Where is Ibn-Sina of the 21st Century?

Is there Room in Islam for Modern Thought? You decide.

Us Muslims attribute the origins of modern discoveries and technologies to Medieval Islamic Scholarship. Some western thinkers tend to push back the germinal sources of their scholarly views to ancient Greek philosophers (Atomic Physics may be pushed back to Democritus; all of Darwin’s work to Anaximander). We do it to boost the sense of our collective worth, while the westerners do it to lend added prestige and credibility to their ideas. Would it be safe to say that there is a stark difference in motivation of the two groups? I dare to suggest that it is starker than day and night.

I think a little clarification is warranted. Even when the modern research (in the west) is not actively sought to be attributed to great Philosophers, it is not uncommon to stumble upon sayings like “Aristotle really should not share the blame for what happened in the research on communications, and so on” or “to that worthy Greek”, and so on.

Why?

Is there a fear of being on a slippery slope on a host of issues? Or is the concept of reverence more deeply entrenched in Islamic psyche? That is to say that our pioneers could never be wrong. Or the basis of our existence can never be on flimsy fundamentals. What about just accepting, for instance, that yes, it is a possibility, even a distant one. May be? How about giving that a try? Irshad Manji did. Her queries were rejected because she did not follow Islamically acceptable sex practices.

Let’s look at the modern Islamic thought – while the latest and greatest set of Islamic judicial literature is some 1000 year old (based primarily on collection of various Hadiths from various sources, bases of a system known as Shariah), the civil and criminal laws are routinely updated, voided, modified as needed, in the west. Nothing is written in stone. Even when the laws are re-written, the lawmakers base the new statutes on precedence, hence making the past dispensing of law a matter of guide for future prudence. Why? Because that’s the way the Greeks did it. The point is that even the ancient Philosophers didn’t believe in the laws to be stagnant, and in the idea of “one size fits all forever”. The famous words of Socrates were “I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance”. Why such humility is missing from Modern Islamic Scholarship? The world has only seen the evil, the uncompromising, the nasty and the violent side of Islamic philosophy. (NOTE: Sufi movement in Islam is an exception).

To be fair, the most vibrant period of modern contribution (from around 8th century to 13th) the world witnessed advances in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, astrology, etc.) by pioneering Islamic philosophers such as al-Battani, al-Beruni, al-Khayam, Ibn-Sina, to name only a few from a very long list.

What happened?

The easy way out is to blame the western colonization of Islamic lands, lasting a few hundred years.

Sudan has just jailed a British teacher for the crime of having her class (a bunch of 6 year olds) name their adopted teddy bear as Mohammad. Could we equally say that it was an insult to Theodore Roosevelt for his namesake to be named after Mohammad? We dare not!

Why bother?

Saudi Arabia recently punished a victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and some months in prison. Her crime was being in the company of an un-related male. Imagine, if the Saudi Laws were applied in New York, I will be beating my wife with a big leather whip from the time she comes home from work and until she leave in the morning. This will go on day in and day out. Do these laws need a little modernization? Like, instead of 200 lashes, how about a little respect? How about a little trust? How about a little sympathy if you are raped. However, my mother squarely deserves 200 lashes. I saw her talk to the milk guy and she asked him how his mother was coming along with chemotherapy. Stupid woman, you are not allowed to talk to un-related males. Islam is a universal religion, if it applies in Saudi Arabia, it applies in Lahore as well. “Stuff it” is her reply.

Current Islam is as hollow in substance as the scripture (can be) in logic (logic not being a requirement in scripture writing classes). A collection of biblical stories of ancient Egypt has no (to little) relevance to today’s world. If Moses witnessed God, good for him. Just as the west has pretty much sidelined their scripture (in shape of separation of Church and State), Islamic nations should follow the lead. The 800-pound gorilla in the Islamic room is not ignorance or violence, but the basis of present-day Islamic philosophy, i.e., the “Blind” faith in Quran and the Hadith. I say Blind, because to question it is to ask for the wrath of Mullah – Allah’s assistant.

If Ibn-Sina, a 1000 year ago, could write on medicine, philosophy, astronomy, physics, even music, and his work is still relevant today, and he seeked consolation in Quran (perhaps a million times if not more than the subsequent Philosophers, practitioners of Islam) and took inspiration from it, why can’t today’s Muslims? There is a difference between being inspired and by blindly following. One doesn’t need to kill oneself to become a Romeo.

The following is a quote from a recent New York Times article, (“A Secret History” by Carla Powell 2/25/2007):

“Indeed, read today, when many Muslim women still don’t dare pray in mosques, let alone lecture leaders in them, Akram’s entry for someone like Umm al-Darda, a prominent jurist in seventh-century Damascus, is startling. As a young woman, Umm al-Darda used to sit with male scholars in the mosque, talking shop. “I’ve tried to worship Allah in every way,” she wrote, “but I’ve never found a better one than sitting around, debating other scholars.” She went on to teach hadith and fiqh, or law, at the mosque, and even lectured in the men’s section; her students included the caliph of Damascus. She shocked her contemporaries by praying shoulder to shoulder with men — a nearly unknown practice, even now — and issuing a fatwa, still cited by modern scholars, that allowed women to pray in the same position as men.”

The article is about an Egyptian scholar (Mohammad Akram Nadwi – no relation to the Teddy Bear in Sudan) who is conducting research on Muslim female scholars, and his dictionary now includes 40 Volumes (would you believe that?). He has found 8000 Muslim female scholars dating back to 1400 years. I know it is hard to believe.

Why?

Because the modern Mullah feels Islam is threatened no more by any force in the world than by a Muslim female questioning simple things in light of modern demands.

Ladies and gentleman, you decide. Or just sit on it.