Western-Educated Muslim Modernists, Orientalists, Politicized Islam & Women's Education

Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Donald Malcolm Reid, Syed Rizwan Zamir, Dietrich Reetz, Joseph S. Szyliowicz, Akbar S. Ahmed, Anis Ahmad

Nasr (1982)  criticizes Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) and other “modernist” Islamists for understanding “Greek philosophy through the eyes of its modern Western interpreters” and, hence, separating Islam from philosophy. For Rahman (“Islam: An Overview,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 7, edited by Mircea Eliade, 318–322, New York), Iqbal was a “neofundamentalist” who was reacting to modernism but also “importantly influenced by modernism.” Iqbal (1962) himself asserts that the Qurān is a book that emphasizes “deed” rather than “idea.” Barazangi (2004) asserts that Iqbal's contention is significant to the understanding of the Islamic educational process and its transformation. However, she warns, a Muslim's deed that is habitual without basic knowledge of the Islamic principles imposes certain cultural-laden practice as the norm for Islamic behavior.

To educate in Islam, Iqbal states, means to create a living experience on which religious faith ultimately rests. For Rahman (1982), it means Islamic intellectualism. Though Nasr believes that the Islamic theory of education can be reconstructed within Qur'ānic philosophy, Iqbal emphasizes that the birth of Islam is the birth of inductive intellect, wherein “to achieve full self-consciousness, man must finally be thrown back on his own resources.” For Barazangi, it means autonomous identification with and internalization of the Qur'ān without intermediary interpretation.

These diverse views suggest that Muslims, particularly in the past two centuries, not only neglected philosophy, as Nasr suggests, but, as Ismā'īl Rājī al-Fārūqī (1981) points out, also lost Islam's connection to its pedagogical function and its methods of observation and experimentation. As centers of higher religious learning began formal transmission of “book knowledge” and inculcation in particular interpretations, a dichotomy arose between philosophy, or the ideal, and pedagogy, or the practice. Encouraged by skepticism in modern Western philosophy, this dichotomy widened. The transformation of Islamic thought from the building of rules for public life to a distinct political or juridical affiliation, beginning in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, has affected the nature of the Islamic education process negatively, despite many attempts to revive it.

Western-educated Muslim modernists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not aware that the underlying philosophy of Western education differed from that of Islam, were satisfied with teaching courses on religion in the traditional style and neglected to restructure the traditional system. Meanwhile, “traditionalists” emphasized the primacy of Islamic doctrine over falsafah(philosophy), creating, in Husaini's words, a schism between the traditionalists and the modernists and destroying the integrated educational system. Western-educated thinkers who reaffirm the validity of traditional practices (also known as “neotraditionalists”) interpret the philosophy of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (1058–1111) as the “finally established” Islamic educational theory and hold an absolutist perspective on Islamic education. This perspective, discussed elsewhere by this author (1998, 2004), results, unknowingly, in dichotomies between the Islamic worldview and its pedagogical process and between educating males and females.

The assaults on Islamic culture as an “oppressor of women” by European Crusaders, Orientalists, and colonial governments, combined with their differentiation between private and public domains, caused premodern Muslim leaders to lose sight of the essence of Islamic education, particularly its informal sector, and take extreme attitudes at the expense of a revival of traditional Islam. In the Indian subcontinent, for example, most girls attending Qur'ānic kuttāb not only are denied the opportunity to continue their religious education once they reach puberty but are rarely instructed by their families, as was the practice among learned Muslim families before British colonization and interaction with Western educational practices. Movements to revive traditional Islam that were predominantly led by males, beginning with those of the eighteenth-century Wahhābī puritan movement, also propagated the view that women need a different type of education because their primary concern is the home. Despite their enrollment in kuttābs in earlier times, for example, Saudi girls were not allowed to enroll in religious institutions of higher learning such as Umm al-Qurā in Mecca until 1970 and 1971, when only eighty women as compared to more than two thousand men were admitted (Saad al-Salem, 1981). “Reformists” such as the Egyptian Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1845–1905) emphasized Islamic ideals of womenʾs higher status in Islam and the obligation of both men and women to seek knowledge; yet, in practice, they did not recognize womenʾs right to access a thorough knowledge of the Qurʿān as a key to Islamic intellectual development.

Revivalists, such as Sayyid Quṭb (1906–1966) and Sayyid Abū al-Aʿlā Mawdūdī (1903–1979), though attempting to restore Islamic education in post–World War II nation-states, used the traditional rationale about women's education and asserted that womenʾs “natural” disposition is to transmit culture to the next generation (both boys and girls); but they did not restructure the traditional practices of teaching Islam to allow for this transmission. The primary objectives of womenʾs education in Muḥammad Quṭb's (1961–1981) curriculum were to prepare them for the biological and emotional aspects of their roles as mothers and housewives. Such objectives further confused and marginalized womenʾs education in Islam. Neotraditionalists are reemphasizing these objectives in the face of globalization but are failing to listen to the voices of emancipated women from within Islam.

The post-1969 “Islamization” movements have leaned toward a politicized Islam and have had implications for women's Islamic and religious education. Contrary to the Islamizationists’ intellectual tradition, which culminated in Ismā'īl Rājī al-Fārūqī's (1921–1986) concept of the “Islamization of Knowledge,” proponents of these movements emphasized morality, which overshadowed their presumed goal: to restructure the secular system of higher learning in order to address the religious and cultural needs of Muslim societies as part of the new development strategies. The Indonesian and Malay development policies of involving all segments of the population in education and training, reported by Ahmat and Siddique (1987), seem to be a first step toward recognizing women's role in social development. Emphasis on morality, however, particularly when women became part of the Malay madrasahs of the 1970s and 1980s, led religious education to take the form of moral dogma. The Indonesian pesantren system, which was established in rural areas in the early nineteenth century and spread to urban development in the 1970s and 1980s, maintained an integrated system, and Indonesian women, unlike those in any other Muslim country, occupy a full range of religious-leadership roles. Armijo (2007) also suggests that in “southwest China, Muslim women generally take part in communal prayer in mosques,” while “in central China, there is a centuries-old tradition of women having their own separate mosques.” Armijo adds, “not only is there a long history of women imams in this region … women have active involvement in both Islamic education and religious leadership.” The mosque must be understood as a “multi-purpose building: a place for worship, for political gatherings, for negotiations and judgment, for personal prayer and for religious instruction and study” (Küng, 2007), in order to appreciate its importance for women's Islamic identity development, let alone for the children's Islamic character building.

Neo-traditionalists have attempted to “liberate Islam from Western cultural colonialism” in the 1980s and have given women's education the form sometimes called “reversed feminism,” emphasizing segregated education for different but unequal roles. This trend is flourishing in North American and Western European countries, where Muslim males are demanding single-sex schools and, in their private “Islamic/Muslim” schools, are segregating children from the first grade onward. Curricula in these schools are the same as that in public schools except that courses on religion and Arabic language are included (Barazangi, 1998). The same movement of segregating education took strong hold in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the late twentieth century to the point of barring women from any educational institution.

http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0212

Imam Ghazali: Debate as a Means of Searching after the Truth

Imam Ghazali (1058 - 1111), Khorasan

...You will understand this ambiguity between debate and consultation when I relate to you the following, namely, that co-operation in the search after truth is a part of religion but has… distinguishing features and conditions.

Whereas debate as a means of searching after the truth is one of the fard kifayah duties, no one who has not yet fulfilled his fard ‘ayn duties should take it up.

Thus whoever has a  fard ‘ayn duty to fulfil, but addresses himself to the fulfilment of a  fard kifayah instead, claiming that he seeks thereby the truth, is a liar; he is like the person who neglects prayer and traffics in weaving and tailoring saying that his purpose is to cover the nakedness of him who prays naked because he finds no clothes. Such a thing may occur and is quite possible just as the occurrence of the rare cases which are the subject of research in those debates is possible.

Those who spend their time in debate neglect several duties which are, by general agreement,  fard‘ayn duties. Similarly, anyone who has been expected to return a deposit to its owner at once, but, instead of so doing, seeks refuge in prayer which is the worthiest of all obligations before Allah, transgresses because it is not enough that a person be obedient and his works constitute acts of service unless he observes therein the rules of time, condition and sequence.

Debate as a means of searching after the truth is justified provided the doer is not confronted with a more important  fard kifayah duty.

Thus whoever finds an important obligation waiting for him and turns to perform something else, transgresses. In fact he is like a person who comes upon a group of people and finds them, having been neglected, about to die of thirst, but instead of saving them by giving them water to drink, buckles down to study the art of bleeding, claiming that it is a fard kifayah and that unless the town had a bleeder the people will perish. On being told that a number of bleeders already exist within his region and, therefore, there is no need for his services he insists that notwithstanding all this, bleeding remains a  fard kifayah.

 Likewise, he who does this and neglects to give his attention to the calamity which has befallen a group of thirsty Muslims is like the person who devotes his time to debate while several fard kifayah duties remain neglected in the town. Thus several have taken up the profession of law(fatwa) while a number of obligatory duties remain neglected in every town and no jurisprudent ever pays any attention to them. More specifically let me single out medicine in which there is not, in almost all the land, a Muslim physician whose word could be legally accepted in important matters. Nevertheless not one of the jurisprudents has taken up medicine. The same is true of the Muslim obligation to enjoin what is just and to forbid what is evil¹which is a fard kifayah duty.

A debater might perhaps be arguing in the midst of a hall draped with silk and among men apparelled with it, but would say nothing about it and instead would debate concerning a hypothetical case which might never come to pass, even if it should occur there would be several jurisprudents ready to attend to it.

All this time he claims that he desires to come nearer to Allah through performing the fard kifayah duties. It was related by Anas that the Apostle of Allah was once asked, “When will the Muslim obligation of enjoining what is just and forbidding what is evil be neglected?” To which he replied, “When the best among you take to hypocrisy and the wicked, to adultery; when government shall pass to the hands of the least deserving among you and knowledge to those who are corrupt.”

The third condition which justifies debate is that the debater should have the ability and right to form an opinion of his own (mujtahid), and should be one who can give decisions on his own responsibility without being bound be the opinions of either al-Shafi‘i or abu-Hanifah or any other imam, so that whenever he would find that the school of abu-Hanifah is right on a particular point he would hand down his opinion accordingly, just as the Companions and the imams used to do, and would ignore what the Shafi’ite school holds on the subject. On the other hand, he who lacks the right and the ability of independent interpretation (ijtihad), as is the case with all contemporaries, but would hand down his opinions on the authority of his imam, would not be able to reject the stand of another even though he should discover its weakness. Of what use to him there is debate when his system is well-known and his opinions are bound to conform to it? And whenever a doubtful point confronts him he would be compelled to say that the founder of his school might have an answer as he himself was not independent in interpreting the sources of the law. It would have been more fitting for him if his discussions were on points which lend themselves to two opinions, for then he might hand down his opinion in favour of the one and against the other and become thereby more and more disposed to one view and opposed to the other. Yet debates are not confined to this type of two-sided questions; often these are ignored in favour of cases in which the points of controversy have been fully discussed and decided.

The fourth condition which justifies debate is that there should be none except on actual cases or cases likely to be so. Thus the Companions held consultations only as questions arose or were likely to arise, as for example questions of inheritance. We do not, however, see debaters concerning themselves with the criticism of cases in which the handing of opinions has caused widespread tribulations. Rather they seek the spectacular cases which attract attention and consequently, no matter what the nature of the case may be, discussion of the issue becomes widespread. They may even ignore cases of frequent occurrence saying that they are reported cases or rare events which are not spectacular. That the aim of a debate should be the truth is nothing short of a miracle. They would also drop a case because it has been reported although the way to truth is through such reports; or they might drop it because it was not spectacular and would lend itself to little discussion. Truth, however, aims at reducing debate and arriving at conclusions concisely and not flatulently.

Read more: http://www.ghazali.org/works/bk1-sec-4.htm

Seek Knowledge! An Obligatory Duty for Muslims!

1. Published: Friday, 26 January, 2007, 10:52 AM Doha Time

Prophet Muhammad sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam said: “Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim.” (Related by Ibn ‘Adiyy, Al-Bayhaqi and Al-Tabarani). 

Though this Hadith is known and memorised by most Muslims, the essence, the amount, and the kind of knowledge referred to in this Hadith remains misunderstood by many. What are the minimum teachings that every Muslim – male or female – is required to know about his Deen?

A. Types of knowledge in Islam

Muslim scholars classify knowledge into two categories:

1: Obligatory knowledge (fardh ‘ayn): This refers to knowledge of the fundamentals of Islamic beliefs which every Muslim must know. Seeking this knowledge is an obligatory duty upon every Muslim. All obligatory knowledge deal exclusively with al-’Ilm al-Shar’i, that is, knowledge pertaining to Islamic faith, acts of worship, and the necessary transactions in the daily dealings of a Muslim.

2: Optional knowledge (fardh kifayah): This is not a duty required of every individual, but rather it falls upon the community as a whole. Hence, if a group of individuals in the community undertake to acquire this kind of knowledge, all other individuals will be exempted from this duty, and the whole community will be free from responsibility or negligence to acquire this kind of knowledge. Examples of such knowledge include studying Islamic law and other basic sciences, industries and professions which are vital for the welfare of the society.

Unlike obligatory knowledge, optional knowledge covers part of Islamic knowledge and all worldly knowledge. The former is called al-’Ilm al-Shar’i al-Kifa’i (optional Islamic knowledge), while the latter is called al-’Ilm al-dunyawi (worldly knowledge).

a) Religious sciences: These cover all branches of Islamic shari’ah, such as: tafseer (Qur’anic exegeses), fiqh, hadith sciences (known as mustalah al-hadith or ‘Ilm usul al- hadith), seerah (the Prophet’s biography), Islamic political science, (As-siyasah al- shar’iyah), Islamic history, etc.

Each of these sciences may require knowledge of other sciences to cover fully and comprehensively the substance of the matter studied. For example: tafseer needs Arabic grammar, Arabic literature, and other linguistic skills; Hadith sciences need the science of criticism (which looks at the narrators’ credibility, trustworthiness, power of memorisation, etc), called ‘Ilm al-jarh wat-ta’deel.

b) The natural and applied sciences: These are all the basic sciences, industries and professions which are of vital necessity for the welfare of the community. Examples of such fields include: engineering; agriculture, fisheries, food sciences, etc. Leaders of every Muslim community should always do their best to procure the necessary number of scholars, professionals and qualified men and women in all fields of optional knowledge needed by the community. For example, Muslims in a non-Muslim country must train sufficient number of shari’ah scholars to answer questions raised by members of the community. They must also prepare enough educators – administrators, teachers and counsellors to fill the growing needs of Islamic schools in this country. Both male and female Muslim doctors are needed in every city to care for male and female Muslim patients, respectively.

From the above discussion, we can fully understand the responsibility that lies upon the shoulders of Muslims in this continent.

Minimum requirements for Islamic sciences

First, the understanding fundamentals of Iman: This is also called ‘Ilm Usul ud-Deen (Fundamentals of Deen), or ‘Ilm al-Tawheed (the Oneness of Allah), or simply ‘Aqeedah (Islamic faith). Every Muslim must have a general knowledge of all matters pertaining to his faith. He should have a clear understanding of the Lord he worships, the Prophet he follows and the Deen to which he committed himself. Needless to say, one should exert the best of one’s effort to acquire these fundamentals.

Second, understanding Islamic rules and conduct (fiqh al-ahkam): This is also called fiqh al-’Ibadat (understanding of acts of worship). This field covers all aspects of the Islamic acts of worship that are necessary for the correct practice of one’s Salat, Zakat, Sawm, and Haj.
It als covers all aspects of family issues, such as marriage, divorce, children’s education, as well as rules and regulations for one’s business transactions such as, buying, selling, borrowing lending, etc. A Muslim is obligated to learn from fiqh al-ahkam only matters that are related to Ibadah (worship) he need to perform; and rules of a particular transaction he wants to undertake. For example, if a Muslim has not reached the age for prayer or fasting, he does not have to learn about them though he may be encouraged to do so. Also, if one does not have the necessary means to perform Haj, one does not need to learn its rituals until one becomes able to undertake the Haj journey.

By learning those two branches, a Muslim will know His Lord by all His beautiful names and Most High attributes. He will know the status, function and rights of the Prophets. He will follow a similar course when dealing with other required beliefs, such as the belief in the Angels, the Books, the Predetermined Decree, the Last Day, the punishment in the grave, etc. On the other hand, before performing any act of worship, a Muslim should know the requirements, the conditions and the desirable actions pertaining to that act. Hence, He will never practice any act of worship or undertake any transaction not sanctioned by the Qur’an or Sunnah.

Just by contemplating the Islamic knowledge of Muslims today, the reader can realise how much those two disciplines, which are required of every Muslim, have been neglected, if not totally ignored.

Unfortunately, there are many Muslim professors, doctors, and engineers, who hold the most advanced academic or professional positions in their respective institutions, yet do not possess the minimum knowledge of the Islamic sciences. Ironically, while it takes only a few weeks or even a few days to acquire the obligatory Islamic knowledge, it may take at least two years to obtain a basic degree in any worldly field.

Indeed, it is through knowledge and sincerity that one can enter paradise. This is how we can understand the Hadith of our beloved Prophet sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam, “Whoever adopts the path of seeking knowledge, Allah eases for him the way to Paradise.” (Related by Ahmad, Al-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, and Al-Darami).

The following Hadith is a strong reminder for anyone of us whom Allah has blessed with some Islamic knowledge: “Whoever is asked about a knowledge that he knows about and then hides it and keeps it away, he
will be bridled on the Day of Judgment with a bridle of fire.” (Related by Ahmad, Abu Dawud and Al-Trimidhi).

2. Friday speech delivered by Imam Mohamed Baianonie at the Islamic Center or Raleigh, NC on January 21, 2000

Knowledge is the road to Iman belief, and leads the person to fear Allah (S.W.T.). The fear, that is based on knowledge, regulates the person's deeds. Knowledge is the one that leads to fear of Allah, which in turn entices action. Allah (S.W.T.) said in surat Fatir, (Verse 28), what can be translated as, "It is only those who have knowledge among His slaves that fear Allah." Because of that, Allah (S.W.T.) brought the people of knowledge to different higher levels according to their knowledge, For that reason Allah (S.W.T.) raised up the degree of those who have knowledge, He (S.W.T.) said in surat Al-Mujadilah, (Verse 11), what can be translated as, "Allah will exalt in degree those of you who believe, and those who have been granted knowledge."

Knowledge of deen gathers and contains all righteous deeds and it is a sign of acceptance and pleasure of Allah (S.W.T.) with His servant. Imams Bukhari and Muslim reported that the prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) said: "If Allah wants to do good to a person, He makes him understand and learn the deen."

Knowledge comes before Ibadah and regulates it, so no Ibadah is accepted unless it is based upon correct knowledge. For this reason, the prophet (S.A.W.) considered the person of knowledge to have much higher status than the worshipper. 

The prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) elevated the one who has knowledge over the worshiper, He (S.A.W.) said in a good hadith reported by Imam At-Tirmithi,"An ‘Aalim (learned person in the deen) is as much superior to an ‘Aabid (Worshiper) as I am superior to the lowest among you." In another hadith reported by Imam Abu-Dawoud and At-Tirmithi, that the prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) said: 

"An ‘Aalim (learned person in the deen) is as much superior to an ‘Aabid (Worshiper) as the full moon is superior to all stars."

The prophet (S.A.W.) considered seeking knowledge obligatory upon every Muslim, male or female. His teaching included all with no exception. Even the women took their share in seeking knowledge. Imam Bukhari reported that some woman requested the prophet (S.A.W.) to fix a day for them as the men were taking all his time. On that he promised them one day for lessons, so he preached and commanded them…"

Shyness did not prevent the women from seeking knowledge. Imam Bukhari reported that A'isha (R.A.) said: "The best woman are the woman of ansar because their shyness did not stop them from learning the deen."

The companions of the prophet were very eager to seek knowledge. They use to ask the prophet about every matter in their lives, and the prophet (S.A.W.) used to answer them with what Allah (S.W.T.) had taught him with humbleness and kindness.

The companions of the prophet (S.A.W.) used to alternate and rotate going to the Masjid of the prophet (S.A.W.) so that they do not put off their worldly work and nothing of seeking knowledge slips away. 

Umar (R.A.) is one example. Imam Bukhari reported that Umar Bin Alkhattab (R.A.) said: "My Ansari neighbor and I used to live far away from the masjid of the prophet (S.A.W.), and we used to visit the prophet (S.A.W.) by turns. He used to go one day and I go another day. When I went I used to bring him the news of that day regarding the revelation and other thing, and when he went, he used to do the same for me…"

Even the Bedouins used to travel a long distance to Madinah to seek knowledge by asking the prophet (S.A.W.). Imam Bukhari reported that Dimam bin Tha'labah came riding on a camel. He made his camel kneel down in the mosque, tied its foreleg and then said: "Who amongst you is Muhammad? At that time the prophet was sitting among his companions leaning on his arm. The companions replied, "This white man leaning on his arm. The man then addressed him. "O son of Abdl Muttaleb, I want to ask you something and will be hard in questioning. So do not get angry. The prophet said: "Ask whatever you want…" (Then the Bedouin, asked him many questions, and the prophet (S.A.W.) answered them all.)

The prophet (S.A.W.) ordered his companions who learned to teach others even if it is little. Imam Bukhari reported that the prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) said: "Convey on my behalf even if it is only a verse (of the Qur'an)…"

Also Imam At-Termithi reported a good hadith that the prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) said: "May Allah prosper the affairs of a person who hears something from us and communicates it to others exactly as he has heard it. Many a man to whom something is convened retains it in his memory and understands it better than the one who has heard it."

The prophet (S.A.W.) warned from keeping knowledge secret. 

Imams At-Tirmithi and Abo Dawud reported a good hadith that the prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) said: "He who is asked about knowledge and conceals it, will be bridled with a bridle of fire on the Day of Resurrection."

The companions of the prophet (S.A.W.) were keen on seeking knowledge and spreading it during the life of the prophet (S.A.W.) and after. They traveled in the land to teach people and became within less than a quarter of a century the strongest Ummah on the face of the earth with what they had carried from the knowledge of deen and the knowledge the worldly life. With that, they became prosperous and the whole humanity became prosperous. This prosperity remained for so many centuries that history could not ignore. Many scientific remains in all aspects of science are still around.

Regression of this Muslim Ummah then started sometime in its history. This regression closely accompanied the attitude of laziness and carelessness and turning away from knowledge, so ignorance started to spread in place of knowledge until this Ummah became the most backward Ummah.

To revive this Ummah and empower it again with knowledge and leadership that it once had, we must spread the correct knowledge of the deenuAllah (S.W.T.) because from this knowledge stems all other knowledge. And it is a must that we take practical steps to achieve this.

We ask Allah (S.W.T.) to help us to seek knowledge and to bless us with sincerity in our sayings and deeds. O Allah! Increase our knowledge. "Ameen

Read Full: http://www.scribd.com/doc/6890606/Seeking-knowledge-is-obligatory

 http://islam1.org/khutub/Seek_Knowledge.htm

Dîn, Modernism, Evolution, Science & Transcendence

Omar K N

1.1 Definition of tradition

Therefore according to how we understand the concept from its etymological root: tradere (deliver, transmit) - Tradition has nothing to do with peoples' usages or customs from old, but is understood as *revealed* tradition, that is truths and principles of divine order revealed or unveiled to mankind.

“Tradition is essentially of "super-human" origin, which is quite exactly also its correct definition and nothing traditional cannot be qualified as such without the presence of this vital and axial* foundational element, which defines its own authentic character.”

“Nothing which is purely human can be considered traditional, that is why it is wrong - as René Guénon rightly says - to talk about a "philosophic tradition" or a "scientific tradition"... because only the heritery forms of an uninterrupted chain of transmission (silsilah) deserve the qualification "traditional" for they will guarantee the reality and permanence of the "vital element", ie. that of non-human origin, inside a particular tradition.” DRG

Or to put in another way: Tradition is the light with which the human kind has been endowed with from the beginning of times to the end of it; it is the light of meaning in an otherwise meaningsless void, it is the light of spiritual guidance in a materialistic and hedonistic era, it is the light of the Logos shining upon the contingent entities. This Light is from God, the light of the heavens and earth.

In the case of Islam, which is the most recent - and the last of traditions, the concept of tradition, the dîn, is seen as being twofold:

• in its general meaning the transmission of an element of the suprahuman level - the Qur'an,
• and in its specific sense the words and sayings reported from Prophet Muhammad  may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which have been recorded in the hadith collections together with the entire Islamic religion.

2.1 Modernism & postmodernism

In modernism it was believed that materiality or phenomena was everything there is and that it is superiour to anything else. This philosophy of science is called positivism - it is a rejection of metaphysics, as it holds that the goal of knowledge is simply to describe the phenomena that we experience, which we can observe and measure and nothing beyond that. 

In some quarters there was still an underlying, dormant longing for the construction or discovery of the Grand Design (4*), meaning a new unity of being, of what reality really is, but a unity which had to do without religion and metaphysics. ( 2.3ff  )

(4*) Probing the "Grand Design, in posing the greatest questions: How vast is the Universe, the entirety of existence? Was there a beginning? Will there be an end? What is the origin and fate of the Universe?" 
< From "Cosmology: A Cosmic Perspective" >

However, as Charles Upton has shown ( SAC-33 ) 
in postmodernism it is always held (as a conviction or belief ?!) that:
(1) there is no Grand Design,
(2) truth is plural and ultimately subjective,
(3) reality is only as it is configured,
(4) there is nothing out there but chaotic potential.
So much for the quest for truth! ( 2.2  )

Furthermore, with today's "celebration of diversity", normal logical thinking seems to have evaporated from many a contemporary mind, as modernism and postmodernism even can work together, or so it seems, in the mind of a single individual, confounding it and neutralizing any attempt toward a traditional or metaphysical view of reality! SAC 

____So much so that by now "modernism has become nothing more than a sub-set, one more disrelated item in the postmodern spectrum of "diversity" ." SAC-34/5

2.5.5 Man did not 'evolve'

As long as man has lived on this earth he has had a traditional outlook or perspective on life, which is proven by the many old cultural remnants, not the least his holy scriptures. It was then that he relied on the Higher Being, God, Allah and lived under His protection and guidance. Man has never only been an individual with a brain without heart, nor just a heap of molecules in a DNA-structure, meaning that the mind is luckily more than nerve-threads and electrical signals. Instead man has a potential for knowing God and his soul and for choosing what is better in any given situation, or creative of the most beautiful, - as God's viceregent.

The traditional outlook on life is opposed to the modern or postmodern way of seeing reality, in fact the two are irreconcilable. Man has always been man, he did not have to evolve from some lower being, from an ape or a fish ... The idea of bringing out the higher from the lesser is a modern myth, it is both illogical and unscientific! 

____Imagine a piece of computer evolving - by accident - from its integrated IC-circuits, from its bits and zeros into the practical machine which it is - without the mind to design it and programme it! How much less is this conceivable in the - much more complex - biological domain of life itself !

Or the words of Charles Upton:
"The projection of this false myth of progress on biology results in the ideology known as 'evolutionism', the doctrin that the less is the causal origin of the greater, that the higher and more complex life forms, including man, have developed incrementally from simpler forms. The Traditionalists, on the other hand, teach that the advent of new life forms, which the fossil record shows to be more discontinuous than continuous - thus calling Darwin's 'natural selection of random mutations' into serious question - actually represents the descent of matter-organizing spiritual archetypes from the higher planes of Being, in response to God's creative word. These 'Platonic Ideas' of species then draw themselves the matter they need in order to construct physical vehicles for their life in space and time." SAC-105

2.4.2 Principles Are Necessary to Transcend the Human Level

However, doctrines and principles are necessary to gain meaning from empirical sense-data and to gain meaning is proof of perfection and permanency, and giving up on the quest for meaning leads to ignorance and despair. As one of the ancient savants, Aristotle, declared:

"The things which are most knowable are first principles and causes; for it is through these and from these that other things come to be known, and not these through the particulars which fall under them." AM I.ii.6

Man has therefore to prepare himself to a way of life concerning thought and practice, which will enable him to transcend the materialistic, and only psychological levels of understanding.

2.4.3 The Validity of the Modern Sciences

Transcending the materialistic and psychologic levels of understanding is neither intended nor envisaged by modern science. Obviously can neither empiricism, nor validification through induction, nor "reliance upon the data of the senses as confirmed by reason, serve as principles in the metaphysical sense." TIM These scientific methods are valid on their own restricted levels leading to results and applications of the sciences which created them, but they are neither able to answer our existential questions nor improve our normal human condition. (normal: how man was meant to be, ...  )

____What is worse, modern science has with all its inventions brought about a serious disequilibrium in this world - despite their partial benefits - , precisely because of it being divorced from - and its inability of taking account of - the higher principles, even if this may not always have been the intention of the individual scientist.

4. True science is based on the Intellect

In modernism reason is conceived as a purely human activity, also cut off from the Transcendant and in postmodernism one is set to deconstruct reason by taking hold of and referring to the irrational levels of the human psyche, whereas in traditional sciences the human mind is understood as being a mirror of the Divine Mind. The picture produced on the mirror is the product of the Picture-maker reflecting Itself on it. 

Thus tradition has always held that the organ ''and container of knowledge is not the human mind but ultimately the Divine Intellect.'' Therefore ''true science is not based on purely human reason but on the Intellect which belongs to the supra-human level of reality, yet illuminates the human mind.'' TIM p.100. 

"When Descartes uttered, 'I think, therefore I am (cogito ergo sum), he placed his individual awareness of his own limited self as the criterion of existence, for certainly the 'I' in Descartes' assertion was not the Divine 'I' who, through Hallâj, exclaimed, 'I am the Truth' (ana'l Haqq): The Divine 'I' which alone, according to traditional sources has the right to say 'I'. Until Descartes, it was Pure Being, the Being of God, which determined human existence and the various levels of reality. But with Cartesian rationalism, individual human existence became the criterion of reality and also the truth." TIM p.100

   And what could be of more success to earthly man than to relate his intellect to the higher Intellect which is not of his own and which is unrestricted and independant of place and time. ( Quran 24-19 )

Read full: http://www.livingislam.org/mmt_e.html

References:

TIM: Traditional Islam In The Modern World; Seyyed Hossein Nasr;

SAC: The System Of Antichrist; Truth And Falsehood In Postmodernism & New Age; Charles Upton; Sophia Perennis, NY 2001

DRG: Dictionnaire de René Guénon, Jean-Marc Vivenza; Éditions Le Mercure Dauphinois, Grenoble 2005