A lot of people wonder that if Muslims have the perfect guidance, then why are they so behind everyone n terms of worldly achievements? The answer to this question is multifaceted and needs deep analysis.
It is no secret that in the Islamic Golden Age, Muslims were leading the world in worldly achievements. They gave the ideas to Western civilization that led to the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution. There was a difference between the scientific inquiry that the Muslims practiced as compared to that followed by Western civilization. In the Islamic model of inquiry, God was at the center. Their motivation to find out things in their physical environment was inspired by their scriptures. Doing so was considered a form of worship which increased their faith (emaan). Thus, it was achieved through perfect balance required by taking care of multifarious obligations. In contrast, the scientific inquiry carried out by the West was done after completely denouncing the religious teaching as Christian dogma prevented honest rational inquiry. It was motivated by reasibs other than that of worshiping God. It might have been carried out out of curiosity or desire for fame, status or wealth.
Today, this inquiry is done based on the Western model, which does not contain the essential balance that the Muslim scientists practiced in the Middle Ages. Many people engaged in scientific inquiry today sacrifice personal spirituality, family life, community life, etc. for the sake of scientific achievements.
Another dimension of the answer has got to do with the stagnancy and decline of the pursuance of knowledge and science in the Muslim world since the 13th century. As Muslims relinquished their positions as the leading intellectuals of the world, they were slowly replaced by Western thinkers. With that change came the change of doing science as a means to increase faith to doing science by renouncing faith. Thus the Islamic paradigm of science was lost to a secular paradigm of science.
As the Muslim world was colonized, Muslims felt a need to graft Western education system in their institutes to progress. This was done mostly by accepting the philosophy of Western education completely, rather than reinterpreting it from the Islamic paradigm. Thus, the Muslim world tried to catch up in scientific inquiry while their students suffered from contradictory paradigms of realities - Islamic and secular. This resulted in two outcomes. Either Muslims did bad in modern education since it was not based on their own frame of reference or they completely abandoned their own paradigm, accepted secularism and achieved worldly success.
In order to preserve their religion while excelling in education, Muslims started to focus on certain professions, the education of which were religiously neutral but which allowed them to earn well. Thus, Muslims tend to excel in engineering, medicine, law, computer science, etc. In general, their focus shifted from using education as a means of worship to using education to live a comfortable life. The desire for status and wealth makes them unable to dedicate themselves to scientific inquiry, which they find difficult to carry out while being true to their faith.
Yet another dimension of the answer lies with the fact that scientific research is not a priority in a lot of the Muslim world which is struggling with immense socioeconomic problems. Those Muslim countries that are poor have no resources to invest on science. While those who are rich are too arrogant to realize its importance. Those Muslims in the West are undergoing other unique challenges in terms of searching for ways and means to keep their progeny within the realm of their faith.
To a typical Muslim, discovering scientific discoveries while losing his faith is failure. Achieving scientific breakthroughs are not his priority. His goal is to use education to fulfill his economic needs so that he is able to do good deeds and fulfill all his responsibilities by living a balanced life.
It is no secret that in the Islamic Golden Age, Muslims were leading the world in worldly achievements. They gave the ideas to Western civilization that led to the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution. There was a difference between the scientific inquiry that the Muslims practiced as compared to that followed by Western civilization. In the Islamic model of inquiry, God was at the center. Their motivation to find out things in their physical environment was inspired by their scriptures. Doing so was considered a form of worship which increased their faith (emaan). Thus, it was achieved through perfect balance required by taking care of multifarious obligations. In contrast, the scientific inquiry carried out by the West was done after completely denouncing the religious teaching as Christian dogma prevented honest rational inquiry. It was motivated by reasibs other than that of worshiping God. It might have been carried out out of curiosity or desire for fame, status or wealth.
Today, this inquiry is done based on the Western model, which does not contain the essential balance that the Muslim scientists practiced in the Middle Ages. Many people engaged in scientific inquiry today sacrifice personal spirituality, family life, community life, etc. for the sake of scientific achievements.
Another dimension of the answer has got to do with the stagnancy and decline of the pursuance of knowledge and science in the Muslim world since the 13th century. As Muslims relinquished their positions as the leading intellectuals of the world, they were slowly replaced by Western thinkers. With that change came the change of doing science as a means to increase faith to doing science by renouncing faith. Thus the Islamic paradigm of science was lost to a secular paradigm of science.
As the Muslim world was colonized, Muslims felt a need to graft Western education system in their institutes to progress. This was done mostly by accepting the philosophy of Western education completely, rather than reinterpreting it from the Islamic paradigm. Thus, the Muslim world tried to catch up in scientific inquiry while their students suffered from contradictory paradigms of realities - Islamic and secular. This resulted in two outcomes. Either Muslims did bad in modern education since it was not based on their own frame of reference or they completely abandoned their own paradigm, accepted secularism and achieved worldly success.
In order to preserve their religion while excelling in education, Muslims started to focus on certain professions, the education of which were religiously neutral but which allowed them to earn well. Thus, Muslims tend to excel in engineering, medicine, law, computer science, etc. In general, their focus shifted from using education as a means of worship to using education to live a comfortable life. The desire for status and wealth makes them unable to dedicate themselves to scientific inquiry, which they find difficult to carry out while being true to their faith.
Yet another dimension of the answer lies with the fact that scientific research is not a priority in a lot of the Muslim world which is struggling with immense socioeconomic problems. Those Muslim countries that are poor have no resources to invest on science. While those who are rich are too arrogant to realize its importance. Those Muslims in the West are undergoing other unique challenges in terms of searching for ways and means to keep their progeny within the realm of their faith.
To a typical Muslim, discovering scientific discoveries while losing his faith is failure. Achieving scientific breakthroughs are not his priority. His goal is to use education to fulfill his economic needs so that he is able to do good deeds and fulfill all his responsibilities by living a balanced life.
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