04/26/11

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Islam and West - The Progress of West and The Downfall of Muslim World

The contemporary historians commit a grave mistake while referring to the medieval period as the dark period of human civilization. It was during this period from 800 CE to 1500 CE that Muslim scientists, philosophers, theologians and scholars actually laid down the foundation of a developed Muslim empire in terms of scientific knowledge, cultural heterogeneity, religious diversity, economic supremacy, trade and commerce. The West should be thankful to us because it is the intellectual heritage of our Muslim scientists and thinkers of medieval period upon which the basis of their Western renaissance and current progress is laid.
Pervaiz Hoodhbhoy in his book Muslims and Science: Religious orthodoxy and the struggle for rationality1 portrayed a clear picture of factors responsible for the downfall of Muslims. My paper will focus on Iqbal’s famous theory of “Reconstruction of religious thought in Islam” which according to Mustansir Mir2demands for a scientific knowledge of Islamic theology also stated in detail by Pervaiz Hoodhbhoy. The fact that I chose this thesis is because in my opinion Islamic Orthodox theology is the main cause of Muslim backwardness. In addition to this my main thesis will also shed some light on the two most important movements in the history of West and Islam: Protestantism and
Mutazillites movement as the key players in shaping the future of science in these civilizations. Further I will point out all the factors, their direct and indirect relationship with Islamic theology and their role in restricting Muslims from accepting the modern science and technology.
Mustansir Mir in Iqbal writes that every religion has two parts: Faith and theology. Faith is constant, permanent, divine, and unchangeable and in most of cases revealed while theology is a discipline developed by theologians of that particular faith to establish a particular world view which legitimizes that faith and allows timely innovations in religion. This world view mostly depends upon the particular mind set and prevailing customs and traditions of that era and changes with the changing circumstances of each era. Modern man has a mind that nourishes on the food of rationality, logic and critique of traditional superstitions. My opinion which is mainly based on the research I conducted I think that the main cause of Muslim backwardness in the field of science and the fact that they were outshined by West in every field is that Muslims theology failed to satisfy the needs and answer the questions of Modern mind. Islamic theology was unable to change itself and provide a new world view that could rationalize Muslim faith and face the challenges of logic and modern critique. This eventually led to a number of developments within the Muslims culture which led to their ultimate destruction such anti-West sentiments, establishment of clergy (Molvi) as an institution, colonialization and the most important of all the superiority complex. Each of the above mentioned factors will now be further elaborated with proper arguments:
First of all let’s bring to spotlight the two anti-orthodox movements that have a profound impact on the development of rationality in Islam and West. We can say that both the civilizations were given a chance by fate to revive the spirit of rationalism in their respective cultures. West accepted it in the form of Protestantism and Islam rejected it in the form of Mutazilla movement. It was these two movements that challenged orthodoxy, uphold the doctrine of rationality and demanded a logical explanation of all the Truths of religion. The fact that Protestantism succeeded in West was a permit to promote intellectual freedom, accept diversity and modernity and materialize the nature to study through the lens of natural sciences. Michael H.Hart in his book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History3 states that most of the individuals in this book that greatly influenced the world in fields of science and technology belong to protestant countries. It was this intellectual freedom offered to these influential persons that brought about renaissance in the western world. The invention of printing press by Johan Guttenberg in 1450’s revolutionized science and gave birth to individual’s such as Newton, Einstein, Galileo, Kepler and many more. A new world view was established and science was redefined. In short one can say that people had now access to books and they were no more dependent on the dictation of traditional church authorities. People could now search for the Truth themselves.
On the other hand Muslims practiced a different approach. The rise of Mutazillites during the time of Al-Mamun and Haroon-ur-Rasheed was suppressed by orthodoxy latter on, shunning logic and reason on the basis of purely absolutist traditional knowledge. The orthodox Muslim theologians claimed that introduction of science in
Muslim world meant an innovation which was strictly forbidden in Islam. For reference they quoted the following saying of Bibi Ayesha:
Ayesha report that the messenger of Allah said “Whoever introduces a new innovation into this thing of ours (Islam) which is not of it, he is cursed.” Muslim Bukhari.
Now that’s one side of the story. The inner reality was that Muslim orthodox scholars created a protective shell around them and considered themselves an institutions just like the church priests who considered there authority as the final authority. The fact that Muslims failed to question these authorities just like Martin Luther did was because Muslim orthodox scholars through their preaching and writings made it literally impossible for a common man to question them and accept their authority as final on matters related to religion. Al- Gazali in his book “Deliverance from error4 says that no one is allowed to question an authority mere on the basis of doubt. If anyone wants to critique someone he or she must actually first achieve the level of that authority or even surpass it. This stops the process of questioning and criticizing what is not rational, the fundamental process of modern science.
Now coming over to the second most important factor. The superior complex from which the medieval Muslims suffered. Bernard Lewis in his book what went wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response? 5 draw a clear picture of this complex. According to Lewis for centuries Islam was at forefront of human civilization and thought that beyond its borders were only barbarians and infidels and this perception of self and other was not only enjoyed by Muslims but all other civilizations of the world such as China, Greek, Roman and Indian. Muslims were totally unaware of what was
happening in the West as they were not considering the West as potential rivals. What happened there during renaissance was only limited to West only. Yes, indeed there were trade links between the Muslim world and the West but there was no flow of ideas and then all of a sudden the relationship changed. The West which had remained a pupil of the East in term of scientific ideas had now begun to transform rapidly. With the advent of “New learning” the Europeans advanced rapidly, leaving the scientific and technological and eventually the cultural heritage of the Islamic world far behind them. Apart from renaissance this technological reformation remained unnoticed in the Muslim world as they were still suffering from the disease of superiority complex and considered the others as barbarians. Bernard Lewis says:
       “But as European civilization was rising, Islamic civilization was declining. Or rather, it was proving incapable of keeping up with its European rivals. Europeans explored the world, developed a scientific method, established legal, economic and political systems derived from enlightened philosophy. Modernism, however, was a European invention for which Islam had no answer. Why not?” (Review: What went wrong? By Pierre Tristam) 6
In my opinion the stability and progress of a civilization depends upon the militarily strength of that civilization. Once a particular civilization feels no more threatened from its rivals then it can focus more on its scientific, cultural, political and social progress and these are the vital elements that make a civilization great. For hundred of years the sense of security enjoyed by the Muslims aided them to concentrate more on their internal issues as was evident during the time of Abdur Rehman III. His regime is considered as the golden age of Islamic prosperity especially of Al-Andulus (Spain). For the first time the minorities (Jews, Christian) enjoyed a status of equal
citizenship with the Muslim invaders and that was due to this relaxation that the Jews fought for the Muslims during their conquest in Africa. Robert Gardner in the documentary “The rise and fall of Islamic Spain: Cities of light PBS 7says that these minorities were given the status of “Protected people” according to the Islamic law. A lot of scientific development that occurred in the Islamic world can be traced back to the Jews and Christians. Maimonides the greatest philosopher of Jewish tradition was a product of Muslim philosophical heritage.
“Most notable Arab scientists and Iranian scientists lived and practiced during the Islamic Golden Age, though not all scientists in Islamic civilization were Arab or Muslim. Some argue that the term "Arab-Islamic" does not appreciate the rich diversity of eastern scholars who have contributed to science in that era” (Behrooz Broumand, The contribution of Iranian scientists to world civilization, 2006; 288–290)
This proves my third factor responsible for the downfall of Muslim empire. The loopholes of Muslims military strategies were evident when Napoleon easily defeated the Muslim Army in Egypt in 1798 and during recon Questa of Spain. The downfall of Ottoman Empire is an example. As for as minorities are concerned Muslims of Medieval period failed to uphold their tradition of treating the minorities with respect. Robert Gardner peeps inside into the political conflicts that arose within the Muslim empire due to mistreatment of the minorities and second class citizens. Gardner says that the Muslim civilization born in AL-Andulus was rich in terms of musical arts, trade, science and technology, secular studies, scholars and theologians. The Muslims maintained a sort of balance among the diverse cultural and religious groups and each one contributed a lot in the total welfare of the Islamic civilization. Jews who were persecuted by the Visigoths before the conquering of Spain by Muslims welcomed the advent of Tariq bin Ziad. He
further adds that the downfall of Muslim empire was not due to the outside invaders but because of the internal conflicts that were initiated by the local Al- Mohads and North African Orthodox Muslims. They were considered as second class citizens and revolted against the Arab aristocrats. These orthodox Muslims persecuted the local religious minorities and demanded for an infidel free empire. The even attacked Seville because the governor of Servile had an ideology similar to Mutazillites, was in favor of a diverse society and provided patronage to the scholars who searched for a logical interpretation of Islam. The Orthodox Muslims attacked the city, burnt down approximately 700 libraries and all the books in them as they considered them heretic. This was the beginning of a civil war on the horizon of which the Orthodox ideology dominated. Greed, intolerance and Absolutism destroyed the passion for learning.     
Ottoman Empire which supported the decline of Muslim civilization was aware of the technological gap between Muslims and West. After Recon Questa Ottoman Empire focused more on gaining militarily strength, and technological growth but this too was a temporary shift in perception. Still suffering from the superiority complex Bernard Lewis writes that the Ottomans even aware of the advanced and skillful weaponry of the West never actually tried to achieve it themselves. Yes, it was true that they hired western mercenaries and engineers for building modern fortifications and sophisticated weapons but they never tried to learn the skill themselves. The curiosity for achieving skills and knowledge which is the essence of survival according to Carl Sagan and Brownski never developed in them ever. They still considered themselves superior to the European
infidels and recruiting European experts was a business for them, what is now days known as “Constructive engagement”. Bernard Lewis writes:
   “As early as sixteenth century, an Ottoman Grand Vizier in his retirement observed that while the Muslims forces were supreme on the land, the infidels were getting stronger on the sea. “We must overcome them”. His message received little attention
(Lewis, what went wrong? 2002, p.no 13)   
The Muslim civilization was now on the verge of collapse. Muslim Orthodoxy was still dominant ideology. Before First World War a wave of revolts by young Turks and Community of Union and progress (CUP) in Ottoman Empire demanded for a secular stated challenging the Orthodoxy and traditional authority. It is worth mentioning here that the Young Turks movement was initiated by a number of military officers, mostly educated in European institutions who were worried about the technological growth of the West and the decreasing military strength of the Ottoman Empire. Inspired by their glorious past they revolted against the Caliph, succeeded and established a scientific society. Educational reforms were conducted with emphasis on Science and technology but the continuous intervention of Orthodox Muslims made the progress slow.
William.L.Cleveland writes:
      “The first years of CUP were marked by intellectual freedom unparallel in Ottoman history. With the lifting of Abdul Hamid’s censorship, the periodical press underwent resurgence in the major cities of Empire. It was an exhilarating period, as ideas so long denied public expression poured forth in exuberant torrent. The government when I was not distracted by wars and the struggle to stay simply in Power, concentrated on the expansion of primary and secondary education system and the improvement of military, which had been badly neglected during the Abdul Hamid’s last years. The public debate was focused on achieving the proper mix between European and Indigenous ideas and institutions9 (Cleveland, A history of Modern Middle East 1999, p.no 133)
He further writes about the Orthodoxy that interrupted the process of reformation.
“In spring of 1909 a counterrevolution broke out against the new government. It was les by common soldiers and theological students in Istanbul who voiced their resentment against the influence of Europeanized army officers by chanting slogans calling for the restoration the Sharaih” (Cleveland, A history of Modern Middle East 1999, p.no 132)   
At this movement of history when the Muslim all over the world were under the influence of Orthodoxy, time was ripe for the scientifically developed and militarily well established Western colonials to colonize the weaker Muslim countries. Once again the Muslim armies failed to defeat their European rivals in the battle field due to poor military strategies and pathetic war equipments. This proves my fourth factor responsible for decline of Science in Muslim Civilization but this is one side of the picture. Let’s see in detail what actually happened, and why the Masters turned in to slaves?
During the renaissance Europeans that were once following the Islamic sciences which were based on the spiritual aspect of Nature. Renaissance was the birth and rise of Rationality. The Orthodox theologians were unable to withstand the attack of logic and rationality and gradually vanished. Syed Hossain Nasr in his response to Bernard Lewis what went wrong: responds as follow:
“The freedom of reason from revelation and intellectual institution, combined with emphasis upon humanism, rationalism, empiricism and naturalism led to many new developments including a new science based on power and made it possible for Europe to expand over the globe and become dominant over other civilizations. It led to the Industrial revolution, modern technology and modern medicine” 10 (Nasr, Heart of Islam: 2004, p.no 310)
The fact that Muslims didn’t respond to the changing demands of science and West did was the vital point that shaped the future prospects of Science in Islam and West. Muslim
theology that once changed with the changing era failed to detect such a change, and remain attached to its old theology of pre-modern era. One argument in this favor is that we don’t see many Muslim intellectual born after 1500 CE that did a remarkable work in the field of physics, Astronomy, medicine chemistry, mathematics or Geometry. This was because they now considered these fields of science as impure based on material growth and attached to them the label of Western science. It was here that the distinction between Islamic and western Science was made by Islamic orthodox philosophers. Al- Gazali in deliverance from error severely criticized Mathematics and all other natural sciences.
Going down the list there are several other factors that played a role in the downfall of Muslims and the rise of west. Most important of them are Colonization, Neo colonization, dictatorship in the Muslim countries, and luxurious life style of the Muslim Emperors and misinterpretation of the term jihad by Islamic Orthodox theologians. We are all well aware of the impact of Western civilization on our culture. Orthodox Muslims still processing a narrow world view demanded for pre modern scientific culture and rejected the advance science of West. It was at this period of time when the Reconstructionist movement originated, led by Sir Sayed Ahmad khan, Syed Ameer Ali and followed by Allama Iqbal which tried to change the orthodox ideology. It is worth mentioning here that it were the Islamic fanatics who always supported the dictatorship in Islamic countries as they considered dictatorship close to Islamic form of government. We are well aware what the menace of dictatorship did to Islamic countries. Stephen Cohen in Army’s Pakistan 11says that during the regime of Gen Zia-ul-Haq it was the Islamic Orthodox theology that was the states official ideology. The sacred term of Jihad
was reduced to physical jihad only and intolerance was on the peak in the society. Religious sectarianism was born during this era. It was this intolerance that was responsible for the downfall of great Muslim empires and other civilizations. Muhammad Amir Rana in his book Jihadi print Media in Pakistan: An Overview12 writes that during the times of dictators religious and Jihadi publication paved the way for Islamic Orthodox theologians to implement their ideology on the society. These publications include anti-west material which asks the Muslims to abandon Western scientific education and modernity as they are the tools of evil and wage war on the west. The verse of Quran which says that one Muslim is equal to 10 non-Muslims is misinterpreted and provided as a justification for their Jihad against the West. Much to our disappointment according to Stephen Cohen this verse was repeatedly recited during the time of Zia-ul-Haq while formatting Pakistan’s foreign policy for Afghanistan and India.
The last but not the least, the luxurious life style of Muslim empowers was one of the several reasons responsible for the economic down fall of Islamic civilizations. With the economic downfall, less attention was paid to other sectors of development including a well skilled army which is equipped with the military strategies of modern warfare. William Cleveland while referring to the period of Iranian Constitutional revolution writes.
“ The income from the loan, rather than being deployed in economic development or militarily improvements was used to meet payments on earlier loans or was squandered on Muzaffar-ud-Din expensive trips to Europe between 1900 and 1905” (Cleveland, A history of Modern Middle East 1999, p.no 141)
I will close my case with the famous quote of Carl Sagan which Brownski also mentioned in his documentary “The Ascent of Man” that “Curiosity and passion for knowledge is the tool for survival. Till the time we are unable to throw out the extremism and intolerance from our societies and compete with the west on equal grounds as the West did in medieval period, we will never be able to match them in any field. The main secret of West was that it never rejected Muslim knowledge when Muslims were the masters but laid down the foundation of their progress on the works of Muslim philosophers like ibne Rushd and Ibne Sina. Today our orthodox theologians still suffering from superiority complex are causing a conflict and distinction unnecessary between Islamic science and Western Science.

Author Profile:  Shahzad Mehboob is a current student of Political Science at Lahore University Of Management Sciences. Besides his interests in studies he is also a very good boxer.