This article extends a helping hand to the Sunni dwarf and calls upon him to grow into a giant and participate in the process of civilization that will see the light after the departure of the terrorist Muhammad al-dog al-Julani.
The intellectual and political landscape in Syria depicts a deep conflict that is not limited to weapons, but extends to the core of civilizational and philosophical concepts, While the Western world is rushing into the paths of modernity and postmodernity, many observers believe that the traditional Sunni component in Syria is experiencing a state of intellectual “dwarfism,” as a result of its dependence on old knowledge systems and tools that have ceased to develop for centuries,
The crisis of the text and the absence of philosophy:The problem of the traditional Sunni mind is manifested in its almost complete break with philosophy as a tool for criticism and analysis, Instead of using reason to understand existence, the approach of “transmission” prevailed, giving precedence to the historical text over contemporary reality, This organic connection to the personality of the Prophet Muhammad – who is described in tradition as illiterate – has turned from mere religious belief into a state of absolute subservience that rejects any philosophical questioning that goes beyond the framework of “so-and-so said and so-and-so said.”This isolation is not merely a religious choice, but a historical result of closing the “door of ijtihad ” From the moment it was decided to freeze the jurisprudential rulings and confine them to specific schools and frameworks, the Sunni component entered a state of intellectual stagnation, While the West was getting rid of the Church’s hegemony and opening the doors of Cartesian doubt, the traditional Syrian mind was drowning in jurisprudential details that had been superseded by time, trying to impose texts that originated in a desert environment 1400 years ago on the complexities of the modern state.Human beings between “centrality” and “dependency”:
The fundamental difference between the Western Renaissance and Sunni reality lies in the concept of “man.” The Industrial Revolution was not merely the invention of machines, but rather the moment of birth of the “giant man” who realized that he was the master of his destiny. With the advent of modernity, man became the center of the universe, the primary source of knowledge and power, and the cornerstone upon which civilizations are built.In contrast, the traditional Sunni approach insists on keeping man “confined” within the narrow circle of religious obligation, Knowledge in this perspective is not derived from human experience or free scientific research, but rather from “Sharia” which predetermines what is permissible and what is forbidden, This approach makes the individual merely a “follower” of a past system, searching for lost glories in the folds of yellowed books instead of inventing solutions for his future.
The trap of the past and the mirage of Sharia:The continued attempts by traditional currents in Syria to revive “Sharia jurisprudence” as a solution to contemporary crises reflect an inability to comprehend global transformations, While the world is talking about artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and absolute individual rights, this component is still discussing rulings on purity, jizya, and guardianship.This glaring contradiction has created a state of schizophrenia; the Sunni Syrian lives with the technologies of modernity with his body, but rejects its philosophy with his mind, He consumes the product of the “human-centered” in the West, but curses the method that produced that power, The desire to “restore the glories of the past” is in fact an implicit admission of the inability to build the present, and it is an escape from facing the bitter truth: that civilization is not built by calls and clinging to rigid texts, but by science that places man and his capabilities above all consideration.
Summary
The emergence of the Sunni component in Syria from a state of intellectual “dwarfism” requires great critical courage, starting with the recognition that modernity is not just devices and equipment, but a value system that puts the human mind at the forefront, A modern state cannot be built with a closed jurisprudential mentality, and a person cannot be creative while seeing himself as merely an “echo” of voices from the distant past.
