By: Khurshid Ahmad
It has often puzzled the thinking minds to observe that those who are most antagonistic in their attitude towards religion and most vehement in opposing all that is presented in the name of God and His Prophet, are at the same time intent upon blindly imitating the West. These men have totally stripped their minds of reason and have bartered their wisdom for the crutches that are presented in the name of “modernism’, They pin an unshakable faith in everything western and are not prepared to appreciate that everything which comes from the West is not necessarily true. They follow the West blindly, they ape its manners, in season and out of season. These are the “Western Mullas.” Here I am addressing myself to these “progressive gentlemen”! I want to show them what strange winds are blowing in their “Brave New world” and how catastrophes have come after catastrophes and have shook the complacent Western mind…… how Western thinkers are trying to retrace their steps towards what is so commonly dubbed as “Mullaism”. These lines may prove an eye-opener to these de-pathed brethren.
The Omnipotence of Science
After the Renaissance in Europe, Materialism spread throughout the length and breadth of the Western countries like a wild fire. The Supernatural Authority was spurned. God was dethroned and the crown was set upon the forehead of Science They supposed that the power of science alone was enough to create a perfect society and usher in an era of perennial prosperity. It was conceived that science could supply key to all human riddles. Every one became scientific. Science became the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Almighty, God. Bertrand Russell epitomises the attitude in the following words.
“…… power of science has no known limits. We were told that faith could move mountains, but no one believed it; we are now told that the atomic bomb can remove mountains, and everyone believes it.”
The Impact of Science on Society
Our “Western Mullas” overheard such remarks and started calling themselves “scientific”. They abused “Mulla” and ridiculed him as unscientific. They said. “Mullah—is a relic of the past, a backward demagogue, a man without reason; one who always quote as “authority”, “so says Allah,” “so says the Prophet,” “an unfit in the modern world of science and progress”…..and they said so on the “authority” of some Western thinker and always used to say. “so says Dr… and so says “Prof… “! A rejection of authority, isn’t it? A scientific outlook, is it not?
Science Dethroned
Our “Western Mullas” ever gave even a little thought to the limitations of Science as the Westerners of those days mostly ignored this aspect. They continued to blow air into the balloon but the balloon had its own limitations, no matter the “scientists!’ realized them or not. The moment came when the balloon had to burst. Now the spell of the Omnipotence of science no longer holds the sway. It has dissipated into thin air. Limitations of science have become too manifest but only after causing unspeakable havoc and disaster to the “Science-ridden” West. The scientists have to some extent realised the folly of their ancestors and no longer believe what the “Western Mullas!’ of Pakistan repeat in a parrot-like manners. Dr Lecombe du Nouy, a Noble prize-winner scientist of international fame says:
“The modern uneasiness arises mainly from the fact that intelligence has deprived man of all reason for existence by destroying, in the name of a science still in cradle, doctrines which up till now gave a meaning to individual life, a reason for effort, a transcendent end to attain.”
Sir James Jeans says:
“The ultimate realities of the Universe are at present quite beyond the reach of science and probably are forever beyond the comprehension of the human mind.”
Prof, Joad says:
“Dominated by science, men have come to believe that the understanding of causes will in itself enable them to alter results. The belief, so far at least as human beings are concerned, is a delusion To understand why one is jealous, ill-tempered, or sadistic does not prevent one from being jealous, ill-tempered, on sadistic It is not by knowing more that man and women will be saved, but by knowing more that man and woman will be saved, but by becoming virtuous, Unfortunately the recipe for the production of virtue is not known “
Prof Joad also says:
“The nineteenth Century seems to have viewed that we were within reason able distance of attaining a complete understanding of man and the Universe.
It is now that we are coming to realise our comparative ignorance of both
And the famous historian Arnold J. Toynbee says:
“Man has been very clever in gaining control over nature. But he is very backward in learning to control himself.”
And that:
“The great need of the modern world is a rebirth of supernatural belief. Without it, man unregenerate man… is hardly to be trusted with the dangerous toys his laboratories have hatched,”
The Omnipotence of science has come to the ground. The foundation of the Western thought have trembled to its roots. Those who talked of Materialism now think in terms of “scepticism”. Those who laughed at the concept of God now say. “God is the meaning of human existence.” (Nicolus Berdyrev). Even the die-hard materialists cannot say that belief in God is unscientific. Rather, scientists present treaties with the object to:
“Examine Critically the scientific capital accumulated by man and derive therefrom logical rational consequences” and to show that “these consequences lead inevitably to the idea of God.”
The “Western Mullas” must be shocked to hear from the West the echo of what “Mulla” said half a century ago. Let them ponder over what another “Mulla” says,
“The new philosophy of science became humble. Omniscience gave way to nescience as relativity usurped the theories of the absolute. Since scientific theories were changing so rapidly, how could anyone be certain that his scientific theory or law was final? The new science no longer claimed absolute certainty about the universe. The laws of nature were now regarded as a mere “convention” or “useful fiction but not “true”. The positive sciences in vain pretend to seize the reason behind things” said Etienne Boutrouz. Science arrives merely at a descriptive formula and leaves us there. The element of contingency in science makes certainty impossible.”
The omnipotence of science has dissolved into ether. The whole of materialist thought has to sustain a cataclysmic shock. Secularism has brought Europe to the edge of disaster. Now the historian says: “The greatest need of the modern world is a rebirth of supernatural belief.,” If the foundation crumbles, can the superstructure survive? If the altar trembles, can the throne stand?
This is the direction towards which the Western thought is moving. We ask: “Whither Western Mullas”? West is retracing its steps from the pathway that its blind followers of the East are now treading. This attitude of the West is bumper tribute to the wisdom of our Western Mullas!
