Do you get the sense that the concept of scholarship in the muslim world is dead today?
Are there organizations out there that fund research in Islam? How many people are coming out with books and papers that try and explain confusing concepts better, and maybe provide alternate interpretations to traditional age-old interpretations of Islam that may be culturally biased from a time that’s passed?
I say this, because I see so many people writing fervently about their theories on the internet. Much of it is poorly written, and inaccurate, and not very well researched. And yet people read it and accept it to be true. I don’t deny that I might have fallen into this trap as well. Its hard to figure out which interpretations to believe in when you yourself don’t have a good grasp of Arabic, or of detailed Islamic history.
And I say this because when I last went to Pakistan, being an armchair scholar in Islam was the rage (either that or being on the other extreme being so liberalized that they make us Americans look like conservative school marms). I was handed loads of books on Islam, which I did read, and found them to be full of such fancifull and false information and information that wasn’t supported with proper citations. Like these authors haven’t ever heard of the concept of a “works cited page” or a “bibliography” or “footnotes” or any form of external reference/citation to support what you’re saying.
And yet this is the scholarship that the muslim world is relying on. I’m sure there are some scholars that write very well, and properly, with full citations, and well-supported and constructed arguments. But I rarely find such works, and most of it is repeated theories re-summarized. Nothing new or novel that shows one looking into the history books and finding different perspectives on Islamic laws, sanctions, prohibitions, philosophies.
Scholarship operates on patronage, and thus far the traditionalists are getting patronage from Islamists...on the other hand, the modernists have their head so far up the Wests arse (not to blame the West, but these faux scholars) that they're concept of scholarship is bending over backwards to discredit religion at any cost.
Muslim societies suffer a more severe form of what ailed the Soviets...there's too much ideology infused into academia.
So long as secularism remains a threat to the religious, and vice versa, there will be no real scholarship as honest scholarship needs to emerge without ideological sway.
Never mind secular/religious, we can't even honestly address our early history thanks to the Shia/Sunni divide.
As for the vast majority of the literature out there, it's intended to enforce tradition, not map it out and present it as an accumulated body of knowledge. It's highly rhetorical.
Actually there in history...no sch safety of material is kept throughout history as in quran collection or hadees collection so there are flaws ...definitely but one can identify it ifgo in -depth...
Mai nai yai post barai dartay dartay ki hai kyo kai yai PCG ki thread hai aur mughai aap sai bara dar lagta hai ai aap choti choti bato par naraz ho jati hai...well...in the past..if i said something wrong or harsh.....extremely sorry for that...as my tone always has a scarcastic nature....anyways...sorry again to PCG ...
I don’t know about you but YOU have to get out there and search for these books. I have found many!!! Go to the local islamic bookstore, you will find tons of them. If you want online stores, here are few good ones:
The other thing is that internet research throws up english language results. All the major centres of Islamic studies are in countries where arabic is the dominant academic language, and where using the internet to disseminate academic information is still not that well developed.
Take a field trip to Egypt, learn Arabic, and then go see what the postgraduates at Al-Azhar university are producing.
Well then that poses another problem. Why aren't there efforts to translate texts into other languages? Obviously, a major chunk - I would dare say a majority - of muslims are not Arab. Or at least don't have mastery over the arab language, esp if you take into consideration Arabs boarn abroad who haven't mastered their parents' language.
There are a few works that do challenge some status quo beliefs (and those writers are usually written of as whores), but there aren't that many. Even the literature you do find is usually re-worded and re-explained material - much of it is not properly referenced even. I've seen lots of books on Islam, and read lots of essays. But most are not referenced properly, or have been written very illogically. Drawing conclusions that don't even correspond with the premises being laid out by the writer.
Well then that poses another problem. Why aren't there efforts to translate texts into other languages? Obviously, a major chunk - I would dare say a majority - of muslims are not Arab. Or at least don't have mastery over the arab language, esp if you take into consideration Arabs boarn abroad who haven't mastered their parents' language.
There are a few works that do challenge some status quo beliefs (and those writers are usually written of as whores), but there aren't that many. Even the literature you do find is usually re-worded and re-explained material - much of it is not properly referenced even. I've seen lots of books on Islam, and read lots of essays. But most are not referenced properly, or have been written very illogically. Drawing conclusions that don't even correspond with the premises being laid out by the writer.
Read the works of Mufti Taqi Uthmani, he's an awsome scholar.
Again you're wrong, it's not over night that all the major works can be translated into English, Urdu etc.. Not all scholars are fluent in English and not all scholars are Urdu speaking. You need to know atleast 2 languages in order to translate right? There are many works that havee been translated and are being translated. Efforts? Who are we to say efforts? I don't know about you but we should praise the scholars who spend their wholes lives to propagate Islam. Instead of complaining we should make dua.
all the questions are answered by scholars from the past its just none of it is translated and that is what we lack on
their are realy excellent books written in arabic but whats the percentage of people who know arabic?
only if these books where translated and distributed life would be so much easier for common people like u and me to understand Islam
Cricketplaya, i have clicked on the links you posted. I didn't see much in there about women, and the one book that is listed for women is called Women and Family or something to that effect.
Why can't women be seen as individuals outside the context of Islam? I don't see every other Islamic book chunking men together with family issues? Don't women have issues that have NOTHING to do with family?
This is one of the more subtle problems that has such a negative impact on our muslim community. Women aren't seen as individual entities by scholars, and so they don't write as such, and women continue to see themselves as having a side-lined role in the muslim community - that of rearing kids and taking care of a husband. Result? 50% of your population is not active in society and not active in political changes.
Great way to keep control over a country, right - get the scholars to shut up 50% of the population by restricting their role to the home. Any literature that dares challenge that is tossed to the side, typically not financially supported, not published, not referenced.
Of course women have issues. Fact is women have more issues than men. It’s just that mindset we have in the east where women are kept in the homes but inshAllah this old ‘tradition’ will dissapear and our Islamic tradition will take its place. Islam gives the women the respects they need. Remember ‘Jannat lies under the feet of the mother’.
Here are verses from the Quran that tell all human beings that women have rights.
Massive...
Not everything is written in the past...thats what ijtihad is for...new realities arise all the time...what did Abu Hanifa say about cloning or genetic engineering?...what did Shafi say about catching planes?...new realities require new scholarship...
Unfortunately it is very difficult to get good scholarship on non secular issues...
Most Arab countries are anti Islam and want there scholars to produce scholarship which fits in with the needs of the state...
The best scholars therefore are either captured by the Mukhabarat and either killed or imprisoned...
What we mostly get is government scholars who say what they are told to say rather than stating what they should say...