An acute problem of the academia in our time is that most outsiders, who have shallow knowledge of a thing or distant connection with a subject, presume that they are more knowledgeable than the men who matter. For these pretentious outsiders the men on the spot, the trained teachers, the experienced researchers and intellectually far more superior authors carry no weight. So, one thinks that his diplomatic assignment in Saudi Arabia has made him an expert of the country as well as the region. The journalists are not far behind; they feel that their short-term posting in West Asia entitles them to write on any aspect of the region without acquiring any training in the concerned subject. The problem becomes very grave indeed when such outsiders begin to behave as expert of Islam, its history, civilization and culture.
It is not our case that the outsiders have no right to speak on Islamic Studies. But we do demand that they must study a discipline thoroughly and deeply, for this is the only way to become the expert of a subject. Knowledge acquired by reading a book or two would not work.
A saying of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has made it obligatory on Muslims to acquire knowledge. The Prophet is also reported to have said that “wisdom is the lost property of believing Muslims” and has urged them “to get hold of it wherever they find it”. On one occasion the Prophet (PBUH) preferred the knowledgeable believer over the worshipper (Aabid) with little knowledge.
The Holy Quran has also highlighted the importance of Knowledge in various ways. It has asserted that the knowledgeable and illiterate can never be equal. In another verse the Quran says that, “God raises the status of believers and men of letter”. Similarly the first few verses revealed to the Prophet in the cave of Hira speak volumes about the importance of knowledge.
The key words in these verses are “read”, “pen” and “knowledge” which cover all the activities of the academia. There are several other blessings of God which the Holy Quran has enumerated in its various chapters. However, the fact that God chose to speak first about reading, writing and learning cannot be missed as it shows the high importance that Islam attaches with Knowledge. This message of the Quran was ably grasped by the early followers of Islam. As a result, they launched an intellectual movement which has no parallel in human history.
Take any branch of knowledge from Tafsir, Hadith and Fiqh to medicine and natural sciences, the early Muslims worked hard to excel in all of them. They toiled in libraries, undertook difficult journeys and burnt mid-night oil to achieve expertise in their chosen subjects. On the contrary, people of our time, specially the Muslims, lack focus, concentration and commitment and want to become scholars overnight. The sadest aspect is that there exists an army of superficial intellectuals who collect easily available data about universities, Nobel Laureates and other related things and complain that the Muslim Ummah is no where visible on the shining horizon of knowledge.
Well, you are within your right to mourn the demise of Knowledge from the Muslim world. I would just request such people to look within. Why do you ask “others” to excel? Are you really better than the non-performing “others”?
The best approach is to know what one can do instead of asking others to perform this or that. An individual, sincere and humble, knows both his potentials as well as limitations. He is surely better placed to make a realistic assessment of his academic/intellectual prowess and prepare pragmatic programmes accordingly. Such sincere and humble scholars would surely succeed and contribute greatly to their disciplines provided a congenial academic atmosphere is created by the establishment – the government and the university administration.
It would not be proper here to discuss the policies and programmes of the government and university administrations as these are outside the topic under focus here. However we must ask the leaders, intellectuals and activists, who are never tired of complaining about the decline of knowledge in the Muslim world, if they have done any thing to create an academic atmosphere in their areas/zones of influence. If they ask these questions and try to answer them sincerely, they would indeed render yeoman service to the country as well as the Muslim community.
Often we hear that our academics should compete with their counterparts in the West. Occasionally we also hear why our scholars excel in Western universities but not here in the East. The reason is simple. Campuses in the West are not as politicized as they are here. External interference is either non-existent or the minimum. The system, central, regional or local, supports the individual scholars, but it creates all kinds of difficulties for academics here. Above all, the academics in the West are not just provided with the state-of-the-art facilities but are also given the feeling that they are important and that they are capable of delivering what is expected from them. They are also free to work according to their interests, and things are not imposed on them. In our part of the globe, however, the academics, barring some exceptions, are normally given a raw deal. Instead of focusing on research and teaching, they are often compelled to fight for their rights and things which should be automatically available to them in order to enable them to achieve academic excellence. It is, therefore, not surprising why our academics, by and large, fail to perform as effectively as their counter-parts do in the West.
Mourning over the decline of knowledge in the Muslim world would not work; instead we need to fully focus on regeneration of knowledge in a sincere, honest and meaningful manner.
[October, 2009]
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