Figure 1.-- |
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A Pakistani reader asks, "Do you think that man-made laws can save humanity from all the contemporary problems like rape, poverty etc? you yourself agreed that America is a violent country. How come with centuries of intellectual acumen, man-made laws still cannot protect a woman from being raped in your country? How come the richest and the most powerful country in the world cannot even feed its own people and save them from the evil of poverty? And they are out there to save the world from evil! These are not theological questions. it has a deeper meaning. By rejecting God you claim that man-made laws through his intellect and reason can suffice to save humanity from its destruction. The question is: has it been successful? we have in history a time during Muhamamd (pbuh) when the Divine Shariah was enforced down to the very letter and it produced a civilization which the non-muslim critics still laud. Michael Hart wrote a book on 100 most influential men of all times and being a christian, he declared Muhammad (pbuh) as the greatest and he gave his reason as follows: "He was the only man to have been supremely successful both on religious and secular fronts. This means that Muhammad was not greatest amongst religious men but even greatest than those who reject God and believe in secularism. Why? How? the question remains: is man-made laws better than divine-laws?" HBC of course believes that man-made law is superior. But rather than just state opinions, we believe the best approach is to compare countries where faith has been an influence in laws and society with secular socities where reason has been more important. Which socirties have better cared for their people and accomplished the most in art, literature, education, medicine, science, industry, agriculture, meterology, and other disciplines.
slam underwent the same debate between faith and reason that occured in the Christain west. At a time that Christian Europe was mired in dogmatic faith and the learning of the classical era had largely disappeared, there was a flowering of a learning and culture in Islam. Islamic scholars made great advances in mathematics, astronomy, geography, archetecture, and other disciplines. To a large extent these advances were based on translations of classical Greek and Roman texts. Just as Islamic learning was about to move beyond the classics a crisis appeared in the Islamic world. Scholars persued both rational thought and reference to the sacred texts to defend Islam. The two approaches, however, collided and it became increasinly evident that scholars would have to chose one or the other. This was the same crisis that occurred in the European Renaissance. Islam chose the path of faith. The great Islamic scholar al-Ghazali (1058-1111) was the leading theologian which confirmed this choice. Al-Ghazali distrusted rationalistic reason and argued against it ro support Islam. The result was a anti-intelectual outlook best seen in Sufi mysticism which had a profound imapct on spreading the faith. Al-Ghazali's classic work, The Destruction of Philosophy was perhaps the most significant Islamic text after the Koran. It was followed by Ibn Rushd's Distructin of the Distruction which questioned some of Al-Ghazali's domatism. Sultan Mohammed II settled the argument permanently. He ordered Hodja Zada's ( -1487) to resolve the debate in Al-Ghazali's favor. He did so with The Destruction of the Distruction of the Distruction. The result was the destruction of Islamic science. Thus just as the Renaissance was leading Europe in to the modern world, Islam decided to perpetually end any real persuit of modern science. The results continued to this day. Since the time of Al-Ghazali there have been no notable Islamic scientists or important scientific discoveries from the Islamic world. The congregational rote reciting of the Koran and other savred texts in the Islamic madrasas contrast starkly with the energetic thought provking debate of the medieval European universities. One scholar writes, "The existence of hundreds of madrasas, sometimes liberally endowed and well staffed, mrely fastened the dead hand of authority more securely upon Moslem minds." [McNeil, p. 504] One ironic aspect of the modern world situation is that while Islamic fundamentalists catigate the West, it is Western science and medicine that saves millions of lives annually throughout the Islamic world.
A Pakistani reader asks, "Do you think that man-made laws can save humanity from all the contemporary problems like rape, poverty etc? you yourself agreed that America is a violent country. How come with centuries of intellectual acumen, man-made laws still cannot protect a woman from being raped in your country? How come the richest and the most powerful country in the world cannot even feed its own people and save them from the evil of poverty? And they are out there to save the world from evil! These are not theological questions. it has a deeper meaning. By rejecting God you claim that man-made laws through his intellect and reason can suffice to save humanity from its destruction. The question is: has it been successful? we have in history a time during Muhamamd (pbuh) when the Divine Shariah was enforced down to the very letter and it produced a civilization which the non-muslim critics still laud. Michael Hart wrote a book on 100 most influential men of all times and being a christian, he declared Muhammad (pbuh) as the greatest and he gave his reason as follows: "He was the only man to have been supremely successful both on religious and secular fronts. This means that Muhammad was not greatest amongst religious men but even greatest than those who reject God and believe in secularism. Why? How? the question remains: is man-made laws better than divine-laws?"
HBC of course believes that man-made law is superior. But rather than just state opinions, we believe the best approach is to compare countries where faith has been an influence in laws and society with secular socities where reason has been more important. Our reader suggests indicators such as poverty and violence are important to consider. We agree but there are of course many other indicators that can be used such as publications of books, patent awards, nobel prizes, educational achievement, infant mortality, national income, ect. It seems a reasonable enough approch to assess Which socirties have better cared for their people and accomplished the most in art, literature, education, medicine, science, industry, and agriculture.
Our Pakistani reader seems from his e-mails rather disturbed by America, but I think that a comparison say between America and Palistan is not what we are after. Here rather rather a comparison between the democratic West (America, Canada, and Western Europe) with secular systems could be one group of countries. (Just doing America would not be the best choice because faith-based religion is very strong in America.) And we can compare these countries with Muslim countries (meaning countries with majority Muslim populations). Of course there are no purely secular countries and no purely Islamic countries. But these two groups of countries seem the cloest one can come to in the faith/reason continum in the world as it exists today.
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