Hey thanks for reminding, you're not sofia but sofiya....oh what a difference one character makes.
BTW, do you want me to teach you how to correctly post a post? See how my post looks like compared to yours? At least I can return a favor this way. What say you, Sofiya? (see, I even capitalized your first letter, nice eh).
Eventually we will get to love.
--me (just made one up).
Hey thanks for reminding, you're not sofia but sofiya....oh what a difference one character makes.
BTW, do you want me to teach you how to correctly post a post? See how my post looks like compared to yours? At least I can return a favor this way. What say you, Sofiya? (see, I even capitalized your first letter, nice eh).
Eventually we will get to love.
--me (just made one up).
Thanks for your offer but I am quite capable of doing things by myself.
Ismaili Studies: Background and Modern Developments
Farhad Daftary
The Origins of the Myths
In the course of their long and complex history, dating to the formative period of Islam, the Ismailis have often been accused of various heretical teachings and practices and a multitude of myths and misconceptions have circulated about them. This is mainly because the Ismailis were, until the middle of the twentieth century, studied and evaluated almost exclusively on the basis of the evidence collected or fabricated by their enemies. As a Shi‘i community that upheld the right of the ‘Alid imams to the caliphate, the Ismailis, from early on, aroused the hostility of the Sunni Abbasids. With the foundation of the Fatimid state in 909 CE, the Ismailis posed a challenge to the established order and, thereupon, the Abbasid caliphs and the Sunni ulama launched what amounted to an official anti-Ismaili propaganda campaign. The overall objective of this systematic and prolonged campaign was to discredit the entire Ismaili movement from its origins so that the Ismailis could be readily condemned as malahida, heretics or deviators from the true religious path. Anti-Ismaili writings provided a major source of information for Sunni scholars and heresiographers, such as al-Baghdadi (d. 1037), who produced another important category of writing against the Ismailis.
The Black Legend
A number of polemicists, starting with Ibn Rizam in the first half of the 10th century, fabricated travesties in which they attributed a variety of shocking beliefs and practices to the Ismailis. These forgeries circulated as genuine Ismaili writing and were used as source materials by subsequent generations. By spreading a variety of defamations and even forged accounts, the anti-Ismaili authors, in fact, produced a “black legend” in the course of the 10th century. Ismailism was now erroneously depicted as the arch-heresy of Islam, carefully designed by some non-‘Alid impostors, or possibly even a Jewish magician disguised as a Muslim, aiming at destroying Islam from within. By the 11th century, this elaborate “black legend” had been accepted as an accurate and reliable description of Ismaili motives, beliefs and practices.
The emergence of the Persian Ismaili state in the 1090s, led by Hasan Sabbah (d. 1124), within the domain of the Saljuq Turks, the new overlords of the Abbasids, brought about another vigorous reaction against the Ismailis in general and the Nizari Ismailis in particular. Hasan Sabbah championed the cause of the Nizari branch of Ismailism and founded a state centred at the fortress of Alamut in northern Iran with a subsidiary state in Syria. The Saljuq vizier, Nizam al-Mulk, initiated a new anti-Ismaili literary campaign, accompanied by military expeditions against Alamut and other Nizari strongholds in Persia. He devoted a long chapter in his Siyasat-nama (The Book of Government) to the condemnation of the Ismailis.
The Syrian Nizaris attained the peak of their power and fame under Rashid al-Din Sinan, who was their chief leader for some three decades until his death in 1193. He was the original “Old Man of the Mountain” referred to in sources from the Crusaders and it was during his time that Western chroniclers of the Crusades and a number of European travellers and diplomatic emissaries began to write about the Nizari Ismailis. These writers, who were not interested in collecting accurate information about Islam as a religion and its communities of interpretation despite their proximity to Muslims, remained completely ignorant of Islam in general and the Ismailis in particular. It was under such circumstances that they produced reports about the purported secret practices of the Nizari Ismailis.
The Assassin Legends
In the event, medieval Europeans themselves began to fabricate and put into circulation a number of tales about the purported practices of the Nizaris, who were made famous in Europe as the Assassins. These so-called Assassin legends consisted of a number of separate but interconnected tales, including the “paradise legend”, the “hashish legend”, and the “death-leap legend”. The legends developed in stages, receiving new embellishments at each successive stage, and finally culminated in a synthesis popularized by Marco Polo (see F. Daftary, The Assassin Legends, London, 1994). The famous Venetian traveller added his own original contribution in the form of a “secret garden of paradise”, where bodily pleasures were supposedly procured for the fida’is (the Nizari devotees who were prepared to sacrifice their lives in the service of their community) under the influence of hashish by their mischievous leader, the Old Man, as part of their indoctrination and training. Marco Polo’s version of the Assassin legends was reiterated to various degrees by subsequent European writers. Strangely, it did not occur to any European that Marco Polo may have actually heard the tales in Italy after returning to Venice in 1295 from his journeys to the East - tales that were by then widespread in Europe. Ata Malik Juwayni (d. 1283), an avowed enemy of the Nizaris who accompanied the Mongol conqueror Hulagu to Alamut in 1256 as a court historian and inspected that fortress and its library before their destruction by the Mongols, does not report having discovered any “secret garden of paradise” there, as claimed in Marco Polo’s account.
By the 14th century, the Assassin legends had acquired wide currency and were accepted as reliable descriptions of alleged Nizari Ismaili practices, in much the same way as the earlier “black legend” had been accepted as accurate explanations of Ismaili motives, teachings and practices. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Europeans still perceived the Nizari Ismailis in an utterly confused and fanciful manner.
Misinformed Scholarship
The orientalists of the nineteenth century, led by Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838), began their more scholarly study of Islam on the basis of the Arabic manuscripts which were written mainly by Sunni authors. As a result, they studied Islam according to the Sunni viewpoint and, borrowing classifications applicable to Christian contexts, generally treated Shi‘ism as the “heterodox” (deviant) interpretation of Islam by contrast to Sunnism, which was taken to represent Islamic “orthodoxy” (correct or accepted interpretation). It was mainly on this basis, as well as the continued attraction of the seminal Assassin legends, that the orientalists launched their own study of the Ismailis. Consequently, the orientalists, too, tacitly lent their seal of approval to the myths of the Ismailis.
Indeed, de Sacy’s distorted evaluation of the Ismailis, though unintentional, set the frame within which other orientalists of the nineteenth century studied the medieval history of the Ismailis. As a result, misrepresentation and plain fiction came to permeate the first Western book on the Persian Nizaris of the Alamut period written by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856). Originally published in German in 1818, von Hammer’s book achieved great success in Europe and continued to be treated as the standard history of the Nizari Ismailis until the 1930s. With rare exceptions, notably Charles F. Defrémery (1822-1883) who produced valuable historical studies on the Nizaris of Syria and Iran, and the studies of Michael J. de Goeje (1836-1909) on the dissident Qarmatis (who disagreed with the Fatimid Ismailis on the question of continuity in the Imamat and maintained their belief in a line of seven Imams ending with Muhammad b. Ismail), the Ismailis continued to be misrepresented to various degrees by later orientalists. Meanwhile, Westerners had retained the habit of referring to the Nizari Ismailis as the Assassins, a misnomer rooted in a medieval pejorative appellation.
A New Era in Ismaili Studies
The breakthrough in Ismaili studies occurred with the recovery and study of genuine Ismaili texts on a large scale - manuscript sources which had been preserved secretly in numerous private collections. A few Ismaili manuscripts of Syrian provenance had already surfaced in Paris during the nineteenth century, and some fragments of these works were studied and published there by S. Guyard and others. More Ismaili manuscripts preserved in Yaman and Central Asia were recovered in the opening decades of the twentieth century. In particular, a number of Persian Nizari texts were collected from Shughnan and other districts of Badakhshan (now divided by the Oxus River between Tajikistan and Afghanistan) and studied by Aleksandr A. Semenov (1873-1958), the Russian pioneer in Ismaili studies from Tashkent. However, by the 1920s knowledge of European scholarly circles about Ismaili literature was still very limited.
Modern scholarship in Ismaili studies was initiated in the 1930s in India, where significant collections of Ismaili manuscripts have been preserved in the Tayyibi Ismaili Bohra community. This breakthrough resulted mainly from the pioneering efforts of Wladimir Ivanow (1886-1970), and a few Ismaili scholars, notably Asaf A. A. Fyzee (1899-1981), Husayn F. al-Hamdani (1901-1962) and Zahid Ali (1888-1958), who based their studies on their family collections of manuscripts. Ivanow, who eventually settled in Bombay after leaving his native Russia in 1917, collaborated closely with these Bohra scholars and succeeded, through his own connections within the Khoja community, to gain access to Nizari literature as well. Consequently, he compiled the first detailed catalogue of Ismaili works, citing some 700 separate titles which attested to the hitherto unknown richness and diversity of Ismaili literature and intellectual traditions (see W. Ivanow, A Guide to Ismaili Literature, London, 1933). This very catalogue provided a scientific frame for further research in the field. Ismaili scholarship received another major impetus through the research programmes of the Ismaili Society of Bombay, established in 1946 under the patronage of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III (1877-1957), the forty-eighth imam of the Nizari Ismailis.
By 1963, when Ivanow published a revised edition of his catalogue (Ismaili Literature: A Bibliographical Survey), many more Ismaili sources had become known and progress in Ismaili studies had been truly astonishing. Numerous Ismaili texts had now begun to be critically edited by scholars, preparing the ground for further progress in this new field of Islamic studies. In this connection, particular mention should be made of the Ismaili texts of Fatimid and later times edited together with analytical introductions by Henry Corbin (1903-1978), and the Fatimid texts edited by the Egyptian scholar Muhammad Kamil Husayn (1901-1961). At the same time, Arif Tamir (1921-1998) edited a number of Ismaili texts of Syrian provenance, and a few European scholars such as Marius Canard (1888-1982) and several Egyptian scholars, notably Hasan Ibrahim Hasan (1892-1968), Jamal al-Din al-Shayyal (1911-1967) and Abd al-Mun‘im Majid (1920-1999), made important contributions to Fatimid studies.
By the mid-1950s, progress in the field had already enabled Marshall G. S. Hodgson (1922-1968) to produce the first scholarly and comprehensive study of the Nizari Ismailis of the Alamut period, albeit mistitled as The Order of Assassins (The Hague, 1955). Soon, others representing a new generation of scholars, notably Samuel M. Stern (1920-1969), Wilfred Madelung and Abbas Hamdani produced major studies, especially on the early Ismailis and their relations with the dissident Qarmatis.
Progress in Ismaili studies has proceeded at a rapid pace during the last few decades through the efforts of yet another generation of scholars such as Ismail K. Poonawala, Heinz Halm, Paul E. Walker, Azim Nanji and Thierry Bianquis. The modern progress in the recovery and study of Ismaili literature is well reflected in Professor Poonawala’s monumental Biobibliography of Isma‘ílí Literature (Malibu, California, 1977), which identifies some 1300 titles written by more than 200 authors. Meanwhile, the Satpanth Ismaili tradition of the Nizari Khojas as reflected in the ginan literature provided yet another area of investigation within Ismaili studies. In particular, Ali Asani, A. Nanji and A. Esmail have made valuable contributions here.
The Role of the Institute of Ismaili Studies
Modern scholarship in Ismaili studies is set to continue at an even greater pace as the Ismailis themselves are now becoming widely interested in studying their literary heritage and history - a phenomenon attested by an increasing number of Ismaili-related doctoral dissertations written in recent decades by Ismailis. In this context, a major role is played by The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Established in London in 1977, this institution is already serving as the central point of reference for Ismaili studies while making its own contributions through various programmes of research and publications. Numerous scholars worldwide participate in these academic programmes, and many more benefit from the accessibility of the Ismaili manuscripts held at the Institute’s Library. With these modern developments, the scholarly study of the Ismailis, which by the closing decades of the twentieth century had already greatly deconstructed the seminal anti-Ismaili legends of medieval times, promises to dissipate the remaining misrepresentations of the Ismailis rooted either in hostility or imaginative ignorance of the earlier generations.
Every person in this world has knowledge. It can be of any type or of any object. Some people have good knowledge about books, music and some people who are interested in studies have knowledge about their particular subject.
Each of us has stored in our repertoire huge amounts of knowledge, most of which, needless to say, we can’t even recall when we want to. Have you ever thought that what is the source of all these facts and information (knowledge) you have? How do they get into our memory banks? Most of us think that we gain knowledge from our family, various institutes, society, media etc. Well, this is correct but this is only one of the sources of knowledge. There are other sources as well. Most people, to some extent, are acquainted with these other sources but they don’t have deep information about them.
There are basically four sources of knowledge. The first “our senses” can be considered as the primary source of information. Two other sources “rationality” and “intuition” are derivatives in the sense that they produce new facts from data already supplied to our mind. The fourth source mentioned earlier is “authority”.
The senses
Throughout life, it is a dominant source of knowledge about our self and our environment. We are gifted with five senses — the senses of taste, touch smell, hearing and sight. These senses are exploratory organs; we use them all to become acquainted with the world we live in. You know that sugar and candies are sweet but onions and ginger are not. You came to know this through your sense of taste. When you use these senses you start experiencing the world.
* Classical senses — Senses of taste and touch are called classical senses because in this physical contact is required. In order to feel the structure of a thing you have to touch it or in order to taste something you have to place it on your tongue. These senses are realistic. Physical contact is the condition for the realization of these two senses
* Non classical senses — The senses of sight, smell and hearing are for the knowledge of distant objects. In this system physical contact is not necessary. Like through sight you see things without going close to them. You can smell things from a far-off place and you hear voices that are far away from you. In this you are attaining knowledge without physical closeness.
* Senses for specific areas – One thing common for the senses of sight, smell, taste and hearing is that they experience things from specific areas. For sight you have eyes, for smelling you have nose, for hearing you have ears and for tasting you are provided with tastebuds. The sense of touch is quite different from the above four because the experience of touching can be done through any part of the body. This sense is very comprehensive because it can be experienced from head to toe.
Knowledge from others
Authority is personal influence. This means that we gain knowledge from others. People around us are a continued source of information. Such information, however, is always second-hand or third-hand knowledge, or nth-hand knowledge. We receive a good deal of knowledge from the society in which we live, but it can’t be accepted un-critically. Here you can take the example of your own self. You have trust on your kith and kin. You believe in whatever they say. So basically they are a source of knowledge for you. But there is an insidious danger involved in relying upon others for knowledge. Most of us are prone to the development of dependencies, we commonly select one or two authorities, invest our trust in them and indulge our laziness to the absurd point of accepting all they tell us. Despite the fact that developing one’s critical skills is hard work; those who wish to feel more secure in their knowledge avoid dependencies which inhibit personal inquiry and growth.
Using known facts
Our reasoning faculty can be a source of true facts. “Reason” might be defined as using known facts to arrive at new facts. These known facts or ideas are considered innate, by rational thinkers (rationalists); hence, we are gifted with these ideas by birth — classical senses. If we start with the data that we are sure of then we can apply deductive or inductive procedures and arrive at new information that we didn’t had before. Suppose you are on a visit to Dubai and your travel guide reads “one dirham is equal to Rs16” you can readily calculate how much your drink and chips will cost if the bill is for four dirham. It doesn’t take much reasoning to discover that your snacks will cost you sixty four rupees. Reasoning itself, therefore, can produce new facts. There are two types of reasoning.
* Deductive reasoning — Deductive reasoning is based on formal rules of logic. These rules are assumed to be innate. It is a process of drawing out (making explicit) the implications of one or more premises or statements of fact. If one infers correctly what the premises imply, then the person’s inference (conclusion) is said to be “valid”. For example: all cats have glowing eyes. Tom is a cat. Therefore Tom has glowing eyes.
* Inductive reasoning — Inductive reasoning is based on consistency in one’s experience. It is the procedure of developing general explanatory theory to account for a set of facts. For example: a girl’s father, brother, husband and son are very possessive. Then from her experiences she’ll conclude that all men are possessive. In inductive reasoning one’s working hypothesis is always tentative; it is always subject to change whenever further facts are obtained.
Intuition
The word “intuition” has varied connotation, when carefully defined it can be considered as a source of knowledge. Intuition refers to insight or bits of knowledge which emerge in the light of consciousness from the deeper sub-conscious. It is the direct and immediate source of knowledge, which, unlike reason, does not need any pre-supposed concept or idea. In simple words it is the sixth sense. This can be explained by the experience of an American theologian McConnell. When he was in high school, he was assigned some algebra questions for homework. He solved all the sums except for the last one. He was unable to solve it. He wrestled with it in prolonged frustration, but it would not come out, and finally he gave up and went to bed. The next morning the solution popped up in his mind. It dawned on him that his subconscious mind had continued to work on the problem while his conscious mind slept. The next evening he tried the same thing — he briefly glanced over his sum, promptly forgot it and went to sleep. Needless to say, the next morning there was no solution. McConnell recalls the lesson he learned: the subconscious mind can do creative work, if fairly treated. Sometimes intuition is experienced as an emotional experience. When something is about to go wrong your inside feelings prompt you. The unconscious can correlate data in such a way that it can “foresee”.
Well, these were some important sources of knowledge. In the end I just want to say that now you are point zero, zero five per cent acquainted with philosophy because this is what the philosophy students study in the introduction of the subject.
In a war of words none can defeat an eloquent man
Who never succumbs to fear or confusion.
Upon finding men whose forceful speech is couched
In cogent and enchanting ways, the world swiftly gathers around.
Unaware of the artful use of a few flawless words,
Men become enamored with excessive syllables.
Men who cannot communicate their knowledge to others
Resemble a bouquet of unfragrant flowers in full bloom.
-Tirukkural 65:647-650
Excerpted from the Tirukkural
Say: Are those who know and those who do not know alike? Only the men of understanding are mindful. (QURAN, SURAH ZUMUR, 39:9)
1. ILM (Knowledge) is the life of Islam and a support of iman (faith) whosoever picks up a little knowledge (ILM) shall get full reward from Allah. Whosoever acquired knowledge and acted accordingly - to him Allah imparts education - which he does not know. (Nahjul Farasat, Hazrat Moh'd (PBUH).
2. ILM is essential to acquire and compulsory for every muslim.(Hazarat Moh'd(PBUH).
3. ILM is base of every merit and illiteracy is foundation of each demerit.(Jama-ul-Ahadith).
4. ILM is like treasure and its keys are questions put up questions so that Allah bestow upon you Rahamat (Merciful Blessings) the learned conservation benefits four types of people:
a: one who asks questions
b: one who answers the questions
c: those who hear
d: their friends and attached persons.
(Tohful Uqul, p.41 Hazrat Noh'd (PBUH).
5. ILM is momins friend and reserved seriousness is its vazir (minister) wisdom a guied/patience its armyofficer dependence a father merits brother and his lineage is ADMS/Family line Taqva and the reformation of wealth is from valor. (Tohful Uqul, p.46 Hazrat Moh'd (PBUH).
6. ILM and wealth cover up every defect but poverty exposes each demerit. ((Nahjul Farasat, Hazrat Moh'd (PBUH).
7. It is quite undue and invalid to stop people from acquiring the knowledge (Nahjul Farasat, Hazrat Moh'd (PBUH).
8. ILM is Allah's safe debris on earth of which ulema are guarantee there fore whoever acts upon his knowledge frees himself formthe safe debris and who doesn't practice upon knowledge all his actions shall be written with those who embezzles(Behar ul anwar, 77/168, Hazrat Moh'd (PBUH)
9. ILM is safe with its ahl (Worth) and you are ordered to acquire from them. (Behar ul anwar, 1/177, Hazrat Moh'd (PBUH)
10. ILM, which is acted upon, is like such treasure, which is not spent. Its master puts himself into troubles for not having spent but for him no gain at all. (Hazrat Moh'd (PBUH).
11. ILM is like a hidden lamp. (Behar ul anwar, 78/292, Hazrat Moh'd (PBUH)
12. There are two kinds of ILM. Devine (God Gifted) and acquired. If the man does not possess ability the acquired ilm does not profit at all. (Nahjul Balagha, Hazrat Ali (AS).
13. ILM during the childhood is similar to the engraved writing on stone slab. . (Behar ul anwar, 1/224, Hazrat Ali (AS).
14. It leads towards haq(truth) and illiteracy spoils qayamat as well as akhirat.(Guharul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS)
15. ILM cannot be surrounded it is therefore better to choose fine ilm. (Guharul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS).
16. ILM is nearer to heart light to blinds and power to the weak bodies. (. (Behar ul anwar, 1/166, Hazrat Ali AS.
17. ILM is guide to wisdom and wisdom is its follower, which is bestowed by Allah upon lucky Persons, and unlucky lot is deprived of. . (Behar ul anwar, 1/166, Hazrat Ali AS.
18. ILM saves form hardships and difficulties and illiteracy is more harmful to the body then indigestion. Hazrat Ali AS.
19. ILM is the murder of foolishness and illiteracy - but is the reason for the worthiness and greatness. The biggest calamity is illiteracy and foolishness. (Guhar ul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS.)
20. ILM is biggest and most pretty treasure its weight is light and vain but gain is great. It is a means of respect among people and fellow while in solitary hours.(Nahjul Balagha, Hazrat Ali AS)
21. ILM is the key of such a door, which leads to open a thousand doors. (Behar ul anwar, 40/129, Hazrat Ali AS).
22. ILM stops difficulties and obstacles. Illiteracy and foolishness are the worst enemies. (Hazrat Ali AS).
23. ILM is essence of life and having a healing factor, illiteracy is death for living and is caused for misfortune and cruelty. (Guharul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS).
24. ILM is decoration and ornament for well to do people but is dependence source for the people deprived of. ( Guharul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS)
25. There are three kinds of ilm Knowledge of religion, Medical science (Tibb) and literature. (Behar ul anwar, 78/45.52, Hazrat Ali AS)
26. ILM gives encouragement to cross over siraat (Pul-e-Sirat) while wealth and money are hindrance. (Behar ul anwar, 1/185, Hazrat Ali AS)
27. ILM is the noblest guidance and illiteracy for virtue is worst and also means decline and misguidence. (Guharul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS).
28. ILM is of course better then wealth. The wealth is spent and results in decreasing but ilm increases if as much as spent. (Nahjul Balagha, Hazrat Ali AS).
29. ILM is such a kingdom and authority (Power) who ever gives it for having assaulted with ilm and those who do not have ilm are attacked upon. (Nahjul Balagha, Hazrat Ali AS).
30. ILM is wisdom's fruit and reformation like branches illiteracy and foolishness is the root of all evils. (Guharul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS).
31. ILM guides you in the direction which is ordered for piousness makes the way easy going. (Guharul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS).
32. ILM is the lost capital of momin. (Behar ul anwar, 1/168, Hazrat Ali AS)
33. ILM is better then every father and brings together all his worthy fellows. (Behar ul anwar, 74/175, Hazrat Ali AS)
34. ILM is fruit flourishing for knowing oneself. No other evil than illiteracy and foolishness. (Guharul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS). 35. ILM lifts trodden people and glorifies with personality and its giving up makes respectful most disrespectful. (Guharul Hikma, Hazrat Ali AS).
36. ILM increases wisdom in wise men.(Hazrat Ali AS)
37. ILM and amal (ACTS) are linked together who ever is aalim (Learned) acts upon his ilm and ilm sounds for action that is to say of. (Hazrat Ali AS).
38. ILM is heavenly fruit it is a companion in fear journey and solitude. (Hazrat Ali AS).
39. ILM goes up and up moment after moments and day by day. (Behar ul anwar, 26/87, Hazrat Ali AS).
The following anecdote about Ghazali illuminates our approach to knowledge....that it is not confined to bookish gathering of information only...it is about application of higher faculties of reflection, analysis, deduction and judgement using the intellect.
Ghazali and the Robbers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author Unknown
Ghazali, the renowned Muslim scholar, was born in Tus, a small village near Mashhad. He lived in the fifth century hijrah.
In those days, students wishing to acquire higher knowledge of Islam travelled to Nishapur, which boasted several centres of learning and many teachers of repute. Ghazall, after completing his preliminary education at home, arrived in Nishapur to pursue further studies. He was brilliant and was soon acclaimed by his tutors as the most studious and painstaking student. In order not to forget any finer points of erudition, he formed the habit of noting down all that he heard and learnt from his teachers. And then he meticulously rewrote them under various headings and chapters.
He treasured these notes as dearly as his life, or perhaps more.
Years later, he decided to return to his village. He tied all his prepared notes into a neat bundle and set forth in the company of a caravan. On the way, they were held up by a gang of highway thieves who robbed each traveller of all his valuables. And then it was Ghazali's turn. They searched him thoroughly, snatching away all that they wanted, and then laid hands on the tied bundle of notes.
"Take all that you want, but please do not touch this bundle," Ghazali pleaded. And the waylayers thought that there must be something very precious hidden in the bundle which Ghazali was trying to save.
So they untied the bundle and ransacked the pages. What did they find? Nothing but a few written papers.
They asked: "What are these? Of what use are they?"
"Well, they may be of no use to you, but they are of great use to me," Ghazali answered.
"But of what use are they?" the robbers insisted.
"These are the fruits of my labour. If you destroy them, I am also ruinously destroyed.
All the years of my attainment go down the drain," Ghazali replied.
"So whatever you know is in here, isn't it?" one of them said.
"Yes," Ghazali replied.
"Well, knowledge confined in a few papers, vulnerable to theft, is no knowledge at all.
Go and think about it and about yourself"
This casual but pungent remark by a commoner shook Ghazali to the core. He realised that he had studied as a parrot, jotted down all that he learned and crammed in into his mind. He found that he knew more, but he thought less. If he wanted to be a true student and a good scholar, he had to assimilate knowledge, think, ponder, deduce and then form his own judgement.
He set out seriously to learn the way he should, and became one of the greatest ulema in Islam. But in his advanced age, when he summarised his achievements, he said:
"The best counsel and admonition which changed my thinking, came to me from a highway robber."
When God fills an adept with the desire to comprehend His essence, knowledge becomes vision, vision revelation, revelation contemplation, and contemplation existence in God. Words are hushed to silence, life becomes death, explanations come to an end, signs are effaced, and disputes are cleared up.
This is a good story about the value of knowledge and how it should be properly assimilated and used.
However Ahmed Bin Ghazali, who became one of the greatest Ulema in Sunni Islam, was a vicious enemy of the Ismailis. He was asked by the Caliph of Baghdad, who was a Seljuq Turk and ruled during the time of Hasan Bin Sabah, to write a book refuting the doctrine of Imamat and especially the doctrine of Talim, namely that the Imam is an infallible Teacher, which was written and promulgated Dai by Hasan Bin Sabah.
Ghazali, who was a formidably brilliant scholar, wrote a number of vitriolic books against the Ismailis and was also responsible for consolidating the doctrine of Ibn Hanbal, the Sunni legal scholar. The long-term effects of this consolidation by Ghazali have been absolutely devastating for the muslim world in general. In my view, the consolidation of this Hanbali-Ghazalian doctrine became the mantra of the Sunni orthodoxy and was so stifling to philosophers like the rationalist Mutazila that it, more than anything else, was resposible for killing science and scientific development in the Muslim world.
The current sorry state the muslim world finds itself in today, where the west leads the muslim world around like a dog on a leash, can be traced back primarily to the handiwork of Ahmed Bin Ghazali.
Thank you very much, Mr. Ghazali!!! You and your cronies were responsible for bringing to an end 4 glorious centuries of scientific, philosophical and other fertile intellectual endeavour.
This is a post I made on the Science and Religion thread and re-post here to show how even western commentators show how it was the orthodoxy in Islam that stifled scientific endeavour a thousand or so years ago:
nashvelshi
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 99
Location: Toronto
Posted: 18 Mar 2006 05:33 am Post subject:
This is what killed science after the first 4 centuries of Islam; the same factions that are causing the problems we face today in the Islamic world: I quote:
"For a few centuries at the turn of the first millennium, Islam presided over
a burst of exuberant scientific and philosophical inquiry. It began with the
translation of the treasure of Greek and Roman manuscripts that had lain forgotten
for centuries. It then went beyond translation, producing a large body of original
work in mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, optics, and philosophy, among other
fields. Then this burst of activity died away. Summarizing and simplifying the
argumant that follows: Islam provided a sense of purpose and vitality that helped
power the achievements of its golden age, but Islam could not accomodate itself
to the degree of autonomy required to sustain it"
"Why did the burst of activity fade so rapidly? The root cause of its decline
is to be found.....in the ability of its orthodox upholders to stifle once-flowering
science".
"Those accomplishments of Islamic mathematical and medical science which continue
to compel our admiration were developed in areas and in periods where the elites
were willing to go beyond and possibly against the basic strains of orthodox
thought and feeling"
Charles Murray:
'Human Accomplishment: the Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800
B.C. to 1950'
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[/quote]
funny, funny, funny Sofia. I love you too dear. 
