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Stages of Islamic Revolution & Process of Error, Diviation, Correction and Divergence in Muslim Poltical Thought
In the forward to this book, Dr. Kalim Siddiqui described it as his 'last testament'. Few realised the significance of this statement at the time. Fewer still imagined that he would leave this world so soon after its publication.
The book came off the press two weeks before he died in Pretoria, South Africa, on April 18, 1996, after attending the highly -- successful International Conference on 'Creating a New Civilisation of Islam'. It was an instant success. The first print ran out in two days!
Despite its title, this book is not about the Islamic Revolution in Iran. It is about the new phenomenon call the Islamic Revolution. Dr. Siddiqui insisted that, like a scientific process, the Islamic Revolution must be repeatable. He believed that many new Islamic Revolutions are already in the making. They are, as he put it, part of the regenerative power of Islam.
In 'States of Islamic Revolution', he rises about events in Iran and treats the Islamic Revolution as an inseperable part of the evolutionary processes that are at work in Muslim societies. He considers much of Shi'i and Sunni theology to be deviant and divisive, and insists that the Ummah is united in the pursuit of a common destiny through sucessive Islamic Revolutions.
He sketches this new destiny through all its stages, beginning with 'intellectual revolution'. He indentifies the ideas that are already part of such a revolution. This book is indespensable reading for activists of the Islamic movement, as well as for those who want to understand processes and events in the world of Islam.
- GenresIran
138 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
4 people are currently reading
246 people want to read
About the author
Kalim Siddiqui
24 books50 followersWell-known for his unreserved support for the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and its chief exponent to the outside world, Dr. Kalim Siddiqui, the late founder-leader of the Muslim Parliament in Britain, believed that the Muslim world needed a series of revolutions. His last book, Stages of Islamic Revolution, which in his own words has the "flavour of his last testament", was launched during the Crescent International conference in South Africa.
A leading exponent of the global Islamic movement, his strong defence of Imam Khomeini's fatwaagainst Salman Rushdie endeared him to the Muslim masses throughout the world.
One of his most important articles of faith was that jihad -- which can mean anything from holy war to 'holy struggle' -- is still a basic requirement of Islam. Another is that Islam requires an Islamic theocracy in order to flourish. "At the root of all our problems," he said in a recent speech, "is the fact that Muslims have little experience of living as a minority in a country where we exercise virtually no political power."
A third axiom is that the political and moral problems of today cannot be divorced from history. The colonies may have gone, but most Islamic countries are still ruled by westernised elites who allow their people to be exploited by the west in return for support for their unrepresentative regimes. The only Islamic country ruled by and for its people -- not for the west -- is Iran.
The present crop of regimes in Islamic countries, from Morocco to Indonesia, is unacceptable," he said. "They have to be overthrown. Islamic revolutions are needed all over the Muslim world. Muslims have an overriding duty to overthrow those governments which currently rule Muslim countries.
Dr Siddiqui's first brush with the authorities came in 1942, when, as an 11-year-old schoolboy, he was shot at by a British soldier during nationalist agitations in Azamgarh in north-east India. The bullet killed the boy behind him. Most of his teens were spent in the very unpleasant atmosphere of the years leading up to partition, and he fled to Pakistan at the earliest opportunity, aged 17. He spent six dissatisfied years in Pakistan before arriving in Britain in 1954 with plans to become a journalist.
For the next 10 years he worked as a reporter on various local papers. Then, from 1964 until 1972, he was a sub-editor at The Guardian, London. He also married, in 1960, and, at around the same time, began to address what he perceived to be gaps in his education. He spent most of the Sixties as a part-time student, doing his journalism by night and studying by day, starting with O-levels and culminating in a PhD from University College, London. He also wrote a book, about Pakistan, which was banned in that country. And he became prominent among Britain's earliest Islamic activists. Suez saw him demonstrating in Hyde Park; the Algerian war saw him driving friends to Paris to demonstrate in the Champs-Elysees.
In 1972 he abandoned journalism and with some friends founded the Muslim Institute, in Bloomsbury, funded by subscriptions from members and donations from Muslims around the world. "We started from the idea that Muslim political thought needed to be rewritten. We felt that western political thought had penetrated Islamic political thought and that we needed an institute to disengage from the west at the intellectual level." He himself became director of the Muslim Institute.
The Iranian revolution in 1979 was a turning-point, establishing for the first time in Dr Siddiqui's lifetime the sort of Islamic state that his theories advocated. He became a regular visitor to Iran and was a friend of Imam Khomeini. Both men promoted a newly self-confident version of Islam, contemptuous of everything western. His ideas earned him respect among Islamic activists around the world - including South Africa, Sudan and Malaysia where he last visited in April 1994.
A leading exponent of the global Islamic movement, his strong defence of Imam Khomeini's fatwaagainst Salman Rushdie endeared him to the Muslim masses throughout the world.
One of his most important articles of faith was that jihad -- which can mean anything from holy war to 'holy struggle' -- is still a basic requirement of Islam. Another is that Islam requires an Islamic theocracy in order to flourish. "At the root of all our problems," he said in a recent speech, "is the fact that Muslims have little experience of living as a minority in a country where we exercise virtually no political power."
A third axiom is that the political and moral problems of today cannot be divorced from history. The colonies may have gone, but most Islamic countries are still ruled by westernised elites who allow their people to be exploited by the west in return for support for their unrepresentative regimes. The only Islamic country ruled by and for its people -- not for the west -- is Iran.
The present crop of regimes in Islamic countries, from Morocco to Indonesia, is unacceptable," he said. "They have to be overthrown. Islamic revolutions are needed all over the Muslim world. Muslims have an overriding duty to overthrow those governments which currently rule Muslim countries.
Dr Siddiqui's first brush with the authorities came in 1942, when, as an 11-year-old schoolboy, he was shot at by a British soldier during nationalist agitations in Azamgarh in north-east India. The bullet killed the boy behind him. Most of his teens were spent in the very unpleasant atmosphere of the years leading up to partition, and he fled to Pakistan at the earliest opportunity, aged 17. He spent six dissatisfied years in Pakistan before arriving in Britain in 1954 with plans to become a journalist.
For the next 10 years he worked as a reporter on various local papers. Then, from 1964 until 1972, he was a sub-editor at The Guardian, London. He also married, in 1960, and, at around the same time, began to address what he perceived to be gaps in his education. He spent most of the Sixties as a part-time student, doing his journalism by night and studying by day, starting with O-levels and culminating in a PhD from University College, London. He also wrote a book, about Pakistan, which was banned in that country. And he became prominent among Britain's earliest Islamic activists. Suez saw him demonstrating in Hyde Park; the Algerian war saw him driving friends to Paris to demonstrate in the Champs-Elysees.
In 1972 he abandoned journalism and with some friends founded the Muslim Institute, in Bloomsbury, funded by subscriptions from members and donations from Muslims around the world. "We started from the idea that Muslim political thought needed to be rewritten. We felt that western political thought had penetrated Islamic political thought and that we needed an institute to disengage from the west at the intellectual level." He himself became director of the Muslim Institute.
The Iranian revolution in 1979 was a turning-point, establishing for the first time in Dr Siddiqui's lifetime the sort of Islamic state that his theories advocated. He became a regular visitor to Iran and was a friend of Imam Khomeini. Both men promoted a newly self-confident version of Islam, contemptuous of everything western. His ideas earned him respect among Islamic activists around the world - including South Africa, Sudan and Malaysia where he last visited in April 1994.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 16, 2018
في هذا الكتاب المهم، أو الشهادة الأخيرة كما أطلق عليه مؤلفه؛ والذي نشر بعد وفاة الدكتور صديقي بعدَّة أيام، يسعى المؤلف لتجريد "نظرية ثورية إسلامية" من واقع الثورة الإسلامية في إيران، وهي التجربة التي تركت أعمق الأثر في كتابات جيل بأكمله من الإسلاميين، بل وكانت إيذانًا بتحوّل كثيرين من اليسار إلى الإسلام، كما في حالة الأستاذ منير شفيق والكتيبة الطلابية لحركة فتح.
ورغم أن الكتاب مُتخَمٌ بالتحليلات والملاحظات شديدة العمق والذكاء، إلا أنه يطوي كذلك اعتسافًا نظريًا للواقع ليوافِق نظرية مُسبقة يبدو فيها تأثر أستاذنا الدكتور صديقي بالأدبيات الغربية في التنظير للثورة، كأداة وحيدة للتغيير الاجتماعي؛ وخصوصًا الأدبيات الماركسية وعلى رأسها كتاب لينين الأشهر: "الدولة والثورة". لكنه على كل حالٍ ليس تأثُّرًا سطحيًا يُمكن تتبُّعه بسهولة، وإنما هو أثرٌ كامنٌ يتجلى على الخصوص في تعامُله مع الثورة بوصفها محض سُلَّمٍ للدولة التي يعتبرها "إسلامية"، وهو ما علَّقنا عليه في مواضعه من الترجمة.
مقالي عن الدكتور صديقي رحمه الله ونظرية الثورة:
https://www.ida2at.com/clem-and-theor...
ورغم أن الكتاب مُتخَمٌ بالتحليلات والملاحظات شديدة العمق والذكاء، إلا أنه يطوي كذلك اعتسافًا نظريًا للواقع ليوافِق نظرية مُسبقة يبدو فيها تأثر أستاذنا الدكتور صديقي بالأدبيات الغربية في التنظير للثورة، كأداة وحيدة للتغيير الاجتماعي؛ وخصوصًا الأدبيات الماركسية وعلى رأسها كتاب لينين الأشهر: "الدولة والثورة". لكنه على كل حالٍ ليس تأثُّرًا سطحيًا يُمكن تتبُّعه بسهولة، وإنما هو أثرٌ كامنٌ يتجلى على الخصوص في تعامُله مع الثورة بوصفها محض سُلَّمٍ للدولة التي يعتبرها "إسلامية"، وهو ما علَّقنا عليه في مواضعه من الترجمة.
مقالي عن الدكتور صديقي رحمه الله ونظرية الثورة:
https://www.ida2at.com/clem-and-theor...
January 14, 2018
One of the most inspiring books I have ever read. I read it once before, and this was the second reading. It is an essential reading for anyone who is concerned with movement, state, and revolution in the Muslim tradition, and their shaping and reshaping in the future. I have started translating it into Arabic, hopefully it will be published soon.
December 29, 2021
هذا الكتاب يمتاز بعمق فريد وخاص في الفكر والنظر الحركي الإسلامي أن الراحل المفكر كليم صديقي صوت جزل وقوي وخارج عن مألوفات الطرح البالي والمجتر للحركة الإسلامية. يطرح كليم نظرية الثورة بحسه الاكاديمي الرفيع ويناقش ادواتها والياتها وطرق عملها يبدأ من القرآن ويعود إليه وينقد محاولات المنهزمين لعقد قرآن الأصالة والحداثة
كليم في كتابه هذا لم يحاول أن يصالح بين الإسلام الصحيح وبين الإسلام الأمريكي لم يسعى لأن يخطب ود الجماعات الإسلامية التي شذت واتبعت بنيات طريق المعاصرة في الفكر والحركة
كتاب قوي برايي فقط يحتاج لتبسيط اكثر لمحتوى افكاره المركزية لان الجهل شديد هذه الأيام
كليم في كتابه هذا لم يحاول أن يصالح بين الإسلام الصحيح وبين الإسلام الأمريكي لم يسعى لأن يخطب ود الجماعات الإسلامية التي شذت واتبعت بنيات طريق المعاصرة في الفكر والحركة
كتاب قوي برايي فقط يحتاج لتبسيط اكثر لمحتوى افكاره المركزية لان الجهل شديد هذه الأيام
December 14, 2022
مضمون الكتاب والأفكار المهمة به يمكن اختصارها في ١٠ صفحات، أما الباقي فهو سرد تاريخي عن موضوعات شتى -لا شك مفيدة- لكنها لا تتسق مع العنوان الكبير للكتاب.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews