;)

A fine Thursday indeed, took half day off from camp and so I got the pleasure of sitting back at home after lunch with nothing to do, and I also got to enjoy a cup of hot chamomile tea ;) Izharul was around though. Was able to catch up with some readings, very nice definitely. This book by Sayyid Hossein Nasr entitled A Young Muslim’s Guide to the Modern World offers a holistic world view for the muslim, from the very basics of Islam to the philosophy of modern Western thought. I was particularly surprised about how the book introduces Islam, almost as though it is meant for non-muslims but in a manner not insulting to people who are already muslims. It begins by expounding that Islam is a final message in a series of messages sent by God to humans via His Messengers who, of course, include Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, peace and salutations be upon them all. It then talks about the Quran as the Last and Final testament of God for Mankind. And then it elucidates the Islamic view about the destiny of Man, in other words, the Eschatology of Man, about how Man is being born into this world, only to tarry in it for a predetermined amount of time, only to return to the Creator in a state where Man is accountable for his personal actions done in this world.

Trust me, the intro is already captivating, the book then continues about Islamic sciences, Theology, spirituality (Tasawwuf and Tariqah) and the Muslim contribution to Modern day science. It also mentions that many of the great muslim scientists were all deeply influenced by Sufism, ie, the essence, the heart of Islam. So woe to whoever says that Sufism is a backward innovation.

In the famous hadith narrated by Umar ra about Islam, Iman and Ihsan, it was told that when Jibril came to the Prophet (saw) in the form of a man, he sat in a manner such that both his knees touches the knees of the Prophet (saw). There is a tremendous spiritual significance in this action, particularly with regards to good manners, love, respect, reverence for the teacher and the handing down of knowledge to the seeker , such that there is an intense feeling of rapport and closeness between the seeker and his teacher.

The book then talks about modern art, science, politics, economics, humanities, literature and many other stuff. It helps for muslims to know how the Western systems come about, some of which bear similar resemblances to the muslim system, others desperately want see a distinct separation of religion and state, and possibly even the abolishment of religion in totality.

One thing I find rather ironic about the Renaissance is that on the one hand, it sparked because of contributions to science made by many a great geniuses who were devout and steadfast in their belief in a Creator and yet after the influence of the Renaissance, ideologies that are anti-religious begin srouting around. They seek to change the wordview from being God-centered to Human-centered. Secular Humanism Vs Ethics and Morals divinely revealed, Modern Art vs traditional sacred art, evolutionism vs creationism etc etc

Just a point to take note, no matter how much people have championed Darwinism, it is still an ideology or a theory and not a proven scientific truth as how Newton’s Laws are scientific truths. In fact, new discoveries in science increasingly point the compass in the direction of creationism and increasingly refute Darwinism. Refer to the book the Language of God.

As much as how one might restrict the domain of influence of Darwinism to just Biology, one will be surprised how experts in other fields not related to biology also refer to the philosophy of evolutionism in their respective fields. Sociologist, economists, psychologist have all referred to evolutionism in explaining their fields of expertise, such as the behavior of humans, albeit the vagueness and the loosely-used affiliations to the theory of evolution. The question is, why do these non-biology experts ALWAYS refer to Darwinism in their respective fields? It is as though they have taken Evolution to be like a Holy Grail of all Mother Holy Grails and thus it is capable of explaining everything from biology to cosmology to philosophy to economics to politics to sociology to psychology, to practically everything! When in fact even in biology, Darwinism has its own troubles. What I read from Cambridge itself is that it is an accepted fact that all cells come from pre-existing cells, so where is your primordial soup???

Darwinism fails on three major grounds:
1. It cannot explain the origin of life
2. Fossils show that animals come to earth fully formed, there were no intermediaries, which according to Darwinism should be very common, since it asserts that animals evolve from primitive to developed.
3. The mechanisms of evolution, ie natural selection, selective adaptation, mutations and what not have no evolutionary power. Meaning to say chance and luck cannot produce biological wonders that put even present day science and technology to shame.

And something to laugh at, can you believe it that some bigoted evolutionists claim that when a caterpillar metamorphosises into a butterfly, it actually evolves! Oh evolution took place! Hooray! Tell them wake up your idea leh, the caterpillar had in its very beginning, in its DNA, the programme for metamorphosis.

And ah, there is still much more I wanna talk about in this excellent book by Sayyid Hossein Nasr, especially about science and scientism. This weekend insyaAllah.

And btw, it is already Rajab ;)

Allahumma bariklana fi rajab,wa syaban, ballighnaa ramadhan!