Author: Mohajer Azizi
Analysis and Criticism of Modernism in the Light of Islam (Part 19)
Sayings and Views of Scholars and Thinkers Regarding Modernism
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The Path to Destruction
Shaker Shakuri: “Undoubtedly, those who promote modernism in our time are a group that plays with words; they do not express any real and correct truth, because their words lack any meaning or implication. The danger of their work is to the extent that they corrupt taste and ruin the means of expression; rather, continuing such a wandering in the colorful fields of expression has no end but to nothingness and destruction. This path (modernism) is the path of collapse; it is the path that unruly and aimless societies fall into. Because under the name of “modernism”, they attack the (cultural and religious) heritage and trample on the sanctity of originality, intellect, and human dignity.”
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Destruction of Language
Abdullah Al-Jafri: “No one opposes (positive) modernism; But we are against intellectual and cultural nakedness. We are not against modernization; but we stand against chaos and vulgarity. We are not against creationism; rather, we are against emptiness and superficiality. This term (modernism) is in fact an invitation to destroy language, destroy heritage, and manipulate values.”
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Rejection of Heritage
Bakr Ibrahim: “When a researcher and scholar examines the intellectual foundations and roots of this group, he realizes through their productions and writings that they moved back and forth between secularism, atheism, Marxism, and Christianity. And the result of all these trends is one thing: denial of the existing reality and a comprehensive rejection of the Islamic intellectual heritage.”
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Rebellion against Religion
Soheila Zain al-Abedin: “Modernism was in fact a poetic revolution that declared a rebellion against religion; And it also rebelled against history, the past, heritage, language, and morality. This revolution distanced itself from the traditional form of the Arabic ode as a poetic form and created an atheistic form for contemporary Arabic poetry, which was known with this atheistic face.”
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Corrupt commodity
Isa Khalil: “Riding on the wave of modernity and achieving other goals is an obvious and rejected thing. Courage is to enter through the doors of houses. This is what all capable people do; those who are responsible and persevere in hardship, to the point of sacrificing themselves. They never rode on a corrupt commodity that came from somewhere else and is not compatible with values.”
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The contaminated current
Dr. Awaz Al-Qarni: “This current (extreme modernity) is a current that is more contaminated than any contamination. We have no choice but to stand up defending our beliefs against it; To protect our future generation from this dangerous wave, which is nothing less than drugs.”
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The war against Islam
Sheikh Saleh bin Abdulaziz: “Modernism is a hidden stage of the same religious war that the enemies have waged against Islam, until a generation is raised that abandons its values and sanctities; a generation that is known for its irresponsibility, Westernization, disbelief and debauchery.”
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Rejecting existing realities
Bakr Ibrahim: “The phenomenon of modernity has grown and spread among many Iraqi, Syrian, and Egyptian poets. So figures such as Yousef al-Khal, Khalil Hawi, Kawthar Abu Dib, Salah Abdul Sabour, al-Sayyab, and Adonis emerged, as well as Imad Hamoud, Darwish, and Sayyah al-Qasim on the list of well-known ones. When we look at the views and intellectual foundations of these poets, we will see that there is a common spirit in their works and writings; the same spirit of secularism, existentialism, leftism, and Christianity, all of which converge at a common point. What they have in common is the rejection of existing realities, disregard for the intellectual heritage of Islam, and disregard for the literary heritage of language, meter, rhyme, and its visual and aesthetic methods.”
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Deviation of Thoughts
Abdullah bin Khamis, (Author and writer): “Modernism is neither a religion nor a monastery, but rather an innovation that innovators have created to roam the field of literature and divert thoughts from the right path.”
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The Cancerous Current
Abdullah Al-Faisal: “My activity will be focused on the literary field, and in this regard, I will emphasize three main points: First: The field of poetry; And here I will try to confront what is called modernist or free poetry, because I consider it like a cancer that has fallen on the soul of the Arabic language and Arabic literature.”
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Return to the old ignorance
The virtuous writer “Soheila Zain al-Abedin: “One of the most important things that Dr. Ghannami and his followers should know is that the general and apparent form of confronting modernism is not the essence of opposing modernity; because our criticism of modernism does not rely solely on its materialistic tendency, but the main danger is that modernism wants to return Arab thought to the old ignorance; an ignorance that is mixed with reactionary ideas, nationalist thoughts and divisive slogans, and all this is done to weaken and influence the Islamic faith.”
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The factor of neglect of the people and nation
Isa Khalil: “I have no hesitation in expressing my praise and appreciation for food culture; But this does not prevent me from saying that perhaps this path is not the only suitable path for the intellectual nourishment of the nation; because this (modernist) culture is nothing more than tasting ethnic flavors that deprive the nation of a truth whose characteristics are originality and innovation. Rather, within the framework of understanding and intellect, a call should be made to each nation with its own unique perspective, in a way that opens its horizons and brings its expectations to growth and dynamism and achieves what is useful and compels its readers to fruitful research and study, not to spells and superstitions; so are they the way they have gone? There are reasons that explain this.
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The Blackness of Falsehood and Absurdity
Saleh Al-Awaz: “Now they (supporters of modernism) have overtaken most of the reading media in the Arab world and have turned them into a base for themselves. They loudly blow their doubts and errors into it and spread their falsehood. They open their dark and blind pages to anyone who knocks on their door to record the blackness of falsehood and absurdity for him and his like; and they want to destroy whatever remains of the original and rooted Islamic and literary heritage. Let them open a new page in the world of literature to live in the life of their errors, but the truth is that this illiteracy (Umiyyah) will not be permanent and lasting, but rather it is doomed to destruction and in the end, nothing but the truth will triumph.”
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Intellectual vulgarity
Dr. Yousef Ezzed’din: “I could hardly keep myself away from criticism; but this literary disease that our dear friend Dr. Rashid Al-Mubarak calls “intellectual vulgarity” made me hesitate, stand up and defend this authentic Arabic literary heritage.”
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Destroyer of human values
Urtica Kassit, (Western critic of modernism): “Modernism means destroying all the human values that literature supported in the past; it is an art that ignores people, time and history.”
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Pushing towards darkness
Frank Kermode, Western critic: “Modernism pushes art towards darkness, chaos and despair.”
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The cause of crisis and chaos
