TOPAncient wise men believed the world was full of unseen forces. The Age of Reason said that these forces had only ever existed in mans imagination, only reason could show man the Truth behind the Universe. The trouble is man became like a thinking robot, and the world of the Rationalist was a daylight place in which boredom, triviality and ‘ordinariness’ were ultimate Truths. But the main problem with Human beings is their tendency to become trapped in the ‘triviality of everydayness’, in the suffocating world of their personal pre-occupations. And every time they do this, they forget the immense world of broader significance that stretches around them. So in a sense these Ancient wise men were closer to the truth than modern man, for intuition of ‘unseen forces’ keep them wide open to the vistas of meaning that surround us. Goethe’s Faust can be seen as the symbolic drama of the West, since it is the drama of the rationalist suffocating in the dusty room of his personal consciousness.
In 1969, a cybernetician Dr. David Foster, pointed out that the basic block of any electrical information theory is one electrical wave, consisting of two halves, because it is measured from top on one ‘bump’ to the bottom of the next trough:
That is, a wave is a ‘binary’ system, and computers work on upon binary mathematics. It we think of invincible waves as the basic block of the universe, then you can think of life, in fact, all matter, as due to vibrations, that have been somehow, cybnernetically programmed. Dr. Foster is saying that, to the eyes of the cybernetician, the complex structures life around him, reveal data processing on a massive scale, and he finds himself wondering what intelligence processed the data? The universe is full of cosmic vibrations. Thus he calls it the Intelligent Universe.
There is no mention of the name of Almighty Allah in sciences like physics, chemistry, botany, biology and economics. Alahazrat Imam Ahmad Raza Khan (may Allah be pleased with him) maintained that no science or technology should be without the mention of the name of Allah. This was such a revolutionary idea that if it was acted upon; our hearts and minds would not have been inert as they are at present. He pleaded that Muslims of knowledge must refuse to accept scientific research and philosophical dogmas, which do not accord with the Holy Quran.
Prof. Hakim Ali (d. 1364/1944) was teaching mathematics at the Islamiyya College, Lahore. He was exceptionally brilliant in his field and Aqa-i-Bedar, Priciple of Dar al-Ulum Al-Sina al-Sharqiyya in Lahore was a disciple of the former. Professor Hakim Ali had reverence for Ahmad Raza and used to visit him and exchange thoughts on intellectual matters. Both had correspondence with each other about the rotation of the earth. On 14 Jamadi al-Awwal 1339/1921, Prof. Hakim Ali wrote a letter to Ahmad Raza and from this letter it could be inferred that both were carrying on correspondence regarding science for a long time. The Professor wrote to Imam Ahmad Raza:
"If you kindly agree with me, Allah willing, Science and the Scientist could be Muslimized."
In reply to this letter, Ahmad Raza wrote the treatise 'Nuzul-i-Ayah-i-Quran Bi Sukun-i-Zamin-o-Asman' in 1338/1920. In this he discussed the movement of the earth and opposed the views of Prof. Hakim Ali. His views about the modern and ancient Philosophies, were not imitative or apologetic, but it was very creative and sincere. He had unshakable faith in Quran and the Hadith, and no vicissitudes of time could affect him.
Once he wrote to Prof. Hakim Ali:
"My friend! It is obligatory that our hearts be filled with honor of Sahaba,
the Companions of the Holy Prophet (Allah’s grace and peace be upon him). They
learnt Quran from the Holy Prophet (Allah’s grace and peace be upon him) and understood its meaning from him.
Before them we appear to be unlettered, my friend! If we think that meaning we
have understood of Quran is correct, and the honor of Sahaba, particularly
Hazrat Huzayfa and Hazrat Abdullah Ibn-i-Masud understood them wrongly, the
Sahaba is slighted. I give you in the protection of Allah that even such a
thought passes through your heart.
After this, Imam Ahmad Raza Khan continued in this letter:
"My friend!
Science would not be Islamised by adjusting problems and ayah to science. In
this way, May Allah save us, Islam accepted science and not vice versa. If
science is to be made Muslim, all the Islamic problems with which science is
apparently in contradiction, have to be highlighted inquiring into the weakness
and reason of science. Science should be employed to emphasize the positive
features of Islamic stand and rebut the un-Islamic views of modern science. This
is not difficult for an intelligent man like you. You love such things."
If we had accepted the approach of Imam Ahmad Raza (may Allah be pleased with
him) our educated youth today
would not have been so enamored with modern thoughts and skeptical about Islamic
views. If scientists had sought guidance from the Quran they would have reached
centuries ago where they are now. Life in plants, echoes of sound in space, speed of light, mysteries of land and
ocean, the colorfulness of the earth and heaven, and the disintegration that
goes on in the universe are not new for a student of the Quran. In fact they are
very ancient. It is the magical spell of the West that even the acquainted
appears quaint.
Properties of sound were discovered much later, but Muslim Sufis and ulema had discovered these quite early and pointed out things which would perhaps be surprising to modern man.
Gifted with immense knowledge of Religion, Philosophy, Logic, Sociology and Literature, Imam Ahmad Raza (may Allah be pleased with him) was also a leading mathematician of his time, adept and proficient in Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry (particularly triangles and spheres), Logarithms, Mensuration, Almanacs and Calendars (namely appearance of new moon, timings of salaat, the Sahri and the Aftari of salaat at Makka Mukerrama and comparative calendars of the Hijri, Christian and Roman), Astronomy, Astrology and Numerology (ilm-e-Jafr). In brief, he was a compendium of all faculties related to Mathematics and the Occult Sciences.
But he firmly believed that the Holy Quran is the only standard to examine the Truth of every human knowledge and science, ideologies and research, philosophy and culture, etc.