wocihac2011_human_development

This study examines the so-called cultural vacuum as a repeated notion of
the orientalists studying Islam and reviews a theory that explains the phenomena
of the coming and establishment of Islam. The review is followed with a counterargument
that takes into account of Islamic Scripture, the Qur’an to disprove the
fragile suggestion of the cultural vacuum excessively being referred to other
cultures and religions as the “source” to establish the cultural vacuum. In contrast,
the Qur’an is unique, standing out on its own and not showing that it is an
adaption.
Notion of Cultural Vacuum
Before discussing the suggestion of cultural vacuum as a theory, it is
relevant to mention here that the suggestion is an echo of a previously formed
concept that represents orientalism on Islam. As suggested in Hourani’s work,
there are three interesting principles underlying in Islam, i.e. the prophecy of
Prophet Muhammad (saw) as an inspired person, the religion of Islam as an
adaption, and the identification of the Arabs of the Arab Peninsular as barbarians
or primitive people. These suggestions are echoes of traditionalism on Islam, as
mentioned above. His ideas can be regarded as an extension or a conclusion of
the inherited opinions of the European scholars, rather than a cross-cultural
analysis and critical approach to the subject of his studies because his arguments
are confined to the inherited opinions. These opinions are not objective as they are
merely presumptions, i.e. introducing an untested frame of thinking in advance,
and they are not representative because they do not consider the direct sources
related to Islam. The Islamic sources are normally “referred to” but the crux of the
sources, i.e. textual aspect is put aside. Historically, the Islamic texts, namely the
Qur’an, Hadith and the works of prominent Muslim scholars were abundant in the
west, based on the fact that the texts were spread and studied in the Muslim Spain
by various nationals of Europe then. They were translated to several European
languages, and it can conclusively be said that the texts were already there within
reach of the European scholars before they became concerned with the outer
layers of the texts were said to be referred.
As suggested by Edward Said (1995), the opinions of European scholars
interested in Islam were referred to the tales of western voyages, which were onesided
and subject to individual limited experiences, or relied on the “experiences”
of western scholars who were said to be interested in Islamic studies, and were
used to be in the Muslim world. His study implies that the “experiences” were
mostly preconceived or pre-conceptualized, i.e. the ideas to be related to the
experience were formed in advance whereas the term experiences were intended
to be the justification for the ideas. Additionally, the “experiences” were restricted
to interesting places, such as concocted brothel which hardly existed and local
people who helped fulfil their sexual pleasure.
Also Hourani’s work, the main concern here is a good example of quoting
the tales and “experiences” because they are one-sided, hence unfounded. The
first chapter of Hourani’s work is devoted to the common stances of European
scholars of pre-colonization and colonization periods. The pre-colonization
scholars were of the opinion that Islam is either as an adaptation of Christianity
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