Theology is the study of what can be reasonably concluded about the nature of the divine, based on our knowledge of the scriptures. Since the scriptures of different faiths are different, there are necessarily vast differences between Christian, Islamic and Hindu theology. But as we also showed in The Theological Case, there are also vast differences between the conclusions of, on one hand, Islamist theology based on a highly selective reading of the Quran and Hadith, and on the other, a more liberal interpretation of Islam based on a wider reading of the scriptures, enhanced by more recent knowledge of God’s creation.
We showed how within Islam the Islamist narrative starts from selected passages from the scriptures that support its hard-line agenda, and from there to the Sharia: rules for how the faithful must live and be governed. But the five main schools of the Sharia all differ in important ways from one another: all define highly conservative systems of law, and all are equally deeply flawed theologically.
In contrast with theology, philosophy is the study of knowledge; starting from what can be known with any certainty about life, the Universe and everything, based on observation, logic and reason, without accepting any scriptures as proven.
1. Faith vs Religion
Philosophical arguments for the liberalisation of Islam began soon after the death of Mohmmed, as Islam expanded its territory, came into contact with other cultures, and was influenced by them.
Despite attempts by 12th century thinkers such as Ibn Rushd[1] to again bring philosophy to bear in the interpretation of Islam, these voices went unheard in mainstream Islam, which by then was dominated by the absolutism of al-Ghazali[2]. He argued that everything that happens here on earth only does so through the grace of Allah. This viewpoint sees Allah, the creator of the universe, as intervening in the daily lives of everyone on earth. It effectively shut the door on philosophy, scientific inquiry and ijtihad within Islam for more than 800 years.[3]
Modern philosophical arguments against Islamism centre around its absolutism and intolerance, its disdain for science, and the incompatibility between the tenets of traditional, conservative Islam and today’s understanding of ourselves and our world.
2. Absolute certainty and Intolerance
One of the most attractive aspects of Islamism for many Muslims is the absolute certainty that it offers to those searching for meaning in a poor, complex and unequal world. But we have shown that there is no overriding theological justification for any particular version of Islam, nor for any other religion, to claim that theirs is the one true faith, nor can the intolerance that typically accompanies such claims be justified. No human being can claim absolute knowledge of the divine. The absolutism and intolerance promoted by Islamism are not merely wrong but have for centuries been the poisons eating away at the heart of Islam, and they still continue to pose an existential danger to society.
As Karl Popper warned in “The Open Society and its Enemies (1945)”[4]:
“Absolute certainty is the foundational component of totalitarianism…. If one is sure that one’s philosophy will lead to the best possible future for humankind, all manner of terrible acts become justifiable in service of the greater good.”
He also warned against the danger of tolerating intolerance:
“Unlimited Tolerance can lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of those who are intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed and tolerance with them.”
One of Islamism’s greatest strengths has been the persuasive but totally unjustifiable certainty with which the Islamists have presented their case: offering false hope and simple solutions to those seeking certainty in an unequal, complex and uncertain world. Their solution is for Muslims to cast their better feelings aside, with threats of violence to anyone who fails to accept their taboos.[5] Of one thing we can be sure: Anyone offering absolute certainty in this uncertain world is certainly wrong!
3. Islam and Science
Since the dawn of modern science in the 17th century, the quality of life of virtually everyone on earth has improved almost beyond measure. Life expectancy for a baby born anywhere on Earth today averages more than 70 years, compared to just 30 years for those born as recently as 1870.[6] Traditionalists argue that the improvements in public health came about because it was the will of Allah, but many advances in medicine were opposed by Islamic traditionalists because they conflicted with the religiously approved practices of the time. Centuries of prayer never led to any improvement in life expectancy. It was only the advent of modern medicine and advances in sanitation and public health that made the difference.
The traditional Islamic worldview, born in a pre-scientific age, has had a long and troubled relationship with science. There is no doubt that science education across the Islamic world is in a very poor state, and the neglect of science is endemic. In his book “Islam and Science (1990)[7] ”, physicist and social commentator Pervez Hoodbhoy castigates mainstream Islam for its disdain for science. He cites a former Pakistani Minister of Education who suggested the world energy crisis could be solved by harnessing the energy of djinns, mythological entities purportedly made of fire. He is appalled that among the world’s 221 Nobel Prize winners in Physics there is only one Muslim, Abdus Salaam (an Ahmadi, and reviled as such by the majority of mainstream Muslims).
Earthquakes happen when the pressure building up in the earth’s crust causes the interface between tectonic plates to rupture. Hoodbhoy recalls that following the Pakistan earthquake in October 2005, a majority of his postgraduate physics students said they believed that the quake was a punishment or warning from Allah. Only a small minority recognised that it was a result of natural processes.[8]
But the greatest mistake the traditionists continue to make is to insist on divine intervention in daily life, despite the fact that all astronomical, geological, meteorological and biological events can be fully explained as the result of natural processes. The notion of divine intervention is both unnecessary and redundant. William of Occam (1285 – 1347), a Franciscan friar, argued that when two alternative explanations exist for the same event, the simplest – i.e. that requiring the fewest assumptions – is probably correct: an aid to decision-making, now known as Occam’s Razor. From earthquakes to epidemics, when science has discovered a natural process to explain events, Occam’s razor will defeat a supernatural explanation every time.
We now know that the Universe began in a Big Bang around 13 billion years ago and has been expanding ever since. The Sun and solar system, including the Earth, were formed around four billion years ago through the working out of natural processes. We know that all life on earth evolved over a period of more than a billion years from the most primitive molecules to the vast array of life forms we see on earth today; they were not created at a stroke just a few years ago.
Storms and tempests, floods and droughts came as unwelcome surprises to our ancestors and the resulting loss of life was seen as divine punishment for our sins. But today computers can predict the weather hour by hour as weather patterns develop, with no need for divine intervention.[9]
We are taught that Allah will never demand or cause an evil act. So it is surely blasphemous as some leaders do to suggest that Allah has any hand in natural disasters that kill innocent children.[10]
We reject the idea that the Creator of the Universe has any hand in natural disasters or is directly involved in daily life here on Earth.
4. Islam and Evolution
But the biggest thorn in the side of the traditionalists is evolution. Since first published by Charles Darwin in 1859, the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection[11] has passed every scientific test ever thrown at it, and evolution has been observed in action from the finches of Galapagos to the evolution of the Covid virus. Evolution is the central fact of biology, the mechanism by which all life developed. For any thinking Muslim, evolution explains how God’s creation has come to be; to deny evolution is to deny one of God’s greatest gifts without which human life itself could never have arisen.
The final blow to the anti-evolutionists should have been the 1953 discovery by Crick and Watson of the structure of DNA and the genetic process by which evolution occurs.[12] But despite overwhelming evidence in its favour, the denial of evolution has been a growth industry among Muslims. Hundreds of so-called experts have published innumerable books and articles claiming to prove that evolution is false. Just one example will suffice: the publication and printing of 10 million copies of the glossy coffee-table book: “The Evolution Deceit” by Harun Yahya[13], distributed to almost every school in Europe, which became a laughing stock among the scientifically literate for its egregious errors of fact.[14]
The denial of science: both the process of discovery and of scientific discoveries themselves, is at variance with God’s injunction to increase our knowledge.[15] And the best way of increasing our knowledge of His creation is surely by learning what science has to teach us: about life, the Universe and everything.[16]
5. The fantasy of science in the Qur’an
Centuries of prayer and relying on the Quran and hadith for all knowledge, never improved life expectancy or health outcomes. It was only science, modern medicine and social progress that finally led to success.
The value of human knowledge lies in its detail. It is the height of hubris to claim that all knowledge can be found in the Qur’an: a claim the Qur’an itself does not make.
It took millennia for human knowledge to develop to the point where it could be used to influence the future of humanity: in medicine, in our quality of life and in the environment. All that remains is the need for the political will to use that knowledge wisely.
Yet while science education in much of the Islamic word is in an abysmal state, Islamists have been promoting the idea that virtually every scientific discovery of modern times was already foretold in the Qur’an, and furthermore that science has now proved that the Qur’an was divinely inspired.[17] This movement, known as Bucaillism[18], has been extraordinarily successful, even gaining endorsement (often by trickery) from western scientists. Needless to say, all such “proofs” are nonsense, based on misinterpretation and distortion of the evidence.[19]
But as we have seen, most people will believe what they are taught, especially if it reinforces what they already believe. The Islamist multi-million-dollar misinformation industry has been hugely influential. So popular has been the idea that the Qur’an foretold all of science that books purporting to give examples have become best-sellers.[20] According to the Islamist scholar Zaghloul El-Naggar, “One of the main convincing evidences to people to accept Islam is the large number of scientific facts in the Qur’an”.[21] But if that were so, why weren’t these ‘facts’ used to improve our quality of life: why did we have to wait centuries for the advent of science for the world to achieve that?
Despite Pervez Hoodbhoy’s condemnation of the state of science in the Islamic world, very little has changed over the past 30 years. Young Muslims are still being taught that “all knowledge you will ever need is there in the Qur’an”, a conceit that is nowhere articulated in the Qur’an itself.
If the Qur’an was a science textbook, why did we have to wait a thousand years for ‘Quranic science’ to improve our quality of life? Why ? Because it took real science, not fantasy, to achieve it.
If we really want to know how the world is, rather than simply indulge in wishful thinking, we should return to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, following the scholars of early Islam, from the Mutazilite’s onwards, for whom the search for truth was grounded in evidence and observation of what actually is.
Science has taught us more about God’s creation than a thousand years of theological speculation.
6. Islamic education
In both East and West, Islamic education has focused more on religious studies and less on secular subjects than their western counterparts. One of the guiding principles of Islamic education has been the supremacy of religious knowledge over secular subjects such as geography and the sciences. One classic example: during a visit to Ayatollah Khomeni in Paris prior to the Iranian revolution, a reporter was asked by Khomeini where he was from. “Switzerland”, he said. “Where is that?” asked Khomeini.
There is a vast difference between religious education (which, inevitably, implies learning by rote), and education in the sciences where progress depends on a spirit of questioning and inquiry. Islamic students are still encouraged to learn to recite the Qur’an in Arabic, even if they understand neither Arabic nor the meaning of the words: the hypnotic effect of the repeated sounds is considered sufficient[22], creating the impression that the sounds themselves have some divine, magic qualities. But it is surely the meaning of Allah’s message that is important, not simply the sounds.
So entrenched is rote learning in Islamic schools that questioning the teacher is considered disrespectful and almost universally discouraged.[23]
Saudi funding of Islamic education in schools, colleges, madrassas and Islamic centres has had a devastating impact on general levels of educational attainment of Muslims in both the Islamic world and the West. Along with the much-needed finance for ‘education’ however came a clear understanding that the funding was conditional on the schools adhering to the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.[24]
The Islamist disdain for science is disdain for knowledge. Around the world, Muslims are being left behind in their understanding of reality.
Muslims demand far better education for our children than is offered by Islamism.
[1] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-rushd/
[2] Ibid
[3] And as can still be seen in schoolrooms to this day as children recite their tables: 2 times 2 equals 4 by the will of Allah”.
[4] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/
[5] See Part 2: “Living under Islamism” for multiple examples of how intolerance is still playing out in the Islamic world.
[6] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Life_expectancy_by_world_region%2C_from_1770_to_2018.svg
[7] https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2014/02/Islam-and-Science-BOOK.pdf
[8] https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2014/02/Islam-and-Science-unhappy-bedfellows.pdf
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_forecasting
[10] https://timesofislamabad.com/24-Aug-2022/destruction-from-floods-is-punishment-from-allah-due-sins-of-people-of-pakistan-claims-top-pakistani-political-leader
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution
[12] https://www.nature.com/articles/171737a0
[13] https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Deceit-Harun-Yahya/dp/1897940971
[14] https://www.academia.edu/7259981/A_Critique_of_Harun_Yahyas_Evolution_Deceit_
[15] Quran 29:20, 20:114, 3:137, 16:79, 8:22 and many other verses
[16] https://www.meforum.org/2593/pervez-amirali-hoodbhoy-islam-science
[17] https://faithfreedom.org/Articles/DGolden/touting_science.htm
[18] https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Bucailleism
[19] https://faithfreedom.org/Articles/DGolden/touting_science.htm
[20] See for example: https://www.islamicbulletin.org/free_downloads/quran/bible_quran_science.pdf
[21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaghloul_El-Naggar
[22] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6178573
[23] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/25/islam-science-muslims-religion
[24] From a private conversation with the dean of of SOAS