Re: Scholarship
PG,
first off, your realization of the outdoor cafes, street life and the webbing is sadly true of how we are transformed today.
the human emotions, are there they 're simply abandoned, or buried away in the race of tangible possessions and who can shine more brightly, shout more noisily.
what we as Muslims can do, is that have an understanding first of what we want to make of our religion.
what is true Islam?
ho can we implement it at many levels in a truly Islamic society?
who will make up that society?
will everyone abide by its laws or not?
if yes, then, how will we interact with those not from our Islamic society?
what lines can we draw on the map of this earth - to call Islamic, certain territories and better yet, how can we make Muslims and Islam universally integrated into non Islamic, non Muslim societies?
can we break off from the made-up patriarchal and collective greedy notions of what Islam and Muslims are and how can we be following our true religious edicts?
what we can do is, assimilate what each Islamic Nation or Culture has.
bind it in the Muslim brother and sisterhood ideology.
secure our lands, and train our generations for self sufficiency THROUGH EDUCATON AND SELF AWARENESS.
& FINALY, HAVE MUTUALLY SELF-RESPECTING MUSLIM-COUPLES WHO, AS WOMEN AND MEN, CAN DO ALL THIS WORK, together, wth full faith in their hard work, honest intentions and help from Allah.
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.
Why, and how to fix this problem?
