Islam and modernity: shooting at the moon

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.  All praise is due to Allah who constantly renews his creation, sending rain and wind to refresh it and purify it. And peace be upon His Messenger Muhammad, who taught us the importance of purification, and upon his pure family and companions, all of them.

In the first in this series on Islam and Modernity,  I looked at the first and touched on the second of the seven worldviews of modernity identified by Roger E Olson.  The first was the rejection of tradition, and the second was a narrowing of the definition of knowledge to “rationally certain beyond reasonable doubt.”  By definition, this must exclude all beliefs based on tradition, authority, inspiration or intuition.  Logic and the scientific method are the only accepted ways of gaining knowledge. This means that many people have used this as an excuse to ignore religious teachings.

They become reduced to superstition or opinion, to be given no more respect than any other human thought or invention, such as the mock religion of the “Flying Spaghetti Monster.”

Firstly, I would like to clarify that modern people do not differ from some of the people of the past in rejecting religion.  The Qur’an people as saying,

وَقَالُوا مَا هِيَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلَّا الدَّهْرُ ۚ وَمَا لَهُم بِذَٰلِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ ۖ إِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ

And they said, “There is nothing but our life in this world.  We die and we live, and nothing destroys us except for time.  And they have no knowledge of this.  They are only speculating.  (45:24)

However, I would like to reflect upon what happens when religion becomes rejected as a source of knowledge.  What do we lose by this.

The Qur’an talks about unchangable laws operating in our world in a way similar to scientific laws.  These are “sunnat Ullah, the sunnat of God, or the sunnat of the earlier people.” (Surahs 33:62 and 48:23)

وَمَا مَنَعَ النَّاسَ أَن يُؤْمِنُوا إِذْ جَاءَهُمُ الْهُدَىٰ وَيَسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّهُمْ إِلَّا أَن تَأْتِيَهُمْ سُنَّةُ الْأَوَّلِينَ أَوْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ الْعَذَابُ قُبُلًا

And nothing prevented the people from believing when guidance came to them, and asking for forgiveness from their Lord, except that the sunnat of the first people came to them, or that the punishment confronted them. (18:55)

These sunnat refer to the way of Allah punishes people who commit injustice in the earth.

 كَمْ تَرَكُوا مِن جَنَّاتٍ وَعُيُونٍ

وَزُرُوعٍ وَمَقَامٍ كَرِيمٍ

وَنَعْمَةٍ كَانُوا فِيهَا فَاكِهِينَ

كَذَٰلِكَ ۖ وَأَوْرَثْنَاهَا قَوْمًا آخَرِينَ

How much did they leave of gardens and fountains, and farms and noble places, and blessings which they were enjoying. Like that! And We caused another people to inherit.  (44:25-28)

There are so many ayaat in the Qur’an describing past peoples who were very strong and well-established in the land who were overturned by Allah so they became as if they had never existed.

أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِعَادٍ (6) إِرَمَ ذَاتِ الْعِمَادِ (7) الَّتِي لَمْ يُخْلَقْ مِثْلُهَا فِي الْبِلَادِ (8) وَثَمُودَ الَّذِينَ جَابُوا الصَّخْرَ بِالْوَادِ (9) وَفِرْعَوْنَ ذِي الْأَوْتَادِ (10) الَّذِينَ طَغَوْا فِي الْبِلَادِ (11) فَأَكْثَرُوا فِيهَا الْفَسَادَ (12) فَصَبَّ عَلَيْهِمْ رَبُّكَ سَوْطَ عَذَابٍ (13) إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَبِالْمِرْصَادِ

Are you not aware of how your Sustainer has dealt with Ad, the people of Iram the many-pillared, the like of whom has never been reared in all the land?  and with the Thamud, who hollowed out rocks in the valley? And with Pharaoh of many tent poles?  It was they who transgressed all bounds of equity all over their lands, and brought about great corruption therein; and therefore thy Sustainer let loose upon them a scourge of suffering; for, verily,  your Sustainer is ever on the watch.  (89:6-14)

It is not just Islam which talks of divine retribution or requital.  It is present in all religions. Hindus and Buddhists talk of Karma and the Ancient Egyptians ad of justice and right order (Maat)

Maat is good and its worth is lasting. It has not been disturbed since the day of its creator,whereas he who transgresses its ordinances is punished. It lies as a path in front even of him who knows nothing.Wrongdoing has never yet brought its venture to port. It is true that evil may gain wealth but the strength of truth is that it lasts; a man can say: “It was the property of my father.”^[12]

Anyone who has brought up a child knows that the concept of justice is wired into our human nature.  Yet if we reject religion, then does that mean that we can ignore ideas like Karma and sunnat-Ullah as mere superstition when in fact they contain deep wisdom which we can witness playing out in history? Take the legend of the koh-i-noor. A story in the Baghavad Gita warns against someone who is not worthy taking hold of a legendary diamond (the Syamantaka Jewel).  Such a diamond will bring fortune to those who are worthy, but destruction to those who are not.  Some people have associated that story with the Koh-i-noor, and claimed that the jewel is cursed.  On one level, this is mere superstition, yet there is no denying that many people in possession of that gem, or wishing to possess it committed great atrocities and themselves died in tragic circumstances.  I would argue that there is an underlying truth: greed and oppression lead to an unfortunate end.  If we dismiss religion as fables, does this mean we become deaf to these truths too?

In the long term, by rejecting a religious dimension, we make ourselves vulnerable opening the door to far-reaching and unforeseen changes in our way of life.  We are very fortunate to be living in a time where the equality of humanity is respected in principle if not in practice.  Yet we should not be complacent.  The horrors of the Second World War have quashed the rationalistic but flawed scientific racism and sexism and made it appear morally repugnant, while the embers of religious tradition continue to provide light to us by shaping our ideas of right and wrong.  But it is possible to imagine a future world where memories have faded, received truths have been dismantled, and technology has made the disparity between those who control it and those who don’t ever greater.  On what grounds will we argue for justice and equality if science becomes the only criterion and when science can be misused in order to argue for anything?  Has our reasoning evolved to be so superior to that of our 19th and early twentieth century ancestors that we can feel safe?

Another aspect is a loss of a sense of respect for the sacred which leaves everything in this world and beyond vulnerable to exploitation. If we do not live in a meaningful universe, and if truth is a construction, then one cannot say that “this” is better or more correct than “that.” Hierarchy telescopes and respect and honour vanishes.  Monarchies are turned into republics. Sacraments become contracts. Ablution becomes hygiene.  An honoured creation we inherit on trust becomes nothing more than a resource.  Nothing remains haram (off-limits), including the heavenly bodies.  It becomes possible for people to talk about mining the moon.    Is it a mere attempt at a classical allusion or deliberately symbolic that the Nasa’s legal framework for moon exploitation called that Artemis accords?  Artemis, goddess of eternal chastity and purity, protector of women children and living creatures, is now to be captured and exploited by Western man, proud inheritor of the legacy of Ancient Greece?   And yet Islam also has the moon as a symbol.  In a beautiful song sung in honour of the Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet Muhammad is likened to the full white moon, the moon of course reflecting light onto the earth.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, was once asked to give up teaching his message by the Quraish.   The Prophet is famously quoted as saying, “O my uncle! by God if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left on condition that I abandon this course, until God has made me victorious, or I perish therein, I would not abandon it.”

What sort of knowledge is this that we lay claim to, and what value is it, if we don’t know enough to have simple good manners and respect, and if we don’t know enough to avoid bringing our planet to the brink of destruction – if “we know the price of everything and the value of nothing?”