When a big organisation sees most of its departments performing at sub-par levels and public relations hitting a nadir, some consultants opt for bringing in outside academics to look into “root causes,” while others in the management craft would search for smaller-scale imitable working models closer to home. Sometimes, such models are simply smaller, less heralded, and less conspicuous units within the organisations.
In the case of global Islam, a religious tradition followed in various forms by a billion and a half people across the six continents and seven seas, the repeated, heightened, and legitimate scrutiny in the aftermath of terror attacks across Western cities is only to be expected. Somewhere, somehow, the rot of militancy, extremism, and violence has concocted to become a toxic brew that has become the public face of Muslims in much of the world.
Instead of the endless search for ever new methods of apologia, futile academic exercises in the “true meaning” of this or that, or rehashing of dubious glories of a thousand years ago, perhaps thoughtful Muslims need check much closer in time and space for a model that works quite well here and now.
Though quite small in absolute numbers, the Ismaili Muslim community is spread out across all the continents, and in every country of its domicile has been nothing but a stellar example of temporal achievement, spiritual uplift, and breathtaking philanthropy. I would be shocked, if through all the cycles of terrorism, you can find the remotest involvement of one single Ismaili individual or institution.
Whether in Bangladesh or in the US, Ismaili Muslims (also colloquially referred to as “Aga Khanis” in South Asia) have expressed their devotion to spiritual purity through extensive charitable activities in the fields of education, health care, micro-lending, and similar endeavours that are quite different from the jihadi violence of many in the broader set of their coreligionists in the Middle East and Europe.
What gives?
Rather than endlessly talking about “root causes” and “true Islam,” the Ismailis, under the leadership of His Highness the Aga Khan (and his illustrious ancestors), have established a clear methodology of religious practice where scriptural texts are interpreted and applied in light of continuous reasoning and current-day realities.
Genuine acceptance of pluralism, deep respect for the temporal laws of their respective homelands, and an ingrained intolerance for extremist thinking is universal amongst this Muslim community whose adherents are, almost to the last man and woman, successful in commerce and the professions in the East and the West, despite their forced exodus from Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.
Go into any Ismaili mosque or review the community’s religious texts of interpretation, and you will find very little that can be even remotely construed as being incompatible with the idea of a modern, progressive, civilised order for humanity, irrespective of race, religion, and gender.
A tight-knit Muslim community has managed, over the vicissitudes of a millennium, to keep faith with the temporal and the divine simultaneously, while doing an incredible job at internally policing any wayward elements long before they become problems for humanity. It won’t be a particular stretch to say that of all the identifiable Muslim groups in the world, the Ismailis have shown the greatest propensity of peaceful assimilation not only into their respective homelands but also into the open, tolerant, and pluralistic ethos of the 21st century.
They are doing something right, decade after decade, generation after generation, country after country.
I am no theologian for sure. Yet, both common sense and business principles would suggest that the broader Muslim community make a serious and disciplined effort to learn and apply best practices from a living model within itself that has proven to be incredibly successful at thriving in the modern era.
In fact, a good management consultant would advise that such best practices, once documented, vetted, and scrutinised, should be primary candidates for scaling up across broad swathes of the so-called Ummah. Why keep on the never-ending circular cacophony of the rhetoric of “true meaning” and “root cause,” when a working model exists?
For those who dismiss this analogy as a profane blending of business and theology, I ask them: Do you recall what the Prophet of Islam did for a living? Yep, he was a businessman, as was his first wife!