-

September 27
th
2009
=
Proseminar



Essay 1 (I)

After turning the last page of William C. Chitticks Science of the Cosmos, Science of the
Soul I put the book down on the armrest of my chair. Chitticks words forced me to reflect upon
how detached from Islam the Moslems of today have become. There are those who manipulate
the meek to wage Jihad against the non-believers in the name of God. Then there are the self-
styled modern-day believers who have unknowingly become polytheists working for their new
Gods, progress and development. I realized that there remain only a few today who truly
follow the real traditions of the Islamic faith.
He reminds Moslems of the modern world about the true essence of their religion, Islam:
tawhid, or seeing everything having a connection to the One, similar to all the musical
instruments which complement the deep and powerful voice of the opera singer. When one
thinks of Tawhid, everything in life becomes the melody emanating from all the smaller
instruments serving to complement the work of Allah. How often do we find ourselves quoting
the researches of scientists as if it were the ultimate authority on truth? Much worse, how often
do we find ourselves quoting them, and believing that by knowing their findings, we are much
more accomplished human-beings who know realities of the world? A particularly worrisome
point of the book is where Chittick correctly points out how dependent we have become on the
words of the new priests: the lawyers, scientists, doctors, researchers and politicians.
Chittick explains the difference between taqlid, ones acquiring of transmitted
knowledge, and tahqiq, ones coming to realization or acquiring intellectual understanding.
Taqlid, or transmitted knowledge, is the information we learn through books or through
accepting the findings of a research conducted by a team of so-called experts. Tahqiq is
information we gain in our searching through life and by using all modules of cognition within
us in our probe. These articles of knowledge which we gain are truly the product of our own
intellectual thinking process and should ideally help us uncover the true meaning of life and
Gods incontestable role it. Taqlid, as it is transmitted knowledge, is similar in nature as it is
passed from one person to the next however the pursuit of true intellectual knowledge, tahqiq,
and its experience is unique for every bearer.
Chittick elaborates on how reliance on mere taqlid stops us from thinking intellectually
with our own faculties and herein lies the fall of Islams intellectual traditions. Chittick reminds
his readers that education and modern-day science should develop ones self and reveal further
the truth of the words in the Koran to them. Instead it has begun to influence the thinking of
their entire society and has begun taking them further away from God and this has lead to
chaos and disintegration of the world.
He remembers the mystic poet of the east, Allama Iqbal, whose brainchild was the
nation of Pakistan as one of the last authentic Islamic thinkers. I find it disturbing to see that the
nation has become so misguided due to not carrying forth the intellectual thought process upon
which it was founded. But it further goes on to show me the truth in Chitticks warning,
traditional Islamic thought is so relevant to Moslem attempts to deal with contemporary issues
that, if it is not recovered and rehabilitated, authentic Islamic thinking will cease to exist. His
warnings bring an old Turkish idiom to mind, Regardless of how far you have gone down the
wrong road, its better to turn back.
William Chitticks depth of understanding true Islam is remarkable, and his
admonitions are thought-provoking. His book made me realize that most Moslems today go
about their daily lives , using the lowest degree of their mental capacity which is available to
them, thinking they know everything there is to be known hence not unlocking their true
potential which has lead to the deterioration of both their faith and the world. Islam was
sculpted to help Moslems withstand all challenges of time. Then why has following it become
a challenge in itself? I think that it is highly relevant in these troubled times, when Islam is so
often misinterpreted and misunderstood, to read this book as it helps readers to truly
understand the profundity of the faith.


















Essay 1 (II)



Similarities between the warnings of William C. Chittick in Science of the Cosmos, Science
of the Soul and the guidance of E.F. Schumacher in Guide for the Perplexed are aplenty. E.F
Schumacher guides us through the maze of life in which the perplexed human-beings often
become befuddled. In their compounded ignorance, they see things from unexploited
perspectives and eventually find themselves losing all semblance of authenticity as they try to
fill in the gap of their knowledge by allowing foreign ideas to influence their thought processes.
The perplexed consequently live their lives without unlocking their true potential. William C.
Chittick explains how Moslems have begun relying exclusively upon taqlid, or transmitted
knowledge, and lost their pursuit of tahqiq, or ones acquire of true understanding. He warns
how this threatens to cause the deterioration of both Islam and the world.
It is apparent on how both authors stress upon the authenticity of a persons thought
process and perceptions in life. Schumacher explains how we have ceased to question, and
verify all that we learn and consequently have begun to see things from poorly developed and
often, manipulated perspectives. He believes that if we do not stop and begin to use the
faculties within us and realize not only what truly matters to us but also our own
understandings of this world and its functions, we will get lost in perplexity. Chittick cautions
us of plastic words such as modernization and development, which are the brainchildren of
someone elses thought process but upon which we grow dependent. Also, as a result of feeling
accomplished by working towards these plastic words, we stop thinking for ourselves and
herein lies the decline of Islamic thinking which commands all its disciples to search the truth
for themselves. Both Chittick and Schumacher believe that taqlid and the metaphorical map can
serve as stepping stones, but what comes after we acquire this initial transmitted article of
information, should be the conceptions of our very own, authentic, thinking processes. Another
point which stems out of this common thinking of the two authors, is their belief that we
become easily manipulated when we cease to think for ourselves.
Chitticks and Schumachers views once again match when Schumacher warns that
when man ceases to think for himself, and gets blinded in his compound ignorance of not
knowing that he does not know, entire regions cease to appear on his map. Chittick believed
that we must break past the dogmatism of sticking entirely to only what we have been
transmitted and had quoted al- Ghazali to have explained that over-reliance on transmitted
knowledge became a veil which prevented us from finding the truth as we begin to deny
everything we cannot understand.
Yet another converging subject in the two books comes when both authors stress on how
the values of the eras past are being abandoned. E.F. Schumacher thinks that older values are
now being shunned as we are progressing and modernizing and have almost completely turned
to empirics. Chittick believes that we have become polytheists whose Gods are the plastic
words and whose priests are the scientists from monotheists whose God was Allah and whose
priests were the mujtahids.
Both books compel their readers to see the relevance of the words of caution and
guidance in todays world which increasingly become more disoriented and embroiled in chaos
every passing day. Is this because we have left behind the originality of our thoughts and have
become mere followers of ideals which neither belong to us nor ideals that we truly
understand? The views of Chittick and Schumacher cause readers to reflect upon the path the
world has taken, and raises questions on whether or not we should continue to tread on what
appears to be an irreversible path towards an imminent catastrophe, or heed their warnings,
pause to reflect and, maybe, revise our paths.