Apply Occam's Razor And Avoid Over-Interpretation
By Sumit
Paul, New Age Islam
26 May 2022
In Their
Over-Enthusiastic, Adolescent Zeal to Explain Scriptural Fiddlesticks, They Go
Overboard and End Up Smearing Egg on Their Faces
----
Last night,
I was poring over the profoundly delightful correspondence between Dr Muhammad
Iqbal and the legendary Cambridge University Professor of Persian and Arabic,
Sir Reynold A Nicholson. It was in a pedantic, but a trifle highfalutin Persian
with the great Englishman affectionately correcting Allama Iqbal's Persian!
The crux of
the Persian correspondence between the two stalwarts was, Professor Nicholson
advising Iqbal not to become an over-eager exegete on scriptural issues and
avoid OVER-INTERPRETATION. Sir Nicholson used a word ' Dahagh ' from classical
Persian of the 8th century, which I hardly came across in Persian literature.
Anyway, this is inconsequential.
What's most
important is to avoid ' Dahagh ' or Over-Interpretation/Circumlocution, esp. of
religious and scriptural issues/texts. The problem with the followers of all
man-made faiths is that there're self-styled scriptural interpreters in all
religions, who suffer from Whimsatt and Beardsley's proverbial Intentional and
Affective Fallacy and tend to see things which never existed. These people
fabricate their own meanings that suit their whims, fancies and egoistic
selves.
These
monomaniacs forget that a scriptural text has an ontology of its own. It's not
only an autonomous object but also 'complete' in itself. In their
over-enthusiastic, adolescent zeal to explain scriptural fiddlesticks, they go
overboard and end up smearing egg on their faces. Their ' noble ' attempt to
explain certain sutras, Shlokas, verses and hymns, is often no less than
cerebral acrobatics, called Dravidi Pranayaam in Sanskrit.
These
people try to read between the lines and concoct such weird theories that even
the finest brains put together cannot decipher them. This happens frequently in
the sphere of scriptural interpretations. Do you know, there're more than three
thousand conflicting explanations and interpretations of the simple AGAPE
(Christian divine love, pronounced as A-g-a-p-a-y) and nearly six thousand
Bhaashya (Tafseer or Vyakhya) on Adi Shankar's Monism in Hinduism.
All
indolent, lotus-eating ' scholars' of religious texts make the simple theories
unnecessarily intricate, doing a humongous disservice to their respective
religions. Urdu poet-lyricist Shakeel Badayuni aptly wrote a couplet that also
applies to such overzealous zealots:
Mera Azm
Itna Buland Hai Ke Paraye Sholon Ka Dar Nahin
Mujhe
Khauf Aatish-E-Gul Se Hai Ye Kahin Chaman Ko Jala Na De
(My
determination is so firm and unflinching that I'm not scared of the sparks and
embers from outside/ Rather, I'm scared of the fire of the flowers or seemingly
innocuous objects, which can incinerate the garden).
The learned
readers have got the insinuation. Don't we say in Persian, Aqlamandan ra
Ishara Kaafi Ast (a hint is enough for an intelligent person).
So, shun
the habit of over-interpretation and apply Occam's razor instead (cutting down
to the bare minimum and accepting what appears to be the most acceptable and
reasonable).
----
An
occasional columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in
comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed
articles to world's premier publications in several languages including
Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/occam-razor-interpretation/d/127092
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