Daily Times

It is important that we examine how the Muslims responded to and addressed, in their earliest period of history, the intellectual challenges of the time.

According to the Quran, human life began on earth with knowledge: [Prophet], when your Lord told the angels, ‘I am putting a successor  on earth,’ they said, ‘How can You put someone there who will cause damage and bloodshed, when we celebrate Your praise and proclaim Your holiness?’ but He said, ‘I know things you do not.’  He taught Adam all the names [of things], then He showed them to the angels and said, ‘Tell me the names of these if you truly [think you can].’ They said, ‘May You be glorified! We have knowledge only of what You have taught us. You are the All Knowing and All Wise.’  Then He said, ‘Adam, tell them the names of these.’ When he told them their names, God said, ‘Did I not tell you that I know what is hidden in the heavens and the earth, and that I know what you reveal and what you conceal?’

Adam’s knowledge is being compared to the glorifications of God by the angels. Adam is given precedence over the angels by bestowing upon him the knowledge of things. Knowledge is declared superior to prayers (Ibadah). Adam is elevated and dignified by virtue of his knowledge. Knowledge is an essential prerequisite for being a vicegerent of God. Here knowledge of things is being bestowed on Adam, which is the subject matter of natural and physical sciences, and not of theology or scholasticism.

The last phase of Islam (Islam claims that it started with the Prophet Adam and Prophet Mohammed was its last Messenger) also began with knowledge. The first revelation that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) received was: Read in the name of your Lord Who created man from an embryo; Read, for your Lord is most beneficent, Who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know. (Quran 96:1-5)

The very first revelation (Wahi) stimulates the scientific outlook and the quest for scientific knowledge that promotes research in the physical sciences. It is worth pondering that to acquire the spiritual knowledge of God, evidence from science (Biology) is quoted. After mentioning that creation of the universe in general, God mentioned that He created man in weakness and then he grew up to be a perfect human being. He gifted man with knowledge, which is the chief characteristic of human creation. He also taught him how to use the pen that developed and promoted knowledge on a large scale. If He had not revealed to humankind the art of writing, all this human progress and development could have not been achieved and knowledge would have not been transferred to succeeding generations.

Philosophy was not an Islamic discipline. The greatest philosophers of the world had already been born in Greece long before the advent of the last phase of Islam. However, the Muslims did not declare learning Greek philosophy as Kufr (infidelity). They studied it and interpreted it. Farabi ( d. 951 AD) was the first Muslim scholar who became a commentator on Greek philosophy. Aristotle is known in history as the First Teacher and Farabi as the Second.

The Muslim scholars studied and understood Greek philosophy and then rendered it into Arabic so that the Muslims in general could benefit from it. They also critically examined it. Imam Ghazali (d. 1111 AD) wrote Tahafa-tul-Falasifah (The Incoherence of the Philosophers) in which he severely criticized Greek philosophy. Ibn Rushd ( d. 1198 AD), a renowned philosopher of the Muslim world, condemned this intellectual stance of Imam Ghazali. His book is titled Tahafatul-Tahafah (The Incoherence of the Incoherence). Later on, Imam Ibn Taiymiah ( d. 1328 AD)  struck at the very roots of Greek philosophy. As a result of these commentaries and criticisms, Muslims started a systematic study of Greek philosophy and transferred all this knowledge to succeeding generations.

So it were the Muslims who transferred this great treasure of Greek scientific and philosophical knowledge to the West.  Platonic idealism was deeply influenced by Arab Empiricism. The same is true of Aristotle’s logic. The Critique of Pure Reason by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant looks like an extension of the philosophy of Imam Ghazali.

The Muslims were essentially empirical in their approach. They learned observation, reflection and experimentation from the Quran, which repeatedly asks: Don’t you see the skies? Don’t you see the earth? Don’t you see the animals? Don’t you ponder on the creation? This persistent invitation to observation provided the required motivation to focus on the physical and biological sciences.

Ibn Al-Haitham (d.1040 AD) laid the foundation of modern physics and Al-Khwarizmi introduced modern arithmetic to the world. Ibn Sina (d. 1037 AD) and Zahrawi (d. 1013 AD) developed the foundation of medicine and surgery respectively. It is generally recognized, even by western historians, that Muslim scientists are responsible for establishing the foundations of modern sciences, disciplines that are based on observation, experimentation and systematization.

As Islam placed equal emphasis on man and the universe, Muslim scholars studied both man and the universe. They drew upon the inner secrets of both man and matter. They did not divide life into ‘life of this world’ and ‘life-hereafter’. They believed in the unity of matter and spirit. They considered the debate between ‘old’ and ‘new’ meaningless and founded in ignorance. They developed modern technology because of their acquisition of scientific knowledge.

What happened to the Muslims, the people who were divinely inspired and became the original creators of human rights and modern sciences? They went into hibernation. Muslims fell into a deep intellectual slumber and continued teaching old syllabi in their Madaris (religious schools) for centuries. Even though new sciences and philosophies emerged in the wake of Reformation and Industrial Revolution, the Muslims remained indifferent to these. They indulged in futile theological debates under Greek influence. They divided life into the spiritual and the temporal and regarded material progress and development as movement against Islam. They ignored natural sciences and got lost in the intoxication of false mysticism that advocated a purely intuitive and esoteric methodology averse to empiricism, the very basis of modern scientific development. They indulged in theological hair-splitting and futile discussions of scholasticism, instead of serious intellectual discourse to respond to later day challenges or to further advance the frontiers of knowledge. And time did not wait for them, so they lag far behind the comity of the nations.

Writer is a former SAPM/Minister for Law and Justice and a practicing Barrister: mail@zafarullahkhan.com