MEDICAL ADVANTAGES OF PRAYER

MEDICAL ADVANTAGES OF PRAYER

STARTING WITH ABLUTION (WUDU)


As all the Muslims know and practice that the Ablution is a must before we offer prayer or in fact any

other religious worship. It is important to know that this practice forms the part of the cleanliness on

which Islam has so immensely stressed. The importance of performing an ablution prior to prayer has

been mentioned in the Holy Qur'an itself. Sura Al Nisa 4:43 "O ye who believe! Approach not

prayers with a mind befogged, until ye can understand all that ye say, - nor in a state of ceremonial

impurity except when you are passing by (through the mosque), until after washing your whole body."


In verse No 6 of Sura Al Maida, the way of performing an ablution is also described. "O ye who

believe! When ye prepare for prayer, wash your faces, and your hands (and arms) to the elbows;

Rub your heads (with water); and (wash) your feet to the ankles. If ye are in a state of ceremonial

impurity, bathe your whole body." Cleanliness is so much important that even if water is not available,

Ablution is still to be done with sand or soil that is clean.


The same verse of Sura Al Maida continues "If ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from

offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for

yourselves clean sand (or earth), and rub therewith your faces and hands. For Allah doth blot out sins

and forgive again and again."


CLEANLINESS... A HALLMARK OF ISLAM


Mind you that cleanliness, so enormously stressed by Islam is by and large a characteristic of this

divine religion only. It is futile to search it in other religions. No other religion stresses so much on

cleanliness and sanitation as does ISLAM. In the medieval times Europe's major cities like London,

Paris and Berlin were known for filthy heaps in front of every house. There was no lightening.

Whosoever used to get out of the house was soon in muddy drainage water. To take a bath in those

days was considered a taboo as if a sin such that when Roman Pope accused Fredrick II Of

Germany (1212-1250AD) for being a non believer of Christianity he specifically mentioned that he

takes a bath daily as if he is a Muslim. The Christians showed their hatred towards the habit of

cleanliness of Muslims. For example Philip II (1556-1598 AD) closed all the bath saloons in Spain

after the fall of Muslim empire there. He dismissed one of his Governors saying that he washes his

hands and feet every day like Muslims.


On the other hand the cleanliness is so much important in Islam that after the opening revelation of

Sura Alaq the very second revelation of Qur'an in Sura Al Mudassir has a verse addressed to Holy

Prophet (pbuh) to maintain cleanliness. Similarly both Tirmizi and Mishkat quote the famous saying of

the Holy Prophet (pbuh) "Cleanliness is part of faith."


In this article I will briefly highlight the advantages of each step of Ablution knowing that my

knowledge is still limited and the medical research is an ongoing process.


WASHING THE HANDS.... FIRST STEP OF ABLUTION


The first step by which we start an ablution is washing the hands three times. There is no need to

emphasize upon this point that hand washing is the most important part of the sanitation for medical

personnel. Every physician is required to wash his hands after each maneuver and examination of the

patient.


HAND WASHING...A BARRIER AGAINST INFECTIONS...


It obviously means that hand washing serves as an important barrier against the spread of infections.

As all infections disseminate from the community and Islam looks at prayer as a community worship

in a mosque for men (women as well like in big mosques) the washing of hands is important to

decrease the chances of contracting an infection.


HAND WASHING HAS A SOOTHING EFFECT ON MIND


Secondly in this busy life when we are having hundreds of stresses, hand washing serves as a

maneuver that consoles our mind. I have frequently noticed that hand washing always eases the

tension and it not only cools the hands but also cools the mind. In fact it breaks the vicious circuit of

depressed thoughts. Even apart from ablution the ritual of hand washing is important in Islam, as a

Muslim is required to wash his hands before he starts a meal. There is a Hadith in Abu Daud and

Tirmizi saying that "The blessing of a meal is in washing (like ablution) before and after meals."


MOUTH WASHING AND ITS EFFECTS


After washing the hands a Muslim is supposed to wash his mouth three times by gargling. Again it is

well understood that as mouth is an ideal location for microorganisms and it is the main entry point for

infections as it is through mouth that microorganisms reach the stomach and respiratory tract hence

cleaning the mouth three times will be highly beneficial.


TOOTH CLEANING - A MUST IN ALL PRAYERS


Cleaning of the mouth three times before a prayer or fifteen times a day is excellent for deterring the

dental caries that is so common these days. Apart from dental caries and diseases of the mouth like

Aphthous Ulcers, Stomatitis etc., new research has shown that the risk of heart attack is also

increased if the teeth remain unclean.


Remember that Holy Prophet (pbuh) has strongly recommended the use of Sewak to clean the teeth.

A Hadith quoted in Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Daud, Nasai and Tirmizi says that Holy Prophet (pbuh)

said "If I did not find it hard on my followers (Ummah) I would have ordered them to wash their teeth

by sewak with each prayer".


It obviously elaborates how much stress Holy Prophet (saw) laid upon cleaning the teeth. I have no

hesitation to say that the number of times most of the people clean their teeth at bedtime and in the

morning alone is not at all enough. The use of refined sugars has increased tremendously in the

present time and this warrants that the teeth should be more frequently cleaned and five prayers

provide an ample opportunity for this purpose. This practice ensures a healthy and a prosperous life

and this is what Islam intends.


CLEANING OF NOSE AND ITS GOOD EFFECTS


Next is the three times cleaning of the nose with water. Cleaning of nose is not only hygienically

important and it not only cleans the nose but is also good for the mind. As nose is usually filled with

hardened plaques and as we breath through nose a slight narrowness in its passage interferes with our

respiration and makes it uneasy. Cleaning of the nose so frequently means that we get rid of the

unwanted obstruction and this makes us feel comfortable otherwise a person suffering from Sinusitis

knows that a blocked nose usually gives an unpleasant feeling.


FACE WASHING ... AND ITS ADVANTAGES


After washing his nose a Muslim who is performing Ablution is supposed to wash his face three

times. Again it is worth mentioning that face is the area close to nose and mouth, the entry points of

infections and presumably it is a seat of many microorganisms hence washing face is of paramount

importance in infection control and this is what a Muslim is supposed to do 15 times a day. In the

Oxford book of Medicine 1996 Edition the importance of face washing is clearly mentioned in the

prevention of Trachoma, a blindness causing disease. It reads as "In Mexico, children who washed

their faces seven or more times per week are found to be less likely to have Trachoma than those

who washed less often."


The book further says...exact words..."It suggests that face washing could be a simple intervention

that might easily be the target of health education" Note that a Muslim offering his prayers regularly

washes his face 15 times not in a week but in a single day alone .The book further adds that face

washing was educated in Tanzanian children and the result is encouraging to prevent Trachoma. In

fact face washing prevents not only Trachoma but other diseases like Conjunctivitis etc as well. If a

Muslim still gets Conjunctivitis he should not however be discouraged because exceptions are always

there.


WASHING OF FOREARMS SIMULATES SURGICAL SCRUBBING


After washing the face itis now the turn of the forearm and elbow and whenever I see the surgeons

and staff in the Operation Theatre scrubbing before they enter the Operation Theatre I am reminded

of the ablution in which Muslims wash the forearms up to the elbows. 1400 years ago when the

verses about ablution were being bestowed, no one had any concept of microorganisms being the

cause of infections yet the divine religion of ISLAM protected its followers for the past 1400 years

by making ablution compulsory for them and amazingly the steps simulate the scrubbing which the

physicians etc do before entering the Operation Theatre. This is the truth of Islam that as Allah has

absolute knowledge of all facts and all times He did not miss to emphasize on cleanliness that is

rendered important before one can offer a prayer.


WASHING OF THE HEAD, NECK AND EARS


After washing the forearms a Muslim washes the head with a wet hand which is also important and it

is well known that all physicians and staff in the Operation Theatre are supposed to cover the head

with a scarf as it also could be a seat of microorganisms to hide.


While cleaning the head a Muslim is also supposed to clean his ears and the area behind the pinna. It

is worth mentioning that ordinarily the area behind the pinna is the one which is most often neglected

and this is the area where un-cleanliness is highly expected but thanks to ablution a Muslim washes

this area at least five times a day as a part of ablution rituals. Not to forget that a clean area around

the ear means less ear infections like Otitis Media, Otitis Externa etc. Apart from cleaning the head

Muslims have also to clean neck and that completes the rituals of cleaning the face & its surroundings.


ABLUTION ......FOOT-CARE IS INCLUDED


Thereafter we are left with the feet. Foot-care is important for all and as a Muslim has to wash them

15 times he has to wash all the parts of foot that is even the spaces between the toes and the webs

have to be cleaned. Let me inform that the space between the toes and the web is an ideal location to

develop fungal infections that are so common. By ablution 5 times a day it is highly unlikely that a

good Muslim should ever get this infection. Feet washing as done in ablution is specially important for

diabetic patients as they are much more prone to get diabetic foot ulcers, hence a 15 times

mandatory washing will help to control this aspect of diabetic management.


NAIL CUTTING ...AN AUTOMATIC CHECK UP


It is also important to note that nail cutting is also part of general cleanliness as nail beds are a seat for

harboring the deadly microorganisms. As in the state of RUKUU (bending stance in prayer) one can

see the nails of a neighboring Muslim one tends to cut them as soon as they become longer and this is

a good sign for sanitation. Let me say now that the prayer provides a check for the sanitation of

Muslims in a given community.


BATH BEFORE JUMA PRAYER IS RECOMMENDED


Apart from the ablution Islam also makes general cleanliness compulsory and there is a Hadith that a

Muslim should take a bath at least once in seven days and of course if he is impure then he can't

touch Qur'an or offer prayer unless he takes a bath. Taking of bath has been recommended specially

before the Friday prayer and it is very appropriate because on this day there is a larger congregation

in the mosques, hence everyone coming to mosque is supposed to be more clean than ever before in

the week and this helps to avoid the infections.


Islam is that divine religion which has called the cleanliness as a part of Muslim faith and this shows

how complete our religion is that since the past 1400 years ago when there was no knowledge of the

microbiology, Islam did not miss to protect its followers from the unseen world of pathogens.


PRAYER - ONE OF THE FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM


Everyone knows a Muslim has to offer prayers five times a day, that is Fajr, Zuhur, Asar, Maghrib

and Esha. The prayer is an essential obligation of Islam and it is just the second important foundation

pillar of Islam. Ibn Umar (R) reported in Bukhari and Muslim that "Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

said, "Islam is based on five pillars: Testifying that there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad

(pbuh) is His slave and Messenger; performing of Salat (Prayer); the payment of Zakat; Performing

Hajj (pilgrimage) to the House of Allah (Ka'aba); and Saum (fasting) during the month of Ramadan.''


Ibn Umar (R) reported in both Bukhari and Muslim that "Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, "I

have been commanded to fight against the people till they testify LA ILAHA ILLUL LAH (There is

no true god except Allah) and that Muhammad (pbuh) is His slave and Messenger, and to establish

Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat), and to pay Zakat; and if they do this, then their blood and property are

secured except by the rights of Islam, and their accountability is left to Allah." The offering of five

obligatory prayers is such an important issue in Islam that anyone who leaves it, walks out of Islam as

narrated in this Hadith of Muslim by Jabir (R) who reported that "Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

said, "Between a man and disbelief and paganism is the abandonment of Salat (prayer).''


Same Hadith is narrated in Bukhari by Buraida (R) that Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) said "That

which differentiates us from the disbelievers and hypocrites is our performance of Salat. He who

abandons it, becomes a disbeliever.''


PRAYER...THE FIRST THING ON AGENDA ON DAY OF RESURRECTION


Abu Hurairah (R) reported in Tirmizi that Holy prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said "The first of man's

deeds for which he will be called to account on the Day of resurrection will be Salat. If it is found to

be perfect, he will be safe and successful; but if it is incomplete, he will be unfortunate and a loser. If

any shortcoming is found in the obligatory Salat, the Glorious and Exalted Rabb will command to see

whether His slave has offered any voluntary Salat so that the obligatory Salat may be made up by it.

Then the rest of his actions will be treated in the same manner."


PRAYER...EXPIATES MINOR SINS


Abu Hurairah (R) reported in Muslim "The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, "The five (daily) Salat

(prayers) and the Friday (prayer) to the next Friday (prayer) expiate whatever (minor sins) may be

committed in between, so long as major sins are avoided.'' Othman bin Affan (R) reported in Muslim

"I heard Messenger of Allah (pbuh) saying, When the time for a prescribed Salat is due and a Muslim

performs its Wudu' and its acts of bowing and prostration properly, this Salat will be an expiation for

his past sins, so long as he does not commit major sins, and this applies for ever." It is well known

that being an obligatory worship of highest merit the prayer is extremely important for a Muslim but

apart from that research has shown that there are many medical advantages of Muslim form of

prayer.


THE ADVANTAGES OF OFFERING A PRAYER IN THE MOSQUE


First of all let me say that for a Muslim male it is compulsory to offer his prayers in a mosque. There

is a Hadith narrated by Ibn Umar (R) in Bukhari and Muslim that Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw)

said, "Salat in congregation is twenty-seven times more meritorious than a Salat performed

individually."


EVEN THE BLIND SHOULD COME TO MOSQUE


In Muslim, Abu Hurairah has narrated that even when a blind person came to Holy Prophet

Muhammad (pbuh) saying that he is blind and has no guide so can he perform his prayers at home?

Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) answered that as long as he can hear the sound of the Aazaan he

should respond to it. From this one can judge the importance of performing prayers in the mosque

that even a blind man with no helper should offer his prayers in the mosque. And I have myself seen

the blind men being habitual to offer their prayers regularly in the mosque as although he is blind once

he is on his way to mosque he almost invariably gets the support and help from other people going to

the mosque.


TRADITIONS ADVISING TO OFFER PRAYERS IN THE MOSQUE


From religious pof view there are many traditions in Hadith that lay stress upon performing

prayer in the mosque. e.g. Abu Hurairah (R) reported in Bukhari and Muslim that "The Messenger of

Allah (pbuh) said, "He who goes to the mosque in the morning or in the evening, Allah prepares for

him a place in Jannah (heavens) whenever he goes to the mosque in the morning and returns from it in

the evening." Again see another Hadith that persuades to perform prayer in the mosque rather than in

the house. Abu Hurairah (R) reported in Muslim that the Prophet (pbuh) said, "He who purifies

(performs Wudu') himself in his house and then walks to one of the houses of Allah (mosque) for

performing an obligatory Salat, one step of his will wipe out his sins and another step will elevate his

rank (in Jannah).'' When Banu Salamah wanted to get a house in the vicinity of the mosque, Holy

Prophet (pbuh) advised not to do that in these words "O, Banu Salama! Stay in your houses,

because your footprints (when you come to the mosque) will be recorded."


And as Abu Musa (R) reported in Bukhari and Muslim that "The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, the

person who will receive the highest reward for Salat (prayer) is the one who comes to perform it in

the mosque from the farthest distance. And he who waits for Salat to perform it with the Imam (in

congregation) will have a greater reward than the one who observes it alone and then goes to sleep."

Buraidah (R) reported in Tirmizi and Abu Daud that "Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said,

"Convey glad tidings to those who walk to the mosque in the darkness. For they will be given full light

on the Day of Resurrection."


Abu Hurairah (R) reported in Muslim that Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, "Shall I not tell you

something by which Allah effaces the sins and elevates the ranks (in Jannah).'' The Companions said:

"Yes (please tell us), O Messenger of Allah.'' He (pbuh) said, "Performing the ablution properly in

spite of difficult circumstances, walking with more paces to the mosque, and waiting for the next Salat

(prayer) after observing a Salat; and that is Ar-Ribat, and that is Ar-Ribat.''


Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri (R) reported in Tirmizi that "Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, "When you

see a man frequenting the mosque, testify that he is a believer because Allah says: Allah's mosques

are visited only by those who believe in Allah and the Last Day.'' Abu Hurairah (R) reported in both

Bukhari and Muslim that "Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, "If they knew the merits of Salat

after nightfall (Esha) and the morning (Fajr) Salat, they would come to them even if they had to crawl

to do so.''


All the above Ahadith highlight the importance of performing a prayer in the mosque and now let us

see some of the medical advantages of performing a prayer in the mosque.


WALKING - GOOD FOR ALL AGES


As a Muslim has to walk to the mosque five times a day, when he returns from the mosque he has

already achieved a prize for his effort as while going to and coming back from the mosque he gets

enough of exercise while walking.


There is no doubt that walking is what is recommended by physicians to be a highly beneficial

exercise for all age groups. Usually the patients are advised to find reasons to walk to the market and

other places. For example if they have to buy two things buy it one by one so that you walk two

times as walking is a good exercise to reduce weight and to maintain fitness.


Five times obligatory walk to the mosque and back to home is a blessing for any person. Note on our

holidays how indolent and sluggish we become but it is the prayers which force us to get out of our

homes at least five times a day and this is a good exercise which is mandatory as a Muslim has to

offer his prayer in the mosque.


For a person who does not have a mosque in his vicinity, it will only be a blessing to walk a longer

distance. Walking is good for cardiac diseases as it increases the age of the heart by keeping the

blood vessels healthy and disallowing the killer plaque or clot to block the blood vessels.


Walking to a mosque and coming back from there certainly helps to digest the food. Instead people

who just lie down after eating are far more susceptible to get Reflux Oesophagitis that is caused when

the acidic contents of the stomach try to move upwards into the oesophagus. This is very difficult in

standing position as the stomach contents do not exert sufficient pressure on the pylorus (upper end

of stomach). Specially note that the timing of the prayers is such that virtually after each meal there is

a prayer and this certainly helps to digest the food.


WALKING IN SUNLIGHT - GOOD FOR SKIN


As Muslims walk to the mosques it is especially good for some skin diseases for which phototherapy

is the ideal treatment. Furthermore in sunshine we get Vitamin D that is very important for the bones.

Not to forget that by offering at least two prayers of Zuhur and Asar we are actually exposed to

sunshine that we miss while staying in our air-conditioned rooms etc.


Many people have the tendency to get headache while they are in their homes. Note that this may be

due to the closed atmosphere, due to lack of fresh air. Five times prayers move them out and thus

break the routine of confinement. Walking is that type of exercise, which is helpful for all.


PRAYER - GOOD FOR HEART


Note that a strenuous exercise is prohibited for heart patients but walking and the form of Muslim

prayer is a mild exercise, which does not interfere with his management and are adjuvant to his

treatment.


Today the risk of heart attacks and other diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension is far more for those

patients who have a sitting office job. Walking five times a day that too at appropriate periods is

really a life saving practice for them.


PRAYER REDUCES CHOLESTEROL LEVEL


It also helps to lower the cholesterol level decreases the excessive fat and reduces weight in over

weight patients. Also note that Muslim males are required to stand in an arranged manner in a straight

row before they start their prayer. This is a great training of discipline. Forming a row in an arranged

manner whether it is at a public utility spot, cattle ground or in places of worship indicates good

organization.


Prayer in this sense prepares the whole nation to inculcate a harmony and organization, which is an

asset when the mettle of a nation is tested in war or peace. Moreover by performing prayers in a

gathering a Muslim naturally feels more comfortable and socially secure. It is of special significance in

Muslim minority areas where a group worship will deter any opportunist who may desire to hurt an

otherwise isolated person.


GOOD FOR CONSTIPATION


Another advantage of offering prayers in the mosque is that by walking the distance between the

house and the mosque, which in most cases is substantial, a person unconsciously gets a lot of

medical benefits for example this walk plus the light exercise done during the prayer are good to

prevent constipation. Five times obligatory prayers and movement to and from the mosque does not

allow the faecal matter to stagnate in the bowel and this helps in its speedy removal.


GOOD FOR KIDNEYS


Similarly prayer is good for the health of the kidneys. It gives them more exercise like other organs

and although no study has been conducted so far but it seems hat walking and then light exercise of

prayer should help the kidneys that get more blood and their efficiency should be improved.


Hence the less incidence of urinary tract diseases like structural deformities with aging, Prostatitis,

Urinary incontinence due to a flabby old bladder should be less in Muslims who offer their prayers

regularly.


While walking to the mosque the blood circulation increases and this means its effective and

increased supply to the organs like brain, heart, kidneys etc that casts a favorable shadow on the

overall health.


PRAYER AND ITS EFFECTS UPON JOINTS AND BONES


Prayer is undoubtedly good for the acute/chronic herniated disc disease as by walking to and from

the mosque the pain of herniated disc improves since walking is particularly good for it. The

rheumatologists and surgeons particularly prescribe rest or walking along with other back exercises

as a treatment for the herniated disc disease but of course the bed-rest is preferable. However,

walking is superior to standing in which case the burden increases on the involved discs.


Walking is also good for rheumatological diseases like Ankylosing Spondylitis, Achondroplasia,

Polymyositis, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Polymyalgia Rheumatica etc.


PRAYER IN MOSQUE ...A GIFT FOR LONELY PATIENTS


For those epileptics and other patients suffering from a serious disease who are living alone in their

homes and who do not have a caretaker at home, going to the mosque to offer prayer is a special

blessing as they remain in a safe place at least for a certain period of time. In case of an attack at

home their condition will definitely be miserable whereas the mosque is the only place from where

they can be moved to a hospital easily as there is no dearth of God-fearing people among the

Muslims.


SOME MISCELLANEOUS EFFECTS ON BODY


It also increases the appetite and may aid in the treatment of Anorexia Nervosa. Many studies

conducted on volunteers have concluded that resting all the time is not at all a healthy habit and

people who spend their time (for example on weekends) in sleeping and resting alone do not practice

a healthy routine and suffer from body-aches, lassitude etc. It is easy to understand that five prayers

break this routine and move the person to leave home and go to the mosque for offering prayers.


SPECIAL ADVANTAGES OF THE MORNING PRAYER


The Morning Prayer is the one most missed by Muslims, as this is the peak time for sleeping. From

medical point of view people who sleep early in the night and get up early in the morning are more

likely to be healthy. Morning fresh air is heart absorbing and refreshes the mind so that the whole day

is enveloped in its fragrance. There has been special stress on performing this prayer although all the

prayers are compulsory. Abu Musa (R) reported in Bukhari and Muslim that "Holy Prophet

Muhammad (pbuh) said, "He who observes Al-Bardan (i.e., Fajr and Asar prayers) will enter

Jannah.'' Similarly in another Hadith Abu Zuhair Umarah Ruwaibah (R) reported in Muslim "I heard

the Messenger of Allah (saw) saying: "He who performs Salat (prayers) before the rising of the sun

and before its setting, will not enter the Hell."


Jundub bin Sufyan (R) reported in Muslim "The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, "He who offers the

dawn (Fajr) prayers will come under the Protection of Allah. O son of Adam! Beware, lest Allah

should call you to account in any respect from (for withdrawing) His protection." As mentioned

earlier, by getting up early in the morning and performing Fajr prayer one becomes more active and

alert.


Abu Hurairah (R) reported in Muslim & Bukhari that Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, "There

are angels who take turns in visiting you by night & by day, and they all assemble at the dawn (Fajr)

and the afternoon (Asar) prayers. Those who have spent the night with you ascend to the heaven and

their Rabb, Who knows better about them, asks: "In what condition did you leave my slaves?" They

reply: "We left them while they were performing Salat & we went to them while they were performing

Salat."


RECITING QUR'AN IN THE MORNING. ADDED ADVANTAGE


Another advantage of offering Morning Prayer is that at this time one can also read Holy Qur'an and

reading Holy Qur'an at dawn is of special significance and has great rewards. Holy Prophet

Muhammad (pbuh) used to recite at least 60-100 verses of Holy Qur'an every day in the morning.


Similarly the importance of Asar prayer has been adequately highlighted in Ahadith. Buraidah (R)

reported in Bukhari " The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, "He who misses the Asar Salat

(deliberately), his deeds will be rendered null and void.''


PRAYER --- A LIGHT EXERCISE SUITABLE FOR ALL


Another important aspect of Muslim form of prayer (i.e. Salat) is that it is not just a sitting type of

worship; rather it is a multi-positional prayer in which the Musalli (one who is offering prayer)

changes several postures.


To be accurate there are 48 Rakaat in the total of five prayers in a single day and that means 48 x 2

= 96 Sajdas as there are two Sajdas in every Rakaat. Similarly 48 times a person has to bend his

back for offering Rukuu.


For all the Rakaats in five prayers he has to stand 48 times while reading the first Sura of Qur'an and

some other portion of Qur'anic verses while standing. Similarly he has to sit at least 25 times for

Tahiyyat position.


He has to lift his hands up to the head at least 17 times before starting a prayer. He has to turn his

neck both sides that too at least 17 times in a day. All this may not be noticeable while a person

offers his prayers but it amounts to a considerable and respectable total if we consider that a Muslim

is supposed to do all this in a single day.


In the morning, most of the people who do exercise to maintain good health do not do all these steps

every day. They may do it one day and take rest on the following day but a person who offers his

prayers regularly in a mosque does so punctually, hence there is no objection to say that Muslim form

of prayer is so much regular and light that it is much better than a heavy exercise done once in a blue

moon or on an irregular basis. In the absence of a regular exercise there is no hesitation to say that a

good Muslim will require only a little bit more exercise on top of what he does in five prayers for

which he has to go to the mosques every time to offer his prayers.


VARIOUS POSTURES IN A PRAYER AND THEIR ADVANTAGES


Many of the other medical advantages of prayer have been described in the section on the medical

advantages of Sajda position, hence here only those will be mentioned which are additional to them.


First of all when a person raises his hands for Takbeer the muscles of his arms, forearms and hands

contract to complete that act and they get an exercise. Remember that a Muslim does it for 17 times

in a single day. I am mentioning the figure because it may look minor for some to see that this

movement occurs once in the start of a two or four Rakaat Salat only.


STANDING WHILE IN PRAYER


Now the next step is putting the hands at the abdomen and standing to read the whole of Sura Al

Fateha plus some verses of Qur'an in addition to that.


A NATURAL WATCH AT OBESITY


Frankly speaking when I stand up for Salat I am watching (although for a brief time only) my hands

which are at the right place, I mean right on top of the abdomen which has fatty deposit and this

reminds us to have a check at the abdominal obesity every time we stand for prayers.


By this I certainly do not mean that a Musalli should not concentrate on prayer and should start

comparing his abdominal girth with the previous one but as we are after all human beings, for obese

people it is a good checkpoint which they may not miss if they are already conscious of it.


Remember that abdominal obesity is blamed to be a certain risk factor for heart attack. It is also a

certain risk factor for diabetes hence a person may be reminded when he is standing with his hands at

upper abdomen although I repeat prayer is not meant for that.


STANDING - A TEST OF CIRCULATION


Apart from that it must not be forgotten that standing for such a long time is by itself an exercise. As

while standing, the leg muscles are contracted to keep the man upright in standing position & limb

muscles become stronger.


Remember that soldiers are asked to stand as a part of their training so that they are ready to cope

with a similar situation. Also while standing the veins of the lower limbs open up and adapt

themselves. Similarly a person having a disorder of peripheral vessels will detect the fault much earlier

as it will become difficult for him to cope with a prolonged standing.


THE POSITION OF BENOR RUKUU


After standing for a while, Muslims are supposed to bend in the stance of Rukuu such that their hands

lie at their knees stretching them out and the back of the Musalli is horizontal to the ground.


This position plus 48 times bending for the Rukuu is helpful to give strength to the back muscles. The

position of Rukuu is also good for kidneys, lungs and the heart as all of them get exercise by this

motion. This is just to add to the additive effect of walking to the mosque.


In the position of Rukuu the ligaments and the tendons are stretched and get strength. There is a

special burden on the muscles of the legs and the feet who have to bear the weight and this is good

for the power and tone of the muscles of the legs and feet. This can be easily felt when a person gets

up from the position of Rukuu or goes into it.


PRAYER BRINGS PEACE TO MIND


There is a Hadith in Ibn Maja saying that Çä Ýì ÕáÇÉ ÔÝÇÁ


which means "There is cure in prayer." There is no doubt about that as a prayer certainly keeps us

away from many diseases.


We have already seen the impact of ablution upon cleanliness and the effects of the position of Sajda

on the human body. It is worth mentioning that a Muslim offering his prayers regularly gets

extraordinary peace in his prayers. Allah says in Sura Yunus verse No 62 that: "Behold! Verily on the

friends of Allah there is no fear, nor shall they grieve."


Similarly in the verse No 28 of Sura Al ra'ad Allah says ÇáÏíä ÁÇãäæÇ æ ÊØãä ÞáæÈåã

ÈÏßÑÇááå ÃáÇ ÈÏßÑ Çááå ÊØãä ÇáÞáæÈ


"Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah: for without

doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction. "


It obviously means that as prayer is a way of remembering Allah it is surely a way to find peace and

satisfaction in life which otherwise may not be possible in today's stressful life.


EVEN SITTING IN THE MOSQUE BRINGS PEACE


According to a Hadith of Holy Prophet (saw) even sitting in the mosque between Aazaan and prayer

is considered as a prayer. Abu Hurairah (R) reported both in Bukhari and Muslim that "Holy Prophet

Muhammad (saw) said, "Everyone among you will be deemed to be occupied in Salat (prayer)

constantly so long as Salat (the prayer) detains him (from worldly concerns), and nothing prevents

him from returning to his family but Salat.''


Similarly see another Hadith by Abu Hurairah (R) reported in Bukhari that "Holy Prophet

Muhammad (saw) said, "The angels supplicate in favor of one of you so long as he remains in the

place where he has performed Salat (prayer) in a state of ablution. They (the angels) say: `O Allah!

Forgive him, O Allah! Have mercy on him.'''


These Ahadith promote an inclination to come early in the mosque. As a matter of fact one can

always find that sitting in the serine and peaceful atmosphere of a mosque brings peace to the mind.


A TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION AND PSYCHIATRIC DISEASES


Allah says in verse No 45 of Sura Al Baqara (2)


æÇÓÊÚíäæÇ ÈÇáÕÈÑ æÇáÕáÇÉ æÇäåÇ áßÈíÑÉ ÇáÇ Úáì ÇáÎÇÔÚíä


"Seek help in patience and prayer; and truly it is hard save for the humble-minded." The fact is that

prayer gives peace of mind. It has a cool effect on our nerves and it pacifies people even in the very

tense situations by giving patience. The Muslim form of prayer also gives a relief to the depressed and

those suffering from anxiety as prayer breaks the vicious cycle of erroneous and troublesome

thinking, thinking and thinking.


It completely changes the topic being discussed in one's mind. It just pulls a person out of it to a

trouble free and peaceful thought, to wash and to walk to the mosque to bow one's head in front of

Allah. Thus when a person returns from mosque he has already eased down and relaxed to a great

extent. Prayer is an ideal treatment for Grief and Bereavement that can prolong ordinarily. The

sublime effect of offering a prayer exerts its effect in a slow unpronounced manner but its effects are

there whether a lay man appreciates it or not.


Performing a prayer creates a sense of hope of Allah's mercy as the person has rose successfully to

the call of obedience and compliance with Allah's order. Now for sure he is a candidate for Allah's

mercy and this is what gives him a pleasure that makes his mind cheerful and full of hope and peace

as Allah's bounties abound in this world as well as in the hereafter. Sura Az Zumar (39:9) "What! He,

who is obedient during hours of the night, prostrating himself and standing, takes care of the hereafter

and hopes for the mercy of his Lord! Say: Are those who know and those who do not know alike?

Only the men of understanding are mindful."


PRAYER PREVENTS THOUGHT DISORDERS


And then there is a series of Thought disorders and Phobias that are cured and (in the first place)

prevented by Salat. These phobias include Claustrophobia and Agoraphobia etc.


PRAYER PREVENTS PHOBIAS


Claustrophobia means fear of closed places or a place where there are people. It is easy to

understand that a person who offers his prayers five times in the midst of people in a walled mosque

will hardly get at least this disease. In fact I am yet to see a Muslim having Claustrophobia.


PRAYER GIVES SELF CONFIDENCE


Prayer gives self-confidence to a person as while going to the mosque several times in a day he

makes a lot of friends and remains in touch with the community.


MOSQUES.... COMMUNITY MEETING PLACES


Remember that Islam has laid down great stress upon having cordial and friendly relationship with

neighbors but in a mosque all the members of a given community living in a village, a street, or an area

close to the mosque meet each other and become familiar to each other.


This is yet another blessing of Islam that it breaks the hindrances in getting acquainted with

surrounding people in a given community and brings the people at one forum. Man is after all a social

animal and he cannot live isolated with his environment. At prayer Muslims break their isolation five

times a day and become a part of a larger family.


Prayer also brings a lot of benefits as it brings people of all walks of life to come across each other

and this provides an opportunity for them to open dialogue for their means of income. In this way

mosque is just not a place of worship for Muslims rather it is a community center as well where day

to day problems can be brought to attention of course outside the mosque and not inside. Not to

mention that after every prayer groups of people can be seen conferring with each other in front of

almost every mosque. This is a healthy practice and creates harmony among the members of a given

community.


PRAYER PREVENTS PSYCHIATRIC DISEASES


With prayer having a soothing effect upon our psyche there is no doubt that it will substantially

prevent the occurrence of diseases like Hyperventilation, Hysteria, Emotional liability, Grief reaction,

Korsakoff Syndrome, Schizophrenia etc. It is especially good for Agoraphobia that is the fear of

open spaces and Claustrophobia that is the fear of closed spaces.


PRAYER...BEST TREATMENT OF AUTISM


It is also the best treatment of Autism (means a condition in which a person likes to be isolated from

the society) but in the first place there is no reason that a person who comes across the community

members five times a day should ever become a victim of Autism.


PRAYER - A LOGICAL TREATMENT OF


DEPRESSION / GRIEF REACTION ETC.


It is important to note that five times prayers in a single day keep the human mind busy and to keep

busy is by itself a treatment of many psychiatric diseases. Remember that psychiatrists stress upon the

patients of Grief reaction, Depression etc to keep them busy as by so doing the patient tends to

forget his ailment that needs psychotherapy rather than the medicines. The schedule of five prayers is

such that in daytime when people are awake every two to three hours there is a prayer. I like the

arrangement of the prayer timings, as for the period when a person is busy in his work there is only

one prayer of Zuhur and fothe rest of the time when he is free he has to perform Asar, Maghrib

soon followed by Esha. This chain of prayers one after another keeps him busy as each prayer may

take half hour if offered in the mosque completely. This pre occupation of mind prevents

self-destructive ideas and as the prayer provides a mental peace of compliance with Allah's order it

has positive effects on one's life.


PRAYERS AND PREVENTION OF NARCOTICS


Prayer offers a special protection from Narcotics as it builds the character of a Muslim and creates a

sense of responsibility in the youngsters. How can a person who is so responsible that he offers his

prayers regularly become such an irresponsible person intending to destroy his own future with his

own hands? (The exceptions are always there however.)


And then there is a whole series of sexually transmitted diseases that are substantially avoided if a

person is a good Muslim and offers his prayers regularly. As Allah says in Holy Qur'an Sura Al

-Ankaboot (29:45) "Recite what is sent of the Book by inspiration to thee, and establish regular

Prayer: for Prayer restrains from shameful and unjust deeds; and remembrance of Allah is the greatest

(thing in life) without doubt. And Allah knows the (deeds) that ye do."


Now see a Hadith from Abu Hurairah quoted in both Muslim and Bukhari. He says "I heard the

Messenger of Allah (saw) saying, "Say, if there were a river at the door of one of you in which he

takes a bath five times a day, would any soiling remain on him?'' They replied, "No soiling would left

on him.'' He (saw) said, '' that is the five (obligatory) Salat (prayers). Allah obliterates all sins as a

result of performing them.'' As the regularity of prayers creates a sense of deep association with

Islamic teachings Muslims tend to avoid indulging into such heinous crimes that expose them to

sexually transmitted diseases. Hence in this way prayer plays a pivotal role in decreasing the

incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in Muslims. Therefore offering regular prayers reduces the

incidence of following diseases.


STD'S PREVENTED BY PRAYER


1.Aids.


2.Herpes Genitals,


3.Gonorrhea,


4.Syphilis,


5.Hepatitis B and C


6.Non Specific Vaginitis,


7.Granuloma Inguinal,


8.Chancroid,


9.Non Specific Urethritis,


10.Proctitis,


11.Cervicitis,


12.PID,


13.Lymphogranuloma Venereum,


14.Genital Ulcer,


15.Genital Ulcers,


16.Molluscum Contagiosum,


17.Balanitis,


18.Candidiasis


19.Genital Scabies,


20.Pediculosis Pubis,


21.Balanoposthitis etc .


-------------------------------------------------------


Mind you that this is just a random list of a few sexually transmitted diseases otherwise there is a long

line of diseases and with the passage of time it will only increase just like Aids erupting in 1980's. As

a Hadith says the prayer has a clean up work for the human mind and hence the body. Jabir (R)

reported in Muslim that Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, "The similitude of the five (obligatory)

Salat is like a river running at the door of one of you in which he takes a bath five times a day.''


POSITION OF SITTING AFTER SAJDA


Apart from the position of Rukuu and Sajda there are other movements which are means of an

exercise for example by moving heads to sideways for Salaam which a Muslim does at least 17 times

a day. By so doing one has a good exercise of the neck muscles. For a person who is healthy it may

not matter much but one who is sick and is bound to home this will give a substantial exercise to the

neck region. Also noteworthy is the position of right foot and ankle while sitting after two Sajdas. The

ankle of the right foot has to be elevated in such a way that the toes of the right foot are stretched.

This particular position is a specifically good exercise for the muscles of the right leg as well as the

right foot and one can easily feel how much contracted they are when a person is sitting in that

position.


ADVANTAGES OF PRAYING TO ALLAH AFTER SALAT (i.e. DUAA)


There are special advantages of Dua or praying to Allah after Salat is over. This not only inculcates a

sense of well-being and peace but also gives an extraordinary confidence to the praying Muslims.

Remember the Dua has been called the jist of prayer. A person who prays to Allah hopes good in

reward and this is very true that Allah either accepts his prayer or grants him Ajar or benefit in the

coming life. In general Muslim form of prayer has a positive effect upon all the body systems and to

close this discussion it is appropriate to quote once again the Hadith of Ibn Maja that there is cure in

prayer.


MIRACLES OF THE POSITION OF SAJDA


Sajda is a unique position or stance in the regular prayers that a Muslim is supposed to offer at least

five times a day. Although the basic purpose of obligatory prayers is not to provide an exercise for

people yet it is being increasingly recognized that it has plenty of medical advantages for the human

body. Here it is worth mentioning that Holy prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has mentioned in a hadith in

Ibn Maja that prayer is a cure for many diseases. The fact is that a person who offers his prayers

regularly that too in the mosque is protected from many diseases that he may not even know.


SAJDA...A UNIQUE FROM OF MUSLIM PRAYER


The position of Sajda in which the forehead touches the earth is exclusively associated with the

Muslim form of prayer. It is the climax of a Muslim's prayer and as mentioned in a Hadith a Muslim is

nearest to Allah in this position. Abu Hurairah (R) reported in Bukhari that the messenger of Allah

(may peace be upon him) said: "The nearest a servant comes to his Lord is when he is prostrating

himself, so make supplication (in this state)" Syeda Aisha Siddiqa (R) narrates that Holy Prophet

(pbuh) used to prolong the prostration to such an extent that one could recite fifty verses (of the

Quran) before he would lift his head. (Bukhari) In another Hadith narrated by Anas bin Malik (R)

Holy prophet (pbuh) advised Muslims to perform Rukuu (bowing) and Sajda properly.


SAJDA & RUKUU SHOULD BE PERFORMED WITH EASE


In another Hadith he (pbuh) advised to perform Sajda and Bowing calmly and to get up only when

the body has come to ease. In battle of Badr Holy prophet (pbuh) performed long Sajdas in Al Fatah

mosque and supplicated for the victory. He (pbuh) also performed long bowing (Rukuu) and Sajda in

the special prayers at the time of eclipse. Hence the first positive effect upon a person who prostrates

or does Sajda is that he comes nearest to Allah and hence in that condition he can supplicate. This is

a great psychological advantage and it gives relief to the person concerned as life is full of worries and

in this position he gets at least a transient refuge from the agonizing problems.


GOING TO SAJDA...IS A DIVE LIKE MOTION


When a person goes to the position of prostration that is Sajda his whole body is in active motion.

This position can be considered as a mini dive as the musalli (one who offers prayer) goes to rest his

forehead on the ground while his hands are placed at the sides. . This brings most of the body

muscles if not all in active motion and serves to give them some exercise


POSITION OF HANDS AS MENTIONED IN HADITH


The hands are then specifically stretched out and thence the forearm as well as arm muscles are

supposed to bear the weight in the Sajda position. It gives good exercise to the muscles of the upper

limb. Holy Prophet (pbuh) in a Hadith advised not to put the forearms flatly on the ground but to

keep them elevated above ground and this is better for the forearm and arm muscles.


MULTIPLE DIRECT EFFECTS OF SAJDA POSITION


Sajda is a unique position as this is the only position in which brain (or head) becomes lower than the

heart and hence for the first time the blood gushes towards the brain with full force whereas in all

other positions (even when lying) brain is above the heart when it has to work against gravity to send

blood to the brain. In the position of Sajda due to the increased blood supplthe brain receives more

nourishment and it has good effect upon memory, vision, hearing, concentration, psyche and all other

cognitive abilities. People who offer their prayers regularly have more will power and can cope with

the difficulties of life in a much better manner. They have less incidence of headaches, psychological

problems and other defects of cognitive function.


SAJDA...EXERCISE FOR THE NECK MUSCLES


In the unique position of Sajda the neck muscles get best exercise. They have to bear the load when

the forehead lies at the ground hence the neck muscles become more strong .One can note the tense

pressure at the neck muscles in the position of Sajda specially the active motion of the neck and the

facial muscles when the head is being lifted (e.g. one inch above the ground) and it will be noticed that

they are in a very active motion. More strong cervical muscles mean the cervical vertebra will be

better protected. Strength of cervical muscles is important as the head rests upon cervical vertebra

supported by cervical musculature. In fact head performs rotatory movements over the cervical

vertebra. In any accident cervical neck examination is especially important to the physicians because

of its extraordinary importance. It is uncommon that a person who offers his prayers regularly will get

the usual neck myalgias or cervical spondylosis as the neck muscles particularly become very strong

due to the 96 Sajdas offered daily in five prayers. Position of Sajda is also said to be a good

treatment for the retro version of uterus, a disease of women.


SAJDA POSITION AND MAN POWER


Most of us do not know that the position of Sajda is an excellent exercise for men (for man power).

It may be good information to the Viagra dependents. While getting up from Sajda the perennial

muscles are one of those muscles that have to pull the trunk back to sitting position and they contract

actively. Similarly while standing up from Sajda the perennial muscles are again actively mobilized and

this gives much strength to the muscles important for manpower.


SAJDA...A TREATMENT FOR BACKACHE


The unique position of Sajda also has positive effects upon the back muscles as while going into

Sajda and getting up from it the back muscles contract actively and they become stronger. Probably

it is because of this reason that a person who is regular in prayers will uncommonly get backache.


ATTAHIYYAT POSITION.... RELAXING STANCE


After performing Sajda either the musalli stands up or he sits to pray Attahiyat. In this position the

person sits calmly while his hands rest at his thighs that are folded backwards. This is much similar to

the relaxation position of Yoga and has soothing effect upon one's health and mentation.


CONCLUSION


Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) used to elongate the position of Rukuu (bending) and Sajda

positions and he (pbuh) advised to do so. In the light of the above facts it is appropriate to say that

from medical point of view as well this advice is a golden rule for health.


Finally it must be reminded that prayer is not meant to be an exercise. However there are a lot of

medical advantages associated with it. Still the best blessing is the peace of mind that a person

derives by the accomplishment of his duty to Allah by fulfilling an obligation.


Hassan Farooq.


President & CEO, Haz's Co. (A Dream Inshallah).

AMU to start 'Islamic Banking' course

18 Jan 2009 TIMES OF INDIA

LUCKNOW: In what is being touted as a first of its kind in the country, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) will launch a one-year post graduate diploma course in 'Islamic Banking and Finance' based on tenets of Shariah.

"The basic principle of Islamic banking based on Shariah, Islamic rules of transaction, is prohibition of Riba (interest)and is known as interest free banking system. As per the tenets of Islam earning interest on money deposit and loans in the bank is prohibited by law," Dr Mohammad Nejatullah Siddiqi, who designed the one-year diploma course, told reporters.

The university academic council, highest body of the university, which decides on academic affairs, has approved of the introduction of the course early this month from the next academic session, he said, adding, that there would initially be 20 seats in the course.

In this system of banking the depositor, who does not bear risk as in other banking systems, has to equally share the risk with the bank. Owner of the capital, however, is allowed to have a share in the bank's profits, Siddiqui, a retired AMU professor of Economics and Islamic Studies, said, adding that a similar system is followed by the banks while offering loans to the customers.

This type of banking system reduces speculation or gambling, he said. The course would enable students to make a career in Islamic banking, which is already very popular in Islamic countries, he added.

"As of now no university in the country is offering a course in Islamic Banking. Though some research work on the subject has been done in Karnataka and Pune universities, and a handful of part time refresher courses are being offered by some institutes, the course does not figure in the syllabus of any university," he claimed.

About the future prospects of the course, he said that though there are no Islamic banks in India, there existed a few non-banking cooperatives in Karnataka and Mumbai, which have branches in cities like Aligarh and Chennai.

"India is seen as a potential place for the Islamic banking, which can also attract NRI investors. Some of the top Indian companies are looking forward to launch Islamic financial products in the country," said Siddiqi, claiming that the placements after pursuing this course would be very good.

20 Islamic inventors/inventions that changed the world

1 The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve then the Italian caffé and then English coffee.


2 The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one.

3 A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe - where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century - and eastward as far as Japan. The word rook comes from the Persian rukh, which means chariot.

4 A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn't. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles' feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing - concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him.

5 Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.

6 Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam's foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today - liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them is haram, or forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry.

7 The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least the internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock.

8 Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it was invented in the Muslim world or whether it was imported there from India or China. But it certainly came to the West via the Crusaders. They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw-filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the Crusaders' metal armour and was an effective form of insulation - so much so that it became a cottage industry back home in colder climates such as Britain and Holland.

9 The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe's Gothic cathedrals was an invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger than the rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander buildings. Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and dome-building techniques. Europe's castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world's - with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps gave way to more easily defended round ones. Henry V's castle architect was a Muslim.

10 Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a modern surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for internal stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when his monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to make medicine capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim medic named Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslims doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.

11 The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction for months. Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe.

12 The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox at least 50 years before the West discovered it.

13 The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action.

14 The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825. Algebra was named after al-Khwarizmi's book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the Muslim world. And Al-Kindi's discovery of frequency analysis rendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble and created the basis of modern cryptology.

15 Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the three-course meal - soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas - see No 4).

16 Carpets were regarded as part of Paradise by medieval Muslims, thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from Islamic chemistry and highly developed sense of pattern and arabesque which were the basis of Islam's non-representational art. In contrast, Europe's floors were distinctly earthly, not to say earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were "covered in rushes, occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned". Carpets, unsurprisingly, caught on quickly.

17 The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad.

18 By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, "is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth's circumference to be 40,253.4km - less than 200km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.

19 Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in their fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had invented both a rocket, which they called a "self-moving and combusting egg", and a torpedo - a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and then blew up.

20 Medieval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the Arabs who developed the idea of the garden as a place of beauty and meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were opened in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim gardens include the carnation and the tulip.

CAN THE ISLAMIC INTELLECTUAL HERITAGE BE RECOVERED?

By
William C. Chittick

By "the Islamic intellectual heritage" I mean the ways of thinking about God, the world, and the human being established by the Qur'«n and the Prophet and elaborated upon by generations of practicing Muslims. I use the term "intellectual" to translate the word ‘aqlâ , and by it I want to distinguish this heritage from another, closely related heritage that also has theoretical and intellectual dimensions. This second heritage is the "transmitted" ( naqlâ ) heritage.

Transmitted knowledge is learned by "imitation" ( taqlâd ), that is, by following the authority of those who possess it. This sort of knowledge includes Qur'«n recitation, Hadith, Arabic grammar, and jurisprudence. It is impossible to be a Muslim without taqlâd , because one cannot discover the Qur'an or the practices of the Shariah by oneself. Just as language is learned by imitation, so also the Qur'an and Islamic practice are learned by imitating those who know them. Those who have assumed the responsibility of preserving this transmitted heritage are known as its "knowers," that is, its ulama .

In transmitted knowledge, it is not proper to ask "why." If one does ask why, the answer is that the Qur'an says what it says, or that grammar determines the rules of proper speech. In contrast, the only way to learn intellectual knowledge is to understand it. One cannot learn it by accepting it on the basis of authority. Intellectual knowledge includes mathematics, logic, philosophy, and much of theology. In learning , "why" is the most basic and important of questions. If one does not understand why, then one will be following someone else's authority. It makes no sense to accept that 2 + 2 = 4 on the basis of a report, no matter how trust worthy the source may be. Either you understand it, or you do not. The goal here is not taqlâd , but taÁqâq , which can be translated as "verification" or "realization."

In the transmitted sciences, people must follows mujtahids , whether the mujtahids be alive (as in Shi'ism) or dead (as in Sunnism). In other words, one follows a mujtahid because the only way to learn the transmitted sciences is from those who already know them. But one cannot follow a mujtahid in matters of faith, because faith pertains to one's own understanding of God, the prophets, the scriptures, and the Last Day. A Muslim cannot say, "I have faith in God because my mujtahid told me to have faith." Someone who said this would be saying that if the mujtahid told him not to believe in God, he would not. In other words, he would be saying that his faith is empty words.

Although in theory we can distinguish between the transmitted and intellectual sciences, in practice the two have always been closely interrelated, and the transmitted sciences have been the foundation upon which the intellectual sciences are built. One cannot speak properly without grammar, and one cannot understand things Islamically without the Qur'an and the Hadith. However, the fact that people may have an excellent knowledge of the transmitted sciences does not mean that they know anything at all about the intellectual sciences. Nor does the ability to recite the opinions of the great Muslims on matters of faith prove that the reciter has any understanding of what he is saying.

Both the transmitted and the intellectual sciences are essential to the survival of any religion—not only Islam—and both are gradually being lost. By and large, however, the transmitted sciences have been preserved better than the intellectual sciences, and the reason is obvious. Anyone can learn Qur'an and Hadith, but very few people can truly understand what God and the Prophet are talking about. One can only understand in one's own measure. One cannot understand mathematics (or any of the other intellectual sciences) without both native ability and training. One may have a great aptitude for mathematics, but without long years of study, one will never get very far. And mathematics deals with issues that are relatively near at hand, even in the most sophisticated of its modern forms. What about theology, which deals with the deepest issues of reality, the furthest from our everyday experience?

It is important to stress that no religion can survive, much less flourish, without a living intellectual tradition. In order to verify this—because this statement should not be accepted on the basis of taqlâd —we can ask the questions, What was the intellectual tradition for? What function did it play in Islamic society? What was its goal? To ask these questions is the same as asking, "Why should Muslims think?" The basic answer is that Muslims should think because they must think, because they are thinking beings. They have no choice but to think, because God gave them minds and intelligence when He created them. Not only that, but God has commanded them to think and to employ their intelligence in numerous Qur,«nic verses.

No doubt, this does not mean that God requires all Muslims to enter into the sophisticated sort of study and reflection that went on in the intellectual tradition, because it is obvious that not everyone has the proper sort of talents, capacities, and circumstances to do so. Nevertheless, all Muslims have the moral and religious obligation to use their minds correctly—if they have minds. As the Qur'an puts it, "God does not burden any soul save to its capacity." When people's capacity includes thinking, God has given them the burden of thinking correctly. But He does not tell them what to think, because then He would be making taqlâd incumbent in intellectual matters. If many of the Ulama have forbidden taqlâd , it is because God Himself forbids it. He has given people minds, and they cannot use their minds correctly if they simply accept dogma or opinions on the basis of authority. To think properly a person must actually think, which is to say that conclusions must be reached through one's own intellectual struggle, not someone else's. Any teacher of an intellectual science—like mathematics or philosophy—knows this perfectly well.

It is true that many if not most people are unreflective and would never even ask why they should think about things. They simply go about their daily routine and imagine that they understand their own situation. In any case, they suppose, God wants nothing more from them than observing the Shariah. But this is no argument for those who have the ability to stop and think. Anyone who has the capacity and talent to reflect upon God, the universe, and the human soul must do so. Not to do so is to betray one's God-given nature and to disobey God's commandments.

Since some Muslims have no choice but to think, learning how to think correctly must be an important area of Muslim effort. But what defines "correct" thinking? How do we tell the difference between right thinking and wrong thinking? Does the fact that people have no choice but to think mean that they are free to think anything they want? The Islamic answer to this sort of question has always been that the way people think is far from indifferent. Some modes of thinking are encouraged by the Qur'an and the Sunnah, some are discouraged. Islamically, it is incumbent upon those who think to employ their minds in ways that coincide with the goals of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. In other words, the goal of the Islamic intellectual tradition must coincide with the goal of Islam, or else it is not Islamic intellectuality.

So, what is the goal of Islam? In general terms, Islam's goal is to bring people back to God. However, everyone is going back to God in any case, so the issue is not going back, but how one goes back. Through the Qur'«n and the Sunnah, God guides people back to Him in a manner that will ensure their everlasting happiness. If they want to follow a "straight path" one that will lead to happiness and not to misery, they need to employ their minds, awareness, and thinking in ways that are harmonious with God Himself, who is the only true Reality. If they follow illusion and unreality, they will be following a crooked path and most likely will not end up in a pleasant place when they go back.

The history of Islamic intellectuality is embodied in the various forms that Muslims have adopted over time in attempting to think rightly and correctly. The intellectual tradition was robust and lively, so disagreements were common. Nevertheless, in all the different schools of thought that have appeared over Islamic history, one principle has been agreed upon by everyone. This principle is the fact that God is one and that He is the only source of truth and reality. He is the origin of all things, and all things return to Him. This principle, as everyone knows, is called tawhid , "asserting the unity of God." To think Islamically is to recognize God's unity and to draw the proper consequences from His unity. Differences of opinion arise concerning the proper consequences, not in the fact that God is one.

The consequences that people draw from tawhid depend largely on their understanding of "God." Typically, Muslims have sought to understand God by meditating upon the implications of God's names and attributes as expressed in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. The conclusions reached in these meditations have everything to do with how God is understood. If He is understood primarily as a Lawgiver, people will draw conclusions having to do with the proper observance of the Sharâ‘ah . If He is understood primarily as wrathful, they will conclude that they must avoid His wrath. If He is understood primarily as merciful, they will think that they must seek out His mercy. If He is understood primarily as beautiful, they will know that they must love Him. God, of course, has "ninety-nine names"—at least—and every name throws different light on what exactly God is, what exactly He is not, and how exactly people should understand Him and relate to Him. Naturally, thoughtful Muslims have always understood God in many ways, and they have drawn diverse conclusions on the basis of each way of understanding. This diversity of understanding in the midst of tawÁâd is prefigured in the Prophet's prayer, "O God, I seek refuge in Your mercy from Your wrath, I seek refuge in Your good pleasure from Your displeasure, I seek refuge in You from You."

Obstacles to Recovery

My title indicates that I think the Islamic intellectual heritage has largely been lost in modern times. This is a vast topic, and I cannot begin to offer proofs for my assertion, but I think it is obvious to most Muslims who have some awareness of their own history. What I can do here is to offer a few suggestions as to the obstacles that stand in the way of recovery. For present purposes, I want to deal with two basic sorts of obstacles, though there are other sorts as well. First are intellectual forces that originally came from outside. They are intimately connected with the types of thinking that grew up in Western Europe and America and have come to dominate in the modern world. However, they have long since become an internal problem, because most Muslims have either actively and eagerly adopted them as their own, or they been molded by them without being aware of the fact. Given that these intellectual forces have now been internalized, they have given rise to a second group of obstacles, which are modern attitudes and social forces within the Islamic community that prevent recovery.

In suggesting the nature of the first category of obstacles, we can begin with a basic question: Is it possible nowadays to think Islamically? Or, Is it possible to be a "Muslim intellectual" in the modern world? By this, I do not mean an intellectual who is by religious affiliation a follower of Islam, but rather an individual who thinks Islamically about the three basic dimensions of Islam—practice, faith, and sincerity— while living in the midst of modernity.

I have no doubt that there are tens of thousands of Muslim intellectuals in the ordinary sense of the word—that is, Muslim writers, professors, doctors, lawyers, and scientists who are concerned with intellectual issues. But I have serious doubts as to whether any more than a tiny fraction of such people are "Muslim intellectuals" in the sense in which I mean the term. Yes, there are many thoughtful and intellectually sophisticated people who were born as followers of Islam and who may indeed practice it carefully. But do they think Islamically? Is it possible to be both a scientist in the modern sense and a Muslim who understands the universe and the human soul as the Qur'«n and the Sunnah explain them? Is it possible to be a sociologist and at the same time to think in terms of tawÁâd ?

It appears to me, as an outside observer, that the thinking of most Muslim intellectuals is not determined by Islamic principles and Islamic understanding, but by habits of mind learned unconsciously in grammar school and high school and then confirmed and solidified by university training. Such people may act like Muslims, but they think like doctors, engineers, sociologists, and political scientists.

It is naive to imagine that one can learn how to think Islamically simply by attending lectures once a week or by reading a few books written by contemporary Muslim leaders, or by studying the Qur'«n, or by saying one's prayers and having "firm faith." In the traditional Islamic world, the great thinkers and intellectuals spent their whole lives searching for knowledge and deepening their understanding. The Islamic intellectual heritage is extraordinarily rich. Hundreds of thousands of books were written, and in modern times the majority of even the important books are not available, because they have never been printed. Those that have been printed are rarely read by Muslim intellectuals, and those few that have been translated from Arabic and Persian into English and other modern languages have, by and large, been badly translated, so little guidance will be found in the translations.

I do not mean to suggest that it would be necessary to read all the great books of the intellectual tradition in their original languages in order to think Islamically. If modern-day Muslims could read one of these important books, even in translation, and understand it, their thinking would be deeply effected. However, the only way to understand such books is to prepare oneself for understanding, and that demands dedication, study, and training. This cannot be done on the basis of a modern university education, unless, perhaps, one has devoted it to the Islamic tradition (I say "perhaps" because many Muslims and non-Muslims with Ph-D in Islamic Studies cannot read and understand the great books of the intellectual heritage).

Given that modern schooling is rooted in topics and modes of thought that are not harmonious with traditional Islamic learning, it is profoundly difficult today for any thinking and practicing Muslim to harmonize the domain of intellectuality with the domain of faith and practice. One cannot study for many years and then be untouched by what one has studied. There is no escape from picking up mental habits from the types of thinking that one devotes one's life to. It is most likely, and almost, but not quite inevitable, for modern intellectuals with religious faith to have compartmentalized minds — I will not go so far as to say "split personalities," but that is common enough. One compartment of the mind will encompass the professional, intellectual domain, and the other the domain of personal piety and practice. Although individuals may rationalize the relationship between the two domains, they necessarily do so in terms of the world view that is determined by the rational side of the mind, which is the professional, modern side. The world view established by the Qur'«n and passed down by generations of Muslims will be closed to such people, and hence they will draw their rational categories and their ways of thinking from their professional training and the ever-shifting Zeitgeist that is embodied in contemporary intellectual trends and popularized through television and other forms of mass indoctrination.

Many Muslim scientists tell us that modern science helps them see the wonders of God's creation, and this is certainly an argument for preferring the natural sciences over the social sciences. But is it necessary to study physics or bio– chemistry to see the signs of God in all His creatures? The Qur'«n keeps on telling Muslims, "Will you not reflect, will you not ponder, will you not think?" About what? About the "signs" («y«t ) of God, which are found, as over two hundred Qur'«nic verses remind us, in everything. In short, one does not need to be a great scientist, or any scientist at all, to understand that the world tells us about the majesty of its Creator. Any fool knows this. This is what the Prophet called the "religion of old women" ( dân al-‘aj«'iz ), and no one needs any intellectual training to understand it. It is simply necessary to look at the world, and it becomes obvious to "those with minds" ( ulu 'l-alb«b ).

It is true that a basic understanding of the signs of God may provide sufficient knowledge for salvation. After all, the Prophet said, aktharu ahl al-jannati bulhun , "Most of the people of paradise are fools." However, the foolishness that leads to paradise demands foolishness concerning the affairs of this world, and that is very difficult to come by nowadays. It is certainly not found among Muslim intellectuals. They are already far too clever, and this explains why they are such good doctors and engineers. In other words, they have already employed and developed their minds, so they have no choice but to be intellectuals. Inescapably, their intelligence has been shaped and formed by their education, their disciplines, and the media.

The Gods of Modernity

The information and habits of mind that are imparted by modernity are not congruent with Islamic learning. Perhaps the best way to demonstrate this concisely is to reflect on the characteristics of modernity—by which I mean the thinking and norms of the "global culture" in which we live today. It should be obvious that whatever characterizes modernity, it is not tawÁâd , the first principle of Islamic thinking. Rather, it is fair to say that modernity is characterized by the opposite of tawÁâd . One could call this shirk or "associating others with God." But for most Muslims, the word shirk is too emotionally charged to be of much help in the discussion. Moreover, they have lost touch with what it really means, because they are unacquainted with the Islamic intellectual tradition, where tawÁâd and shirk are analyzed and explained. So let me call the characteristic trait of modernity " takthâr ," which is the literal opposite of tawÁâd . TawÁâd means to make things one, and, in the religious context, it means "asserting that God is one." Takthâr mean to make things many, and in this context I understand it to mean "asserting that the gods are many."

Modern times and modern thought lack a single center, a single orientation, a single goal, any single purpose at all. Modernity has no common principle or guideline. In other words, there is no single "god"—since a god is what gives meaning and orientation to life. A god is what you serve. The modern world serves many, many gods. Through an ever-intensifying process of takthâr , the gods have been multiplied beyond count, and people worship whatever god appeals to them, usually several at once.

The truth of my assertion becomes obvious if we compare the intellectual history of the West and Islamic civilization. Up until recent times, Islamic thought was characterized by a tendency toward unity, harmony, integration, and synthesis. The great Muslim thinkers were masters of many disciplines, but they looked upon all of them as branches of a single tree, the tree of tawÁâd . There was never any contradiction between studying astronomy and zoology, or physics and ethics, or mathematics and law, or mysticism and logic. Everything was governed by the same principles, because everything fell under God's all-encompassing reality.

The history of Western thought is characterized by the opposite tendency. Although there was a great deal of unitarian thinking in the medieval period, from the Middle Ages onward there has been constantly increasing dispersion and multiplicity. "Renaissance men" could know a great deal about all the sciences and at the same time have a unifying vision. But nowadays, everyone is an expert in some tiny field of specialization, and "information" increases exponentially. The result is mutual incomprehension and universal disharmony. It is impossible to establish any unity of knowledge, and no real communication takes place among the specialists in different disciplines, or even among specialists in different subfields of the same discipline. In short, people in the modern world have no unifying principles, and the result is an ever-increasing multiplicity of goals and desires, an ever-intensifying chaos.

Despite the chaos, everyone has gods that he or she worships. No one can survive in an absolute vacuum, with no goal, no significance, no meaning, no orientation. The gods people worship are those points of reference that give meaning and context to their lives. The difference between traditional objects of worship and modern objects of worship is that in modernity, it is almost impossible to subordinate all the minor gods to a supreme god, and when this is done, the supreme god is generally one that has been manufactured by ideologies. It is certainly not the God of tawÁâd , who negates the reality of all other gods. However, it may well be a blatant imitation of the God of tawÁâd , especially when religion enters into the domain of politics.

The gods in the world of takthâr are legion. To mention the more important ones would be to list the defining myths and ideologies of modern times—evolution, progress, science, medicine, nationalism, socialism, democracy, Marxism, freedom, equality. But perhaps the most dangerous of the gods are those that are the most difficult to recognize for what they are, because we in the modern world take them for granted and look upon them much as we look upon the air that we breathe. Let me list the most common of these gods by their seemingly innocuous names: basic need, care, communication, consumption, development, education, energy, exchange, factor, future, growth, identity, information, living standard, management, model, modernization, planning, production, progress, project, raw material, relationship, resource, role, service, sexuality, solution, system, welfare, work. These are some, but not all, of the ninety-nine most beautiful gods of modernity, and reciting their names is the dhikr of modern man.

Anyone who wants an analysis and explanation of the nature of these gods should refer to the book Plastic Words by the German linguist, Uwe Poerksen. The subtitle is more instructive as to what the book is all about: The Tyranny of a Modular Language . Poerksen explains how the modern use of language—a use that achieved dominance after the Second World War—has resulted in the production of a group of words that have turned into the most destructive tyrants the world has ever seen. He does not call them "gods," because he is linguist and has no apparent interest in theology. Nevertheless, he does give them the label "tyrant," and this is a good translation for the Qur'«nic divine name, al-jabb«r . When this name is applied to God, it means that God has absolute controlling power over creation. "Tyranny" becomes a bad thing when it is ascribed to creatures, because it indicates that they have usurped God's power and authority. In the case of the plastic words, the usurpation has taken place at the hands of certain words that are used to shape discussion of societal goals.

As Poerksen points out, these tyrannical words have at least thirty common characteristics. The most important of these is that they have no definition, though they do have an aura of goodness and beneficence about them. In linguistic terms, this is to say that such words have no "denotation," but they do have many "connotations." There is no such thing as "care" or "welfare" or "standard of living," but these words suggest many good things to most people. They are abstract terms that seem to be scientific, so they carry an aura of authority in a world in which science is one of the most important of the supreme gods.

Each of these words turns something indefinable into a limitless ideal. By making the ideal limitless, the word awakens unlimited needs in people, and once these needs are awakened, they appear to be self-evident. The Qur'«n says that God is the rich, and that people are the poor toward God. In other words, people have no real need except toward God. But nowadays, people feel need toward meaningless concepts, and they think that they must have them. These empty idols have become the objects of people's devotion and worship.

The plastic words give great power to those who speak on their behalf. Anyone who uses these words—care, communication, consumption, information, development—gains prestige, because he speaks for god and truth, and this forces other people to keep silent. After all, we think, only a complete idiot would object to care and development. Everyone must follow those whose only concern is to care for us and to help us develop.

The mujtahids who speak for these mini-gods are, of course, the "experts." Each of the plastic words sets up an ideal and encourages us to think that only the experts can achieve it, so we must entrust our lives to them. We must follow the authority of the scientific mujtahids , who lay down shariahs for our health, our welfare, and our education. People treat the pronouncements of the experts as fatw«s . If the experts reach consensus ( ijm«‘ ) that we must destroy a village as a sacrificial offering to the god "development," we have no choice but to follow their authority. The mujtahids know best.

Each of the plastic words makes other words appear backwards and out-of-date. We can be proud of worshipping these gods, and all of our friends and colleagues will consider us quite enlightened for reciting the proper dhikrs and du‘«'s . Those who still take the old God seriously can cover up this embarrassing fact by worshipping the new gods along with Him. And obviously, many people who continue to claim to worship the old-fashioned God twist His teachings so that He also seems to be telling us to serve "care, communication, consumption, identity, information, living standard, management, resource . . ." — the dhikr is well enough known.

Because the plastic gods have no denotations, all those who believe in them are able to understand them in terms of the connotations that appeal to then and then convince themselves that they are serving the basic need that is stated in the very name of the god, because, after all, it is a self-evident need. We are poor toward it and we must serve it. It is obvious to everyone that these gods are worthy of devotion. Religious people will have no trouble giving a religious color to these tyrants. In the name of the plastic gods, people of good will join together to transform the world, with no understanding that they are serving man-made idols, idols that, as the Qur'«n puts it, "your own hands have wrought."

The topic of false gods is vast, especially nowadays, when more false gods exist than were ever found in the past. The Qur'an tells us that every prophet came with the message of tawÁâd , and that God sent a prophet to every community. Every community of the past had its own version of tawÁâd , even if people sometimes fell into shirk because of ignorance and forgetfulness. But in modern society, there are nothing but the gods of takthâr , and these gods, by definition, leave no room for tawÁâd .

Understanding the nature of false gods has always been central to the intellectual sciences, but this cannot be the concern of the transmitted sciences. One cannot accept that "There is no god but God" simply on the basis of taqlâd . The statement must be understood for people to have true faith in it, even if their understanding is far from perfect. Hence most of the Islamic intellectual tradition has been concerned with clarifying and explaining the objects of faith. What is it that Muslims have faith in? How are they to understand these objects? Why should they have faith in them?

The first of the Islamic objects of faith is God, then angels, prophets, the Last Day, and the "measuring out, the good of it and the evil of it" ( al-qadri khayrihâ wa sharrihâ ). In discussing God and the other objects of faith, it is important to explain not only they are, but also what they are not. When people do not know what God is and when they do not know that it is easy to fall into the habit of worshipping false gods, then they will have no protection against the takthâr of the modern world, the multiplicity of gods that modern ways of thinking demand that they serve.

What is striking about contemporary Islam's encounter with modernity is that Muslims lack the intellectual preparation to deal with the situation. Muslim intellectuals—with a few honorable exceptions—do not question the legitimacy of the modern gods. Rather, they debate about the best way to serve the new tyrants. In other words, they think that Islamic society must be modified and adapted to follow the standards set by modernity, standards that are built on the basis of takthâr . This is to say that innumerable modern-day Muslims are forever looking for the best ways to adapt Islam to shirk.

Many Muslims today recognize that the West has paid too high a price for modernization and secularization. They see that various social crises have arisen in all modernized societies, and they understand that these crises are somehow connected with the loss of the religious traditions and the devaluation of ethical and moral guidelines. But many of these same people tell us that Islam is different. Islam can adopt the technology and the know-how—the "progress," the "development," the "expertise"— while preserving Islam's moral and spiritual strength and thereby avoiding the social disintegration of the West. In other words, they think, Muslims can forget tawÁâd , embark on a course of takthâr , and suffer no negative consequences.

The fact that so many people think this way and do not recognize the absurdity of their position shows that they have lost the vision of tawÁâd that used to give life to Islamic thinking. They cannot see that everything is interrelated, and they fail to understand that the worship of false gods necessarily entails the dissolution of every sort of order—the corruption not only of individuals and society, but also of the natural world. In other words, when people refuse to serve God as He has asked them to serve Him, they cannot fulfill the functions for which He has created them. The net result is that our world becomes ever more chaotic. A significant Qur'«nic verse here is this: "Corruption has appeared in the land and the sea because of what the hands of people have earned" (30: 41). When people follow the gods of takthâr , corruption can only increase, and it will end up by destroying the natural world just as it is destroying society. "Corruption" ( fas«d ), after all, is defined as the lack of "wholesomeness" ( Äal«Á ), and wholesomeness is wholeness, health, balance, harmony, coherence, order, integration, and unity, all of which are established through tawÁâd or "making things one."

Attitudinal Obstacles

The second sort of obstacle preventing the recovery of the intellectual heritage can be discerned on the societal level in the attitudes and habits of mind that have been adopted by modern-day Muslims. These result from the loss of intellectual independence and have become embodied in the institutions and structures of contemporary society. I will not attempt to go into details. Instead let me suggest that these obstacles become manifest in various currents that are not difficult to see, such as the politicization of the community, monolithic interpretations of Islamic teachings, and blind acceptance of the teachings of contemporary Muslim leaders (in other words taqlâd where there should be taÁqâq ). Perhaps the broadest and most pernicious of these obstacles, however, is the general attitude that one might call "anti-traditionalism."

Although Islam, like other religions, is built on tradition—the sum total of the transmitted and intellectual heritages—many Muslims see no contradiction between believing in the gods of modernity and accepting the authority of the Qur'«n and the Sunnah. In order to do this, however, they need to ignore thirteen hundred years of Islamic intellectual history and pretend that no one needs the help of the great thinkers of the past to understand and interpret the Qur'«n and the Sunnah.

We need to keep in mind that if there is any universally accepted dogma in the modern world, it is the rejection of tradition. The great prophets of modernity—Descartes, Rousseau, Marx, Freud—followed a variety of gods, but they all agreed that the old gods were no longer of any use. In the Islamic view, God's prophets share tawÁâd . In contrast, the modern prophets share the rejection of tawÁâd and the assertion of takthâr . One can only reject God's unity by inventing other gods to replace Him.

In traditional Islamic terms, God is qadâm ," ancient" or "eternal." God has always been and always will be. In modernity, the gods are new. To stay new, they have to be changed or modified frequently. The new is always to be preferred over the old, which is "outmoded" and "backwards." Science is always making new discoveries, and technology is constantly offering new inventions that all of us quickly think we need. Anything that is not in the process of renewal is thought to be dead.

One name for this god of newness is "originality." He rules by ordaining new styles and models, and his priests are found everywhere, especially in the domains of advertising and mass indoctrination. Thus we have the fashion mujtahids who tell women what to wear and who change their fatw«s every year. Originality's priests also exercise authority in the world of art. Or take the modern university, where many professors adopt the latest intellectual styles as soon as they arrive on the scene. In much of the modern university, as in women's fashion, Paris rules.

The greatest danger of anti-traditionalism for modern Muslims is that they have accepted this god—like so many others—without giving any thought to what they are doing. Hence they think that for thirteen hundred years, Muslims had nothing to say. They want to retain their Muslim identity, but they imagine that in order to do this, it is sufficient to keep their allegiance to the Qur'«n and the Sunnah, blithely ignoring the great interpreters of the tradition over the centuries.

If people think they no longer need the grand interpreters, this seems to be because they believe in the gods of progress, science, and development. They tell us that today we know so much more about the world than those people of olden times, because we have science. People who think this way usually know nothing about science except what they are taught by the media, and they certainly know nothing about the Islamic intellectual tradition. They are blind obedientalists on the intellectual level, even though taqlâd is absurd in such matters. What is worse, this is a selective taqlâd . They will only accept the intellectual authority of the "scientists" and the "experts," not that of the great Muslim thinkers of the past. If Einstein said it, it must be true, but if Ghazz«lâ or Mull « Âadr« said it, it is "unscientific"—which is to say that it is false.

If such people really knew something about the intellectual roots and bases of science and theology, they would know that science has nothing to say to theology, but theology has plenty to say to science. The reason for this is that theology is rooted in tawÁâd , and hence it can look down from above and discern the interconnectedness of all things. But science is rooted in takthâr , so it is stuck to the level of multiplicity—the lowest domain of reality—and it can only dissect this multiplicity and rearrange it endlessly. Even when it is able to gain a certain overview of interconnections, it does this without being able to explain how it can do so or what the ultimate significance of these interconnections may be. By its own premises, science is banned from the invisible domains—what the Qur'«n calls ghayb . If it has nothing to say about angels and spirits, which are sometimes called the "relative ghayb ," it has even less to say about God, the "absolute ghayb ." In contrast, the Islamic intellectual tradition is rooted in knowledge of God, and thereby it also acquires various modalities of knowing His creation. These are rooted in absolute truth and in certainty, unlike modern disciplines, which are cut off from the Absolute. Only this sort of traditional knowledge can re– establish human connections with the divine.

Finally, let me suggest that the most basic problem of modern Islam is that Muslims suffer from what has traditionally been called "compound ignorance," jahl murakkab . "Ignorance" is not to know. "Compound ignorance" is not to know that you do not know. Too many Muslims do not know what the Islamic tradition is, they do not know how to think Islamically, and they do not know that they do not know. The first step in curing ignorance is to recognize that one does not know. Once people recognize their own ignorance, they can go off in "search of knowledge" ( Çalab al-‘ilm )— which, as everyone knows, "is incumbent on every Muslim," and indeed, one would think, on every human being. No recovery of the intellectual tradition is possible until individuals take this step for themselves. The tradition will never be recovered through taqlâd or by community action, only by the dedication of individuals, through their own, personal taÁqâq . Governments and committees cannot begin to solve the problem, because they start from the wrong end. Understanding cannot be imposed or legislated, it can only grow up from the heart.

The Prophet said, "Wisdom is the believer's lost camel. Wherever he finds it, he recognizes it." People today do not know what wisdom is, and still less do they know that it belongs to them by right. Until they recognize this, they will never know that their camel has been lost. They will think that in any case, camels are no longer of any use, since cars, airplanes, and computers will take them wherever they want to go. It is a tragedy when people have no idea that the only way to cross the desert of modernity without danger is by the camel of wisdom.