Otherworldly Ascetism as the Collective Will to Intellectualism

By Muhammad Edham

“…asceticism as a way of life…is committed to treating living, existence itself, as an

ascetic procedure whereby the end to which this procedure is directed is necessarily not
immanent to existence (as with specific ascetic practices) but transcends it”
-David Owen in “Nietzsche’s Genealogy of
Morality”-
SOCA students in general might be familiar with the critical treatment of ascetism, a spiritual
practice of self-abnegation for the world to obtain the otherworldly rewards. They might have
first encountered this concept sociologically through Max Weber’s “Protestant’s Ethics”.
Further, if they read Shaharuddin Maaruf’s work on the Malay elite’s developmental ideal, they
might again chance upon the interesting, Weberian-inspired, conflicting Islamic discourse of the
capitalist this-worldly morality espoused by Syed Sheikh Al-Hady and the feudal otherworldly
morality prevalent during his lifetime. In the Islamic context, I find the criticism towards
otherworldly ascetism best enunciated by Azhar Ibrahim who questioned, “whether the condition
of ‘spiritual perfection’ as idealized by traditionalists is possible in complex modern society” and
argued that it in fact, “discourages some of the more sensible attempt to address the socio-
economic and moral problems in Malay society”.
Understandably, ascetism, especially the otherworldly mode, in the light of the aforesaid
thinker’s critical appraisal, appears unattractive. It denounces any regard for worldly matters,
characteristically asocial and ahistorical in orientation, nihilistic and fatalistic in the face of life.
However, this is the very notion that the essay sought to challenge, namely that otherworldly
ascetism necessarily entail these criticized elements. In fact, it will be contended here that
ascetism is the right remedy to the intellectual wound suffered by the students (which was
analyzed in the previous essay), ultimately reconceptualizing it as a positive concept of change
and progress. It is apt to begin with the idea of being otherworldly ascetic not as abandonment of
the real for the sake of the ethereal, but as the quest for human excellence of all.
Ascetism is the quest of existence, a striving for the excellence of the human species. This
excellence is achieved through the harmonization of the bodily, material existence with the
rational, ideal states and Shah Waliyullah defined this condition as felicity. Among the
fundamental quality conducive towards felicity is the state of magnanimity, the ability to make
discernment in the inclination towards perfection and excellence. This quality necessitates the
understanding of ethics in its relation, order, and degrees. Through it, one compares the state of
the real against the state of ideal to infer caution and propriety. Shah Waliyullah surmised this
quality as “a cast of mind which prevents man from being controlled by anything which is
contrary to the desired perfection, intellectually and practically”.
Perhaps it is through the quality of magnanimity, albeit vaguely conceived, that ascetism is
widely recognized for, supposedly the abnegation towards the present pleasure, in exchange for a
much later, more perfect pleasure. However, this could be so much more and as apparently
explained above, one can see that magnanimity is also the quality of criticality. It involves on the
one hand, acute judgment of situation to see it as it is, and on the other hand, the grasp on the
ideal. This latter is very much akin to Azhar Ibrahim’s active idealism, i.e., the “universal,
humanistic ideals that are to be manifested and practiced in individuals and society”. Such an
ideal must orient the conduct, a potentiality that needs to be realized as moral and ethical
betterment. The root of this ideal is the Ghazalian commitment as well as love for the truth that
appreciate knowledge in its unity of the spiritual, rational and the empirical. The commitment for
truth also implies the ability to differentiate knowledge from doubt and conjecture, which are,
according to Zainiy Uthman, the movement between two sides at equal footing and the moving
towards one side without sound footing. The truth on which one arrive at the right conclusion is
necessary to affirm “the just measure in actions which when conducted…are deemed as ethical
and moral conduct” argued Zainiy Uthman.
The other fundamental ascetic quality is justice. Shah Waliyullah enlightened that this is the
productive aspects of ascetism which ought to give rise to order in concrete situation. In this
sense, ascetism is not attained through isolation for the sake of only oneself, except that it is
transformative for both personal aspiration and civilizational order. Because it involves the
actualization of the idealized condition, concrete paradigm is a necessary orientation. The latter
is expounded by Karl Manheim as grounding religious value in historical and sociological
context. Indeed, as demonstrated by Shaharuddin Maaruf in his study, the repertoire of religious
value is not all treated with equal, universal fervor, but instead, elevated in some, and
undermined in the other, due to personal predisposition laced with historic-materialistic factors.
With concrete paradigm, one would understand that existential problems vary according to the
situation one is in, and that no just solution is the same. Therefore, not all ideal carry the same
weight across history and hence, the need for “creative elaboration of the religious values in
relation to the concrete social situations and problems” as Azhar Ibrahim stated.
It should be clear at this point that ascetism partakes the grassroot quality in society, as it is in
existence. The ascetic person is a metaphysician fascinated by the question of existence, a
nationalist abiding by tradition and an ordinary commoner living in the presence. This betrays
the productive character that Azhar Ibrahim expounds as the authentic volition that transcends
narrow parochial interest while at the same time, affiliated in both consciousness and empathy
with the concrete context. Thus, ascetism as the quest for human excellence ought not to be
isolated, individualistic endeavour, but a collective effort for collective purpose. This is because
“a success is meaningful when it is substantively meaningful also to the community as a whole”.
Here Azhar Ibrahim contended against the notion of isolated, selfish excellence that disregard the
state of others contributing to the continuity of unjust social condition rife with predatorily
competitive orientation.
In this regard, Shah Waliyullah made distinction between two kinds of ascetic mode; the one
concerned exclusively in the spiritual reformation by extreme adherence to rituals and worldly
detachment, and those with spiritual devotion but in no way disconnected from their earthly
nature. He made the case that for spiritual stewardship on the earth, “the concern is for the
betterment of those following the same course as the generality of individuals…rather than the
exceptional and extraordinary ones”. The prophets, according to Shah Waliyullah, were sent to
pave way for the generality of people to pursue the second ascetic mode instead of the first one
because otherwise, “the world would go to ruin and if it were imposed on them it would be the
imposition of an impossible thing”. He then described this ascetic group as spiritual reformers
whose stewardship concerns both religion and world simultaneously, the way of the majority, the
path that transcends intellectual (and thus social) inequality. This brings home my argument on
the positive, and productive nature of otherworldly ascetism. Through the insight of Shah
Waliyullah as well as Azhar Ibrahim explained above, we should be able to tell the difference
between the positive and the negative otherworldly ascetism. This ascetism is otherworldly by
virtue of the fact that the spiritual ideals of perfection and excellence are not immanent in the
existing worldly conditions. The world is rife with oppressive structure that encourages many
forms of evil and critical recognition of this reality partakes ascetism. This recognition is
functional in that the ascetic strive for the excellence of the self in order to help establish the
excellence of others and existential conditions.
I wrote this exposition of otherworldly ascetism with the intention of setting it up as part of the
solution to the intellectual problem faced by SOCA students. The ascetic will, as demonstrated
above, necessitate on the one hand rational, moral ideal and on the other, critical consciousness
of the real. In the context of SOCA students, it should be incumbent upon them that
intellectualism itself is the rational moral ideal they must aspire for. The ascetic will for
intellectualism shall help them to solidify their agency against the strong current wave of the
social structure they are in. It should be obvious at this point that intellectualism is not immanent
in their social condition, and therefore intellectual students are always at the peril of suffering
from the gap anomie. This therefore warrants another set of discourse which concern the
cultivation of the ascetic will itself. This discourse shall function to curb the problem that Azhar
Ibrahim aptly described as, “the naivety to sacrifice for ‘matyrdom’…This tendency of wanting
to ‘sacrifice’ or ‘struggle’ in the name of certain idealism…”. There can only be agency if there
is freedom, and freedom denotes space which can only be defined through structure, provided,
that it is emancipative in the first place. Thus, the question of cultivating ascetic will should
centralize the theme of emancipative structure, befitting for the fact that intellectualism is a
material problem necessitating a material solution.

Book for Reference and Recommendations

1. “Emancipated Education: Essays on Nurturing of Critical Discourse” by Azhar Ibrahim
2. “Hujjat Allah al-Baligha: The Conclusive Argument from God” by Shah Wali Allah of
Delhi
3. “Malay ideas on Development: From Feudal Lord to Capitalist” by Shaharuddin Maaruf
4. “Contemporary Islamic Discourse in the Malay-Indonesian World” by Azhar Ibrahim
5. “Al-Attas on Action, Thinking Framework and the Human Soul” by Muhammad Zainy
Uthman in “Thinking Framework”
6. “Krisis Ilmu dan Kebenaran di Zaman Moden” by Khalif Muammar A.Harris in
“Thinking Framework”