Allah’s Khalifa (agent) in Healing: Infusing Spirituality in to Medical Practice

-Dr. Md. Habeeb Haris 

The role and concept of a medical practitioner/health care worker in Islam is different from that in the Western system. 

The Quran declares that the cure comes only from Allah: “And when I am ill, it is He who cures me”. (Shoora 26:80).

The Prophet ﷺ defined the doctor’s role and the mental approach he should have as the seeker of Allah's Shifa saying, “Indeed, Allah has sent down the disease and the cure and he made a cure for every disease. So seek it.” (Abu Dawud)

Explaining the role of a Doctor, Imam Ghazali (RA) explains:

“A doctor has the ability to get close to Almighty Allah on the basis of his knowledge, and will get reward because of his knowledge, as he is His agent.” (Ihya ul uloom)

It's clear from the above that a Muslim doctor acts as a Khalifa (representative/agent) of Allah in bringing cure and relief to the patient.

Shaikh Dr Mateen A Khan, a medical practitioner and a contemporary Islamic Scholar, explains this beautifully: "The cure which the doctors seek comes from Allah, but they become the means for it! Although Allah is al-Shāfi, the doctor is the agent through whom He heals. 

In this is the beauty and honor of being a healthcare practitioner. It demands from us a constant connection with Allah. A health practitioner, who loses his or her connection with Allah, has lost his or her connection with the source of treatment and health. It is entirely up to Him if He wishes to guide you towards a cure or to allow you to move away from it. Whereas a healthcare practitioner, who retains this connection, will always benefit not only him or herself but the patient and community." (https://enterthesunnah.com/2017/08/03/thoughts-on-the-relationship-between-a-healthcare-practitioner-and-al-shafi/)

The following Hadith Qudsi can act as a guide for the Muslim doctors in developing this special spiritual connection with Allah and becoming some one who facilitates 'Shifa' from Allah to the patients, which is a form of His infinite Mercy. 

Abu Hurairah (RA) reported that the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, said:

“Allah the Almighty has said: ‘Whosoever acts with enmity towards a closer servant of Mine (wali), I will indeed declare war against him. Nothing endears My servant to Me than doing what I have made obligatory upon him to do. And My servant continues to draw nearer to Me with supererogatory (nawafil) acts so that I shall love him. When I love him, I shall be his hearing with which he shall hear, his sight with which he shall see, his hands with which he shall hold, and his feet with which he shall walk. And if he asks (something) of Me, I shall surely give it to him, and if he takes refuge in Me, I shall certainly grant him it.'” (Sahih Al-Bukhari)

Indeed, a spiritually oriented doctor is a Wali (friend) of Allah in this aspect. Ignoring this vital spiritual dimension of treatment will limit one's clinical effectiveness, despite all of one's medical qualifications and skills. 

There is a need to spiritualise the process of medical treatment and approach it as a way of holistic Healing of the sick. The patients learn their approach to disease and treatment from the doctors' words, behaviour and approach. If doctors ignore God in all this, then the patients too will adopt a soul-less, materialistic and mechanical approach to their treatment, ignoring the need for invoking God in healing. And this has an impact on the wider society too. The way the society views disease and process of cure has to be brought in line with the Islamic ideology and spirituality. 

Giving a practical shape to this spiritual role of a medical practitioner, the Prophet ﷺ taught us beautiful short Duas to be read for invoking Allah's Shifa for a patient, along with the appropriate medical treatment. These duas re-orient both the doctor as well as the patient towards the real source of cure and establishes a spiritual relationship between them, instead of just a professional or transactional relationship. This is the beauty of the Islamic approach to Medical practice. 

There are many Sunnah Duas that can be recited for the benefit of the patients such as:

أَذْهِبِ الْبَأْسَ رَبَّ النَّاسِ وَاشْفِ أَنْتَ الشَّافِي لَا شِفَاءَ إِلَّا شِفَاؤُكَ شِفَاءٌ لَا يُغَادِرُ سَقَمَاً

Take away the hardship, O Lord of mankind, give shifaa, You are the One who cures, there is no shifaa except Your shifaa, a cure that will not leave any sickness. (Bukhari & Muslim).

Or one can say seven times:

أَسْأَلُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ رَبَّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ أَنْ يَشْفِيَكَ

 
“I ask Allah the Exalted, the Lord of the Great Throne, to heal you.” (Tirmidhi)

Reciting these Duas and having a correct intention (Niyyah) during the treatment will transform the routine medical practice into an act of worship and give it a spiritual dimension. The modern materialistic way of medical practice has taken out God completely from the process of Healing, whereas Muslims are required to put God at the centre of their medical practice by following His Shariah guidelines and beseeching for His Help and Guidance in their clinical work. 

Spiritual Benefits for Doctors and Health Care Professionals:

Almost Unlimited spiritual rewards 

Allah says, "And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole mankind." (Quran, 5:32)

From this we can just imagine the almost unlimited spiritual rewards from Allah for the doctors.

Relief from sufferings of Aakhirah

The Prophet ﷺ said, “He who alleviates the suffering of a brother out of the sufferings of the world, Allah would alleviate his suffering from the sufferings of the Day of Resurrection.” (Sahih Muslim)

 

Angels' Dua of forgiveness

Ali (RA) reported that the Prophet  ﷺ said: 

“When a Muslim visits his sick brother in the morning, seventy thousand angels make dua for his forgiveness till the  evening. And when he visits him in the evening, seventy thousand  angels make dua for his forgiveness till the morning, and he will be granted  a garden for it in Jannah.” (Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud)

Allah's Nearness and Pleasure

In a Hadith qudsi it is related that Allah will say to a person, ‘Son of Adam, I was ill and you did not visit Me.' He will say, 'O Lord, how could I visit You when You are the Lord of the universe?' He will say, 'Do you not know that My slave so-and-so was ill. If you had visited him you would have found Me with him.' (Muslim)

All these spiritual benefits, forgiveness & nearness of Allah are for a single visit to a patient. What would it be for continual treatment and care!

Approaching patients with this mindset in our daily practice will give us a better understanding of our elevated role and make all our efforts a form of worship.

Medical Practice as a means of Tazkiya of Ruh and Qalb (Spiritual purification):

The doctor who knows that he is just an agent and representative of Allah in treating the sick will never become arrogant or over-confident as he knows the limits of his role. Also he will never be frustrated or depressed when his treatment fails when Allah's permission for cure doesn't come. 

The doctor sees human suffering, helplessness and death so closely that it can become a source of softening of his heart, opening his eyes to the temporary nature of Dunya and it's enjoyment and create a concern for Aakhirah. This indeed is a powerful way of Tazkiya of his Heart and soul. The human sympathy that the medical practice demands helps in overcoming selfishness and individualistic approach to life.

Approaching patients with this mindset in our daily practice will give us a better understanding of our elevated role and make all our professional efforts a means of gaining nearness to Allah.
.

Status of Medical science in Islam

Status of Medical science in Islam:

The importance of medical science in Islam can be understood by the fact that almost every book of Hadith like Sahih Bukhari, Muslim, etc. contain separate chapters named 'Book of Medicine' with dozens of ahadeeth.

lmam Ghazali RA said,
“Medical profession is one of the most important collective duties (fard kifayah).”

 Imam Shafi’ee RA said,
“Indeed, knowledge is of two types: knowledge of the religion and knowledge of the world. The knowledge of religion is of fiqh and the knowledge of the world is of medicine.”

(Adab Ash-Shafi’ee 1/244)

Al-Rabīʿ reported that al-Shāfīʿī said: “I don't know any knowledge more precious than medical science after the knowledge of ḥalāl and ḥaram, and Muslims lost one third knowledge of it and handed over to the Ahl al-Kitāb (ie: Christians and Jews).”

قَالَ صَالِحُ بنُ مُحَمَّدٍ جَزَرَةُ: سَمِعْتُ الرَّبِيْعَ، سَمِعْتُ الشَّافِعِيَّ يَقُوْلُ: لاَ أَعْلَمُ عِلْماً بَعْدَ الحَلاَلِ وَالحَرَامِ، أَنْبَلَ مِنَ الطِّبِّ، إِلاَّ أَنَّ أَهْلَ الكِتَابِ قَدْ غَلَبُوْنَا عَلَيْهِ.

Ḥarmalah said: al-Shāfīʿī was so distressful about it that Muslims lost the knowledge of medical science and used to say Muslims lost one third knowledge of it and handed over to al-Yahūd wa ʿl-Naṣṣārá (ie: the Jews and Christians).

قَالَ حَرْمَلَةُ: كَانَ الشَّافِعِيُّ يَتَلَهَّفُ عَلَى مَا ضَيَّعَ المُسْلِمُوْنَ مِنَ الطِّبِّ، وَيَقُوْلُ: ضَيَّعُوا ثُلُثَ العِلْمِ، وَوَكَلُوهُ إِلَى اليَهُوْدِ وَالنَّصَارَى. 

(Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, 10/57 of Imam al-Ḏahabī ) 

Importance of Health in Islam:

Islamic scholars have identified the Shariah’s objectives [Maqasid al-Shariah] as preserving religion, life, intellect, lineage and wealth. So the preservation of life and health is the second objective of Shariah next only to Deen.

According to Imam Al-Ghazali: “A proper understanding and implementation of religion, from the standpoint of both knowledge and worship, can only be arrived at through physical health and life preservation”.  (Al-iqtisad fi al-i'tiqad)

Our bodies belong to Allah, who has entrusted us with their care. As such, we aren’t completely free to treat our bodies however we wish. Rather, we must act in accordance with the instructions of its owner — Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

“Your body has a right over you”. (Sahih al-Bukhari, 5199)

"Two favors that many of the people squander are health and free time." (Sahih al-Bukhari 6412, Ibn Majah 4170 and Tirmidhi 2304)

“A strong believer is better than a weak believer.” (Muslim)

“Indeed the first of what will be asked about on the Day of Judgment – meaning the slave (of Allah) being questioned about the favors – is that it will be said to him: ‘Did We not make your body healthy, and give you of cool water to drink?’” (Tirmidhi 3358)

"Whosoever begins the day feeling secure, having good health; and possessing food for his day is as though he possessed the whole world." (Tirmidhi)

'There is no harm in wealth for someone who has Taqwa, but good health for the person who has Taqwa is even better than wealth. Cheerfulness is a blessing.'" (Ibn Majah 2141, Adab al Mufrad of Imam Bukhari, grade Sahih)

“Make the best use of five things before the onset of five others: your life before your death, your health before your illness, your free time before being busy, your youth before your old age and your wealth before you end up in poverty” (Hakim and Baihaqi)

As Muslims, we are supposed to take care of our bodies by preserving our physical and mental health.
Several Islamic practices involve health-promoting actions, among them making Ghusl, Wudhu, using a miswak to clean our teeth, rules of consuming only halal and Tayyib things, moderation in eating, fasting, male circumcision, etc.

Other injunctions are in part meant to preserve health (e.g., the prohibition of intoxicants and illicit sexual behavior) and promote mental health via prayer, supplication and submission to God: “Verily, with the remembrance of God do hearts find peace” (Quran, 13:28).

At the community level, the Prophet  ﷺ  called for removal of filth from spaces, prohibition of urinating in areas frequented by people or used by them like water sources, cautious separation of animal vectors from humans, encouraging physical activities like swimming, archery, and horse riding, and making places and times for relaxation. Communicable diseases in the form of outbreaks are regulated using quarantines. He also suggested many medicines for various common diseases.
Truly, Islam is not a religion of pointless rituals benefiting neither the Creator nor the creation.

 Spreading health awareness among Muslims patients and doctors by the use of these Islamic teachings is likely to carry a strong influence on their behaviours.

Islamic approach to diseases:

Even if we follow all health guidelines, we may still get sick because God ordains all diseases. However, these are not necessarily punishments. 

Islam considers sickness as a test from Allah and a means to remove the sins, earn rewards, a means for spiritual growth, to enter paradise and to increase in ranks with Allah (however, all this is with the condition of Sabr on the sickness).

We believe that disease is part of destiny. Yet this is not the same as fatalism. We are instructed to take precautions as well as seek cure. And when a disease afflicts us, our belief in the hereafter enables us to bear the pain and suffering related to the disease or other calamities more readily.

Allah says,
“We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure…” (2:155)

The Prophet  ﷺ said,
“Do not curse the fever for it expiates the sins of the children of Adam just as furnace removes the impurities of iron”. (Muslim)

“When Allah desires good for someone, He afflicts him.” (Bukhari)

 Aisha RA said, "I did not see anyone more severely ill than the Messenger of Allah." (Bukhari)

'Ata' b. Abi Rabih said: Ibn Abbas said to me: May I show you a woman of Paradise? I said: Yes. He said: Here is this dark complexioned woman. She came to Allah’s Prophet  ﷺ and said: I am suffering from falling sickness and I become naked; supplicate Allah for me, whereupon he (the Prophet) said: Show Sabr (endurance/patience) as you can do and there would be Paradise for you and, if you desire, I supplicate Allah that He may cure you. She said: I am prepared to show Sabr (but the unbearable trouble is) that I become naked, so supplicate Allah that He should not let me become naked, so he supplicated for her. (Muslim)

Aim of medicine:

Our classical Islamic Scholars have described the comprehensive aim of medicinal treatment. The great Faqih and Usuli Imam Al Izz ibn Abdulsalam (RA) said in his famous book on Qawaid e Fiqhiyya,
“The aim of medicine is to preserve health, restore it when it is lost, remove ailment or reduce its effects.

To reach that goal it may be essential to accept lesser harm, in order to ward off the greater one, or lose a certain benefit to procure a greater one”.

 -“Al-Qawa’id al-Kubra” By Imam Al Izz ibn Abdulsalam

Causes of Decline in Scientific advancements in the Islamic civilisation:

Causes of Decline in Scientific advancements in the Islamic civilisation:

Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal

[Currently, Dr. Iqbal is the President of Center for Islamic Sciences, Canada. He has worked as Director (Scientific Information) COMSTECH, the Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) and has written many books on the topic of Islam and science].

For understanding the reasons for decline, we must make an attempt to look at the state of the Muslim world in minute details at the dawn of the fifteenth century—a time when Ibn al-Shatir was actively employed in the Jami' Mosque of Damascus and Ulugh Beg was conducting the most advanced astronomical observations and theoretical research. The following section is a small beginning toward this important task. Thus, delimiting the question allows us to focus on the period of three hundred years, between the fifteenth and the seventeenth century. This is the most crucial period for understanding the causes of decline of the Islamic scientific tradition. 


To begin with, let us note that, unlike the popular perception that constructs a tale based on supposed lack of material resources, geopolitical developments related to internal conflicts, and political instability, the actual historical data of this period does not support any of these “causes”.

On the contrary, this data shows that this period was actually a time of great prosperity and of three stable and internally cohesive empires: the Ottoman (689-1343/1290-1924), the Indian Timuri Empire (933- 1274/1526-1857),“ and the Safavi (907-1135/1501-1722). 


By the dawn of the fifteenth century, the Ottoman, the Indian Timuri (Mughal), and the Safavi empires had emerged through a historical realignment of the Muslim world following the sacking of Baghdad. 


General Features of the New Empires

Built on the ruins of the ‘Abbasid Empire, through a century and a half of conflicts, confrontations, and realignments, these three empires inherited the Islamic scientific tradition in a broken form in the sense that major centers of learning, libraries, and patrons had been uprooted. The large- scale devastation that accompanied the Mongol invasion and the subsequent strife had a deep impact on the social fabric of the society. It created new ruling elites, new centers of power, and new interests. Baghdad was no longer the social, intellectual and economic capital of the Muslim world; instead, there arose other cities to claim the honor: Tabriz, Delhi, Isfahan (after 1599), and Istanbul (after 1453).



For the purpose of our study, the following new factors are important.

1. After the Mongol invasion, when the dust finally settled and the new empires emerged as stable entities, the Islamic scientific tradition did not find a new home (or homes) where it could re-establish itself in a manner that would not create a break with what had gone before. This is because most of the old centers of scientific research had been destroyed, patterns of social life were disrupted and numerous libraries had been plundered.



2. A new political situation arose: For the first time in Islamic history, there appeared three powerful empires with adjacent borders, two of which fought one another for supremacy and control of the areas that were previously held under one empire. This was not the same as the small-scale disputes at the borders of the ‘Abbasid Empire or even claims to authority within the empire. The Ottomans, often together with Ozbegs, opposed the Safavids on religious, economic, political and territorial grounds, and though the Indian Timuris remained out of this long-term conflict, they were often courted by the other two for help. 


3. The Safavids not only chose the Shi‘i interpretation of Islam as their official creed, they also established their institutions, legal system, and social organization on this basis. This created parallel, and often conflicting, claims to loyalty and patronage. This division had a deep impact on the pace of scientific research.



4. In all three empires, there arose ‘model emperors’, who ruled for long periods, greatly expanded their empires, laid the foundation of stable bureaucracies and administrative structures and vastly increased the revenues of the state through efficient use of resources, but placed little priority in science.



5. Out of the three empires, the Indian Timuri empire had a uniquely new historical situation: a large non-Muslim population, which outnumbered the Muslims. This gave birth to a tension in the social fabric of the society and often rulers were pre-occupied with wars, rebellions and conflicts.

6. When new centers of intellectual activity emerged in any stable form, the interest of rulers and patrons had changed from patronizing science to building impressive monuments of architectural splendor and to supporting other forms of artistic expression; all civilizations take this route when large amounts of wealth are accumulated in the hands of few institutions or individuals. Thus in all three empires, the greatest amount of energy and resources were devoted to architectural and artistic expressions, rather than natural sciences. Hence we see the emergence of monumental buildings, great poetry and paintings in all three empires. 


7. In the Safavi Empire, the Islamic philosophical tradition re­ established itself through a new synthesis that combined elements of falsafa and Ishraqi mysticism that recast the vision of Philosophia in Sufi terms. But this renewed interest in philosophy was not accompanied by an interest in natural sciences to any significant degree. 


8. Although both the Indian Timuri and the Ottoman empires were Sunni, none could claim the universalistic nature of the caliphal authority that was held by the ‘Abbasids. 


9. Because there existed, more or less, permanent borders between the three empires, the free flow of people, goods and ideas was not like it used to be. Of the three empires, the Safavi held the greatest share of the traditional centers of Islamic scholarship, followed by the Ottomans in their Arab domains. But these old centers of intellectual scholarship were not revitalized in the new empires, which had their own intellectual centers.



10. The position of Arabic, as the universal language of discourse, did not remain the same in the new realignment. Although it was still accepted as the language of scholarship in large areas, Persian emerged as an important second language; Turkish and various Indo-Muslim languages also drew attention. This produced a restrictive impact of its own. Great scholars came to India from the other empires but the Indian scholars rarely left India, except when they went to settle in Hijaz, which became the conduit for the spread of their works and ideas. Consequently, books written in India reached the Ottomans via Hijaz but the books written by the Ottomans were practically unknown in India. 


What does all of this suggest? Certainly not a case of a civilization having come to its lowest ebb. The least one can gather from this data is that there existed, during these three centuries, a set of unique circumstances common to all three empires. The most striking facets of this set is neither the paucity of wealth, nor weakening of intellectual vigor, but an unusual interest in artistic expression: great mosques decorated with wonderful calligraphic designs and artwork, lavish palaces, vast public squares suitable for polo and troop movement, miniature paintings which show rich details and poetry.

All of these features are common in all three empires and many great architectural works still stand to testify to an age rich in expression of beauty, splendor and wealth. 


Writing toward the end of the fourteenth century, Ibn Khaldun (733- 809/1332-1406) was conscious that a new level of civilization might be on the horizon in the Muslim world—a level of civilization which only comes when sedentary culture has reached a certain degree of stability and prosperity. The new political and social circumstances of the three empires show exactly that kind of flowering.


“It is true,” wrote Ibn Khaldun, “that the old cities, such as Baghdad, al-Basrah, and al-Kufah, which were the [original] centers of scholarship, are in ruin. However, Allah has replaced them with even greater cities. Science has been transplanted in the non­ Arab ‘Iraq of Khurasan, to Transoxania in the East, in Cairo and the adjacent regions in the West . [Ibn Khaldun, Muqadamah, tr. by Rosenthal, Franz (1967), Princeton University Press, Princeton, p. 341. ]



Compared to the austerity of the Prophetic times, these empires seem to be driven by an internal desire to express and display the accumulated cultural riches of a civilization that had turned its focus and attention to a this worldliness with a concentration never before seen in the Islamic civilization, not even in the fabulous times of Harun al-Rashid.

The high culture of the Ottomans, Safavids, and the Timuri Indians displays such a florescence of arts that no other time in the Muslim history is comparable to it. The cultivation of Turkish language by the Ottomans, that of Persian by the Safavids and the Timuri Indians produced rich poetry and imaginative prose works which speak of this worldly splendor in an exalting language that is almost alien to the Islamic emphasis on moderation. And though individuals like Katib Qelebi (called HajjI Khallfah, 1015- 1068/1606-57), an encyclopaedist who was at home with a broad range of Arabic, Farsi and Ottoman texts as well as aware of new developments in geography and astronomy in the West, did make their appearance, they were rare in a culture of pleasure, almost bordering on decadence.

It is in this pleasure-seeking high culture of this age, that the real causes of decline are to be found.

The courts at Delhi, Istanbul and Isfahan, now captive of their extravagant routines and almost alienated from the realities of the vast empires they controlled, the courtiers and the elite families who contributed so much to the decadence and absolutism of the courts and the concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands are the indicators of a civilization at the brink of disastrous ruin. 



The Islamic scientific tradition became a caricature of its past glory in these three centuries and those who had cultivated it, were replaced by those who preferred to seek pleasure in the finite realm of the senses, rather than the splendors of the spirit.



When this interlude of three centuries came to its close, and the high culture and the decadent practices felt threatened by the approach of foreign armies at their doorsteps, it was already too late. The West had achieved a decisive edge over the Muslim world through remarkable advancements in science which were quickly translated into technologies which produced superior weapons, enhanced industrial production and, most of all, a vast reservoir of energy which sought to expand their frontiers, both physically as well as intellectually.



The future historians of Islam must divert their attention to these three centuries in order to understand the causes of decline and the withering of the Islamic scientific tradition. Those who have sought “internal causes” in the very foundations of Islam have misled these efforts for too long and with disastrous results. It is time for a total new orientation and a new search. 


One should also not forget the impact of the timing of certain inventions in Europe. One of the most important and fateful aspects of the new developments was a rapid shrinking of the globe. Science produced skills, tools and techniques. Technology produced weapons and means of transportation; all synchronized with a time when wars could still be fought in distant lands and victories could still be held for long time without endangering global repercussions. It was a time when victories and defeats were still isolated and localized affairs. It was also a time when the Muslim world was so divided that one part of it could not come to rescue the other part. This global dimension of the impact of modern science, this rapid shrinking of the planet, passed through that phase and then came to a new phase in the post World War II era. The timing of events was a major factor in deciding the fate of the Islamic scientific tradition and thus of the relationship between Islam and science. 


It is also important to mention that before it faded from the Muslim lands, a large part of the Islamic scientific tradition had been transmitted to Europe.

-Adapted from his book 'Islam and science' page 166 to 170.

Limitations in answering the “When” and the “Why” of “the decline" of Islamic science:

Limitations in answering the “When” and the “Why” of “the decline" of Islamic science:



To understand both the “When” and the “Why” questions related to “the decline of Islamic science (a subject on which very little reliable material is available) it is also important to take into consideration the regional schools which dominated the scene from the eleventh or twelfth-century onwards.” Moreover, we cannot establish any reliable date for the decline of the Islamic scientific tradition without knowing much more than we know at present about the scientific enterprise in the later Iranian, Indian and Ottoman empires. Until we have the source material available, no definite verdict can be passed. So far, we only know of about 1,000 Muslim scientists who worked between the eighth and the eighteenth centuries; there are thousands more about whom we have no information or we merely know their names and titles of their works. There are over 200,000 manuscripts in Iran alone, of which about three-quarters are as yet uncatalogued. [King, David (1999), World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca, E.J. Brill and Al-Furqan, Leiden and London, p. 4]

-Islam and Science by Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal p.135

Modern destruction of religion

Modern destruction of religion:

-Hasan Spiker 

https://twitter.com/RealHasanSpiker/status/1676125441068011523 

Westerners today, particularly in the UK, generally look upon religion, even their own “indigenous” Christianity, with suspicion and incomprehension. Most only attend Church once a year at Midnight Mass, and even then they say, “How can this structure of arbitrary hierarchy and authority with no empirical evidence dictate to me? Is this not all merely cultural and historical, our heritage?” 

The terrible irony is that these are exactly the beliefs that the various forms of Christianity have taught them to have. Protestantism has taught them to fear and reject Authority and hierarchy; the split between faith and reason has led to the conception of faith as “blind faith” and the notion that the ONLY type of evidence is empirical evidence; the separation of powers, the eventual secular consequence of  "render unto Caesar" has led them to believe that what goes on in religion is a private affair that has little to do with "real" life, and Christian historicism, in which the putative Incarnation is a once-in-history historical event, has led them to believe that shattering historical events can change all of the rules; and even violate the principle of non-contradiction; hence the new salvific modern religion of “necessary progress.” 

Empiricism, historicism, religious faith as “blind faith” and the flattened, “equality”-bleating repudiation of hierarchy have become such deep-rooted assumptions

that the latest generations of modern people are increasingly unable even to understand the *sense* of religious language, experience, and truth claims. 

As the sociologist of secularization Callum Brown points out, in interviewing multi-generational families for a study of the nature of secularisation, a recent group of British researchers realised that unlike their parents and grandparents, more recent generations of young people suffered from "an absence of either a narrative structure or a set of terms with which the interviewees [were] able to answer. They are of a generation that has not sustained a training in how to express their religiosity." 

It is frightening that the same thing is starting to happen to youth in the Muslim community; an inability to comprehend the meaning of religious language, spiritual practice and the Unseen, because of scientistic, relativistic, and "democratic" assumptions. 

This is why a metaphysically-rooted, all-embracing recovery of our total worldview is such an urgent project. It is heartening that our community is becoming increasingly cognizant of this necessity. 

How Islam saved the Jews from extinction- by David J Wasserstein

How Islam saved the Jews from extinction?

Excerpts from an eye-opening article in The Jewish Chronicle by David J Wasserstein 



https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/all/so-what-did-the-muslims-do-for-the-jews-1.33597



“Islam saved Jewry. This is an unpopular, discomforting claim in the modern world. But it is a historical truth. The argument for it is double. First, in 570 CE, when the Prophet Mohammad was born, the Jews and Judaism were on the way to oblivion. And second, the coming of Islam saved them, providing a new context in which they not only survived, but flourished.”



“Within a century of the death of Mohammad, in 632, Muslim armies had conquered almost the whole of the world where Jews lived, from Spain eastward across North Africa and the Middle East as far as the eastern frontier of Iran and beyond. Almost all the Jews in the world were now ruled by Islam. This new situation transformed Jewish existence. Their fortunes changed in legal, demographic, social, religious, political, geographical, economic, linguistic and cultural terms - all for the better.”



“In the developing Islamic societies of the classical and medieval periods, being a Jew meant belonging to a category defined under law, enjoying certain rights and protections, alongside various obligations.”



“Along with legal near-equality came social and economic equality. Jews were not confined to ghettos, either literally or in terms of economic activity. The societies of Islam were, in effect, open societies. In religious terms, too, Jews enjoyed virtually full freedom. They might not build many new synagogues - in theory - and they might not make too public their profession of their faith, but there was no really significant restriction on the practice of their religion. Along with internal legal autonomy, they also enjoyed formal representation, through leaders of their own, before the authorities of the state.“



“The most outstanding of these was Islamic Spain, where there was a true Jewish Golden Age, alongside a wave of cultural achievement among the Muslim population.”



“the rise and fall of cultural centres of Islam tended to be reflected in the rise and fall of Jewish cultural activity in the same places.

Jewish cultural prosperity in the middle ages operated in large part as a function of Muslim, Arabic cultural (and to some degree political) prosperity: when Muslim Arabic culture thrived, so did that of the Jews; when Muslim Arabic culture declined, so did that of the Jews.”

“In the case of the Jews, however, the cultural capital thus created also served as the seed-bed of further growth elsewhere - in Christian Spain and in the Christian world more generally.

The Islamic world was not the only source of inspiration for the Jewish cultural revival that came later in Christian Europe, but it certainly was a major contributor to that development. Its significance cannot be overestimated.”


-The writer David J Wasserstein is the Eugene Greener Jr Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. This article is adapted from last week's Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies, UK.

The glorious contributions of Islamic Civilization to Modern World - CEO of Hewlett Packard Carly Fiorina

CARLY FIORINA, the then CEO of HP (Hewlett-Packard), gave a speech in MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA on SEPTEMBER 26, 2001

titled "TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS AND OUR WAY OF LIFE: WHAT'S NEXT" available on the HP official website.at https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/speeches/fiorina/minnesota01.html 

She ended her speech with the following words on Islamic civilisation: 

"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world.

It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins. 

One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities, and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilization’s commerce extended from Latin America to China, and everywhere in between. 

And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration. 

When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others. 

While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I’m talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent. 

Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians. Sufi poet-philosophers like Rumi challenged our notions of self and truth. Leaders like Suleiman contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership. 

And perhaps we can learn a lesson from his example: It was leadership based on meritocracy, not inheritance. It was leadership that harnessed the full capabilities of a very diverse population–that included Christianity, Islamic, and Jewish traditions. 

This kind of enlightened leadership — leadership that nurtured culture, sustainability, diversity and courage — led to 800 years of invention and prosperity."

Why very few Muslims have won Nobel prize?

Why very few Muslims won Nobel prize in science? 

Some people site the list of Nobel prize winners and say Muslims have not contributed much to science. This is a very superficial approach and shows total ignorance of the history of science. 

Modern West was in dark ages when Islamic Empire was at the peak of Science and civilisation. The West took much of their knowledge from the Muslims and built upon it, this is a well documented fact. 

For a small sample just read this CNN article 'Muslim inventions that shaped the modern world' By Olivia Sterns.  http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/29/muslim.inventions/index.html

For more information on muslim inventions go to: www.muslimheritage.com 

The present day Muslim world's "underdevelopment" is due to the centuries of European colonialism and thereafter the continued exploitative neo-colonial control and Western meddling. 

Muslim world is not alone in this so called scientific underdevelopment. Same trend is seen in the relative lack of Nobel prize winners in science from Christian African countries or South America or even India (whose population is almost comparable with all Muslim countries put together)? Why are they behind the West in Science? Out of the very few Indians who won Nobel prize in science, almost all of them studied and did research in Western Universities, not in India. The reason is obvious.

Rights, Liberties, the contradiction of Liberalism and Justice of Islam

The contradiction of Liberalism 

It is crucial for us to understand this quote from the English Philosopher Jeremy Bentham who is regarded as the father of Utilitarianism: “All rights are made at the expence of liberty”. 

Are there rights in a liberal society? Yes. Does this mean certain actions are thus restricted? Yes. Is therefore freedom curtailed? Yes. 

Of course, every society is like this. Every society restricts the complete freedom for one to act however one chooses. 

And these rights, or conversely, restrictions, are determined by that society’s conception of the good. 

Criteria of Good & Bad depends on values of a society. In Islamic societies it is Objective morality based on unchanging God's laws. 

In other modern societies it's subjective & ever-changing man-made laws based on imperfect human understanding & whims. 

So in Islamic system, liberties of people are

curtailed by universal God's rules  which are based on God's wisdom & equal for all; whereas in other systems, other humans (even if elected) who can never be totally impartial, have the power to curtail people's liberties. Which is better and more Just for humanity?