Three Myths:(1) Enlightenment

Countering Three Myths Fostered by Western Education: Part I – European Enlightenment

(Appeared in the proceedings of the Third Arab Turkish Congress of Social Science, May 2013, Istanbul)

A collection of articles on the Islamic Worldview how it conflicts with the Eurocentric Worldview

By Dr. Asad Zaman

How Should We Educate Our Children?

Among the many problems facing the Ummah of Muslims today, one of the most important is the question of how to educate our children. A traditional Islamic education focuses on the Quran and Hadith, as well as the Islamic intellectual tradition which developed over the thousand years of Islamic dominance.

Unfortunately, Muslims have neglected this rich and powerful tradition in favor of Western education for over a century. While a western education does provide for some essential needs in modern times, some of its fundamentals are sharply in conflict with Islamic views. It also completely neglects spiritual and moral dimensions, which are essential components of an Islamic education. It is therefore an urgent need of our times to revive our own intellectual traditions and build upon them in the light of recent advances in human knowledge. In the process, it is essential to rectify three major misconceptions which are created by a western education. Our goal in this essay is to identify these errors, and sketch how they can be corrected.

1. The Enlightenment Myth: The human race was living in primitive ignorance and superstition, until the light of reason first dawned in Europe around the sixteenth century. With the Enlightenment of Europe, mankind as a whole became mature, and able to think for itself.

2. Deification of Science: The idea that all valid and useful knowledge is scientific knowledge as developed in the West.

3. The Myth of Progress: Over the past three centuries, people of European origins have developed spectacularly and have achieved pinnacles of glory. The rest of us must strive to emulate their path so that we too can become like them.

Each of these myths runs counter to central messages of Islam. Substantial research is required by Muslim scholars to create a body of knowledge which counters misconceptions generated by a Western education and one which emanates from our own intellectual tradition, providing a viable and much needed alternative to prevalent Western paradigms.

1. The Enlightenment Myth

It was the coming of Islam which ended the jahilliyah (Age of Ignorance) and changed the course of history of mankind forever. Our Prophet Mohammad (SAW) was the most influential man in human history . as demonstrated by Michael Hart in his book The 100: A ranking of the most influential people in history. The deep impact that the coming of Islam made on all human civilization has been studied in the celebrated work of Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi (RH): Islam and the World: The Rise and Decline of Muslims and Its Effect on Mankind; this book was written originally in Arabic, and has been translated into many languages.

According to a Hadith of our Prophet Mohammad (SAW), his time was the best of times, and then those times which were near to it. This is obviously directly in conflict with the European idea of the Enlightenment, which occurred in Europe in the sixteenth century. It is essential to provide historical proof of the Hadith of our Prophet (SAW), as against the European idea. There is a lot of existing work which can be adapted and extended to fulfill this task. It is the need of the hour for Muslims to write textbooks which incorporate the Islamic view of history, as an alternative and a replacement for the Eurocentric view which is currently being taught throughout the Islamic world. Below we list some of the central ideas that this alternative must encompass. One essential ingredient of this alternative history is the fact that it was the light from Islamic Spain that sparked the enlightenment of Europe. There are many other elements which need to be highlighted, as we discuss below.

The Eurocentric view holds that Europeans learnt logic and reason, and rejected superstition and tradition, and that this was a first for mankind as a whole. For example, influential philosopher Kant said that “The Enlightenment was mankind's final coming of age, the emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance.” A Western education conveys this idea, often hidden but sometimes explicit, in numerous textbooks. Of course this is extremely harmful to Muslim students, who learn that following religion and tradition is mere superstition, and fall into doubt about their own heritage. Therefore, it is essential to present a more accurate and detailed history of the Enlightenment and its causes.

a) The Corruption of Christianity

As is documented in many sources, the message brought by Eesa (AS) (Jesus) did not survive in its original form and was heavily distorted. For example, the Quran (5:111) testifies that Jesus (AS) will deny asking Christians to worship him and his mother in addition to Allah (SWT). Historical documentation of the process by which the message was distorted is available from many sources, both European and Muslim; a useful account is due to Maulana Taqi Usmani (HAF) in “What is Christianity?”

One crucial aspect of the distortion of the original message was the promotion of asceticism or monasticism, as the Quran (57:27) testifies:

But as for monastic asceticism - We did not enjoin it upon them: they invented it themselves out of a desire for God’s goodly acceptance. But then, they did not [always] observe it as it ought to have been observed.

Out of an exaggerated desire to please God, Christians introduced extreme practices into their religion involving solitary life, poverty, celibacy, and other rigors not easily tolerated by average people. In contrast, Islam encourages moderation in all things, and discourages excess. The effect of this tendency in Christianity was that the Church praised and portrayed as ideal certain ways of life which were extremely difficult to follow for ordinary human beings. In due course of time, the divergence between the ideals preached in sermons, and the actual ways of living of the leaders of the Church became tremendously large. In her book Th March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman ) describes the extreme corruption of a sequence of Popes over the period of sixty years, which led to the emergence of Protestant factions, as well as a general disenchantment with religion. The intolerance of religious factions for each other, and ruthlessness and cruelty in the name of Christianity, convinced Europeans that religion could not serve as a basis for ordering a society. Further historical detail regarding the European transition to secular thought is provided in Zaman ”European transition to secular thought: Lessons for Muslims”. The main point of this brief sketch of European history is the following:

Secular thought emerged as a result of the moral bankruptcy of the religious leadership in Europe. This moral bankruptcy was caused, at least in part, because distortions of Christianity placed demands on men beyond their capability to fulfill. Thus, it was the failure of the Christian religion that led to the emergence of secular thought. Contrary to what is commonly believed by Europeans, it was not some special ability of Europeans for rational thought that led to the Enlightenment.

b) The Light from Islamic Spain

Although rarely mentioned or noted in European accounts, the advanced civilization of Islamic Spain was a crucial element in the enlightenment. In terms of architecture, technology, literature, science, and educational facilities, Andalusia was far ahead of contemporary Europe in the fifteenth century. After the “re-conquest” in 1492, the treasures of learning of the Muslims became widely available in Europe. The very concept of a “university” – an institution for higher learning, where scholars, free from worldly cares, would pursue academic interests – was borrowed from the Muslims. Cambridge and Oxford were patterned after Andalusian institutions and acquired large stocks of Arabic books, as well as chaired professors in Arabic. Russell’s book (1994) The'Arabick' interest of the natural philosophers in seventeenth-century England shows that interest in Arabic as a language of higher learning persisted among leading scholars until the seventeenth century in Europe.

In his book “Theft of History”, Goody describes how Europeans borrowed many types of inventions from other civilizations, but omitted their mention in their accounts. This created the misleading impression that the most important forms of human knowledge were discovered in Europe, which is part of the Enlightenment myth. There is now a wealth of emerging literature on the tremendous contribution of Muslims to the Renaissance of Europe. For example, Wallace-Murphy in “What Islam did for us” writes that: “We need to remember how much we, in the intolerant Christian West, owe to (Islamic civilization). The people of Islam acted as Beacons of Light in the Dark ages of Europe, teaching us the principles of religious toleration, respect for learning, chivalry and brotherhood.” The impact of Arabic astronomers on Copernicus, and Arabic writings on Newton, as well as Arabic origins of numerous discoveries attributed to Europeans has been documented in many different researches on Arabic science.

Similarly, Ziad Marsafy in The Enlightenment Quran shows the impact that translations of the Quran had on leading European intellectuals. The mottoes for the French revolution: Liberty, Fraternity and Equality, originate in the Quran. The idea of open minded inquiry favored by Enlightenment intellectuals also originates in the Quran. For example, the Quran (26:70-75) shows how Abraham (AS) chides his people for following the ways of their ancestors without thinking for themselves.

A lot of research tracing the impact of Islam on modern civilization is currently under way, both by Muslims and by Europeans. Central ingredients of this research need to be assimilated and integrated into the curriculum being taught in Islamic countries today. This is an urgent task for Muslim scholars. As it is, current texts borrowed from the West create the misleading impression that all major discoveries originate in Europe. Many leading European historians and scholars have explicitly stated that Europeans are uniquely capable of rational and scientific thought (see Blaut – Eight Eurocentric Historians for documentation). This leads to an inferiority complex in Muslim students, who start to doubt their own abilities to innovate. Textbooks which incorporate and re-emphasize Islamic roots of discoveries in many scientific fields would provide an essential antidote 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.

European Transition to Secular Thought: - History, causes, and consequences