Islam, Intellect and Olive
By Nastik Durrani, New Age Islam
May 22, 2013
Intellect is the guide following which scientists and philosophers have discovered the secrets of the universe. This is the only logic with which the philosophers described good and evil even before the revelation of divine religions. To most of the philosophers, it is God because it prevents one from blind emulation of others and guides man towards welfare. Perhaps this is the reason all the religions including Islam fought a battle with intellect and reason and called it Satan who fills the heart with evil thoughts and shakes their blind faith. The Quran has declared discussion on any topic Jadal (war) and has forbidden the believers from it time and again telling them to blindly obey what they are told to do without expressing their opinion on it. For example,
“The Satans inspire their friends to dispute with you; if you obey them, you are idolaters.” (Al An ‘am: 121)
“No one disputes concerning the signs of Allah except those who disbelieve” (Ghafir: 4)
“And among men there is such a one that disputes concerning God without knowledge and follows every rebel Satan” (Al Hajj: 3)
“And if they should dispute with thee, do thou say, 'God knows very well what you are doing.” (Al Hajj: 68)
“Indeed, those who dispute concerning the signs of Allah without [any] authority having come to them - there is not within their breasts except pride, [the extent of] which they cannot reach. So seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, it is He who is the Hearing, the Seeing.”(Ghafir: 56)
“Do you not consider those who dispute concerning the signs of Allah - how are they averted? Those who deny the Book and that with which We sent Our messengers - they are going to know, When the shackles are around their necks and the chains; they will be dragged In boiling water; then in the Fire they will be filled [with flame].” (Ghafir: 69-72)
As is evident from the verses quoted above, any discussion on the verses of God is ‘Jadal’ (battle) and the punishment for the battle-mongers is to be dragged with shackles around their necks. Jurists have eulogized blind faith and vilified intellect and reason in such a language even the term exaggeration seems inadequate. The jurist Habbatullah bin Imran belonging to the reign of Khalifa Al Mustansar Billah Al Fatmi says:
“As for the views of atheists about the stars that people themselves did research and gathered information on the rise and setting of stars and that the help of prophets was not needed in this regard, so if they were able to do that they would not be able to even speak and if there were no prophets to give knowledge about the heavens, they would not have been able to do that.” (The history of atheism in Islam page 112)
Now we can see that Habbatullah says this though he is aware of the fact that even before the advent of the prophet (pbuh) the Baddus of Arab not only used to determine their direction in the vast deserts with the help of stars but also they calculated the duration of months and the time of hajj (pilgrimage) with their help. The prophet (pbuh) did not add to their knowledge on this. When he was asked about the phases of the moon, he said, “They will question thee concerning the new moons. Say: 'They are appointed times for the people, and the Pilgrimage.' It is not piety to come to the houses from the backs of them; but piety is to be God-fearing; so come to the houses by their doors, and fear God; haply so you will prosper.”(Al Baqura: 189)
By saying this he as though explained water with the help of water. According to a Hadith in Sunna Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi, and Nisai, the prophet (pbuh) said, “Whoever explained the meaning of the Quran on his own, will be wrong even if the meaning is correct.” (Al Atqan fi Uloom il Quran vol 3).
Therefore, doing research on the Quran and giving personal opinion on it is prohibited and the person who even reaches a correct understanding is at fault. Perhaps this is the reason the prophet (pbuh) said. “Those who do research deeply perish” Ibn-e-Taimiyyah says, “The speech of God and the prophet (pbuh) are the truth, so they should be accepted even if their meaning is not understood and the speech of the Ghair Masoom (people other than God and prophet) should not be accepted until its meaning is not clear. (Ta’arizul Aql wal Naql vol 1 p 29)
Therefore we should have blind faith in the sayings of the prophet (pbuh) even if they have reached us through the narrations of twenty people who have all died and we cannot authenticate or repudiate our own saying. The result of all these views and verses was that the jurists and the Abbasid caliphs meted out the worst treatment to the Ulema such as Al Muqaffa, Ibn ur Rawayndi, Abu Zakaria al Razi and Abu Isa al Waraq. Thus the collective Islamic intellect suffered from lack of growth of intellect and was not able to think beyond Fatwas and Hadiths.
When Jabir bin Hayan talked of the development of human realisation and knowledge with time, the Islamic jurists stood up to refute his views and we were told that all the knowledge was with the prophet (pbuh) and the companions of the prophet, and the a degree less of the knowledge was with the Tabaiyeen (those who saw the holy companions of the prophet) and a degree less of the knowledge than the Tabaiyeen was with the Tabey-Tabayeen (those who saw the Tabaiyeen) and this way knowledge was gradually lifted from the world. Perhaps it is true as there is no knowledge left in the Islamic world except the knowledge about menstruation, and Nikah.
Some Muslims traded in Deen taking advantage of the ignorance of the Islamic world and earned dollars. Non-Muslims like Maurice Bucaille too did not lag behind in this race and reaped rich dividends from this phenomenon of ignorance. After the wide publicity of the scientific miracle of the Quran, a Pakistani working in the Saudi Arabia came up with the theory of the chemical miracle of the well of Zamzam, which according to narrators, had sprung up under the feet of Hadhrat Ismail when his mother Hajra had brought him along with his father Abraham to the desert of Makkah, though there are no historical proofs testifying to the belief that Hadhrat Hajra and Hadhrat Abraham had come to Makkah. It seems that after the death of Hadhrat Ismail, the spring had dried up. Therefore, God had instructed the prophet’s grandfather Abdul Muttalib to dig the well again. This happened much before the birth of the prophet (pbuh) (Sirat Ibn Ishaque)
According to the Pakistani Tariq Hussain, God had worked a chemical miracle in the well that was dug up by a polytheist. According to Tariq Hussain, Shah Faisal was furious at an Egyptian doctor’s statement that Zamzam water was not fit for consumption and ordered an inquiry. So the Agriculture ministry of Saudi Arabia chose him to prove the Egyptian doctor wrong. Tarique Hussain claims that the Egyptian doctor wrote to European journals his opinion on Zamzam whereas the legendary Pakistani conducted his research and sent the samples of Zamzam to the prominent laboratories of Europe. The research conducted by the Europeans disclosed the fact that Zamzam contained more calcium and magnesium than the general water. Hussain attributed the energy of the pilgrims to Zamzam and claimed that the water not only contained the fluoride which kills germs but also the quantity of salts and minerals in the well has not changed since the origin of the well. However, Tarique Hussain did not tell us who had conducted the research on the quantity of salts and minerals when the well had come into existence so that we could ascertain the fact that the quantity of salts and minerals had not changed. And if the quantity of the salts and minerals of Zamzam was already known, why Shah Faisal ordered an inquiry into this?
In the end, Tarique Hussain says that the inquiry into Zamzam has authenticated the fact that Zamzam is free from germs and appeals to all those going through this great report to pass on its copy to their acquaintances so that they could earn rewards from God and he could earn Saudi riyals.
It seems that the person who got Tarique Hussain’s report was neither a Muslim nor a Christian but a Japanese Buddhist. According to the Sudanese daily Al Rai al Aam, the credit for the discovery of the miraculous characteristics of Zamzam went to the Japanese researcher Masaro Amoto. The scientist proved that when Bismillah is read on the particles of this water, it has a strange impact on it. He also proved that it has one more characteristic that is not present in any other water in the world, and it is that if one drop of this water is mixed in a thousand drops of general water, the water has the same characteristic of Zamzam. The Japanese scientist claimed that he got the water from an Arab living in Japan and that the particles of this water did not match to that of any other water in the world. All the experiments in the laboratories failed to change its qualities. His research also discovered the fact that not only Bismillah with which Muslims start having meals or drinks had an impact on the water but all the ninety nine names of God have the same impact on it. It should be noted that one drop of Zamzam if mixed in a thousand drops of common water changes its characteristics as that of Zamzam in the same way as happens in the composition of Homeopathic treatment which some fraudster Japanese had invented.
There is no doubt that Japanese have an upper hand in the field of research and Masaro Amoto has also proved that there is no water like Zamzam in the world as there is no God other than Him. However, we cannot understand why didn’t Masaro Amoto convert to Islam after proving so many miracles of Zamzam and Bismillah and is persisting on Buddhism?
According to reliable research, the quantity of salts in Zamzam is in excess of the required quantity and it contains many germs. Hundreds of pilgrims die of Cholera every year after drinking Zamzam. Some years ago, Cholera had broken out in Nigeria, Pakistan and Bangladesh thanks to Zamzam which the pilgrims had brought with them in bottles. The water of the sacred cities of Islam is not sacred. In the 19th century, a germ was discovered in Medina of the prophet (pbuh) which flourishes under the human skin and pushes its tail out when the body is wet causing wounds in the legs. The germ is called Dracunculus medinensis.
The scientific research of the Japanese manifested itself in another Quranic miracle which is related with Fig and olive. The former Chancellor of Al Azhar University and a teacher of plants and medicines, Dr Taha Ibrahim dispatched a certain quantity of fig and olive to some scientists of Japan (as if fig and olive are not found in Japan) who were in search of some matter that delays ageing. Dr Taha Ibrahim was of the view that the matter should be present in fig and olive.
After a grinding research the Japanese scientists reached the conclusion that if seven parts of olive is mixed with a certain quantity of fig, it will produce better results. Therefore, Dr Taha Ibrahim started research in the Quran and he discovered that olive is mentioned in the Quran six times clearly and once indirectly:
“And a tree issuing from the Mount of Sinai that bears oil and seasoning for all to eat.” (Al Muminun: 20)
Thus the verses mentioning olive are seven while Teen (fig) is mentioned once. When Dr Taha Ibrahim sent this information to the Japanese scientists, the head of the Japanese team became a Muslim. However, unfortunately the rest of the team members did not convert to Islam and remained on Buddhism. It is a regret that Ibn Al Baitar (birth 1197—death 1248) who was a learned botanist and a reader of Quran of the middle ages could not reach the conclusion and the secret which was preserved for fourteen years was discovered by the Japanese with the help of Dr Taha Ibrahim in our times.
The westerners also reaped rich dividends from this fashion of the miracles of the sacred waters and the scientific miracles of the Quran. A doctor of Canada was appointed in the department of medicine of Shah Fahd University. In one of his lectures, he said that the different phases of foetus in the womb that have been detailed in the Quran are recognised by the medical science in the same way. Listening this, the students present in the hall clapped. However, due to the noise of the clapping, the students forgot to ask the doctor why he didn’t convert to Islam after the discovery of such a big Quranic miracle and persist on Christianity?
Most of the readers must be aware of Dr Maurice Bucaille’s story who worked in Saudi Arabia during the reign of Shah Faisal. He suddenly returned to France and authored many books and articles by mixing science and the mythological stories of the Quran and created many miracles which were published in Saudi Arabia on government expenses and distributed free of cost.
This is the dangerous ignorance that pervades in the Islamic world though they claim that the first thing God had created was intellect, the first verse of the Quran was ‘Read in the name of God who has created’ and the first tool that God had created was the pen with which God wrote the fate of the people. Despite all the claims, the majority of the Muslims are illiterate who cannot even hold a pen properly and who have a greater belief in the Karamat of the Sufis, in the water of Zamzam and in fig and olive than in science. It is due to their inferiority complex that compels them to look for something that can generate in them a sense of superiority over the developed nations of the west.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-science/islam,-intellect-olive/d/11677