Islam’s Golden Age - I
For Muslims Who Wish to Look and See for Themselves
This is what I shared on the WhatsApp group
of my young (15-24 yo) nephews, Boys2Men, in Ramzan 2022.
This is meant for boys, now becoming mature
men, who have had a conservative Muslim upbringing. If they are to succeed in life, they already
need to, and will always need to answer many questions which they are not well-equipped
to answer. This whole series of posts
was meant to help them become more capable of answering the questions that will
already have started bugging them.
The sequencing makes a great effort to
ensure that they do not switch off.
Also, that they see this series neither as a wholesale approval of what
they have been told by Islamists, nor a wholesale rejection of Muslims / Islam.
[Often, in life, one has to exercise a
third option. It happens when people one
cares about, present a premise that is untrue.
However, rejection of that premise would be seen by them as questioning
the validity of their very existence.
Neither acceptance, nor rejection of their premise is acceptable! At that time, one has to create a third
option, which obviates the need to play that win/lose game. That third option is what I create here. After having exercised it several times in my
life, and most specifically here in this Ramzan2022 series, I saw it in the
TVSerial 'Community', (Season:Episode) 3:9.
Thanks, Greendale7, specifically, Big Cheddar and Tinkletown. For greater clarity, watch that (series
&) episode and then read... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/CommunityS3E09FoosballAndNocturnalVigilantism
...Exhibiting great expertise in / deep
knowledge of a false/undesirable premise is often better than either falsely
accepting or complete shredding of the false premise presented to you by
simpletons, whom you happen to love!].
This Ramzan2022 series also mixes videos
with text so that they do not get too bored and switch off completely. Since these were Ramzan posts, they have a
religious flavour. The reader is
expected to understand that everything is not explicitly stated in this series. In fact, a lot is not even implicitly
stated. It is left for the reader to
grow in his thought process and arrive himself at the conclusions which then
become obvious. Perhaps, you can see
this as a Sufi engagement with his students, whereby he introduces them to
radical concepts only when they are ready to make that jump. And often, leaves them to make the jump
themselves without any further assistance.
This WILL not make much sense to anyone but that set of boys becoming men. (Even to them, I am not too sure if it will).
I have specifically asked girls (and by extension, mature women) to stay away from these posts, since Muslim society does not give them enough space to think for themselves. Those that do, end up having very difficult lives, which I do not want to subject them to. If, however, an adult woman who has already become capable enough to live her life free of her Muslim relatives and society, then she is welcome to read on. But then, she probably does not need it anyway.
I have also tried to keep older, ossified Muslim men away from these posts, for they do not have minds that are open enough to try and understand what I am trying to say here. I also request anti-Muslim people to stay away from this set of posts, for they are not going to like them. And in any case, they are not likely to gain any benefit from this series.
To the remaining, I can only say that you read on, only if you can come on board with the objective of this whole exercise: to make Muslims capable of being constructive, productive & equal members of the modern human society; those, who are committed to & will leave the world a better place than they found it.
Personally, this (and the upcoming Part II of this series) is also an apology to those non-Muslims in this world who have contributed in making me a productive member of this modern human society, which allowed me to live a great and happy life: I am sorry I could not make the world a better place for incoming humans and non-human sentient beings despite my discontinuous and ineffectual efforts to do so.
So, here is my juvenile effort at explaining the Muslim situation, with reference to the Islamic Golden Age of Science, to some Muslim juveniles...
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1.
This Ramzan, see what you can learn from this...
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2.
This video talks about the 'Golden age of Islam'.
A lot of what we are proud of today, stems in the actions taken by Harun and Ma’mun.
This also tells us that Deen has not been static as most of us assume.
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Yesterday, we saw the video about the two most critical pivots of the Islamic Golden Age, the only time Muslims contributed anything useful to human progress.
One of those was the Abbasid Caliph, Harun al-Rashid, and the other was his son, Al-Ma’mun.
Today, we listen to a story from the father, Harun's life.
Remember, all these stories are not to be taken literally. These are meant to teach us something, not recall the truth perfectly. Focus on the message, and just enjoy the story uncritically.
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Today's video is about some glimpses of the Islamic Golden Age of Science.
Ben Kingsley, the actor who immortalized himself in and as Gandhi, introduces the subject beautifully.
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Today, again we talk about Science in the Islamic Golden Age.
You must, now, wonder why it was called a "Golden age" of Islam.
Well, obviously, because Muslims never again did anything worthwhile in Science.
Why did we not do science again? A very important question.
But before that, a MORE important question: what did we DO in that period, which ushered in the Golden Age?
In this video, you will again hear the name of Khalifa Al Ma’mun al Rasheed.
Remember? The same guy we talked about earlier. The son of Khalifa Harun al Rasheed.
What did he and his father do, different from the leaders of Muslims before and since?
Think about that.
Tomorrow, we will again take a break from Science.
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Another story from Harun Rasheed's life, who was the 5th Abbasid Khalifa.
He had many sons.
The most famous and important of Haroon's sons was Al Ma’mun, the 7th Abbasid Caliph.
Another son of Haroon was Al Ameen, who was the 6th Abbasid Caliph, right after Harun (and before Ma’mun).
Yet another son, Al Mu'tasim, was the 8th Abbasid Caliph, after Ma’mun.
(Interestingly, it was the 10th Abbasid Caliph, Al Mutawakkil, a son of this man Al Mu'tasim, who spoiled all the good work of his grandfather, Al Ma’mun, and set the stage for the eventual end of Islamic Golden Age).
Anyway, this story here is about yet another son of Harun, who was very different from all his brothers and nephews, who became Khalifas.
Perhaps, soon we will have to talk about some of the important Muslim dynasties.
It is not very difficult to figure them out.
Most dynasties were either relatives of Huzoor Muhammad SAW, or those of his pre-Conquest enemy, Abu Sufyan.
Or relatives of Genghis (Changez) Khan ...Or... you guessed it, his enemies.
Islam and Islamic history is very simple! Just know two men: Hzr Muhammad SAW and Changez!!
Islam's relationship to knowledge, philosophy and science is five times more complicated: you need to know 10 men: Mansur, Harun, Ma’mun, Mutawakkil, Qadir, Mustasim, Nizam-ul-mulk, Hulagu, Hanbal and Ghazali.
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Another example of science in the Islamic Golden Age.
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From the past, we jump to the future.
I got interested in AI when I was 18. Forty years, and we are not quite there, where I thought we will be, before I die. However, AI may be there where this video suspects, during your lifetimes. Remember, you will have to grapple with this great world-changing advancement.
AI is based on something that is named after a scientist of the Golden Age, Al-Khwarizmi, mathematician and more, known in the West as Algoritmi. You know the word I am talking about – Algorithm.
Tomorrow, we revert to the past. But today, think of the world that you will face, how you will face it, and what lessons you can take from the times of Al-Khwarizmi.
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Back to the Golden Age.
This video gives us one clue as to why the Golden Age was actually Golden: Because the early Abbasids were extremely open.
All kinds of people were given place in Bait ul Hikma, the first University.
Ma’mun even went to the extent of giving the weight of the book in gold to its translators as a special incentive!
Further, many of the learned people thus patronized were not only non-Arab, but also non-Muslim.
And ALL knowledge, so long as it explained reality, was welcomed.
In fact, the main excuse using which Ash'aris later opposed and weakened Bait ul Hikma was the fact that it was headed by a Jew!
So, why were the early Abbasids so open, secular and accepting?
We'll arrive at it by the end of this series.
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This is the 10th video that I am posting on this group. By today, most of you would have finished your primary taraweeh. So, I guess you will now be able to focus better on today’s short video. Today we talk about the 10 most important / largest Islamic Empires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29qFzE_wOi8
In reverse order of areas held, in Million square km, with their relationship – 4 nos – to Hzr Muhammad (saw), OR – 6 nos – to Genghis Khan, these can be listed as below:
#10 – 4 – Ilkhanate – Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan
#9 – 4 – Seljuq – Descendents of Oghuz Khan, 23rd generation grandfather of Genghis Khan
#8 – 4 – Mughals – Descendents of Timur, who called himself heir of Genghis Khan
#7 – 4 – Fatimids – Called themselves descendents of Fatima, daughter of H Muhammad SAW
#6 – 4 – Timurid – Timur, called himself heir of Genghis Khan
#5 – 5 – Ottoman – Descendents of Oghuz Khan, 23rg gen g/f of Genghis Khan
#4 – 6 – Golden Horde – Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan
#3 – 6 – Rashidun – Fathers/Sons-in-Law of H Muhammad SAW
#2 – 11 – Umayyad – Banu Umayya clan, of Abu Sufyan, Cousin & Pre-Conquest Enemy of H Muhammad SAW
#1 – 12 – Abbasids – Banu Hashim clan, of H Muhammad SAW
How to figure these out? We need to understand two sets of relationships: the H Muhammad SAW set and the Mongolian set.
*THE H MUHAMMAD SAW SET*:
In case you want to understand the relationships between the Umayyads (Quresh > Banu Umayya) and Abbasids (Quresh > Banu Hashim > Banu Abbas), their family trees including Hzr Muhammad SAW and (a) his pre-Conquest enemy Abu Sufyan, Hzt Uthman and later Umayyad Caliphs, (b) the Abbasids, you can take a look at:
(a) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Umayads.svg
(b) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Abbasids.png
In (b), the greens are the Abbasid caliphs at Baghdad, and the yellows are the caliphs at Cairo, who were basically only titular caliphs for the Mamluk Sultans. Even that title was snatched away by Ottoman Sultan Selim I.
In case you want to understand the relationship of the Fatimids with H Muhammad SAW, you can refer to https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Fatimids.png
Rashidun relationships were simple. H Abu Bakr RA and H Umar RA were the fathers-in-law of H Muhammad SAW. H Ali RA was the cousin (relationship seen in the Fatimid family tree above) and son-in-law of H Muhammad SAW. H Uthman RA was a double son-in-law of H Muhammad SAW.
Abbasids & Fatimids were related to H Muhammad SAW. Umayyads were related to Abu Sufyan and H Uthman RA. Umayyads were more distant cousins of H Muhammad SAW and H Ali RA.
A reasonably good integration of the different Quraysh families of Mecca can be seen in https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUjdlql4aGf3JgoeWQZfKAkYqWP65BGWpxylQGxy7OhCf9gHTVyyN1-GaWJQ1COuI_3YZu0Q8TX6o-8lQy3TEOnCQOb2qwfn5-hBbvIlulKrt1VtZJ3qXEIZcHCIpDJriM1fsePNHoczy/s1600/khalil+shah+shajrah.bmp
A greater description of the Quraysh can be seen at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quraysh
All these will have given you a good fit on the web of relationships between H Muhammad SAW and several leaders of Islam.
*THE MONGOLIAN SET*:
The other set, as mentioned earlier, was those related to Mongolians, Changez (Genghis) Khan being the prime. That is a much more complicated set than the Quraysh set (H Muhammad SAW set) we have just seen above. We will leave the Mongolian (Mongol / Turk / Tatar) set for now, since it is a much more complicated set, even though all are related in some or the other way to Mongolia and thereabouts.
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Was Ma’mun a fair man?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuKVPGP-qR8
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Today we see the Caspian Report, about the rise and decline of Science in Islam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60JboffOhaw
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnUJACs6bUQ
Today we see a little more about Al Ma’mun’s early times
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So, we were the best. The operative word is “WERE”. Why ARE we not the best? Is it because we have always been victims of history? Or is it that we have historically always created a victimhood narrative? Think about it.
Today, let us listen to one of the best scientific minds / science evangelists alive, Neil deGrasse Tyson. He talks about the Islamic Golden Age. I am sure you would recall that he was the host of the hit show, ‘Cosmos’…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJJLvoDg2_E
Can there be reasons for our failure, other than what NGT says? Sure, there was Hulagu Khan, who burnt Bait al Hikmah & Baghdad, and killed half of its inhabitants.
But if Hulagu Khan was the primary villain, why did we not see another golden age in areas that were free of Mongol/Turkic/Tatar menace, and had great Islamic Caliphates, such as in Egypt and Spain? Why was there no reflowering of the Golden Age? There were many other Islamic empires, including the highly celebrated Ertugrul’s son’s Khilafat-e-Usmania (Ottoman Empire) and India’s own Mughal Empire? We did create architectural wonders such as the Taj Mahal, Alhambra and Blue Mosque. The most beautiful poetry was written by our poets such as Rumi, Hafez and Ghalib. Yet, no science, no mathematics and no philosophy, after the Golden Age!
And great philosophy, great mathematics, great science CAUSE great economy, great technology, great military, great architecture and great poetry, besides a lot of other great things.
Can the loss of a single cultural centre end a civilization? Look at UK’s WWII fall and then, immediate rise of another Western country, USA. Look at Germany. Look at Japan. All part of the Western Civilization. All burnt to a crisp. All immediately rose like phoenix / huma.
Yes, we did keep the technology that was invented during the Golden Age, yet, did not advance science and mathematics, which are the parents of technology. Or, philosophy, the grandmother.
Today, Arabs are the most wasteful consumers of hydrocarbon riches, but even the single science that they depend on today, geology, they do not have a hold on! They play football well, they host World Cups, they drive cars and pilot planes superbly, they have the most fanciful buildings for their universities, but no philosophic or scientific output. Not one Arab/Muslim University, not one Arab/Muslim geologist in https://academicinfluence.com/rankings/people/influential-earth-scientists-today
By contrast, and this is obviously not an exhaustive list, https://www.embibe.com/exams/top-10-engineers-around-the-world/ there are 5 Indian/Hindu engineers in the list of top 10 engineers worldwide today!
So, are we Muslims really victims of some conspiracy? Or, are we unjustly convinced of our own victimhood, stemming from Al Ghazali’s Ash’ari Occasionalism… YOU answer that.
To this day, the syllabus and course work (Dars-e-Nizamiya) established (1091 CE – 1111 CE) by Al-Ghazali in Nizamiyya madrasas (in Baghdad and other Abbasid centers), is followed in madrasas / madarsas almost all over the Indian subcontinent, and to an extent, also around the world. Can we ever create anything if we continue believing that cotton burns every time because Allah wills it to burn every time, and not because Allah has set certain rules by which the system of the cosmos works? And that it is up to us to understand that system of Allah, and make cotton burn where it must, and make it stop burning where it must not?
We keep listening to and following men who have studied Dars-e-Nizamiya that is 900 years out of date! The courseware 1000 years back was more advanced! More in tune with the world and with the natural laws Allah has made! We have stuck to the worst point in Islamic history – that of the belief system concocted in Risāla al-Qādiriyya imposed by the 25th Abbasid Khalifa, Al-Qadir.
This has nothing to do with the Prophet SAW’s Deen / Allah’s Deen. It has everything to do with the power play innovation of Qadir, together with Hanbal / Nizam-ul-Mulk / Ghazali. Even Hanafi scholars were forced by Qadir to follow the Risāla al-Qādiriyya concoction! And the worst thing was that he equated Mu’tazila with Shi’ism!!
And all so-called Ulema have never bothered to read history. History written by Muslims! For these 900 year old men, Qadir’s Islam is the Prophet SAW’s Islam, Allah’s Islam, real Islam! Ghazali’s system has kept us in darkness for 900 years and will keep us there unless at least some educated Muslims start calling Ghazali’s ridiculous Occasionalist bluff!
Or, I fear, all educated Muslims will eventually have to leave the Prophet SAW’s / Allah’s Islam, not knowing that it is Qadir’s / Ghazali’s Islam that they actually needed to leave.
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One of the earliest historical (as opposed to religious) documents of Islam is the contract that was signed between the original citizens of Yathrib (Medina) and H Muhammad SAW. It is believed by researchers to be a pretty authentic document. This short video about it is worth listening. If interested, you can also read the document’s English and Urdu translations.
The Constitution of Medina & What it can tell us about early Islam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABhM0zHyRFc
The actual text of Constitution / Charter of Medina can be seen at…
https://constitution.org/1-Constitution/cons/medina/macharter.htm
In Urdu, here is the text of Misaq-e-Medina...
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyLB0XjZrHU
Reason vs. Literalism? Kalam & Early Islamic Theology
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It is said that Islam has / will have 73 ‘firqas’.
Which one of them, if any, is the ‘right’ Islam?
Why do we assume that the sect we were born in is indeed the ‘right’ Islam? Just because our elders told us that? How did they know that? To what detail has anyone studied all the sects of Islam? Has anyone? Ever? Even to a moderate detail? Who has ever asked why it is not MY duty to study all of the sects of Islam and figure out which is the ‘right’ Islam? We say that Deen is extremely important. Then why do we not study it? Why do we not check whether our elders are following the ‘right’ Islam? Is it not the real Sunnah to figure that out? Did not the Prophet SAW ask everyone to leave their elders’ religion and join him in Islam, based on their own study. If he did not do that, how does the world have more than a billion muslims, from just one? Is that not what Quran asks us to do (e.g., the sons of polytheists are asked in Quran 4:48 and 4:116 to stop praying to all the other gods, which their parents have been praying to)? Why then we do not use our own brains? Isn’t that the REAL Sunnah? Isn’t that the real order of Allah?
If anyone claims that he has studied ALL versions of Islam, ask him about the other sects. Ask him about other religions. How is it possible that Allah sent his prophets ONLY to the Middle East? If Allah did send prophets in China or India or Sub-Saharan Africa or Americas or Australia, has that person studied all the ancient and modern religions of all these regions? If he has, how is he certain that he must stick on, in the firqa he was born in? Why is it that almost all leaders / scholars / ulema / priests of almost all sects of almost all religions were almost all born THERE – in that religion and in that sect? If anyone had studied all other religions or sects, wouldn’t there be a lot of religious scholars who would have changed their religions and/or sects?
Just like children of labourers can be mathematicians. Just like children of physicist can be physicians. Just like the children of those believing in Newtonian Mechanics might believe in Quantum Mechanics. Just like the scions of farmers can be policemen and soldiers and engineers.
True, no physicist does all experiments himself, but he studies all hypotheses and theories with open enough mind to change his trust of one of them to another, or create one altogether new. Since we say that Deen is more important than any particular theory of Mechanics, should we not be studying all sects of Islam, just as we study both Newtonian and Quantum Mechanics?
Which Firqa is right? Ahl as-sunnah? Ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah? Shia? IthnaAshri? Ismaili? Bohra? Khoja? Barelvi? Deobandi? Tablighi? Wahhabi? Salafi? Ahmadi? Nusairi? Druze? Ibadi? Ahmadiyya? Bahai? Quranic? Are different madhabs firqas, if so, which one is right? Mu’tazila? Ash’ari? Maturidi? Sufi? Are different Sufi tariqas different firqas, if so, which one is right? Alawi? Nurcu? Ahl al Hadith? Gulen? Zaidi? Nizari? Mustali? Qarmati? Hizb ut-Tahrir? Ahl a-Ra’y? Muslim Brotherhood? IS? Boko Haram? Hashwiyah?
Which is real Sunni Islam: is it as per the Grozny Declaration of August 2016, or is it as per Kuwait Declaration of November 2016? On what grounds would you consider one of the Declarations right? On what grounds would you consider the followers of that declaration, the right Islam?
You must either use your time and effort to figure out which firqa, if any, is right, i.e., which is the ‘right’ Islam, or stop pretending that you know and follow the ‘right’ Islam.
The situation is clear. As we see every day, the world considers us terrorists, dacoits, uncivil, pests, pirates, slave-runners, rapists.
Or, at the very least, as NGT points out, not functioning at the peak of our constructive potential, WHICH WE DID 1000 YEARS BACK!
We are ruswa-e-zamana. We are the very definition of ignominy.
If we believe that followers of the ‘right’ deen are close to Allah, then we must ask what is wrong in our followership of the ‘right’ deen. Should we outsource such an important thing? Something that decides our success in duniya as well as in aakhirat MUST be worked upon by us. How can it be blindly handed over to the Muslim Brahmins – the ulema? Should we not use our own brains, the greatest gift of Allah to us?
Should we not question the standard answer all ulema have been giving us for centuries – that we face dishonour because we are not good muslims. Well, then, what is the definition of a good Muslim, good Islam? Which is the good firqa? Is mere namaaz, and all that strengthens the position of ulema the real Islam? How long will the canard of ‘Allah is testing us’ be accepted as the unchallenged answer? Allah knows everything, then why does he test us? Allah decides what people will do, then where is the free will to choose our actions and go to heaven or hell?
The only ‘firqa’ that supported the human free will, which can be the only way in which this ‘test’ hypothesis can be justified was Mu’tazila. It was killed by the 25th Abbasid Caliph Qadir and his minions including Nizam ul Mulk and Al Ghazali. How can all these modern day ulema justify killing Mu’tazila and still justify the ‘test’ hypothesis? Is it not our job to question them? Is Quran such a big book? Why don’t we read Quran in translation, rather than just mug it up, or blindly parrot behind these very same ulema? What exactly do ulema study which others cannot, and question them?
Think about it.
Anything can be pursued in 3 ways: in Naql, through Aql and by Dil.
The first step in doing anything is that you copy what powerful people around you are doing. That is, do Naql. So it is perfectly all right to follow blindly what your elders tell you till a certain age.
After that you must move up to the next stage, Aql. You must use your brains to figure out for yourself what is the right way for *anything*.
After you do that, you must at some stage graduate from your rational pursuit and move on to the next creative stage where everything stems out of the deepest part of your being. This is when you are doing that thing with your heart, Dil.
In Islam, the various approaches to Deen can also be divided into using these 3: Naql, Aql, Dil.
For the remainder of this Ramzan we will be looking at some of the 700-1300 year old approaches to Islam. Which of them allowed the Golden Age of Islam to start? Which of them made it end? There were other reasons, certainly, but Allah is Muizz and Muzill. And what you follow as the understanding of the world He gave us, decides whether He will be Muizz for us, or Muzill. So, let’s try and understand some of these historical varieties of Islam. Some are dead, some are still alive. Ask Allah, this Ramzan, to show us the real Siraat-e-Mustaqeem, not just the one that is socially or politically decided for us by our elders and leaders.
Typical examples that you will hear this Ramzan will be:
Naql – Literalism – Ashari, Maturidi
Aql – Islamic Rationalism – Mu’tazila
Dil – Islamic Spiritualism – Sufi
Today’s video is an introduction to the final frontier of Deen – Dil...
‘What is Sufism?’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQirjcT7ENs
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7p5sVoYpi0
Highlights of Mu’tazila.
As we discussed in the previous post, there are 3 ways in which you can do anything.
First is always NAQL, whereby you just follow the leaders in that matter.
The next step is AQL, whereby you use your own mental abilities, your intellect, your mind, your brain and address the matters that cannot be addressed by mere copycat behaviour.
The third step is using your DIL, your own heart, so to say. In other words, you reach the stage of self-actualization, whereby you do not just use your intellectual capabilities. In fact, those matters have become so important for you that your connect to them becomes EMOTIONAL, SPIRITUAL, I dare say, INSTINCTUAL.
We discussed how you connect to Islam with your DIL in the previous post – the Sufi Islam: the version of Islam in which your connect to Allah is EMOTIONAL, SPIRITUAL, almost INSTINCTUAL. We will discuss more about it another time.
For now, let us talk about some terms that you will hear more about. The major approaches to Islam, or Islamic theology, during the Golden Age of Islam were the following:
DIL – Sufism
AQL – Mu’tazila
NAQL – Hashwiyah
Between AQL and NAQL – Ash’ari, Maturidi
Since we have already introduced ourselves to the DIL version of Islamic theology in the last post, let us now talk about the stage before the DIL stage, ie, the AQL stage. When you follow Islam by AQL, you are RATIONAL. This approach to Islamic theology is now dead, killed by those people who understand Allah only through NAQL theology: naql of dil, naql of aql and naql of naql.
Since the rational approach to Islamic theology has been killed, we hear about it only from the killers. Obviously, they talk about it only in very negative terms. This was not always so. When AQL was alive in Muslims, ie, during the Golden Age of Islam, there were many AAQIL followers of Islam.
Al Ma’mun was a notable one. Almost all other greats that created the Golden Age of Islam were also non-NAAQIL, ie, followed a rational brand of Islam. Or, were not even Muslim.
One of the rational schools of thought (versions of Islamic theology) was Mu’tazila which was the State sponsored version of Islam during the times of Al Ma’mun. Unfortunately, the 7th Abbasid Caliph, Al Ma’mun went a bit too far in enforcing the AQL version of Islamic theology. The reaction to his excesses made the 10th Abbasid Caliph, Al Mutawakkil give it up.
In order to get rid of his political rivals, the 25th Abbasid Caliph, Al Qadir went even further and declared the AQL versions of Islam illegal and adopted the NAQL version of Islamic theology as the State Religion. He even forced the NAQL-AQL mid-way versions of Islamic theology (Ash’ari and Maturidi) accept the NAQL version’s assumptions. That made the NAQL version the most popular one then.
Al Qadir, in the process of making Muslims accept NAQL as the official creed of Islam, appointed a young NAQL theologian Al Ghazali, the head of the Baghdad Nizamiyyah (the primary religious university). Through his persuasive writings, Al Ghazali succeeded in making all Muslims hate the AQL version, Mu’tazila.
And when you hate AQL, as your NAQL theology demands you to, you cannot use your aql in anything else either. You hate any rational thought. You hate science. Because, as Ghazali championed, every time a piece of cotton burns, it is not because the rules made by Allah require it to, but because, ON EVERY OCCASION, Allah specifically orders that piece of cotton to burn. So also, orders every apple (and mango and stone and grain of wheat) to fall rather than fly, ON EVERY OCCASION!
So, not only will a NAQL Muslim himself not think about why apple falls, but also hate those people who think about that. He will happily use a mobile phone made on the basis of that very scientific thought, but hate those who think freely about that very science of mobile phone and speak freely. For him, all those who use aql, even those Muslims who are not NAQL Muslims like him, are kaafirs!
Slowly and gradually, AQL has lost its supporters amongst Muslims. As for the Abbasids, the stupid 37th Abbasid Caliph, Al Mustasim not only lost his own crown and life, but that of half of his Baghdad subjects at the hands of that monster, Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis (Changez) Khan.
With the ascent of Mongols, who cared only about their own supremacy, all rational and intellectual thought process was ended amongst Muslims. Why? Because most Muslims started thinking what Al Ghazali asked them to – ON EVERY OCCASION, Allah wills and thus orders, for THAT SPECIFIC OCCASION, the cotton to burn, the apple to fall, the Sun to shine, a child to be born! If so, why waste your time trying to study nature. Might as well just enjoy life after following some mindless NAQL rituals.
Thus set the brilliant sun of the Golden Age of Islam.
Never to rise again.
Muslims today believe that NAQL means Islam. Obviously, no intellectual work is ever done by us.
In today’s world, we just do some virtue signalling and then go buy mobile phones and bikes and cars and have fun, while doing nothing useful for the world, whose very efforts actually produced all those phones and bikes and cars!
Though, from Sir Syed Ahmed Khan onwards, a minuscule minority of Muslims has started showing some interest in rational thought. Those who are lucky enough to live for a while under the secular aegis of the Western Civilization have been able to achieve some degree of rational, scientific knowledge. Some have even become Noble laureates.
There is hope yet. If Muslims can right the ship of Islam back to Rationalism, through a modern version of Mu’tazila, or a different rational version of Islam, we might still see a renaissance of Muslim civilizations.
If not, we will perhaps drag the rest of the world into our Jahiliyyah, where we now have gone back into. Funnily enough, we will keep thinking that we are following the Truth, but in truth, we shall remain the greatest enemies of truth that we are, today.
Today’s post was about Mu’tazila, the historical, now dead rational version of Islamic theology.
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19.
Between NAQL, AQL and DIL, we have already talked about the DIL and AQL schools (versions) of Islamic theology. That leaves out the NAQL and the mid-way schools.
We will not try to understand the Literalist School, the pure NAQL school of Islamic theology, often called Hashwiyyah. Because thanks to the political machinations of Al Qadir, Asharis went from being more Mu’tazila to more Hashwiyyah. Let us just understand the Ashari school of Islamic theology. Also, we will not try and understand the Maturidi, or other theological schools.
An easy video explaining Ashari with respect to Mu’tazela:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClBLyqxv8W4
You can also see the Ashari-specific part of a video that I had posted earlier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YVxJoJUlss
If you want a detailed exposition of Ashari philosophy, then listen to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf2YxqqS7pI
You may want to think about which category currently known Sunni Islamic worldview threads into.
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20.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbE7jwU8Hnw
This simple video explains the basic stand of the Rationalist Islam (Mu’tazila) versus that of the Literalist Islam (Hashwiyyah), latter-day Ashari etc.
Al Ma’mun supported the Rationalist Islam, but in the process of giving that support, he went too far and started the Mihna (state policy of punishing those who did not follow Rational Islam). The result was that the popular opinion started supporting the simplistic Literalist versions of Islam.
Al Ghazali supported the near-Literalist version, Ashari, and through that support in his books and courseware in the Nizamiyyahs, he essentially killed Rationalist Islam. He was a complicated man – apart from near-Literalism, he also supported Sufism. Unfortunately, because of his near-Literalist stand, Al Ghazali only spawned Naql of Naql, and to some extent, Naql of Dil. He distrusted Aql altogether, so his impact led to Muslims gradually shunning all aql activities like Science, Mathematics and Philosophy.
Al Ghazali, due to his near-Literalist compulsions, supported the stance of Occasionalism - that Cotton, when put in fire does not burn because of the rules of Physics that He has made, but because He wills it, in every moment to burn or not burn. That the Cosmos is like a celluloid movie reel, which has zillions of photographs for every different moment, each of which is literally created anew by Allah.
This resulted in Muslims losing interest in finding out why cotton burns, indeed, why anything happens.
The result is what we see today: most Muslims are religiously committed to irrationality, especially amongst the Sunni firqas, the ones, 25th Abbasid Caliph defined, for his own nefarious political purposes.
Shias, though they pretend to support Mu’tazila, are also largely, though not as badly as Sunnis, the victims of the same irrationality.
Al Qadir, the 25th Abbasid Caliph and Al Ghazali, for their own reasons, so strongly established irrationality within Muslims, that today, not even the so called Ulema know, how their beliefs are making their flock the butt of ridicule/pity and hate, the world over. The latter, because of the ease with which Muslims threaten and initiate violence.
I suspect that if we followed the rationalist worldview of Mu’tazila, we might not have been this free with violence: after all we would be responsible for it. Ghazali’s Ashari Occasionalism has made our violence, and general irresponsibility, the responsibility of Allah!
We believe the Holy Quran to be the Uncreated Word of Allah, thereby believing that nothing ever changes and that there is no point in understanding how anything works. Thus, today, when we look for solutions to our problems, we never look for what may work, we merely parrot what we have been told since Al Ghazali, in the Dars-e-Nizami cursed madarsas!
In almost 800 years, except for a few thinking Muslims like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, we have not had many leaders who promoted rational and effective problem solving. Every generation is told that they are failures because they are not following the eternal ways of Quran, Hadith and Salaf. Some, who take those words to their hearts, end up becoming Daesh, Boko Haram and the like.
If Mu’tazila were not killed by Al Qadir, Nizam-ul-Mulk, Al Ghazali, Hulagu Khan and his stupid descendents, we would have accepted long back that the Quran, the Hadith, the Sirah were the perfect solution to a particular situation. And that, we now need to look for solutions in the Quran, the Hadith and the Sirah IN SPIRIT and not in literal words!
Now, if we continue to remain the slaves of 25th Abbasid Caliph Al-Qadir, instead of heeding to the rational words of the 7th Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma’mun, we will continue being the pests of the world.
The Golden Age of Islam will, of course, never come again. Because unless Muslims become friends again with rationalism, a new Mu’tazila, we will remain the enemies of all civilized societies, and the world will be forced to wake up to our menace some day and exterminate us as pests, as did Spain, long back!
Having traversed all three levels of Deen – NAQL, AQL and DIL, tomorrow, Insha Allah, we will begin wrapping up this Ramzan series of the Islamic Golden Age.
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21.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwqenzfN3Xg
A little more about Ma’mun and why he was instrumental in bringing about the Islamic Golden Age.
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22.
This is going to be the longest of all posts this Ramzan. But good thing is that after this post, there will be only two more posts in this series.
Now that we have understood some facts about the Abbasid Caliphate and some of the early Abbasid Caliphs – Harun, Ma’mun, Mutawakkil, Qadir – those who were instrumental in ushering in, and also sowing the seeds of the end of Islamic Golden Age, let us do a deep dive into some data about Islam, from Islamic sources.
Today, we talk about the important dates of Islam, including the dates of important events, personages and foundational books of Islam and Islamic History – all written by Muslims. All that I have been sharing about Islamic political and scientific history so far, is based on these same books and their follow-ons. Since the dates of the writing of books are not clear enough to share, we will try and understand them through the dates of death of their writers.
I am avoiding any slaves’ related matters in this part.
All dates are in CE – Common Era.
· Birth of Hzr Muhammad SAW – 570
· Marriage to H Khadija RA – 595
· First Vahi (Quran 96:1-5) – 610
· Death of Waraqah ibn Nawfal / Temporary cessation of Vahi – 610
· Migration to Abyssinia (Habshah – Current Ethiopia & Eritrea, not incl H Muhammad SAW) – 613 or 615
· Year of Sorrows (Both protectors of Hzr Muhammad SAW, H Khadija RA & Abu Talib, die) – 619
· First 100 people converted to Islam - c620
· Hijrah (Migration to Yathrib – Medina – Incl Hzr Muhammad SAW) – Jun/Jul 622
· Meesaq Madina (Contract / Treaty / Constitution of Medina) – 622
·
1st Caravan raid / Military
operation by Muslims on Meccans (Sariyya Saifal
Bahar – Under Hamza) – Mar 623
·
1st person killed in
skirmish in the name of Islam (Amr by Waqid ibn Abdullah) – Jan 624
·
1st Assassination by
Muslims (Poetess 'Asma' bint Marwan) – Jan 624
·
1st Offensive Battle by
Muslims (Ghazwa Badar) – Mar 624
·
1st Official Male
Assassination by Muslims (Poet Ka'b
ibn al-Ashraf) – Sep 624
·
1st
Assassination attempt on Hzr Muhammad SAW (by Ghwarath ibn al-Harith) – Sep 624
·
1st
Offensive Battle by Meccans (Ghazwa Uhud) – Mar 625
·
Stalemate
of Ghazwa Khandaq / 1st Massacre by Muslims (400-900 men, Banu
Qurayza) –627
· Fath Makkah (Conquest of Mecca) – Minimal loss of life (12 Meccans, 2 Muslims, 10 orders to kill, of which perhaps 5 were killed) – Dec 629 / Jan 630
· Last of 95 Maghazi (plural of Ghazwa, including Saraya) of Hzr Muhammad SAW between Hijrah and Wafaat, almost a 10 year period – 632
· Passing Away of Hzr Muhammad SAW / Ascension (as Caliph) of H Abu Bakr RA – 632
· 1st Official Compilation of Written Quran (By the order of H Abu Bakr RA – 1st Committee – 12 members – under Zayd ibn Thabit – only from available written fragments) – 633/634
· Passing Away of H Abu Bakr RA / Ascension of H Umar RA– 634
· Assassination of H Umar RA / Ascension of H Uthman RA – 644
· 2nd Official Compilation of Written Quran [By the order of H Uthman RA – 2nd Committee – 3 members – under Zayd ibn Thabit – Destruction, by the decree of H Uthman RA, of all other manuscripts except that with H Hafsa RA – which was used as the main source for this compilation (that was also destroyed later on) – H Uthman’s version accepted as standard by all Sunni scholars and all modern Shia scholars – Contains only the Qureshi Harf and not the other 6 ahruf of Quran – Did not include diacritical marks (zabar/zaer/paesh, ie, vowels) – Non-chronological] – c650
· Assassination of H Uthman RA / Ascension of H Ali RA – 656
· Other Codices, Manuscripts and Styles of Quran (H Ali RA’s, Abdullah ibn Masud's, Ubay ibn Ka'b's, Sanaa manuscript, Early & New Abbasid Style, Cairo, Saudi) – No Idea
· Fitna Awwal (First Civil War – H Ali RA vs. H Ayesha RA & Muawiyah I - Founder of Umayyad Dynasty, Son of Abu Sufyan, Cousin of H Uthman RA) – 656 to 661
· Fitna Awwal: Battle of Camel / Jamel / Basra – 656
· Fitna Awwal: Battle of Siffin / Yawm Siffin – 657
· Fitna Awwal: Battle of Nahrawan / Ma’rkah Naharwan – 658
· Assassination of H Ali RA / Hasan’s Kufan election – 661
· Abdication of Hassan / Ascension of Muawiyah I – 661
· Murder of Hasan – 670
· Murder (by some accounts) of H Ayesha RA - 678
· Muawiyah I dies / Yazid I ascends - 680
· Assassination of Husayn – 680
· Yazid I dies / Muawiyah II (followed by 12 more Umayyad caliphs, at Damascus) ascends – 683
· The Book of Sulaym ibn Qays by (doubtful) Sulaym ibn Qays – d714
· Wāṣil ibn ʿAtāʾ dies, after founding Mu’tazila, the Islamic Rationalist worldview – d748
· Marwan II, 14th Umayyad Caliph killed on the run / As-Saffah founds Abbasid dynasty – 750
· Saffah dies of smallpox / Al Mansur ascends, Founds Baghdad – 754
· Sīrat RasūlAllāh (supposedly lost) by Ibn Ishaq – d767
· Al-Fiqh al-Akbar by Abu Hanifa – d767
· Kitab al-Athar of Imam Abu Hanifa – d767
· Mansur dies / Al Mahdi ascends – 775
· Mahdi dies / Al Hadi ascends – 785
· Hadi dies / 5th ABBASID CALIPH HARUN AL RASHID ascends – 786
· Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik ibn Anas – d795
· Usul al-fiqh by Abu Yusuf (1st major scholar of Hanafi school) – d798
· The Great Book of Mercy by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān – d806
· The One Hundred and Twelve Books by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān – d806
· The Seventy Books by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān – d806
· 5th ABBASID CALIPH HARUN dies / Al Amin ascends – 809
· Amin is killed / 7th ABBASID CALIPH AL MA’MUN ascends, adopts Mu’tazila, Islamic Rationalism as State doctrine – 813
· Kitab al-Umm by ash-Shafi'i – d820
· Al-Risala by Al-Shafi'i – d820
· Musnad of Imam Shafi‘i – d820
· Al-Sirah Al-Nabawiyyah by Ibn Hisham (supposedly edited version of Ibn Ishaq’s book) – d833
· 7TH ABBASID CALIPH Ma’mun dies / Al Mutasim ascends – 833
· Mutasim dies / Al Wathiq ascends – 842
· Wathiq dies / 10th ABBASID CALIPH AL MUTAWAKKIL ascends, discards Mu’tazila, Islamic Rationalism, as the State doctrine – 847
· On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals by Al Khwarizmi – d847
· The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing by Al Khwarizmi – d847
· Book of Indian computation by Al Khwarizmi – d847
· Astronomical tables of Siddhanta by Al Khwarizmi – d847
· Zīj al-Sindhind by Al Khwarizmi – d847
· Book of the Description of the Earth by Al Khwarizmi – d847
· Al Mudawanna by Sahnun (1st of Maliki school) – d855
· Masāʾil of Ahmad ibn Hanbal – d855
· Ar-Radd 'alalJahmiyyahwaz-Zanaadaqah by Ahmed Bin Hanbal – d855
· Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal – d855
· 10th ABBASID CALIPH MUTAWAKKIL dies (14 more caliphs till the 25th Abbasid Caliph) – 861
· A Compendium of the Science of the Stars by Al-Farghani – d870
· Sahih Bukhari of Muhammad al-Bukhari – d870
· Book of Ingenious Devices by Banu Musa (brothers) – d873
· The Book of the Judgement of the Stars by Al Kindi – d873
· De radiisstellarum by Al Kindi – d873
· On the Use of the Indian Numerals by Al Kindi – d873
· Treatise on the Efficient Cause of the Flow and Ebb by Al Kindi – d873
· Sahih Muslim of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj – d875
· Sunan Ibn Majah of Ibn Majah – d887
· Sunan Abu Dawud of Abu Dawood – d889
· Jami` at-Tirmidhi of Al-Tirmidhi – d892
· De Anno Solis by Thābit ibn Qurra – d901
· Book of the Steelyard by Thābit ibn Qurra – d901
· Al-Sunan al-Sughra of Al-Nasa'i – d915
· Tafsir al-Tabari by Al-Tabari – d923
· Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk by Al-Tabari – d923
· The Virtuous Life by Abu Bakr al-Razi – d925
· Proving the Science of Medicine by Abu Bakr al-Razi – d925
· The Prophets' Fraudulent Tricks by Abu Bakr al-Razi – d925
· Book of Astronomical Tables by Al Battani – d929
· Kitābaz-Zījaṣ-Ṣābi’ by Al Battani – d929
· Kitab al-Kafi of Kulayni – d941
· The Necessity of the Art of the Elixir by Al Farabi – d950
· Social Psychology and Principles … of the Virtuous City by Al Farabi – d950
· Kitab al-Musiqa by Al Farabi – d950
· On Vacuum by Al Farabi – d950
· Book of Fixed Stars by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi – d986
· Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih of Shaikh Saduq – d991
· 25th ABBASID CALIPH, AL QADIR ascends, during his 40 years as Caliph, for reasons of increasing his political power, bans Mu’tazila (Islamic Rationalism), CREATES and adopts an extreme interpretation of Hanbali-Ash’ari Literal Occasionalism as State / Sunni official doctrine, seriously and perennially wounding any Rational thought amongst Sunnis specifically and Muslims generally – 991
· Kitāb al-Taṣrīf by Al Zarawi – d1013
· 25th ABBASID CALIPH Qadir dies / Al Qaim ascends as 26th Abbasid Caliph, who eventually grants the title ‘Sultan’ to Seljuqs: Tughril (1037), Alp Arsalan (1063) and Malik Shah I (1072), and is followed by 11 more Abbasid Caliphs till 37th, the last Abbasid Caliph, Al Mustasim – 1031
· The Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sina – d1037
· The Book of Healing by Ibn Sina – d1037
· The Book of Salvation by Ibn Sina – d1037
· Book of Optics by Ibn al-Haytham – d1040
· Discourse on Place by Ibn al-Haytham – d1040
· Finding the Direction of Qibla by Calculation by Ibn al-Haytham – d1040
· A Critical Study of What India Says, Whether Accepted by Reason or Refused by Al Biruni– d1050
· The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries by Al Biruni – d1050
· Alp Arsalan becomes (Seljuq) Sultan; Appoints Nizam-ul-Mulk as Vizier – 1063
· Nizam-ul-Mulk establishes Nizamiyyah of Baghdad (Nizamiyyahs in other cities later) – 1065
· Tahdhib al-Ahkam of Shaikh Tusi – d1067
· Al-Istibsar of Shaikh Tusi – d1067
· Nizam-ul-Mulk appoints Al Ghazali, the Ash’ari (Literal Occassionalist, and enemy of Islamic Rationalism, Mu’tazila) as Professor of Nizamiyyah at Baghdad – 1091
· Nizam-ul-Mulk assassinated – 1092
· Incoherence of the Philosophers by Al Ghazali – d1111
· The Revival of Religious Sciences by Al Ghazali – d1111
· Al Ghazali (Qadir / Nizam-ul-mulk appointee) dies, after hammering the last nail in the coffin of Islamic Rationalist school, Mu’tazila. Al Ghazali created Occasionalist-irrationalist courseware, Dars-e-Nizami, which was adopted in all Nizamiyyahs as the official course material. That same irrationalist syllabus and course material continues to this day in Madarsas for Aalim and higher courses, resulting in all Muslim ulema learning only irrationalist version of Islam, and not the rationalist version of Islam, which has been comprehensively destroyed by Al Ghazali through his books and courseware. Thanks to Mutawakkil, Qadir, Nizam-ul-mulk, Hanbal and Ghazali, (and later Mustasim & Hulagu Khan) Muslims will never again be rational. They will only do Naql: Naql of the established, Naql of Aql and even Naql of Dil. The purported Mujaddid, the murderer of the Rational Interpretation of Islam, the killer of all Spirit of Inquiry and Learning, the Prime Institutor of Jihalat amongst Muslims for almost a millennium, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad aṭ-Ṭūsiyy al-Ġaz(z)ālīy; Latinized Algazelus or Algazel, dies - 1111
· A commentary on Euclid's Elements by Omar Khayyam – d1131
· The difficulties of arithmetic by Omar Khayyam – d1131
· Rubaiyaat by Omar Khayyam – d1131
· Exposition of the Methods of Proof by Ibn Rushd– d1198
· Incoherence of the Incoherence by Ibn Rushd – d1198
· The General Principles of Medicine by Ibn Rushd – d1198
· Al Mustasim becomes the 37th Abbasid Caliph – 1242
· Hulagu Khan kills Al Mustasim, many many people, Bait al Hikmah and Baghdad – 1258
The wholeStory of Baghdad, completely intertwined with Bait al Hikmah and the Golden Age of Islam / Islamic Enlightenment / Science / Arabs can be seen in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2MmjMsYuF8
After the Abbasids, knowledge related enlightenment was never again striven for, by Muslims, and in Islamic dispensations, even though many Islamic empires rose to great riches, controlled great territories, built great monuments and so forth.
The problem with being consumers of knowledge, as opposed to being producers of it, is that you always remain pests. Which is what Muslims have been and have been seen as, for quite a while now.
There seems to be some improvement, since Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, in that state of affairs due to the efforts of a few individuals who have made it to the best scientific institutions of the Western Civilization. These people have got opportunities to shine and create along with the best of the best. And a few have actually managed to create completely new knowledge (which, as per the worldview of Muslims, starting from al-I`tiqad al-Qadiri – see below – till today, is greatly undesirable).
It must be noted, however, that this new creativity of Muslims has come under the aegis of the Western Civilization, just like that of many individuals in the Islamic Golden Age, who were not Muslim by faith, and many others who were not Muslim by today’s mainstream Muslim definition of Islam. They were only working under the auspices of one of the most open and secular of all Muslim empires, the Abbasids. Most critically, it must be noted that even these Muslims who succeed today in the Western World, in furthering the borders of knowledge almost never adhere to the Qadir Innovation (al-I`tiqad al-Qadiri).
Qadir’s innovation was formalized in Risāla al-Qādiriyya ('Epistle of al-Qadir') as al-I`tiqad al-Qadiri (the Profession or Creed of al-Qadir). Interestingly, with that innovation, he made innovation impossible in Islamic thought. Another unfortunate effect of his opposition to both Shi’ism for reasons of politics and Mu’tazila for reasons of populism, was that in most minds Mu’tazila (and Ijtihad) became associated with Shi’ism, thus undesirable.
Al Qadir, through al-I`tiqad al-Qadiri, banned all possible understandings of Islam except that which can be called Hanbali-Ash’ari-Ghazali (Irrational) Occasionalism. This is that understanding of reality in which Allah does not function through certain principles, which we now understand as ‘laws’ of science, but orders every single occasion individually. Such that, if cotton (or paper / wood / petrol / LPG) burns, it is not because of certain immutable laws made by Allah, that necessarily require such a thing to happen given all necessary conditions, but because ON EVERY SINGLE OCCASION ALLAH WILLS IT AND THUS MAKES IT SO!
This is such an atrocious, irrational and impossible understanding that it can only be justified through Monism / Advaita / Nondualism / Wahdat-al-wujud, which is what Sufis did. After al-I`tiqad al-Qadiri took hold, the only manner in which thinking people could believe in Islam was through DIL – through defining Allah as the Cosmos – as a superset of oneself – and loving Him thence.
This understanding cannot be justified through the Dualistic Monotheism which was championed by Al Qadir / Al Ghazali / Hanbal / Other Imams. Why? Because that would mean that there is a superduperhuman like god sitting there ordering every single electron to move, or not, and from where, to where, in time how much, for current to flow, or not. Thus, every time you charge your mobile phone, that god orders 10^23 electrons, obviously individually, to move from one place to another, at certain times! And that, constantly over the whole of Cosmos, only the known of which contains 10^81 electrons!
Al Qadir’s political innovation, al-I`tiqad al-Qadiri, was for gaining more power for himself, but that has bogged us down, the self-proclaimed Muslims, in a version of Islam which is neither possible, nor was championed by the earliest Muslims who had brains and used them to understand and further Islam.
You will note that almost all progress of knowledge amongst Muslims has happened only when there was support for Islamic Rationalism. You will also notice that the modern Muslims who have done well in scientific works, as anecdotally justified by the Noble prizes in science received by them, has only been done in Western Countries and by those Muslims who do not adhere to al-I`tiqad al-Qadiri, which is the unseen millstone around the necks of a billion Sunni Muslims.
You will also note that everything that I have written / concluded today is mere common sense.
The three noble prizes in sciences won by people who call(ed) themselves Muslim:
Noble Prize 1979 – Physics – 1/3 – Dr Abdus Salam, Imperial College, London, UK – Ahmadi; Declared non-Muslim in his native country Pakistan – d1996
Noble Prize 1999 – Chemistry – 1/1 – Dr Ahmed H. Zewail, Cal Tech, Pasadena, USA – Sufi Rationalist; Accused of apostasy – d2016
Noble Prize 2015 – Chemistry – 1/3 – Dr Aziz Sancar, Univ of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA – Twelver Shia Rationalist – NA
I hope this long list which is a sort of a history of Islamic understanding of reality will be of use for those Muslims who wish to look and see for themselves. I hope that you are one of those.
Thanks for reading through. There are only two remaining posts for this Ramzan. If you need to understand what these Ramzan 2022 posts were all about, you basically only need to read today’s post. All others were only for bringing us here.
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23.
I wonder if any of you remember the first video that I posted in this Ramzan 2022 series. With Jackie Chan, there was the 2010 Karate Kid, Jaden Smith, son of Jada and Will Smith, playing Dre Parker.
What was Dre Parker doing in that early part of his story? He wanted to solve his problems with little effort (i.e., without making any real effort).
This is exactly what you see most Muslims doing today. They want glory in this world (Duniya) as well as in the Hereafter (Deen) by doing nothing (or close to nothing, i.e., by merely doing namaaz, roza, taraweeh and such). They want life to teach them how to solve their problems effortlessly, and on their own terms and conditions.
What did Mr Han (the Jackie Chan character) do?
Mr Han taught Dre Parker the basic lesson first – there is no gain without pain (no pain, no gain). And pain of the type you neither want, nor are prepared to take. (We accept pains that WE think we will need to bear. However, it is rarely so. When we want to achieve something, we need to take unexpected and greater pains. Unless we are ready to be proven wrong, we will never know enough to become right).
The first thing that you need to do is to take pains following the instructions of the one you take as your teacher (and who accepts you as a student).
In Deen, as in Duniya, the first step is NAQL – to follow without question. But, with passion.
However, as you learn how to do effective NAQL, you must apply AQL, as you see Dre Parker doing (in this video) with the guidance of Mr. Han...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdV_Nygy5MY
And finally, you apply your DIL to NAQL and AQL...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt6VzQ_0k_I
In Deen, as much as in Duniya, if you wish to succeed, you have to follow all 3 stages – NAQL, AQL and DIL.
-
Remember, as Mr Han pointed out to Dre Parker at the Dragon Well, there is a huge difference between Doing Nothing and Being Still.
The way things work, in Duniya as well as in Deen, is through these steps:
Doing Nothing
NAQL
AQL
DIL
Being Still
You know what Doing Nothing is. During Ramzan, with respect to Deen, you are encouraged / forced by your elders, as Dre Parker was forced by Mr Han in the first video, to stop Doing Nothing, and start doing naql... Proper NAQL.
Through this series, I have tried to take you through the next two steps, AQL and DIL. In Deen. In Duniya, I do it the other 11 months. All I ask you to do, is to move beyond NAQL, and into AQL and DIL, in matters of Deen too.
Once you do that, Being Still, or being As Salaam, Al Quddus, Al Lateef, Al Haleem, Al Hakeem, Al Wadood, Al Mateen, Al Ghaniyy, As Saboor and a lot more comes naturally to you.
The next post will be the last of this series.
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24.
This is the last post of this series.
I am sure that none of you actually saw, read and remembered all that I posted for you guys.
I never expected you to – there is far too much shit that is thrown towards you, for you to take what I share, seriously.
I understand you. I see you. I feel you.
But let me tell you a secret: this IS life.
All your life you WILL ALWAYS have shit thrown at you. Each one of us is a muhammad in his own right. We will always have, not just people we do not care about, but even our dearest ones oppose us, demean us, spread thorns in our way, throw trash in our house, heap on us the worst refuse they can, and that, especially when we are doing what matters to us the most.
You are not alone in facing this shit.
H Muhammad SAW was not alone in facing this shit.
Everyone faces it. I also face it. All those that you think are giving you shit also face it.
Everyone has a Surah Masad / Lahab (Tabbat yadaa...) for someone he loves.
Abu Talib was the uncle who brought up H Muhammad SAW after the death of Abdul Muttalib, the Prophet SAW’s grandfather. Abu Talib loved his nephew H Muhammad SAW greatly, but despite all the efforts of the latter SAW, even to the extent of asking Abu Talib on his deathbed to whisper the first kalma in the Prophet SAW’s ear, Abu Talib refused to accept the Prophet SAW’s way. However, since there was no political rivalry between the two, in fact, Abu Talib was a protector to the Prophet SAW, both continued to love each other almost until the death of Abu Talib.
Abu Lahab, another uncle, who succeeded Abu Talib as the head of their clan, also loved his nephew. He sent his slave maid to nurse (i.e., feed milk to) H Muhammad SAW when he was born. Abu Lahab was so happy that he freed her. However, later he also saw the Prophet SAW as his rival for Banu Hashim leadership and a problem creator for Banu Hashim clan amongst the Quresh. After all, despite more than a decade of proselytization, H Muhammad SAW barely had a hundred or so followers in Mecca. And a lot of opposition amongst the Meccans, on account of his opposition to the Meccan Deen, and his being disrespectful of Meccans’gods.
Quite naturally, Abu Lahab thought it proper to bring the Prophet SAW back to what he believed was the right way. He was, after all, 21 years older than H Muhammad SAW, and to boot, his uncle and head of his clan – correcting his younger relatives’ mistakes was his job. (Just as you guys try to correct brothers / cousins younger than you despite not having an age difference of even a decade). H Muhammad SAW was also equally convinced that he needed to bring his uncle on the right way. Both believed, very strongly, that their own way was right. Both wanted the other to leave their way and follow a different way. Both did not want to leave their own way in favour of a different way. The rivalry increased so much that we even have the Surah Masad in the Quran!
Now, if you think that this is a 100% Black & White situation, you are doing yourself a disservice.
NOTHING in life is Black & White. Everything is grey. And for some Aarifeen, rainbow hewed. The reason we see Abu Lahab as an undiluted evil is only because there is no one who tells us Abu Lahab’s story. On the other hand, we have several billion who have believed, told and retold H Muhammad SAW’s side of the story. And some of those are the people we love and depend / have depended upon for our very survival. Further, anything you hear all the time, especially from people you respect, you begin to believe it without question. Just like every simple Hindu today hears that Muslims are his enemies and he starts believing it.
We Muslims, of course, do not help improve the situation. We announce, on loudspeakers, 15 times a day that Hindus’ gods are false (Azaan – 2 x “I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah” and 1 x “There is no deity but Allah”). What if Hindus choose to do the same about Allah, and by extension, imply that Na’uzobillah, H Muhammad SAW was a false prophet?
We are perennially insensitive towards Hindu beliefs. And we do this despite the express instruction in Quran 6:108 (˹O believers!˺ Do not insult what they invoke besides Allah or they will insult Allah spitefully out of ignorance. This is how We have made each people’s deeds appealing to them. Then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them of what they used to do).
Yet, we get upset at the slightest observation we dislike, forget about provocation. We are, in truth, hypocrites - a people that have double standards.
We. Throw. Shit.
So, you accept it or you don’t: You will always get shit from assholes you love, and more importantly you WILL always THROW shit on people who love you and whom you love.
Once again, look at yourselves: Each one of you gets shit from your other brothers / cousins AND each one of you throws shit at your other brothers / cousins.
I am sure each one of you has time and again also felt that I throw shit at you. But, how many of you, how many times have asked me what I feel about how you treat me?
Always remember that while you get shit, you ALSO heap shit on others. NEVER BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE GOOD ONE and the other, the bad one. We always believe that we are right and the other person wrong, ONLY because we see ourselves from the inside and others from the outside.
I took the trouble of posting this series because this Ramzan I am not with you guys physically and cannot prepare you for the world that is getting shittier by the day. And primarily, the issue is our Deen: the chasm between how we and the others see it.
You need to know a lot more about Islam than my generation could manage with. Your world is also going to be much broader than your elders. Because your uncles and aunts and grandmother and Aalim Sahebs and even friends have little incentive for figuring out how the world views Muslims, they will keep pushing you into the age old belief system: Islam is the only correct deen and your own firqa is the only saved firqa.
You can believe whatever you want. I have always supported and shall always support you in whatever you believe.
However, do know that belief is “Manana / मानना / ماننا”. And knowledge is “Janana / जानना / جاننا”. My job is to help you KNOW, not merely believe. There are, already, far too many people that will do the other job for you – pushing you into their own belief system.
And even though right now you feel that it is unimportant, probably even irritating, what I shared in this series with you, I am certain that very soon there will come a day when you will necessarily need to know what I have shared in this series.
I know that that day is not today. And I am OK with you getting irritated with me today. All I ask you to do is to keep this series safe. Remember that you have it. And read it when you find that you are cornered, as a Muslim, so badly that nothing that you already know, can help you out of that corner.
So, the Final Restatement: In Deen, as in Duniya, Copying (NAQL) comes easy. You then need to use your Brain/Mind/Intellect (AQL). And, if you wish to be really good, you MUST finally, necessarily use your Heart (DIL).
Don’t just follow anyone blindly.
Especially in Deen. Because if you do, you, personaly, will also be responsible for the ongoing ignominy of Muslims and Islam.
Also Remember: this whole series says less, implies more and leaves the most for you to arrive at, with your own efforts.
End of Ramzan 2022 posts.
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Let me know what you want more (Islam / Non-Islam) discussion on, after Eid. If there is sufficient traction then I will start that series. Otherwise, I will use my time more usefully.
I am in the process of writing out the second part of this series (I do not know how much time it will take). That will primarily be text and will try to answer some of the question(s) raised here.
This series was for Boys getting on to be men. Part II will be for those who have already become men and are capable of asking tough questions, answering them themselves and listening to alternate answers given by others, with an open mind.
Once again, the second part will not be for girls / women, for the simple reason that Muslim society today does not allow women the liberty to use their own brains. Those women who do, end up with extremely difficult social lives. And I do not want to subject any girls / women I love, to end up with difficult lives.
I will NOT be posting the second part here. I do not believe that any of you have reached the level of maturity necessary to go through that Part II. When you believe you have, look for it on the ‘Net. If I have completed it, you will find it.
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I end this series with 3 verses from Quran. Allah is asking you to use reason, not consider anything correct unless you have gathered sufficient evidence through your senses (and extensions) and even so, be humble:
Indeed,
the worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are the deaf and dumb who
do not use reason.
https://legacy.quran.com/17/36
And
do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the
sight and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned.
https://legacy.quran.com/17/37
And
do not walk upon the earth exultantly. Indeed, you will never tear the earth
[apart], and you will never reach the mountains in height.
This above, is effectively the Constitution of Science. For 800 years, we have not followed it. For 800 years, we have not followed the explicit instructions of Allah.
For 800 years, we have not applied reason, we have not gathered evidence and have always arrogantly assumed that whatever we believe, ipso facto, is the truth.
I humbly request you to use these last days and nights of Ramzan to reflect (Quran 47:24) and think (Quran 6:50).
First, Deen is NAQL. Then, Deen is AQL. Last, Deen is DIL.
Endeavour to move up a step between this Ramzan and the next.
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Transcript of the Ramzan2022 posts (with some modifications) – this Word file – if you have missed following the series, is available on my blog: https://owais1poetry.blogspot.com/2022/04/islams-golden-age-i.html
