Distrust And Disdain

I don’t know how to characterize the psychology of the ‘Ulama and the modern educated among Muslims – towards each other. For want of a better description I would describe it as DISTRUST and DISDAIN, respectively.

There are two streams of knowledge flowing simultaneously but in different channels, separate from each other. This is why while there is the crown of laa ilaaha on the forehead there is no Qur’an in the right hand. We won’t be going anywhere without Qur’an. We won’t be able to apply Qur’an without science and technology, either. We are in a fix. No one can wriggle us out except ourselves. No shortcuts. Only the long way is the way out. As is always the case with education.

The ‘Ulama, for thousand and one reasons, do not have much concern or awareness for applying and relating the ideals of faith with the day-to-day business of life. A big number of them find some self-expression only on Fridays – that too for half an hour and that’s why they make the best out of it, unconsciously. For the rest of the week nobody cares about them.

On the other hand the modern educated harbour a self-doubt somewhere in the dark corner of their hearts. They suspect their own position and are apprehensive if they are going away from the ideals of faith and spirituality. It is a harmless suspicion on the face of it. There is, however, a negative impact of it. Somehow assuming that Islam is probably not on their side they do not exert their utmost in their respective fields – generally. Had this not been the case there would have been greater futoohaat (conquests) in their respective areas.

This is a consequence of our dividing the knowledge into two categories of ‘religious’ and ‘secular’. Divide the knowledge as much as you can because of its vastness and immensity – for practical reasons. But the division in terms of desirable and undesirable is not supported by Qur’an. Why? Because according to Qur’an there are three sources of knowledge i) the man himself (aayaat al-anfus), ii) the universe (aayaat al-aafaaq - Fussilat, 41: 53) and iii) the ‘Days of Allah’ i.e. history (Ibraaheem, 14: 5). If we reflect on these three sources practically no discipline and department is left out of it.

This is why the simple injunctions of Qur’an about value of time, for example, were taken in the right earnest and our earlier scholars researched on the nature of time. Much elaboration of this could be found in the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam by Iqbal. The Hadeeth that “Do not abuse time; because I (God) am time” made our earlier scholars research on the nature of time in a very interesting manner. The fact that the Prophet of Islam has said that “for every disease there is a cure” prompted research and the Muslims, benefiting from the Greek fund of knowledge, developed Greco-Arab medicine. The pioneering names are very commonly known.

It happened because Islam has not established two worlds, the ‘secular’ and the ‘religious’. It is one and the same depending on our outlook (niyyah). Therefore, unless there is a confluence of both the streams of knowledge and research the energies will not be channellized efficiently and we will be deprived of the collective blessings and benefits.

In the absence of the above, one plus one hasn’t become eleven. It hasn’t become even two. It has remained only (the truncated) one. Therefore, there is a soring need to replace the distrust and disdain with cross-fertilization and symbiosis.

We can learn different lessons from the same text. It is up to us. On the Hadeeth about the ‘cure of every disease’ Muslims would have responded differently. They would have become complacent thinking that there is no need for research as the Prophet has already declared that there is cure for every disease.

The human beings will always be on the cross-roads of wrong and right interpretation of each text, human or otherwise. But at the same time we will always be responsible for our actions individually (5: 105, 19:80, 19:95 and 6: 94).

Please bear in mind that as long as we are on earth we will be in the trying situations. Truth will not be as naked as a sunny day. But still we are always required to do whatever best we can in the pursuit of truth in any given situation bearing full responsibility thereof. We do not have the freedom to walk away from our freedom.

Let us go back to ‘camera’. It is just a symbol. It could be used and misused. Don’t go back to the camera. Our eyes are the most sophisticated cameras ever invented. I don’t know much about it but I assume that the same technology has been used in the manufacturing of cameras. You disallow pictures. Not a problem. But your eyes are making a wonderful movie all the time. Can you disallow that, too? The same applies to science and technology, too. It is value neutral. Use it. You are responsible for it. Misuse it. You are accountable for it.