467)A Collection of Posts on my Blog from the Institute of Ismaili Studies, Aga Khan Development Network and Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)

"....AND SHOULD'NT IB SCIENCE STUDENTS not learn about Ibn al-Haytham, the Muslim scholar who developed modern optics, as well as his predecessors Euclid and Ptolemy, whose ideas he challenged.....The legacy which I am describing actually goes back more than a thousand years, to the time when our forefathers, the Fatimid Imam-Caliphs of Egypt, founded Al-Azhar University and the Academy of Knowledge in Cairo. For many centuries, a commitment to learning was a central element in far-flung Islamic cultures. That commitment has continued in my own Imamat through the founding of the Aga Khan University and the University of Central Asia and through the recent establishment of a new Aga Khan Academies Program."(Aga Khan IV, "The Peterson Lecture" on the International Baccalaureate, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 18 April 2008)

"First, the globalisation of the knowledge of the cultures of the Umma is critical. We have to make known the cultural inheritance of the Muslims to the non-Muslim as well as the Muslim parts of the world because we will never succeed in building the respect and recognition that the Umma deserves unless we present the Umma as a remarkable carrier of civilisation.The misconceptions about Islam and Muslims in the West exist because we are, even today, absent from the global civilisation. We should encourage the Western education system to bring in knowledge of the civilisation of Islam into the secondary education system.I am thrilled with the initiative that Dubai and other states in the Gulf are taking by creating museums. Retracing our historical legacies and bringing them back in the modern world is extremely important."(Aga Khan IV, Interview with Gulf News, Dubai, UAE, April 2008)

"For century after century, the Arabs, the Persians, the Turks and many other Islamic societies achieved powerful leadership roles in the world—not only politically and economically but also intellectually. Some ill-informed historians and biased commentators have tried to argue that these successes were essentially produced by military power, but this view is profoundly incorrect"(Aga Khan IV, 2nd December 2006, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)

"From the seventh century to the thirteenth century, the Muslim civilizations dominated world culture, accepting, adopting, using and preserving all preceding study of mathematics, philosophy, medicine and astronomy, among other areas of learning. The Islamic field of thought and knowledge included and added to much of the information on which all civilisations are founded. And yet this fact is seldom acknowledged today, be it in the West or in the Muslim world, and this amnesia has left a six hundred year gap in the history of human thought"(Aga Khan IV, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, 1996)

The Muslim world, once a remarkable bastion of scientific and humanist knowledge, a rich and self-confident cradle of culture and art, has never forgotten its past"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May 1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)

"One of the first and greatest research centres, the Bayt al-Hikmah established in Baghdad in 830, led Islam in translating philosophical and scientific works from Greek, Roman, Persian and Indian classics. By the art of translation, learning was assimilated from other civilizations"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)

"It is no exaggeration to say that the original Christian universities of Latin West, at Paris, Bologna and Oxford, indeed the whole European renaissance, received a vital influx of new knowledge from Islam -- an influx from which the later western colleges and universities, including those of North Africa, were to benefit in turn"(Aga Khan IV, 16 March 1983, Aga Khan UNiversity, Karachi, Pakistan)

"The truth, as the famous Islamic scholars repeatedly told their students, is that the spirit of disciplined, objective enquiry is the property of no single culture, but of all humanity. To quote the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Sina: "My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the universe so that I may know all its conditions." "(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)

"The tapestry of Islamic history is studded with jewels of civilization; these jewels poured forththeir light and beauty; great statesmen, great philosophers, great doctors, great astronomers; but these individuals, these precious stones were worked into a tapestry, whose dominant theme was Islam, and this theme remained dominant regardless of the swallowing up of foreign lands, foreign cultures, foreign languages and foreign people"(Aga Khan IV, 30 Jan 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)

"In sum the process of creation can be said to take place at several levels. Ibda represents the initial level - one transcends history, the other creates it. The spiritual and material realms are not dichotomous, since in the Ismaili formulation, matter and spirit are united under a higher genus and each realm possesses its own hierarchy. Though they require linguistic and rational categories for definition, they represent elements of a whole, and a true understanding of God must also take account of His creation. Such a synthesis is crucial to how the human intellect eventually relates to creation and how it ultimately becomes the instrument for penetrating through history the mystery of the unknowable God implied in the formulation of tawhid."(Azim Nanji, Director, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, U.K., 1998)

The above are 11 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of around 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Education, Science and Religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html



'Ismaili Philosophy' From The Internet Encyclopedia Of Philosophy, By Professor Azim Nanji; Quotes Of Aga Khans IV And Others
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/03/578ismaili-philosophy-from-internet.html


Institute Of Ismaili Studies Scholar Dr Nader El-Bizri Advises On Science Museum Exhibition In London, United Kingdom; Quotes Of Aga Khan IV
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/03/574institute-of-ismaili-studies-scholar.html


A Collection Of Posts Describing The Philosophical, Theological, Doctrinal, Historical, Scientific And Esoteric Underpinnings Of My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/568a-collection-of-posts-describing.html


Mathematics vs. Physics: Ibn al-Haytham’s Geometrical Conception of Space and the Refutation of Aristotle’s Physical Definition of Place; from IIS
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/556mathematics-vs-physics-ibn-al.html


Recommended Reading Lists On Various Subjects From The Institute Of Ismaili Studies, London, UK; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/555recommended-reading-lists-on-various.html


Emulating Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham; Renewing the Impetus of Philosophical Thinking in Islam: Paper presented by IIS's Dr Nader El-Bizri in Iran
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/01/540emulating-ibn-sina-and-ibn-al.html


Ibn al-Haytham(Alhazen) Revisited: He Criticised The Theories Of His Predecessors And Revolutionised Mathematical Optics In His Book 'Optics'
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/12/532ibn-al-haythamalhazen-revisited-he.html


Dr Paul Walker: Abu Ya‘qub al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary; Publication of the Institute of Ismaili Studies
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/12/528dr-paul-walker-abu-yaqub-al.html


'The Sciences' from the IIS's 'Muslim Philosophy And The Sciences' by Dr Alnoor Dhanani; Quotes of Aga Khan IV
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/11/507the-sciences-from-iiss-muslim.html


The Ikhwan al-Safa Revisited: The Original Encyclopedists; Quote of Aga Khan IV.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/11/502the-ikhwan-al-safa-revisited.html


Ismaili History by Dr. Farhad Daftary; An Encyclopaedia Article from the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, United Kingdom.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/06/488ismaili-history-by-dr-farhad-daftary.html


IIS Academic Paper:Creation in Time in Islamic Thought with Special Reference to Al-Ghazali by Prof Eric L Ormsby;Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Others
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/05/481iis-academic-paper-creation-in-time.html


Humanistic Dimension of Islam Embodied By A Large Development Network In Action; Give Rural Communities And Societies A Fair Shake Says Aga Khan
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/474humanistic-dimension-of-islam.html


Institute of Ismaili Studies Launches Two Recent Publications In Dubai; Quotes of Aga Khan IV.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/473institute-of-ismaili-studies.html


Institute of Ismaili Studies Scholar, Dr Amyn B. Sajoo, Addresses Muslim Perspectives on Bioethics; Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Aga Khan III.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/466institute-of-ismaili-studies-scholar.html


Ismaili Mail promotes "Epistles of the Brethren of Purity - The Ikhwan Al-Safa’ and Their Rasa’il" with comment by me; Quotes of Aga Khan IV.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/12/430ismaili-mail-promotes-epistles-of.html


Cyclical Time and Sacred History in Medieval Ismaili Thought, By Farhad Daftary; From the Academic Papers Section of the IIS website.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/10/420cyclical-time-and-sacred-history-in.html


The Length and Breadth of Dr. Azim Nanji's Contributions to the IIS, to the Worldwide Shia Ismaili Muslim Community and Muslim Ummah in General
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/409the-length-and-breadth-of-dr-azim.html


Celebrating Dr Azim Nanji of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, my all-time Ismaili intellectual hero in the current era; Quote of Azim Nanji.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/408celebrating-dr-azim-nanji-of.html


Transcendence and Distinction: Metaphoric Process in Isma‘ili Muslim Thought, by Dr Azim Nanji, Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/08/397transcendence-and-distinction.html


Nasir Khusraw, another Fatimid Cosmologist-Philosopher-Poet of enormous intellect from the mid-Fatimid era
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/08/390nasir-khusraw-another-fatimid.html


A collection of speeches by Aga Khans IV and III, source of some of my doctrinal material on science, religion, creation, knowledge and intellect
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/05/365a-collection-of-speeches-by-aga.html


Intellect and Faith in Shia Ismaili Islam as described on the Preamble to the Aga Khan Development Network website
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/05/361intellect-and-faith-in-shia-ismaili.html


Muslim Philosophy and the Sciences(IIS Review Article); Quotes of Aga Khan IV.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/02/322muslim-philosophy-and-sciencesiis.html


Al-Azhar: An Ancient Centre of Learning(IIS article); Ibn al-Haytham and the Scientific Method; Quotes of Aga Khan IV
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/321al-azhar-ancient-centre-of.html


"The learning of mathematics was therefore linked to the Muslim religion and developing an understanding of the world...."; Quotes of Aga Khan IV
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/319the-learning-of-mathematics-was.html


Pluralism and Ikhwan al-Safa: If society is to start from a premise that knowledge should be foundational, what form should that knowledge take?
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2007/12/267pluralism-and-ikhwan-al-safa-if.html


The Uninterrupted Thread of the Search for Knowledge in the Shia Ismaili Muslim Tradition; Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Hazrat Ali.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/08/391the-uninterrupted-thread-of-search.html


A Collection Of Posts Describing The Ethos Of My Blog On The Link Between Science And Religion In Islam; Quotes Of Aga Khans And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/463a-collection-of-posts-describing.html


"Plato, Platonism, and Neo-platonism" by Dr Nader El-Bizri of the Institute of Ismaili Studies; Quotes of Aga Khans IV and III and Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/07/630plato-platonism-and-neo-platonism-by.html


Shi‘i Ismaili Interpretations Of The Holy Qur’an, Institute Of Ismaili Studies Article By Dr Azim Nanji; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred Et Al.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/633shii-ismaili-interpretations-of-holy.html


Harvard University Professor Ali Asani Discusses A New Course On Ismaili History And Thought; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/641harvard-university-professor-ali.html


ISMAILIMAIL Makes A Post On The Ikhwan Al-Safa Or Brethren Of Purity (Via One Land, One King’s Blog)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/09/647ismailimail-makes-post-on-ikhwan-al.html


The Ismaili: Passing Of Influential Professor Of Islamic Studies, Mohammed Arkoun, Leaves ‘A Gap That Will Be Impossible To Fill’
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/09/651the-ismaili-passing-of-influential.html


The Institute Of Ismaili Studies Publishes Its Second Volume From The Rasail Ikhwan Al-Safa; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/11/665the-institute-of-ismaili-studies.html


Ibn Sina Or Avicenna: An Encyclopedia Article By Dr Nader El-Bizri Of The Institute Of Ismaili Studies; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/12/668ibn-sina-or-avicenna-encyclopedia.html


In Memoriam: Oleg Grabar (1929-2011); Quotes from Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2011/01/673in-memoriam-oleg-grabar-1929-2011.html


Dr Nader El-Bizri Of The Institute Of Ismaili Studies Summarizes 'Concepts Of Time' Among Philosophers Spanning The Sweep Of History; Blogpost 400
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2011/01/674dr-nader-el-bizri-of-institute-of.html


Shi‘i Interpretations of Islam by Nasir al-Din Tusi: Three Treatises on Islamic Theology and Eschatology; from the Institute of Ismaili Studies.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2011/01/679shii-interpretations-of-islam-by.html


A Tribute To ISMAILI MAIL'S Publisher; My Final Post Of 2009; My Final Post Of The Decade.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/05/621a-tribute-to-ismaili-mails-publisher.html


Readership From Six Continents Propel The Much-Visited And Wildly Popular ISMAILI MAIL Website To Over 3 Million Hits In 3 Years Of Operation.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/05/622readership-from-six-continents.html



Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html

In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

466)Institute of Ismaili Studies Scholar, Dr Amyn B. Sajoo, Addresses Muslim Perspectives on Bioethics; Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Aga Khan III.

"The United States' position as a world leader, in my view, grows directly out of its accomplishments as a Knowledge Society - and this Knowledge - RIGHTLY APPLIED - can continue to be a resource of enormous global value"(Aga Khan IV, Austin, Texas, USA, 12 April 2008)

“Parts of the Ummah are concerned about the relationship between Muslims and the contemporary knowledge society, which is now principally rooted in the West. It is my deepest conviction, my deepest conviction, that we must make that knowledge society our own, in keeping with the Alid tradition towards the intellect, but always doing so WITHIN THE ETHICS OF OUR FAITH. Thus, I have sought from my Jamat your Nazrana of time and knowledge.”(Aga Khan IV, Paris, France, July 11th 2007)

"Our interpretation of Islam places enormous value on knowledge. Knowledge is the reflection of faith IF IT IS USED PROPERLY. Seek out that knowledge and USE IT PROPERLY"(Aga Khan IV, Toronto, Canada, 8th June 2005)

"Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, OUR ACADEMIC OR SECULAR ELITE MUST BE DEEPLY AWARE OF MUSLIM HISTORY, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)

"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and USED FOR THE WELL-BEING OF HUMANITY"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)

The above are 5 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of around 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Science and Religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html



IIS Scholar Addresses Muslim Perspectives on Bioethics
April 2009

Dr. Amyn B. Sajoo was invited to speak on bioethical choices and Islam at a training session for clinicians, ethicists and counsellors, convened by the London Research Ethics Committees of the British National Health Service (NHS). Dr. Sajoo was among three scholars at the session, the others being Professors Daniel Sokol and Søren Holm, which was held in London on 19 March 2009 at the Royal Society of Medicine’s Chandos House.

The central theme of Dr. Sajoo’s presentation was the role of maslaha or the ‘public interest’ in Muslim ethical reasoning, and how this has shaped particular choices in biomedicine, past and present. Five key narratives were offered to illustrate how maslaha allowed departures from traditional legal rules in order to serve a larger public interest. These involved decisions on organ donations, stem cell research, autopsies and dissection – followed by a final narrative on the classical emergence of maslaha itself as an avenue for social change in matters of public health. It usually comes as a surprise to western publics that supposedly ‘traditional’ societies such as Iran and Saudi Arabia have some of the most exciting and innovative programmes in health research, including on stem cell therapies for degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The use of embryonic cells in such research has incurred strong opposition in several western countries on religious grounds. Muslim ethicists, however, have successfully addressed such concerns by balancing them against the public benefit derived from innovative therapies.

In similar vein, where traditional norms about preserving the integrity of the human body would have restricted such practices as the donation of kidneys and the conduct of autopsies and dissections, Muslim jurists have drawn on maslaha to encourage individual and community choices that better serve public health. Egypt’s al-Azhar University has been key to paving the way in this regard on national health policy, as have jurists in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Likewise, the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi (Pakistan) has developed bioethical codes for clinicians that share the global bioethics emphasis on ‘beneficence’ and ‘avoiding harm’, yet do so from a robust Islamic perspective on public health innovation.

Dr. Sajoo’s final narrative, on the emergence of maslaha as a potent tool for social development, recalled the work of al-Shatibi (d. 1388) at a time when medicine was a field of unmatched advance across the Middle East. Thirteenth century physicians such as al-Nafis and al-Dakhwar had built on the iconic Canon of Medicine (Qanun fi’l tibb) of Ibn Sina (c. 980-1037). In order to gain legitimacy in public health practice, medical breakthroughs had to be sensitive to the larger social milieu, including religious traditions. It was in this regard that al-Shatibi’s rational inquiry into the higher aims or maqasid of the shari’a allowed him to develop maslaha as a balance against legal rigidity – something that the noted theologian al-Ghazali (1058-1111) had begun. Much later, this spirit of ‘reason within faith’ was to serve as a vital instrument for Muslim modernity, and it continues to do so amid the difficult choices to be made today in biomedicine and applied ethics.

http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=110207


Easy Nash

Easy NashThe Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

465)A Post About Collections of Posts And A Collection Of Posts About Collections Of Posts.........; Quote of Anonymous.

"When you suffer a spell of writer's block it's prudent to write a post about a collection of posts and a collection of posts about collections of posts and collections of posts about collections of posts....."(Anonymous)



1)A Collection Of Posts Describing The Ethos Of My Blog On The Link Between Science And Religion In Islam; Quotes Of Aga Khans And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/463a-collection-of-posts-describing.html


2)A Collection Of Posts About My Choice Of My Favourite Posts, Off-Topic Posts and Sundry Things; Quote Of Anonymous
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/464a-collection-of-posts-about-my.html


3)A Collection Of Posts Honouring Courageous Sisters in Religion:Irshad Manji,Yasmin Alibhai-Brown,the Redoubtable Moghul,Sheema Khan and Sheela B.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/462a-collection-of-posts-honouring-our.html


4)A Collection Of Posts By Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy, World-Renowned Physics Professor And Disciple Of 1979 Physics Nobel Laureate Abdus Salaam
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/461a-collection-of-posts-on-pervez.html


5)Ayats(Signs) In The Universe Series:A Collection of Seven+ Posts;Quotes of Noble Quran, Prophet Muhammad, Aga Khans, Nasir Khusraw + Al Sijistani
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/460ayatssigns-in-universe-seriesa.html


6)A Collection of Posts on Astronomy; Quotes of Noble Quran, Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III, Nasir Khusraw, Abu Yakub Al Sijistani and Aristotle
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/456a-collection-of-posts-on-astronomy.html


7)A Collection of Posts on Nasir Khusraw; Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Nasir Khusraw
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/455a-collection-of-posts-on-nasir.html


8)A Collection of Posts on Symmetry in Nature, as a Product of the Human Mind, Geometry and Harmonious Mathematical Reasoning; Quotes of Aga Khan IV
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/454a-collection-of-posts-on-symmetry-in.html


9)A Collection of Posts on Charles Darwin,a Scientist Way Ahead of His Time; Dynamic vs Static Creation; Quotes of Noble Quran, Aga Khans IV and III
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/02/450a-collection-of-posts-on-charles.html


10)The Peter McKnight Collection Of Posts On Science And Religion; Read Them Along With Blogpost Four Hundred; Quotes of Aga Khans IV and III
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/441the-peter-mcknight-collection-of.html


11)Knowledge Society: A Collection of Posts on the Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain; Quotes of Aga Khan IV.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/438knowledge-society-collection-of.html


12)A Collection of Posts on this Blog about Great Scientists; Quote of Aga Khan IV.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/437a-collection-of-blogposts-on-great.html


13)A collection of posts about life: tiniest matter, supernovae, living cells, water, proteins, blood, photosynthesis; Quotes of Aga Khans and others
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/435a-collection-of-posts-about-life.html


14)Fall And Winter Reading For Those Who Are Interested: My Choice Of The Top 50 Posts On My 427-Post Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/11/427fall-and-winter-reading-for-those.html


15)Summer reading for those who are interested; My choice of the top 50 posts in my 375-post Blog
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/07/375summer-reading-for-those-who-are.html


16)Dawood L'Etterman's Top Ten reasons why you should read Easy Nash's blog(for the months of April and May 2008)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/05/366dawood-lettermans-top-10-reasons-why.html


17)A collection of speeches by Aga Khans IV and III, source of some of my doctrinal material on science, religion, creation, knowledge and intellect
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/05/365a-collection-of-speeches-by-aga.html


18)Dawood L'Etterman's Top Ten reasons why you should read Easy Nash's blog(for the month of March 2008)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/03/333dawood-lettermans-top-ten-reasons.html


19)One mega-post, encompassing five regular posts, on the pioneering 9th century Muslim scientist Ibn al-Haytham or Alhazen(965CE to 1039CE).
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/296one-mega-post-encompassing-four.html

20)Another Off-Topic Wake-Up Call; Tarek Fatah: Racism-The Road To Genocide
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/472another-off-topic-wake-up-call-tarek.html

21)Salim Mansur opines:

Apologies don't quell anarchy
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/salim_mansur/2009/04/18/9153766-sun.html

Palestinians can learn from Jews
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/salim_mansur/2009/03/14/8744891-sun.html




Easy Nash

The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

464)A Collection Of Posts About My Choice Of My Favourite Posts, Off-Topic Posts and Sundry Things; Quote Of Anonymous

"While remaining true to the title of your main endeavour never be afraid to allow yourself some poetic licence, to branch out a bit on a whim and indulge in a topic that catches your fancy or stirs your passion"(Anonymous)




1)Fall And Winter Reading For Those Who Are Interested: My Choice Of The Top 50 Posts On My 427-Post Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/11/427fall-and-winter-reading-for-those.html


2)Summer reading for those who are interested; My choice of the top 50 posts in my 375-post Blog
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/06/375summer-reading-for-those-who-are.html


3)Dawood L'Etterman's Top Ten reasons why you should read Easy Nash's blog(for the months of April and May 2008)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/05/366dawood-lettermans-top-10-reasons-why.html
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/?s=Easy+Nash&searchbutton=go%21


4)Dawood L'Etterman's Top Ten reasons why you should read Easy Nash's blog(for the month of March 2008)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/03/333dawood-lettermans-top-ten-reasons.html


5)A survey of off-topic posts in the 2-year history of my blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/04/356a-survey-of-off-topic-posts-in-2.html


6)Why Easy Nash?; Who the hell is Easy Nash?
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2007/12/268why-easy-nash-who-hell-is-easy-nash.html


7)Waiting For The Fire To Return To My Belly.......
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/12/428waiting-for-fire-to-return-to-my.html


8)Two Magnificent Accounts describing the sojourn of the Keshavjee family in Pretoria, apartheid South Africa, during the 20th Century: A Legacy
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/10/414two-magnificent-accounts-describing.html



Easy Nash

The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

463)A Collection Of Posts Describing The Ethos Of My Blog On The Link Between Science And Religion In Islam; Quotes Of Aga Khans And Others.

"The Divine Intellect, Aql-i Kull, both transcends and informs the human intellect. It is this Intellect which enables man to strive towards two aims dictated by the faith: that he should reflect upon the environment Allah has given him and that he should know himself. It is the Light of the Intellect which distinguishes the complete human being from the human animal, and developing that intellect requires free inquiry. The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah's creation. Indeed, it is man's intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11, 1985)

"And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives - the more our imagination staggers.........What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration.....the Power and the Mystery of Allah as the Lord of Creation"(Aga Khan IV, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)

"......The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation - in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters...."(Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007)

"....in Islam, but particularly Shia Islam, the role of the intellect is part of faith. That intellect is what seperates man from the rest of the physical world in which he lives.....This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives. Of that I am certain"(Aga Khan IV, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, August 17th 2007)

"Of the Abrahamic faiths, Islam is probably the one that places the greatest emphasis on knowledge. The purpose is to understand God's creation, and therefore it is a faith which is eminently logical. Islam is a faith of reason"(Aga Khan IV, Spiegel Magazine interview, Germany, Oct 9th 2006)

"In this context, would it not also be relevant to consider how, above all, it has been the Qur'anic notion of the universe as an expression of Allah's will and creation that has inspired, in diverse Muslim communities, generations of artists, scientists and philosophers? Scientific pursuits, philosophic inquiry and artistic endeavour are all seen as the response of the faithful to the recurring call of the Qur'an to ponder the creation as a way to understand Allah's benevolent majesty. As Sura al-Baqara proclaims: 'Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah'.The famous verse of 'light' in the Qur'an, the Ayat al-Nur, whose first line is rendered here in the mural behind me, inspires among Muslims a reflection on the sacred, the transcendent. It hints at a cosmos full of signs and symbols that evoke the perfection of Allah's creation and mercy"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, Institute of Ismaili Studies, October 2003, London, U.K.)

"In sum the process of creation can be said to take place at several levels. Ibda represents the initial level - one transcends history, the other creates it. The spiritual and material realms are not dichotomous, since in the Ismaili formulation, matter and spirit are united under a higher genus and each realm possesses its own hierarchy. Though they require linguistic and rational categories for definition, they represent elements of a whole, and a true understanding of God must also take account of His creation. Such a synthesis is crucial to how the human intellect eventually relates to creation and how it ultimately becomes the instrument for penetrating through history the mystery of the unknowable God implied in the formulation of tawhid."(Azim Nanji, Director, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, U.K., 1998)

"Education has been important to my family for a long time. My forefathers founded al-Azhar University in Cairo some 1000 years ago, at the time of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt. Discovery of knowledge was seen by those founders as an embodiment of religious faith, and faith as reinforced by knowledge of workings of the Creator's physical world"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)

"The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims. Exchanges of knowledge between institutions and nations and the widening of man's intellectual horizons are essentially Islamic concepts. The Faith urges freedom of intellectual enquiry and this freedom does not mean that knowledge will lose its spiritual dimension. That dimension is indeed itself a field for intellectual enquiry. I can not illustrate this interdependence of spiritual inspiration and learning better than by recounting a dialogue between Ibn Sina, the philosopher, and Abu Said Abu -Khyar, the Sufi mystic. Ibn Sina remarked, "Whatever I know, he sees". To which Abu Said replied," Whatever I see, he knows"."(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985)

“Muslims believe in an all-encompassing unit of man and nature. To them there is no fundamental division between the spiritual and the material while the whole world, whether it be the earth, sea or air, or the living creatures that inhabit them, is an expression of God’s creation.”(Aga Khan IV, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 13 April 1984)

"In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)

"Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, our academic or secular elite must be deeply aware of Muslim history, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)

"God has given us the miracle of life with all its attributes: the extraordinary manifestations of sunrise and sunset, of sickness and recovery, of birth and death, but surely if He has given us the means with which to remove ourselves from this world so as to go to other parts of the Universe, we can but accept as further manifestations the creation and destructions of stars, the birth and death of atomic particles, the flighting new sound and light waves. I am afraid that the torch of intellectual discovery, the attraction of the unknown, the desire for intellectual self-perfection have left us"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, 1963, Mindanao, Phillipines)

"The creation according to Islam is not a unique act in a given time but a perpetual and constant event; and God supports and sustains all existence at every moment by His will and His thought. Outside His will, outside His thought, all is nothing, even the things which seem to us absolutely self-evident such as space and time. Allah alone wishes: the Universe exists; and all manifestations are as a witness of the Divine Will"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)

"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)

"Thus Islam's basic principle can only be defined as mono-realism and not as monotheism. Consider, for example, the opening declaration of every Islamic prayer: "Allah-o-Akbar". What does that mean? There can be no doubt that the second word of the declaration likens the character of Allah to a matrix which contains all and gives existence to the infinite, to space, to time, to the Universe, to all active and passive forces imaginable, to life and to the soul. Imam Hassan has explained the Islamic doctrine of God and the Universe by analogy with the sun and its reflection in the pool of a fountain; there is certainly a reflection or image of the sun, but with what poverty and with what little reality; how small and pale is the likeness between this impalpable image and the immense, blazing, white-hot glory of the celestial sphere itself. Allah is the sun; and the Universe, as we know it in all its magnitude, and time, with its power, are nothing more than the reflection of the Absolute in the mirror of the fountain"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)

"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth. During the great period of Islam, Muslims did not forget these principles of their religion"(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952)

"The God of the Quran is the One whose Ayats(Signs) are the Universe in which we live, move and have our being"(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952)

"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)

"In fact this world is a book in which you see inscribed the writings of God the Almighty"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)

"O brother! You asked: What is the [meaning of] `alam [world] and what is that entity to which this name applies? How should we describe the world in its entirety? And how many worlds are there? Explain so that we may recognize. Know, O brother, that the name `alam is derived from [the word] `ilm(knowledge), because the traces of knowledge are evident in [all] parts of the physical world. Thus, we say that the very constitution (nihad) of the world is based on a profound wisdom"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet, from his book "Knowledge and Liberation")

"Tarkib' is composition as in the compounding of elements in the process of making more complex things, that is, of adding together two things to form a synthesis, a compound. Soul composes in the sense of 'tarkib'; it is the animating force that combines the physical elements of the natural universe into beings that move and act. Incorporating is an especially apt word in this instance. It means to turn something into a body, as in 'composing'. But it is actually the conversion of an intellectual object, a thought, into a physical thing. Soul acts by incorporating reason into physical objects, the natural matter of the universe and all the things composed of it"(Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani,10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971CE, from the book, 'Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary', by Paul Walker)

"One hour of contemplation on the works of the Creator is better than a thousand hours of prayer"(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)


The above are 23 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of around 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Education, Science and Religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html




1)A Blog Constructed Within a Scaffolding of the Al Sijistani-Khusraw Cosmological Doctrine and, Everywhere I Turn, There is Blogpost Four Hundred..
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html


2)Blogpost Four Hundred, Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Science and Religion: Comprehensive Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Others; a never-ending post..
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html


3)Blogpost Four Hundred and all its earlier incarnations; the Cardinal Post of My Blog on the Link between Science and Religion in Islam
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/10/412blogpost-four-hundred-and-all-its.html


4)Abu Yakub al-Sijistani: Cosmologist, Theologian, Philosopher par excellence.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/284abu-yakub-al-sijistani-cosmologist.html


5)Nasir Khusraw from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.iep.utm.edu/k/khusraw.htm


6)Ikhwan al-Safa from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.iep.utm.edu/i/ikhwan.htm


7)Ismaili Philosophy from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.iep.utm.edu/i/ismaili.htm


8)The uninterrupted thread of the search for knowledge of all types.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/306the-uninterrupted-thread-of-search.html


9)Ikhwan al-Safa: An early attempt to balance revelation and reason.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/271ikhwan-al-safa-early-attempt-to.html


10)The Death of Science in Islam/What have we forgotten in Islam?-COMBO DELIGHT
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/305the-death-of-science-in-islamwhat.html


11)Intellect and Faith in Shia Ismaili Islam as described on the Preamble to the AKDN website
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/05/361intellect-and-faith-in-shia-ismaili.html


12)Blogpost Five Hundred IS Blogpost Four Hundred, The High-Octane Fuel That Powers My Blog On The Link Between Science And Religion In Islam
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html


13)The 19 Grand Ideas Of Science: What Is The Universe Made Up Of And How Does It Operate? Quotes Of Aga Khan IV And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/11/501-19-grand-ideas-of-science-what-is.html


14)An Exchange On My Facebook Wall On Why I Find The Al Sijistani-Khusraw Cosmological Doctrine So Attractive And Supremely Appropriate To My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/11/663an-exchange-on-my-facebook-wall-on.html


15)The Center For Middle Eastern Studies At The University Of Chicago Publishes 'Ismaili And Fatimid Studies In Honour Of Paul Walker'.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/11/664the-center-for-middle-eastern.html


16)Ibrahim Al-Buleihi(Saudi Shura Council) Sings Praises Of Western Civilization+Science;Aga Khan IV Agrees But Urges Not To Forget Islam's Role Also
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/05/610ibrahim-al-buleihisaudi-shura.html


17)Laylat Al-Qadr-The Night Of Power: Stirring And Inspiring Poetry By Jalaluddin Rumi; Explanation Of This Night; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/643laylat-al-qadr-night-of.html



Easy Nash

The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

462)A Collection Of Posts Honouring Courageous Sisters in Religion:Irshad Manji,Yasmin Alibhai-Brown,the Redoubtable Moghul,Sheema Khan and Sheela B.

"The Muslim world, once a remarkable bastion of scientific and humanist knowledge, a rich and self-confident cradle of culture and art, has never forgotten its past.The great Muslim philosopher al-Kindi wrote eleven hundred years ago, "No one is diminished by the truth, rather does the truth ennoble us all". That is no less true today"(Aga Khan IV, Speech,1996, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A.)

"The truth, as the famous Islamic scholars repeatedly told their students, is that the spirit of disciplined, objective enquiry is the property of no single culture, but of all humanity. To quote the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Sina: "My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the universe so that I may know all its conditions." "(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)

"Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, our academic or secular elite must be deeply aware of Muslim history, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)


The above are 3 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of about 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Education, Science and Religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html





1)Darth Vader gets tripped up by the Energizer Bunny, who almost gets her head chopped off; It's time for us to embrace 'Ijtihad' says Irshad Manji.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/436darth-vader-gets-tripped-up-by.html


2)Our half-sister Irshad Manji says Wilders' movie "Fitna" would be more effective with more "rose" Quran verses in it, not only the "thorn" verses
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/04/339our-half-sister-irshad-manji-says.html


3)Two interesting viewpoints by a Canadian journalist.
http://easynash.blogspot.com/2007/07/211two-interesting-viewpoints-by.html


4)How's this for a gutsy sister in religion: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown?; Quote of Easy Nash.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/02/325hows-this-for-gutsy-sister-in.html


5)Whew! I could feel the mirchis and masala blow through my ears when I read this comment by our sister in religion Moghul; I take my hat off to you
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/04/355whew-i-could-feel-mirchis-and-masala.html


6)Muslim Women in Math and Science: Sheema Khan Gives Us the Straight Goods
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/458muslim-women-in-math-and-science.html


Bonus Post:

7)Here's a toast to the late Dr Sheela Basrur, my former classmate at the University of Toronto Medical School; great communicator, great humanity.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/06/369heres-toast-to-late-dr-sheela-basrur.html




Easy Nash

The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

461)A Collection Of Posts By Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy, World-Renowned Physics Professor And Disciple Of 1979 Physics Nobel Laureate Abdus Salaam

Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)

Seek knowledge, even in China(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)

One hour of contemplation on the works of the Creator is better than a thousand hours of prayer(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)

The ink of the scholar is better than the blood of the martyr(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)


The above are 4 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of about 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Education, Science and Religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html





1)Pervez Hoodbhoy, World-Renowned Physics Professor, Disciple of 1979 Physics Nobel Laureate Abdus Salaam, says Pakistan Hurtling Towards Theocracy
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/457pervez-hoodbhoy-world-renowned.html


2)Pervez Hoodbhoy, World-Renowned Physics Professor, Disciple Of 1979 Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, Laments The Saudi-isation of Pakistan
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/443pervez-hoodbhoy-world-renowned.html


3)From the Pamir Times Blog: Critical minds alone can take us forward says world-renowned scientist Dr Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/06/371critical-minds-alone-can-take-us.html


4)Abdus Salam: 1979 Nobel laureate in Physics.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/285abdus-salam-1979-nobel-laureate-in.html



Easy Nash

The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

460)Ayats(Signs) In The Universe Series:A Collection of Seven+ Posts;Quotes of Noble Quran, Prophet Muhammad, Aga Khans, Nasir Khusraw + Al Sijistani

Kathalika yubayyinu Allahu lakum ayatihi la'allakum ta-'aqiloona: "Allah thus makes clear to you His Signs that you may intellect"(Noble Quran 2:242)

Chapter 30, Verse 27: He originates creation; then refashions it - for Him an easy task. His is the most Sublime Symbol in the heavens and the earth(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)

Chapter 21, Verse 30: Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together before We clove them asunder, and of water fashioned every thing? Will they not then believe?(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)

"One hour of contemplation on the works of the Creator is better than a thousand hours of prayer"(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)

"And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives - the more our imagination staggers.........What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration.....the Power and the Mystery of Allah as the Lord of Creation"(Aga Khan IV, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)

"......The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation - in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters...."(Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007)

"In this context, would it not also be relevant to consider how, above all, it has been the Qur'anic notion of the universe as an expression of Allah's will and creation that has inspired, in diverse Muslim communities, generations of artists, scientists and philosophers? Scientific pursuits, philosophic inquiry and artistic endeavour are all seen as the response of the faithful to the recurring call of the Qur'an to ponder the creation as a way to understand Allah's benevolent majesty. As Sura al-Baqara proclaims: 'Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah'.The famous verse of 'light' in the Qur'an, the Ayat al-Nur, whose first line is rendered here in the mural behind me, inspires among Muslims a reflection on the sacred, the transcendent. It hints at a cosmos full of signs and symbols that evoke the perfection of Allah's creation and mercy"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, Institute of Ismaili Studies, October 2003, London, U.K.)

"The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985)

“Muslims believe in an all-encompassing unit of man and nature. To them there is no fundamental division between the spiritual and the material while the whole world, whether it be the earth, sea or air, or the living creatures that inhabit them, is an expression of God’s creation.”(Aga Khan IV, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 13 April 1984)

"Thus Islam's basic principle can only be defined as mono-realism and not as monotheism. Consider, for example, the opening declaration of every Islamic prayer: "Allah-o-Akbar". What does that mean? There can be no doubt that the second word of the declaration likens the character of Allah to a matrix which contains all and gives existence to the infinite, to space, to time, to the Universe, to all active and passive forces imaginable, to life and to the soul"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)

"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)

"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth"(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952)

"The God of the Quran is the One whose Ayats(Signs) are the Universe in which we live, move and have our being"(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952)

"O brother! You asked: What is the [meaning of] `alam [world] and what is that entity to which this name applies? How should we describe the world in its entirety? And how many worlds are there? Explain so that we may recognize. Know, O brother, that the name `alam is derived from [the word] `ilm(knowledge), because the traces of knowledge are evident in [all] parts of the physical world. Thus, we say that the very constitution (nihad) of the world is based on a profound wisdom"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet, from his book "Knowledge and Liberation")

"In fact this world is a book in which you see inscribed the writings of God the Almighty"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)

"Tarkib' is composition as in the compounding of elements in the process of making more complex things, that is, of adding together two things to form a synthesis, a compound. Soul composes in the sense of 'tarkib'; it is the animating force that combines the physical elements of the natural universe into beings that move and act. Incorporating is an especially apt word in this instance. It means to turn something into a body, as in 'composing'. But it is actually the conversion of an intellectual object, a thought, into a physical thing. Soul acts by incorporating reason into physical objects, the natural matter of the universe and all the things composed of it"(Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani,10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971CE, from the book, 'Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary', by Paul Walker)


The above are 16 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of about 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Education, Science and Religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html



No 10, Ayats(Signs) In The Universe Series:Marine Animal Steals Marine Plant's Photosynthetic Genes Then Kicks Back With No Need To Feed;Chor Salo
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/554no-10-ayatssigns-in-universe.html


No. 9, Ayats(Signs) In The Universe Series:Mathematical Abstractions And Tawhid; Multidimensional Pattern Solved First By Math Then Seen In Nature
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/01/548no-9-ayatssigns-in-universe.html


No. 8, Ayats(Signs) In The Universe Series: Insects Selfprotect From Freezing By Making Their Own Antifreeze; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/01/547no-8-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html


No. 7: Ayats(Signs) in the Universe series. How are proteins made inside living cells and what does this have to do with religion?
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/282no-7-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html


No.6, 'Ayats'(Signs) in the Universe series. HIV/AIDS: Marvel of creation, foe of man.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/280no6-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html


No. 5, 'Ayats'(Signs) in the Universe series: Speeding angels; the relativity of time; everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/289no-5-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html


No. 4, 'Ayats'(Signs) in the Universe series. Photosynthesis: Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth....
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/288no-4-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html


No. 3, 'Ayats'(Signs) in the Universe series: The dynamic, roiling, rumbling surface of the earth.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/276no-3-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html


No. 2, 'Ayats'(Signs) in the Universe series: The miniscule universe inside a living cell.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/275no-2-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html


No. 1, 'Ayats'(Signs) in the Universe series: A magnificent vista of nature as seen from a cottage deck
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/272no-1-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html


Bonus Posts:

8)2 intellectual giants speak to each other accross a millenium on "time": can it be slowed, sped up, reversed, transcended?Ask Einstein and Khusraw
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/05/3592-intellectual-giants-speak-to-each.html


9)Allegories in Nature: "....a Cosmos full of signs and symbols that evoke the perfection of Allah's creation and mercy"; Quote of AgaKhans.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/03/332allegories-in-nature-cosmos-full-of.html


10)The Wonders of Blood: the Foundation of our Existence as Multi-Cellular Creatures; Quotes of Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III and Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/10/418the-wonders-of-blood-foundation-of.html


11)WATER, Life's Little Essential: Quotes of Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III and Fatimid Shia Ismaili Muslim cosmologist-philosopher Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/07/381water-lifes-little-essential-quotes.html


12)The Particle Zoo: The Building Blocks of All Matter; Quotes of Aga Khans IV and III and others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/08/393the-particle-zoo-building-blocks-of.html


13)The Microscopic Universe within a Cell; Genes and their Sidekicks: Uncovering a Marvel of God's Creation; Quotes of Aga Khan IV and others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/02/448the-microscopic-universe-within-cell.html


14)Marvels Of God's Creation:Pigeons Usually Let Best Navigator Take The Lead But Other Birds Sometimes Get A Chance As Well;Quotes From Blogpost 400
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/06/627marvels-of-gods-creationpigeons.html


15)Birds That Migrate Thousands of Miles With Nary A Stop: 7,000 Miles Nonstop, And No Pretzels; A Marvel To Behold; Quotes From Blogpost 400.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/06/628birds-that-migrate-thousands-of.html


16)Fossils From Just Before The Cambrian Period: Quotes Of Aga Khan IV and Aga Khan III
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/632fossils-from-just-before-cambrian.html


17)The Incredible Shrinking Proton: Subatomic Particle May Be Smaller Than Theory Dictates; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/634the-incredible-shrinking-proton.html


18)Global Marine Life Census Reveals New Species From The Deep Ocean, Marvels of God's Creation; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/635global-marine-life-census-reveals.html


19)Arctic Rocks Reveal Earth's Recipe: Volcanic Rocks Made Of 4.5-Billion-Year-Old Material From The Inner Earth Discovered; Quotes Of Blogpost 400.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/639arctic-rocks-reveal-earths-recipe.html


20)Biochip Weds Brain Cells And Electronics; Marvel Of Science; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/644biochip-weds-brain-cells-and.html


21)A Nod To A Gaggle Of Telus-Coloured Pinkies From Auckland, NZ: It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month And The Colour Is Pink; Quotes From Blogpost 400
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/09/654a-nod-to-gaggle-of-telus-coloured.html


22)2010 Nobels Recognize Potential Of Basic Science To Shape The World; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/10/6592010-nobels-recognize-potential-of.html


23)Studying Tropical Genetic Blood Diseases: A Conversation With David J. Weatherall On Thalassemia; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/10/660studying-tropical-genetic-blood.html


24)Bacteria Strut Their Stuff: Videos Catch Microbes Walking On Hairlike Appendages; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/10/661bacteria-strut-their-stuff-videos.html


25)Bacteria Growing With Poisonous Arsenic Instead Of Vitalizing And 'Indispensable' Phosphorous Changes The Debate On The Origins Of Life On Earth.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/12/667bacteria-growing-with-poisonous.html


26)The Bacterial Flagellum – Truly An Engineering Marvel!; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/12/671the-bacterial-flagellum-truly.html


27)The Miracle Of Ribosome(The Cell's Protein Factory) Assembly Evolution; Quotes from Blogpost Four Hundred.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/12/672the-miracle-of-ribosomethe-cells.html



Easy Nash

The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

459)Pakistan to battle fundamentalism with science; Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Aga Khan III.

"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth. During the great period of Islam, Muslims did not forget these principles of their religion. Alas, Islam which is a natural religion in which God's miracles are the very law and order of nature drifted away and is still drifting away, even in Pakistan, from Science, which is the study of those very laws and orders of nature.……Islam is a natural religion of which the Ayats are the universe in which we live and move and have our being………..The God of the Quran is the one whose Ayats are the universe……"(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952)

"The second great historical lesson to be learnt is that the Muslim world has always been wide open to every aspect of human existence. The sciences, society, art, the oceans, the environment and the cosmos have all contributed to the great moments in the history of Muslim civilisations. The Qur’an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God’s creation"(Closing Address by His Highness Aga Khan IV at the "Musée-Musées" Round Table Louvre Museum, Paris, France, October 17th 2007)

“Parts of the Ummah are concerned about the relationship between Muslims and the contemporary knowledge society, which is now principally rooted in the West. It is my deepest conviction, my deepest conviction, that we must make that knowledge society our own, in keeping with the Alid tradition towards the intellect, but always doing so within the ethics of our faith. Thus, I have sought from my Jamat your Nazrana of time and knowledge.”(Aga Khan IV, Paris, France, July 11th 2007)

"In this context, would it not also be relevant to consider how, above all, it has been the Qur'anic notion of the universe as an expression of Allah's will and creation that has inspired, in diverse Muslim communities, generations of artists, scientists and philosophers? Scientific pursuits, philosophic inquiry and artistic endeavour are all seen as the response of the faithful to the recurring call of the Qur'an to ponder the creation as a way to understand Allah's benevolent majesty. As Sura al-Baqara proclaims: 'Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah'.The famous verse of 'light' in the Qur'an, the Ayat al-Nur, whose first line is rendered here in the mural behind me, inspires among Muslims a reflection on the sacred, the transcendent. It hints at a cosmos full of signs and symbols that evoke the perfection of Allah's creation and mercy"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, Institute of Ismaili Studies, October 2003, London, U.K.)

"The Muslim world, once a remarkable bastion of scientific and humanist knowledge, a rich and self-confident cradle of culture and art, has never forgotten its past.The great Muslim philosopher al-Kindi wrote eleven hundred years ago, "No one is diminished by the truth, rather does the truth ennobles all". That is no less true today"(Aga Khan IV, Speech,1996, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A.)

"Science is a wonderful, powerful tool and research budgets are essential. But Science is only the beginning in the new age we are entering. Islam does not perceive the world as two seperate domains of mind and spirit, science and belief. Science and the search for knowledge are an expression of man's designated role in the universe, but they do not define that role totally....."(Aga Khan IV, McMaster University Convocation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, May 15th 1987)

"In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)

"Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, our academic or secular elite must be deeply aware of Muslim history, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)

"God has given us the miracle of life with all its attributes: the extraordinary manifestations of sunrise and sunset, of sickness and recovery, of birth and death, but surely if He has given us the means with which to remove ourselves from this world so as to go to other parts of the Universe, we can but accept as further manifestations the creation and destructions of stars, the birth and death of atomic particles, the flighting new sound and light waves. I am afraid that the torch of intellectual discovery, the attraction of the unknown, the desire for intellectual self-perfection have left us"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, 1963, Mindanao, Phillipines)

"The God of the Quran is the One whose Ayats(Signs) are the Universe in which we live, move and have our being"(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952)

"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)


The above are 11 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of about 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Education, Science and Religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html






Pakistan to battle fundamentalism with science

13 March 2009 by
Lawrence Krauss


THIS month will see my last two World lines columns for New Scientist which, judging by some of the email I have received, will be a source of celebration in some quarters. While I have sometimes used the opportunity afforded by this column to criticise developments that I perceive as dangerous - from governments cutting back on support for basic research, to creationists' meddling in school boards - this week I want to discuss a development I just learned about which is truly worth celebrating.

Over recent years there has been much violence reported from the war in Afganistan against the fundamentalist Taliban, which has spilled over into Pakistan. But despite the military might we throw at the Taliban, winning the hearts and minds of the next generation in these regions may depend less on using bullets than books, and less on waging war than creating jobs. Educated minds are hopefully more open to the free exchange of ideas than minds that are closed in childhood. And gainful employment is often a cure for unrest and hatred.

Educated minds are hopefully more open to the free exchange of ideas than minds closed in childhood

As many people in developing countries have realised, the hope for economic progress in the 21st century lies in becoming technologically competitive - and such competitiveness depends on producing scientists and engineers. India is the poster child here. Anyone who has visited any of the Indian Institutes of Technology - where admission is harder than at Harvard University and graduation virtually guarantees a job in the growing technology sector- has seen how effective first-rate schools can be in contributing to raising a nation's standard of living.

This is why I was so heartened recently when I met my friend Bob Jaffe, a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He told me about a remarkable experiment in Pakistan that he is a part of, in which a unique combination of private money, government support and intellectual leadership is helping to build the first private research school for science and engineering in that country, the School of Science and Engineering (SSE), part of the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Developments so far have been encouraging. More than $53 million in support has come in from individuals, government and industry - and world-class faculty are returning to Pakistan to participate in the new institution. Admission is merit-based and open to all, independent of gender and social or religious background, providing opportunities to outstanding students who need financial aid to make a new life.

As Jaffe says in a brochure about the new institution: "Access to world-class education opens the door to economic prosperity and personal creativity. Our vision is to bring transformational science and engineering education to Pakistan. Our goal is to ignite development at a fundamental level by educating the most promising young people of all backgrounds. We hope to end Pakistan's disastrous "brain drain" by expanding the national market for superbly trained scientists and engineers. SSE will seek out the best-prepared, most motivated students from all social and economic backgrounds. We will educate them and provide them the skills and experience to succeed in the world... We believe that this is the most effective and positive way we can impact Pakistan's economic future."

It is developments like this that provide hope for the future. I wish all those at the SSE, and those who might be inspired to emulate this kind of institution elsewhere, the best of luck in using science and engineering to wage the war that really needs to be fought- the war on ignorance and poverty.

Lawrence Krauss is director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University in Phoenix

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126995.200-pakistan-to-battle-fundamentalism-with-science.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Related:
With thanks to Arif
http://arif.amplify.com/2009/03/14/pakistan-to-battle-fundamentalism-with-science/



Easy Nash

The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

458)Muslim Women in Math and Science: Sheema Khan Gives Us the Straight Goods

We've done the math and, yes, we women have it in us

SHEEMA KHAN
From Monday's Globe and Mail
March 16, 2009 at 12:00 AM EDT

A while back, I was given the task of teaching a Grade 12 remedial class in physics. Since the failure rate always hovered around 50 per cent, I was told to expect the same. Besides, most of the incoming students had failed high-school physics and thus were expected to do so again. I refused to accept this cynical outlook.

On the first day, I told the students: Attend all lectures, complete all assignments and tests, and you will be guaranteed a passing grade. Hard work will be rewarded. Having taught remedial courses in chemistry and math, I knew the key was to make the subject matter relevant to everyday life.

Isaac Newton's equations of motion made more sense when used to calculate the braking distance of a speeding Mazda RX-7 (or the distance a human body would be thrown without a seatbelt). Gustav Kirchhoff's laws of circuits were plain to see when I almost electrocuted myself during a lab class. X-rays and camera filters were a natural segue into light scattering and polarization. By the end of the course, students had analyzed an MIT article on airport-screening machines based on costs, energy efficiency and civil liberties. Their assignment: "You're the airport manager. You decide which machine is the best purchase." Intelligent, nuanced arguments buttressed each student's conclusion. In the end, only one constant no-show failed.

The key ingredient to their success: confidence. Why think students don't have it in them to understand physics? Why imprison them to the past? Before parting ways, I advised: Never believe you can't tackle a challenge.

The power within should never be underestimated. Yet, there are some who believe that biological determinism trumps the human spirit. A few academics now say women don't have the genetic makeup for math. Obscure scientific theories and dubious experiments are given as proof - much like 19th-century European tests that "proved" the inferior intelligence of blacks by comparing the skull size of black Africans and white Europeans. (Guess whose skulls were always bigger?)

Biological determinism is a blunt tool used by elites to thwart the aspirations of those whom they wish to control. Mirroring this are those religious elders who insist that women don't have the intellectual capacity of men. They dismiss demands for equality as espousal for sameness. Within many Muslim cultures, there is the accepted ideology that women lack intelligence, are too "emotional" and "weak." Yet, there is no theological proof for these assertions.

Syed Abul A'la Maududi, an influential 20th-century Indo-Pakistani scholar, argued in the misogynous tract Purdah and the Status of Women in Islam that the dearth of female Nobel Prize winners was proof of their subpar intelligence (reasoning echoed by the archly secular Shah of Iran to Barbara Walters). According to his logic, then, the lack of Muslim Nobel Prize winners proves the subpar intelligence of Muslims - a conclusion that belies the astounding scientific achievements of the Golden Age of Islamic civilization.

Those who insist that Muslim women are inherently intellectually deficient willfully ignore their accomplishments across 14 centuries in fields such as jurisprudence, theology and science.
Similarly, the sheer numbers of female mathematicians, physicists and engineers challenge the "women can't do math" mantra. Thankfully, there are enough educators who don't believe the cynics. I was fortunate to have nurturers of the mind throughout my education in Montreal. Not once did I meet discouragement. At Harvard, I pursued my love of math and physics as one would pursue a love of music. Spherical Bessel functions, Feynman diagrams and the like resonated in my spirit. My doctoral thesis involved the application of mathematical physics to statistical mechanics, resulting in a theory (albeit obscure) of electrolyte solutions.

I, along with a growing female sorority, stand on the giant shoulders of pioneers such as mathematician and physicist Emmy Noether. Today, 19-year-old wunderkind physicist Alia Sabur is poised to go where no man (or woman) has gone before. For those who tell us "you don't have it in you," we say: We've done the math, and found infinity in the palm of our hands.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090313.wcokhan16/BNStory/specialComment/home



Easy Nash

The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)

457)Pervez Hoodbhoy, World-Renowned Physics Professor, Disciple of 1979 Physics Nobel Laureate Abdus Salaam, says Pakistan Hurtling Towards Theocracy

Towards theocracy?

PERVEZ AMIRALI HOODBHOY

State and society in Pakistan today.

FOR 20 years or more, a few of us in Pakistan have been desperately sending out SOS messages, warning of terrible times to come. Nevertheless, none anticipated how quickly and accurately our dire predictions would come true. It is a small matter that the flames of terrorism set Mumbai on fire and, more recently, destroyed Pakistan’s cricketing future. A much more important and brutal fight lies ahead as Pakistan, a nation of 175 million, struggles for its very survival. The implications for the future of South Asia are enormous.

Today a full-scale war is being fought in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), Swat and other “wild” areas of Pakistan, with thousands dying and hundreds of thousands of IDPs (internally displaced people) streaming into cities and towns. In February 2009, with the writ of the Pakistani state in tatters, the government gave in to the demand of the TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Pakistani Taliban Movement) to implement the Islamic Sharia in Malakand, a region of FATA. It also announced the suspension of a military offensive in Swat, which has been almost totally taken over by the TTP. But the respite that it brought was short-lived and started breaking down only hours later.

The fighting is now inexorably migrating towards Peshawar where, fearing the Taliban, video shop owners have shut shop, banners have been placed in bazaars declaring them closed for women, musicians are out of business, and kidnapping for ransom is the best business in town. Islamabad has already seen Lal Masjid and the Marriot bombing, and has had its police personnel repeatedly blown up by suicide bombers. Today, its barricaded streets give a picture of a city under siege. In Karachi, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), an ethnic but secular party well known for strong-arm tactics, has issued a call for arms to prevent the Taliban from making further inroads into the city. Lahore once appeared relatively safe and different but, after the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, has rejoined Pakistan.

The suicide bomber and the masked abductor have crippled Pakistan’s urban life and shattered its national economy. Soldiers, policemen, factory and hospital workers, mourners at funerals, and ordinary people praying in mosques have been reduced to hideous masses of flesh and fragments of bones. The bearded ones, many operating out of madrassas, are hitting targets across the country. Although a substantial part of the Pakistani public insists upon lionising them as “standing up to the Americans”, they are neither seeking to evict a foreign occupier nor fighting for a homeland. They want nothing less than to seize power and to turn Pakistan into their version of the ideal Islamic state. In their incoherent, ill-formed vision, this would include restoring the caliphate as well as doing away with all forms of western influence and elements of modernity. The AK-47 and the Internet, of course, would stay.

But, perhaps paradoxically, in spite of the fact that the dead bodies and shattered lives are almost all Muslim ones, few Pakistanis speak out against these atrocities. Nor do they approve of military action against the cruel perpetrators, choosing to believe that they are fighting for Islam and against an imagined American occupation. Political leaders like Qazi Husain Ahmed and Imran Khan have no words of kindness for those who have suffered from Islamic extremists. Their tears are reserved for the victims of predator drones, whether innocent or otherwise. By definition, for them terrorism is an act that only Americans can commit.


Why the Denial?

To understand Pakistan’s collective masochism, one needs to study the drastic social and cultural transformations that have made this country so utterly different from what it was in earlier times. For three decades, deep tectonic forces have been silently tearing Pakistan away from the Indian subcontinent and driving it towards the Arabian peninsula.

This continental drift is not physical but cultural, driven by a belief that Pakistan must exchange its South Asian identity for an Arab-Muslim one. Grain by grain, the desert sands of Saudi Arabia are replacing the rich soil that had nurtured a rich Muslim culture in India for a thousand years. This culture produced Mughal architecture, the Taj Mahal, the poetry of Asadullah Ghalib, and much more. Now a stern, unyielding version of Islam – Wahabism – is replacing the kinder, gentler Islam of the sufis and saints who had walked on this land for hundreds of years.
This change is by design. Twenty-five years ago, under the approving gaze of Ronald Reagan’s America, the Pakistani state pushed Islam on to its people. Prayers in government departments were deemed compulsory, floggings were carried out publicly, punishments were meted out to those who did not fast in Ramadan, selection for university academic posts required that the candidate demonstrate knowledge of Islamic teachings, and jehad was declared essential for every Muslim.

Villages have changed drastically, driven in part by Pakistani workers returning from Arab countries. Many village mosques are now giant madrassas that propagate hard-line Salafi and Deobandi beliefs through oversized loudspeakers. They are bitterly opposed to Barelvis, Shias and other Muslims, who they do not consider to be proper Muslims. Punjabis, who were far more liberal towards women than Pashtuns, are now also beginning to take a line resembling the Taliban. Hanafi law has begun to prevail over tradition and civil law, as is evident from recent decisions in the Lahore High Court.

K.M. CHAUDHRY/AP Pakistan’s Ministry of Education estimates that 1.5 million students are getting religious education in 13,000 madrassas. These figures could be quite off the mark. Commonly quoted figures range between 18,000 and 22,000 such schools. Here, students at the Jamia Manzoorul Islam, a madrassa in Lahore.

In the Pakistani lower-middle and middle-middle classes lurks a grim and humourless Saudi-inspired revivalist movement which frowns on every expression of joy and pleasurable pastime. Lacking any positive connection to history, culture and knowledge, it seeks to eliminate “corruption” by regulating cultural life and seizing control of the education system.

“Classical music is on its last legs in Pakistan; the sarangi and vichtarveena are completely dead,” laments Mohammad Shehzad, a music aficionado. Indeed, teaching music in public universities is violently opposed by students of the Islami Jamaat-e-Talaba at Punjab University. Religious fundamentalists consider music haram. Kathak dancing, once popular with the Muslim elite of India, has no teachers left. Pakistan produces no feature films of any consequence.

As a part of General Zia-ul-Haq’s cultural offensive, Hindi words were expunged from daily use and replaced with heavy-sounding Arabic ones. Persian, the language of Mughal India, had once been taught as a second or third language in many Pakistani schools. But, because of its association with Shiite Iran, it too was dropped and replaced with Arabic. The morphing of the traditional “khuda hafiz” (Persian for “God be with you”) into “allah hafiz” (Arabic for “God be with you”) took two decades to complete. The Arab import sounded odd and contrived, but ultimately the Arabic God won and the Persian God lost.


Genesis of Jehad

One can squarely place the genesis of religious militancy in Pakistan to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the subsequent efforts of the U.S.-Pakistan-Saudi grand alliance to create and support the Great Global Jehad of the 20th century. A toxic mix of imperial might, religious fundamentalism, and local interests ultimately defeated the Soviets. But the network of Islamic militant organisations did not disappear after it achieved success. By now the Pakistani Army establishment had realised the power of jehad as an instrument of foreign policy, and so the network grew from strength to strength.

The amazing success of the state is now turning out to be its own undoing. Today the Pakistan Army and establishment are under attack from religious militants, and rival Islamic groups battle each other with heavy weapons. Ironically, the same Army – whose men were recruited under the banner of jehad, and which saw itself as the fighting arm of Islam – today stands accused of betrayal and is almost daily targeted by Islamist suicide bombers. Over 1,800 soldiers have died as of February 2009 in encounters with religious militants, and many have been tortured before decapitation. Nevertheless, the Army is still ambivalent in its relationship with the jehadists and largely focusses upon India.


Education or Indoctrination?

Similar sentiments exist in a large part of the Pakistani public media. The commonly expressed view is that Islamic radicalism is a problem only in FATA and that madrassas are the only jehad factories around. This could not be more wrong. Extremism is breeding at a ferocious rate in public and private schools within Pakistan’s towns and cities. Left unchallenged, this kind of education will produce a generation incapable of living together with any except strictly their own kind. Pakistan’s education system demands that Islam be understood as a complete code of life, and creates in the mind of the schoolchild a sense of siege and constant embattlement by stressing that Islam is under threat everywhere.

The government-approved curriculum, prepared by the Curriculum Wing of the Federal Ministry of Education, is the basic road map for transmitting values and knowledge to the young. By an Act of Parliament, passed in 1976, all government and private schools (except for O-level schools) are required to follow this curriculum. It is a blueprint for a religious fascist state.

The masthead of an illustrated primer for the Urdu alphabet states that it has been prepared by Iqra Publishers, Rawalpindi, along “Islamic lines”. Although not an officially approved textbook, it has been used for many years by some regular schools, as well as madrassas, associated with the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), an Islamic political party that had allied itself with General Pervez Musharraf.

The world of the Pakistani schoolchild was largely unchanged even after September 11, 2001, which led to Pakistan’s timely desertion of the Taliban and the slackening of the Kashmir jehad. Indeed, for all his hypocritical talk of “enlightened moderation”, Musharraf’s educational curriculum was far from enlightening. It was a slightly toned-down copy of that under Nawaz Sharif which, in turn, was identical to that under Benazir Bhutto, who inherited it from Zia-ul-Haq.

Fearful of taking on powerful religious forces, every incumbent government refused to take a position on the curriculum and thus quietly allowed young minds to be moulded by fanatics. What might happen a generation later has always been a secondary matter for a government challenged on so many sides.

The promotion of militarism in Pakistan’s so-called “secular” public schools, colleges and universities had a profound effect upon young minds. Militant jehad became part of the culture on college and university campuses. Armed groups flourished, invited students for jehad in Kashmir and Afghanistan, set up offices throughout the country, collected funds at Friday prayers, and declared a war without borders. Pre-9/11, my university was ablaze with posters inviting students to participate in the Kashmir jehad. After 2001, this slipped below the surface.

For all his hypocritical talk of “enlightened moderation”, General Pervez Musharraf’s educational curriculum was far from enlightening. It was a slightly toned-down copy of that under Nawaz Sharif which, in turn, was identical to that under Benazir Bhutto, who inherited it from Zia-ul-Haq. (From left) Zia-ul-Haq, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf.


The madrassas

The primary vehicle for Saudi-ising Pakistan’s education has been the madrassa. In earlier times, these had turned out the occasional Islamic scholar, using a curriculum that essentially dates from the 11th century with only minor subsequent revisions. But their principal function had been to produce imams and muezzins for mosques, and those who eked out an existence as “moulvi sahibs” teaching children to read the Quran.

The Afghan jehad changed everything. During the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, madrassas provided the U.S.-Saudi-Pakistani alliance the cannon fodder needed for fighting a holy war. The Americans and the Saudis, helped by a more-than-willing General Zia, funded new madrassas across the length and breadth of Pakistan.

A detailed picture of the current situation is not available. But, according to the national education census, which the Ministry of Education released in 2006, Punjab has 5,459 madrassas followed by the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) with 2,843; Sindh 1,935; Federally Administrated Northern Areas (FANA) 1,193; Balochistan 769; Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 586; FATA 135; and Islamabad capital territory 77. The Ministry estimates that 1.5 million students are getting religious education in the 13,000 madrassas.

These figures could be quite off the mark. Commonly quoted figures range between 18,000 and 22,000 madrassas. The number of students could be correspondingly larger. The free room, board and supplies to students, form a key part of their appeal. But the desire of parents across the country is for children to be “disciplined” and to be given a thorough Islamic education. This is also a major contributing factor.

Madrassas have deeply impacted upon the urban environment. For example, until a few years ago, Islamabad was a quiet, orderly, modern city different from all others in Pakistan. Still earlier, it had been largely the abode of Pakistan’s hyper-elite and foreign diplomats. But the rapid transformation of its demography brought with it hundreds of mosques with multi-barrelled audio-cannons mounted on minarets, as well as scores of madrassas illegally constructed in what used to be public parks and green areas. Now, tens of thousands of their students with little prayer caps dutifully chant the Quran all day. In the evenings they swarm around the city, making bare-faced women increasingly nervous.


Women – the Lesser Species

Total separation of the sexes is a central goal of the Islamists. Two decades ago the fully veiled student was a rarity on Pakistani university and college campuses. The abaya was an unknown word in Urdu; it is a foreign import. But today, some shops in Islamabad specialise in abaya. At colleges and universities across Pakistan, female students are seeking the anonymity of the burqa. Such students outnumber their sisters who still dare show their faces.

While social conservatism does not necessarily lead to violent extremism, it does shorten the path. Those with beards and burqas are more easily convinced that Muslims are being demonised by the rest of the world. The real problem, they say, is the plight of the Palestinians, the decadent and discriminatory West, the Jews, the Christians, the Hindus, the Kashmir issue, the Bush doctrine, and so on. They vehemently deny that those committing terrorist acts are Muslims or, if faced by incontrovertible evidence, say it is a mere reaction to oppression. Faced with the embarrassment that 200 schools for girls were blown up in Swat by Fazlullah’s militants, they wriggle out by saying that some schools were housing the Pakistan Army, who should be targeted anyway.


The Prognosis

The immediate future is not hopeful: increasing numbers of mullahs are creating cults around themselves and seizing control over the minds of worshippers. In the tribal areas, a string of new Islamist leaders have suddenly emerged: Sufi Mohammad, Baitullah Mehsud, Fazlullah, Mangal Bagh…. The enabling environment of poverty, deprivation, lack of justice, and extreme differences of wealth is perfect for these demagogues. Their gruesome acts of terror and public beheadings are still being perceived by large numbers of Pakistanis as part of the fight against imperialist America and, sometimes, India as well. This could not be more wrong.

The jehadists have longer-range goals. A couple of years ago, a Karachi-based monthly magazine ran a cover story on the terrorism in Kashmir. One fighter was asked what he would do if a political resolution were found for the disputed valley. Revealingly, he replied that he would not lay down his gun but turn it on the Pakistani leadership, with the aim of installing an Islamic government there.

Over the next year or two, we are likely to see more short-lived “peace accords”, as in Malakand, Swat and, earlier on, in Shakai. In my opinion, these are exercises in futility. Until the Pakistan Army finally realises that Mr. Frankenstein needs to be eliminated rather than be engaged in negotiations, it will continue to soft-pedal on counter-insurgency. It will also continue to develop and demand from the U.S. high-tech weapons that are not the slightest use against insurgents. There are some indications that some realisation of the internal threat is dawning, but the speed is as yet glacial.

Even if Mumbai-II occurs, India’s options in dealing with nuclear Pakistan are severely limited. Cross-border strikes should be dismissed from the realm of possibilities. They could lead to escalations that neither government would have control over. I am convinced that India’s prosperity – and perhaps its physical survival – demands that Pakistan stays together. Pakistan could disintegrate into a hell, where different parts are run by different warlords. Paradoxically perhaps, India’s most effective defence could be the Pakistan Army, torn and fractured though it may be. To convert a former enemy army into a possible ally will require that India change tack.

To create a future working alliance with the struggling Pakistani state, and in deference to basic democratic principles, India must be seen as genuinely working towards some kind of resolution of the Kashmir issue. It must not deny that the majority of Kashmiri Muslims are deeply alienated from the Indian state and that they desperately seek balm for their wounds. Else the forces of cross-border jehad, and its hate-filled holy warriors, will continue to receive unnecessary succour.

I shall end this rather grim essay on an optimistic note: the forces of irrationality will surely cancel themselves out because they act in random directions, whereas reason pulls in only one. History leads us to believe that reason will triumph over unreason, and humans will continue their evolution towards a higher and better species. Ultimately, it will not matter whether we are Pakistanis, Indians, Kashmiris, or whatever. Using ways that we cannot currently anticipate, people will somehow overcome their primal impulses of territoriality, tribalism, religion and nationalism. But for now this must be just a hypothesis.

Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy is Professor and Chairman of the Physics Department at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

http://hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20090327260601600.htm


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http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/06/371critical-minds-alone-can-take-us.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/285abdus-salam-1979-nobel-laureate-in.html



Easy Nash

Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)
Seek knowledge, even in China(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)
One hour of contemplation on the works of the Creator is better than a thousand hours of prayer(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)
The ink of the scholar is better than the blood of the martyr(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)