One of the best read I had.
I hope you make it till the end. :)
Freethinking without Control is Mental Slavery
By Muhd Noor Bin Muhd Deros
“Why does God need angels to perform certain actions? Can’t he do it by himself?”
“Err…you know…these kinds of questions will only lead you to unbelief, plus it will not benefit you in this world or the afterlife…so don’t ask such questions…”
Seems familiar doesn’t it?
For a youth who thinks, these kinds of answers will only lead his mind to ask more questions, and guess what? This time the questions will only go deeper and will be more fundamental.
“Is a good Muslim he who believes blindly? Can’t the fundamentals of this religion be explained or proved rationally in any way? What is the value of a faith that can’t be proven nor explained? How do I know then that it is the truth?” So he will ask.
But rest assured my brothers and sisters, the danger is not in these questions, it lies in the answers.
And the reality is this, an unanswered question or an unsatisfactory answer will only leave a vacuum spot in our minds, and human beings hates emptiness, hence the journey to find the filler begins.
A Teen’s Pursuit for the Truth and the Role of Adolescence Psychology.
Teenagers have to realise that this journey in search for the truth that have to be taken by all thinking youths is not without excess baggage, a normal teenager carries along with him/her the storms and turbulences of adolescent psychology. Let me list down some of it; the urge to be different, the search for autonomy, the need to feel free and independent, the urge to be accepted by peers and so on.
And along the way, without a competent captain (A human guide), a good sail (A thinking mind) and a compass (A good understanding of Quran and Sunnah) the ship will from time to time be diverted by the storms from its due course. The initial goal of finding the truth can turn to the destructive activity of irresponsible freethought caused by above anything else, egocentrism.
That is why you can sniff the smell of pride from your friend when you asked him what do you believe in? and his answer is, “I’m a freethinker” or “I believe whatever I want to believe. ”, or “I don’t share the belief of most of you.” This is the urge to be different creeping in.
“I don’t affiliate myself to the backward thinking of our elderly…” The need to establish autonomy manifesting itself.
And the urge to feel free and independent can be detected in these kinds of statements. “I don’t need my parents to dictate to me what I have to believe in, I can think for myself, and I can believe in whatever I want to believe in.”
Now, you should ask yourself a very important question and you should not continue your journey unless you have answered this question.
Is my journey egocentric? Is it about myself or is it about the truth? Is it about myself wanting to be different? Or am I being pressured by my peers? Or I’m just rebelling against my parents?
If your spirit of youthfulness is not put under the control and supervision of a well developed reason and a matured mind you will be exposed to the dangers of rebelling without wisdom or a noble vision against the established principles of Islam. Ending up making a fool out of yourself.
Outer factors : Individualism and The Spirit of Rebelling Againts Authority
Besides these psychological and inherent factors, there are other outer contributors too that lead to the problem of irresponsible freethought.
If we look at the things that occupy most of our past times these days, we will find names that signifies the gloominess of individualism. Look at words such as tubes and pods, both says subtly, “Build a barrier around yourself and don’t let others in”, and gadgets such as PSP can be seen clearly separating a teenager from the outer world and the human beings around him, that even though his body is present and touches the skin of his brother besides him in the MRT in reality he is not there, he is in that thing.
The virus of individualism have crept into our subconscious, and surely affected our attitude towards our religion, we suddenly have to balance between two conflicting ideas in our minds, individualism of the modern life and the spirit of Jamaa’ah as promoted by Islam. Finally the stronger one will prevail and sits on the throne of our hearts. If individualism prevails, a point of contention with Islam that promotes collectivism will surely be sparked. “I don’t care about what they believe, what’s important is what I believe...” I and my belief versus them and their belief; Islam.
Another theme that we can find prevalent in our lives and surrounded our consciousness is the spirit of rebelling against authority, and the main factory for this idea is no doubt the western media, we find this everywhere in the movies, dramas, sitcoms etc. Now, Individualism combined with the spirit of rebelling against authority plus the demands of adolescence psychology, guess what will it lead to?
Yes, Irresponsible free thought. And religion will be its first natural victim.
Freethought and Thinking Fallacies
Free thought linguistically connotes the idea of freeing one’s mind from dogmas, unexamined beliefs etc. This is not a problem.
Islam too encourages its adherents to be critical of dogmas, unexamined traditions, false beliefs and so on. Allah said in the Quran “And when it is said to them: “Come to what Allah has revealed and unto the Messenger (Prophet Muhammad s.a.w for the verdict of that which you have made unlawful) “. They say “Enough for us is that we found our fathers following,” even though their fathers had no knowledge whatsoever or guidance“. (Al-Maaidah : 104)
But historically, the term free thought is closely knitted to the spirit of the Renaissance era during the 14-17 century in Europe. We should not forget that the landmarks of this era was the rebellion of the European man against Christianity due to its negative attitude towards science and progress and also its humanistic philosophy (A philosophy that makes man and not God as the soul goal of life). Sadly, hastiness and prejudice lead them to commit a grave fallacy called generalization. They thought that Christianity represents all religion, including Islam.
And some Muslims who felt the sense of inferiority vis-a-vis the European history because of their own ignorance tend to repeat the same mistake. They assume that freeing one’s mind from everything religious - without considering the fundamental differences that existed between the different religions - is the only way to progress. And they call it free thought.
Disappointingly enough, these people did not look at the map of the world in its entirety when they study history, can you believe it? They didn’t look at the middle of the map! Where the Islamic World is located… :P when the Europeans is still living in their dark ages, Muslims were already at the zenith of their glorious civilization. Islam has never had a problem with science and progress. It is not hard to find a pious Muslim who is in the same time a great scientist on that time, the founder of the scientific method Ibn Al-Haytham, confesses that his discovery of the scientific method was inspired by guess what? The Holy Quran. The case is closed, Islam has nothing against science like Christianity does. So do not generalize.
Muslims and Freethought
If free-thought is associated with freeing one’s mind from everything religious, then as Muslims we surely have a problem with it. There is no reason for a thinking Muslim to be a freethinker.
In Islam using ones intellect is obligatory. No doubt about it. In the Quran those who didn’t use their intellect were rebuked as being comparable to cattle. Allah says in The Quran:” We have disposed to the abode in hell many of the jinn and mankind whom he had foreknown to be losers; they carry heart stigmatized with dullness of comprehension and eyes lacking perception and they have no ears for admonition. These are they standing similitude exact of cattle, in fact even worse, and these are the heedless of all truth” (Al-A’raaf : 179)
And for your additional info, the word A’ql or intellect is mentioned 48 times in The Quran, and the word Fikr or reason is mentioned 19 times.
The commandment is not only in The Holy Quran.Our beloved Prophet Muhammad said: “ Do not be a yes-man
or a blind follower of the flow, saying: “ if people do good then we will do good, and if they commit injustice we too will commit injustice” but, be on a firm ground and do not let yourself being swayed around, and say “ if they do good we will do good, and if they commit injustice we will not be unjust“. Narrated by At-Tirmidhi
Using your intellect includes being critical of whatever you hear, read and think, and this is exactly the mode of thinking that set our great scholars to formulate the great sciences of Mustalahul Hadith, Ilmul kalam and Usulul Fiqh. Sciences based on critical, analytical and logical thinking.
Do not forget that in the initial stage, freethinkers become free thinkers because they observe and they think, but sadly, their serious thinking ended the moment they assumed that they have identified the root problem for backwardness and stupidity, and after that they move on and continue committing thinking fallacies one after another. From generalization to the straw man fallacy to ad hominem and so on.
The Ignorance of Some Muslims and the Freethinker’s Fallacy of Generalization.
To an observant and thinking human beings, the stupidity of some Muslims is clear to be seen, but pause for a while, and have some control on your mind, this is the crucial part, do not jump to conclusion. Yes there were ignorant yet over confident Muslims, when the radio was invented some Muslims actually prohibited they brothers from purchasing it because they thought that there is a small Satan that lives inside the box and he is the one who did the talking, how can a box talk? Wait, do not jump to conclusion, have some control my brothers and sisters. There were unintelligent Muslims who thought that whatever you find in the Quran you have to apply it without considering the context of the verse, so they kill non-believers whenever they find them, which is in clear contradiction with the Quran as a whole and the Sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w.
There are non-thinking Muslims out there but it is not Islam that made them stupid, the fact of the matter is, human beings have the potential to stupidify themselves with anything! Including religion and not forgetting, science! as we have pseudo religionist, we also have pseudo scientists and pseudo sciences. Remember Eugenics? Darwinism?
Irreligiousness, Intelligence and The Human Ego
If you discard religion as a whole, you are left with not many choices, most free-thinkers (in its historical term) end up embracing these two ideologies; Darwinism and materialism; which is the main basis for the offspring of extreme free-thought; atheism.
There is an erroneous and irresponsible classification made subconsciously by some free-thinkers, the
classification which says; Great scientists were free thinkers and atheists.
I don’t have to tell you whether this statement is false or not.
Here are some of our greatest scientists and thinkers, and guess what? They all believe in God :
Ibn Al-Haytham, The founder of the Scientific Method.
Ibn Sina, one of the greatest scientist, philosopher, physician and psychologist humanity ever produced.
Al-Zahrawi, the father of modern surgery
Al-Farabi, a polymath and one of the greatest scientists and philosophers of Persia and the Islamic world in his time. He was also a cosmologist, logician, musician, psychologist and sociologist.
Dr Francis Collins, The head of the Human Genome Project
Max Planck, who made many contributions to physics, but is best known for quantum theory, which revolutionized our understanding of the atomic and sub-atomic worlds.
Albert Einstein, anybody does not know him?
Dr Micheal Behe, Sir Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, and the list goes on.
We have great scholars, scientists and philosophers representing both sides, believers and atheists alike, hence, the reason for the contention is not about intelligence or lack of it, the culprit is the tag team duo of misinformation and the human ego. And lest you forget, the human intelligence can act as a justifier for the dark demands of the carnal self.
Handy Kit of Strong Arguments for Believers.
You are probably waiting for a handy kit to be affirmed of your faith and belief against the onslaught of those free-thinkers or those free-thinkers wannabe.
Here I will share with you, main arguments, logical and scientific in support for the existence of God, and that the fundamental creeds of Islam are not against science. I am not able to list down all of the arguments or its detailed explanation, because of space and because I am not a scientist, these points are meant to be a trigger for your curious minds to push your youthful bodies to do your own research:
1) The Big Bang theory and the beginning of the universe. Discovered by Sir Fred Hoyle, which says that the universe had a beginning and will surely have an end, this is a well known scientific fact.
2) The second law of Thermodynamics and the end of the universe :
Edward Luther Kessel, an American zoologist, writes in his book the evidence of God:
"Science clearly shows that the universe could not have existed from all eternity. The law of entropy states that there is a continuous flow of heat from warmer to colder bodies, and that this flow cannot be reversed to pass spontaneously in the opposite direction. Entropy is the ratio of unavailable to available energy, so that it may be said that the entropy of the universe is always increasing. Therefore, the universe is headed for a time when the temperature will be universally uniform and there will be no more useful energy. Consequently, there will be no more chemical and physical processes and life itself will cease to exist. But because life is still going on, and chemical and physical processes are still in progress, it is evident that our universe could not have existed from eternity, else it would have long since run out of useful energy and ground to a halt. Therefore, quite unintentionally, science proves that our universe had a beginning. And in doing so it proves the reality of God, for whatever had a beginning did not begin of itself but demands a Prime Mover, a Creator, a God."
Next,
3) The argument of contingency and the existence of Allah, formed by our great Muslim theologians.
The argument goes like this:
Everything in this universe is originated ‘Haadith’ (it was once non-existent, refer to the big bang theory)
Everything which was originated must have a cause
Hence, the universe has a cause.
This may seem simple, but trust me it is profound because it quite complex in its simplicity. Wait until you read the explanation below:
Everything in this universe falls under the category of `Mumkinul-Wujud' or `Transient being,’ the category of beings which may and may not exist in reality. There is nothing in their nature to demand this or that, it has equal relation with existence and non-existence. Once these beings did not exist; now they exist, in another word they were originated, or ‘Haadith’ (human beings, for example), and sometime in future they will cease to exist. By their nature, they cannot demand to exist or to cease to exist because non-existent precedes their existent, how can a non-existent being be the cause for itself? Can you be your own father? Therefore, there must be a source or cause to bring them to existence or to terminate their existence.
And that source or cause should not itself be just a`Transient'; otherwise it will itself need a source or cause to bring itself into existence. And this chain of cause and effect must stop on a cause which needs no outside source or cause for its existence. It means that the final source or cause of bringing this universe into existence must be self-existent and must be supra-natural, God.
4) Quantum physics shows that claims for the existence of matter are unjustified.
This is a very powerful argument countering those who says that the only things that exist is matter, the things that we can touch, see, hear, smell and taste. Things that cannot be perceived by our five senses does not exist.
But, science ironically says the contrary; it says that claims for the existence of matter are unjustified. The things that we perceived as having a material existence or reality actually exist only in our minds, we cannot in any way prove that what we perceive conforms with reality.
The most important truth discovered by quantum physics, which leaves materialists speechless, is that matter is 99.9999999% empty. In his studies of physics and psychology, Peter Russell often makes comments about human consciousness. In an essay adapted from his book, From Science To God, Russell explains this truth thusly:
“Take, for example, our ideas as to the nature of matter. For two thousand years it was believed that atoms were tiny balls of solid matter-a model clearly drawn from everyday experience. Then, as physicists discovered that atoms were composed of more elementary, subatomic, particles (electrons, protons, neutrons, and suchlike), the model shifted to one of a central nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons-again a model based on experience. An atom may be small, a mere billionth of an inch across, but these subatomic particles are a hundred-thousand times smaller still. Imagine the nucleus of an atom magnified to the size of a grain of rice. The whole atom would then be the size of a football stadium, and the electrons would be other grains of rice flying round the stands. As the early twentieth century British physicist Sir Arthur Eddington put it, "matter is mostly ghostly empty space"-99.9999999 percent empty space, to be a little more precise.
With the advent of quantum theory, it was found that even these minute subatomic particles were themselves far from solid. In fact, they are not much like matter at all-at least nothing like matter as we know it. They can't be pinned down and measured precisely. They are more like fuzzy clouds of potential existence, with no definite location. Much of the time they seem more like waves than particles.”
What this argument actually says is, this world is only an illusion, exactly like what The Quran says :” The life of the world is but matter of illusion “ ( Al-Hadid : 20).This world is a test from Allah, and the real and lasting world is in the after-life. Allah says in The Quran: “The Hereafter is better and more lasting” (Al-A’laa : 17) The hereafter is a place beyond the so called material world, it really exists. Rest assured, our great ulamas reach to this conclusion through strong proofs valid inferences.
5) Evolution theory has no scientific basis. Life on earth cannot be the product of natural selection as darwinists says. Complexity can only originate from an intelligent being, not from something which has no self-awareness.
Read about Dr Micheal Behe’s Irreducible Complexity, which says that some structures are too complex at the biochemical level to be adequately explained as a result of evolutionary mechanisms and thus are the result of intelligent design, God.
The evolutionist scientist Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe confesses in their book ‘Evolution from Space’:
“….Life cannot have had a random beginning. Troops of monkeys thundering away at random on typewriters could not produce the works of Shakespeare, for the practical reason that the whole observable universe is not large enough to contain the necessary monkey hordes, the necessary typewriters, and certainly the waste paper baskets required for the deposition of wrong attempts.
The same is true for living material. The likelihood of the spontaneous formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40,000 noughts after it.. It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor on any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence.”
This is just a pinch of the enormous collection of strong arguments refuting the validity of Darwinism. Read books by Dr Micheal Behe, Dr David Berlinski, Dr Franscis Collins and Harun Yahya and others.
So, a sincere and objective free thinker – in its literal sense - should free himself not just from false religious beliefs but also from scientific hoaxes such as Darwinism isn’t it? But sadly we don’t find this among those who claimed to be ‘free’ thinkers. So we ask this question, is it the truth that they were after or they were actually expressing their hatred towards something that put a limit on something that is so dear to them? Their assumed limitless freedom?
Aha! Now we see a clearer point of contention between religion and free thought.
Religion and Control
Let’s look at the word religion. The word derives from the Latin word ‘religare’ which means ‘to tie down’. What about the word ‘Din’ in Arabic which is the translation for the word religion? The word connotes, being indebted and judgement, when you are in debt you are being tied down, the same goes with the word judgement, if you realise that everything you do will be brought to judgement, you will put your carnal desires under control, in another word you carnal self will be tied down.
So we can see that the word religion and Din shared the same root meaning. People who were constantly being bombarded with the word freedom will surely feel uncomfortable with the phrase ‘to tie down’, because it somehow created an image of an animal being stripped off its right of being free.
But, it’s all about through which lens you choose to see things. Change the lens and the attitude will change.
Religion signifies control.
Intelligence is nothing without control.
Throughout the history of mankind, thinkers and philosophers, religious people and atheists alike, all acknowledge the existence of another element besides the rational self that made up a human being. And that is the carnal self, the Id, the animal side of man, the Satan spot, hawa nafsu, etc…all pointing to one thing, a consensus among the human race that there is a dark side to us human beings.
This is the subject of control. The carnal self needs to be controlled by something higher than the rational self of man, because there can be no self-governing morality without religion.
Muslims were aware that Islam imposes limitations to our freedom, but, we are the kinds of people who are willing to trade the base for the noble. As Prof Seyyed Hossien Nasr says in his book ‘Islamic Life and Thought’.
” Islam, after imposes limitations to our freedom, in return bestows a sacred character upon human life which in turn makes possible a greater inner freedom.”
Religion Hoppers
As to religion-hoppers, who hops before first establishing himself on the ground, who hops to another religion before having a good understanding of that particular religion, should be told by thinking youths that it is just not cool at all, it only shows that religion hoppers are people who sees religious principles and world-views as a plaything, and had a difficulty comprehending the seriousness and the enormous effect beliefs had on our lives.
Thinking youths also have to realize that every single fundamental principle in an organized religion such as the three Abrahamic faiths is a part of an unseparated whole of its complex belief system, you cannot pick one principle from this religion, and then pick another one from another religion and construct your own belief system, you have no right to do that, every principle loses its function if taken on its own.
Conclusion
Faiths, beliefs, worldviews and principles of life is a serious matter, what you believe in determines your being. People commit suicide because of their belief, and others live their lives with courage and strength because of their belief. So be wise and be in control.
Throughout your journey, always fix your mind on the ultimate goal which is the truth, and, be sincere.
Be in constant vigilance of your natural enemies, Satan and the carnal self, who will try their best to divert you from reaching your original destination. Always be attentive of their commonly used methods, which is; Ignorance, non-thinking, being overly emotional, prejudices, preconceptions, biasness and above all, egocentrism. Beware of these subtle viruses my brothers and sisters! Beware!
And please know that you have the right to demand answers from your teachers and asatizahs, ask good questions and make sure you get an answer for it, do not let anybody inhibit the sincere pursuit of your enthusiastic, lively and youthful minds!
Do not be afraid of being under the control and supervision of Islam, be happy instead! because when you dethrone Islam from your hearts and minds and practice extreme freethought you will unleash the worst dictator we all can ever imagine, a dictator that will enslave our minds and will determine our actions against our own well being, and the worst part is, it will be done so subtly that we ourselves are unaware that we are being enslaved! And what can be worse than this?!
My brothers and sisters, freethinking without control is mental slavery.
Wassalam.
Muhd Noor Bin Muhd Deros
17 Jan 2009
Ramadhan Kareem to all Muslim brothers & sisters.
wasalaamualaikum.
