Islam and the Renewal of Life (The Wise and the Ignorant)
Humans are not the only creatures that live socially; many animals, especially insects, have a social life and follow a set of rules and a wise system. The principles of cooperation, division of labor, production and distribution, command and obedience, decree and compliance, rule over their society.
Honeybees, some ants, and termites have such a civilization, system, and organization that it may take years, even centuries, for humans, who consider themselves the noblest of creatures, to reach their level.
Their civilization, unlike human civilization, has not gone through periods such as the age of the jungle, the age of stone, the age of iron, or the age of the atom. They have had this civilization and organization from the beginning, when they set foot in this world, and today it remains unchanged, and there has been no change in their circumstances. It is humans who exemplify the statement «وَخُلِقَ الْإِنْسَانُ ضَعِيفًا»[نساء: 28] ‘And human was created weak’ [nesaa 28], starting their life from scratch and progressing towards the infinite.
For animals, the requirements of time remain constant; the demands of time do not alter their lives. For them, innovation and progressiveness have no meaning. There is no new and old world. Knowledge does not reveal anything new to them every day, and their conditions do not change. Light and heavy industries do not come into their market every day, as they live by instinct, not by reason.
But humans, social life for humans is always subject to change and evolution. In every century, the world changes for humans. This is the secret of being the noblest of creatures. Humans are mature and grown children of nature; they have reached a stage where they no longer need direct guardianship and supervision by nature, with the title of an enigmatic force called instinct guiding them. They live by reason, not by instinct.
Nature has deemed humans mature and set them free, removing its direct guardianship over them. What an animal does by instinct and by the unchangeable laws of nature, humans must do with the force of reason, knowledge, and with changeable, adaptable laws and regulations.
The secret of the corruptions and deviations that humans experience from the path of progress and evolution, the secret of halts and declines, the secret of falls and destructions also lies in this. For humans, just as the path of progress and advancement is open, the path of corruption, deviation, and decline is also not closed.
Humans have reached the stage where, as the Quran says, they have accepted the burden of trust that the heavens and the earth and the mountains could not bear; that is, they have accepted a free life and the responsibility of religious duties, tasks, and laws. For this reason, they are not immune to injustice and ignorance, selfishness, and wrongdoing. The Quran immediately describes them with the qualities of ‘unjust’ and ‘ignorant’ when it expresses this strange potential of humans to bear the burden of religious duty and responsibility.
“These two potentials in humans, namely the potential for evolution and the potential for deviation, are inseparable from each other. Human beings are not like animals who neither go forward nor backward, neither left nor right in their social life. In the lives of humans, sometimes there is progress and sometimes regression. In the lives of humans, if there is movement and speed, there is also stagnation and decline. If there is progress and evolution, there is also corruption and deviation
If there is justice and goodness, there is oppression and violence. If there are manifestations of knowledge and reason, there are also manifestations of ignorance and arrogance.
Changes and new phenomena that occur over time may fall into two categories. One of these is the characteristics of humanity, which include moderation and excess. When a person stands in moderation, they strive to distinguish between changes of the first kind and the second kind. They endeavor to move time forward with the power of knowledge, initiative, and effort. They attempt to adapt themselves to the appearances of progress and the advancement of time. They also strive to resist the deviations of time and keep themselves from becoming like them.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Two dangerous diseases always threaten humanity in this regard: the disease of rigidity and the disease of ignorance. The result of the first disease is stagnation, inertia, and a refusal to progress and develop. The result of the second disease is decline and deviation.
The rigid individual despises anything new, and they only accept what is old. The ignorant person considers any new phenomenon as a result of the necessities of the time, calling it renewal and progress. The rigid person sees corruption and deviation in everything new, while the ignorant person considers everything as part of the civilization and the development of knowledge and science.
For the rigid individual, there is no distinction between the core and the surface, means and ends. In their view, religion is a duty to preserve ancient traditions. They believe that the Quran was revealed to stop the flow of time and maintain the world’s conditions as they are. To them, reading amma part, using quill pens, washing in traditional baths, eating with hands, using oil lamps, and living in ignorance and illiteracy are religious rituals to be preserved.
In contrast, the ignorant person eagerly adopts any new fashion or trend they see in the Western world, immediately labeling it as a symbol of renewal and the dictates of the time.
Both the rigid and the ignorant assume that everything that existed in the past is part of religious matters, with the difference being that the rigid person believes these traditions should be preserved, while the ignorant person believes that religion primarily serves conservatism and a desire for stability.
In recent centuries, the issue of the conflict between science and religion has been widely discussed among the people of the Maghreb region. This idea has two roots: first that the Church had accepted some ancient philosophical and scientific issues as religious matters, which were supposed to be believed from a religious perspective, but scientific advances contradicted them. Second, that science had transformed life and changed its form.
Those with a religiously conservative view, just as they had attributed a religious color to some philosophical issues without reason, also wanted to categorize the outward appearance of life as part of the religious domain. Ignorant individuals also thought this way and believed that religion had already shaped a specific form of material life for people. Since, according to scientific opinion, the material form of life needed to be changed, science had issued a ruling of abrogation of religion. The rigidity of the first group and the ignorance of the second group created the illusion of a conflict between science and religion.
Islam is a progressive and forward-looking religion. The Holy Quran provides an example to make Muslims understand that they should always be in a state of growth, development, and evolution in the light of Islam. It gives the example that the followers of Muhammad (PBUH) are like a seed that is sown in the ground. Initially, the seed sprouts with thin leaves from the ground, then it strengthens itself, and it stands on its own stem. It goes through these stages with such speed and strength that it astonishes the farmers.
This is an example of the society that the Quran refers to, and it is a model of what the Quran desires. The Quran nurtures a society that is always in a state of growth, development, expansion, and extension.
Will Durant says, “No religion has invited its followers to strength like Islam.”
The history of early Islam showed how capable Islam is in building and advancing a society from scratch.
Islam is opposed to both stagnation and ignorance. The danger that Islam faces comes from both of these categories. Stagnation, narrow-mindedness, and the inclination to adhere to outdated slogans that have no connection to the sacred religion of Islam provide an excuse for ignorant people to consider Islam as opposing true progress. On the other hand, blind imitation, conservatism, Westernization, and the belief that people’s happiness lies in becoming Western in body, soul, appearance, and essence lead these groups to blindly conform their own civil and social laws to those of the West. This provides an excuse for the rigid traditionalists to view any new condition with pessimism and consider it a threat to their religion, independence, and the social identity of their nation.
In this context, it is Islam’s responsibility to rectify the mistakes of both groups. Stagnation empowers the ignorant, and ignorance makes the traditionalists’ beliefs even more rigid.
Wonder! These ignorant modernists believe it’s an “infallible” time. But are changes in time made only by human hands, or is it in the control of someone else? Since when and from what historical point has humanity become free from error for time’s changes to remain infallible? Humanity, influenced by its scientific, ethical, aesthetic, and religious inclinations, is always making fresh innovations for the betterment of humanity. However, it is also influenced by its selfishness, greed, lust, love of money, and exploitation. Just as humanity succeeds in making new discoveries and finding better ways and means, it sometimes makes mistakes and errors. But the ignorant self-loser does not understand these words and insists that today’s world is as it is. Today’s world is just like that. Even more peculiar is that these individuals assess the principles of life based on their shoes, hats, and clothing. They do so because shoes and hats can be either new or old. When they are new and freshly molded, they have value and must be purchased and worn. However, as soon as they become old, they must be discarded. Thus, according to these ignorant people, all truths follow this pattern. In their view, there is no conceptual distinction between good and bad except for new and old. They dislike feudalism (which means that an unjust ruler puts the title of “owner” on himself and sits in his place while hundreds of hands and arms work so that he can move his mouth) for the sole reason that it has become old. They do not favor today’s world; its era has passed, and it is no longer in “vogue.”
But on the first day it was discovered and freshly introduced to the global market, it was good. According to them, investing in a woman is bad because today’s world no longer appreciates it, and it doesn’t fit the burden of today. But in the past when they didn’t grant inheritance to women, they didn’t consider ownership rights for them, they didn’t respect their will and beliefs; it was good because it was new and freshly introduced to the market. In the view of such individuals, because the era is now the era of space, you can no longer use a horse-drawn carriage, light oil lamps, set up huge hand-spinning factories, handwrite while big printing machines exist, you can’t participate in dance parties, attend “Mayo” parties or “kitchen” parties, and you can’t throw a childish tantrum, play poker, or wear above-the-knee fashion, because all of these are the phenomena of the century, and if not done, they have returned to the era of horseback riding.
The term “phenomenon of the century” has brought misery to many individuals and destroyed countless families. They say, “It’s the age of science, the atomic era, the time of artificial satellites, the space age.” Well, we are grateful to live in this age and century and hope to make the most and the best use of the benefits of science and technology. But in this age, have all the sources except the source of knowledge dried up? Are all phenomena of this century products of scientific progress? Does science claim to completely reform and humanize the character of a learned person?
Science does not make such claims, to the extent that some scholars and scientists, with the utmost purity of intent, engage in exploration and discovery, while power-hungry, avaricious, and money-driven groups employ the fruits of their scientific efforts for their own wicked purposes. The lament of science has always been that it is exploited for the nefarious ends of disobedient humanity. This is the predicament and misery of our century.
Science advances in the field of physics and discovers the laws of light. Some profit-seeking individuals use this to produce adult films. Chemistry makes progress and uncovers the properties of substances. Then, people start thinking about using these discoveries to create a menace to human life called “heroin.”
Science delves into the inner workings of the atom and harnesses the incredible power of the atom. However, before it can be put to any positive use for the betterment of humanity, power-hungry individuals create atomic bombs and unleash them on innocent people.
When a celebration was held in honor of Einstein, the great scientist of the 20th century, he himself went to the podium and said, “Are you celebrating someone whose knowledge led to the creation of the atomic bomb?!” Einstein did not put his knowledge to use for destructive purposes, but others did.
Heroin, atomic bombs, and films of this nature cannot be justified as “phenomena of the century” simply because they exist. Even if the most advanced bombs are dropped on innocent people by those who have received the finest education, it does not diminish the cruelty of such actions.
We pray to the Allah Almighty to grant us success in doing good deeds. In conclusion, I say: send blessings to someone who worshiped in the cave of Hira, the bearer of a beautiful law and an easy-to-follow religion, the one with great intercession and ascension.
