The Self-Imposed Stagnancy

An inhabitant of today’s civilized Western democratic state, while alluding to human barbarism and fanaticism, resorts to the medieval ages. For a Muslim, however, the medieval ages are among the gloriously shining eras of history, when Muslim scientists and philosophers made monumental advancements for the benefit of mankind in almost all major fields of knowledge. Today, every thinking mind wonders what made those giants fade away into history without being replaced by their alternatives? What caused the severe moral and intellectual downfall of the Muslims? Keeping aside the political turmoils and the dictatorships, which happen to be an inevitable part of most history, I want to devote some attention on the social and intellectual perspective of the medieval age Islam.

Unlike their Christian counterparts, Muslims devoted some serious attention to the “infidel” philosophies and in the process, they not only translated and thoroughly preserved the valuable philosophical Greek heritage of Science and philosophy, they were the reason behind this philosophy being transported to the medieval West, which proved to be one of the most prominent reasons behind the renaissance. With the Muslim advent in Iran and India, the wide philosophical heritage of these areas also enjoyed patronage by the Muslim philosophers. The basic purpose of most of the philosophers was to reconcile reason with Islamic principles and philosophers and political jurists like Ibn Rushd made considerable contribution in this regard. Ibn e Rushd(Averroes) is considered among the fathers of Secularism and is one of the most highly revered scholarly figures in Islamic history. Although his “Incoherence of the Incoherence”, which was a rebuttal to Ghazali’s “The Incoherence of Philosophers” and in which he defends Greek philosophy against the Ghazalian attacks, wasn’t as widely accepted as the book it responds to, it nonetheless, is considered one of the cornerstone works in Muslim philosophy. Other people who tried to harmonize Greek philosophy with Islamic principles included such big names as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn al Haytham (Alhacen) and Abu Rayhan Al Biruni. Al-Farabi, Al-Kindi and Ibn e Sina, due to their highly unorthodox philosophical interpretations and defense of Greek philosophy were even considered as non-Islamic philosophers by many. Ibn e Sina, other than his influence in the Muslims world, exerted a wide influence on European philosophical, theological and scientific though and is considered by any historians as “the most famous scientist of Islam” (Brickman, 1961).

Yet, despite their highly nonconforming philosophy and unconventional attitude, they were highly revered figured in the Islamic world. Their philosophy was debated and discussed in intellectual discourse and valued by the students of philosophy. Another openly professed atheistic philosopher was Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī, who like other scholars of his age, contributed widely in diverse fields of knowledge, and went on to challenge both Greek and Islamic dogmatic ideas in a rational manner.In his prolific life, he wrote over 200 books, including Kitab al-Mansuri, ten volumes on Greek medicine, and al-Hawi, an encyclopedia of medicine in 20 volumes.

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Besides purely scientific pursuits, he published and advocated his radically atheistic philosophy throughout his life, yet his philosophy was not banished and he was not persecuted. Instead, the path of intellectual debate was chosen, which further flourished the gardens of knowledge. The principles of logic and the arguments presented by the Muslim philosophers echo time and again in the Western philosophical though. One even finds the roots of the modern Western existentialism in the philosophy of Ibn e Sina and more eloquently, in the work of Mullah Sadra. Among various non-Muslim names, Saadia Garon, an Egyptian Jew Rabbi, contributed in the Jedeo-Arabic medieval theological philosophy. The famous House of Wisdom, in Baghdad, Iraq, was the center of knowlege where philosophers, both Muslims and non-Muslims, translated knowledge from other languages into Arabic while making their own important contributions. This process is known as the Translation Movement in history.

Not only in philosophy, Muslims preserved the heritage of the previous nations in other fields like medicine, mathematics, astronomy and physics. Ibn Al-Haytham was known as “The Physicist” in the medieval Europe due to his immense contributions in the fields of Physics, Optics, Engineering, Medicine, Philosophy, Psychology, Anatomy and Astronomy. Greek and Indian mathematics was preserved and further glorified towards new heights by these scientists.

Hence, the culture of intellectual discourse and scientific and philosophical discussions and debates was encouraged by the rulers and highly flourished through the efforts of the scholars. Thomas Acquinas famously used to call Ibn e Rush “The Commentator” while Michael the Scot translated several of his works from Arabic within fifty years of his death, such was their intellectual worth for those who valued it. Professor Abhishek Gandh, in his book “Preservation and Transmission of Greek Philosophy in Middle Ages” notes:

“On of the Rulers of Muslim Spain, Al-Hakim II, made an effort to gather books from all over the Arab world, creating a library which would later become a center for translation into Latin, (Lindberg, 1978). As books were gathered, so were many Arab scholars who had studied Greek ideas in the east. For example, Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdul’ and ‘Abdul’ Rahman Ibn Ismail came to Spain and introduced many ideas about medicine as well as several of the works of Aristotle and Euclid. Ibn Bajjah (known as “Avempace”) and Ibn Rushd (known as “Averroes”) were among the other famous philosophers of Spain who furthered the expansion of Greek ideas in medicine and philosophy, (Laughlin, 1995).“

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With the unfortunate and eventual intellectual decline of the Muslim world, moral and social decay closed in. The cherished culture of tolerance, intellectual discourse, diverse ideas and the patronage of knowledge gradually vanished into the annals of oblivion. Muslims imposed on themselves the stagnancy that could only breed intolerance, fanaticism emerging out of rigid dogmatism which needs critical intellectual modification through the exquisite process of “ijtihaad”. They revelled in the lost glories of the past while living in a present that was in severe clash with that past and hoping, in vain, for a brigh future. Finally the Western colonialism proved to be the final fatal blow. This intellectual and moral stagnancy is certainly self-imposed, for if Islam is meant to be for all places and all times, it has much more potential to expand itself and generate new conveys of knowledge, the common heritage of all mankind. It isn’t meant to decay in the abyss of dogmatic sternness and literal rigidity, because that is against the established human nature and if Islam prohibits to go against anything, it’s the very human nature.

A Conspiracy-Afflicted Mind

That is, the mind of a common Pakistani. Most Pakistanis consciously and many of them subconsciously suffer from this disease. They have an extremely efficient ability to link each and every, minor and major, national and international, incident with some mysterious masterminds and all-powerful hidden hands who can upset the order of the world, to the most discreet extent, whenever they feel like it. As usual, the urban middle and upper-middle class, educated in well-reputed institutes, is the most convincing example of the conspiracy-afflicted mentality.

You would’ve seen those Zaid Hamid lectures at various places in recent months, in which he sits like the commander of the faithful and there are a few kids standing behind him in the style of secret service agents; while he churns out his impeccable knowledge about the Free Masons, about the economic omnipotence of the Zionists and about the New World Order. Intriguing enough, these people believe that all these evil forces are striving to establish an order known as New Word Order so that they might be able to rule the world as it’s masters and subjugate the rest of the world. In the very next breath, they renew their convictions to endeavor for the establishment of their own World Order known as Khilafah, where their own religion would be the ruling power, with the rest of the world submitting.

This New World Order theory is intriguing. Ask a common Zaid-Hamidist, or just a common conspiracy-afflicted mind, and a ready-made reply would emerge as I’ve described above. What they are unaware of is that the mighty has always striven to rule the world. That’s the law of power and nature of the powerful. It was Maolana Muhammad Ali Johar who wrote a book titled “New World Order”, in which he advocated a world order based on the principles of Islam and that only such an order would be the savior of the world. Now if a common Muslim supports this view and organizations like Tanzeem-e-Islami and Hizb-ul-Tehrir aggressively aim at such a system, how about equating it with the Free Masons striving for their own World Order? Or our sense of self-righteous has reached at such painful limits that if we and our rivals do one and the same thing, they are the conspirators and evil monsters while we are the saviors of humanity (this being our favorite tag, by the way)? Why is it that if someone else wants to establish their own political and economic system, it a conspiracy but when we advocate to struggle towards our version of ideologies, it’s only a very humane conviction?

This mentality has it’s systematic roots in the education system, from it’s very beginning. A student goes to school and he’s categorically informed that the Jews, Christians and Hindus are his worst enemies, they are out to hunt Muslims all around the world and eventually they want to establish an evil Kingdom where they could rule the world. If Muslims, however, want to establish a world-wide Khilafah, it’s only natural because Muslims are the very essence of humanity and again, the best of all humans. thence beings the mental decadence and intellectual decline. Not only the Christians, Jews and Hindus, ask a common Pakistani “Muslim”, and he would enlighten you that Ahmadis are the worse enemies of “Islam”, that they have secret ties with Israel and that they want to undermine the ideological and economic basis of Pakistan. Ask for a proof and you become a Zionist agent yourself. In fact, I recall a religious website created solely for the purpose of inciting Muslims against Ahmadis, which actually “argues” that the Nobel Prize of Dr. Abdul Salam was a Zionist conspiracy just to defame the “actual Muslims”. (As if there were platoons of extremely efficient Physicists among the “actual Muslims”). Another common belief among Pakistanis is that Dr. Abdul Quadeer stole the research material from Holland and that material was the deciding factor in the creation of a Nuclear Bomb. They don’t care whether this was against the law or conspiracy against Holland, because this was for the Muslims. Just consider for a moment: What would’ve been the reaction of these common people had this been done by an Israeli Scientist (not that they need to do it, they are efficient enough to utilize their own intellect)? The answer is clear: A conspiracy, an evil action of the dirty Zionists under the patronage of the Free Masons.

The fact is, in the words of Hassan Nisar, it’s always better to “concentrate on your own weakness and rectify them so that the mighty won’t exploit it” instead if “pointing your fingers towards them and blaming them for all your short-coming and failures”, because if you keep doing this and chanting about your own ideologies, it won’t do them any harm and you any good. It would only push you further in the abyss of bankruptcy.

“Azaab” theory!

Finally, after centuries of intellectual repose and monotonous callousness, Muslim Ummah has come up with a monumental intellectual accomplishment that has a deep world wide impact, although a rather curious one. The theory under consideration is known as “azaab” (roughly translated as “wrath”) theory (very aptly named). This theory has been developed under the scrupulously close-minded patronage of religious ‘scholars’ and Televangelists who carefully made sure to include “reasonable” factor of horror, comedy and imbecility to formulate a theory that is nonetheless, another masterpiece in an already long line of religious masterpieces. The gist of this theory is:

“God sends “azaabs” every now and then, on the people who don’t bow properly (bang your head so that you can listen a voice) in front of him. The inferior creatures who don’t satisfy his ego. The dirt filling the earth that is best eradicated. God basically saves the ‘better lot’ from this arduous task and takes the responsibility to erase the filth himself. “

How to deal with the consequences:

“Number one: Bow. Number two: Bow. Number three: Bow and Beg like a real sissy. Cry. Cry. Cry. After that, be regular in your daily chants of astaghfirullah and never in your wildest imagination think to bravely tackle with the circumstances. That’s the worst sacrilege. Have faith. Leave the rest for us.”

The recent developments in this theory have made it a though-provoking (and provoking many other things) theory. When we try to conciliate this theory with the empirically observed facts, following scenario emerges:

“Azaab” theory applies to those who fulfill the following conditions:

1- They should’ve been already suppressed and crushed by the mighty and the wealthy. God is perfect and likes perfect people. For imperfections, he has no tolerance.

2- They should be unlucky. We call it “they got slipped in deep shit suddenly, poor bastards!”

3- Okay, they should be living in some developed country. In those countries, the “azaab” theory breaks down and we need critical modifications in it’s structure.

Hence, considering the theory carefully, we arrive at the following conclusion:

“Sacred religious texts inform us that God, throughout, history has sent “azaabs” on the people who were involved in the wrong-doings (matter of perspective) and wiped them off the face of the earth with a huge breath of a single nostril (alright, not exactly that. I , sort of, rephrased). But, in the recent years, the years during which this theory emerged in a systematic form, there have been found some radical shifts in the azaab policy of God. It seems that with the fall of Communism, God has become a staunch Capitalist. Alternatively, God has blessed Feudal Lords, Capitalists, Religious Contractors and….etc.etc. with the status of new “chosen people” (hence, proving his tactical and political-somersaults- skills one again). Another explanation provided is that God is benevolent and all-merciful, it’s only the conspiracy of some angels surrounding him and who want to bring a bad name to God.”

Talking about the final explanation, I believe these are the Zionist-agents-pretending-to-be-angels who just infiltrated the angels platoon. (*Calling Zaid Hamid!*)

I accept this theory whole-blindly, as per my religious obligation. If you reject, you better have a lot of bucks to save your ass. Otherwise, azaab is on it’s way.

P.S: Global warming is a conspiracy and a false propaganda. A sacrilege. Blasphemy. Don’t give me that shit! Astaghfirullah.