Knowledge

The Revolution Created by Islamic Knowledge

There is a dramatic contrast between the goals of a Western education, and the goals of an Islamic Education. Western education is based on the idea the Money is the Measure of Man -- The value of a human life is measured by the amount of income he/she can produce. According to economics, human labor is an input into the production function, which is used for the production of wealth by firms. Human Resource departments use resources -- buildings, machinery, infrastructure, and labor to produce valuable outputs. The goal of an education is to remove individual peculiarities and turn students into exchangeable parts which will all fit equally well into the capitalist machine for making money. Recently at Stanford University, while enrollments were increasing in general, students opting for Social Sciences were decreasing. In response, School of Social Sciences organized seminars and campaigns to inform the students about how social scientists can also have good careers and make a lot of money. This is a COMPLETE BETRAYAL of the idea of an education from and Islamic point of view. Let me explain and elucidate the Islamic viewpoint, which is drastically different. However, before doing so, I would like to pose a puzzle -- ask a question, which requires some thought for an answer.

Islam created a unique revolution on this planet, the likes of which have never been seen in history. It took a people deep in Jahiliyya and transformed them into the leaders of the world. The early Muslims created a unique civilization, which has left its impress on all others, and which was dominant on the planet for more than a thousand years. The Message of the Quran starts with the following words:

Read! In the name of your Lord Who has created,

He has created man from a germ-seed,

Read! and your Lord is Most Generous,

Who has taught by the pen,

He has taught man which he knew not. Surah 96. Al Alaq (1-5)

It is clear from the start of this MESSAGE that Allah T'aala revealed some special knowledge to the Prophet, which taught men that which they did not know. The POWER of this message is OBVIOUS from the tremendous impact that it had on the history of the entire mankind. The important question for us today is:

What was the SECRET in the message that created this revolution? Can we replicate this revolution today?

Before we think about the answer, let us consider the standard Western answer. Let us start by noting that fair-minded historians in the West do acknowledge the miracle of Islam. There are so many books which list the tremendous number of contributions that Islam has made to humanity. As one example, Michael Hart (The 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Persons In History) lists Prophet Mohammad SAW has the single most influential person in all human history. As a second example, Hodgson (1974, p.71, The Venture of Islam) writes that: “Soon after the founding of the faith, Muslims succeeded in building a new form of society, which in time carried with it its own distinctive institutions, its art and literature, its science and scholarship, its political and social forms, as well as its cult and creed, all bearing an unmistakable Islamic impress. In the course of centuries, this new society spread over widely diverse climes, throughout most of the Old World. It came closer than any had ever come to uniting all mankind under its ideals.” There is a huge number of books and articles which list the contributions made by Muslims to the modern world. Tor an important Islamic account see the hugely popular book by Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi: What Islam gave to the world -- this was originally written in Arabic, and has been translated into twenty or more languages. A SUMMARY of this book in URDU, and many other articles of invitation to Islam are available from this LINK.

The point being made here is that Western scholars, intellectuals and historians (unlike average public, which is not only ignorant, but has been deliberately deceived about this matter) do know of, and acknowledge, the tremendous contribution made by Islam to human civilization. HOWEVER, the West says the the power of the Islamic message was due to the fact that it was UNIQUELY adapted to its time. It is NO LONGER suitable for modern times. Today, progress necessarily involves learning from and following Western forms of knowledge, which do not have any apparent connection to Islam. In other words, the West DENIES the completeness and perfection of the Message, which was given to the Muslims in the form of the Quran:

This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favour unto you and have chosen for you as religion Al-Islam’. (5,3)

Of course, it is not surprising that the West denies the completeness and perfection of Islam. Unfortunately, due to the dominance and power of the West, Muslims have also been deceived into believing this. Today, Muslims DO NOT think that the teachings of Islam are adequate to guide us from the darkness into the light. They believe that Islam does not provide us with COMPLETE guidance -- it needs to be supplemented by modern knowledge created by Western intellectuals. Also, Muslims believe that teachings of Islam are not PERFECT -- they need to be corrected to brought up to date -- the ban on interest, banking, and many other aspects of Islam are obsolete, and we need to do Ijtihad to adapt to the modern times and conditions. MUSLIMS do not accept the message of the Quran: REJOICE in that which you (the believers) have been given -- it is far better than anything that they (disbelievers) can gather.

Today the Muslims are deeply impressed with the West. They look with envy at both the material possessions of the West as well as the knowledge and power of the West. They have forgotten that the Quran states that

3:196 ... Do not be impressed by the apparent success of disbelievers.

The problem that the Ummah faces today is called Jahl-e-Murrakkab (Compound Ignorance). Ignorance means not knowing something. Compound Ignorance is when you do not know something, BUT you think that you know it. Because Muslims as whole think they already know the teachings of Islam, AND they do not find anything in these teachings that would be of great value in solving the HUGE problems we face today -- so they come to the conclusion that Islam DOES NOT provide us with a solution to our problems today. They also MISREAD and MISUNDERSTAND history, thinking at our ancestors were good at following and practising Islam, but that did not save them from defeat by the West in the apst few centuries. They conclude that we cannot progress by Islamic methods, and thus they turn to the West for solutions.

Before answering all of the misconceptions, let us turn to a MUCH simpler problem. Forget about modern times. Think about ancient times, 1400 years ago. What was the nature of the knowledge that was given to the Muslims, that led them to climb from the bottom rank to the leaders of the world 1400 years ago? Did they learn science? Did they learn to build new weapons, new techniques of war? Did they acquire efficient techniques of agricultural production? Obviously not. Then what was the source of this tremendous revolution that the teachings of Islam brought to the world?

As a way to COUNTER the Jahl-e-Marakkab, the double darkness that envelopes Muslims today, ponder on the following question. The teachings of Islam permitted the Sahaba to create a revolution that changed the tide of history forever. DO I HAVE the knowledge of HOW TO CREATE THIS REVOLUTION once again? If we do KNOW how to create a revolutionary change, impacting the whole world, then we can claim to know Islam. If we do not know how to create this revolution, how can we claim to know the teachings of Islam?