Islam,Science,Ijtihad

I found this letter in a Pakistani paper as very illuminating. This applies equally to Indian science. I am reposting this blogpost from my 2007 post in my sister blog as I found this to be relevant now


" WHY is it that for the last three hundred years, the Muslim world has been so deficient in producing scientists and philosophers? Why is it that even now when the Muslim world commands such immense resources, we lag so far behind the West in scholarship and technology?
The answer is clear: for three hundred years, the door of Ijtihad that is creative thinking has been closed. Almost oneninth of the verses of the Quran stress ‘tafakkur’ and ‘tadabbur’.
Yet, by and large, the Muslim world pays no heed to them, that is, they turn their back on critical thinking.
Instead, we are fond of platitudes.
We love clichés. We bask in the glory of the past. We dread the new, the original, and the novel. We revel in interpretations, but we flinch from creativity. We are good at repeating moth-eaten, time worn thoughts, views and traditions. Using Toynbee’s terminology, we are in the stranglehold of the ‘nemesis of mimesis’. Intellectual stagnation and spiritual degeneration are our dismal lot.
It is ingrained in our psychology that correct answers already exist, and are to be found in books or from authorities, religious or secular. Teachers disperse truth, parents are always right and leaders are omniscient. They act like philosopher kings, often uttering unchallenged banalities. Questioning authority is disrespectful and un-Islamic.
It is time to deconstruct, following the true Quranic spirit of iconoclasm.
Scholars may differ about problems concerning science, but they are unanimous as regards the need for a particular weltanschauung (world view) for the birth, growth and blossoming of science. Science cannot develop in an atmosphere vitiated by obscurantism, dogmatism, fanaticism, intolerance and irrationalism. Science needs an intellectual environment whose keynote is enlightenment with rationalism, pluralism and humanism as its driving forces.
Historically it was the renaissance which prepared the ground for the emergence of modern science. The Dark Age which preceded the renaissance in Europe was dominated by scholasticism with philosophy as the handmaiden of theology. D’Alembert called scholasticism “the so called science of the centuries of ignorance”. The scholastics used to discuss such ‘profound’ problems as the number of angels who could dance on the tip of a needle. Bacon compared the scholastics to the spiders, content to weave cobwebs, ignoring the universe and what was happening around them.
Scholasticism suffered from (i) indifference to facts (ii) arguments from authority (iii) undue emphasis on verbal subtleties (iv) reasoning in matters which observation alone could decide (v) blind faith.
Modern science had to make way by routing scholasticism. It was Descartes (1596-1650) who performed this task. He was not only the founder of modern philosophy, but also, along with Galileo and Newton, one of the creators of modern science. He started off on his philosophical odyssey by the dictum: “In order to reach the truth, it is necessary, once in one’s life, to put everything in doubt.” Modern science has flourished in an atmosphere marked by philosophical skepticism. It does not take anything for granted. It puts to doubt all dogmas, all certainties. The beliefs of a scientist are tentative, not final. They are not based on authority, but on evidence. Modern science is iconoclastic in dealing with convictions based on tradition or authority. As opposed to scholasticism which believed in order to understand, modern science understands in order to believe. As such there is no dichotomy between modern science and the Quranic spirit, with its constant appeal to reasoning, thinking, knowing and deliberating: afala takaloon, afala tadabburoon, afala tafakkaroon.
Science demands immense patience in observation and great boldness in framing hypotheses. The test of scientific truth is patient collection of facts combined with bold guessing as to the law binding facts together.
Science demands an inquisitive spirit, a pioneering zeal and an enterprising élan. Science advances when there is unity between theory and practice. Any dichotomy between theory and practice spells disaster for scientific progress. The Greek science withered away, because it wholly and solely depended on deduction. Though the Greeks scaled the most sublime heights of speculative thought, their aversion to experimentation and manual work, closed the door for further scientific advancement.
Induction was a great gift of Islam to humanity. “Neither Roger Bacon nor his later namesake has any title to be credited with having introduced the experimental method,” says Briffault in his book Making of Humanity, and adds, “The experimental method of Arabs was by Bacon’s time widespread and ea gerly cultivated throughout Europe.” According to Iqbal, “For purposes of knowledge, the Muslim culture fixes its gaze on the concrete and the finite.” He exalts the scientific spirit at the expense of speculative flights into metaphysics. By giving examples of Ibn-i-Khaldun’s view of history, Ibn-i-Maskwaih’s theory of life as evolutionary movement and Musa al-Khwarazmi’s shift from arithmetic to algebra, Iqbal concludes: “All lines of Muslim thought converge on a dynamic concept of the universe.” Thus Islam rejects a static view of the universe and regards it as always changing and evolving. According to the Quran, change is one of the greatest signs of God, and is explicitly implied in the verse: “Every day has its own glory.” The Islamic principle to keep pace with the changing world and an evolving universe is Ijtihad (exertion to form an independent opinion). Creativity is the essence of Ijtihad. The driving force of the scientific technological revolution (STR) is creativity, developing new ideas and sailing in uncharted seas.
Science must precede technology, because science is the tree and technology is the fruit. Today, as never before, the political stability of a country depends on its economic prowess, which is determined by the STR.
In order to usher in STR, we have to take the following steps:
Firstly, our educational system must be geared to strengthen mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology and computer science in our curriculum.
Secondly, our method of teaching must change, emphasising the intelligent grasp of the subject rather than memorising formulas and theorems.
Thirdly, our mass media must be mobilised to popularise science, and scientific thinking i.e. rational, critical and creative thinking.
Fourthly, our scientists must be made to feel that the country stands in need of their leadership.
Fifthly, there is an urgent need of structural change in our scientific institutions.
Every genuine scientist must be encouraged by rapid promotions and handsome rewards. Our scientists serving abroad must be brought back home by offering them handsome salaries. The rotten concept of ‘seniority’ must be done away with to be replaced by the contribution made by a scientist, which is universally acknowledged. Lastly, what is most needed is the political will on the part of the government to regard literacy, education (in particular) and research as its first priority, and involve all scientists, educationists and the entire intelligentsia in carrying out this urgent task.

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Israel's loss to Hamas but Muslim brotherhood is the real Gainer

        This round of Israel/Hamas fight started with Israeli killing of Hamas military chief and Hamas retaliating with barrage of rockets. Of course as usual with complete air superiority Israel pounded Gaza with its bombs and inflicted casualties as usual in the ratio of 100:1 . Soon the chorus from the world and UN started to stop the airwar etc etc.But there was a distinct change this time.Though the Hamas was inflicted untold punishment as usual, the Israelis had to contend with nearly 1000 rockets on its soil with air raid sirens as far as back Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In spite of Iron dome shooting down 80% of the incoming rockets for the first time Israelis in major cities like Tel Aviv etc have to goto  the bomb raid shelters for safety.This was a unique experience for many Israelis.  Entebbe, Yom kippur war,1967 war etc etc and Israel has been the David. Though the world supported the Palestinians by empty talk and also vote at UN(normally vetoed by USA) , the underlying admiration for Israel was always there amongst ordinary people.
      Though only single digit casualties it faced , the daily air raid sirens was something the Israelis could never get accustomed to as they are so used to comfort and security. With elections approaching the ruling Government of Israel wanted a face saving device to stop the fighting as the voting public are not used to this type of insecurity. Incomes Muslim brother hood led by Morsi, President of Egypt.Normally this role used to be given to the Egyptian intelligence under President Mubarak.But today with Arab spring the confident Morsi played his cards well.USA followed suit by supporting this effort  with Obama and Hillary sitting in distant Cambodia.As Hamas trusted Morsi that he will not let down their vital interests, the Sunni league of Arab money bags also stepped in.Now the deal was stitched with abject surrender by Israel that it will
1. Stop the air war
2.It will stop targeted killing of Hamas leaders
3.The blockade of Gaza will also be lifted in a phased manner
   In return Hamas has agreed to stop firing rockets into Israel.
  The most humiliating part may be that Israel is now answerable to Morsi (Muslim brother hood) for sticking to its part of the bargain while Morsi should also ensure Hamas also sticks to its part along with myriad other small factions who also fire the rockets like Islamic Jihad.
    What it has proved to the Arabs and also to the world is that Israel has lost the stomach to fight a long drawn out war.The mobilization it did for invading Gaza was an empty rhetoric.What PLO under Arafat could not achieve; the socalled terrorist organisation Hamas with covert help from Iran has achieved a sort of military parity.Israel's idea that the civilians of Gaza will rise against Hamas after the severe punishment with smart bombs near their homes which are hoarding the rockets did not work at all.
    The Military planners around the world have now to take into account the new Military doctrine of terrorist groups like Hamas which can smuggle or even manufacture home made rockets in large numbers can bring much richer nations like Israel with its sophisticated Iran dome missiles and total air superiority to talk on its terms and accept them.The blockade by Israel of Gaza is a complete failure with tunnels and may be even covert support of Egyptian intelligence the rockets are smuggled in or its manufacturing expertise  was given to the Palestinians with Mossad not knowing anything about it.Indian security planners also must take note of this new phenomenon.
    The cease fire is holding and Palestinians have won the UN vote.But is Israel going to withdraw from west bank and allow an independent Palestine? No way. Is Israel going to allow the Palestinians to return to their land.No.I feel the new regime which comes into power in Israel is going to be hawkish with more settlers and may be even more expansion.It may even use tactical nukes or similar weapon in future war.
     The Muslim brother hood under Morsi got so emboldened by this success that it has given the President dictatorial powers until a Sharia inspired constitution is written This also may trigger another sort of internal trouble in Egypt.
    The USA under Obama may say for the first time Hamas has accepted the leadership of Sunni group of Arabs instead of Iran.The money bags of Arabs who cannot even control their own extremists how can they control Palestinians?
   All in all the world can expect another round when the Israelies have mastered the art of blunting the mass rocket fire from Palestine But then Hamas knows it as well as Iran and its Arab supporters.Personally I feel tactical nuclear weapons is going to be used as a deterrent in the next round.Those  who are interested may also read my post about this issue in 2009. The link is below
.Palestenians , the eternal wailers

Indian Muslims,Christians/Caste,Class,Quom,Tribes.

DALIT CHRISTIANS, a word coined by a Texan lady who created DALIT FREEDOM NETWORK is now very active in India and has influence among the Indian parliamentarians who immediately jump at the bandwagon when they see a vote bank. Christianity has no room for caste-ism and votaries of this group have become so vocal that they tend to drown the voice of real dalits who can be only from amongst the Hindus.The catholic clergy which was supporting the demand for RESERVATION for this group has got official support from protestant groups also, a shame realy. They will not clean their own practise of separate communion, separate burial ground for dalit Christians but will ask government for reservation.

This stands in sharp contrast to the stand of Mr. K.T. PAUL who in the Round table conference of 1930 wherein he opposed "reservation" for Indian Christians as he considered this demand as " Communal" though Congress party offered this sop just like it offered to Anglo Indians which was accepted by them. This visionary not only promoted social justice amongst the weaker lot of Christians but also encouraged EDUCATION as the tool to get out of poverty and communal ghetto thinking. He was General secretary of YMCA in 1914 and guided the Indian Christian community especially in the south towards national thinking. So the Indian leadership of so called Dalit Christians like John Dayal may have proximity to ruling politicians for their own personal benefit but in the long range they are enemies of Dalit christians themselves as also Indian nationalism. Of course we all know the pride of Jat Sikhs and the place of scheduled caste Sikhs in Indian army and Punjab.

We now have a Sachar committee report which has brought about the economic backwardness of Indian Muslims compared to general Indian population. The following article which was written by my blog friend Kabir is very educative of the social division amongst the Indian Muslims.The Indian Muslim clergy will not remove them but will fight with Indian government for Reservation on the basis of Sachar report!!!! When an Ajlaf APJ.Abdul Kalam became President of India, this clergy did not know what to do. He was not only a scientist but also an eminent Tamil Scholar to boot(not Urdu or Arabic).They can understand Presidents Zakir hussein, Fakhruddin Ali ahmed all congress politicians but not this man from Tamilnadu.



Indian Muslims by Kabir


In descending order the top classes or "castes" are Sayyad, Sheikh, Mughal and Pathan. They are the self-proclaimed parachutes from Garden of Eden via Wadi-al-Kora in to this landmass. That leaves perhaps 90% of Muslims in Ajlaf classes.

Their own further classifications can be mind-boggling. A Darzi (tailor) is superior to a Nai (barber) who is superior to a Dhobi (washer man) who is superior to a Qasai (Butcher). Julaha (weaver) and Rangarez (house-painter) may think they are direct descendants of Turkish quilt makers or Persian calligraphers whose work decorates Taj, respectively but we know better, says the Ansari who thinks his forefathers were the first to welcome the Prophet at Medina and therefore he is next only to a Sayyad who is after all directly related to the blood line of the Prophet unlike the Sheikh, or Mughals that are really the by-products of inter-racial marriages or the Usurious Pathan! But none of the Sayyads would consider even a Kidwai anywhere near to them. The Qasai who slaughters only mutton or chicken is better than the one who deals in beef too but he may have a bone to pick with a Mirasi who is just a Singer/Dancer/Musician/Baul-Sufi Minstrel or a Manihar (Bangle maker) of Faizabad or Lad Bazaar of Hyderabad but the Mirasi may look with contempt at one who handles effluents..

An Ajlaf treats himself to Ashraf-hood by first arriving at some level of economic security and when that happens, the first thing that he does is to obtain a "fair" complexioned woman of higher class even if a widow of poorer means and then put her in Purdah exactly as a Ghairatmand Khandaani Sayyad would, so that she doesn't have to work outside. No more jobs in a Tanning Factory for her even if she is the smartest one around. Next, he must procure a lower caste Muslim or even a Hindu maid-servant so that Begum Sahiba does not have to deal with riff-raff by going to Bazaar on her own. Next is to prevent his girl-child from even thinking of going to a co-ed school. The colloquial simple dialect common to common men must be dropped by the children and Zer/Zabar/Pesh must make an appearance even in speech. Dark spot of Piety on forehead by then is a must and a few phrases dropped here and there in Arabic are always useful. Next is to become choosy about whom not to break bread with. Social Stratification has to be converted to one's advantage, not to that of the others. In due course one must look for a Daughter-in-Law from a Higher Caste making SURE at the same time that one's daughter does not start making eyes with a "badzaat" boy of lower caste!

Next is to create a Legend. By the time his grandson starts growing up Abbumian whose father belonged to caste of Dhobi and hence accused of permanent state of "nijasaf," (pollution) would want to forget his real ancestors. Short of looking for a Clan Coat of Arms, it may now become essential for him to discover an Ancestor who either came with Ghori, Nadir or Abdali as a Swordsman. And then he honorably married a High Caste Brahmin or Rajput woman after making her "embrace" Islam before entering in to her embrace, would say such fine story Abbumian to grandchildren with a nostalgic catch in his throat. If only he could produce a Firman issued by Aurangzeb, as claimed by ZAB, donating thousands of acres at Larkana, he would!

It is amazing irony that more a Muslim tries to flaunt the outward symbols of his religion (skull-cap, beard, prayer, fasts, pilgrimage, Urdu etc) to assert his individuality more and more "Hindu" he becomes in his social stratification. While the Hindu has tried with quite some success to break out of the shackles for which some early reformers got inspiration from egalitarian Islam/Christianity and self-efforts, followers of both Islam and Christianity want to outdo the Hindus now in terms of social hierarchy!
Ironically a "high caste" Mirza girl like Sania is perfectly fine playing lawn tennis in shorts and sleeve-less tops but the daughter of a "lower caste" Mirasi may well be forced in to Purdah. It is another matter that, the Mirza lass is fast becoming a thorn on which the rose sits.

Some are born Noble, some acquire Nobility and some thrust their Nobility in your face. Such are the plans of mice and men.



Caste, Class, Quom, Biradari, tribe within a Tribe, sub-sect within a Sect...One can keep adding; have a lot to do with at least three factors: birth, hereditary profession and exposure to Saudi Preachers' influences.

There are a few honest-to-God Muslims who practice discrimination most unwittingly. They really don't mean any harm but they themselves are First Victims. There is a couple of interesting twists:

Firstly: - A Muslim Family considers itself higher on social-scale depending upon how long "Islam" has been in their Clan, genuinely or as per exaggerated family lore. Thus, it is common for one Clan to look down on the other claiming that while WE have been Muslims right since the days of the Prophet (or, near about of Qasim's times) YOU are actually recent Hindu "converts" who are practicing some mixed-up form. Who really knows the truth?

Take the case of Allama Iqbal. As per one version, his great-grandfather was a Kashmiri Hindu Pandit named Sapru who became a Muslim. Angry counter arguments were put forth by somebody else that Iqbal's family had been Muslim at the very least for 250 years. I do not understand the economy exercised by the latter. Neither may have cared much for Iqbal's world view or his own mystical thoughts. Conclusions are self-serving: longer your Clan has been Muslim; better you must be.

Secondly: - The harder the form of Islam one claims to profess, better class he belongs to. Soft-speaking, easy going South-Indian and Bengal Muslims had mostly remained indistinguishable from their Hindu or Christian peers except in few details. Dress, culture, social practices, cuisine and most important the language is almost identical. This is no longer acceptable to the New Brand of Evangelists who keeps looking for finding ways of accentuating differences. The Gulf influence is trying to create a gulf among peoples and drive a wedge in a social scene that had simply and painlessly evolved over centuries.
Thirdly:- One tends to look for ancient roots as far away from (British)India as possible, claiming ownership with present locale-the motherland-at the same time. The desire for conformity is always at conflict with a desire to be somebody special. One, who can manage to demonstrate, in some acceptable manner, his kinship with some group far away, always can claim a higher status on the social ladder. His Quom, Khaandaan, Biradari is greater in the pecking order. What is so great about being just another Balochi; one needs to be more and it is the Omani or Kurdish connection that matters and that does NOT mean one is negating one's present environs!

There is a kind of dichotomy here and some poorly informed but well meaning Hindu Indians, who do not understand, straightaway think that the Muslim loyalties are divided. It is not so. He loves his land of birth and would remain forever loyal to it but it gives him some temporary joy to show that look, I am somebody DIFFERENT, even as I am part of you. And I choose to live with you but I am STILL somebody SPECIAL. I am of ancestry from far off lands and though you are my own, there are some whom I have never seen but they are more of my own even if THEY never acknowledge me to be one of theirs. There is sweet agony and harmless wistfulness with an added pinch of fevered imagination leading to false pride of a kind which I understand but I am unable to articulate here well.

Such harmless sentiments are the ones on which an Arab-petro-dollar financed Wahabi plays. An innocent desire to be "special" can lead in a matter of a single generation to a hard form of Islam-ism where anything that has a "local" flavour needs to be discarded as un-Islamic. In reality, what the Evangelist means is all that is Non-Arabic is Un-Islamic!Instead of guiding a person towards piety and tolerance they goad a man towards hate and intolerance. If every other chap claims that he is a direct descendent of the Prophet or Companions of Prophets or early Khalifas or the Rashidun or of stock from the Turk or Mughal or Afghan or Arian or Early Converts or First One to Embrace Islam or related to a pioneer's family....it merely points to a need to acquire the seal of antiquity as proof of superiority within his peer group. Whether they have actually practiced piety or not is a separate matter. And then whether he calls all that "Caste-ism" or something else is just a matter of semantics.

And the crowning glory would be a City dwelling Tribal fellow holding on to some Pre-Islamic semi-barbarous Code of Honour and calling a simple, peace-loving Namazi a "Pagan-Muslim" lacking in any such Code!

Mughals are dead and gone and Shah Jahan is just a name and Babur's ancestry of Samarqand & Bokhara is just a wisp of memory but not for anything that the Cleric who runs the imposing Jama Masjid in Delhi still calls himself: Shahi Imam of Bokhara.

The self-indulgences of men of High Birth!