APM: Anti-Intellectualism, Being Considerate, and The Power of The People
On 24/05/2024 | 0 Comments
sent by Zaahied Sallie

Allah

ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM

Secularists often write about intellectualism in Islam, and while some agree that the Quran encourages reasoning, reflection and critical thinking, many critics still argue that the Quran stifles intellectual pursuits of a secular and scientific type.

I contend that their claim for Islam as anti-intellectual is paper thin. I posit this not because of my faith as a Muslim but because my logic and the sea of evidence prove the contrary. The assertion is antithetical to the spirit of the Quran and the vast Islamic intellectual legacy, record and scholarship. Allah in the Quran does not dissuade from epistemological research but warns against intellectual arrogance. Part of the knowledge and wisdom equation is the practice of intellectual humility. A believer should balance between intellectual curiosity and unpretentiousness. 

The Quran is replete with calls for us to use our minds, to reason, reflect, consider and test. The Quran even goes as far as to encourage the testing of itself: ‘Will they not think about this Quran? If it had been from anyone other than God, they would have found much inconsistency in it’ [4:182]. This verse challenges the reader of the Quran to test it. This Quranic attitude is analogous to science’s model of falsifiability. 

When researchers deliver new hypotheses or theories, the scientific community expects a falsification test to accompany it. Falsifiability is a method to deduce validity and sound mentation and conclusions. No self-respected scientist will entertain suppositions without instruments to disprove them, similar to the one proffered in verse 4:82. 

The Quran offers more falsification tests, not just to prove its veracity but also for other ideas. Here’s one more: If there were, in the heavens and the earth, other gods besides Allah, there would have been confusion in both!’ [21:22]. This falsification test is to disprove the theory of monotheism.

I’m not writing this to refute the secularist view but to urge Muslims who may be anti-intellectual and determine that Islam is only faith-focused to move away from this misconception. This belief is a liability to the Muslim whom Allah repeatedly calls to reflect and reason about His creation and its fashioning and encourages us to consult the experts when knowledge evades us: ‘There are, in the land, neighbouring plots, gardens of vineyards, cornfields, palm trees in clusters or otherwise, all watered with the same water, yet We make some of them taste better than others: there truly are signs in this for people who reason’ [13:4], and ‘You [people] can ask those with knowledge if you do not know’ [16:43]. 

The Quran, to a degree, is science-centric. Allah dedicates more than one thousand verses to the topic. It contains more verses about science than it pertains to jurisprudence. No other religious text appeals to logic and the advancement of proofs for claims produced more than the Quran does: ‘Produce your evidence if you are telling the truth’ [2:111].

Even though the Quran encourages us to consult experts, we must still practice due diligence and insist on evidence.

Allah deems the anti-intellectual a repugnant creature, and Muslims would do well to safeguard against being so classified: ‘The worst creatures in God’s eyes are those who are [wilfully] deaf and dumb, who do not use their intellect’ [8:22]. It is precisely our intellectual laziness that allows others to mislead, oppress and silence us. 

I find Muslim anti-intellectualism to be a strange phenomenon. This innovation threatens our liberties because it prevents us from understanding the language of the world and its workings and thus relegates us to mere pawns on its stage. Furthermore, the establishment would love nothing more than for the world’s plebians to exile their cognitive faculty and free their hegemony from the most significant threat: thought.

Islam is a way of life; thus, Muslims must weave its teachings into every facet of human intercourse and thereby animate the world spiritually, morally and intellectually.


The Prophet (s)

BEING CONSIDERATE

Our character defines us, and the quality of our consideration for others is a measurement of it.

The Prophet Muhammad (s) deplored causing people harm. His sensitivities were so acute that he even avoided foods which would have caused his breath to offend others: ‘He who eats of this plant (garlic) should not approach our mosque and should not harm us with the odour of garlic’ [Sahih Muslim 563].

From this hadith, we learn from the Prophet (s) that we should not be offensive and that goodness towards others begins in the little things.


The Power of The People

For many countries, 2024 spells elections. 

It’s a frenzy, and South Africans, like other peoples, are wooed and canvassed to death for their vote, with most political parties using a breadcrumb trail to lure us to their ballot box.

But, in the main, the polity’s objectives are to stay in and consolidate more power. The needs of the body politic are rarely their primary concern.

We spend so much time on voting, an activity that takes a few minutes when our focus and energies between elections should be to build an educated, informed, intellectual, historically literate and politically savvy civil society that can organise, mobilise, exert pressure and influence the seats of power to incline towards public interests rather than special interest groups. 

Still, voting in South Africa on May 29 is critical.

We live in a Republic, but our country hardly resembles one.

A republic is a governing system where the government represents and serves the public will. But neo-liberalism has captured much of our polity’s consciousness, and it’s the civic responsibility of the citizenry to cast their vote for a humane, socially, and economically just administration that will better serve the public and not succumb to the corporate and private wealth of elites.


Until next week, InshaAllah

Zaahied Sallie

Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme

p.s. The power of the people is stronger than the people in power!


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