Encroachment Upon Scientific and Technological Space

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#1 [Permalink] Posted on 18th June 2017 12:25

This thread is part of my Encroachment Theory paradigm.

If you do not guard your life space there are bound to be encroachments upon it. The encroachment can be on social and cultural sector or economic, commercial and business space and economy. It could be political or military.

Today we are living in that era where there is near complete encroachment of Muslim life space.

In this thread I want to talk about western encroachment upon our scientific and technological space.

Brothers and sisters are welcome to contribute.

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Muslim Ummah aspires to attain a rightful and honored place among the civilizations of the world and make our proportionate contribution towards international peace, progress and happiness of humanity.

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#2 [Permalink] Posted on 18th June 2017 12:41

The European Dark Ages

When Muslims were at the peak of their scientific achievements the Europe was passing through her dark age - as admitted by themselves. Anyone indulging in scientific or philosophical speculation invited extremely serious trouble from the Church.

Islam, on the other hand, does not put restrictions on science.

It is strange that the west today tries very perniciously to slap the similar charges of suffocating science on Muslim world. If we Muslims will not refute this mischief then who will.

Let us get it clear that Muslim science reached its zenith in Spain and it is the west, Spanish Reconquista, that destroyed that branch of Islamic civilization completely and thoroughly.

I wish my brothers and sisters were working on other aspects of the Encroachment Theory so that I personally could focus on this aspect dealing with science and technology.

But we Muslims are our worst enemies in this matter too. Rather than payinh sufficient attention to the importance of science and technology we, particularly our clergy, is busy overtime disparaging the uses and importance of science and technology in life. One of the argument that I often get from the theological sector that science and technology is not essential for worldly progress and military matters. they say that Muslims were very advance in science in Spain yet they lost to the Spanish Inquisition.

At the moment I shall say only the following about this fallacious and silly argument. The technological explosion ensuing from science is a recent phenomenon. It is less than four hundred years old. It is merely two to three hundred years old. Modern European science is merely four hundred years old. So the military application of science, that is technology, are just that much old - two to three hundred years old. Thus the technology that is available to the west today was simply not available to the Muslims five hundred years ago. Science, even before its technological phase, is useful but not in that way as we see it in the technological phase. It is the military technology that has implications on war and the west used it to the hilt to further their agenda. They colonised us and then they resorted to economic colonialism and today we are in the complete encroachment phase.

I hope we can stuff this aspect into the brains of those people who still think that science and technology are useless in today's world and cheat Muslims of an opportunity to take their matters into their own hands.

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#3 [Permalink] Posted on 28th July 2017 15:49

I have been saying for some time that if you do not defend your life space then the world will start encroaching upon it. The encroachment will be on theological, scientific, technological, economic, business, industrial, trade, commercial, political and military space. I call it the encroachment theory. The encroachment can be at global level and it can be at local level. My interest is in global encroachmen and the encroachment in India. In this thread I intend to talk about encroachhment on our scientific space, what is its meaning and what are its implications and how does it effect Muslim Ummah and what remedies we can adopt to protect it.

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#4 [Permalink] Posted on 28th July 2017 15:56

A facebook Post on Mariam Mirzakhani

Apropos the recent tragedy associated with the untimely demise of Maryam Mirzakhani, aged 40, mother of a six year old, winner of International Mathematics Olympiads, student at Harvard, Professor at Stanford, first and thus far only woman winner of the coveted Fields Medal, it is interesting to see how many different kinds of political forces wish to appropriate her legacy.

These include a link I saw on an Indian feminist web-site, an article in the Dawn of Karachi, yet another web-site where she was to become an icon for women of colo(u)r. All very interesting. But all these are highly paradoxical. Of course, if the life of one human being is to inspire many, no one would complain. But, sadly there are many misconceptions underlying these appropriations.

Firstly, it is a completely wrong notion to think that only highly accomplished persons can and should be inspirational role models. The reason for this is that a person such as Mirzakhani is far far away from the mean of a Gaussian, probably a freak of nature in her gifts, and only time will be the judge of this. Such extreme outliers are not and cannot be real role models. They may set a standard, but these standards are impossible for normal mortals to reach. In fact, such romantic stories actually mislead young people about what the nature of the scientific enterprise is. It is not about inspired geniuses, but more about those who slog very hard, and think hard, and collaborate hard and a confluence of factors that make one a successful scientist. Most readers are certainly not going to be in that league anyway.

Secondly, there is a mis-conception that just because women have to wear by law a Hijab in Iran that there are particularly oppressed. All statistics of Universities, etc., show that a healthy fraction of the student body are women. The problem is the western media which tries to treat the `Islamic world' as a unitary whole, and transposes their view of what life is like in such countries on to them. The power of this media propaganda is so powerful that it blinds the reader. Iran is a proud old civilization where learning and education have in the past flourished where even today there is a great love for learning. It is no surprise that girls are encouraged to get into education.

Indeed, if Indian feminist web-sites want to have her as a role model, why not? But there is little in common between Mirzakhani's legacy and that of Indian women. Besides, there are a large number of Indian women in higher education and in the sciences and mathematics and applied sciences and engineering.

There are plenty of Indian women in the IT sector and their situation is quite different from that of women in Pakistan. It is nice to see that Pakistan media wants to see something good in an Iranian person, and why should they not? Let Mirzakhani be a universal role model.

And finally, her appropriation as a woman of colo(u)r is probably the one that is closest to being absurd. Women of colo(u)r were known, to my knowledge in Apartheid South Africa. I rarely see such references in the present era. Besides, what can possibly be in common with African American women, or African African women, or let us say African South American women, many of who are even today born into a life of poverty in `inner cities' and have little access to higher education and good schools, and someone like Mirzakhani who comes from a relatively well off, well educated family background in Iran?

Strange are the ways of the modern world. And yet, if her life is inspirational, let it be so, but without attaching needless political and other kinds of baggage. Let us admire her for what she really was -- a deep and profound mathematician, a wizard of mathematics, highly creative and technically powerful. Let us admire her for the mathematician she was, irrespective of her gender and creed.

Kiranjeet Chaturvedi : About Iran though.... after the Revolution there was a very dark phase for women and many others.

Rahul Siddharthan : «more about those who slog very hard, and think hard, and collaborate hard and a confluence of factors that make one a successful scientist.»
Why do you think those things did not apply to Mirzakhani? From whatever I have read, they did. And they're necessary. The idea that "geniuses" are born that way and can just coast afterwards is dangerous.

Balasubramanian Ananthanarayan : OK, granted.

Bindu A.Bambah: We build images out of snow and weep to see them melt. it's the Marie Curie phenomenon again an anomaly. I did a project with my women's study research student of scientific role models for women. Besides Marie Curie, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams appeared on the list. Maybe Rosalind Franklin. The fact is Indian women of science do not like to be role models for younger women . they want obsequience as much as the Male. And why should we not have the same vanity as that of a male scientist? The goal is that a day will come when we don't have to qualify the gender of a good scientist. How that will happen is that we increase numbers, distributions will automatically work out!

Rahul Siddharthan: I am actually troubled by many other things you write, but unsure whether to get into a discussion on this. (For example, the distinction between empoverished "inner city" versus "relatively well off" minorities/women. There is lots of evidence that discrimination doesn't depend on economic status and applies even at the CV level based just on the name of the applicant.) But anyway -- if Indian or Pakistani women see her and get inspired, what's wrong with that? Really confused by the rant.

Balasubramanian Ananthanarayan : Actually, I am confused by all these articles who want MM to be a role model, when she actually is not a role model, per se. Indian women have been around in the sciences for a very long time...it is not the absence of role models that is the problems that face them. It may be a bit different in Pakistan. Even in this case, MM does not come from the same milieu...that is why I am puzzled. In a generalized sense, I view someone with the achievements of MM as a beacon for everyone...and that is somehow my point. As for discrimination, I do not see how the presence of role models actual mitigates those issues...they see quite independent to me.

Rahul Siddharthan: As you yourself say, there are nowhere near enough Indian women at the top levels of Indian science. Or women globally for that matter. A woman winning the Fields is definitely inspirational (and not at all routine, as per evidence!) and suggests to girls that they could do it too. Girls from non-first-world countries in particular. As for discrimination, the barriers are removed and attitudes altered by seeing success stories, not by preaching or legislating. So celebrating successful women/minorities is extremely relevant.

Balasubramanian Ananthanarayan : If this post, in a roundabout manner brings clarity to the issue, nothing could make me happier. It would be good to see an independent summary of such ideas.

Bindu A.Bambah : You two men battle out what we women need to do as usual? Chances are we will not listen. So yell your hearts out . Tata

Balasubramanian Ananthanarayan : Why not you also write? And many more of your friends?

Dinesh Srivastava : This discussion has become too serious. In an ideal world one would not have discussed whether Mirzakhani was a woman or a man.
As far as appropriation is concerned there is a very amusing story about appropriation:- Prof. Bindu A.Bambah definitely knows and others will also know that Noorjehan is credited with discovery of itr (attar or rose oil). What is amusing is that Iranians claim that it was a discovery of Iran. Simple reason- Noorjehan was Iranian by birth. It is a different thing that her father came from a noble but very poor family from Iran and was coming to India to try his luck in the court of Akbar. Noorjehan was born along the route in Afghanistan. Assuming that he could not feed one more mouth he left her to die on a snow-covered rock. Going ahead he reached the hut of some Sufi (?) saint who advised him to fetch the girl as she was sure to bring him great luck.
Thus the powerful future empress was saved and then Iranians used her parentage to lay a claim to discovery of attar...

Bindu A.Bambah: She also discovered the art and science of extracting cashmere wool and weaving cashmere shawls! The type that are so fine they go through a ring Quite a prolific woman!

Dinesh Srivastava : This I did not know. Reference please so that I can include it in my talks..

Shyam Sundar Vembar : Anant, here is my submission in response to your opinion. I do not necessarily disagree with your view. However, there is another prism through which we can - and should - look at the appropriation of Mirzakhani by various people. Groups, especially those that are disadvantaged in any way (or believe themselves to be so) would look to appropriate and hold up as a role model anyone prominent who belongs to that group, no matter that the achievements of this person may not be in any way related to her being a member of this group. No matter too whether the person being appropriated even considers herself to be a part of that group or not. It gives the members of this group a rallying point to gather around, an example to aspire to, a life to be extolled. Such appropriation gives the group a figurehead, a kind of shorthand to communication, to self worth and a sense of affirmation of their own identity. I see this largely as a positive move ....and objecting to it is merely an intellectual quibble.

Balasubramanian Ananthanarayan : gosh...so much wisdom! Bow to superior knowledge...

Source : FB

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#5 [Permalink] Posted on 19th May 2019 07:28

Google celebrates Persian maths genius Omar Khayyam

New Delhi, May 18, 2019 10:10 IST

Google on Saturday dedicated a creative and special doodle to Persian mathematician Omar Khayyam on his 971st birthday.

Apart from his maths skills, he was also a well-known astronomer and poet

Google on Saturday dedicated a creative and special doodle to Persian mathematician Omar Khayyam on his 971st birthday. He was best known for his work on the classification and solution of cubic equations.

Apart from his maths skills, he was also a well-known astronomer and poet. Born in Nishapur in northeastern Iran, Khayyam spent most of his life near the court of the Karakhanid and Seljuq rulers in the period which witnessed the First Crusade.

His work on the classification and solution of cubic equations is phenomenal of those times as he had provided geometric solutions by the intersection of cones.

Khayyam was first to give a general method for solving cubic equations. Although he didn’t consider negative roots, his methods were sufficient to find geometrically all real (positive or negative) roots of cubic equations.

In 2012 as well, Khayyam’s 964th birthday was also celebrated by the search engine with a special doodle which was very well received by users.

Apart from India, the doodle would also appear to Google users in Russia, the Middle East, North African nations, the US and Chile.

Source : The Hindu

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#6 [Permalink] Posted on 13th October 2019 15:59

May I request brother Abu Muhammed to bring this thread here and merge with the two threads?

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#7 [Permalink] Posted on 13th October 2019 17:53

Maripat wrote:

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Assalam u Alaikum Professor Sahab!

Honestly speaking! I am starting to realize the importance of the work you are doing. Currently my focus is on the upliftment of the spirit of ummah. Without positive thinking and positive attitude we can't move forward even if we are at the peak of expertise in various fields of science and arts.

Quote:

“Throughout history many nations have suffered a physical defeat, but that has never marked the end of a nation. But when a nation has become the victim of a psychological defeat, then that marks the end of a nation.” Ibn Khaldun

I agree with the approach you have adopted because it is my belief that wrong aqaid and wrong concepts (in regards to our relationship with our creator, our relationship with this world, our conduct, mistakes, the right things we did and the wrongs we did in history) are far greater fitnah than weak iman. Iman must be built on correct aqaid and correct ideology. West and the East are engaged in the battle of hearts and minds. They want to confuse Muslim ummah in regards to their identity as Muslims, their deen and it's true unaltered interpretation and they have succeeded in confusing a large number of Muslimeen. This is indeed the age of Deception (Dajjaliat).

Quote:

they say that Muslims were very advanced in science in Spain yet they lost to the Spanish Inquisition.

Having said that, I personally believe that both the clergy and Muslimeen with modern education got it wrong. Neither Muslims lost because of expertise in science nor they did they lose because of not having science later on. This is not the real problem. The real problem is that Muslims deviated from true authentic Political Islam i.e. Khilafah in the times of Yazid. It was Khilafah which directed this ummah to expand the rule of Allah to four corners of the world through Jihad, trade, dawah and akhlaq. When the aim of Muslim ummah was to remove the system of injustice and establish the system of justice (Shariah) in the whole world, they were busy in improving the means (asbab, science, technology, strategy, warfare etc) as well as their iman in order to efficiently spread the system and message of Islam. However, when khilafah turned into monarchy, then the motive of expansion was merely the gain of more worldly pleasures (to quench the greed of the ruling elite of this ummah with few exceptions like Sayyidina Umar bin Abdul Aziz RH) instead of expanding the rule of Allah in the world.

Now the question is that why did Khilafah turned into monarchy.

1. Qadr of Allah. Khilafah means Jannah and perfection in the life of this dunia. However, this dunia is not eternal and it is the place of test. If Khilafah wouldn't discontinue then how could qiyamah occur and how would this world come to an end.

Muslims have two goals in life.

a. Do good deeds and earn Allah's pleasures to gain entry in Jannah.
b. Try their best to establish the system of Islam so that others are facilitated in doing good deeds to earn Allah's pleasures to gain entry in Jannah.

It is naive of some learned brothers to think that USA and West and the secular-democratic-capitalist system has an influence on us.
That media has an influence on us.
That laws have influence on us.
That literature has influence on us.
That education has influence on us.
That they encroach our spaces and they have influence on us.
That muftisays.com has influence on us ;)
That mobile phones have influence on us.
That social media has influence on us.

And yet, despite of acknowledging all these factors, these learned Muslimeen state that we don't need khilafah or our aim is not to establish khilafah or it is not fardh upon the creative minority or the few awakened ones among us. When we all will become good (automagically), Allah will grant us victory. So when the West is in power with their system, they have influence over us and very few of us can survive this psychological and ideological holocaust. However, Khilafah is not necessary according to them in order to protect the vast silent majority who are sheep and need a shepherd to be lead in the right or wrong direction. When the West is that shepherd then the West has the ability to influence the sheep and lead them to hell. However, khilafa cannot be that shepherd which will indeed lead the majority to heaven. What kind of logic is this?

They quote ahadith that your rulers are the mirror of your actions (paraphrasing). However, they haven't defined what are those actions. Are those actions only limited to Salah, Dhikr, Quran, Akhlaq. Muamlaat etc. Or in those actions the struggle to remove the system of injustice and the establishment of system of justice is also included.

What is the peak of Amr bil Maroof and Nahi Anil Munkar? Is Gih@_| not part of it?

Our elders compromised on monarchy and their wisdom was to keep Muslimeen united and accept the Qadr of Allah.

However, my question is that "Did Muslimeen remain united under monarchy for long?"

Having Husn e Dhan, I can only say that they did their best to keep the things correct. However, ideologically I cannot agree with them that Islam can remain true Islam with the mixture of any system of governance other than Khilafah which demands merit for ruler-ship and discourages nepotism which is the root of all evils.

Monarchy failed to prevent nepotism and so did democracy, dictatorship etc.

If we analyse the dunyawi reason behind the destruction of the institution of khilafa. I would not comment on Sahaba RA. However, I would speculate (since I have to study that part of history in depth. Please correct my speculation if it turns out to be wrong) that the quality of Dawah of real Islam declined because of the gain of worldly wealth to an un-reasonable extent in the times of Sayyidina Uthman RA. The Islamic Empire (Khilafa) was expanding at rapid speed and on the other hand the creative minority trained by Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.)

was spreading thin because able men couldn't remain in Madina. They were appointed various duties in in the vast Empire and they couldn't remain near the Caliph to advise him in affairs of the state. Because of his mild temperament , the munafiqeen took advantage of the situation and started to spread mischief. The rebellion was not crushed in the beginning, the creative minority was spread thin down, the quality of silent majority declined because of over indulgence in worldly pleasures because of the vast riches of Ghaneemat which made them easy target of Shaytan and the ruler was lenient (because of his mild nature). All these factors contributed in the situation.

To summarize my long post, I would suggest, that we lost because of lack of khilafah which truly unites the Muslimeen and keeps the essence of Islam intact within them. We lost khialfa because in order to preserve it, the ummah must not over indulge in dunia and must live a simple and jihadi life. Gih@_| being the highest institution of tazkiyah. We over indulged in dunia because we forgot our purpose in this world. We forgot our purpose in this world because the creative minority was spread thin and high quality Momineen trained by the Prophet (s.a.w.)

were not enough in number to manage the vast expanding empire with extra ordinary rapid speed.

Therefore, Islam begins from one Charismatic leader. He gives dawah of correct deen and forms a jamaat of creative minority. Then that jamaat strives for the establishment of System of Islam and takes different steps in order to achieve that goal. Then that Jamaat does Gih@_| to spread that system to other parts of the world. That creative minority must keep engaged in dawah work to keep the ideology and iman of all Muslimeen intact whether they are the rulers, the silent majority or their own selves. Reptition with understanding affects our hearts and minds which as a result control our actions. Shayateen repeat their dawah of falsehood and the creative minority repeats their dawah of truth. When the creative minority is weakened because of circumstances, their own negligence of their duty or they become easygoing because of the lack of difficult times in the age of prosperity which helped shape their character and which brought high level sifaat needed to start and groom a civilization then a vacuum is created and there is no able jamaat to lead the vast silent majority to true Islamic glory. This vaccum is then filled by shayateen, fasiqeen, munafiqeen, zalimeen, kafireen (you name it). This results in the deviation of ummah and regardless of lack of worldly progress or extra ordinary advancement in worldly affairs, the tools which that ummah has are not used for the benefit of humanity but destruction. Since, Muslimeen are the representatives of Allah and His Rasool (s.a.w.)

, when Muslimeen mis-represent the Creator and His Messenger (s.a.w.)

and neglect the message of Allah, then Allah severely punishes the ummah with natural and "manufactured" distasters to warn and rebuke them. If the ummah understands, what went wrong and repents then well and good. If not then they are replaced by others better than them.

So the key responsibility is of the leader and that creative minority which is alive, active, understands, thinks, ponders, reflects and is not selfish. If that creative minority neglects it's duty then it is the first one to get the collective punishment and their punishment is more severe than the vast majority. Because the more privileged you are, the more responsibility you have and the more tested you will be. And knowledge and ehsaas [empathy] (sensitivity to the needs of others) is a resource not available to all. With these resources comes greater responsibility.

Sorry for the long post but this topic is not that simple and straight forward.

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The world does not forgive the weak.

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#8 [Permalink] Posted on 13th October 2019 18:09

Yes we need science and technology but with the correct mindset. This is what I am trying to say. Without the correct mindset, no amount of tools and expertise and amaal and sifaat can help us.

Saheeh manzil ka tayun kiye beghair safar ka aghaaz kar dena himaqat hai.

Starting a journey without first choosing the correct destination is stupidity of the highest order.

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