The relationship between Islam and Science has been a point of scholarly discussion for a long time. Seven hundred years ago, al-Ghazali expressed fears that some mathematical knowledge may lead to the denial of God. A similar fear was expressed more recently by the American convert to Islam, Maryam Jameelah who wrote:

Modern science is guided by no moral value, but naked materialism and arrogance. The whole branch of knowledge and its applications is contaminated by the same evil. Science and technology are totally dependent upon the set of ideals and values cherished by its members. If the roots of a tree are rotten, then the tree is rotten; therefore all its fruits are rotten (Jameelah, 1983).

Their view does not demonstrate a consensus. Al Afgani wrote that

…those who forbid science and knowledge in the belief that they are safeguarding the Islamic religion are really the enemies of that religion (Keddie, 1983).

Muslims seem to have been historically polarized into those who reject scientific discoveries as ‘dangerous’ and those who look for co-existence with scientific development.

Historic background

Most discussions on Islam and science have been limited to the many great achievements of Muslim scientists like al-Biruni, al-Tusi and al-Khwarizmi. Most look beyond the pitiful position the Muslims are in today and remember that:

At its peak, about one thousand years ago, the Muslim world made a remarkable contribution to science, notably mathematics and medicine. Baghdad in its heyday and southern Spain built universities to which thousands flocked. Rulers surrounded themselves with scientists and artists. (Ghiles, 1983).

We must remember that Arabic was the language of science from the 8th to 11th centuries. This period marked the birth of European algebra with the translation of a treatise by al-Khwarizmi ’s-a fact that prompted Ghandz to recognize that ‘Al-Khwarizmi is more entitled to he called “the father of algebra’ than Diaphantus because Al-Khwarizmi was the first to teach algebra in an elementary form and for its own sake (Ghandz, 1936). The Muslim tradition did not reject those who came before them. The studied the works of Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonious and the like. Respect for the predecessors and a desire to develop this early work lead to the great discoveries of Islam. Knowledge is the property of God. It is always being revitalized. Cultures are interdependent in this respect. Hoodbhoy (1991), critical of the notion of Islamic Science, admits that ‘today we remember Nassir al-Din al-Tusi for his trigonometry, Omar Khayyam for his solution of cubic equations, Jabir Ibn Hayyan for the ingenuity of his chemical apparatus and al-Jazari for his intricate machines. Among the great scholars of Islam are the following:

The mathematician, Thabit lbn Qurrah (826-901ce)

The astronomer, Abul Qasim al-Majiriti (d. 1007ce)

The astronomer, Qutb-al-Din al-Shirazi (12336-1311CE)

The scientists, the Banu Musa brothers

The physician, Ibn Sina (980-925ce)

The physician, Muhammad al-Razi (865-925ce)

The writer on optics, Ibn al-Haitham (965-1039ce)

The philosopher and scientist, Abu Yusuf al-Kindi (SO l-873ce)

The commentator on Aristotle, lbn Rushd (1126-I 198cc) The geologist, Baha al-Din al-Amili (1546-1621ce).

The list is endless. Many of these scholars had memorised the whole Qur’an and excelled in their religion. Europe borrowed from the Muslims but rarely acknowledged the fact.

Is there a conflict between science and Islam?

Islam promotes the material and spiritual well-being of Man. It enjoins its followers to seek and utilise knowledge for the betterment of their life on earth and in the Hereafter. The Messenger used the most up-to-date weapons in battle, laying down the principle that we must never fall technologically behind. This was not true of other religions. On the authority of St. Augustine, it was forbidden for a Christian to believe that there were people living on the other side of the earth. The world was believed to be flat, and, if there were people on the other side, they would be standing upside down-and this was unacceptable to the Church. Similarly, on the authority of St. Paul, Christians were required to believe that disease, famine, pestilence, and air pollution were caused by demons. Vaccination was therefore forbidden in Christianity. This took place while al-Razi was already making advances in the field of inoculation.

Muslims were not exempt from persecution by their own authorities. Al Kindi, popular in the court of Caliph Maimun had to flee when al-Mutawakil took over. Al Razi lost his eyesight when, on the instructions of the amir, he was hit with his own book.

Is there science in the Qur’an?

The Quran is a book of guidance. It was the motivation and driving force behind many of these scientists. The Quran offers hints that could lead to major discoveries if followed up diligently. Modern day scholars have studied at length Qur’anic references to science subjects, and produced texts in areas of astronomy, embryonic biology, the movement of bees, the mountains, the composition of the earth, the plants and a variety of other subjects. Even those that wish to deny the assertion that the Qur’an contains scientific hints have to concede defeat when they examine verses like those found in the chapters of Yasin, 36-7, 40; al-Shams1-4; al-Anbiya, 30; al-Rahman, 7; al-Naziat, 28 and many others.

The Qur’an gives vital hints which include important insights and encouragement to undertake new forms of scientific research.

Although, scientific knowledge is only part of the general guidance to be found in the Qur’an, there are some modern scholars who have made research into science found in the Qur’an a full-time preoccupation.

Some of the work done by these scholars has been very useful. It has reawakened Muslims to the value of their inheritance and rekindled the desire for further research and given it sanction from their own Holy Book. However, some scholars, in my view, have overstepped the boundaries and exposed Islam to Western ridicule and nourished the inferiority complexes of those Muslims that still need proof that the Qur’an is revelation from God.

When in 1961, an Egyptian scientist, Muhammad Jamaluddin El-Fandy published a pamphlet entitled On Cosmic Verses in the Qur’an, he was cheered in the Muslim world: but in the West, scientists smiled patronizingly, satisfied that if the Muslims were going to rely on them to prove the accuracy of their Divine Book, then they could not have much to offer. The trend had only just started. Azizul Hassan Abbasi, a Pakistani neuropsychiatrist asserted that he had managed to find in the Qur’an modern cures for diabetes, tuberculosis, stomach ulcers, rheumatism, arthritis, high blood pressure, asthma, dysentery and paralysis. In the end, the claims turned out to be more intellectual amusement.

In 1976, Maurice Bucaille, a French surgeon, published The Bible, The Qur’an and Science and with it sparked off a wave of excitement in the Muslim world. Bucaille subjected both the Bible and the Qur’an to rigorous tests against the findings of modern science in the fields of astronomy, geology, animal and vegetable sciences, and human reproduction. He concludes:

The Qur’an most definitely did not contain a single proposition at variance with the most firmly established modern knowledge. Modern Man’s findings concerning the absence of scientific error are therefore in complete agreement with the Muslim exegetes’ conception of the Qur’an as a book of Revelation (Bucaille, 1978).

The Muslims were excited. Their book had been ‘proven’ correct. Bucaille’s sweeping suggestion that modern Man’s findings concerning ‘the absence of error’ were endorsed by the Qur’an was missed by an excited Muslim community. The marriage between the Qur’an and modern Man’s ‘scientific’ findings was a completely happy one. His conclusion that it is impossible not to admit the existence of scientific errors in the Bible’ was also swallowed wholesale by the Muslims.

Muslims had always taken on faith the belief that the Qur’an, being the Word of Allah, did not contain any errors; and that the Bible, in its present form, is not a true revelation from God. But now they had ‘scientific proof’. The rules of the game had changed. Modern science had been accepted by a cross-section of Muslims as the umpire between the scriptures. Bucaille became a hero among Muslims. At those conferences where he was not invited, he was generously quoted by a variety of people including highly learned Muslim scholars. The time-bomb that Bucaille had set could be detonated by the emergence of a scientific ‘Salman Rushdie’ with a formula that finds scientific error in the Qur’an or proves the scientific accuracy of the Bible.

In April 1985, Keith Moore, Chairman of the Anatomy Department of the University of Toronto’s School of Medicine, ‘discovered’ the agreement between Islam and contemporary knowledge on the subject of embryology. He joined Bucaille on the conference circuit presumably further confirming that the Qur’an was scientifically correct.

Much of their work has undoubtedly benefited the Muslim community, but where, the likes of Bashirudin Mahmud, a Pakistani nuclear engineer, suggests that Jinn, whom God made out of fire, should be used as a source of energy to combat the energy crisis, the trend they have set leads us into total absurdity. Sayyid Qutb described the whole exercise as ‘a methodological error’, and has insisted that while the Qur’an contains guidance on scientific subjects, it is not a scientific textbook.

Can science test the accuracy of the Qur’an?

Despite the excesses of Mahmud and others, the Muslim world received a great shock when the Egyptian engineer, Rashad Khalifa obsessed with the mathematical nature of the Qur’an, not only concocted the ‘theory of nineteen’ but even went on to predict the date of the Day of Judgement. He did the ultimate when, based on his theory that every chapter was related to the number nineteen, he discovered ‘errors’ in the last two verses of sarah al-Tauba. The foundations of Islam had been attacked. We no longer needed to believe. He wrote:

This marks the advent of a new era in religion; an era where faith is no longer needed. There is no need to ‘believe’ when one ‘knows’. People of the past generation were required to believe in God, and uphold his commandments on faith. With the advent of the physical evidence reported in this book, we no longer believe that God exists; we know that God exists.

He implies that as we have scientific evidence, we now longer need the Prophet, upon him be peace.

Had al-Ghazali been alive, he would rightly have felt vindicated about his statements 700 years earlier.

Muslims in the modern world

Muslims have to decide on a position viz-a-viz such outrageous things as sperm clinics that provide women with facilities to have children without ‘known’ fathers or the attempts to prepare organs for transplant into human beings by injecting pigs with human genes, etc. Some of these inventions are directly antagonistic to the doctrine and spirit of Islam. On the other hand, modern scientists fail to understand their own limitations and have assumed that science is completely secular in nature. Conflict is inevitable.

Muslims believe in absolute truth originating from God, to whom they pray five times a day. Prayer is considered to be futile by scientists like Sullivan, He says:

The belief that nature is orderly is not yet universal.. we still find congregations praying for rain although they would hesitate, probably, to pray that the sun might stand still. That is because astronomy is a more developed science than meteorology (Hoodbhoy, 1991).

In otherwords, when the Muslims learn more about meteorology, they will stop praying for rain, and probably some would (vindicating al-Ghazali).

The rejection of divinity automatically leads to further complications. Science must account for the origin and essence of Man and matter. Scientists have developed numerous, often contradictory theories, making the whole undertaking capricious and undertaking, and giving the Muslim reason to feel a sense of triumph in his insistence on divinity. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to date constitutes the most traumatic clash between Islam and science. While the Qur’an says:

Truly We created Man in the best shape. Then we return him to the lowest of the low, save those who believe and do righteous deeds; theirs will he an uninterrupted wage (al-Tin, 95.4-6).

Darwin says:

When I view all beings not as special creations, but as lineal descendants of some few beings they…. seem to me to become enabled (Darwin. 1985).

Even in the West, Darwin’s theory of evolution was received with many misgivings. People who were not known or their Christian piety were alarmed at the idea of being descended from lower animals.. Here is an interesting spontaneous reaction to Darwin’s theory:

The wife of the Bishop of Worcester, when informed about Darwin’s theory commented, Descended from apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us hope that it may not become generally known’ (Hoodbhoy, 1991).

The wife of the Bishop referred to above was reacting instinctively to offended dignity when she rejected this particular scientific adventure: which is illustrative of Man’s inherent dignity.

The problem between Islam and modern science will continue to exist until such a time when modern scientists cultivate the humility to accept human limitations.

Conclusion: The way forward for Islamic Science

Among the responses to the excesses of modern science has been the work of Bucaille, etc. They revived the confidence of the Muslims and provided ammunition in the arguments against secularism. However, if Muslims were the only people on earth, this research would not have produced real advances. Their work enjoys the results of the advances in modern science.

Others have established a philosophical framework for advances in science. Among them is Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who, concerned that Man’s spiritual essence is threatened by the rapid and doctrine less industrialization which is also a menace to natural order, said:

Today, more and more people are becoming aware that the applications of modern science…have caused directly or indirectly unprecedented environmental disasters, bringing about the real possibility of the total collapse of the natural order.

An alternative is the framework drawn up by Sardar (1987) who rejects Nasr’s Gnosticism. However, the reality of our situation is that we can neither simply ‘start again’ nor continue to he idle consumers of western technology.

There has been neglect of the sciences at various levels-at the level of the ordinary Muslims who should get involved in research, at the level of the spiritual leadership where the ulama should encourage their followers to study the sciences, and at the level of the political leadership which should facilitate scientists as their predecessors had.

Islam provides for a social, political and economic system that would make it possible for scientists to work in tranquillity, under state protection and sponsorship, and produce results such as those produced before the split between our leaders and scientists.

The leaders of the Muslim world need to put in place a system that will enable their scientists to work in security and comfort. When the Muslims do this, they will not have to complain about the irreligiousness of modern science because they will be at the forefront.

One argument for the antiquity of the doctrines of reincarnation is the ‘evidence’ in ancient literature, in the tales of metamorphosis-for example, Ovid’s colorful extravagances of that name, in which ‘gods’ take on human and animal forms, humans take on a diversity of different shapes, etc. But these tales do not constitute a doctrine; the doctrine proper is not to do with, simply, colourful change of form, but with a belief that an individual soul must pass through every ‘level’ of creation, every species of life- form, animate or inanimate, sentient or insentient. If we reflect upon this, we soon realize that the doctrine is really a strange elaboration on the immortality of the soul. In other words, the kernel of it is the intuition that the soul is immortal. That kernel is true; the rest is not. The doctrine may also have arisen from the observation of the likeness in physical and other traits between parents and offspring:

in other words, the biological phenomena of heredity, perfectly intelligibly explained by the laws of genetics, are given a less intelligible, indeed downright irrational, explanation by the doctrine of reincarnation.

The doctrine is said to have emerged in the Nile basin, spreading thence to other regions and peoples, to India, for example, and back west from thence, to Greece. There, the eloquence of the philosophers rationalized it (incredibly, it seems to us) into a source of consolation and hope for people who, as do all people, longed for eternity. Among the major religions, the doctrine was, initially, infiltrated into Judaism by the Kabbalists, and by the contrivance of Jewish thinkers into Christianity, and finally into the ideas of some Sufis-despite the hard labours of Muslim theologians to refute such a distortion.

To support it, every apologist for the doctrine, put forward some ‘evidence’. For instance, the Kabbalists mention the transformation of Niobe (mentioned in the Old Testament) into a marble sculpture, and of the wife of the Prophet Lot, into a statue made of dust; and others have referred to a literal transformation of Jews into monkeys and pigs.

Another argument explains instinct and intelligence in animals, and the splendours of the plant kingdom, as once human intelligence and vitality which had entered into them. The idea debases humanity and shames its proponents: it is really difficult to accept that such an assertion, even if made on the spur of the moment, could be made by people of any understanding. Certainly, it is beyond doubt that there is a programme and a predetermined destiny for plants and inanimate creation. But it is rather far-fetched to trace the harmony and order we see in the plant or mineral kingdoms to souls which formerly lived as or in human beings. Actually, plants and trees have a certain life, a plant-life, a direction of growth towards light and moisture, but this does not mean that this is the activity of the soul of a human soul cast down, or a soul on its way up the levels of creation.

Despite efforts to corroborate this, no one has ever received any message from a plant-form confirming that it contains a soul that once belonged to a human being, nor have we heard any account from a human being that he or she was once the soul of a plant or animal. True, there have been claims, spread about by tabloids and other such media, of people recollecting ‘past lives’, even recounting incidents from them. Where these claims are not totally absurd and ridiculous ravings, their substance can easily be explained as recollections of what the individual has seen or read and then, knowingly or otherwise, elaborated and transformed as in any ordinary human fiction.

The fact that Niobe and the wife of the Prophet Lot were transformed into sculptures of marble or dust respectively, even if accepted literally, are neither an instance nor evidence of reincarnation. What we have in this case is a transformation of a physical kind; it has nothing to do with transmigration of the soul. As for petrified bodies, that is not an arcane phenomenon: just such corpses have been found, in considerable numbers, preserved by the absolute dryness of volcanic ashes. Pompeii was destroyed by a sudden volcanic eruption and remained buried under the ashes of Vesuvius for hundreds of years. The excavations performed there revealed numerous Niobe-like petrified bodies. In these ruins, and in the petrified faces and bodies, so busy in their self-indulgent vices, so secure in their arrogance, we can, if we wish, read the signs of Divine wrath and punishment. Perhaps these figures had their way of life solidified in ash and so preserved, so that future generations might witness and take heed. To interpret them as evidence of reincarnation is simply untenable.

Belief in reincarnation in Egypt, India and Greece, developed as a result of distortion of once sound beliefs in the Hereafter, and from a longing for the immortality of the soul. Neither in Ahen-Aten’s Egypt nor in Pythagoras’ Greece did anyone know of the reincarnation which these distorted beliefs brought about. To Ahen-Aten, when man’s life ends in this world, a different one starts in heaven. As soon as one dies, one’s soul sets off on its journey to reach ‘the Greatest Court’ in heaven, It goes so high that it reaches to the presence of Osiris, and hopes to give an account of itself in words like these: ‘I have come to Your presence as I was free from sins, and throughout my life, I did do everything I could that would make devout men pleased. I did not shed blood nor did I steal. Neither did I make mischief nor did I mean any. I did not commit any adultery nor fornication whatever’. Those who can speak so join Orisis’ congregation, those who cannot, whose evil deeds outweigh their good, are hurled into hell and tortured by demons.

Such sound belief is witnessed also in epitaphs relating to Ahen-Aten’s religion as follows: ‘What You have done is too much and our eyes cannot perceive most of them. 0 One, Only God No one possesses such might as You have. It is You who has created this universe’ as You wish and You alone. It is You who decree the world suitable for human beings, for all animals, whether big or small, whether they walk on the earth on their legs or they fly up in the sky on their wings. And it is You alone who sustain and nourish them. Thanks to You, all beauties come into existence. All eyes see You by means of those. Verily, my heart belongs to You (You are in my heart).’ The ideas quoted verbatim above were the things which were believed as truth in Egypt some four thousand years ago.

Likewise, in Ancient Greece, the belief in resurrection and the immortality of the soul was quite sound. The great philosopher Pythagoras, for example, believed that the soul on leaving the body has a life peculiar to itself; in fact any soul has this same kind of life even before it quits the earth. It is commissioned with some responsibilities on earth; if it commits any evil, it will be punished, thrown into hell and tormented by demons. On the other hand, in return for the good that it does, it will be given high rank and blessed with a happy life. Allowing for the changes that might have been made in the views of Pythagoras over time, we can certainly still see that there are fundamental similarities with the Islamic creed of resurrection. Plato’s account is not so different either. In his famous treatise The Republic, he says that the soul on leaving the body forgets the material life totally; it ascends into an appropriate realm, a spiritual one, saturated with wisdom and immortality; the soul is free from all scarcity, deficiency, error, fear, and from the passion and love which afflicted it while it lived on earth; and then, being free from all the evil consequences of human nature, it is blessed with eternal bliss.

In essence, the doctrine of reincarnation is, in its different forms within different creeds, if we look carefully, a distorted version of a sound belief. Every creed, with the exception of Islam, has suffered such distortions. Christianity, for example, once a divinely revealed religion, has been distorted and Prophet Jesus deified. Had it not been for the luminous and clarifying verses of the Qur’an, and the influence of Islam, Christianity’s formal position on this matter may not have been different. If Christianity teaches the unity of the soul and body, it owes this to the Andalusian Muslim savants. One of the most famous Christian philosophers is St Thomas Aquinas. The great part of his new ideas and synthesis were adapted from Islamic teachings. He says in his distinguished book Summa Theologica (Part I, Question 90, Art. 4) that the key concept of man is that the soul and body are united in an apt composite. He adds that animal souls develop with animal bodies, but that human souls are especially created at some time during early development (Art. 3), and he therefore rejects the abstract speculations of the Neo-Platonist school.

In a comparable way, no doubt also through unscrupulous translation away from the original language and subsequent further distinctions, the Ancient Egyptian, Indian and Greek religions became unrecognizable. The doctrine of reincarnation may well be one such alteration from an originally sound conception of the immortality of the soul and its return to the Divine Judgement.

After reincarnation was inscribed into the beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians, it became one of the central themes of songs and legends throughout the vicinity of the Nile region. Elaborated further with the eloquent expressions of Greek philosophers, it became, with the expansion of Greek influence, a widespread phenomenon.

Reincarnation and Hinduism

The Hindus consider matter as the lowest manifestation of Brahma, and deem that the convergence of body and soul is a demeaning of the soul, a decline into evil. However, death is believed to be salvation, a separation from human defects, a possible chance to achieve an ecstatic union with the truth. The Hindus are polytheistic in practice. Their greatest god is ‘Krishna’, who is believed to have come in a human figure in order to eradicate evil.

Their second greatest god is ‘Vishnu’, which means that which can penetrate the human body. According to Hinduism, Vishnu has descended into this world nine times in different shapes (human, animal, or flower). He is also expected to descend for the tenth time. Since they believe that Vishnu will next come to this world in the shape of an animal, killing any animal is absolutely prohibited. Killing animals is only allowed during war; and the zealots of that religion do not normally eat meat. According to the Vedanta, the most important religious book of the Hindus, the soul is a part, a fragment, of Brahma; it will never be able to get rid of suffering and distress until it returns to its origin. Soul achieves gnosis by isolating itself from the ego and all wickedness pertaining to the ego, and by running towards Brahma, just as a river flows down into a sea. When the soul reaches and unites with Brahma, it acquires absolute peace, tranquillity and stillness, another version of which is Nirvana in Buddhism:there is an abatement of active seeking, a passivity of soul in the latter, whereas the soul is dynamic in Hinduism.

Reincarnation in monotheistic religions

Some Jewish sects adopted reincarnation and appropriated it. After refusing belief in Resurrection and Judgement, the Jews, who can be inordinately covetous of life yet remain fascinated by the immortality of the soul as well, could do little else than accept reincarnation. Later, the Kabbalists contrived to transfer it to the Church of Alexandria through certain monastic orders in that region. The doctrine has had negligible effect on the manifestation of Islam, nevertheless it was, unfortunately, introduced among Muslims by the Ghulat-i Shi’a (an extremist Shi’a faction).

All ancient, new and contemporary acceptance of the doctrine of reincarnation has one characteristic, one root, in common, that is the belief in incarnation. There is a shared failure of intellect to both grasp and accept the Absolute Transcendence of God: corrupted by this failure, people have been persuaded to believe that the Divine mixes with the corporal and that the corporal or the human will mix or can mix with the Divine. This failure is, except for Islam which, by God, has retained its strict purity of belief, all but universal. The central figure in each of these distorted religions is an incarnation or reincarnation-Aten in Atenism, Brahma in Hinduism. Ezra (Uzair) in Judaism, Jesus in Christianity, and Ali in the Ghulat-i Shi’a faction who are considered to be outside the fold of Islam. Allegations that some of the writings and utterances of some Muslim Sufis support the doctrine of reincarnation are either plainly malicious or the result of absurdly literal understanding of the Sufis’ highly symbolic and esoteric discourse. The scholars of Islam, certainly among the ninety percent of Sunnis, have all, unanimously and unequivocally, rejected reincarnation as totally contrary to the spirit of Islam. This is true of scholars in every field-jurisprudence, theology, Qur’anic commentary (tafsir) or commentary on Hadith. The reason for this stand is simple: the absolute centrality in Islam of the belief that every individual lives and dies according to his or her individual destiny, carries his or her individual load, will be individually resurrected and individually called to answer for his or her intentions and actions and their consequences, and each individually will receive Divine judgement (which is perfect justice) according to the same criteria.

Islam’s rejection of reincarnation

We set below, in the form of a list of points, the cardinal reasons why Islam altogether rejects the doctrine of reincarnation. Belief in Islam requires belief in the Resurrection and Judgement when justice is meted out to each individual soul according to that individual’s record in life.

1. If the individual soul passes into different lives, in which form or personality will it be resurrected, commanded to give account, and rewarded or punished?

2. This world is created for the purpose of test and trial, to benefit the soul thereby. One focus of the test is belief in the ghayb (the Unseen). Under the doctrine of resurrection, those who live a bad life pass into a lower form of life (animal, tree, etc.) after death. But in that case, they will know the consequences of their former life and life as test loses its meaning.

To get around this, believers in this doctrine also have to have a doctrine of forgetfulness-the soul ‘forgets’ its past existence. In that case, for all practical purposes, having had (or not having had) a past existence is of no consequence to any living creature. Plainly, the doctrine contradicts itself and has no bearing on life as it is lived except to make the individual accept his condition whatever it may be without actively striving for salvation.

3. If each individual is supposed to go through a painful cycle of transmigrations in order to acquire eternal bliss, then God’s promise to punish the wicked and the sinful, and to reward the good and the righteous, has no meaning for the individual life. This is unacceptable for Providence and God is far from being vain or futile in his actions.

4. The Qur’an and other Divine Books state that sins will be forgiven (if truly repented). This proves how unnecessary and cumbersome a device it is, this doctrine that the soul must endure innumerable cycles to realize forgiveness. How much better do the concepts of mercy and forgiveness befit God, the Beneficent Merciful Creator.

In Islam, there is no sin which God cannot forgive as He wills. God, the All-Mighty, reveals and promises in the Qur’an that He will forgive those who repent what they have done wrong and sincerely intend not to do it again. In this respect, God does not see how great or little your sins are, nor how late your penitence is. This may mean that a sinner who disobeys and rebels against God throughout his life can also he forgiven by a single act of true repentance, done with absolute sincerity and a profound understanding of servanthood and dependence on God. (But no individual knows his or her future, none knows if that late hour will come-how unwise then to postpone it!)

5. Long, and tiresome cycles of rebirth are contrary to the mercy, favour, grace and forgiveness of God, the All- Compassionate. If He wills, He takes ordinary, worthless, inferior things and turns them into what is purest, and best and beyond price. Infinite indeed are His blessings and munificence.

6. Among the followers of the prophets, there have been many who led wicked lives but who afterwards reformed and did so within an incredibly short time, then being the revered models of virtue for later generations. After meeting the Prophets, and embracing the Divine Message, some of them even surpassed previous followers and came to be more revered than them. This indicates that by the favour of God one can easily and quickly rise to the summit, even if, previously, one had been of those apparently destined for the pit. It also shows, again, how unnecessary is the doctrine of souls ‘graduating’ into higher levels of being:indeed the doctrine may have the effect of lessening incentives to moral effort.

7. To believe that God, the All-Mighty, has created for each individual an individual soul is a part of belief in His Omnipotence. To believe, instead, that a limited number of souls migrate from body to body, argues the illogical proposition that the Omnipotent is not Omnipotent. The sheer abundance of life, its infinite variety, its refusal of mere repetition of form, is everywhere evident:God is indeed All-Mighty. There are approximately 5 or 5.5 billion people in the world. In recent times we have learnt how to prove that each individual is absolutely unique-an idea urged by many verses of the Qur’an-by looking at fingerprints or gene codes. No individual’s gene code or fingerprint is like any other’s-a fact so reliable as to be used in forensic science to identify criminals. Another example is the observation by a German professor, over thirty years, of millions of pictures of snow-flakes not one of which is ever exactly like any other in shape or pattern. It is scarcely imaginable how many snowflakes fall in one season on one mountainside, let alone all that have ever fallen. How foolish to imply then that the Omnipotent could not create an infinite number of individual souls and supply them with an infinite number of bodies.

8. As there are about 5.5 billion people altogether on the earth, could not a few of them at least have had some marks, or signs on them, or evidence, or something convincing to tell, of their memories, adventures and experiences in different forms and bodies? Must not there have be an accumulation of knowledge, experience and culture in some of those who have come to this world a few times or even completed their cycles? If this happend in only one out of a million should we not expect there to be a great number of people now living of extraordinary virtue and competence? Should we not have met a few of them even in our own countries? If so, where are they?

9. When a body reaches an age (let’s say three or four years) and a measure of physical maturity, should we not expect the soul to emerge with, as it were, all the acquisition and achievement of previous lives? Should we not expect prodigies? There have been quite a few prodigies in recorded history, but their special gifts need not be the result of lives lived many times before. It can equally well be explained as a special combination of genetic characteristics occurring in a particular time and place which is attributable to Divine Grace and Favour, together with supreme effort on the part of the individual to understand his or her own gift in the tradition and context in which it is given.

10. No faculty special only to human beings has ever been found in any other entities, animate or inanimate. But we should expect such a discovery if there were any truth in reincarnation. If a lower form of life is, so to speak, the consequence (punishment) for particular evil deeds in the previous life, then, presumably, the good in that life (outweighed by the evil) must also be carried forward. In other words, some part of the individual’s previous life should be retained in the next life. In this case we would expect the boundaries of particular forms to be frequently burst open-with, for example, plants never known to do so, suddenly showing properties associated with animal life. But, by the Mercy of God, zoology and botany have not, for all their many welcome advances in recent years, discovered any such monsters.

11. If being a man or animal is the consequence of one’s deeds in a former life, which first existed, man or animal, the higher or the lower? Advocates of the doctrine cannot decide or agree on any form for the first creature, for every generation implies a preceding generation in order that the succeeding generation may be considered as the consequence of the former. And if generation is an evil, as some who believe in reincarnation also believe, why did the whole thing start? Why did life begin at all? Plainly, the doctrine leads again and again to absurdity.

We live in the darkest of nights until they appear on our horizon with radiant faces promising the breaking of dawn. Once they have appeared on our horizon, this land of the wretched and the miserable, resembling a gloomy graveyard, will begin to be cheered by flowers of every kind. If our hopes are not blighted by a poisonous wind, this land, changing into a flower-garden through the reviving water that generation brings, will be a place of happiness and spiritual recreation’ for all the world’s people, a place of peace, harmony and serenity. The world of the future will be so enlightened by their light that the moon and the sun will be dim in comparison. In their enlightened ethos, the universe will be studied as a meaningful book and the music of brotherhood will be played everywhere. Art and literature will be refined of coarseness and vulgarities of all kinds and find their practitioners.

This world will indeed be built anew when they sound the note of revival, and those who fell into a kind of winter sleep will wake up. The music of despair composed by Satan and played by some indolent persons will stop; people will be exhilarated with melodies of hope and activity which they compose and play.

The awaited generation are successors to the mission of the master of the Prophets, and therefore have inherited the loyalty and faithfulness of Adam, the resolve and steadfastness of Noah, the devotion and gentleness of Abraham, the valour and dynamism of Moses, the forbearance and compassion of Jesus. When found together in a group, these qualities are such a great source of power that those who have them will inevitably seize the ‘reins’ of the world, provided they remain loyal to the covenant God has made with them.

The world is to be saved by that ‘golden’ generation who represent the Divine Mercy, from all the disasters, intellectual, spiritual, social and political, with which it has long been afflicted. The world will come back, through their efforts, to its ‘primordial’ pattern, on which God created it, and be purified of all kinds of deviation and ignorance, so that people may rise to ‘the highest of the high’ on the ladder of belief, knowledge and love, supported against the heavens by the Divine Message.

Humankind have never been so wretched as they are today. They have lost all their values: the ‘table of art and literature is vandalized’ by drunks; thought is capital wasted in the hands of people suffering from intellectual poverty; science is a plaything of materialism; and the products of science are tools used in the name of unbelief. Amid such disorder and bewilderment, the people neither know their destination in the world nor the direction to follow to reach that destination.

In order to awaken the people and guide them to the truth, the awaited generation those young people who implant hope in our hearts, enlighten our minds and quicken our souls, will suffer with the sufferings of humankind and ‘water’ all the ‘barren lands’ with the tears they shed over centuries-old miseries. They will visit every corner of the world, leaving no-one not called upon, and pour out their reviving inspirations into the souls of the dumb-struck people. Having so long awaited those holy ones, sound-minded, saintly and trustworthy, who have dedicated themselves to humankind, the people will at last feel able to wing their way into the depths of the heavens and reach eternity.

O long-awaited generation. Rise, for the love of the Creator to your sacred task, and replace the darkness choking us with the light of your love, hope and nobility! Rise and force back the `monsters` of the age to their dens! Even if the world unites against you in the form of a terrible bomb; even if they upset your plans and systems; even if they make concerted attacks upon you from all sides, you will never quake; rather, with undiminished hope, you will continue to pave the way for the happy future. You will, like the Prophet Solomon, ride the winds and bring rain to the barren lands in order to change them into flower gardens. You will put an end to injustice all over the world and run to the aid of the oppressed; be so forbearing towards people that there wil1 be no soul you have not embraced, no vengeance or rancour you have not removed.

O you who have been waiting for centuries; look! Darkness is disappearing from your horizon and different melodies are being heard from beyond it. Those melodies, reaching us in the early hours of the ‘morning’ will spread throughout the world in the coming days. If you suspect that this is ‘false dawn’-though it is not really-do not be grieved as a false dawn promises the ‘true dawn’.

Rejoice and sing the praises of the happy future! Let your souls overflow with the glad-tidings of that future, and let your eyes be filled with tears of happiness! I hope that your centuries-old longings are about to come to an end, and you are at the mysterious door opening to a spiritual world. Now you should bow before your Lord humbly, acknowledging your innate powerlessness, then set out for eternity with love, zeal and energy, so that you may deserve His help and exhilarating company during your journey, and watch the beauties displayed by Him.

When you reach, in such spirituality, the door of the Eternal World, the angels will welcome you, saying, ‘Peace be upon you! Well have you done! Enter you here, to dwell therein forever!’ You will respond to this welcome with gratitude and say: ‘Praise be to God, who has truly fulfilled His promise to us, and given us the earth to inherit, and that we may dwell in Paradise wherever we desire.!

The disintegration of communism led to the dawn of a new era in which Western values would predominate and the world re-organized on the basis of ‘global’ co-operation and international solidarity rather than confrontation and conflict, now looked upon as the remnants of the Old World Order.

After the collapse of the communist block with its ideology proven to be a failed experiment, the world’s attention turned to the establishment of a new and ‘just’ world order which would promote global peace and security and foster international solidarity. Today, few would dare claim that this has been achieved. The slogans have changed, as have some governments and a few flags, but for many, the new order has brought them nothing tangible.

The richest 20 per cent of the world’s population still earns 60 times more than the poorest 20 per cent. The disproportionate distribution of the world’s resources threatens the world with environmental and economic crises. In part, it was these crises that formed the motivation for a new order. Global problems can only be resolved through global co-operation and solidarity. The obvious answer was a new world order.

If the current level of population growth continues, over one billion people in Africa will be without the basic necessities of life, such as food and water by the year 2025. Poverty and political unrest due to disputes over resources have generated huge refugee flows. There are 75 million people displaced every year. Of the 75 million, 2 million migrate from the poor nations to the richer countries in search of a better life. Some may say they are the lucky ones, but often they face greater hardship in their adopted lands than at home.. They face a variety of new social problems and are forced to overcome different challenges. The terminology may have changed, but the reality has not.

The New World Order is said to be marked by three notions: democracy, market economy and peace and co-operation. As to the present world order, it was based on three citadels of positivism, namely, sovereignty, nation-statehood and the liberal notion of property, none of which can offer adequate solutions to the current crises of humankind. The new order is, in fact, not new, as its economic, military and philosophical underpinnings have much in common with those of the world order established alter the first and second World Wars. The present world order leads the way to a zero sum game of some sort; everyone wins everything or everyone loses everything.

Fortunately, not everyone subscribes to Fukayamis thesis concerning ‘the end of history’. They do not believe that history ends with liberalism’s victory over communism. The West may think that the end of communism is the total exhaustion of all viable systematic alternatives to Western ideology, and corollary, the universalization of Western liberal democracy, crafted with the norms set in the old world order, will be the ultimate point of humankind’s ideological evolution.

In a rapidly changing world order, those who do not accept this as the end of the story have a duty towards themselves and others not to remain marginalized. There is an alternative. We must strive to understand the contemporary world and apply the principle of trusteeship that is natural to all communities. The concept of the world being a trust in the hands of humankind is nothing new and it is not limited to any one community. Understanding that God gave us the world as a trust leads us to adopt a special world-view. It is this world-view that offers us alternatives for the future direction of humankind and the answer to our various problems. Surely the earth belongs to God and He bequeaths it to such of his servant as He pleases… (al-A’raf 7.129); and certainly, to Him belongs all that the heavens and the earth contain” (al- Hajj, 22.64).

A new world order should be built upon co-operation, solidarity and brotherhood among all the nations of the world. To this end, true understanding of trusteeship is a significant milestone one the way to universal brotherhood.

In a society be it domestic or global, where the world is seen as trust and concept of trusteeship is embedded in the hearts and minds of individuals and rulers, justice emerges in a natural divinely- ordained manner. Where the concept of amana, trusteeship, is forgotten, wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few. Lack of effective motivation to reduce inequalities is bound to destroy, rather than foster the feelings of brotherhood that submission to God’s natural way ultimately creates. Submission is not restricted to worship. God has ordained a role for humankind.

The resources with which God has endowed this world are finite but sufficient to cater for the well-being of all, if used efficiently and equitably. The responsibility of khilafa, guardianship, should lead us to find ways of utilizing the God-given resources in so efficient and equitable a manner that the well-being of all is ensured. This can only come about if the resources are used with a sense of responsibility and a constraint determined by Divine Guidance.

Although the khilafa was the ultimate symbol of Muslim political aspiration, responsibility according to Divine Guidance has been lost in their lands and the imbalance of resources is even greater among its people than elsewhere. They present the best examples of unequal and unjust distribution.

There are great disparities among the fifty or so Muslim states. Natural resources are unequally distributed. Where water is abundant, oil is scarce; where oil flows like the sea, there is scarcity of water and arable land; in a country where the land is arable, there are no mineral resources; where there are tropical forests, there is insufficient supply of energy etc. The Muslim states clearly need each other. However, forgetting trusteeship has led them to disunity.

As well as unequal distribution of natural resources, wealth has also been distributed unevenly. For example, following the sharp rise in petroleum revenues in 1974, Saudi Arabia became one of the fastest growing nations in the world. Saudi foreign assets grew from about $4.3 billion in 1973 to nearly $150 billion in 1982. However, due to the steady decrease in the price of oil, that amount has fallen down by more than $60 billion since 1982. The same can be said for other petrol-rich Arab countries.

Accordingly, six Arab states-namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar and Oman-with a total population of approximately 16 million people have a combined GNP of about 150 billion dollars. The other Arab states, with a total population of about 205 million, have a combined GNP of 200 million dollars. As a result, GNP per capita in the ‘rich six’ is about 9,400 dollars as compared to only 975 dollars in the poor states, a ratio of almost 10 to 1. (Rabie, 1992. p.103). Consider the immense divide between Brunei and Bangladesh. Brunei’s GNP rate per capita is slightly more than 15,000 US dollars; in Bangladesh, it is only 179 dollars. The ratio is a staggering 84 to 1.

We recently witnessed how the uneven distribution of strategic energy resources was used to destroy Muslim brotherhood. Muslim countries spent billions of dollars on weapons to protect God’s resources and wealth from satisfying the needs of God’s servants. The military industry of the West is being fed at the expense of Muslim solidarity. Imagine what could happen if, instead, these billions of dollars were to used for the welfare of the Muslim peoples.

In the future, we may see regional wars fought for control of the most important resource in the Middle East, namely, fresh water. Scientists estimate that the total population of the region will be 423 million by the year 2000 and will have doubled in twenty-five years time and therefore many countries will have only about half as much water as they had in the 1970s (Bulloch & Dhrimsh, 1993). If water is exploited as a political weapon rather than shared among the people of the region, in accordance with the terms of amana. we may witness the coming to pass of one of the prophecies of God’s Messenger, upon him he peace, who said: There will emerge a mountain on the waters of the Euphrates. A treasure will be unearthed from beneath it. War will break out to possess this wealth. Ninety nine out of every hundred will be killed. Each will hope that he will be the only one to survive’ (Bukhari and Muslim). Elsewhere, he advised us not to participate in this war. There are interpretations among some scholars that the ‘mountain’ refers to a gigantic dam, and ‘treasure’ to the most precious of commodities, water.

As a result, to prevent such regional conflicts and wars. Muslims must rediscover the spirit of the concept of amana. That is to say, the problems of the Muslim states such as foreign debt, hunger, malnutrition, environmental degradation and resource scarcity can only be alleviated if we truly understand that we are obliged to share and care. When we start sharing our natural resources and technology with the poor and the needy; an important barrier in the way of solidarity will be brought down. This will replace enmity with gratitude and war with peace and security.

If we desire radical changes in the foreseeable future, it is our duty to change our own conceptions and to seek to influence the way our countries are ruled. A just world order can be realized only if we understand fully that we are only trustees of God. Denying our responsibilities will burden our shoulders with a great sin.

It is our duty to be ready to discharge fully our God- given trust on this earth. When this happens, God will grant us the keys of the universe. God has said: ‘My servants, the righteous shall inherit the earth’ (Al-Anbiya, 21.105). No one should doubt that one day this truth, guaranteed by God’s oaths, will come true. At that time, those who become the trustees and masters of the earth will also rule over the remotest parts of outer space.

In May 1994, the world received a shock when 6 grams of highly purified (99.7 %) weapons-grade plutonium-239 was found in the house of a German businessman. It originated from one of Russia’s plutonium plants. This was the first of several such cases. In one raid, 310 grams of weapons grade ptutonium-239 was uncovered, a third of what is needed to make a massive kiloton nuclear bomb. It is believed that these ‘incidents’ are just the tip of the iceberg. The world is justifiably alarmed at the prospect of uncontrolled plutonium proliferation.

Plutonium is one of the most dangerous materials on earth. Five kilograms is enough to make a crude nuclear weapon. Some experts even believe that only one kg will suffice. Of course this is not the only reason that makes it one of the most dangerous of materials. Less than one thousandth of a gram is enough to cause cancer if inhaled. Plutonium is the second of the transuranium elements with an atomic number 94. It is a silvery looking and highly reactive material. It is so reactive that it is processed in special chambers filled with inert gases to prevent it from reacting with atmospheric gases and the moisture in the air, but it is not the reactivity of plutonium that attracts attention: it is its radioactivity. All transuranium elements are highly radioactive, but only plutonium and neptunium occur naturally, both in very minute amounts. The others are manufactured. The fact that plutonium occurs naturally means that it is stable enough to last if it can be produced by some means. Actually, it is very stable; its most prevalent form has a half-life of 24,131 years. Therefore; if manufactured, it is not easy to get rid of. Nearly all the plutonium that exists on earth today is produced this way.

The road to plutonium production

Of all radioactive materials, three are extremely important for nuclear energy generation by fission: plutonium-239, uranium- 233 and uranium-235. These are the only 3 radioactive materials which can provide a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction. This means that by bringing together a critical amount of any of these three, a chain reaction can be initiated. This is the principle behind nuclear energy and nuclear weaponry.

Since the 1950’s, scientists have believed that plutonium and not uranium may be the ultimate solution to the world’s energy problem. Although uranium can be found naturally in several minerals, the fissile isotope U-235 is extremely low. With plutonium and uranium are both rare, one may ask ‘why has plutonium become so important?’. The answer is simple: in fast breeder reactors, more plutonium is produced than burnt. This process uses an isotope of uranium U-238, which is not fissile itself but more common than the fissile isotope U- 235. If you irradiate U-238-which we have plenty of-with highly energetic neutrons, it will capture them and eventually decompose into the most dangerous form of plutonium, Pu- 239 , by two successive 13-decays. After that step, plutonium is chemically separated from other material by means of remote controlled facilities. So if you have unusable U-238 you can turn it into highly desirable Pu-239 by using some U-235 or Pu-239. Once you have bred enough plutonium, you can start feeding in the new plutonium without the need for more U- 235 as fuel. The only drawback is that reprocessing and purifying it to use as nuclear fuel is not easy.

Today, things have changed. Countries determined to stay with commercial nuclear energy production need not use plutonium, fuels made of low-enriched uranium will suffice and unlike the past, reserves are enough to sustain nuclear energy production commercially. These fuels are not weapons-usable and are much cheaper and easier to handle. Reprocessing plutonium for reintroduction as nuclear-fuel is a very complex, dangerous and expensive process.

Given these facts, we may wonder why nations want to possess plutonium for nuclear energy generation. Another phenomenon differentiates plutonium from uranium: unlike uranium, all forms of plutonium can be made into weapons (although some mixtures of isotopes are less desirable to a weapons designer). If a nation insists on using costly plutonium rather than cheaper low-enriched uranium for energy generation, one may suspect that the country has other intentions.

Politics of plutonium

Plutonium has proliferated since 1942. Twenty-two countries possess or control separated plutonium in various forms and amounts, either for military or commercial use. As the nuclear warheads are decommissioned according to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, stockpiles are growing sharply in the world. Although long-standing governmental and commercial secrecy make estimates highly uncertain, roughly 1,100 metric tons of the material exist today. Approximately 260 tons of that stockpile are deployed in the form of surplus nuclear weapons. Of the roughly 650 tons of plutonium in commercial programs, approximately 530 tons are contained in untreated spent reactor fuel, while roughly 120 tons are stored in weapons-usable form or recycled as fuel awaiting potential future use. Every year, the world’s reactors collectively generate 60 or 70 extra tonnes of plutonium and at the moment there is no law against reprocessing it. By the turn of the century, this is estimated to reach around 1700 tonnes. It is calculated that by the year 2003, Russia will have accumulated enough plutonium to make 21,700 crude weapons, whereas US will have accumulated enough for 18,100 weapons.

Nuclear policies are among the most sensitive and closely guarded secrets of any nation. States are unwilling to disclose data related to plutonium stockpiles. International non-proliferation movements are pressurizing governments. Japan has a special attachment to plutonium since their nuclear energy generation policy was originally based on plutonium. It is now the only country to rely on plutonium for nuclear energy and is said to be reviewing its policy. A few months ago, US had declared that it would stop the transfer of plutonium handling technology to Japan because there was the risk that Japan may be using this technology to make nuclear weapons. After months of pressure from the international community and internal non-proliferation groups, last month Japan declared that at the end of 1993 it had 4684 kgs of plutonium inside the country and 6197 kgs in France and Britain waiting to be shipped to Japan, and became the first nation to give the exact figures about its stockpiles. Previously, US had started to declassify some documents about its plutonium stockpiles and reported that it has produced 89 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium since 1945 and it has 33.5 tonnes of it now stored in Texas. Russians can’t even decide how much plutonium they have. There are discrepancies between the accounting systems of their military and the ministry of atomic energy.

Before the end of the cold war there was the perceived threat of a nuclear war. The threat has now changed. The loose security measures in the underfunded Russian and other former eastern-block nuclear industries are a much greater threat than a nuclear war or the hazards of nuclear waste. A nuclear war is a remote possibility because everybody seems to be aware that it would be a zero-sum game with no winners. Also nuclear waste disposal technology is so powerful that once the waste is disposed, it is nearly impossible for the nuclear waste to return to circulation or effect the human environment again. On the other hand, growing stockpiles of nuclear material that can be made into nuclear weapons is certainty a greater threat, especially when it is in unsafe hands prepared to sell at very low rates. Russia has reported 900 illegal attempts to gain entry to its nuclear facilities and another 700 cases where nuclear workers tried to smuggle out nuclear material. We don’t have any reason to believe that all attempts were stopped. Some material may well have been smuggled secretly. Some experts say that it is possible to make a nuclear bomb equivalent to the one dropped on Nagasaki, out of 7 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel instead of 5 kilograms of weapons grade plutonium and the know how for it is at large now. That technology is now available to everybody who wants to learn it, from the US documents of 1950’s that are no longer classified. Add the international loose measures for the monitoring and reprocessing of nuclear waste to this and the threat we are face to face today is clearly evident.

An institution called the International Atomic Energy Agency is responsible for monitoring the nuclear reactors in countries with no nuclear arms and that have signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. It keeps an eye on those countries and makes sure no plutonium is secretly diverted to military use. There are countries like India and Israel that are not signatories and evidence that IAEA can be fooled. Both North Korea and Iraq recently declared that they had secretly produced 3 grams of weapons-grade plutonium. Even if the countries are unable to divert plutonium to the military, this does not prevent them from developing nuclear weapons. A nation can develop other parts of the bomb such as the case and electronics, and when the nation’s leader decides it is time to have a nuclear bomb, plutonium can be directed to the military. The nation would have a nuclear bomb in a few days.

With plutonium, the odds are weighed against the well being of humankind. If nation states persist in the costly production and use of plutonium, they risk weapons proliferation, environmental devastation and damage to human health. In addition to its dangers as a deadly nuclear weapon constituent, the release of plutonium into the environment also poses health and environmental risks. Even if plutonium does not reach and damage the environment and human health via the routes mentioned above, there is always the danger posed by the nuclear powered warships and submarines as a rather easy way to a nuclearly polluted environment. Four sunken nuclear submarines lie in the depths of the Atlantic and there are reports that the reactors and the war-heads they were carrying are leaking plutonium and other nuclear materials into the ocean. This may turn out to be the biggest environmental and health hazard ever encountered, if these nuclear materials enter the food chain. Although there is no risk that at that depth, fish will eat these materials, it is always possible that they can be carried to suitable places by strong ocean currents where fish may feed. A stronger possibility is that it may be eaten by plankton which is in turn eaten by fish. Indeed, the risks are enough to require that plutonium production is judged too dangerous to allow its dangerous continuous production. Building on the international non-proliferation regime and current practices in the nuclear industry, a more comprehensive and specific regime must be constructed to manage plutonium and hasten its elimination. But such an international step is not that easy to take. 161 countries are signatories to the non-proliferation treaty and any change such as the banning of plutonium reprocessing, requires that they all agree on the subject and sign again.

These risks might be more tolerable if plutonium held unquestionable economic value in the foreseeable future. But no proven technology exists to generate electricity from plutonium or highly enriched uranium at economically competitive costs. As noted above, fuels made of low enriched uranium are both cheaper and less dangerous. Also, they do not pose comparable health, environmental or security hazards. The reserves of low-cost, low-enriched uranium accessible world-wide may run out, but not before the late 21st century, and then only if nuclear energy use increases markedly without eliciting increased supplies from either more efficient uranium handling or discovery of new reserves. Such an outcome is unlikely. Plutonium for long-term research and development programs will always be available in the form of spent fuel, even after the large surpluses of separated plutonium are reduced.

Today, the nuclear arms race is not accelerating as it was in the late 1940s and again in the late l970s; rather, it is being reversed, and unlike the 1970s, plutonium is not seen as the millennial solution to the energy needs of the world or as the salvation for the international nuclear power industry. Today, plutonium is increasingly perceived as a global problem that must be solved. Even the research grants for the reprocessing technology of plutonium are coming to a halt. Central to the establishment of an international plutonium regime is giving priority to gaining control of surplus stockpiles of separated plutonium that could be most readily reintroduced into weapons. The difficulties lie not in the mechanics but in the politics of international storage and ultimate disposal. Because it will take time to determine how and where to dispose of plutonium, the issue of safe, secure storage must be addressed at once.

By internationalizing the disposal and safety problem, the plutonium regime could provide a forum for scientists, engineers, environmentalists and others to examine the world’s technical capabilities and geography in order to identify the best possible options for disposing of plutonium and other radioactive materials.

Dreams have fascinated people of all cultures and all ages. The Cuna Indians of South America have such high regard for dreams that they are even discussed at town council meetings. A person who had dreamt about a fish book, for example, would he excused from community labour as he would be considered at high risk of receiving a snake bite.

Dreams have affected the course of history and contributed to many forms of art and literature. Among the world’s most famous paintings is Rousseau’s The Dream. Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde were inspired by nightmares, while Charlotte Bronte admitted that her writing block was broken while asleep.

Descartes, at the age of twenty-three, apparently had several dreams in which he saw new perspectives on philosophy and mathematics. The conquest of Spain was carried out by Tariq Ibn Ziyad after being visited by Muhammad, upon him be peace, in a dream.

There have been many approaches to dreams, some are mentioned by Professor Van de Castle of the University of Virginia Medical School in his book Our Dreaming Mind. He says he has been ‘the white-coated scientist attaching EEG electrodes to a subject’s head and face to study his or her sleep and dream patterns’ as well as being ‘a pyjamaclad subject’ for other researchers. He has spent time ‘talking with natives of tropical forests and islands about their dream beliefs, tabulating tens of thousands of scores from written dream reports’.

Ibn Sirin takes a different approach. He was a prominent member of first generation of Muslims and a famed oneirocritic, dream interpreter. He was described by his contemporaries as ‘a traditionalist of good faith, inspiring confidence, great and dignified’. He died in lOOH/78OCE after making a considerable contribution to Islamic scholarship. Whereas Our Dreaming Mind gives an interesting overview of dreams across many cultures. Ibn Sirin ‘s Interpretation of Dreams offers the principles of dream interpretation according to Islam.

Ibn Sirin explains that the one who is able to interpret dreams should possess knowledge of the Book of God, the sayings of Muhammad and a mastery of the Arabic language. ‘He must be a physiognomist one who is able to judge character through facial features, and have a temperament, noble manners and sincerity.’ This is because, according to Islam, the dream is one forty-sixth part of prophethood. This new publication is a translation of a classical text which influenced many Muslim writers including, undoubtedly, Dr Umar Azam, the author of Dreams in Islam.

Dr. Azam, in his book, describes and interprets the dreams of some of his close friends and family. It is far less thorough than Van de Castle’s research and lacks the authority that Ibn Sirin has built up over the centuries but it makes an interesting contribution to the field of dreams, For example, he explains the three types of dream according to Islam.

A good dream is a favour from God indicating His approval of the ‘dreamer’s righteousness’ and ‘should only be told to loved ones.’ The second type of dream is what Azam calls the ‘own’ dream. It is the suggestion of ‘one’s own mind’. They are mainly ‘evil’ and the correct response is to ask for God’s pardon. The third type of dream is inspired by Satan and is the result of God’s anger. The correct response is to blow over the left shoulder three times and seek refuge in God and not tell anyone.

Azam also puts the concept of dreams according to Islam in its Qur’anic context, quoting the passage of the Qur’an which describes the dream of the prophet Joseph.

The foundation for interpreting dreams according to Islam is the Qur’an, the sayings of the Messenger and popular Islamic culture.

When a stone appears in a dream, it is understood to be a symbol of hardness. This is based on the Qur’anic verse, ‘Then your hearts became hard after that-so that they were like stones, or even harder still’ (al-Baqara, 2:74).

A boat symbolizes health, for it says in the Qur’an, ‘So we rescued him and the companions of The Ark’, (al-Naml, 27:15).

lbn Sirin explains that ‘a crow can represent a wicked man and a mouse a wicked woman, in conformity with the hadith of the Prophet, upon him be peace, which specifically mentions a mouse as a small wicked thing’. A long arm is synonymous with generosity according to Arab culture. These principles and many others are expounded in The Interpretation of Dreams. It also lists specific examples about dreams on subjects including dreaming of the angels, prophets, pious people, etc.; trees fruits and vegetables; jewellery, household articles, weapons, parts of the body, animals and a variety of human states.

An example is ‘snow’. He says:

Snow hail and ice can herald punishments and worries, unless the snow is not very thick and located in a place where people are accustomed to seeing it fall, in which case it is synonymous with fertility. To see oneself fetching water in a container and to see the water icing over signifies goods frozen with him, sleeping capital. Hail is never a good augury’.

The final section includes interpretations of dreams in which verses of Qur’an are heard. For example, the chapter al-Fath indicates the reciter is loved by God, whereas the chapter al-Hajj indicates that one will soon perform the pilgrimage or if in a state of illness, indicates that death is approaching.

The interpretation of dreams has a long history. Gudea, a Sumerian king who reigned in the city of Lagash around 2200Bc, had his dreams preserved on two clay cylinders. He sought the help of Gatumdug, supposedly a goddess, to interpret them. The Jews, like their monotheistic brethren believed dreams are gifts from God. Psalm 127 says ‘the Lord giveth unto His beloved in their sleep’. There are 217 references to dreams in the Talmud. The ancient Egyptians also attached great importance to dreams attributing them to their god of dreams, Serapis. They went thorough many procedures including prayers and incantations to inspire the desired dream. Van de Castle vividly describes this historical development of dream theory. In doing so, he mentions Ibn Sirin describing him as ‘a kind of abstract personage, the very incarnation as it were of Arab oneiromancy’. He proceeds to eighteenth-century European romanticism and its evolution into the views of psychologists like Freud, Jung, Hall and Perls.

Like Azam, he offers us his research findings and attempts to draw generalizations. He presents examples which lead him to conclude that ‘dream imagery has the potential to serve as a “mental X-ray,” allowing diagnosis of an impending physical problem before it shows up with full-blown, obvious symptoms in waking life. He suggests that dream imagery, for example, changes during pregnancy and discusses the meaning of repetition.

Azam uses a small sample of what he describes as ‘pious Muslims’ classifying their dreams according to the concept of Dreams in Islam. Van de Castle describes his thirty year search for a clearer understanding of The Dreaming Mind. The translation of The interpretation of Dreams is a great contribution to the concept of interpretation and a definitive statement on interpretation of dreams in Islam. Each, in its own way, helps the reader towards understanding dreams.

The nightingale sings in gardens secluded.

Each of its tunes sounds like the whistling wind

To those seen as foreigners in their native land.

It cries, like my ceaseless wails and laments,

Each resonates, high and low through the slopes

It bemoans all night until the sun rises,

Each breath comes out as a burning sigh.

On virgin trees untouched by man’s hand

It groans unceasingly for a lifetime,

And shed tears, full of grief; but who is there

To appreciate it, to sympathize with its pains?

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali was born in the city of Tus, northern Persia (Iran), in the year 450t-i/1058.

His father prayed that his two Sons would become great scholars. Al-Ghazali became ‘the most scholarly person of his generation and the imam of his time’ and his brother Ahmed ‘an awe-inspiring preacher’ (A1-Sabki, p.94). Through them, their father’s prayers were answered.

Al-Ghazali studied in Jurjan and Naisapur and became the head of the Nizamiya school in Baghdad, where he was involved in the political and religious issues of his time. He gave up his position of influence to take up devotional retreat in Damascus. From this important period of his life came the masterpiece Ihya Ulum al-Deen, The Revivification of the Religious Sciences. This, along with his other distinguished works, Ayuhal Walad and Bidayatul Hidayah made a great contribution to the development of educational philosophy.

Al-Ghazali died in the town of his birth in 505H/1113.

Zakariya al-Ansari was born in Sunaika in the Egyptian province of Sharqiyya in 824H/1449. His teachers include the great scholar of hadith Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (died 852n/1449) and the jurist Jalal al-Din al-Mahali (d. 871H/1466). He rose to the position of Qadi, a position he held for twenty years. He lived through the end of the Mamluk reign and saw Egypt conquered by the Turkish Sultan Salim I. (1517). Al-Sha’rani describing the twenty years he spent with al-Ansari, said that he was ‘never inattentive and never missed even a supererogatory prayer’. He quoted his sheikh as saying: ‘I do not want to accustom myself to laziness’. Al-Ansari continued in this state of vigilance over religious matters until his death at the age of one hundred.

He wrote several books on jurisprudence including Manhaj altullab and commentaries on a variety of early texts including Ibn Malik’s famous poem containing the rules of Arabic grammar.

The references in this article are taken from a short treatise entitled al lu’lu’ al-Nazim fi Rum al-ta’alum wa ta‘lim, which explains his view of the curriculum.

Education and Ideology

Educational ideology, in the words of Scrimshaw (1983) is ‘that system of beliefs which gives the general direction to the educational policies of those who hold those beliefs’. The educational philosophy of Islam develops from the beliefs found in the Qur’an and Sunna. In the early days of Islam, Muslims’ approach to these beliefs were straightforward and uncontroversial. There were no differences of opinion regarding the beliefs and practices of the Prophet, upon him be peace. His companions constituted clear examples of his educational ideology wherever they settled. However, as Islam spread, it faced new problems and had to deal with differing ideologies and belief systems that had crept into the body of the Muslim community. The need to determine educational practice became increasingly important. The first books collecting the beliefs and practices that ‘gave the general direction of education’ were written in the third century. These included Adab al-Mu’alimeen by Muhammad bin Sahnun.

Educational beliefs address four main questions. They are:

• How is knowledge defined and how should it be classified?
• What is the role of the teacher?
• What is the role of the learner?
• What happens when learning takes place?

The definition and classification of knowledge

Al-Ghazali’s division of knowledge has sometimes been misunderstood. He has been accused of advocating a secular view of the curriculum. This misunderstanding has been compounded by the translation of his two main classifications of knowledge as ‘sacred and ‘profane’². A more accurate translation would be ‘revealed’ and ‘non-revealed’ knowledge. The first category covers ‘that which came from the prophets’. The second category includes ‘all knowledge obtained through the use of the intellect, experimentation or hearing’.

A full understanding of these two categories can only be understood by examining the relationship of the temporal world and the everlasting Hereafter. The two are intrinsically connected. Knowledge of the Hereafter is gained by examining the temporal world. The temporal world gives us signs and proofs of the existence of a Greater Existence and leads us to worship Him. Knowledge of the Hereafter teaches us how to live our temporal lives. All knowledge belongs to God. The two categories differ only in their means of acquisition.

Al-Ghazali also applies legalistic criteria. Knowledge may be fard, compulsory, or not. The fard knowledge is further divided into fard alayn, compulsory on every individual and fard al-kifaya, a compulsion on the community at large. The latter is fulfilled if at least one person learns it.

An example is the studying of medicine. –

Revealed knowledge may be of the fard al-ayn category i.e. the basic beliefs or fard al-kifaya i.e. principles of jurisprudence.

Non-revealed knowledge falls into three categories. The first is fard al-kifaya which therefore ranks among some of the types of revealed knowledge. These are connected to what al -Ghazali calls the four fundamental activities, without which human activities, including spiritual affairs, cannot be organized. They are –

i. agriculture

ii. cloth manufacture

iii. building

iv. politics.

Any activity auxiliary or subsidiary to any of the above is also fard-al kifaya. Iron production is auxiliary to agriculture. Milling and bread making is subsidiary to it. Both are compulsions on the community.

Compulsions fall on the individual or society according to specific situations. For example, one who enters Islam is not expected to know about fasting until the month of fasting arrives. Likewise, the compulsions on a community depend on how the society has developed with regards the four fundamental activities.

Another category is ‘praiseworthy’, which is not compulsory, knowledge. An example is the study of the intricacies of medicine or arithmetic. A basic understanding is supplementary to the fundamentals mentioned above and is therefore compulsory, but this is not true of its intricacies and detailed theories.

The other two categories are ‘blameworthy’ knowledge which includes magic and ‘neutral’ knowledge which includes poetry.

Al-Ansari’s classification of knowledge

Al-Ansari uses a slightly different classification. He identifies four categories.

1. Shariah studies

2. Literary studies

3. Studies based on exercise

4. Intellectual studies

The first category is similar to al Ghazali’s ‘revealed knowledge’. He includes three areas. They are Fiqh (jurisprudence), Tafsir (exegesis) and Hadith (traditions of the Messenger).

The second category includes fourteen branches of language including etymology, grammar, the study of metaphors, rhyme and speech making. The variations of Qur’anic reading are part of this category.

The third category presents the most radical alternative to the approach found in ‘modern’ school systems. Among the skills and studies that are developed through exercise are tasawuf (Islamic mysticism), engineering, music, politics, character building and domestic sciences.

The intellectual studies include areas such as logic, the principles of jurisprudence, medicine, the study of time and astronomy.

Although it is unlikely that any school would want to return purely to the syllabus of al-Ghazali or al-Ansari, their approach can help us to identify priorities in schools. They can also help us to break away from what is becoming a uniformly Western approach to knowledge. Islam has contributed greatly to education and educational theory. By looking at great thinkers like al-Ghazali and al-Ansari, Muslims and non-Muslims alike can consider alternative approaches to syllabus organization.

In our next article we will examine the role of the teacher and the student.

As to the former, the main causes of such disasters, where people are capable of significantly of influencing events are carelessness, inaptitude and inertia. We are often able to cope with and even learn from them. Learning lessons from these bitter experiences leads to improvements in safety conditions. Public places are built to be safer and redesigned to minimize the element of human error and to reduce the risk of accident. However, there is little man can do to arrest or mitigate the great eruptions of the earth.

Nowhere to run

The movement of the earth now affects more people than ever before, according to a recent report from the UN (Kerpelman, 1994). The number of people killed, injured or displaced by disasters has increased by 6 percent a year over the 30 years covered by the report. Charles Kerpelman, its author, says floods killed more people than any other type of disaster. In terms of numbers of people killed and injured, Southern Asia and Southern Africa have been the worst. However, ‘there is no area in the world that is really safe from disasters’.

Almost every part of the world is susceptible to at least one kind of disaster that has the potential for causing a large number of deaths and significant damage. In the past 100 years, 1 million people have died in earth-quakes, another million in hurricanes, typhoons and tropical cyclones, and as many as 9 million in floods-these figures do not include the millions of deaths from diseases and famine directly caused by these catastrophes (Robinson, 1993). We can learn from examining the several types of disasters and their effects.

The Atlantic is prone to storms, although the most lethal known storm occurred in the Bay of Bengal in November 1970, when winds of more than 160 kilometres per hour led to the death of an estimated half a million people. Over 45,000 people have been killed by hurricanes and intense tropical storms, in the region this century. The Pacific is not exempt. Hurricane Flora killed 5000 in 1963 on Haiti (Knapp, 1990).

Hurricanes are made of strong winds spiraling around the area of calm which is a few kms across. The largest hurricanes spread over hundreds of kilometres and last for many days. When Hurricane Frederic rushed into the Caribbean Sea in September it reached a speed of 230 kilometres per hour. Within a few hours, $2 billion of damage had been caused, explaining why hurricanes are called the insurer’s nightmare in America. They caused a total loss of $44.2 billion from 1987 to 1993 (Legget, 1993).

Volcanoes occur when the earth’s surface is breached and magma flows forth as lava exploding into the air as tuff. All volcanic eruptions are driven by rapidly expanding gases within the magma. The two factors that determine the violence of an eruption are the amount of dissolved gases and how easily they can escape (Beazley, 1992). In the past few decades we have seen the worst volcanic disasters since the start of the century with 25,000 people killed as a result of just three eruptions, El Chichn in Mexico (1982), Nevada del Ruiz in Columbia (1985) and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines (1991).

Another class of disaster includes earthquakes. There are 150,000 noticeable earthquakes every year, and over a million can be measured using sensitive apparatus. Nowhere is totally free of earthquakes although the must serious ones are concentrated at the well known ‘faults’. The earth’s crust is not stable, several kinds of cracks and faults lead to earthquakes. In Tokyo 140,000 people-two-thirds of the city- were killed in 1923. More recently, 10,000 people were killed in Mexico City in 1985 and on 30 September 1993, Killari, a village in India, was reduced to rubble within seconds leaving 10,000 people dead. Of course, earthquakes themselves do not usually kill, the deaths are caused by the collapse of buildings, roads and other human artefacts. Considerable destruction is also caused by the aftereffects like fire, flood, landslide and tsunamis-tidal waves. As it is widely known, earthquakes alone are sufficient to destroy the prosperity of any country.

It is obvious that man cannot resist the giant force of the earth’s shock, however, we can hope to reduce the damages by predicting these events and being prepared. Unfortunately, scientists have not reached a reliable way of prediction.

Forecasting or monitoring?

Having suffered many horrifying cataclysms, man has been trying to develop technologies to predict when and where the next disaster emerge. Today, the technical description and analysis of disasters is far more detailed than the past, but we cannot say that man has achieved any reliable forecasting method. Scientists monitor the catastrophes, that is, they record the earth’s activity, they do not predict.

This century has brought scientists a better understanding of some aspects of hurricanes. Many of the major questions remain largely unanswered. We still have relatively little idea, for instance, why some storms turn into hurricanes and others do not; why some hurricanes make landfall and others remain at sea; what causes a hurricane to wobble or even to reverse. Until the arrival of satellites, hurricanes were awkward phenomena to study, impossible to encompass in their entirety. There are still many things to learn, as noted in Science in 1990 that after 30 years of advances in weather satellites, computer forecasting models, and basic research, forecasters have reduced error in predicting the paths of hurricanes by just 14 percent.

Despite the astonishing technology of the late twentieth century, volcanic eruption prediction remains a humbling science, The history of a volcano, both its geology and its eruptions, if known well enough, is often a good guide to its future behaviour, however, monitoring restless magma is one thing, forecasting when it will erupt is another The chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions wrote in Nature that ‘the prediction of eruptions is extremely difficult….the prediction of the date and time of initial outburst is still like a kind of betting’ (Robinson, 1993). Recently, radar systems have been used to study erupting volcanoes, however, Rick Hobblit, a volcanologist admits that the single most important piece of information you can have is whether an explosive eruption is in progress’ (Pendick, 1993).

The introduction of a special issue of The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America stated that ‘earthquakes do not have to occur where and when we want them or forecast them to occur and our understanding of how and why earthquakes occur and recur, even along the best studied active crustal fault in the world, is rudimentary and incomplete’. Brian Brady, a geologist studying quake-like rock bursts in mines, had made a notorious prediction that a giant earthquake would strike Peru in June 1981. The people of Peru, 66,000 of whom had died in an earthquake as recently as 1970, became jittery and restless as June 1981 approached. The result? Nothing happened. Later Brady wrote, defending himself that ‘our expanding knowledge of the earth derived from the extraordinary sophistication of new instrumentation, has ironically served to magnify our lack of understanding’ (Robinson, 1993).

Not only to destroy

So far, we have attempted to show the damage caused by disasters and the level of our understanding of them. Bearing in mind that everything in the universe exists or happens for a reason, we may ask ourselves what is behind these catastrophes which cause such great loss to destruction. As Charles Darwin said reporting the ruin of Concepcion in Chile, by an earthquake, ‘it is a bitter thing to see works, which have cost man so much time and labour, overthrown in one minute’. But unlike Darwin, we believe every event in the universe is planned. Elsewhere, our scholars have explained this more fully. Here it is sufficient to say that like everything in the universe, disastrous activities of the earth, too, have some benefits to earth and its inhabitants.

Storms and hurricanes help disturb the whole depths of the sea so that plankton-tiny creatures on which most fish swimming near the surface feed-get their food as chemicals from the sea bed. They carry heat from the tropics to the poles helping to even out the world temperatures. If this did not happen the tropics would get hotter and hotter. The poles would ice over without the heat from the tropics. Storms and hurricanes simply do the vital job of carrying surplus energy quickly across the earth. Severe storms such as hurricanes help drought-stricken lands recover. When dry air sits over continents like Asia, a great concentration of energy is needed to make big clouds that will bring rain. This is usually provided by hurricanes (Knapp, 1990).

It is widely known that volcanic eruptions have an overall cooling effect on the earth. Volcanoes cool the globe by injecting large quantities of material into the stratosphere, especially droplets of sulphuric acid. Once in the stratosphere, this material absorbs heat from the sun, preventing it from reaching the ground. This influence can last for several years.

Already, the Pinatubo eruption has cooled the earth’s surface by an average of 0.5 °C. One other benefit of volcanic eruptions is their 20,000 atm- pressure from magma to surface which helps the earth harden and provides protection from earthquakes. The idea that the volcanoes diminish the ozone layer is denied by recent research which argues that ‘the chlorine emitted during volcanic eruptions is not responsible for the damage to ozone layer. Two researchers in the University of California have shown that although large amounts of hydrogen chloride are released during some volcanic eruptions, the compound is efficiently washed out in the rain that always accompanies such eruptions’ (Science, vol.260, p.1O82).

Conclusion

We have attempted to show the effect of disasters in terms of loss of life and money and how far we are from understanding the earth and its activities. Even the dazzling technological advances of the twentieth century could not help us overcome the violence of the earth-shaking events, apart from showing us our lack of understanding. Scientists need to carry on experimenting and studying the mysteries of the world so that man can cope with nature. We must always bear in mind that all those horrifying activities of the earth are not purposeless and free from reason but help maintain the earth’s vitality. They perform tasks that cannot be carried out in more gentle conditions.

Working patterns have changed drastically over the last decade with few reaping the benefits of advances in technology. Occupational stress has become a fact of life in most professions. Recently, a British court classified stress as an industrial injury in the ease of a social worker, strengthening the view that the pressure on the ‘caring professions may be greater than on others. Several research studies carried out in a number of countries suggest that stress and ‘burnout’ among teachers is a common problem.

The Meaning of Stress

For many people work proves to be a source of stress. Work stress is usually short-lived and overcome successfully. However, for some, it represents a continual threat and can lead to serious damage to health. The term ‘stress’ originates from physics in which it is used to describe ‘any force, strain, or pressure to a system.’

In the case of teacher stress, it is used to describe ‘a demand made upon the adaptive capacities of the mind and body… which if continued beyond the ability of these capacities to respond, leads to the physical and psychological exhaustion and possibly the ultimate collapse referred to by Seyle’ (Fontana, 1989).

Seyle (1956) laid down the foundation for later research in this area. He described stress as ‘the non-specific response of the body to any demand’. This diversion from the conventional meaning-became popular among physiologists.

Teacher Stress

If you are a teacher, ask yourself the following questions: Do you feel ‘used up’ at the end of the working day? Do you feel emotionally drained? Do you often feel overworked and underpaid? Do you feel alienated from the school in which you teach, from your colleagues, or from the administration? Are you having trouble dealing with paperwork? Do you often feel burnt out, irritable, or depressed at the end of a school day? Do you often miss school because of minor illness? If your answer to one or more of these question is ‘yes’, you are a teacher under stress and a candidate for ‘burnout’. If you are, unfortunately, you are not alone.

Education in most parts of the world has undergone rapid changes in the last two decades. The relationship between teachers and pupils is more informal and pupils are much more reluctant to accept a teacher’s authority. Parents and pupils are increasingly aware of their ‘rights’ within the education system. All these changes were designed to benefit the ‘clients’, and have resulted in an even greater burden on staff to justify what and how they teach. Whilst welcoming the situation where teachers are no longer on pedestals but are more approachable, we must recognize that it is now more difficult to motivate pupils when the ‘because I say so’ line has been removed from the teacher’s vocabulary. The status of the teacher in society has declined considerably. At one time, teachers were held in high esteem by society, on a par with doctors, solicitors, etc.

The effect of teacher stress is not restricted to the classroom. It is obvious that a teacher under stress does not produce good results, but the problem does not end there. Faber’s aptly titled book, Crisis in Education: Stress and Burnout in the American Teacher (1991), concludes that ‘teacher stress and burnout have affected and will continue to affect the lives of teachers and their families’ The work of Friedman (1992) and Borg et al (1991) show that the changes in education and resultant increase in stress is not restricted to western Europe and America.

The causes of teacher stress

Borg, Riding and Falzon (1991), through answers to questionnaires provided by 545 Maltese teachers, identified four main causes of stress. They were:

• pupil misbehaviour
• poor working conditions
• poor staff relations
• and time pressures.

Each of these categories could be broken down further. For example, the most common cause of stress was ‘pupil misbehavior’ and the most common aspect of ‘pupil mishehaviour’ was ‘pupil’s lack of motivation’ followed by the sheer numbers in the class, etc. Their work suggested that almost all teachers suffered from a degree of stress.

Levels of stress

Educational research identifies four levels of stress.

Low: where the stress presents no major problems

Moderate: where the level is bearable but the individual should examine ways of reducing it

Serious: where there is a risk of a psychological breakdown

Very serious: where the individual is nearing a state of total collapse described by Selye (1976). Fontana and Abouserie at the University of Wales, using the above categories identified the scale of the problem, found that 72.6% of teachers suffered from moderate stress and 23.2% had more serious problems. The stress level for men was slightly higher than women.

Coping with stress

Ability to deal with stress varies from person to person. It has been found that ‘stronger correlations to burnout existed in terms of how teachers perceive themselves rather than how they feel others perceive them’ (Friedman, 1991). The one who copes best is the one who manages to feel that the benefits out- way the problems’ or to say ‘I enjoy working with students’.

Several stress management programmes have been developed. They aim at teaching coping techniques. An alternative approach is religion as there is a positive relationship between religion and decrease in stress.

Teachers have to, under today’s stressful conditions, develop strong personalities in themselves and others. The function of education should not be limited to imparting knowledge alone, but concurrent with the teaching of subject matter, it should be concerned with the emotional aspects of development. This will best be realized by emphasizing the aim of self- knowledge. This is a pivotal issue in personality development and human education. How can teachers be helped to cope with their stress? What needs to he done or what changes should be emphasized in education so that teachers can best actualize their potentialities and function optimally in their respective groups? Religion is very similar to certain forms of psychotherapy in the way it alters cognitive appraisal. It provides a set of personal and social values and methods of self actualization which are consistent with one another. Religion produces a positive self concept. In terms of the transactional model, religion offers relief from stress by altering the perception of demand, of capability and of the importance of coping. For example, toil and drudgery may be seen to be praiseworthy forms of worship, faith brings renewed physical and psychological strength, where admittance to a heaven is more important than success or even survival in the world. For many millions of people the practice of religion appears to be effective in enhancing their ability to cope with life and, on this evidence alone, its effects must be judged to be important both by the individual and his society. In one study of combat soldiers in the Second World War, three-quarters of the infantry-men questioned said that prayer helped a great deal to control intense fear, while 60 per cent of the airmen surveyed in another study reported that prayer helped them cope with stress. An individual’s belief system or world view provides a sense of coherence and a means of coping with stress. For some, this sense of coherence makes frustration, failure and pain more tolerable.

Some are able to cope with stress better than others, and others actively seek it out. It could perhaps be argued that committed teachers are in some cases more likely to suffer adverse effects of stress than uncommitted ones. If a teacher is indifferent to his pupils’ progress or the standard of their behaviour then there is no sense of frustrating, stressful failure if standards are not achieved. On the other hand an idealistic member of staff with high expectations is likely to experience feelings of stress if his expectations are not shared either by his pupils or by his colleagues. Research suggests that religious people are able to cope with stress. Pargament (1990) showed that religious belief, faith and rituals:

1. make stressful events more bearable by providing a meaningful, coherent explanation and orderliness to events in the universe
2. provide a source of hope and comfort as well as established guidelines on how to handle stressful events
3. nurture a sense of belonging as promoting identity and a sense of intimacy and support with both God and with the religious community.

References

• BORG, MG. (1990) ‘Occupational Stress in British Education Setting: a review’. Educational Psychology, 10, p.103-126.
• BORG, M.G. et al ‘Stress in Teaching: a study of occupational stress and its derminants, job satisfaction and career commitment among primary school teachers’, Educational Psychology, 11, p.59-75
• FONTANA, D. (1989) Managing Stress, London, Routledge.
• FONTANA, D. & ABOUSERIE, R. (1992) ‘Stress Levels, Gender and Personality Factors in Teachers’, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 63, p.26I -70.
• FRIEDMAN, I. & FARBER, B. (1992) ‘Professional Self Concept as a Predictor of Teacher Burnout’, Journal of Educational Research, 86, p.28-3.
• SELYE, B. (1976) The Stress of Life (rev. ed), New York, McGraw Hill.