1. Definition of post/-modernism versus tradition
This text discusses the typical mentality of our times: modernism and post-modernism, as seen from the traditional Islamic perspective, using the intellectual method of René Guénon and S H Nasr.
Unlike in our (post)modern times, where words are depleted and often reversed from their original meaning, we are of the conviction that concepts (abstract words) are receptacles of 'higher', more 'original' meanings in as much as we human beings are aware of and open-minded to an objective, higher reality.
When meaning is lost and the modern 'diversification' of meaning is one aspect of it, then this world is about to succumb to meaninglessness.
René Guénon's method is to trace concepts back to their etymological roots and to redefine them according to their roots, whenever they have lost their deeper and original meanings. An example for this methology is the concept of 'tradition' and 'traditional', which we understand differently from the mostly vague suggestions commonly used, which do not explain much in the context of the higher levels of reality.
“Tradition is essentially of "super-human" origin, which is quite exactly also its correct definition and nothing traditional cannot be qualified as such without the presence of this vital and axial* foundational element, which defines its own authentic character.”
“Nothing which is purely human can be considered traditional, that is why it is wrong - as René Guénon rightly says - to talk about a "philosophic tradition" or a "scientific tradition"... because only the heritery forms of an uninterrupted chain of transmission (silsilah) deserve the qualification "traditional" for they will guarantee the reality and permanence of the "vital element", ie. that of non-human origin, inside a particular tradition.” DRG
Or to put in another way: Tradition is the light with which the human kind has been endowed with from the beginning of times to the end of it; it is the light of meaning in an otherwise meaningsless void, it is the light of spiritual guidance in a materialistic and hedonistic era, it is the light of the Logos shining upon the contingent entities. This Light is from God, the light of the heavens and earth.
In the case of Islam, which is the most recent - and the last of traditions, the concept of tradition, the dîn, is seen as being twofold:
• in its general meaning the transmission of an element of the suprahuman level - the Qur'an,
• and in its specific sense the words and sayings reported from Prophet Muhammad
may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which have been recorded in the hadith collections together with the entire Islamic religion.
And because those "principles (are) universal,... all the traditional doctrines are identical in essence". EW p.216
Many Western students of Islam also identify 'modern' with 'advanced', 'developed' and the like, as if the march of time itself guarantees betterment." (S H Nasr, TIM p.109)
(2*) The enlightenment-humanist rejection: In the European process of modernity God, the Absolute, was falsely relegated to a relative role as aloof from creation, so called Deism, which denies God's immanence in His creation; whereas the human being as such was to be celebrated and referred to. This mostly Protestant mode of consciousness was of course a grave misunderstanding of the role of man and the role of God Himself.
Postmodernism is the name for the general quality of our time. It holds that all worldviews are constructed by historical processes, by culture and religion, so postmodernism sees those worldviews ('tall stories') as a function of power rather than truth. (C. Upton, SAC
)
(3*) Also a rejection of reason as a universal concept.
(4*) Even the merging of true and false, as there is no more objective reference to Truth.
Unlike in our (post)modern times, where words are depleted and often reversed from their original meaning, we are of the conviction that concepts (abstract words) are receptacles of 'higher', more 'original' meanings in as much as we human beings are aware of and open-minded to an objective, higher reality.
When meaning is lost and the modern 'diversification' of meaning is one aspect of it, then this world is about to succumb to meaninglessness.
René Guénon's method is to trace concepts back to their etymological roots and to redefine them according to their roots, whenever they have lost their deeper and original meanings. An example for this methology is the concept of 'tradition' and 'traditional', which we understand differently from the mostly vague suggestions commonly used, which do not explain much in the context of the higher levels of reality.
1.1 Definition of tradition
Therefore according to how we understand the concept from its etymological root: tradere (deliver, transmit) - Tradition has nothing to do with peoples' usages or customs from old, but is understood as *revealed* tradition, that is truths and principles of divine order revealed or unveiled to mankind.“Tradition is essentially of "super-human" origin, which is quite exactly also its correct definition and nothing traditional cannot be qualified as such without the presence of this vital and axial* foundational element, which defines its own authentic character.”
“Nothing which is purely human can be considered traditional, that is why it is wrong - as René Guénon rightly says - to talk about a "philosophic tradition" or a "scientific tradition"... because only the heritery forms of an uninterrupted chain of transmission (silsilah) deserve the qualification "traditional" for they will guarantee the reality and permanence of the "vital element", ie. that of non-human origin, inside a particular tradition.” DRG
Or to put in another way: Tradition is the light with which the human kind has been endowed with from the beginning of times to the end of it; it is the light of meaning in an otherwise meaningsless void, it is the light of spiritual guidance in a materialistic and hedonistic era, it is the light of the Logos shining upon the contingent entities. This Light is from God, the light of the heavens and earth.
In the case of Islam, which is the most recent - and the last of traditions, the concept of tradition, the dîn, is seen as being twofold:
• in its general meaning the transmission of an element of the suprahuman level - the Qur'an,
• and in its specific sense the words and sayings reported from Prophet Muhammad
may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which have been recorded in the hadith collections together with the entire Islamic religion.1.2 Definition of modernism
Our definition of modern and modernism has nothing to do with what may be generally perceived now-a-days (1*) as being new or 'up-to-date', instead, what is here defined as modern, is that which is cut off from the Divine, the Transcendant, or the 'Supernatural', everything that does not refer to - and is isolated from - "the immutable principles which in reality govern all things and which are made known to man through revelation in its most universal sense. Modernism is thus contrasted with tradition (ad-dîn); the former ... all that is merely human and now ever more increasingly subhuman, and all that is divorced and cut off from the Divine source. (Additionally) tradition has always accompanied and in fact characterized human existence, whereas modernism is a very recent phenomenon." (S H Nasr, TIM p.98)And because those "principles (are) universal,... all the traditional doctrines are identical in essence". EW p.216
In other words modernism is:"The enlightenment-humanist rejection (2*) of tradition and authority in favour of reason and natural science. This is founded upon the assumption of the autonomous individual as the sole source of meaning and truth--the Cartesian cogito."
from The Electronic Library, x L 20120703
(1*) "If we are forced to re-define such terms as 'tradition' and 'modernism' ... it is because, (despite the considerable amount of writing devoted to the subject by writers such as R. Guènon ...) there are still readers, especially Muslim ones, for whom the distinction between tradition and modernism is not clear. They still identify tradition with customs and modernism with all that is contemporary.from The Electronic Library, x L 20120703
Many Western students of Islam also identify 'modern' with 'advanced', 'developed' and the like, as if the march of time itself guarantees betterment." (S H Nasr, TIM p.109)
(2*) The enlightenment-humanist rejection: In the European process of modernity God, the Absolute, was falsely relegated to a relative role as aloof from creation, so called Deism, which denies God's immanence in His creation; whereas the human being as such was to be celebrated and referred to. This mostly Protestant mode of consciousness was of course a grave misunderstanding of the role of man and the role of God Himself.
 IPOP, S H Nasr |
1.3 Definition of postmodernism
We further understand postmodernism as the recalcitrant child of modernism, ie modernism driven to its extremes, by its usurping or 'deconstructing' modernism itself and by its arrogant denial of tradition and anything absolute and permanent, which gives it the same bad smell as its parent concept, because it is overtly more rebellious and hateful of anything holy, divine, or absolute.Postmodernism is the name for the general quality of our time. It holds that all worldviews are constructed by historical processes, by culture and religion, so postmodernism sees those worldviews ('tall stories') as a function of power rather than truth. (C. Upton, SAC
)In other words postmodernism is:
"A rejection of the sovereign autonomous individual (3*) with an emphasis upon anarchic collective, anonymous experience. Collage, diversity, the mystically unrepresentable, Dionysian passion are the foci of attention. Most importantly we see the dissolution of distinctions, the merging of subject and object, self and other. (4*) This is a sarcastic playful parody of western modernity and the 'John Wayne' individual and a radical, anarchist rejection of all attempts to define, reify or re-present the human subject."
from The Electronic Library, James Morley, x L 20120703
"A rejection of the sovereign autonomous individual (3*) with an emphasis upon anarchic collective, anonymous experience. Collage, diversity, the mystically unrepresentable, Dionysian passion are the foci of attention. Most importantly we see the dissolution of distinctions, the merging of subject and object, self and other. (4*) This is a sarcastic playful parody of western modernity and the 'John Wayne' individual and a radical, anarchist rejection of all attempts to define, reify or re-present the human subject."
from The Electronic Library, James Morley, x L 20120703
(3*) Also a rejection of reason as a universal concept.
(4*) Even the merging of true and false, as there is no more objective reference to Truth.