Understanding  Spiritual and Intellectual Crisis for Academia: The Role of Muslim Intellectual Youths in the 21st Century

By, Md Maruf Hasan

An old man was missing suddenly from his house. All were desperately searching for him, unfortunately he was found nowhere. News came that the dead body of an old man was found at the small railway station of Astapovo, in Russia. The old man loved lifestyles of the peasants and he promoted them through some of his last days writings. In the sitting chair at the station , he was lying down with extreme cold and snowy weather. In his overcoat in the pocket, a book was found. The book is titled “ The Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]”. In the preface of the book, it states about Tolstoy’s very last day, “I am told by a nephew of mine on the authority of one of his daughters whom he had met in Russia that a copy of this book was found in the large overcoat in which he had wrapped himself before setting out on that last walk of his to die in the fields he used to till” (p.14).

Let’s time travel through our current body of scientific knowledge to the edge of the observable Universe. Our observable universe has an estimated diameter of about 93 billion light-years. Its radius is ~46.5 billion light-years from Earth in every direction. This size is larger than the universe’s age (13.8 billion years) because space itself has been expanding while light has been traveling. Hence, our known observable universe spans about 880,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 km (8.8 × 10²³ km). Our Solar System, from the Sun out to Neptune, spans about 9 billion kilometers across, yet if we include the distant Oort Cloud, its boundary may stretch nearly 30 trillion kilometers in diameter — a tiny speck compared to the vast 93-billion-light-year-wide observable universe. Now as IIUM students, you can decide how long would you love to travel alone in this cosmic journey? By the time you will end the journey, you will find nobody in the universe to tell your brave story. This narrative somehow tries to eliminate any religious worldview that humanity has been practicing for centuries. This is considered existential nihilism that is affecting the youth minds in the 21st century. No ideologies are working in the face of global spiritual crisis and intellectual crisis. Have you read the novel “ Three Body Problem”? Let’s look at the conversation to understand what do I meant earlier.  Physics professor at the novel presented his scientific worldview as thus,

“Should    philosophy    guide    experiments,    or    should    experiments  guide  philosophy?”  Ye’s  sudden  counterattack  shocked those leading the struggle session. For a moment they did not know what to do. “Of  course,  it  should  be  the  correct  philosophy of Marxism that guides scientific experiments!” one of the male Red Guards finally said. “Then that’s equivalent to saying that the correct philosophy falls out of the sky. This is against  the  idea  that  the  truth  emerges  from  experience.  It’s  counter to the principles of how Marxism seeks to understand nature.” Shao Lin and the two college student Red Guards had no  answer  for  this.  Unlike  the  Red  Guards  who  were  still  in  junior high school, they couldn’t completely ignore logic.”

I assume readers are still uncertain about this above quotation. Let’s read and understand together further from the same novel to connect spiritual and intellectual crisis in academia in 21st century : 

“Maybe in the future this theory will be disproven. But two great cosmological discoveries of this century—Hubble’s law, and  observation  of  the  cosmic  microwave  background–show that   the   big   bang   theory   is   currently   the   most   plausible   explanation for the origin of the universe.” But the freshness of the  theory  attracted  the  most  intelligent  of  the  four  girls,  who  couldn’t  help  but  ask,  “Time  began  with  the  singularity?  So  what was there before the singularity?” “Nothing,” Ye said, the way  he  would  answer  a  question  from  any  curious  young  person.  He  turned  to  look  at  the  girl  kindly.  With  his  injuries  and  the  tall  iron  hat,  the  motion  was  very  difficult.  “No  …  nothing?   That’s   reactionary!   Completely   reactionary!”   the   frightened  girl  shouted.  She  turned  to  Shao  Lin,  who  gladly  came to her aid. “The theory leaves open a place to be filled by God.”  Shao  nodded  at  the  girl…She  raised  her  hand,  still  holding the belt, and pointed at Ye. “You: you’re trying to say that God exists?” “I don’t know.” “What?” “I’m saying I don’t know. If by ‘God’ you mean some kind of super consciousness outside the universe, I don’t know if it exists or not. Science has given  no  evidence  either  way.”  Actually,  in  this  nightmarish  moment,  Ye  was  leaning  toward  believing  that  God  did  not  exist.    This    extremely    reactionary    statement    caused    a    commotion  in  the  crowd.  Led  by  one  of  the  Red  Guards  on  stage,  another  tide  of  slogan-shouting  exploded.  “Down  with  reactionary  academic  authority  Ye  Zhetai!”  “Down  with  all  reactionary academic authorities!” “Down with all reactionary doctrines!” Once the slogans died down, the girl shouted, “God does  not  exist.  All  religions  are  tools  concocted  by  the  ruling  class to paralyze the spirit of the people!” “That is a very one-sided view,” Ye said calmly”

These two quotations from Cixin Liu’s Novel indicate how all the religions are observed with skepticisim due to the recent empirical data about Our observable universe. 

Why am I writing this essay to IIUM Today? Prof Dr Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf from BENL had a PG seminar with us after Covid-19 and this professor stressed that students must ask dangerous questions to solve the hard problem that our contemporary society is facing. By the way, if you visit IIUM library thesis collection and check thesis collections from BENL department, you will find her very thick thesis that she wrote during her PhD journey in Australia. She is an extremely hardworking professor till today as you would realise through her works. 

So, what type of dangerous questions should we students ask academically? I think these are related contemporary problems that are affecting our human society. There was a spiritual crisis in the West and there is still academic crisis when it is about religious worldviews. I meant to say the spiritual crisis that affects other parts of the world, Muslim youths are gradually getting affected due to the influence of these secular scientific narratives. It is extremely slow process but it is happening. There is a special message from 20th-century Muhammad Iqbal for the Muslim Youths of 21st Century. In his famous poem , “The Secret of the Self” (1983)  Iqbal lamented as thus :

I have no need of the ear of To‐day,

I am the voice of the poet of To‐morrow.

My own age does not understand my deep

meanings,

My Joseph is not for this market.

I despair of my old companions,

My Sinai burns for sake of the Moses who is

coming.

Their sea is silent, like dew,

But my dew is storm‐ridden, like the ocean.

My song is of another world than theirs:

This bell calls other travellers to take the road.(p.3-4)

…

I am as the tulip of the field,

In the midst of a company I am alone.

I beg of Thy grace a sympathising friend,

And adept in the mysteries of my nature,

A friend endowed with madness and

wisdom,

One that knoweth not the phantom of vain

things,

That I may confide my lament to his soul

And see again my face in his heart.

His image I will mould of mine own clay,

I will be to him both idol and worshipper. (p.147-48)

I would conclude my essay by saying that Leo Tolstoy used no words to refer the orphan Boy of Makkah for the solution of spiritual crisis, and Muhammad Iqbal referred Islam . Niazi (1977,p.34) quoted from the book entitled “ Iqbal & The Third World” : 

In reply to professor Nicholson, Iqbal said: “I have looked through social system of all the world, through the principles of all the nations of the world and through the educational systems of the world with an eye of critical appreciation and arrived at the decision that if ever there is a social order which fulfils the needs of La and Illa both, which meets the demands of the stomach and soul both, it is Islam and exclusively Islam”.

With the enormous empirical data about Our observable universe, the new trend has raised to negate all the world religions by affirming exclusively scientific worldview which is not affiliated with any world religion. Muslim academics and Youths need to take note and prepare their mind how to encounter these stormy days and nights in the 21st century in which spiritual and intellectual crisis is inevitable. In the Battle of Yamama, the Caliph Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (r.a.) took very firm stance when Umar (r.a.) asked to negotiate. During the War , Muslims were almost lost the war. The entire history could turn upside down and they have to fight day and night , and very last minute, Muslims got victory. Muslims are entering in the intellectual battle and I do not see any option but intellectual hard work with extreme dedication by upcoming Muslim youths to work for the Din of Allah SWT. Together we can make a better world with Islamic worldview. Allah SWT mentions in the Quran:

“Muhammad is not but a messenger. [Other] messengers have passed on before him. So if he was to die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels [to unbelief]? And he who turns back on his heels will never harm Allah at all; but Allah will reward the grateful.”(3:144)***