Muslim Intellectual Deficit

Abstract

It is no exaggeration to say that some of the greatest intellectual movementsin the annals of human civilization were launched under the aegis of Islam.Islamic contributions to the promotion of knowledge and learningare noteworthy. Franz Rosenthal, for one, perceptively observed that Islam’slasting and invaluable gift to humankind is that it made the hiddentreasures of knowledge available to all sectors of society. The intellectualrevolution ushered in under the direction of Islamic civilization blossomedand came to fruition through the central importance attached to the artsof language. (The earliest verses of the Qur’an revealed to the Prophet, forexample, highlighted their crucial significance.) The importance attachedto learning and the transmission and dissemination of knowledge was institutionalizedthrough a wide network of schools, colleges, universities,libraries, observatories, and medical residencies in the Islamic world. Theselfless devotion of individual scholars, the munificence of private donors,waqf endowments, and royal patronage played a central role in the inceptionand maintenance of these institutions.For Muslim intellectuals, the question of intellectual decay has longbeen worrying, yielding repeated efforts to analyze and diagnose the historicaland spiritual factors responsible for the stagnation and decline ofthe Muslim world. Parray’s introduction highlights Qur’anic terms key tohis effort, including furqān (distinction), dhikr (remembrance), and hudā(guidance), which also signal how he reads the scripture. He quotes MustansirMir, renowned Pakistani expert on Qur’anic studies, who says of thevarious aspects under which the Qur’an presents itself, that these names“not only represent so many facets of the Islamic scripture, but they alsomake up, when seen as inter-related and inter-connected, a coherent and ...