Promoting Technology-Driven Economy to Overcome Hard Times
By Basheer Ahmed
Garden Gove, CA
It was a pleasure reading Editor Akhtar Faruqui’s articles “Overcoming Hard Times” and “Taskforce on Technology-Driven Economy.” They had both the color of aapbeethi and jag beethi (a color of what we and the people of our times are facing). They were fantastic for content, lessons and language and an inspiration to the depressed, a caution to the negligent, and a food for thought to those who think on such matters.
In one of his supplications which Nabi SA made in his midnight prayers, he used to say: O the Caretaker of the world and its people, whatever you do is perfect and flawless. That is why He has created ordinary minds who talk about people and get into trouble because of it so that they can correct themselves. Then He has created average minds who become politicians and administrators by remaining busy with events. Then there are advanced minds who think about the suffering of the ordinary minds because of the mistakes of average minds and think about ideas to correct the situation. Such are the people who make inventions, create institutions, and make the society a little better. These are the people who are promised Paradise where they will be compensated for what they could not enjoy because of their preoccupation with the problems of the people of the world, and they say: we are rewarded by our Lord for living a life of austerity with our families in our worldly life (Ch52 V26).
Life without challenges would be dull and drab. Challenges have a purpose which is aptly reflected in the following couplet which means: Eagle is not afraid of the opposing wind for it knows that it blows to lift him higher and higher.
Tundi E Baad e Mukhalif say Na Ghabra Ai Ookhab
A ThoChalthi Hai TujhayOonchaUda-nay Kay Liye
Another Urdu poet in this context says: Only a tree laden with fruits faces the barrage of stones, therefore if we do not have the courage to face the stones then we should remain fruitless.
Phal Dar Kay Naseeb Main Hai Path-tharon Ki Maar
A HausalaNahin Hai Tho Bay Samar Raho
God guides us to overcome the challenges that come to us naturally in accordance with His for us. If we invite challenges, which in army parlance are called punga, they are not challenges but foolishness which destroys us. We have taken enough of them all through our history. After the exile of Bahadur Shah Zafar when Ulema spearheaded the fight against the British Raj they thought that they will succeed where their King had failed. Their defeat in what is called Ghadar (Mutiny) cost immensely to Indian Muslims, but it successfully heralded the struggle for India’s Independence. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan took the challenges of this defeat and he made some compromises for which he is criticized to this day by those who support taking pungas. His advice that Muslims should hold Qur’an in one hand and Science in the other was apt for the harmonious development of mind and matter at a time when Muslims were in dire need of both. One should read the books Do Qur’an and Do Islam by Ghulam JeelaniBarq to understand the importance of the Qur’an and Islam for the advancement of science and moral development. His advice to inscribe La Ilaha Il Lallah on the forehead (forebrain) was to make sure that we have this powerful statement as an anchor in the sea of good and bad thoughts with which we are all confronted, giving us hope and fear in our struggles. By clinging to the anchor of The One to Whom everything belongs, one does not become anxious while facing problems and does not act foolishly when hopeful. This is a charm to get peace and enjoy the pleasure of bliss which no other psychedelic can give.
DrAbdus Salam’s passion to advance the cause of science in the Third World and the reason for his optimism in this regard is thought-provoking. People who could write big passages of the Qur’an on a grain of rice definitely have the capacity of doing miraculous things in sciences too. Unfortunately, art is what we indulged in more than science while the others at Al-Hambra learnt the other disciplines of sciences to bring the world out of the Dark Ages and dominate it. Because of the effort of people like Sir Syed and others like them, Muslims have contributed greatly to the development of America and Europe in the last five decades at the expense of the countries which gave them their education.
In a way, Sir Syed and others were like Abdul Mutallib, the grandfather of Nabi SA, the custodian of Kaaba, and a leader of Mecca. Abraha, the ruler of Yemen came with his fleet of elephants to destroy Kaaba. He confiscated the camels of Abdul Mutallib, and Abdul Mutallib went to Abraha. Abraha thought that he was coming to negotiate a peace deal. Nay, Abdul Mutallib asked Abraha only to release his camels. Abraha asked him if he was not afraid about plundering of Kaaba like the plundering of Jerusalem by Titus. Abdul Mutallib said: God will take care of His House and his people, I am concerned about my camels, please give them to me. God was impressed by his belief in Him, and Abraha left empty handed following a disease which afflicted his elephants.
Sir Syed knew that the religion of God will prevail when He wants it to prevail, and to assume this to be our responsibility and to try to force Allah to work on our plans without knowledge is futile. That is why they worked to better the material and spiritual life of Muslims rather than engage Muslims in futile struggles of the self-seeking religious and political leaders.
Your advocacy to set up a task force on technology- driven economy is appropriate. Prof Moravscik is correct that advanced countries being saturated with both the benefits and harm of it, give the less developed world an opportunity to carry on the baton in this relay race of science. Learning from their experience, Third World countries should be careful in benefiting from the good and be safe from the evil of excessive indulgence in it as the roulette is being shifted amongst those who are unaware of the game.
Allah says in the Qur’an: We have created man and taught him through pen what he knew not. He also says: We created man with a destiny and lead him to it. Accordingly, He led Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday to discover the reality of Electromagnetism which led to the discovery of the dynamo that enabled us to generate electricity which revolutionized our world. Roentgen discovered X-rays and Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin which revolutionized medicine. Avicenna (Bu Ali Sena) in the process of understanding and translating the achievements of old heritage gave new meaning to it and became the herald bearer of Renaissance. All this they did with their meager resources to benefit mankind without bankrupting the societies of their time.
As genuine scientists are providing real solutions, the con-men are accruing their financial benefits by commercializing science. Ever since knowledge became a commodity for sale and exploitation, and greed became a tool to advance economy, knowledge has become a tool of exploitation and has lost its purpose and utility.
I salute the endeavor of men to unravel mysteries of nature, but what I loathe is the dishonesty in spinning of knowledge for their financial benefits by wasting a lot of public money on projects that we know are unnecessary. Making a fool of innocent hard-working citizens who need their hard earned money to give a decent life to their families and proper education to their children to enrich few greedy people is a dishonesty which Third World countries can’t afford.
As the governments of the Third World boost the tech-driven economies they should refrain from being sucked into the black hole of subsidizing this costly enterprise of “discoveries”. As the stock markets are not controlled by the Third World to subsidize the fantasies of the con men in academia, politics and business, the onus of research should be left to private enterprise. This is the only way to prevent the people managing economies from bankrupting their already poor countries in the name of advancing education and blame it on “Economy Stupid” while working on their own agenda.
