Indian Muslim Priorities - Negative Attitude

In centuries gone by, Muslims had lagged behind in science as a result of the complacency which had set in after their political victory in the crusades. Now in the present world, the same backwardness has taken another form. The political subjugation of Muslims by western nations from colonial times onwards had brought with it a negative reaction against their enemies. The western nations had taken away their pride, so the Muslims came to hate them. Because of this negative psychology, they not only opposed the western nations, but also their languages and sciences. Much of this attitude persists today.

A whole century was frittered away during the colonial period in futile opposition. Muslims continued to despise western nations and waged war against them, which, because of inadequate preparation on the part of the Muslims, only ended in defeat. On the other hand, other communities of the world were rapidly learning Western Languages and sciences and it was inevitable that a big gap should have developed between the Muslims and the other communities, one example of which can be seen in India. Kuldip Nayyer has written that Muslims are two hundred years behind in education as compared to their Hindu compatriots. Even if we feel that Nayyer’s estimate is somewhat exaggerated, we shall still have to concede that Muslims are at least one hundred years behind.

The sciences cultivated by western nations were not simply sciences, they were the foundations of all kinds of progress in the modern world – the power of the day. That is why all those nations who bent their minds to those sciences made advances. The western nations and their followers became far superior in culture and civilization to Muslims.

A Verbal Controversy

Latter-day Muslim reformers, who have recognized the need to propagate modern sciences and western learning amongst Muslims, have, by and large, based their arguments on verses from the Qur’an and sayings of the Prophet which lay stress on the importance of learning (al- ‘ilm). Such arguments, far from proving definitive, have stirred up controversies between religious and secular scholars, the former holding that those verses and sayings of the Prophet which emphasize the acquisition of learning refer to religious learning, and not to worldly sciences with their connotations of materialism. Muslims reformers insist that injunctions on learning refer to both the religious and the secular knowledge. This controversy, which began a century ago, shows few signs of being resolved.

So far as the verses which deal with learning are concerned, there is surely room for both interpretations. But no matter whether one group takes them to apply to religious learning while another group relates them to secular learning, the importance of modern science simply cannot be denied.  It may be an object of heated controversy, but its final acceptance is just as important to Muslims as it is to other nations and communities. Here is a verse from the Qur’an which not only approves of the acquisition of modern sciences, but which holds it to be the duty of Muslims to pursue them:

Muster against them all the force and cavalry at your disposal, so that you may strike terror into the enemies of God (8:60).

We are therein commanded by God to make ourselves strong so that our adversaries may be overawed. The notion of strength (al-quwwah) in this verse applies, surely, to all things which, at any given time, confer power upon their possessors: this may be the power of ideas, or the power of material things – either or both, depending upon the exigencies of the times.

It is an indisputable fact that modern scientific learning is a force in this day and age.  Today it is those nations which are advanced in science and technology which have real strength as compared with their more backward neighbours. We must be realistic and accept the fact that the awe inspired in one nation by another is to a very great extent the result of the acquisition of scientific learning.

Even if the importance of the modern scientific education is not underscored by the verses which deal with learning, it is certainly testified to by the verses which deal with the necessity for power. Whether Muslims bow to the wisdom of the verses on learning or the verses on strength, it is clearly their bounden duty to create conditions which are favorable to the inception and growth of scientific education in their own community.