Divine declaration (18:65), We taught him knowledge of a special kind from Our Presence, God-inspired knowledge is the rain of mercy that pours down into the depths of a person’s inner world from the Realm of the Holy Presence-the Realm where those who are the nearest to God experience His Holy Presence-without any intermediary and veils. Deep devotion to God, sincere adherence and loyalty to Him as well as the Messenger, being sincerely pleased with whatever God decrees or causes to happen for one and trying to please Him, the sincerity and purity of intention in one’s acts or doing whatever one does only to please Him and because He wants us to do it, and having a heart pursuing certainty in the matters of belief over and over again-all this is what is required to be rewarded with God-inspired knowledge, especially in abundance.

Since the Prophets received Divine Revelation and were taught by Him, their knowledge is a God-inspired knowledge that comes from Him without any intermediary. As for the knowledge of purified, saintly scholars and other saintly persons, this is also a God-inspired knowledge, the only difference being that the source is the rays of light of the Prophetic knowledge. Khadr⁸ is regarded as the only one in receiving this knowledge. However, he can only be so regarded for a certain period of time and spiritual rank and for the state particular to him. In certain particular matters, some people may be superior to those who are superior to them in general terms. Similarly, in certain particularities of God-inspired knowledge, Khadr is superior to those who are greater than him. He is in no way superior to either Prophet Moses, upon him be peace,⁹ or the other great Messengers.

As a Messenger charged with teaching people God’s commandments and guiding them in their lives so that they could attain happiness in both worlds, Prophet Moses knew God’s commandments concerning the human individual and social life and the sensitive relation between them and the outward and inward aspects or dimensions of things. But, Khadr’s knowledge is restricted to the inward dimension of things. He points to this difference in his conversation with Moses: “Moses! I have a kind of knowledge which God has taught me and you do not possess, while you have another kind of knowledge which God has taught you and I do not possess.”¹⁰

In conclusion, God-inspired knowledge is the kind of knowledge which one cannot acquire by studying or being taught by others. It is a special gift from God and a kind of illumination, from a sacred source, that one finds in one’s heart. Rather than being the kind of knowledge about the Creator acquired by studying creation and which therefore leads from the created to the Creator, it is a kind that pours from the Maker to the conscious works of His Art. It is even regarded as the emergence in the human spirit of the knowledge about some mysteries pertaining to God, the Ultimate Truth, as special gifts from Him.

Anyway, it is always God Who knows best the truth in every matter.

Notes

1. The modern scientific term for this kind of knowledge is instinct. (Tr.).
2. Abu Hafs ‘Amr b. Salama al-Haddad an-Naysaburi (d. 879). A blacksmith of Naysaburi, visited Baghdad and met Junayd, who admired his devotion. He also encountered ash-Shibli and other Sufis of the Baghdad school. Returning to Nishapur, he resumed his trade and died there in 879. (Tr.)
3. Abu Sulayman ad-Darani (d. 830). An ascetic known for his weeping in worship. He was held in honor by the Sufis and was (called) the sweet basil of hearts (rayhan-i dilha). He is distinguished by his severe austerities. He spoke in subtle terms concerning the practice of devotion. (Tr.)
4. Abu Yazid (Bayazid) al-Bistami (d. 873): One of the greatest Sufi masters. Junayd said: “Abu Yazid holds the same rank among us as Gabriel among the angels.” His life was based on self-mortification and the practice of devotion. (Tr.)
5. Abu Sa’id Ahmad ibn ‘Isa al-Kharraz al-Baghdadi, a cobbler by trade, met Dhu’n-Nun al-Misri and associated with Bishr al-Khafi and Sari as-Saqati. Author of several books including some which have survived; the date of his death is uncertain but probably occurred between 892 and 899. (Tr.)
6. Abu’l-Qasim Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud an-Nasrabadi (d. 977): One of the famous Sufi masters and scholars. Born in Nishabur and died in Makka. He was famous for his devotions and refraining from sins. (Tr.)
7. al-Bukhari, al-Jami’us-Sahih, “‘Ilm,” 10.
8. As recounted in the Qur’an (18: 60–82), Khadr is he with whom Prophet Moses made a travel to learn something of the spiritual realm of existence and the nature of God’s acts in it. It is controversial whether he was a Prophet or a saint with special mission. It is believed that he enjoys the degree of life where one feels no need for the necessities of normal human life. (Tr.)
9. The writer refers to the significant encounter and experience between Moses and Khadr that is recounted in the Qur’an, 18:60–82. (Tr.)
10. al-Bukhari, “Tafsir,” 18:4.