Sunday 15 January 2012

MUSLIM THINKERS: SARDAR, NASR AND ASRI (PART 1)

I am reading the latest book by Ziauddin Sardar which bears the title Reading the Qur'an. It was published by Oxford Press last year and while I bought this book in December, it was only today I got the chance to read it and just managed to finish only the prologue. But I am eager to write about it because Zardar has always been an important Muslim's figure for me. I put Sardar on the same pedestal with Hossein Nasr as contemporary greatest Muslim's thinkers especially in the realm of Islamic Philosophy. 
But both are quite distinctive from each other. They advocate quite different approaches, views and ideas. Whilst Nasr greatly influenced by Sufism, Sardar is someone you would called as modernist or to some extent, although inapropriate, Wahabis. I read and I respect them both. No preference as far as intellectuality is concerned.
Intellectual rivalry, I would say, between Sardar and Nasr is best read in The Context written by Muzaffar Iqbal, which is a chapter of a book titled Islam, Science, Muslims and Technology. Let me put down a paragraph from the chapter herein for your reading.
"The varying and conflicting ideas expressed by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the President of Pakistan, and Ziauddin Sardar during the Islamabad Conference represent three distinct perspectives on the relationship between Islam, science, Muslims, and technology. At a deeper level, however, these views are indicative of three different visions of Islamic thought and civilization and their future."
Despite these differences, they are similar in the sense that:
1) both are contemporary greatest Muslim scholars  and brilliant minds
2) both read physics (former in City U London, latter in MIT), 
3) both are currently professors (former in City U, latter in George Washington), 
4) both live in non-muslim country (UK and US respectively), 
5) both promote Muslims to read science to the greatest depth 
6) both originated from Muslim's scientifically greatest countries, Pakistan and Iran, respectively
 As I said, I have just finished reading the prologue and below is a couple of paragraphs taken from the prologue which I consider to be expected after knowing Zardar's way of thinking but interesting enough to invoke future discussions. Here we go.
"However, the greatest challenge for both Muslims and non-Muslims is to read the Qur'an in its own terms, to engage with its text unencumbered by prejudices and preconceived ideas, to free their minds as far as humanly possible from what we have been told to understand and encounter its words anew."
"My thesis is that the Qur'an has to be reinterpreted from epoch to epoch, generation to generation. The natural corollary of this thesis is that it is legitimate for Muslims to reject, enhance, go beyond and differ significantly from the interpretations of earlier times" 
Both calls are familiar sound nowadays, aren't they? For example, they should remind us of our own Islamic thinker, Dr Asri aka Dr Maza who is now in Oxford. I thank Allah for granting us with Dr Asri who is for me the most reputable Muslim-Malay intellect in our country. I herein explicitly declare that I do agree a lot with Dr Asri. But I am also praying to Allah for more Muslim-Malay religious figures having scientific background like Sardar and Nasr in recent future. My best bet is my continuous flow of students who some I wish, will be able to take this job. Ameen.
In accordance, I will, from to time, make some commentary on my reading on Sardar's book as I progress with the reading and I will try the best as I can to relate and compare them with those by Nasr's and Asri's hence the Part 1 assigned to the title of this entry.  InsyaAllah.
 

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha..tk de pulak yg nk comment dgn new entry blog ni.kalau pasal yg berkaitan politik berderu-deru menunjukkan kehebatan.tp bila bab mcm ni sorang pun tak da nk komen..komen la woi!!

Anonymous said...

Ada2.. tunggu dulu. haha

Anonymous said...

Ada juga beberapa sainstis dan pemikir islam yg hebat tapi tidak dikenali ramai kerana tidak mendapat liputan media yg dimonopoli barat & org ramai lebih minat mengenali artis daripada org2 ni. Salah seorangnya ialah Abdul Majeed al-Zindani. Beliau adalah seorg pengasas dan presiden Universiti Al-Iman Yaman. Dalam kajian beliau juga telah menjumpai penawar utk virus HIV, tetapi sebab profil beliau sebagai org yg dikehendaki oleh US menyebabkan kajian beliau tidak mendapat liputan. Seorang kawan dari Yamen pernah menceritakan perihal beliau ketika mengajar, ada 4 orang bodyguard di setiap penjuru kelas utk memastikan keselamatan beliau.

Anonymous said...

http://tukartiub.blogspot.com

Dr. Bentara said...

Anon with tukartiub,

An easy way against the academics... sesetengah orang ingat politik kepartian itu AGAMA!

Anonymous said...

Ada juga ulama yang tidak menggalakkan kita menceburkan diri dalam politik kepartian & aku secara peribadi setuju atas alasan2 yg diberikan.

Anonymous said...

Aku pernah dinasihatkan oleh orang alim agar berhati-hati dengan bahan bacaan sebab ia boleh memberi kesan kepada hati. Secara peribadi aku mengikuti kuliah dan tulisan Dr Maza, segala isu yg diutarakan aku merasakan jelas, logik dan masuk akal. Tetapi ada beberapa isu yang membuatkan aku lebih berhati-hati dgnnya seperti kritikan2 kepada org tertentu seperti kritikannya kepada Sheikh Nuruddin. Apabila mendgr kritikannya kpd org2 tertentu, aku merasakan org yg dikritik itu memang betul2 sesat tetapi setelah aku mendengar penjelasan kepada org yg dikritik tersebut jawapan ialah sebaliknya. Sebab aku tak belajar agama betul2 menyebabkan aku mudah percaya kepada benda yg bagi aku logik. Aku amat merasakan satu keperluan utk kita terutama org awam bercampur gaul ngan para2 ilmuan islam bukan sekadar membaca sahaja. Sekarang kita lebih suka mendengar ceramah dekat youtube, membaca blog agama daripada kita berjumpa dan berhubungan dengan para2 ulama. At least kita dpt manfaat dan diaorang doakan kita utk kebaikan.

Anonymous said...

dr Ben

Bkn sesetengah tp SEGELINTIR kecil yg jumud tntang beza politik dan agama...SESETENGAH tu lbih sesuai digunakan pd sistem akademik dan pedukung sistem itu di malaysia yg sgt dipengaruhi politik...pendukung sistem yg agak bacul, tp ok ar dh comfort ddk je diam2 btul?

Airilsametok said...

Anon 02:00, 09:18, 20:45, 01:09, sila baca entry aku yang terbaru bertajuk ORANG DAH SEMAKIN JUMUD

Anonymous said...

coi, dr da cilok wa nye text JUMUD dlm posting bru...

Airilsametok said...

Anon 10:46, sorry bro, wa tak tau pulak perkataan JUMUD tu lu dah patentkan..hahaha