During the past centuries, the Islamic Nation has fallen into a deep slumber and dreadful bewilderment caused by neglecting the greatness of Islam and its leading role in human life, to the point that it has lost its status in a scientific and cultural reality. This lethargy has resulted in transferring the Nation from being a pioneer in the fields of thought, culture, civilization and having a following for the beliefs and principles, to an underdeveloped one, imitating foreign thoughts, cultural and political theories, as well as, the fashions of the present civilization.

So, the Nation has stopped resisting the conquest of Eastern and Western thought, politics, economics and morals that represented the low, pagan and materialistic civilization. Therefore, we can see that the ways of social life, with regard to all their cultural, ethical, political and economic dimensions, look, utterly, like a model of the Western and Eastern ones; so far removed from the Islamic style that is offered by the Holy Qur'an and the purified sunnah (of the Prophet).

In spite of underdevelopment, the comatose state, the Muslims' ignorance about the greatness of Islam (and its power of building man on the grounds of goodness, uprightness, and literary progress), there has been a renewed spirit of awakening and vigilance and liberation has crept, once again, into the Islamic world since the beginning of the 20th century.

A sense of objecting and resisting has appeared for standing against the imperialist conquest with all its various species, such as; Capitalism, Marxism, Zionism, racism and, so on. Of course, this resistance has taken on many forms, all over the world; for instance, the ideological, political and militaristic struggle, as well as, the behavioural and ethical ones, etc.

The reality of Islam struggling with the foreign, present thought accompanied by the ideological conquest that may take place anywhere in universities, schools, factories, houses, societies, newspapers, factions, movements and in social and cultural establishments means that the Islamic Nation is still living in the stages of wakefulness, readiness and rising by going back to its great Qur'anic glory and power.

He who deeply probes into this fact, and tries to diagnose the potential factors behind the signs of ideological wakefulness and vigilance, will be able to find many motives and reasons that led to this ideological renaissance and Islamic vigilance on one level in all fields, especially the political one, as well as, the establishment of an Islamic government that applies the legal verdicts and principles in life.

The prominent factors of this renaissance are as follows.

1. The attitude of well-known contemporary Muslim clerics and theological schools:

The scholars and authorities on Islamic law; likewise, the religious establishments, have made a leading and missionary stand against the colonial conquest, as well as, sending military help to Muslim countries when they declared holy struggle (Jihad) in answer to the imperialist invaders and guided the masses to follow the resistance and armed struggle.

Of course, the mentioned stand has left an immense impact on and stirred up the Muslims' feelings; together with the Nation's awareness with the spirit of refusal and resistance against the occupying oppressors, all over the Islamic world, like; Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, North West Africa, Muslim African countries, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan and other regions of the Islamic world; as well as, the communistic controlled Muslim homeland.

By the way, only through holy war (Jihad) and draft evasion has the meaning of the civilized, political and ideological refusal been realized. So, the holy resistance has generally formed an act of utter refusal of the colonial existence with its various aspects and ways of being.

The mentioned efforts have reaped the fruits of success by both driving the colonists out and awakening the Muslims to being more vigilant, via planting the seeds of revolution and religious zeal. Moreover, the well-known contemporary clerics - who have fanned out in cities, villages and rural areas - play a great role in keeping Islam intact and making the Muslim people very attached to their belief.

It is noticeable that the religious activity has sometimes stressed the performance of prayers and produced a decree pertaining to worship and personal status without paying much attention to the civil and political affairs or to the social matters of the Muslims.

However, that activity started changing when it took part in political affairs and was more careful about the cases of civilization and society which encouraged some people to establish Islamic movements and other factions and organizations. For instance, one example is the successful implementation of the Islamic revolution in Iran, which was led by the well-known contemporary clerics, while other clerics worked on leading the political struggle for the sake of setting up Islam in other countries of the Islamic world.

2. In general, all the imported regimes and laws have been doomed to failure, and were unable to tackle the problems of the Muslims:

This coincides with a great increase in practicing tyranny, and political persecution; the confiscation of human rights, liberties and dignity by the dominant rulers and regimes. In addition, the increase of arrogant powers and the misusing of wealth, due to economic exploitation and political domination by the world powers, particularly after the Muslims' tragedy that took place in Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Philippines with other regions of the Islamic world, resulted in stirring up the Muslims' awareness in the ideological and political sense by motivating them to Jihad against their arrogant enemies.

3. The reforming of societies and religious schools:

In respect to the moral and ideological corruption which has spread throughout the whole Islamic world like wildfire; likewise, because culture and education moved in a counter-direction towards the Islamic trend, some of the honest have acted quickly in establishing reform assemblies to stand against the current of corruption and moral degradation, besides, building schools to educate the Muslims with model Islamic culture. These are loyal actions that stir the Muslims to action in spite of their limited influence and activity.

4. Islamic Faculties and Movements:

The Islamic faculties and movements, in most of the Islamic countries, have been built on the basis of Islam by the Muslim thinkers and well-known contemporary clerics that call for establishing the Islamic society and Islamic State along with confronting the political and ideological conquest of the Muslim homeland.

Finally, the Islamic faculties and movements have achieved a great success in discovering a new ideological current, as well as, a deep and developed cultural product owing to many Islamic scholars and thinkers. Truly, they were as a pioneer power in the fields of thought and policy; as well as, on a concrete front that was based on the practical awareness and planning that enriched the Islamic library with thought and culture and resulted in making a strong ideological shock inside the Nation.

5.The Islamic Revolution in Iran:

In the beginning of the 20th century, since World War II, both the Islamic scholars (who joined Islamic movements and factions) and the enlightened, cultural personalities who were cooperating together, spared no efforts in launching a physical, political and cultural struggle by sacrificing their lives, families and properties; by suffering in prisons when subjected to torture, killing and displacement, for the sake of setting up the pillars of Islam on earth. Likewise, they gave the chance for Islamic thought to come back in the form of practicing its original, leading role throughout the whole Nation, by implementing the Islamic laws and regulations which put an end to the conquest of civilization, with all its various aspects.

In spite of this leading role of these earnest efforts, they could not succeed in collapsing all the political entities that protected the anti-Islamic, deviated, uncivilized and ideological situations, except in Iran, in 1979, when under the leadership of Imam Khomeini (Allah may bless him), a revolution that was unprecedented in the world, exploded in the form of a revolutionary movement which called for establishing the model Islamic society and building the state, thought, and culture on the grounds of a religious thought: Islam.

So, this movement is considered as an ideological, civilized intensive, shock that has awakened the Islamic intelligence, besides, putting the anti-Islamic currents and ideological schools into the critical corner of confusion.

In fact, that rush that permeated civilization gave the Muslims, all over the world, many motives, to such a degree, that made them feel, with intensive emotion, the greatness of Islam on both the ideological and human levels, which enabled them to practice this in the field of struggle, in order to live free.

We can say that the Islamic revolution, of Iran, has formed a separate era in the history of the Nation, from the first groundwork on establishing Islam to the very starting point of setting it up.

So, if that experience is completed, by way of it being provided with the necessary conditions for creating a process of change on the basis of Islamic rules and principles, it will give a visible image of the Islamic thought and culture with regard to all its fields.

6. Through the Islamic writers and thinkers, as well as, the Islamic publishing houses:

The Islamic writers and thinkers and the Islamic publishing houses have taken an active hand in spreading awareness and Islamic culture, throughout the Nation, to stand against the anti-Islamic physical and cultural campaigns, and the wave that was caused by the factors of retardation and deviance. They have enriched Islamic thought by taking the young generation, in hand, on the Islamic right and pure route and provided them with the elements of ideological wakefulness and rebirth. Thus, some principal matters of contemporary Islamic thought have been brought to light, dealing with its problems and the means by which it was given movement.

As we have clearly kept these problems and renaissance elements within certain limits, we should do our best to tackle every problem head on; that may be faced by the process of the growth of Islamic thought.

Also, it is a must for us to develop each element of the rebirth of Islamic thought and support it to ensure its survival for a good many years.

Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds

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