INDEPENDENT THINKING AS A RESULT OF FREEDOM

Over the past four decades, interest in researching life history – collecting and interpreting personal histories or testimonies – in social sciences has incessantly been increasing. For some authors, researching life history reflects turning away from objectivity and prioritizing subjectivity and positioning (Riessman, 2001). For others, life history is a rich source of data which allow studying someone’s life course and examining the relationship between a cause and a result, between action and structure. In a broader sense, this renewed interest in the individual reflects the so-called popularist shift) and is associated with postmodernism (Paerregaard, 1998).

When analyzing works by researchers who have been involved in thinking and activity, in life histories of Bosnian and Herzegovinian Islamic thinkers of the 20th century, we will observe that they typically consulted texts which are a distinctive reflection of freedom in its ontological sense. One of the prayers (dova) which Prophet Muhammed, a. s., most often recited, and the authenticity of which has been assessed with the highest degrees of veracity, is the following: “Oh Allah! Show me the reality of all things as it is”; it is actually a prayer for knowing things in their essence. This prayer is, directly or indirectly, referred to by Bosnian and Herzegovinian Islamic authors whose entire thought has a character of prevailing freedom, and whose natural result is work that has survived holders of these idea. This paper is about Džemaludin Čaušević and Muhamed Seid Serdarević.

Čaušević’s actual actions which shook the intellectual and social scene of the time – from introducing Arebica script to open and clearly articulated view of the practice of covering women’s face which has no grounds in Islam; Serdarević’s pioneer writing textbooks for studying observance of religious rituals (ibadat) in Bosnian, as well as accurate detection of the “educated people who differ from the ordinary ones only because they ‘think’ in line with principle of fashion and customs of their society and higher circles, who copy thoughts of some world-renowned scholar” (Serdarević, 1913-14: 337) – all the above is encountered in freedom as a source of uncompromised thinking and proactive activity, and as such it is the most important implication of Islamic monotheism: there is no god but God.

Čaušević certainly had a hard time listening to jeering responses to his views of uncovering Muslim women, or to comparing his reforming activity to secularist activity by Kemal-pasha Ataturk in Turkey, or to implicit assessment of his view of progress that he uses religion as an instrument, since “religion means that human life and action should be adjusted to it, not the other way round” (Karabeg, 1928: 21); or, how – in the opinion of the majlis of Sarajevo jamaat (community) – “Sharia regulations are broken exactly by the one who has been appointed to execute them”. Čaušević’s words that “Islam is a religion of knowledge and work, a religion of true purity [Čaušević equally insists on the “purity of body and soul”] and the most perfect morality” (Čaušević, 1928: 1) at the same time encompass the intellectual, spiritual and social dimension of his activity since, ultimately, morality as the applied ethics is possible only in the society. Čaušević addresses institutions the educational curriculum of which will correlate with the contemporary idiom which in turn allows active participation in the society, and requires that “teaching institutes be built which will be able to educate such people that will know and want to interpret the sublime instructions of the Qur’an in the pure language of its listeners” (Čaušević, 1933: 1).

Čaušević, as well as his younger colleague Serdarević underscore the requirement of Islam for its social dimension. In their opinion, it was primarily achieved through reform of education. While American intellectual of German origin Frantz Rosenthal studies the role of knowledge through the overall culture of learning in the Muslim society, a culture which includes ‘ilm (knowledge), ‘amel (activity or work) and edeb (etiquette), since such knowledge “triumphs” among educated layers and sets the tone to others, Čaušević and Serdarević take the opposite road in their vision of educational reform. Both call for “familiarizing our people” (Čaušević), and “enlightening the crowd and their intellectual upbringing” (Serdarević), all aimed at “thinking and judging with one’s own head, rather than following their mortal, though concealed, enemy”. According to Serdarević, in this case the ‘concealed enemy’ is the absence of moral credibility in socially responsible persons. Indeed, here he speaks of the abuse of the position by “well-educated, reasonable and independent-thinking people among members of  ehlul-halli vel-akda who are utterly demoralized and, by gratifying their own personal whims and interests, neglect and destroy general interests, interests of masses” (Serdarević, 1913-14: 337). Let us be reminded of Serdarević’s famous texts: “Budimo muslimani (Let Us Be Muslims”, “Kibur i tevazu (Haughtiness and Humility)”, “Samopouzdanje i tevekjul (Self-confidence and Relying upon Others)”, “Strašivost (Timidity)”, “Istina i pravda (Truth and Justice)”, and particularly article “Misliti svojom ili tuđom glavom (Think with one’s own or someone else’s head) ” – all these titles together indicate an originally authentic and creative, continuous conceptual engagement inseparable from its practical implementation which, in turn, always has its external confirmation, in this way or another. Serdarević primarily understands the notion of knowledge through the most important criterion for his classification in the Islamic worldview – usefulness and function of the promotion of general good: “It does not suffice to know, one should act as well. To learn something useful and to live it, and then to teach others about it, it is something that cannot be praised enough in Islam. The man is bound to tell the other about what he knows, particularly if he is asked. To hide one’s knowledge and skills and not to help others, who want to know it, it is highly condemned in Islam” (Serdarević, 1915: 30).

The selected quotes of the two truly thinking people reflect creative and engaged problematization which is not the aim to itself, and therefore they are not limited in time. Although their discourse belonged to the reforming-renewing-enlightening trend of Bosnian and Herzegovinian Islamic thinking of the first half of the 20th century, their idžtihad (reviving or reform) was not the “idžtihad” which begins and ends with trivial requirements for creative thinking and continuous insistence on its use. The clarity of their texts, as well as the courage and uncompromising attitude in articulating arguments, is a reflection of their self-confidence which, in the phenomenological sense, Čaušević understands as a duty, and Serdarević as an intrinsic feature of relying upon God (tevekkul). The proactive power of their activity was inexorable. These two authors are a distinctive archetype whose life histories are a rich source of data.

References:

• Čaušević, Mehmed Džemaludin (1927), “Molba na vjerske službenike”, Novi Behar, no. 1, p. 3.

• Čaušević, M. Dž. (1928), “Okružnica našeg presvetog gospodina reisu-l-uleme” (official letter), Novi Behar, 1 December, p. 1.

• Čaušević, M. Dž. (1933), “Mubarek Ramazan dolazi”, Islamski svijet, no. 66.

• Karabeg, Ali Riza (1928), Rasprava o hidžabu (krivenju muslimanki), Mostar.

• Paerregaard, K. (1998). “Intercepting local lives in a global world: the use of life histories in the research of poverty”, in Webster, N. (Ed.) In search of alternatives: poverty, the poor and local organisations. Copenhagen: Centre for Development Research, Local Organisation and Rural Poverty Alleviation Research Project (CDR Working Paper 98.10). http://www.cdr.dk/working_papers/wp-98-10.htm.

• Riessman, C.K (2001) “Analysis of Personal Narratives” in Gubrium, J.F., and J.A. Holstein (Eds.) Handbook of Interviewing, London: Sage.

• Serdarević, Muhamed Seid (1913-14), “Misliti svojom ili tuđom glavom”, Biser: list za širenje prosvjete među muslimanima u BiH, no. 22, 23 i 24, pp. 336-338.

• Serdarević, M. S. (1915), “Budimo muslimani”, Kalendar Gajreta za 1915., pp. 27-35.