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Reason
and Revelation
by Enver Masud
[Speech given by Mr. Masud at the Aligarh Muslim
University Alumni Association of Washington, DC
fund-raising dinner in Rockville, MD, as reported in the
Wisdom Fund internet issue, September 29, 2007].
When Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) passed away in 632 A.D., he
was the effective leader of all of southern Arabia. By
711 A.D., Arabs had swept across North Africa to the
Atlantic Ocean. In less than 100 years, the Bedouin
tribesmen, inspired by the Word of God, had carved out
an empire stretching from the borders of India to the
Atlantic Ocean - the largest empire that the world had
yet seen.
Muslims conquered lands as was the custom of the day,
but Islam was not spread by the sword. Indonesia is a
prime example. Indonesia, with 6000 inhabited islands,
today has the largest Muslim population. No Muslim
armies landed in Indonesia.
Muslims offered an appealing message: There is One God;
mankind is one; goodness is the only measure of a
person's worth. Man was urged to care for the poor, the
infirm, the orphan, to respect all faiths, and to search
for knowledge.
200 years later Muslims are divided; the path forward is
less clear.
In the Baghdad of 813 A.D., Caliph al-Mumun struggling
to build a nation, is caught between the ideas of
literalists and those of religious thinkers, and he has
a dream.
He sees a figure of light and gold standing before him.
"Who are you?" asks a frightened al-Mamun.
"I am Aristotle", the spirit says. "I have come to
answer your question".
"And what is my question?" al-Mamun asks - he knows but
wants the spirit to say it.
"Your question is, What is better for the affairs of man
and the affairs of society, reason or revelation?"
Al-Mamun nods, and asks, "And what is your answer to the
riddle?"
"My son," says Aristotle, "they are not in opposition.
But to find true revelation, man must first choose
reason, because reason is the doorway to revelation."
Of course, the dream is imaginary. Author Michael
Hamilton Morgan describes it in his book "Lost History"
(p. 47).
So great was al-Mamun's love of knowledge that after
defeating the Byzantine emperor, he asks not for caskets
of gold but a a copy of the Almagest - Ptolemy's book on
astronomy written around 150 A.D.
Al-Mamun goes on to establish the House of Wisdom in
Baghdad. Later al-Hakim will build the House of
Knowledge in Cairo.
Revelation won hearts and minds
Reason gave Muslims the superior strategy and technology
that helped win battles. Revelation taught Muslims the
principles of just-war, and of mercy and compassion.
Muslims taught and practiced a degree of tolerance
remarkable for their time. The Quran reminded them: "For
each we have appointed a divine law and traced out the
way. Had Allah willed He could have made you one
community." (5:48)
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who was twice president of the
Indian National Congress, a renowned scholar, and
India's first Education Minister (my father was his
private secretary), wrote:
"The unity of man is the primary aim of religion. The
message which every prophet delivered was that mankind
were in reality one people and one community, and that
there was but one god for all of them, and on that
account they should serve Him together and live as
members of one family."
By providing opportunities based on merit to all,
Muslims won the hearts and minds of the conquered
people. Muslims worked side by side with Jews,
Christians, Hindus, and others to create the centers of
learning and cultural expansion in Iraq, Iran, Spain,
Egypt, and India.
Knowledge lifted civilization
The Quran is replete with verses inviting man to use his
intellect, to ponder, to think and to know, for the goal
of human life is to discover the Truth. Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH) tells us: "The first thing created by god was the
Intellect." And that: "One learned man is harder on the
devil than a thousand ignorant worshippers." His words
exhort us to: "Go in quest of knowledge even unto
China." And to: "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the
grave."
The love of knowledge helped create cities that drew
scholars from across the world.
Will Durant in his Story of Civilization (vol. IV, p.
237) writes:
"When Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongols it had
thirty-six public libraries. Private libraries were
numberless. It was a fashion among the rich to have an
ample collection of books. A physician refused the
invitation of the Sultan of Bokhara to come and live at
his court, on the ground that he would need 400 camels
to transport his library. Al-Waqidi, dying, left 600
boxes of books, each box so heavy that two men were
needed to carry it. Princes like Sahab ibn Abbas in the
10th century might own as many books as could be found
in all the libraries of Europe combined."
Muslims built a civilzation that would lift Europe out
of darkness.
HRH, The Prince of Wales, in his October 27, 1993 speech
titled, "Islam And The West", said:
"Not only did Muslim Spain gather and preserve the
intellectual content of ancient Greek and Roman
civilization, it also interpreted and expanded upon that
civilization, and made a vital contribution of its own
in so many fields of human endeavour -- in science,
astronomy, mathematics, algebra (itself an Arabic word),
law, history, medicine, pharmacology, optics,
agriculture, architecture, theology, music.
"Cordoba in the 10th century was by far the most
civilized city of Europe. . . . Many of the traits on
which Europe prides itself came to it from Muslim Spain.
Diplomacy, free trade, open borders, the techniques of
academic research, of anthropology, etiquette, fashion,
alternative medicine, hospitals, all came from this
great city of cities. Mediaeval Islam was a religion of
remarkable tolerance for its time, allowing Jews and
Christians to practice their inherited beliefs, and
setting an example which was not, unfortunately, copied
for many centuries in the West.
"[Islam] has contributed so much towards the
civilization which we all too often think of, wrongly,
as entirely Western. Islam is part of our past and
present, in all fields of human endeavor. It has helped
to create modern Europe. It is part of our own
inheritance, not a thing apart."
End of Empire, beginnings of Aligarh University
The Christian reconquest of Spain in 1492 under
Ferdinand and Isabella was the beginning of the end of
the Muslim era. By 1858, the last Mughal emperor Bahadur
Shah Zaffar, who ruled little more than the city of
Delhi, was exiled by the British to Burma.
In 1875, Sir Syed, seeking to improve literacy among
Indian Muslims, founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental
College. This college became Aligarh University. It
nurtured many leaders of India and Pakistan. You, the
alumni of Aligarh University, are continuing the
tradition by funding scholarships for those less
fortunate than yourselves.
Today, as it was for Muslims in the early 7th century,
the key to successfully negotiating the path ahead, for
yourselves and for generations to come, remains reason
and revelation.
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