CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM RESPONSE
TO THE CHALLENGE OF KNOWLEDGE:
SEPARATING THE GRAIN FROM THE CHAFF - 7
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[Background ]
[ The Problem I ]
[ The Problem II ]
2. The Role of
History Muslims hardly need to be reminded of the
significance of history, if only because the Qur’an is replete with it. The
Islamization of knowledge being attempted now is in a way what was successfully
and remarkably accomplished some ten centuries ago. Even though the context has
changed, the issues appear to be the same and the principles are likely to
remain the same. It is necessary, therefore, to have recourse to that history
if only to avoid the mistakes of the past. Indeed, there are a lot of lessons
to be learnt and George Makdisi has captured a number of these in his well
researched work, ‘The Rise of Colleges’.(39) This is not the place to recall
all these important details, especially when they have been so eloquently put by
far more competent minds. But three issues may have to be mentioned even if
briefly: i. While the surge of intellectual activities in the
10th century was triggered by the great influx of the well known translation of
Greek works, especially in philosophy and medicine, done during the reign of
al-Ma’mun, the activities were sustained by individual scholars, supported by
independent waqf and spurred by an atmosphere of scholarship.(40) The craving
to learn and the desire to share knowledge combined to sustain a lively
intellectual atmosphere which culminated into the formalisation of inaugural
lectures in which any subject under the sun was possible. These lectures were
often disputations on different subject matters. In 1055, for example, the Imam
al-Haramain al-Juwaini, disputed in Baghdad with Abu Ishaq ash-Shirazi and then
with Abu Nasr b. as-Sabbagh. “Ibn ‘Aqil, then 16 years of age cited as one of
the subjects of disputation Juwaini’s theory of divine knowledge, denying God’s
knowledge of the particulars, limiting it to the universal.”(41) In this way the Muslim world took the rest
of the world by storm dominating the scene for the next five centuries. Three
elements appeared to have been very crucial in this astonishing enterprise: the
individual scholar, the waqf institution, and an intellectual freedom which
made it possible for scholars to allow their minds full rein. Such disputations
provided constant stimulation and presented a constant challenge to the mind,
which having been frequently spurred had to marshal and develop its wit and
rise to greater intellectual heights. This way great Muslim minds developed and
excelled and naturally influenced the world around them. ii It is these great minds and their works that
actually triggered the Renaissance, though once it took off it, rather
naturally, imbibed the conflicts in its milieu and acquired a momentum of its
own. Acknowledging this influence, and quoting other sources, Makdisi wrote:
“The rise of universities was occasioned by a great revival of learning between
1100 and 1200, during which time, ‘there came an influx of new knowledge into
Western Europe, partly through Italy and Sicily, but chiefly through the Arab
scholars of Spain’. This influx of new knowledge has been described by Western
scholarship. It has been detailed in a long list of books dealing mostly with
philosophy and science that have been translated from the Arabic into Latin, so
that it is generally agreed that Arabic scholarship made its contribution to
the ‘great revival of learning’. Makdisi has tried with great success to
capture the picture of a scholar from the then Muslim world visiting one of the
emerging universities of the West. Far from feeling out of place both the
visitor and his hosts will be as comfortable as fish in water.(42) Makdisi has
also produced excerpts that vividly conveyed the influence and attraction of
the Arabic language among the emerging Western scholars of the time.
Understandably so, for it replaced the Greek and Latin as the language of
scholarship, so a good knowledge of Arabic became a measure of one’s learning,
perhaps in a way that knowledge of English or other European languages are
today.(43) Such astonishing influence could not have been exerted if these
Muslims scholars were operating from the rear, consuming rather than producing
knowledge. This is not to say Muslims cannot rise intellectually to be on a par
or even excel others, rather they cannot do it while operating from the rear,
when they cannot impress, much less influence anybody. iii It is important to reflect on some of the
internal factors which suffocated learning or clipped intellectual wings and
hemmed in the minds of the scholars. Accounts may differ in their detail but
most agree that the first casualty was intellectual freedom and the total
independence of the scholar. As political authority deteriorated they began to
feel insecure and scholars became drawn into conflicts so loosing their
independence. Views that could not prove their worth on the intellectual
Platform began to take refuge with the court, often insinuating the curtailment
of opposing views. Makdisi has brought some of these incidences to light as
also an extract of Max van Berchem’s treatise which contains even more detail.
“Thanks to the universal role of faqih” observed Berchem, “Sunnism spread into
all levels of society. It causes a new spirit to be born, fatal to freedom of
conscience, to all seeds of independence, but very useful to the
sovereigns”.(44) It is tempting to dismiss this observation but the facts on
the ground do not allow it. If it was not true then, it is certainly true today
and here lies the relevance of history. Ziauddin Sardar may have had this in
mind when he insisted that an Islamic university must be a normative
Institution and proceeded to explain, for the avoidance of doubt: “A normative,
goal seeking institution is not a ‘politicised’ institution that take sides
with this or that political stance. It does not tilt as the universities in the
post-Reformation Europe were expected to tilt towards Protestantism or towards
Catholicism, or during the time of war they had to tilt against the enemy and
all his works ... Or as the
universities of the Muslim world and in the West do nowadays, adopt a conservative
garb under the conservative board of trustees or of a conservative government
is in power ..... A normative academy owes its loyalty only to norms and values
that shape its outlooks and goals.”(45) A tall order perhaps, but this is what
makes the history even more relevant.
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