Mohammed Abed Al Jabri: for a new relation to time
Al Jabri's analysis relies on three levels linked to clearly defined temporal axes: past present and future.
The first question is at the heart of Salafism[1]: how are we to recover the glory of our civilisation and how can we revive our heritage? Al Jabri suggests that this is the object of a dialogue between our past and our future where the present has no place since it is denied, while the past is omnipresent since it spreads into the future. The second question addresses an Orientalist[2] Salafism: how are we to live today and how should we treat our heritage? The debate is here between the present and the past. Its exponents speak of a present which is not theirs but “the West's”, as embodying, at present all humanity. The third question is the preserve of what is considered “leftist” thinking: how are we to conceive of our revolution and how is our heritage to be restored? The relation in this case is established between past and future, for the revolution must reinstate the heritage, which in turn must contribute to founding the revolution. The significance of this approach rests, according to Al Jabri with a dynamic or progressive understanding of the tradition.
In order to overcome those tensions, Al Jabri suggests the establishment of a new relation between the past (absent) and the present (witness): the “absent” must amount to a solution for the “witness”, each presenting common features that must be studied. This approach must not rely on a mechanical understanding of time (as if history followed a logic), or on a suspension of time (as if history did not exist at all)
