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To
The
Family of the Heart
1.
I take this opportunity to sincerely thank the members of the
Family of the Heart for their criticism. I have certainly benefited
from some thought-provoking comments.
2.
Not knowing the exact rules, I did stray from the definite
limits of the topic. Peccavi, and I apologize. In my defence I must
say that my composition was fundamentally meant for Ahsan Khan, who
with forbearance has accepted my company for the last thirty years,
and this explains the digression and the personal comments.
3.
There have been quite a few messages since my post #92, and I
shall briefly attempt to reply to questions therein.
4.
In #93, Dr Qazi has queried, “Please let me know if you
think that divine Islam (or any other religion) has seeds of
rationalism and enlightenment in it for intellectual development.”
Indeed, yes! And in history, we see that the only period,
when science and intellectual development soared to unprecedented
heights under theocratic states, was during the sway of Islamic
regimes between the 8th and the 15th
centuries. This period produced, in addition to theologians:
Philosophers:
Al-Kindi; Al-Farabi; Ibn Sina (Avicenna); Ibn Rushd (Averroës) …
Men
of medicine: Ar-Razi (Rhazes) whose book, Al-Mansur, was taught in
all medical
universities
in Europe till the 17th century (included); Ibn Sina
whose book Al-Qanun was taught in Europe till the 18th
century, even in the 19th in Montpellier, the oldest
medical Faculty in France, and is still taught in the
Subcontinent(!); Abul Qasim Az-Zahrawi (Abulcasis, whose book At-Tasrif
is the fount of modern surgery); Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) …
Mathematicians:
Muhammad Khuwarizmi who created the mathematical branch of algebra,
the
West has saluted him with the vocabulary “algorithm”, coined
after the latinized version of his name); Al-Farghani and then Al-Battani
who introduced different trigonometric functions; At-Tusi who
systematized the mathematical branch of trigonometry, …
Scientist
Jabir Ibn Hayyan (Geber) who discovered nitric acid, sulphuric acid,
the process of
distillation,
…; Ibn Al-Haytham (Al-Hazen) considered Father of Optics …
…
…
…
Before dismissing this as just an outburst of an “Islamist”,
please refer to an encyclopaedia, for example, Britannica.
5.
In the West, history of Civilizations is taught as Greek
Civilization, Roman Civilization, Dark Ages and then Renaissance.
They “purposely” forget that during the Dark Ages, there was a
brilliant (scientific and intellectual) civilization, and a Centre,
not so far from the heart of Europe, was Muslim Spain.
Unfortunately, this is neither taught in Islamic countries, and we
remain unaware of our intellectual past. The Europeans (the
Americans, as well) think that we were always the uncultured rabble,
when they see the plight of Muslims in which we are today, or were
even a century or two earlier.
6.
In #94 Mr Mughal has once again aptly put the primordial
question, “Why democracy has failed in Muslim [or Islamic ]
countries.
Ahsan Khan has pointed out Islam as the common factor whereas
the common factors are three: Islam, lack of mass education, and
poverty. And when I see that in Latin American and African countries
the common factors are Christianity, animistic belief, lack of
education and poverty; the global common factor, it is evident, is
definitely not Islam.
But
perhaps as I tried to explain earlier, and failed to make my point
clear, that the Western system is not necessarily transposable in
every society. The intelligentsia in the Muslim world should try to
formulate a form of government, or adapt the Western democracy
to suit the genius of their people. We have not done that and
are just indulging in mimesis.
7.
In reply to post #95 of Ahsan Khan; yes we shall discuss this
in depth over a cup of tea in Strasbourg next week, especially your
formulation that belief = doubtful conclusion, which is debatable.
8.
Mrs Ansari in #96 has well-concluded what, I presume, we all
seek: “the well being of society and fundamental rights of its
citizen should be the final concern of any form of government.”
My
addition: “be it Islamic, or democratic, or even, dare I say,
authoritarian.”
9.
Mr Ahmad, #97, has correctly pointed out the advantages of
changing laws, valid for travel, environment, etc. However, laws
which should remain immutable are “absolute moral laws”. Now
different societies may differ, but some morals are indeed universal
and should not change, for example, respect of parents and elders,
honesty, trust, …
As regards “Family Affair” the term is applied more in
the sense of descendants, “from father to son,” which was never
the case concerning the First Four Caliphs.
10
Finally, the question why did Muslim societies fail in
pursuing their intellectual development? There are certainly myriad
answers to this question. The foremost which comes to my mind is the
destruction of the libraries and the learning centres of the Muslim
world. In the 12th century when the Christian armies took
Cordoba, which had the biggest library in the world at that time,
they burnt the books. In the 13th century when the
Mongols sacked Baghdad they destroyed the Centre of learning of
Islamic world. Though there were different attempts by several
Muslim rulers to rebuild the Institutions, these remained confined
to particular regions. It should be understood in this way: if today
all the libraries and information centre in the West are destroyed,
will it still be leader in the scientific and intellectual field?
This lack of intellectual development caused intellectual stagnancy,
which resulted in stagnant political power, which finally succumbed
to the advanced European countries in the 18th century.
In the 19th century, nearly all Muslim countries were
under colonial rule …
11.
Thank you once again, my Friends, for this exchange of ideas.
I hope that soon in the near future I shall be able to join your
Family. With my best personal regards. wa(Al)ssalAm.
MustayeenAhmed
Khan
Angers,
May 20, 2006
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