Countering Three Myths Fostered by a European Education

[3] The Myth of Progress.

The western idea that “all is fair in love and war” is in dramatic contrast to the Islamic view of Jihad as a religious duty. Muslims have been given the responsibility of conveying the message of God to the entire humankind. Following this message will lead to the maximum human welfare attainable. War is permissible only when strictly necessary to remove obstacles in carrying out this duty. The Islamic rules of jihad contain equivalents of the provisions of the Geneva convention and prohibitions on hurting non-combatants and unnecessary destruction of property. The strictly principled Islam ethics of warfare has been documented by Feldman (2003) for example.

In contrast, abandonment of religious principles led widespread acceptance of Machiavellian ideas that princes ought to have no other thought or business but war. The idea that it was acceptable to conquer and kill others just to possess their lands and property became widely accepted and the driving force of European politics. This idea is compatible with barbaric and savage behavior that results from dropping constraints of morality imposed by religion. For centuries, nation-states of Europe remained in nearly continuous war with each other, while the rest of the world enjoyed substantially greater levels of civilization and peace. Necessities of perpetual warfare led to significant innovations in weaponry, strategy and tactics, armament, and logistics in Europe. In particular, improved use of gunpowder and manufacture of powerful artillery were of tremendous importance. This led to a “military revolution” in Europe, which gave it a substantial lead over the rest of the world in terms of weaponry and warfare.

European powers forged temporary peace among themselves as they realized that there was a large world out there waiting to be conquered. Unlike other civilizations, which had refrained from such conquests because of human norms[1], Europeans had no qualms about ruthless conquest of the rest of the world. As a result of their military lead, and lack of any ethical restraints, Europeans came to rule about 90% of the globe towards the end of the 19^th century. Wealth and resources were unscrupulously transferred from the colonies to the imperialist powers during this process of colonization. Europe became exceedingly rich, while the rest of the world became impoverished as a result. When there was no more world left to conquer, European powers began to fight among themselves again, visiting the devastation of two world wars on the planet. A detailed examination of the historical process is given by Stavrianos (1981, Chapter 1) who writes that:

“the under-development of the Third World and the development of the First World are not isolated and discrete phenomena. Rather they are organically and functionally interrelated. Underdevelopment is not a primal or original condition, to be outgrown by following the industrialization course pioneered by Western nations. The latter are overdeveloped today to the same degree that the peripheral lands are underdeveloped. The states of developedness and underdevelopedness are but two sides of the same coin. … Underdevelopment is not an internal phenomenon due to the set structures of Third World countries, but a product of the world capitalist system and an integral part of it.”

Understanding the history of colonization and imperialism, and its relation to development and under-development, leads to substantial reconsideration of the central issues in this field. See Zaman (2013, Development: Myths and Truths) for a discussion of a dozen myths associated with development. In the present note, we discuss two aspects that create opportunities for research by Muslim scholars. These are two major problems with the use of wealth (GNP per capita) as a measure of development.

4.1 The Wrong Measure of Development

Wealth is not the right measure of development. According to current widely accepted notions, conquering a weaker country and expropriating its resources would lead to rapid development, since the aggregate wealth of the imperialist country would increase. Islam, like nearly all civilizations, does not consider acquisition of wealth by any means to be development. Rather, as Amartya Sen (2001) and others have come to realize, development is about human development. If human beings are greedy, cruel, ruthless, dishonest, and lack integrity, even if the possess the wealth of Qaroon they cannot be considered as developed. Unfortunately, a secular world view cannot provide any guidance on how to develop human beings. Sen (2001) is therefore constrained to talk about the development of human capabilities without being able to explain what these capabilities are. In this area, complete and perfect guidance is available from the Quran. The challenge faced by Muslim scholars is to look at the desirable characteristics and capabilities described in the Quran, and to develop educational programs to inculcate them in Muslim youth.

Use of this wrong measure has created devastation throughout the planet. The gifts of God to mankind are valued at zero, while the “wealth” created by plundering and destroying these gifts is counted as progress and development. If natural forests which have been created in a process lasting millennia are destroyed, this does not count as a loss. However the paltry amount of money created by selling the wood is counted as wealth and development. According to Islamic views, natural resources are the common heritage of mankind, and should be used for the benefit of all. The process of privatization and utilization of these for the benefit of a few has brought the planet to the edge of an environmental catastrophe. This has been widely realized, and many solutions are being discussed in the form of environment friendly growth, sustainable development, and other similar ideas. However, the problem is fundamentally one of morality. We have been given the entire planet as a trust, and we must preserve these resources to pass them on to future generations. There is no clarity on this fundamental moral issue on the West. As a result, Muslim scholars have the opportunity to spell out clearly the Islamic principles, and guide the world in terms of appropriate policies in this area.

Ultimately, the fruits of progress must be measured in terms of their impact on human lives. Even as wealth accumulates, it is becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of a few. The devastating impacts of massive and increasing inequality have been documented by Stiglitz (2012) and others. One of these impacts is the breakup of community and social life, as a result of increasing time and efforts devoted to the struggle for producing wealth. The Quran states that the love among humans is worth more than all the gold in the world:

8:63 And (moreover) He hath put affection between their hearts: not if thou hadst spent all that is in the earth, couldst thou have produced that affection, but Allah hath done it: for He is Exalted in might, Wise.

The breakup of community has dramatically increased loneliness, especially in the west, and reduced the quality of human lives. Islam provides us with unique tools for building communities, by providing detailed lists of rights and responsibilities of neighbors. We need to work hard on building communities, especially since these are under threat by forces of modernization.

4.2 Money & Happiness: The Easterlin Paradox

A second problem with wealth as a measure of development is captured by the “Easterlin paradox” – money does not buy happiness in the long run. In the short run, additional wealth does buy happiness. Amenities like better housing, appliances, etc. bring short run benefits. However, in the long run, habituation takes place. Conveniences and luxuries become the normal expectation, and do not add to satisfaction. Rather, if they are taken away, this creates distress and dis-satisfaction. This is similar to the operation of addictive drugs or alcohol. Initially, they provide a rapid boost in happiness. Later, increasing doses are required to produce the same effect. Eventually, one lapses into distress without them. The Quran (57:20) expresses this idea by saying that And what is the life of this world, but goods and chattels of deception?

The results of this habituation has dramatic and radical implications for economic policy. Easterlin et. al. (2010) summarize their findings as follows “The striking thing about the happiness–income paradox is that over the long-term … happiness does not increase as a country’s income rises. (…) the long term nil relationship between happiness and income holds also for a number of developing countries, the eastern European countries transitioning from socialism to capitalism, and an even wider sample of developed countries than previously studied.” Huge amounts of growth and increases in wealth do not lead to increased happiness. This means that massive amounts of efforts being put into economic development programs aimed at increasing wealth and productivity are misdirected. The Quran tells us that increasing wealth can make people rebellious against God:

17:83 for [it often happens that] when We bestow Our blessings upon man, he turns away and arrogantly keeps aloof [from any thought of Us]

This is evidenced in the increasing number of wars in the recent years. The richest country on the planet uses its resources to invade and occupy weak and poor countries to benefit from their resources. Thus their wealth and power causes misery to millions instead of bringing the benefits that economic theory predicts.

This is why the Quran condemns Qaroon and Fir’awn and teaches us to search for contentment of the heart in the remembrance of Allah. According to Hadith, true richness is the contentment of the heart. How this is to be produced is the subject of a vast Islamic literature. The realization that money does not buy happiness, has led to a search for the factors which do lead to long run happiness. Western researchers have re-discovered ancient truths. Sheldon and Lubyamiroski (2006) document three studies showing that sustained increases in the level of happiness can be brought about by “practicing certain virtues, such as gratitude, forgiveness, and thoughtful self-reflection.” Islamic scholars can add substantially to this research by utilizing our vast and rich literature on the training of the heart. One of the effects of the dominance of the west has been the neglect of this literature, highlighted by Chittick (2007). Chittick describes the rich intellectual heritage of the Muslims, and also indicates this is in danger of dying out, because Muslims are not devoting their lives to its study. Chittick has made a start by showing areas where the Muslim intellectual heritage is greatly needed by the modern world. Substantial effort in this direction is needed by Muslim scholars to develop further these studies and to bring them into the curriculum of a standard Muslim education.

5. Conclusions

We have discussed three major underlying assumptions of a Western education which are in conflict with Islamic ideas. It is an urgent need of the times to develop ways of teaching Muslim students which avoid the Eurocentric biases inherent in standard textbooks. This will require substantial effort by Muslim scholars. Some details of what is needed has been described above. Here we briefly recapitulate the three ideas discussed in this paper.

The main message of the European Enlightenment is that all good things currently known to man were discovered by Europeans. Human beings as a whole were ignorant, superstitious and living in darkness, until the sun of reason first arose in the West. In fact, this story is terribly wrong. It was the coming of our Prophet Mohammed S.A.W. which brought enlightenment to the world enveloped in the darkness of the Jahilliyyah. It was some fragments of this light that shone in Islamic Spain and also enlightened Europe. Current textbooks steal history by attributing to the west many ideas which actually originated in the Islamic civilization. Muslim scholars need to introduce these Islamic roots in the textbooks we use in the Islamic world. Our mathematics textbooks should mention and introduce Al-Khwarizmi and other Muslim mathematicians who had a permanent impact on the subject. Our physics and medical textbooks should properly attribute discoveries to their Muslim origins, so that our children acquire the confidence to innovate.

The process of deification of science led to an over-valuation of scientific knowledge, and a devaluation of the essential moral and behavioral knowledge we need for our daily lives. In fact, our lives are far more affected by human behavior then by science and technology. Vacuum cleaners and washing machines cannot make up for infidelity and lack of sincerity and affection. Learning excellence in conduct, and the path to spiritual and moral development is far more important than the technical knowledge required for producing bombs and getting jobs to make money. Islam teaches us to prefer simple lifestyles lived in the company of pious men seeking spiritual growth. A western education teaches the opposite lesson, leading students to prize careers and wealth over family and society. We need to develop methods of Islamic education which reverse these priorities.

The west progressed over the past few centuries by the process of loot and plunder of the world. This process is ongoing, though the means of domination have expanded to include economic warfare, in addition to conventional warfare; see for example Perkins (2004,2007) and Bello (1994) . Debt and interest repayments transfer billions of dollars from the poorest countries to the richest countries. Because of these financial transfers, millions of poor die of hunger and malnutrition. This process, of acquiring wealth by any means has been labeled as “development”. In fact secularism has led to rapid decline of morality in the West, as documented in many sources including Himmelfarb (1995), Glover (2012) and Bauman (1989). From the Islamic perspective, Europe has declined, not progressed, in terms of human development. Islam teaches us that true development transforms human beings. In the single most remarkable developmental episode in human history, the teachings of our Prophet Mohammad S.A.W. took ignorant and backwards Arabs and transformed them into world leaders, changing the course of history forever. The challenge for us as Muslims is to replicate this achievement today. God has promised that those who struggle His cause will be guided to his pathways:

29:69 And those who strive in Our (cause),- We will certainly guide them to our Paths: For verily Allah is with those who do right.

[1] The Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci, who died in Peking in 1610 after spending 28 years in China– noted that although the China could easily conquer neighboring states neither the emperors nor Chinese officials had any interest in doing so. “Certainly, this is very different from our own countries [in Europe],” he noted, for European kings are “driven by the insatiable desire to extend their dominions.”