A New Road Map: Tawhid in the 21st century
And your Allah is One Allah. There is no god but He, Most Gracious, Most Merciful (Q2:163).Archive for Islamic Sciences
Constraints and Restraints
The system of rights and responsibilities can be translated into concepts of constraints and restraints. A constraint is the state of being checked, restricted, or compelled to avoid or perform some action; it is externally applied. A restraint is a control over the expression of one’s emotions or thoughts; it is internally applied. An example of such would be Zakah and sadaqa. Zakah is a requirement on accumulated assets; it is a constraint on wealth, and the extent of our spending (we cannot spend what which is owed to another). Sadaqa on the other hand is the recommendation from Allah regarding our consumption choices.
Some authors assert that neo-classical economics is about constraint optimization whereas Islamic economics is about restrained optimization. This is not completely valid as there are both constraints and restraints in the Islamic system. This extends to production, consumption and distribution. We have strict boundaries regarding means and ends, with much leeway and guidelines for all.
Rights and Responsibility
Allah is the Creator of all, and He has rights over His creation. Man has responsibilities towards Allah; this also translates into responsibilities that Man has towards the rest of humanity and also towards nature because of his relations with Allah.
As we know, needs change over time. A need for today might not be one for tomorrow, and might not have been one for yesterday either. The selection of needs, and the criteria for distinguishing between a need and a want is elusive and temporally dynamic. However, our objective in life does not change. Allah has rights over us, and has made us His vicegerent. His rights over us do not falter, and our responsibilities towards Him do not change either. The only changes that occur are the means that we use to attain our objective and fulfill our obligations.
This viewpoint of rights and responsibilities is a subtle but striking difference between the needs-wants approach because of its starting premise. This difference permeates everything else that follows, and also impacts the rewards/incentives and deterrence structures that would be embedded within the social system that is formed on this basis of Tawhid.
Classification of Islamic Sciences
The classification of the Islamic sciences by al-Kindi, Ibn Sina, Amiri and Al-Farabi is very informative. It clarifies that traditionally, all knowledge of the time was Islamic. We often think that Islamic sciences are confined to Uloom al Maqasid, and Uloom al Wasael. However, we ignore the holistic nature of life, and therefore do not have an integrated approach towards sciences.
Sciences are a reflection of life, the needs of life, and the satiation of the curiosity of the human mind in some cases. What is clear in the Islamic sciences is that they had a purpose and an objective. They were heavily influenced by religion and the centrality of Allah and Tawhid in our lives. This premise is reflected in the categories and subcategories that they have.
This emic approach to the classification of the Islamic sciences is a testament to the richness of the legacy, and also a reason why those generations had such intellectual prowess. They were able to impact the future generations of Muslims, as well as the thinkers of the rest of the world.
This is in direct contrast to is the etic approach, derived from a non-theistic point of view. It creates arbitrary distinctions and categories in the classification of all sciences, which is especially obvious in the social sciences. What is needed is a revival of Islam. Reform is needed of all Muslims, regardless of where they live- this movement would be to intellectually awaken them, and revive their senses towards Islam. This can only be done through a deeper understanding of the Quran, and by the confidence that we can get from the strength of our legacy.
Philosophy, Religion and Truth
Understanding the role that philosophy, religion and truth play in the lives of Muslims, and the way it is appropriate to deal with them is essential for all.
It is amazing to discover that historically, when Christianity was introduced to Europe, philosophy was outlawed. When the Romans moved away from Christianity, they went back to philosophy. When Christianity became stronger again, philosophy was once again outlawed.
This is entirely in accord with the view that philosophy is the human effort to find answers for the big questions in life, which are raised by the fitra. When we have religion and revelation, many of those questions are addressed in a meaningful manner such that philosophy does not have much utility anymore.
This would suggest that philosophy is subordinate to religion. Truth, the absolute Truth is embedded in religion, and it needs to be extracted from there in a meaningful manner. Philosophy provides an alternative for people who do not/cannot accept revelation.
What is interesting then are the Muslim philosophers. Many of them wanted to reconcile religion and philosophy, and did so to varying degrees. It was only a few of them that realized that it was not really possible- the divergence is too great in objectives.
Philosophy “authorizes” the quest for knowledge for the sake of the knowledge alone- it is a goal in itself. In Islam, the quest for knowledge is a tool of sorts, and as representatives of Allah on this earth, we have many responsibilities that are due to Him, and the world around us. Thus grounds our ethics, values and lives into the commands of the Creator, rather than being relative, as created by the human mind.
Religion allows us to be in tune with our fitra- philosophy cannot provide that same satisfaction. The concept of fitra is one that should be explored in detail as a project, to understand how it impacts our aql, our relationship with Allah, and our ability and motivation to function as humans.
Alam un Nabowwa
The concept of prophesy and prophesizing is very different in Islam vis-à-vis Judaism and Christianity. Unfortunately, most/many Muslims do not realize this. Many assume that the hadith of Alam-un-Nabowwa are talking about prophesies. The events MUST come to pass.
What this does to the psyche of Muslims is incredibly destructive- they assume that the best was in the past, and everything is only going to be downhill anyway. If anything is going from bad to worse, why should they bother doing anything? This viewpoint is very damaging and pessimistic. It paralyzes people and makes them lose hope.
I realize that Allah has promised a Day of Judgment, yet I do not know if He has promised us unconditional misery and the decay of the ummah before then. It is as though in the preparation for the Last Day, the world must be a miserable place, and there will no mention of Islam any more. That view is hard to reconcile with Islam and the attitudes that the Quran encourages in us.
What is exciting however is to look at the alam-un-nabowwa narrations as scenarios. The Prophet was a futurist, and he was projecting about what could happen. He had access to some knowledge of the Unseen that most others do not have, and this gave him an edge in determining various scenarios that can play out. What is incredible is the possibility of time-transcendence that these scenarios have. Are they valid for all time? Have some of them already played out, and have some of them been prevented?
It would be a wonderful project to write a book on these narrations from a scenario perspective to gain insight into human psychology and politics. They might be very revealing in giving us tools that can be used in a variety of endeavors, beyond religion.
