With their spirits so broken, their future so dark and undefined, it is no wonder at all that their distress has led them over the edge of despair. They long for some relief, some strength to hold themselves up and stop their legs from giving way. They long for a heroic figure to give them vigour and purpose, a message of hope.

Hope is a condition of mind connected, above all, with belief. Those who believe have hope, and their degree of hope is directly proportional to their degree of belief. It is because of this that certain effects of strong belief can strike some people as miracles. And those who do not experience belief on this level therefore consider such hope and belief in others as something quite out of the ordinary.

Despair and pessimism do not arise in the mind and spirit of one who has chosen well what he believes in and, believing, has set his whole heart upon that belief.

An individual develops by means of hope. Likewise, a community gains vitality and sets about becoming prosperous by means of hope. Just as an individual who has lost all hope cannot be regarded as truly alive, so too a community devoid of hope is disabled, paralyzed.

Hope consists of a man finding his spirit and seeing the potentiality that lies within it. Perceiving that, he comes into contact with the All-Powerful and thereby obtains a power that can overcome everything. It is by that Power that a particle becomes a sun, a drop of water becomes an ocean, and by It too a man’s spirit becomes the breath of the universe.

The Prophet Adam, upon him be peace, when he realized he had erred, felt distressed and hopeless. But he shook off the hopelessness and revived when he said: ‘I wronged myself’ Satan on the other hand faltered irrecoverably and sinks forever in the void of his despair.

All courageous men who set out with the torch of hope in their hearts have weathered storms and battled against odds that once seemed impossible. In some of them, hope is like the promise of survival and safety when the ark of the Prophet Noah, upon him be peace, came to rest on Judi1: And it was said: O earth, swallow your water! And o sky, be cleared of clouds! And the water was made to subside. And the commandment was fulfilled. And it (the ark) came to rest on al-Judi. And it was said: gone are the evil-doers (Hud, 11.18). Or the hope is a dream of the lovely gardens of many-pillared Iram before indulgence wrecked its people2: Hast thou considered how thy Lord dealt with the (people) Aad, with many-columned Iram… (al-Fajr, 89.6-8). Or it is the hope of a wide transmutation – like that of a township of doubters, hypocrites or pagans become a great city of believing men and women – the hope of Yathrib become Madina.

Hope and resolution inspiring the heart of a Berber slave led him to give to the rocks of Gibraltar their name, whereby he is always remembered. Through hope, a young commander transformed himself into lightning and cut a bright change through the course of history. He attained heights few have achieved since. Such individuals, so resolved and so filled with hope, have risen to become beloved in the sight of Truth and, to their people, are like a vivid flag, an emblem of what is possible.

Even at a time when the people are cowed down in their humiliation, their pride wounded or broken, an individual who has gained faith and hope can challenge the whole order of the world as it is. He continues in his struggle even if he suffers setbacks. And as he survives through whatever disasters befall and persists in his purpose, so he brings to life those whose spirits had been all but dead before.

It is by means of hope that journeys are undertaken, and rivers of blood and pain are crossed. Only those are defeated who fail in the realm of hope. Many are those who set out, proud of their accomplishments, and then find themselves detained or diverted halfway, because of the weakness of their faith and hope. A little earthquake, a storm or flood, takes their will and resolution away. As for those who begin in hope and then, after some setback, become bogged down in despair-their condition is truly heart-breaking. But it is in fact impossible for those unable to see the truth to do otherwise when their purposes are not realized. For those who set their hearts upon wealth and position, though always mightily cheered by transient successes, are certain, sooner or later, to be utterly disappointed.

The daytime for one who, has enduring hope is as colourful as the garden of Paradise, for his heart is set upon a brightness as unfailing as the sun. His night is no less luminous. Since people of such calibre are never in the dark, the sun is always shining even when it does not appear. Those with enduring hope are rooted as solidly as great, ancient trees which neither hail or snow or freezing blizzard can cause to wither or deter from bearing fruit. Souls with hope of this quality, who have dedicated themselves to eternity, are never barren; rather, they are, in every season, fruitful, provided, ready to do what it is necessary to do.

What we need more than food, water or air, is patient, determined guides who resist corruption and hardships and never become daunted. We can derive little benefit from those who start this journey on a whim and abandon it in despair when they do not quickly attain what they are looking for, and become engaged in disputes with the Creator. The wheel of Destiny will never turn according to their corrupted way of thinking and their misguided calculations.

Now, as many buds of hope begin to appear, multitudes of seeds are waiting under the soil for the first sign of spring: may Allah give hope to the despairing.

The Fountain

1. Judi is the hill upon which the ark of the Prophet Noah, upon him be peace, came to rest; it is the name of one of the hills of the mountain called Ararat.

2. Muslim historians and interpreters of the Qur’an, from what is in the Qur’an and from historical evidence, have said that the people of Aad founded two civilizations, one in the north of the Arabian peninsula the other in the south, present-day Yemen. The latter was the civilization referred to as Iram and particularly renowned for its rich gardens. It was the most advanced of the ancient civilizations in the Middle East. The people led a luxurious, indulgent life and did not heed the warning of their prophet; iniquities and corruption so multiplied in their domains that, finally, Allah poured on them the disaster of his punishment.

Technology can be referred to as the systematic knowledge for manufacture of a product, for the application of a process or for the interpretation of a service and the capacity to use such knowledge.1 Today, knowledge or technology is not freely accessible or distributed among nation-states. It is predominantly concentrated in the Western world which is therefore called ‘technologically advanced’. In the industrialized states the majority of knowledge is subject to proprietary rights to prevent the free transfer of technology and sold commercially as ‘intellectual property’.2 Thus, whoever controls technology as an expensive commodity is in a privileged position to influence the international accumulation of wealth. Since the West controls technology, as a solidified form of science, they hold that technology as their most valuable industrial resource and a means to influence other nations’ attempts on the way of development.

For the developing world, technology is an indispensable condition of ecologically sound economic development to catch up with the industrialized world:3 The Third World countries’ backwardness in technology is therefore one of the biggest problems of our time in view of the ongoing ecological destruction. The World Commission on Environment and Development has stated that the promotion of sustainable development requires international exchange of technology – to increase agricultural production, to encourage use of renewable energy systems, and to control pollution.4

Developing countries paid some $ 2 billion in 1980 by way of royalties and fees to industrialized countries who hold 65 per cent of the world patents granted.5 As years pass, the gap in scientific and technological capabilities in, among other things, biotechnology and genetic engineering, new energy sources, new materials and substitutes, and in ecosound technologies, is gradually increasing. Even though the developing countries need the help of the industrialized countries to overcome the economic and ecological problems they face, the latter do not intend to share with the Third World ‘their’ intellectual resources; in other words, they refuse to transfer technology and know-how, however great the need for it.6

What is yours is ours and what’s ours is ours. That would appear to be the philosophy of the technologically advanced states in dealing with the less-developed countries.7 However, as we shall briefly argue below, technology cannot be confined within state boundaries; it is the expression of mankind’s solidarity. It cannot, historically speaking, be the property of a few states; rather, it is the heritage of all mankind which was inherited by our ancestors, regardless of their nationalities.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

A look at the past shows that technology is a blend of knowledge acquired and transmitted by various peoples and scholars of different eras and nationalities. A brief account of the contribution of Islamic scientists will clarify this point about human knowledge as a common inheritance.

In the first part of this millennium, Arab Muslims attained the highest levels in pure and applied science, such as medicine, chemistry, astronomy, geography, history, literature, mathematics, engineering, architecture etc. They educated many great scholars, jurists, philosophers in Cordoba, the capital city of the Arab Andalusian state, from the early eighth century on. In Cordoba, the Arabs built the first university of Europe at that time.8 In those days, the Europeans were ignorant of scientific knowledge. The great Christian clergymen of the time learned with the Arabs – for example, Pope Sylvester, who studied in the University of Andalusia.9 They then carried to Europe and spread more widely the knowledge they had obtained. Technical terms such as chemistry geometry, algebra, among many others, as well as the names of particular products (cotton, sugar, coffee, for example) lacked equivalents in the then European languages and had to be adopted directly from the Arabic. Thus, the names of many constellations are of Arabic origin because the relevant knowledge was introduced to the world by the Arab Muslims.

While the Europeans considered the world flat, the Muslims measured the lengths of longitudinal circles in the Sinjar desert near Mosul, and calculated (with results astoundingly similar to the present estimate) the length of the equator.10 Moreover, Western philosophy owes a profound debt to the Arab Muslims who translated the books of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers which the Church authorities of the Middle Ages proscribed. Even books of medicine passed on by the ancient Greek and Roman scientists were burned by the uneducated Christians of the time; the few that survived did so because they were protected and translated into Arabic by Huseyn ibn Johaq of Baghdad, who also translated the works of Aristotle and Plato.11 In sum, Western philosophy and science came into existence as a result of the efforts of the Arab scholars. As even some Western scholars and historians now have the courage to admit, the Renaissance in fact started in the Muslim world of the Middle Ages.

The Frenchman, Jean Ferrera, is an example.12 He confirms in his article that the works of Ptolemy, Euclid and Archimedes were translated from Greek or Latin into Arabic. He adds that the Muslims also transmitted to Europe the concept, initially discovered in India, of zero (the word cipher in many modern European languages is from the Arabic). It was also the Arabs who taught Europe the science of trigonometry. And how many Europeans know that the logarithms they struggled with through school were the invention of Al-Khwarizmi? Only in Islamic universities was every aspect of scientific or technical development freely taught from the ninth to the twelfth century.

Unfortunately, the Ancient and the Muslim scientific and technological heritage was further developed almost exclusively by Europeans who had a different attitude to knowledge, which therefore became their exclusive property. While the Muslim scholars passed on what they inherited, the Western world takes for granted the real roots of its success. Nevertheless, in the last two decades or so, the developing world is seriously demanding that the West share its accumulated scientific and technological know-how with the technologically less-endowed countries which account for three-quarters of the world population. We shall now survey briefly some of the legal efforts of the Third World to achieve this aim.

LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

By the advent of the New International Economic Order in the mid-1970s, the developing countries had started to project their demands through non-binding international documents. Article 13 of the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, adopted on 12 December 1974 by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3281 (XXIX), is an instance of such an attempt. By the provisions of Article 13: ‘Every State has the right to benefit from the advances and developments in science and technology for the acceleration of its economic and social development’ (para.1). Succeeding paragraphs fully endorse the promotion of international scientific and technological co-operation and the transfer of technology in order to assist the developing countries to accelerate their economic development. Similarly, Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples adopted in Algeria states: ‘Scientific and technical progress being part of the common heritage of mankind, every people has the right to participate in it.’

Another proposal was recently put forward in Germany. According to its Article 1, ‘unprotected knowledge of normal human intellectual activity belongs to the common heritage of mankind’.13 Article 2 states that ‘this free flow is in the interest of the human, scientific, technological and economic development of the entire international community.’ Article 8 accepts ‘the legitimacy of fair access by developing states to modern technology.’ All in all, the key question is how such proposals could be made into binding legal norms in the near future.

Prof. I Seidl-Hohenveldern, on behalf of developed countries, argues that the common heritage approach ‘cannot be extended to assets which, like patent rights, are the property of an inventor or of his successors in title’.14-15 He rejects the idea that the present-day inventor alone should carry the cost of compensating the inequalities between the rich and the poor states; instead, such inequalities should, he says, be borne by states.

As a matter of fact, the developing countries are not demanding that every bit of technology that the West possesses be made freely available to them. They ask that three kinds of technology in particular be given to them at reasonable cost. These are, first, the transfer of adequate technology to exploit the living and non-living resources of the oceans;16 second, the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes;17 and finally, protection and preservation of the environment.18

In the face of continuing global environmental crises, that last demand of the developing countries should be taken on board with some urgency in order to protect the life and dignity of the present and future generations. Under-developed countries need expert assistance and transfer of specific technologies to, for example, prevent tropical forest from becoming deserts; to reduce CFC production and emission to the atmosphere; to decrease CO2 emissions by using alternative environmentally-friendly technologies.

CONCLUSION

We have almost entered the post-industrial era in which knowledge has become the most highly valued commodity. Knowledge, alas is kept only in the industrialized world, only a small minority of the world population have access to it, while the majority suffer from ecological and economic problems because of lack of development. The starvation, environmental pollution and low productivity-which we are accustomed to seeing in the developing world – can only be alleviated by mass technology transfer from the rich countries to the poor. The poor cannot get access to the know-how they need because it is over-priced. Therefore, in practice, the West uses technology as a new way of continuing colonialism. The transfer of technology is carried out in an unequal milieu, in which the receiver of technology pays an unnecessarily high price for technology which is often unsuitable or obsolete.19

If the prevailing norms of international protection of intellectual property continue, the gap between North and South will deepen. As confrontation rather than co-operation between the two hemispheres intensifies, there will be widespread starvation. Drought, deforestation, regional conflicts, etc. To prevent these, intellectual property could (and should) be used as a means to bridge the dangerously growing gap, and do so in a relatively short time.20 In the long run, such a policy will benefit the developed industrialized states as well. Technological colonialism can only result in a politically, economically and environmentally more vulnerable and unstable world. For these reasons, the application of the concept of knowledge as the common heritage of mankind. which demands easy access for all to the intellectual properties of the industrialized world, is very timely and necessary. Allowing easy and sometimes cost-free access to mankind’s technological heritage is also a debt owed by the West to the developing countries: not only because the West inherited the intellectual wealth of others in the past, but also because it attracts millions of intellectuals of the developing world, who represent a brain-drain of enormous scale to the great material advantage of the West.21

References

1. YUSUF, Abdulqawi Ahmed, ‘Transfer of Technology’ in BEDJAOUI, Muhammed (ed.), International law: Achievements and Prospects, Martinus Nijhoff Publ., UNESCO, Paris, 1991, p.691.

2. YUSUF, pp.691-2.

3. ibid.

4. World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987, p.87.

5. ibid.

6. BEDJAOUI, M., Towards A New International Economic Order, UNESCO, Paris, 1979, p.230.

7. ibid.

8. The second university was established in Oxford, England, in 1215, some four centuries later. See, for the Arab civilization, WAQF IKHLAS, Islam and Christianity, Hakikat Kitabevi, Istanbul, 1989, p.192.

9. WAQF IKHLAS, p.213.

10. It was Muhammed bin Musa Harazmi who calculated the attitude of the sun and the length of equator.

11. WAQF IKHLAS, p.216.

12. FERRERA, Jean, ‘Les Universites du Petrole’ (Jan. 1978), p.724. ‘Science et Vie’ (quoted in WAQF IKHLAS, p.215.)

13. The German ILA NIEO proposal, in BULAJIC, M., ‘International Protection of Intellectual Property in the context of the Right to Development: Comment on the German Proposal’ in CHOWDHURY, S.R; ERIK, M.G.D., PAUL, J.I.M., The Right to Development in International Law, Martinus Nijhoff, 1992, p.298.

14. Quoted in BULAJIC, M. International Development Law, Martinus Nijhoff, London, 1986, p.326.

15. However, he also accepts that modern Western technology ‘owes a great debt to medieval Arab thought transmitting and developing the heritage of Ancient Greece’, ibid.

16. See for example Nyhart, J.D., ‘International Law, Technology, and the Implications for Deep Seabed Mining’ in JOYNER, C.C. (ed.) International Law of the Sea and the Future of Seabed Mining, Accent Publ., Virginia, 1975, p.13.

17. YUSUF, p. 702.

18. See Our Common Future, pp. 4-5, 29, 76.

19. BEJAOUI, p.232.

20. BULAJIC, International Protection of Intellectual Property…, p.297.

21. cf. BULAJIC, p.297.

Individualism is a philosophy which, like Nietzsche’s nihilism and Kroptkin’s anarchism, encourages people to turn away from religious values. It rejects divine authority altogether and any kind of religion-based command. It regards human beings as creators and human intelligence as the only guide in life.

A study, done in the United States and Germany between 1984 and 1986, produced remarkable findings about the social and economic characteristics of people living alone in these countries:

The numbers of such people have increased from 6.9 million to 20.6 m. in the United States and from 4 m. to 8.8 m. in Germany. Similar increases can also be observed in the other European countries.

Other research studies named SOP (Sozio Economisches Panel) and SIPP (Survey of Income and Program Participation) give the general reasons for this increase as follows:

a- Life conditions have become easier due to economic and technological development

b- Women have moved into different occupations and stations in life

c- New methods of contraception

d- Changes in social norms and values, in particular a decline in family life

e- Desire to live free of responsibilities

According to the SOP survey rest homes in Germany were overfilled after the Second World War with war widows and a generation of people made hopeless and desperate by the unfavourable psychological effects of the war. Marriage rates fell over the same period. The same research states that the young unemployed in many European countries account for an average fifty percent of the number of those who have chosen solitude.

The individual, who has lost all attachment to the society in which he or she lives, and has no feeling of responsibility to that society, abandons all links with its cultural values and symbols and its norms of behaviour: the individual becomes alienated and, probably, anti-social.

Sociologists suggest that this trend is eroding societies. If the bases on which social orientation is built have been weakened, if, in other words, there is no longer any trust among the members of a society, then that society will begin to disintegrate. Durkheim calls this collapse ‘anomie’. Suicides, homicides and general disorder are inevitable since so many individuals do not have a sufficient reason to respect life, not even their own.

This kind of survival or persistence in a life of which the individual can no longer make much sense turns around mere calculation of advantages, difficulties and, if any, of pleasures. The isolated individual is, because of isolation, over-attached to personal advantages, too alone to deal effectively with the difficulties that inevitably arise, and too self-oriented in the pleasures available to him or her. Life is thus reduced to a mere shadow of what, deep down, the individual knows it ought to be, and the envy. loneliness and selfishness which the individual feels makes the situation ever more painful and hopeless.

Lack of religious education and a near absence of devotional and contemplative habits are the background condition which urge people into a form of self-limitation and self-imprisonment. Their moral imagination atrophies so that they do not know of, or if they know, they do not much care about, the suffering and hardships that others endure. It is all too obvious that modern Western individualism has brought unhappiness, depression and disorder into many human lives and societies. Nor can the deterioration be reversed until people return in sufficient numbers and with sufficient sincerity and wisdom to the true faith.

An adequate supply of water is a fundamental need of any society. Everyone requires water to drink; but also for cleaning, washing and cooking and, if a society is to flourish and expand, water is also needed for irrigation and industry. A supply of water is also desirable for recreational uses, such as filling up swimming pools and watering gardens. Consider the following statistics: you need at least 3 litres of water to produce a can of vegetables, 100 litres to produce one kilogram of pears, 4,500 litres to produce one tonne of cement, 4.3 tonnes of water to manufacture one of steel, 50 tonnes to manufacture one tonne of leather and no less than 2,700 tonnes to make a tonne of worsted suiting.

Even more importantly, the average human being -of which there are now more than 5 billion on the planet- needs to drink a litre or so of water each day in order to stay alive. That is, if he or she is adequately fed. The water requirements of those who are on starvation diets are dramatically higher, because solid food, of which they are deprived, itself consists mainly of water.

Water as the one essential requirement of all forms of food production, is the key global resource. No water, no food. Water is thus a limiting factor in human development and water shortages are heavily implicated in humanity’s present bad condition.

It will be useful to reflect on the relevant Qur’anic verses concerning this subject. Allah who created everything in the universe and beyond reminds us that water is the source of organic vigour:

‘Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together before we clove them asunder and of water fashioned every living thing? Will they not then believe?’ (Qur’an, 21:30)

The phenomenon of life has to be known before this verse can be understood. We know that the basic unit of life is the molecule known as DNA. If the vitality of an organism consisted in this molecule alone and if this molecule had developed from the molecules of water, the verse would have read: ‘We created all living things from water.’ Vitality on the other hand, is the construction of a new and identical molecule using organic chemicals from the original.

There is a subtle difference between life and vitality. Life is a structural characteristic, while vitality is a function of that characteristic. Let us now return to the verse. The word occurring in the verse is ‘the living’, which corresponds to vitality. The meaning of the verse can be understood to be this: ‘We have brought forth all living things from water’. Allah is the best of knowers. Vitality has arisen from, and has gained power from, water. The verse does not say ‘created’ (khalaqna); but ‘empowered’ (waja’al-na). After this the verse ends with the question ‘will they not then believe’ – directed rhetorically at unbelievers, meaning ‘how can they not believe’. The question is especially relevant to the unbelievers of our time, for it is only thirty years since the indispensability of water to vitality has been recognized scientifically.

The relationship between water and vitality is a profound one. In general terms, energy is needed for the continuation of vitality. This energy is obtained by the exchange of ions. A cell is healthy if the water ions within and surrounding it are balanced; otherwise it is diseased or dead.

Water is therefore the basic element not of genesis and life, but of vitality. The verse expresses this subtlety so beautifully that it is impossible not to affirm the Qur’an as a Divine miracle. And that miracle is reemphasized by the question: ‘How can they still not believe?’  

Slavs and Turks first met on the plains of Eastern Europe at the very dawn of the Middle Ages. Annals indicate the presence of the Slovak Antes in what is now southern Russia in the middle of the 4th century, and at approximately the same time the Hunnic hordes (Turks) appeared on the banks of the Volga River and began their conquest of the Pontic steppes. The conflict between the Slavs and Turks began in these dark centuries of European history.1

The Islamization of the Turkic peoples began in the 7th century when the whole Near East was transformed by the Islamic conquests. After subduing Persia in 639 Muslims spread to Transoxania in 659, and annexed the whole western Turkish world including Dzhungaria. Tashkent, Ferghana, Bukhara, etc.2 Since their Islamization, the Muslim peoples of Asia and Eastern Europe have more often identified themselves with the religion and culture of Islam than with any national or racial group.3

In the mid-thirteenth century Slovak resistance was overcome by the armies of the heirs of Genghis Khan, and for the next two hundred years the eastern Slavs were subjects of the Golden Horde which was a Muslim Turkic state. As Islamic Law does not allow forcible conversion to Islam, the Golden Horde did not force Slavs to convert to Islam.

In the 15th century, the wheel of Destiny began to turn in the opposite direction. Muslim Turks were often fighting each other because, after the death of a khan. his sons would divide the country into small estates. For this reason the Turks failed to establish stable states (except for the Ottoman imperial state) and Muslim rule over the Slavs ended and a new, very dark stage for Muslims began. During this period, the Russians gradually extendeded control over the whole of Siberia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. By the 20th century the Muslim Turks (in the Central Asia and Caucasus) had become dependent on the Russians. In their occupation of Muslim territory, the Russians were very harsh in their dealings with the Muslim population – their methods and those of the Mongols were basically the same. Certainly, the Russians were more cruel and more brutal than other European colonial powers, and carried out massacres and wholesale expulsion of populations.4

Massive slaughter of the resisting population took place, such as the murders during the storming of Kazan in 1552, the quelling of the Nogay tribes in the late 18th century, during the Caucasian wars of the 19th century (especially in the Chechen region and in Daghestan), in the Turkmen territory at the end of the 19th century (the extermination of the entire population of Gok-tepe by General Skobelev in 1881), and the slaughter of the nomad Kazakh tribes in 1916 by the Russian army and the Russian colonists.5

After the Communist revolution, massacres reached an unprecedented level: the slaughter by the troops of the Tashkent Soviet of the Kokand population took place in February 1918. Over a million Kazakh nomads were massacred during the brutal attempts at settling them in the 1930s; another major such event was the deportation of over a million Chechens, Ingushes, Karachays, Balkars and Crimean Tatars during the unsuccessful attempt at genocide in 1943.

Massive transfers or deportations of population were the common practice of both the Tsarist authorities and the Soviets. Kazan Tatars were expelled from the main cities of the Middle Volga and from the best agricultural lands along the rivers in the sixteen century. During the nineteenth century, the Kazakh nomads were expelled from the richest areas of the northern and eastern parts of the Kazakh steppes by Russian and Ukrainian colonists. The Caucasian Chechens, Kabardians, Daghestanis, etc., were driven from the rich Caucasian lowlands. Also, between 1783 and 1914 more than a million Crimean Tatars, most of them Nogays and over a million Cherkes from the North Western Caucasus emigrated to the Ottoman empire. During the Soviet period, some two million Crimean Tatars, North Caucasians and Meshketian Turks were expelled. When the U.S.S.R. ceased to exist many of its former victims were prevented from returning to their homelands.6

In addition to the horrors of mass murder and deportation suffered by the Muslims of Central Asia, the Russians added a sinister refinement: assimilation through co-optation of the elites, extensive colonization of Muslim lands and conversion (often forced) to Christianity. This was the deadliest danger that the Muslim ummah had had to face since the first encounter with the non-Muslim world.7

During the former U.S.S.R. state terrorism reached the highest level. The Communist rulers divided the Muslims into numerous nationalities in order to scatter them, their Islamic faith being attacked at the same time. In the eyes of the Soviet rulers, science and religion, and Marxism-Leninism and religious ideologies were in-compatible and irreconcilable. In their campaign against Islam, the Soviet rulers resorted to two types of argument.

The first applies to all religion which, according to Marxism, is the ‘opiate of the people’, that is, a reactionary and anti-scientific ideology giving a false account of society. But Islam was especially targeted by the Soviet authorities because it has universal validity, is based on original and reliable sources, and because it proposes a comprehensive moral programme for the reform of all areas of individual and collective life-political, economical, legal, social, etc. Also, the mere fact that almost all the peoples of the Central Asian (Turkestan) Republics and Azerbaijan were Muslim (even now, they remain Muslim) was a threat to the Communists. In order to undermine Islam, they made a number of accusations against Islam. For example, Islam is represented as a primitive religion, a chaotic mixture of Christian, Jewish and pagan doctrines, founded by a member of the feudal trading classes of Makka.8 Muslims were taught that for centuries Islam had served imperialisms, first of the Arabs, Persians, Afghans and Turks and now of the British and Americans.9

Under Communist rule, the people were not free to find out whether these accusations were true or not. As Time magazine, in its special issue on ‘The New U.S.S.R’ (10 April 1989) points out: ‘most of the country’s 26,000 mosques and 24,000 religious schools were shut down. The vast majority of Islamic teachers were either killed or imprisoned’.10

However, this does not mean that the Muslims believed the Communists and became atheist. In fact, Islam was the strongest religion in the former Soviet Union: ‘Several sociological surveys conducted in the 1980s in the Muslim territories of the former USSR have revealed the proportion of atheists among Soviet Muslims to be around 20 per cent of the population (among the Russians the figure is 80 per cent), with the remaining 80 percent divided between various categories of believers. But even those officially listed as atheists. such as members of the Communist Party, or the Komsomol, or high-level intelligentsia who are obliged professionally to fight “obnoxious religious survival”, maintain certain ties with the religion. In particular, the majority observe the three basic religious rites which mark the private life of every Muslim and which make his behaviour so different from that of his Russian or other non-Muslim comrades: ‘circumcision, religious marriage and religious burial in a special Muslim cemetery. According to the surveys, these family rites are performed by 95 to 99 per cent of the Muslim population.’11

The surveys support the theory that absolute atheists do not exist in Muslim lands. Communist accusations failed to turn the Muslims into atheists. From the Muslim point of view Marxist atheism appears not as a rival ideology or another competing spiritual creed, but as the latest, manifestation of ignorance and backwardness. The term unbelief designates a kind of collective blemish representing cruelty, dishonesty and lack of conscience. To the Muslim a real atheist is not deemed to be a romantic rebel or a superior philosophical free-thinker, but a subhuman of limited intellect unable to grasp the concept of Allah (God) and therefore degraded to the level of bestiality, if not below.12

It is very difficult to destroy the Islamic faith permanently, as the failure of the Communist rulers to do so demonstrates. And now, the last stage is taking place. The Turkic peoples are regaining their independence, and Islam is regaining its voice in Turkestan, Azerbaijan and in the autonomous regions such as Tataristan, the Chechen Republic, Yakuts, etc. How far the recovery of Islamic identity will mean a full recovery of Islamic values, and how far it makes possible common goals and policies for the peoples of the region, remains to be seen.

References

12. Bennigsen, and Broxup, op. cit., p.60-1.

]]> https://fountainmagazine.com/all-issues/1993/issue-2-april-june-1993/biology-and-religion/ Thu, 01 Apr 1993 00:00:00 +0000 http://107.21.79.195/all-issues/1993/issue-2-april-june-1993/biology-and-religion/ Today, as the prestige of materialism and atheism declines, more and more scientists believe that religion is so essential it cannot be abandoned. Mankind will not be able to achieve happiness without it. But enemies of reality and true science still use false sciences to defend atheism.

But does religion, as the atheists claim, really conflict with science? We can tackle the question in the context of biology. Out of all sciences biology would appear to have the nearest contact with religion because it concerns ‘life’.

Man is, of all living creatures, the most complex and perfect organism. It is man who discovered science and knowledge and it is he who advances it. The first thing that even the earliest man must have been curious about is his own existence as a living creature. There is a something – which we do not know the nature of which distinguishes all living creatures from other existing entities like minerals, rocks, water etc. But all living creatures – men, animals, plants – have this something in common.

It seems reasonable to believe that all living beings are therefore subject to the same law. The Ruler who enforces this law, manifests His power among the living creatures distinctively through His different attributes or names. He who has introduced Himself to us by His personal name, Allah, also reveals His many other names. Among these, Hayy probably has a certain priority; it means the ‘life-giver’. Then, names like Rezzaq – the provider of needs – Musavvir who depicts, shapes and forms – Hafiz the protector, keeper – Mucemmil who creates perfectly and designs beautifully, and so on.

Many non-believers have tried to offer a rational, ‘scientific’ explanation for the original transition form inorganic matter to organic life form. But science is also subject to relativity. Philosophers, scientists – from ancient Greece to today’s biology theorists – have written hundreds of books and contrived many theories about how life began, but that is all they have ever been able to do – offer theories and speculations. They have taken a roundabout route because, up to now no-one has come up with an explanation contrary to the reality of the Qur’an.

The act of creation and giving life belongs only to God. It has not been and will not be explained otherwise. Qur’an, the last holy book, unlike the other holy books, has preserved and protected its originality. One evidence of its superiority to all philosophies and theories is that not one of the accepted hypotheses conflicts with the realities of the Qur’an.

It is encouraging that today many scientists believe that religion has the main role in explaining creation. The biology theorists in particular are trying to build new explanations for the origin of life in accordance with religion.

Despite the great developments in fields like genetic engineering, molecular biology, DNA and immunology, scientists have still not been able to close the immense gap between organic and inorganic matter. ‘Life’ remains the biggest miracle in the universe. False theories like Darwinism and other evolution theories that refuse to accept the miracle of creation are collapsing one after another.

Heinsberg’s theory of ‘indeterminism’ in quantum mechanics, smashed materialism completely, in particular the stubborn notion of ‘cause’ and ‘result’. Later the American philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn, put forward the argument that there are not, and cannot be, any final scientific theories. This is true as, throughout history, we have witnessed that almost all theories have lost their ‘truth’ and been replaced by new theories.

A paradigm, as Kuhn calls it, or a way of seeing, dominates every branch of science for a certain period and then gives way to a new one. According to Kuhn, there is no perfect paradigm in any branch of science. For example a group of researchers begin to work in a certain field within their own paradigm, using their own special methods. In time, an explanation in this field becomes accepted by most or all scientists. Then, the researchers who believe strongly in this paradigm try to develop it as far as they can. Then begins a period of solving problems and riddles, in which the researchers proceed to new discoveries within the boundaries of the paradigm. Kuhn says that this is a stage in which scientific progress is made without cuts. After a while, however, the researchers come face to face with new data which conflict with their paradigm, precisely because all paradigms have certain boundaries. For this reason, there is no paradigm into which you can fit the whole of scientific knowledge at any one time. Arguments amongst the scientists about the data that do not fit the paradigm continue until someone comes up with a new paradigm that can cope with the new data.

So far, all theories, put forward as paradigms, have only explained part of the reality or facts. These paradigms have not all been completely wrong, but they have never been completely right either. For example, certain natural phenomena can still be explained with the physics of Aristotle, while most of the time we use Newton’s laws or, in some situations, Einstein’s theory of relativity. And as regards biology, there are some cases where even Darwin was right.

However, man cannot close his eyes to the reality of creation, as a whole and like an ostrich bury his head in the sand.

The famous philosopher of science, Karl Popper, has a different view on the matter. He measures the health of a theory by checking whether it has too many gaps or missing links, or not. On this ground he states emphatically that ‘Darwinism is not a scientific theory’.

What we can derive from Popper’s ideas or Kuhn’s theory of paradigms is that reality cannot be fully explained by scientific knowledge. Science can only shine a light on some few of the hidden facts of the universe.

Nicholas Maxwell thinks that science will not advance only by increasing the number of experiments for each theory. To explain the purity and the beauty of nature, scientists have to offer theories as pure and as perfect as nature itself. Is it possible to come up with a theory like this? Does man have to push the reality of creation aside – which brings an explanation of everything – to get lost in the mazes of the theories?

The Qur’an explains the origin of life, the ecological balance in nature, the development of the embryo and many other facts so perfectly, that any biologist who reads it must place his head on the ground to worship God.

We expect all scientists to read and respect the Qur’an, because, up to now, no one has proved the knowledge it contains to be wrong. The Qur’an is the word of God and cannot he wrong.

The latest aircraft are still clumsier than birds and, by comparison with birds, have less agility. Moreover, upward flight affects pilots badly, while birds can do this very easily since the air between their feathers their bodies and wings is absorbing and reducing air pressure. Their mobile tail feathers enable them to turn sharply and even do somersaults. They are capable of steep descent or ascent without the risks aeroplanes face in doing the same. Land birds can fly or glide for long periods as well as land without heating their wings, whereas aeroplanes cannot sustain flight with stopped engines.

An important recent achievement in aircraft technology is vertical take off and landing – something many flying animals such as bees have been able to do for millions of years. Wing design, following the models of wing design in birds, has also been improved recently. The wings of birds follow hundreds of different designs, each with its peculiar advantages. They have many facilities. The most significant ability of birds’ wings is that they can be opened or folded up at will, thus giving flexibility in different flight conditions. This inspired engineers to design some aircraft like the F-14, F-18 and MIG-25 with wings that can be adjusted to some degree. The forward-arrow-angled wing is another projected innovation of recent technology in pursuit of what was given to birds in their creation. The airflow possible between the feathers of birds’ wings which significantly reduces air pressure is also being imitated. The producers of one model of the Boeing-747 have designed thousands of small cavities in the wings: the trials have been successful and the technique has been recommended for adaptation for use in all aircraft.

The scientist and engineer, whose final aim is to attain the flying technique of birds, know full well that they are just at the start of their quest. Birds and other flying animals do not have a consciousness like ours. How is it that they have achieved such a perfect compatibility with the air? It is true that producing an aircraft requires elaborate skills and elaborate knowledge, but is it not marvellous that birds demonstrate perfect flight? How is this? How does the possibility, the very idea, of flight arise?

Bayezid-i Bestami gives an account from his experience:

In my time there were thousands of saints. They prayed intently, and trained and disciplined themselves in the way of Allah, living an austere routine; some had even been workers of miracles. But the leading saint of the age was a blacksmith. There seemed to be nothing extraordinary about him. He had been doing nothing but shaping metal, hammering at his anvil to make his living. I asked myself how such a person could be kutb, the leading saint, of the age. Out of curiosity, I went and visited him in his shop. When he saw me he became extremely happy, held my hands, kissed them repeatedly, and begged me for a special prayer for himself. Since he did not enter that realm where miracles are possible or experience anything of it, he was unaware of how great a saint he was. When I earnestly asked him to pray for me, he replied: ‘I cannot be relieved from my own worries and troubles by praying for you.’ When I asked for an explanation, he said, ‘I wonder at and am troubled about how the people will manage when they are to give account of their lives before Allah on the Day of Judgement; I am deeply concerned and sorrow for those who will not easily be able to do so. Other than this, I have no worries or troubles.’ Even as he said this he burst into tears. His demeanor and sincerity caused my own tears to flow too. And I heard a voice within my self, proclaiming, ‘This man is not of those who say “my self, my self” but of those who say “my people, my people, my people”.’ And then I understood why he was so great and why he was the leading saint of the age. He seemed to me to be directly on the path of the Prophets. ‘But the people, the account they give of themselves, and their chastisement, these are not your burden.’ I said. He answered: ‘The most inward part of my being, the very nature of my self, was kneaded by compassion. I can only be happy and free from the burden of worries and troubles if all people in Hell are forgiven and only then if I could suffer in Hell on their behalf.’ I sat and conversed for hours with the blacksmith in his shop. He knew only enough verses of the the Qur’an to perform the obligatory prayers. However, I realized while in his presence that I received such Divine Blessings and attained such a station as I had been unable to acquire for years. I also realized that being a kutb was not a matter of only prayers, knowledge, and asceticism, but also a matter of such profound understanding, and depth of feeling and dependence upon the blessings of Allah.

How fortunate are those who show concern for, sensitivity to, and understanding of, the sufferings of the ummah and all mankind. And how blessed are those who suffer on account of others’ sufferings. How lucky, too are those who try to be with such people and share in their feeling.

Viking I was launched from earth orbit in August 1975. It traced seven hundred million kilometres in an interplanetary spiral to reach Martian orbit the following June. In July 1976 a car size tripod lander, dropped from the space craft, alighted on the rocky surface of Mars some 1200 miles from the Martian Mariner canyon system. This was the location of man’s first on-site search for life on another planet.

The successful Viking missions to Mars supplied us with most valuable scientific information. Although Mars is a rock-strewn desert, its rocks are enriched with minerals that may support life forms with water, air, and raw materials. This was the verdict of the Viking 1 and 2 missions to Mars. Mars may once have had rivers and lakes, but now the temperatures and the atmospheric pressures are so low that water can only exist in the form of vapour or ice. Scientists also suspect that the planet’s giant volcano, Olympus Mons, overlies a hot spot. Although this volcano may still erupt every 10,000 years, the red planet has essentially been frozen to death. However, there is still hope, because the experiments conducted with Martian soil produced significant results. During the experiments, Martian soil was fed with nutrients and water. The results were most surprising. Unlike the lunar dust, Martian soil consumed the nutrients. Not only did apparent consumption of the nutrients give ‘rise to a steady rate of carbon dioxide production but the introduction of water vapour resulted in a most unexpected surge in oxygen levels.

Eighteen years have passed since these experiments and mankind has not taken a step on Mars yet. Will it ever be possible for man to achieve a settlement on Mars in the future? Firstly, such settlements on the planet need to be as self-sufficient as possible. The first Mars invaders will need to begin a search for crucial supplies such as water and oxygen. Since Mars has little nitrogen in its soil to sustain plants, scientists would need to inject the soil with earthly micro-organisms to free up the crucial element. A base independent from earth is impossible without these necessities of life, particularly water and power sources and raw materials for building an ecosystem. Although the atmosphere is only 0.03 % water, the air is saturated with water most of the time, due to the low temperature. However, rain is impossible because the atmosphere is too thin and it is generally cloudless.

A Martian day is 24 hours and 37 minutes, which is very close to earth’s. The fact that gravity is one third of earth’s, is also an advantage. However, what is important is to produce resources like ammonia (a plant nutrient), hydrazine (for rocket fuel), formic acid (for storing electricity), nitric acid (for oxygen storage) and methane (natural gas). We do not know what will actually be found on Mars when it is completely explored, but the important fact about Mars is that, unlike the moon, it contains all the raw materials that are crucial for a Martian base.

At present the planet is an Arctic wasteland, but scientists say this has not always been the case. Much can be learned from a small core sample of the planet’s polar ice. Scientists need to know what happened to its climate, if it resembled the earth’s in the distant past. The topographical features and the river channels suggest that a few million years ago Mars was a warm planet and probably had a thick atmosphere. The Viking findings and the analysis of some of the data suggest that Mars contains more water than once thought. We must also keep in mind that the Viking probes did not completely rule out the possibility of life on the planet. It might still be possible that Mars supports some kind of microbes. It may be that we have not yet looked in the right place. There are many questions about Mars that remain to be answered. For example: we do not know anything about the interior of the planet, whether its core is liquid or frozen or maybe an earth-like core or if the largest volcanoes in the solar system are still alive. A manned mission to Mars and building bases on its surface is quite possible but we are not sure when it will actually take place.

When we think about the planets in our solar system and their conditions, it is impossible to overlook the fact that the earth was designed purposely for life forms to exist. One has to be out of one’s mind to assume that all this order and harmony is completely coincidental. One important thing we have to understand is that we (living organisms) need the earth and its conditions to survive. It is the only planet in the solar system that could support us. For all we know, it might even be the only one in the galaxy. It is obvious that the earth was specifically designed for human beings, because all other life forms on earth serve mankind. By this token we can even claim that the whole universe was created for the benefit of man. The only reason for this claim is that everything would be completely meaningless without an intelligent thinking being.

Our neighbour, the red planet, might be a hope for the future. Whether we will indeed be able to build bases, grow plants, produce valuable gases and materials, begin settlements and colonies or maybe even achieve the birth of the first human being on Mars, remains to be seen, but until then we have to take care of this blue planet of ours and its inhabitants, since we are its trustees.

Rise up, because my heart is lamenting…

During the days having passed without you,

I went back over the yesterdays,

Grieving all the while, and saddened

Since you had deserted your country.

O my valiant one, appear now!

Appear, for we are depressed.

Our hearts come into our mouths;

Our last words are on our lips…

The people need your smile,

And we are thirsty for your zeal.

No more strength is left to us;

We, a multitude of orphans,

Are pushed to and from,

And detained along the way…

Wasting time in distractions,

We cannot bear anything extra…

You appear in dreams every night,

You are in words and in hearts…

This is so the whole life long;

Come to make your influence felt,

Have some pity upon us, please;

We go down on our bended knees…