User:RekonDog/The Islamic Polity

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Preface[edit | edit source]

It wasn't long ago that Muslims lead the world in science and technology, and to include architecture, art, medicine, and justice. They used to be exemplary citizens and neighbors. They used to promote freedom of faith and freedom of expression at a time when the Western world was constrained in superstition and greed. However, in the Muslim world, the unthinkable began to unfold; over the course of these few latter generations, Muslims became to mimic the West as they became less tolerant of other faiths, especially of other opinions, and became much more susceptible to superstitions and worldly desires. Insofar, within the Muslims nation-states, they have been struggling with these problems well into the 21st century.[2] What has changed? What caused this regression in their standings, their tolerance, and their adaptability? What have Muslims altered that has stopped their progress in science, medicine, and social justice?

"As for those who break their pledge with God after having made its covenant, and they withhold what God has ordered to be delivered, and who cause corruption on the earth; upon those is a curse and they will have a miserable abode."[3]

Introduction[edit | edit source]

Have Muslims unknowingly and unintentionally broken the covenant of GOD سبحانه و تعالى, and incurred His curse without even realizing it? Ever since the 17th century, the Muslims world have been suffering a great deal of setbacks and extreme losses; beginning with the military defeat of the Ottomans in Austria which consequently became the total collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, the formal occupation of Zionists and Evangelicals into Palestine in 1948, which resulted the dire 1967 six-day war, and, more recently, the rapid collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001, to include the defeat of the Iraqi regime in 2003. The constant strafe bombing by the United States destroyed whatever militant forces the Taliban had at their disposal, plus the psychological warfare had most of their troops ready to defect the first chance they got. Although it may have been as clear as day to many people (mostly in the Western world) that 21st century military force defeating a 19th (or 20th) century armed force, it came as an utter shock and a deathblow to most Muslims who could not understand how GOD سبحانه و تعالى, whom they believe in and worship, could abandon His people.[2]

There is no single Muslim in the world that shouldn't and cannot deny the fact that the majority of us, if not all, are to blame for the downward spiral and cordial blight. In fact, we all are witnesses to the signs of social decay and collapse within most of our Muslim communities, and are apparent throughout the Muslim world, especially in countries where modern science and technology has domineered. We attest to such monstrosities which are taking place within our communities while most of us do absolutely nothing but turn our heads in a different direction; many Muslims are homeless and in poverty, while greed and savagery has become rampant. Insomuch that the ever-present industry of rap and hip-pop music, to include the incorporated business of television broadcasting their drama and movies has become utterly nonsense and hasn't room for spiritual growth in these Muslim nations whatsoever; it has paved inroads into the heart and minds of the ‘Ummah. It is sad to say that most Muslims today no longer follow the beloved Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم entirely but instead follow their new Profit. It almost seems that Islam is no longer the epitome of the spiritual and physical lifestyles (individual and collective), however, the towering heights of the corporations are the new priests and its inductive science and technology are its manifested glory. Concurrently, these new lifestyles are largely independent on modern technologies which are often imported without any concern about their impact on the spiritual, cultural, and social life of the community. This massive invasion of modern technology in the Muslim world has not only destroyed the very fabric of the Islamic lifestyles, not to mention Sunnah, it obliterated the enchanting “Islamic space” which once filled the places of worship, homes, shrines, and schools; this rude intrusion is nowhere painful as in the Sacred Mosque, where during hajj many pilgrims now arrive with their cellular phones to relay an active commentary on their circumambulation around the Ka‘bah.[4]. أستغفر الله

Other manifestations of the deep-root inferiority complex within the minds of many Muslims are aimed toward the modern science and technology which expresses in some fashion resembling "Bucaillism", the unrelenting desire to prove the Divine origin of the Qur’an through modern science, even to mention the shallow support of Darwinism that certain Muslim writers are proclaiming in the Qur’an.[5] There are even misconceived efforts in which some Muslims had presented absurd ideas, such as calculating the number of angels on a pinhead, or the distance between heaven and earth by utilizing and mixing Qur’anic verses with quantum physics. The discourse of science of today shares much instrumentalist and anti-realist spirit of the Kuhnian definition of space, which sanctions the extreme relativism of Kuhn, the anarchistic epistemology of Feyerbend, which supports a class-based science procuring upon the evolution of new institutions that sought to bring about the expositions of modernized science. This vast radical change is merely an outward sign of an inner transformation that is directly linked to the role of technologies and its destruction on spiritual life; although this connection is seldom recognized by the most Muslims using these technologies. It is the often hidden belief in progress in scientific materialism, the nostalgic and ineffective remembrance of the past glories of Muslim scientists and scholars whom once made Islam hundreds of years ago during its Golden Age (900-1200 C.E.).

An Islamic polity pertaining to science and technology concerns the very existence of Islamic civilization. The sheer reach of modern Western science and technology has been destroying the fabric of traditional societies everywhere in the world. We live in a world where Muslims no longer reside in comfort or protection from the ravages of modern technology. It has become quite appalling that the due fact is that the Muslim world today is currently at the forefront of accepting all forms of modern technology, along with everything else that comes from the ‘modernized’ West, especially if it is presented in the name of a science and so-called knowledge.[4] What now become to surface are the Muslims’ nuance of attitudes toward modern technology have been reversing over the course of two centuries. This new attitude surely has an essential role in how we willingly, or unwillingly, allowed the Westernized concept of science in the structuring and dictating of our lifestyles, to include our habits, and human relations among our communities. It certainly has become obtrusive and destructive impact on nature; it is an inevitable endeavor of devastation upon the environment.

The discourse of modern science of the West prefaced a great deal of deterioration to the Islamic way of life (Dîn), to include its organic ability to transform and reshape societies. Since there has been no real initial resistance to modern technology, it ultimately has given way to a large-scale and uncritical appearance. The utilitarian view of modern science and technology had reached into every area of public and private life, as nothing has remained immune to the massive influx of technologies; such result of this change is all too obvious all over the whole Muslim world. In today’s society, the constant appearance of supersonic jets, cellular telephones, and a vast network of freeways and interstates has become pragmatic. But within one generation these outset of these technological applications has not only destroyed the traditional patterns of the Dîn in the Muslim countries, it has also conceived numerous cultural, social and environmental problems which are accumulating at a detrimental rate. The blind acceptance of modern science made by Muslims today sure had its insidious ways of affecting traditional cultures, whether intentionally or unintentionally. "Damage has appeared in the land and the sea at the hands of people by what they earn. He will make them taste some of what they have done, perhaps they will return."[6] In most of the Muslim world, political leadership has so aggressively imported modern technologies during the last twenty years that these societies have witnessed dramatic changes in their composition; from the mannerism of how food is produced (e.g. methods of permissible animals been slaughtered [đhabīḥah]), to transportation and modes of communication. Whilst many Muslims will argue and differ on the ordeal that we have evolved in knowledge, however the stark reality is that we have reversed our knowledge to likes of pathetic non-intelligent organisms; bleak as it may seem that animals have more common sense than the best of us! We totally destroyed our traditional ways of the Islamic life of pure simplicity and necessity, only to become this sudden emergence of large, overcrowded, polluted and unmanageable cities. It shows the incoherence of the buildup of modernized weaponry in Muslim countries, whereas most of their population remains in a perpetual state of poverty and disparity. Maybe it is due cause of the small ruling elite, which does not tire on lecturing its populace on merits of acquisition of science and technology while plunders national resources in the name of buying security through the build-up of munitions and arms.

It is quite ostensible that there is an apparent deficiency in Muslim science and technology; it is particularly beguiling given that Muslims once were the forerunners of advanced science and technology only a millennium ago, before the West adopted its practices and modernized their revolutionary concept of socialism and capitalism. It was during this period (the Golden Age) that Islamic science had reached its zenith, flourishing in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Cordoba, among other cities. This Islamic era of the Enlightenment marked the highlights in progressive sciences of medicine, agronomy, botany, mathematics, chemistry, navigation, geology, optics, physics, cosmology, ophthalmology, geography, cartography, sociology, psychology, and among other applications.[7] Islam, as it was envisioned, was the "the driving force behind the Muslim scientific revolution when the Muslim state reached its peak."[8] The Muslim worlds, taken collectively, were at the peak of their power.[9] As Muslims rivaled with the Chinese for intellectual and scientific leadership, Christendom of the European nations lagged far behind. While the Muslims endured the Golden Age, Christians were under extreme hardship of the Dark Age. Never in the entire history of Islam has undergone a single moment of any type of Dark Ages, not until the advent of the 20th century.

However, we begin to see a decline in Islamic achievements of progressive sciences and technology between the 13th–18th centuries. The Muslim world began to become stagnate while the Christendom Europeans mustered ahead.[9] Mostly the decline is due to Muslims failing to learn from Christendom Europe. All these sciences are manifested proof of the existence of GOD سبحانه و تعالى, provided that they do not succumb to the misguided desires of humans, especially when they become completely deprived of the idea of the Creator سبحانه و تعالى. We can see such predicaments in Europe during their period of advancement and progression in knowledge, known as the Renaissance, when it had a bitter struggle with the centralized, theocratic Church. Although the Christians won the battle, giving birth to Protestantism, they did not stop there but went on to denounce the Creator Himself. The West had developed the knowledge in science and art, thus growing a putrid hatred of all religion and all that it represented.[10]. Although the Enlightenment and the French Revolution has made science accessible to the Muslim world, whereas this detached formulated and westernized science made it delectable to the Muslims. In turn, during this time, some Muslim rulers—such as the Egyptian Wāli, Muhammad `Ali Pasha—have recruited western technicians while sending Muslims as students to Europe.[11] However, while Europe was undergoing their Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, such scientific and technological achievements have mostly passed unnoticed in the Muslim World.[12] Insomuch that Muslims instead had relied on the Armenians, Greeks, and the Jewish as intermediaries, either serving as court physicians, translators, or other indispensable positions. Because of their alleviation, the Muslim world has only accomplished what is now known as a limited transfer of science and technology. Even so, this decline has become the result of many factors, which include the large-scale deterioration of the agriculture and irrigation systems, invasions of the Mongols and other central Asian forces, political instability, and the rapid rise of religious intolerance.[11]

As Muslims, we must launch a major initiative in order for us to project advancement of discourse on Islam and science, and establishment a sound Islamic Polity on technology and science within the scope of Islamic standings and teachings. We must start back to the basic by putting this practice for a better understanding of the nature of modern science. This has led to the idea of gathering prominent Muslim thinkers—scientists, scholars, and philosophers—that would generate enough momentum to create an institutional basis for the purpose of facilitating such understanding of modern science, especially on its impact within the ‘Ummah. Within an Islamic polity, the principles and mandates of Islam must entirely be the basis of the state without any other outside (westernized) influence; it would automatically guide the applications of science and technology in the direction of Islamic values. Insofar, the science being practiced today in the Muslim world can hardly claim it to be purely "Islamic." The label of being ‘Islamic’ within this modernized version of ‘Ummah is nothing but the justification of authoritarianism, unprotected oppression, abolishment of dissent and nonconformity, suppression of criticism, state violence against the people, and intolerance of faith and reason. "And let there be a nation from among you who calls towards goodness, and orders kindness, and prohibits evil. And these are the successful ones." [13] Moreover, the Muslim world of today has yet to reconcile against these factors of dictatorial regimes. Even so, apart from the fact that their emphasis on Islamic values in the perspective remain largely at a level of rhetoric, as it is seen as some sort of paradigm; the adopting of western science and technology into the fold of the Muslim world has remained almost as neutral and free from set values and principles as the West. At the national and international level, there has been no real concern with building indigenous science, nor any effort in identifying areas of national concern and societal needs of Muslims. Plus, there hasn't been any change in direction of science towards the principles of Islam; replacing nature with Allâh in science textbooks may provide psychological emollient ointment for our inferior complex but it does not solve any real problems.[14]

In order for scholars to explore new facets of Islam and its discourse of science, we must adhere to new perspectives in re-enunciate on what has been the position of numerous Muslim reformers. These reformers had envisioned modern science as a magical sense of transition, seamlessly in a smooth, uninterrupted fashion toward power and empowerment. And its unequaled ambiance in the economic, political, and military might and power of the Muslim and Western worlds. These are seen as latter achievements in science and technology. All is due because since the advent of the 19th century, they have become to the realization that there was a huge gap between the Muslim world and the West, a balance of power that had already shifted in favor of the Western world; their armies have began knocking at the doorsteps of three major empires of the Muslim world whom governed the traditional lands of Islam at that time: the Ottomans, the Safavids, and the Mughals.[4] These empires were all to slow in grasping the reality of the nature and extent of the changes in economic, political, and military power, all of which had already taken place in during the 17th and 18th centuries. When they failed to realize this shift, there were already fighting a losing battle. Soon almost the entire Muslim world was either directly, or indirectly, colonized by the Western powers. These reformers misunderstood that this sudden transformation have taken place due to the advantages gained by the Western world through scientific and technological discoveries. In a desperate attempt, the sought to awaken the Muslim world to its predicament by passionately advocating the acquisition of westernized modern science.[4]They ultimately legitimized their position by equating modern science with knowledge ('ilm) and then insisted in invoking the Qur'an and the narrations of the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم on this acquisition of knowledge. Since the acquisition of knowledge is indeed an Islamic obligation (farḍ) that is binding upon all believers, they (the reformers) argued that Muslims must consequently acquire and pursue science where ever it is deemed applicable. Often times, these reformers resorted to using weak (da'if) ḥadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم in which believers were basically compelled and strongly advised to seek and "acquire knowledge even if it is to be found in China,"[15] along with a host of other sayings to establish their case.

Over the course of these past two centuries, the discourse of the reformers' on Islam and modern science was refined and expanded by the addition of religious exhortations, as well as statistical and historic data; even so much that names of certain Muslim scientists were often invoked to persuade Muslims into following their ideology. Especially in more recent years it has become quite fashionable to use work of Western historians of science in a last ditch effort to reclaim the past-glory of the Islamic Golden Age, and to substantiate the claim of greatness of the Islamic scientific tradition.

The reformers' discourse has become so successful that it was transferred to the ruler of some fifty-five Muslim nation-states, which emerged in traditional in traditional Muslim territories in the wake of World War II, and it has thus achieved a official status. During this bleak period, colonization has been interjected as these nation-states had been molded and chiseled by the West, most of the traditional institutions and structures of the Muslim world has been destroyed. These educated elite were moreorless bred in the institutions established by the colonizers of the West, or directly in the West (particularly those of Europe and the United States), which ultimately led to the so-called independence movements in the Muslim world, which has become its ruling class.[4] Although, it appears on the outside that there is a libertarian view, a sense of independence, but this merely means the replacement of the former rulers with natives who had been induced in the educational, cultural, and social milieu created by the Western colonizers. Which of many are created on the basis of some sort of national identity, mostly forged by the colonizers as many Islamic states were ruled by autocratic rulers whereas their educational, political, judicial, and social institutions were built upon the models left behind the colonized West; the educated elite became more intellectually closer to the departing rulers rather than the forebears of the Islamic tradition.[16]

Nowadays, most of these Muslims have little appreciation to the Islamic tradition. Their education upbringing and professional training had either completely severed, or weakened, their links to the spiritual and intellectual progression that has long ago nurtured their fore bearers. Although there is a sense of nostalgic longing for an imagined past glory but have no real desire to recreate or replenish the spiritual, intellectual, and social ambiance which had once produced prominent Muslim scientists and scholars of the highest caliber. It shouldn't come to a sudden surprise that there are no real scientists in the Muslim world; we only have technicians whom are "just like taxi cab drivers as if they’re taking passengers from one place to another."[14] Instead of rediscovering and reestablishing links with their own spiritual and intellectual traditions, these men and women formulate themselves to enact the exact models they perceive of the Western world. Most of these so-called Muslim scientists are those whom were educated with their obtained certification from the West. In their eyes, Westernized, modern science is the crowing point of human understanding and learning. For them, the answer to all ills suffered by Muslims was science and more science which has become framed in religious, nationalistic, and moral terms. Among the most frequently employed religious dialectics is their soulless effort in assimilating modern science with knowledge par excellence and made it a religious obligation. If anyone looks at the Muslim world that is present today, whether their governments are pro-Western or anti-Western, monarchies or republics, products of Islamic revolutions or are secular, they are are unified in the praises of modern science and technology. It is this type of attitude that must change.[4]

For those who view nationalistic and moral justifications in terms of utilitarianism in order to urge Muslims to acquire modern science often do so by using necessity and practicality as the basis of their arguments. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to decide that medicine and communications are paramount for society. Common sense tells us that we need attained dimensions of applicable science that provide the betterment of the community or society. However, it is the wanton lust of science and technology that has no affiliation to our progress in our upbringing that must be acknowledged. We, as thinkers, have to do is provide a critique to try to show why and where restraint is needed and demonstrate how the entire ethos of the whole enterprise of modern science and technology in integrally linked in our social dynamics as a whole.[4] If we have no choice in but modern medicine, we then must have to consider its shortcomings, utilize it as a last resort, whilst attempting to redevelop our own traditional holistic Islamic medicine. Apparently the methods of acupuncture, which has originated in the Far East, has come to the West, there shouldn't be any reason why we cannot revive our own tradition of medicine. Although, the majority of Muslims are in stark contrast, which is a huge shortcoming and our ultimate demise. Generally, all advocates of modern science premised their arguments on the basis of utilitarianism of science, assuming that science is definitely required within the Muslim countries, that all problems will be solved, and be at par with the Western world. Modern science almost seen as a sin qua nom, an indispensable condition that partakes extreme practicality of the advancement of military power and technology.[16]

There hasn’t been a single Muslim scientist who has won world acclaim in the past three hundred years. The institutional structure for scientific research in the Muslim world is so undernourished that Muslims cannot hope to stand on their own. It is extremely paramount for an unrestrained acquisition of modern science and technology and appraise it with absolute necessity for the survival of the ‘Ummah. In today’s science labs these Muslim scientists are either too busy carrying out second-rate and third-rate research, or participating in technological efforts that has nothing to do with the needs of the Muslim world. Practically none of them are actually pursuing science.[14] The palpable realization of Muslim scientists is now obsolete and extinct; nowadays, science is an organized institution brought by the industrial venture by corporations that pursue the discourse on modern technology while flying the banner of economical feature of success.

These Muslim nation-states are endowed by GOD سبحانه و تعالى with vast resources but their combined scientific output is less than that of a single Western nation, as most of these endowed properties [awqâf] within their lands had been confiscated by the colonizers of the West. Out of the whole Muslim world, only seven countries—Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia—produces an unjustly small amount of scientific dissipation and much of it relatively low in quality. Even of today it is apparent that essentially only forty-one Islamic countries, which consist approximately 20% of the world’s total population, only generate less than 5% of its application in science.[17] The lifetime of the traditional system of education and scientific research in the Muslim world—which once produced some of the greatest men and women of learning humanity has ever known—has been replaced with a new system designed to produce low-ranking clerks for the new westernized bureaucratic system. Only a few Islamic countries had felt the aftermath, surviving the onslaught of the West, notably that of Iran.

To create a profound vision of Islamic schools of thought and civilization itself, we must pinpoint various pitfalls and entanglements, such as our uncritical acceptance of modern science and technology, because we are not realizing the dynamic impact on society as a whole. The purpose of science is not endeavored to discovery of some great objective of truth; indeed, Reality, whatever it may be and however one may perceive it, it is unfathomable, incomprehensible, and too complex to be discovered as a single truth. It is too interwoven and multidimensional; all knowledge of science, including natural sciences, is socially constructed and is instrumental.[14]The benevolent and altruistic pursuit of knowledge for the sake of the truth is nothing short of a Ponzi scheme, a confidence trick. Throughout the world all significant science is Western in style and method: westernized modern science is only a science of nature, not the science.[4] Modern science, in the Western view, is baseless science that makes certain assumptions about reality, human-nature relationships, the universe and space-time, and etcetera. It is an embodiment of Western ethos and philosophy masked in its foundations of intellectual culture of the West. Although we cannot deny the solid achievements of westernized modern science, we cannot emphasize and stress enough on the repulsive façade, its inherent arrogance and violence in its methodology and ideology of dominion and control which has ultimate become its trademark.

In other words, significant progress depends on changes in values and institutions. We must create an authentic and new science on the basis of Islamic methods of sciences and research that could and might absorb those elements of modern science which does not go against the Islamic view; it would be a science from which the Hand of GOD has not been severed.[4] Ultimately, we need a different approach to modern science if it were to exist in the Muslim world; we must be prepared to aspire and educated a very large number of men and women in various branches of science. Our very existence of the ‘Ummah depends on this. The true purpose of science is to advance our knowledge within ethical margin by solving social problems and relieve misery and hardship, to improve the physical, material, cultural, and spiritual apportionment of humankind.

As we speak, our Muslim students are being denied entrance to Western universities in key areas of science and technology, such as nuclear technology. This proof is littered throughout the internet and media. We have already missed the Industrial Revolutions of the mid-1800s, even the Scientific Revolution of the 20th century, which sparked the age of science and technological advantages of the West.[4] If the Muslim world misses the current revolution of science, then we are doomed! We cannot afford that. We must take a strong and bold, active steps to train our young scientists and scholars. Already we are seeing a decline of Muslim men and women of pursing the path of becoming Islamic scholars. We cannot afford to sit back and indulge in theoretical discussions at this stage.

As Muslims, we must question ourselves: Is Islam an obstacle to modern science? If not, then why is there a significant gap of output in scientific research and institutions? Of course, virtually all science today is some sort of big science that argumentatively requires huge amounts of funding and large, sophisticated and expensive equipment, and not to mention the hundreds of scientists and staff working on minute problems. As such, science has become a unified system of research and application; funding at one end of the spectrum, and the end-product of science (often technology) at the other, to include other measures, such as annual expenditures, to include the number or research scientists and engineers. This systematic downfall is the impossibility to see where the so-called ‘pure’ science ends and technology begins.[14] This confirms the disparity between populations and scientific research.[11] Intuitively there is a stark difference between the application of science and technology in the Muslim world and the West. How can we garnish a revolutionary shift so that Islamic science and technology can flourish in the Muslim world?

Cited source[edit | edit source]


  • Qur'an. Ar-Ra`d:25
  • Iqbal, Muzaffar. "Islam, Science, Muslims, and Technology." Seyyed Hossein Nasr in Conversation with Muzaffar Iqbal. (Islamic Book Trust, 2007. Reprint: Al-Qalam Publishing, 2010).
  • (Adel A. Ziadat, Western Science and the Arab World: The Impact of Darwinism 1860-1930 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1986).
  • Qur'an. Ar-Rum:41
  • Hodgson, Marshall. "The Expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods." Vol. II: The Venture of Islam. (University of Chicago Press, 1974), pp. 329-30.
  • al-Hassan, Ahmad; Hill, Donald. "Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History." (Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 282.
  • Hodgson, Marshall. "Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam, and World History." (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 103-04.
  • Qutb, Syed Shaheed. "Social Justice in Islam." (Damascus, 1977).
  • Segal, Aaron. "Why Does the Muslim World Lag in Science?" Middle East Quarterly. (June 1996), pp. 61-70.
  • Lewis, Bernard. "Islam and the West." (Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 183.
  • Qur'an. Al-Imran:104
  • Sardar, Ziauddin. "Islamic Science: The Way Ahead." (Public lecture: Int’l Conference on Science in Islamic Polity in the 21st century, March 26-30, 1995), 7.
  • Ibn al-Qaysarani (d. 507), Ma`rifa al-Tadhkira (p. 101), #118
  • Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968
  • Salam, Abdus. "Ideals and Realities: Selected Essays of Abdus Salam." (World Scientific, 1987), p. 109.
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