A battle broke out in the streets of Baghdad. This was no fight over the presence of Americans, or flare up between Sunnis and Shi'ites. No, this was a battle over the role of rationalism, and it was fought -- literally fought -- more than a thousand years ago between followers of differing schools of Islam. It is a jihad that could not be more relevant today.
The struggle then, as now, lay between Muslims who sought to advance human knowledge within Islam and those who championed mere backward-looking obedience to the dominant interpretation of Islam. The death of Osama bin Laden coming, as it does, following the birth of liberation movements in Tunesia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, and other Muslim countries creates an extraordinary moment of opportunity for reform -- and restoration -- in Islam. Restoration? Read on.
For centuries after the founding of Islam around 622 C.E., progress prevailed. Brilliant Muslim scholars gathered in the wisdom of the ancient world, compounded, and enriched it.
To take but one instance, with creation of the Beyt al Hiqma, or House of Wisdom, by the 9th century caliphs Harun al-Rashid and his son, al-Ma'mun, all the virtues of Islamic culture came together in a series of mathematical triumphs. To be sure, the Greeks had excelled at geometry, culminating in the Pythagorean theorem. But Pythagoras would have taught it to his followers by drawing triangles and rectangles in the dirt with a stick. Thanks to Muslim scholars, we learn it through the algebraic equation (from al jabr) A^2 plus B^2 = C^2.
That, however, is merely the overture. From its early days, Islam had two outstanding achievements in the arts: geometric design and poetry. These two intertwined in the remarkable discovery and application of full-fledged trigonometry. Laboring in the House of Wisdom, al-Khwarizmi, a Persian by birth, combined the geometry of triangles and spheres with the verbal elaboration of equations to work out the first sine and cosine tables. They enabled Muslim astronomers to create the first accurate maps of the heavens, and then to create an astonishingly sophisticated version of the astrolabe, a handheld navigation device.
Over the centuries, the Islamic ummah, or community, gradually lost its progressive tendencies and, as history passed it by, found itself divided and on the defensive against encroachment from the West and oppressive secular rulers from within (the Shah of Iran, Nasser in Egypt, and Saddam in Iraq, to name a few recent "reformers"). Walk a mile in Muslim sandals, and it's no surprise to find rage and revanchism. If anything, it is surprising how few Muslims are extremists.
Nevertheless, the violent jihadis , tiny minority though they may be, represent a huge threat to civilization -- Islamic and otherwise. So, too, are the entrenched reactionaries -- the mullahs of Iran, the Wahhabi purists of Saudi Arabia, or the murderous Taliban in the Afghan hills, and their ilk in Pakistan's fractured government. Though differing in their theologies, they share a harsh, static, and authoritarian view of society. It's a view that is by no means the only or authentic way to understand the Quran and the life and hadith (sayings) of the Prophet.
Just as with Christianity, it is possible to understand Islam in a truly progressive way. It begins with the simple, bold, and widely trampled sura 2:256, translated as "There is no compulsion in religion." It builds on the realization that, seen in the context of his times, the Prophet Muhammed championed an egalitarian, compassionate, and morally uplifting theology. It grows with the recognition that, seen in the context of his times, Muhammed, far from veiling women, actually raised their status, conferring rights on them at a time when none existed in Arabia or the Christian West.
To be sure, in the present age when Muslim women are in various places deprived of education, freedom of movement, or political equality, and are subject in places to forced marriages, "honor killings," and sanctioned rape, this may be hard to credit. Nevertheless, it is a historically legitimate view, one that some Muslims build upon to endorse a panoply of women's rights, including the right to lead Muslim nations.
As an agnostic outsider, it's not for me to tell a billion plus Muslims how to rekindle the progressive, rationalist tradition of Islam into a beacon of hope. But I can and must point out the need to do so. As the life of Osama bin Laden demonstrated in the worst possible way, all Scriptures lend themselves to interpretation without limit.
A militant, intolerant, and authoritarian interpretation of religion has great power at this time within the two biggest monotheisms. Christian and Muslim extremists alike lust for Armageddon -- the battle of self-proclaimed "armies of God."
Those of us in predominately Judeo-Christian countries who find that vision repellent work ceaselessly for rationality, progress, and peace. We know there will be darker days ahead -- days when jihadi terrorists stage new and bloody attacks on innocents and days when reactionaries in our own cultures howl for indiscriminate revenge. But we hold fast to hope that our Muslim brothers and sisters will win through their bloody struggles against tyranny and oppression, and in the place of palaces build a new House of Wisdom.
Follow Clay Farris Naff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/claynaff
Thanks for your comments.
Clay
But what effect did the Mongol invasion and devastation of much of the region have on Islam -- and the transformation from an era of rationality to one where society became much more closed?
Dr.Hoodboy, a nuclear physicist in Pakistan has written extensively on this topic.
From: http://www.templeton.org/templeton_report/20110310/index.html
"A New Dawn for Arab Science?":
"He writes, for example, about a lavish 2006 conference in Kuwait, put on by a foundation seeking to prove that the Qur’an predicts scientific findings. Muslim scientists and academics, many with lavish government funding, participated in comically pseudo-scientific discussions about how the Qur’an relates to science—including the best ways to combat the “evil eye.”
Meanwhile, Guessoum, whose full interview with the TR can be read here, continues the struggle from Sharjah, speaking out both for science and for Muslim scientists under threat from religious hostility. Recently on the Science and Religion blog Irtiqa, Guessoum defended Usama Hasan, an accomplished Muslim scientist living and working in Great Britain, who has been persecuted and threatened by Islamic religious leaders for defending evolution."
and, from: http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/29/children-of-zia.html (Pakistan's national newspaper)
"Because teachers are self-censoring out of fear, students are not being properly educated and many of them know it. They fear being fired and being viciously (mostly verbally) attacked by their students like some have been many times in the past. Teachers are afraid to use the word ‘Darwin’ or even dare admit that they believe in evolution instead of creationism in medical schools!"
"Yet Guessoum, who is himself a faithful Muslim, contends that it is possible for science and Islam to complement each other while respecting the integrity of each.
“There is, I believe, a way to do real science while still preserving one’s tradition and identity, though not with a fundamentalist and static mindset,” he says. “Science forces one to broaden his or her mind and evolve, and one must accept the possibility of evolution, even in one’s religious views. But that is—in my view—a plus, not a loss.”
Also, Islam is not a club where you have to be member, it is the only religion that is not name after a person or tribe or place. It is an attributive title that connotes something,(submission to God will and command) of course anyone that possess certain attributes (sometime at different level) are called a Muslim.
For this reason many great thinker trough the passage of time has join the ranks of contributor to a faith that they feels bring them closer to their true innate disposition.
It's incredibly saddening to see that the Muslim world seems to have actually regressed since the Islamic golden age during which open criticism and theological debate was widespread.
Islam is shaped by schools of theology that basically determine what direction the religion will take in the mainstream. And if one examines the more recent history, it raises questions about whether or not interpretation has stayed true to its original intent.
For example, Muslim countries have had an extended period of interpretation without much input from women, and this has resulted in the rise of extremely sexist societies. Then there's the the fact that so much of the East remains stuck in the Middle Ages. Muslim countries are, in general, some of the world's poorest, least educated, and least developed. It's no wonder they've remained stagnant in comparison to more progressive societies, as these conditions almost always equate to backwards views and inegalitarian culture on many fronts.
During my Islamic studies, I was told this story that has stuck with me. One of the Muslim world's most revered figures once wrote volume after volume of religious rulings. But when he moved to another area, he threw out the entire legacy of interpretation and started anew because his interpretations were so tailored to that specific time and place. Why then are Muslim societies still referring to such outdated ideals? Reform is needed, and I think American Islam can really set a great example for the rest of the Muslim world.
Clay
I agree with you, completely. However cannot imagine this happening anytime soon. A good start would be to question everything about Muhammad, his moral life his marriages, the quran, its relevance in the modern age of stem cell cloning etc, not just criticism for the sake of it, but an open air discussion.
BTW , In your opinion does the Quran prove or disprove evolution? Or do you think that the Quran is not primarily a scientifc treatise but basically deals with events/interpretions of specific events in the life of Muhammad i.e. only relevant to a particular space and time in Arabia.
Pardon my English!
Thx.
While many Muslims themselves have problem accepting the concept of evolution, nevertheless the Quran stated that the words "all living things out of water", which means human also.
" Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were of one connected entity, then We separated them from each other, and We made every living thing out of water? Will they not then believe?" (Quran 21:30)
"Allah has created every animal out of water . Of them (is a category which) walks upon its belly, ( another which) walks upon two legs, and ( a third which) walks upon four . Allah creates what He wills. Allah is Able to do everything (he wants) ". (Quran 4:45)
Re. Sine table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Āryabhaṭa's_sine_table (India, 500 CE)
Below from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebra
"While the word algebra comes from the Arabic language (al-jabr, الجبر literally, restoration) and much of its methods from Arabic/Islamic mathematics, its roots can be traced to earlier traditions, most notably ancient Indian mathematics, which had a direct influence on Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (c. 780–850). He learned Indian mathematics and introduced it to the Muslim world through his famous arithmetic text, Book on Addition and Subtraction after the Method of the Indians.[3][4]
Below from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics
"Indian mathematics emerged in the Indian subcontinent[1] from 1200 BCE [2] until the end of the 18th century. In the classical period of Indian mathematics (400 AD to 1200 AD), important contributions were made by scholars like Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, and Bhaskara II. The decimal number system in use today[3] were first recorded in Indian mathematics.[4] Indian mathematicians made early contributions to the study of the concept of zero as a number,[5] negative numbers,[6] arithmetic, and algebra.[7] In addition, trigonometry[8] was further advanced in India, and, in particular, the modern definitions of sine and cosine were developed there.[9] These mathematical concepts were transmitted to the Middle East, China, and Europe[7] and led to further developments that now form the foundations of many areas of mathematics."
Thanks for reading and commenting.
-- Clay