Review - Desperately Seeking Paradise (Part 1)

This is the first part of a series of "review" on Ziauddin Sardar's book "Desperately Seeking Paradise." It is not going to be a sequential review but more of the parts which resonate with me.

This first part is on the chapter called "the Inquiry Years" where he talked about Al-Faruqi's idea on Islamization of knowledge and his opposition towards it. While the years he described were in the 80s, I do remember that such ideas were still big in the 90s when my friends and I were active in the Muslim Society on campus. The Muslim intellectuals, similar to those described by Sardar, were almost obsessed with the need to Islamize knowledge. I think I still have the book by Al-Faruqi that was quoted in Sardar's book. Now, I wonder what happened to this movement - have it been abandoned? Where did the energy and effort go to? Perhaps it is still there but now, things seemed to be hijacked by the issue of terrorism and extremism; the need for "moderate" Muslim voices.

Coming back to the book, I like how Sardar argues against Islamization of Knowledge. In his "discussion" with Al-Faruqi, he mentioned in the book:

"we must Islamize the disciplines...establish the specific relevance of Islam to each area...Al-Faruqi picked up the knife and fork lying in front of him..."Think of them as a discipline...Now in the West....People eat with their left hands...we Muslims eat with our right hands. So all we have to do is to switch....Certain disciplines would require that kind of transformation."

I was dumbfounded..."Forks and knives emerge out of a particular context....part and parcel of a certain etiquette of eating...disciplines are not, as you seem to think, made in heaven, they are not a priori given...Disciplines are born within the matrix of a particular worldview and are always hierarchically subordinated to that worldview...Islamizing disciplines already infused with a materialistic metaphysics and western, secularist ethics is tantamount to a cosmetic epistemological face-lift."


His description of his group's (the Ijmalis) idea to knowledge echoes within me - emphasizing on ethics and interconnectedness. That the pursuit of knowledge is a form of worship and that it must be pursued in the promotion of values that enhances the Muslim society and culture amongst others. These were some of the topics of discussions between my friends and I, if I recalled correctly. I believe the LKI 2 topics (part of FMSA leadership training) that we worked on in the late 1990s were geared towards this idea that the Ijmalis were promoting. That is the reason why I think I enjoyed this section of his book. If only the LKI 2 seminar series could have continued.

In my own experiences, having been a scholar and also a teacher, it is difficult to Islamize knowledge as propound by al-Faruqi. As Sardar mentioned, such effort only lent to a "cosmetic face-lift" especially in the subjects I was specializing in. However, Sardar's idea if ethics and promotion of values within the subject is quite reachable. For example, while I couldn't, for the life of me, think of how I could Islamize Operations Research (Optimization), I could utilize it in beneficial applications that would serve the society better, thus exercising the connectedness between knowledge and the Quranic value of public interest. I do hope that the younger generations of Muslims will build upon what the Muslim intellectuals of the past have started, especially in this challenging times. We truly need fresh ideas in creating a new worldview that is not defined by terrorism or extremism. Perhaps there are new works out there already...if so, that is very good and hopefully I will get to learn more. If not, then as Muslims, it is our duty to once again revive these Islamic intellectual works.

Another thing about this book is the funny yet almost brutally honest way Sardar has written it, an autobiography of his life so far. His description of people make most into caricatures (almost) and that makes the book easy to read while dealing with some pretty heavy issues such as discussed above. Next time, I'll touch on another topic that he brought up in his book, Insya Allah. Till then.

New Nephew

It's been 11 days since my newest family member arrive. Ilex Itsham Kusuma, my sister's second born son. My prayer is that he would grow to be a strong Muslim, a joy to his parents, family and community.

Updates

Duddingston Park South, my new digs. We moved on 22/05/2009 and will be here for the next six months or so. Can I say that it is home-sweet-home? Well, to a certain extent, it is definitely more of a home than Caddon was. The four of us, Mauricio, Rocio, William and I, are enjoying our time at the flat even though the first few days were a challenge; we had to figure out how to turn on the gas and electricity. Then, there is the fact that the flat wasn't cleaned when we first moved plus we had to get our own furnitures...the first few days were a nightmare.

To illustrate, the picture below was taken right after we cleaned the flat and unpacked all our stuff. It took us a week to actually recover from the move. Of course, there was the flooding of our kitchen due to the washing machine. Sigh.

(Will is the one on the floor)

Anyway, now that we've settled in, we've been experimenting with food - Mexican, Taiwanese, and Singaporean dishes plus some other types of Western style. We've also been exploring round the neighbourhood. It's a great location, if a wee bit far from Heriot Watt. Five minutes to the East is Fort Kinaid which is this big shopping area with lots of brand name retailers. Then 10 minutes NorthEast is ASDA, a giant supermart, good for cheap food and items. 10 minutes to the West is Lidl, a another supermart. So, shopping is not a problem.

What excites me most is the easy reach of some beautiful places - Portobello beach (okay, it's not white sandy beaches, but it has a charm of its own), Duddingston Loch at the foot of the hills of Holyrood Park, Craigmillar Castle (I've yet to explore) and more. So, I think we managed to get a good place.

Now, all that remains is to work on my dissertation (and get a job).

Animals of Heriot Watt

These are some of the animals that can be found at Heriot Watt; the first two photos were captured by my friend, Nicole, recently on her walks across HW. Enjoy.

Trip to the East Coast of Scotland and England

Sorry for this very long delay but having moved to a new flat roughly three weeks ago, I've been deprived of the internet for quite some time and then there is my dissertation proposal to be crafted out. Well, this morning, I am taking a short break from it to recount some of the adventures I've had.

Saturday, 16th May, was a good day. We were finally free of all the exams, and were on our way to enjoy the east coast of Scotland and England. Our first stop was Holy Isle...as you can see, the ten of us were bundled up nicely for the day was quite cold. From the right (back): Chen Jia, Shuyuan, Yi Xing, William, Rocio, Mauricio. From the left (front): Amy, me, Alexi, Nicole, Etienne.



The isle was a religious centre of the kingdom of Northumberia once upon a time and the celtic influence is visible as seen by the Celtic cross below.

Next stop was Bamburgh castle, which is now situated in England. In the early days, it was the centre of Northumbria.

This was the first sight of the castle which is situated along the coast. The beautiful golden carpet seemed to beckon us towards the castle, a welcoming sign.

In the old days, the coast along Bamburgh saw many shipwrecks and so a tradition of knights on horses patrolling the shore in storms were born. While there are no knights today, the tradition of riding/galloping horses along the shore still continues.

Bamburgh castle as seen from the moorland bordering the castle and the shore. I like the silhoutte of the castle against the sky.

Fresh from our adventure in Northern England, we went back into Scotland and ventured to a remarkable landscape where a bird colony awaits. St. Abbs Head, Berwickshire, Scottish Borders. Below is just one of its many cliffs, a dramatic coastline so different from the gentle beaches of Bamburgh, only an hour or so away.

There we were, after braving the rain and the winds, walking along the edge of the cliffs at some point along the trail. We finally reached the bird colony behind us where hundreds, if not thousands of sea birds were nesting and breeding.

Fiona, our guide, told us that some of these species might be in danger as their food source near these traditional breeding grounds are running scarce.

On our way back, we took a different route and saw this lochen within this valley that I found charming.

All in all, it was a lovely trip where we could decompress and refresh ourselves.