A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (76 page)

Since there was at the time of the Prophet nothing much written about Islam, and since the injunction to read did not restrict the material that was to be read, the early Muslims apparently read the works of the Greeks, the Indians, the Chinese and the Persians. To do this they must have learnt the relevant languages. We do know now that early Muslim scholars reproduced the scientific findings and the numerical systems of the peoples concerned. More than that, they carried out their own studies and research and added to the body of knowledge in many fields. It was Muslim scholars who pioneered astronomy, algebra, the study of disease and medicine, celestial navigation, and more.

For centuries Muslims were well ahead of other civilisations in their mastery of the sciences, medicine and mathematics. But around the fifteenth century of the Common Era, new interpretations began to be spread, saying that 
Iqraq
 referred to the reading and the acquisition of religious knowledge only.

Only the study of religion would gain merit for the scholars. All other studies or fields of knowledge would earn no merit. The people who gave this interpretation were those who had studied religion in depth. Naturally they must have been inclined to regard their particular discipline as having the utmost importance.

Whatever the reason may have been for this emphasis on the exclusive study of religion, the fact remains that the study of other fields of learning by Muslim scholars started to decline around the fifteenth century. Over time, Muslims became very ignorant about these subjects.

Incidentally just when Muslims were rejecting the study of science, European Christians, who were then living in the Dark Ages, noticed the superiority of Muslim civilisation and decided to acquire the knowledge of the Muslims. Christian priests learnt Arabic and studied scientific and other books in the great libraries of the Muslim world.

The end result was the regression of the Muslims and the rapid advancement of European Christians after the knowledge they had acquired was translated first into Latin and then into the other European languages. This made knowledge available to lay people, not just priests as had been the practice of the mediaeval Church.

As Muslims regressed due to lack of knowledge in the sciences, they became weak and incapable of defending themselves. They could not improve their defences with new weapons and strategies, and one by one Muslim lands were lost to the Europeans with their better weaponry.

Such is the effect of faulty interpretations of Quranic verses, such as that regarding 
Iqraq
. Indeed, some declared that 
Iqraq
 did not even mean “read”, but fortunately they are in the minority.

But there are other interpretations of the Quran which have led to Muslim regression. The Quran enjoins Muslims to have the capacity to defend themselves. For this the Quran mentioned the possession of war horses. The Prophet had war horses and other weapons of the time with which to defend the community.

It is unfortunate that the literal interpretation of this verse has resulted in Muslims ignoring the importance of defensive capacity. Instead they emphasise the literal possession of war horses, and weapons used by the Prophet, as the tradition that Muslims must follow. Had they stressed defence they would have strengthened their defence capacity by upgrading their weaponry the way their European enemies had.

The neglect of the study of science and mathematics contributed to the inability of Muslims to invent and develop new weapons. In the end, they were forced to procure their weapons from their detractors, and their capacity to defend themselves as enjoined by the Quran deteriorated completely.

Again it can be seen that even when a verse in the Quran is clear, the interpreters of the verse can miss the real message, opting for the literal meaning. The sad state of Muslims today, their inability to defend themselves, must be due to the wrong emphases in the interpretations of the teachings of Islam.

The Quran gives further guidance which is often misinterpreted or misunderstood to the detriment of Muslims. It is only right that, in facing problems or threats, Muslims should seek succour through prayers appealing to Allah.

The teachers of the religion stress the need for prayers, for appeals to Allah during any difficulty or threat. But what is not stressed is the injunction in the Quran that Allah will not change your situation until you make the effort to change it yourself.

That we should try to help ourselves is very important. Prayers alone will not help us except in cases where there is nothing at all that we can do for ourselves. But it is very seldom indeed that we are so completely helpless.

The present dire state of Muslims is due at least in part to them doing nothing or very, very little for themselves beyond praying for help from the Almighty. The 1.3 billion Muslims must be among the richest people in the world because Allah has bestowed on them untold wealth from oil resources. But can they say that they have made use of the wealth to help themselves overcome their present situation?

Clearly they are not following the injunctions of the Quran to help themselves first if they desire the help of the Almighty. Blaming others will get them nowhere for they cannot really expect others to take action to save Muslims when the Muslims are doing practically nothing to save themselves.

There was a time when I felt confused about Islam and its teachings. Studying scientific subjects when I was in the university, I found myself questioning some of the teachings of Islam.

Islam, apparently more than any other religion, requires believers to accept everything as articles of faith that may not be questioned. At least that is the teaching of the learned in Islam. Just believe whatever we are taught. Do not ask questions. But as a scientist I was taught to seek proof in everything. What I found in science frequently seem to contradict the teachings of my religion.

In medicine everything is explained in a logical way. Everything is reasonable and easy for the human mind to accept. Diseases are caused by tiny organisms, or by the malfunction of the human body. To cure an ailment you have to rid the body of the noxious influence. You kill the germs or you excise the diseased parts. You can succeed and the patient is cured, or you can fail and the patient will die.

You may pray and appeal to the Almighty for help. But you must give the prescribed treatment if you want the patient to get well again. If the patient is going to survive he will survive whether you pray to Allah or not. After all, non-Muslims also get cured. In fact, Muslims actually look up to non-Muslim doctors to cure them.

I was confused and disturbed. I just could not bring myself to reject faith. Yet what I observed could not be explained by religion, by the Islam that I believed in.

My religious teachers strongly objected to the idea of rationality or reason in religion. They wanted me just to believe. They wanted me in fact to accept what they said as the Word of God. I was not to argue. I had to simply believe.

But my enquiring mind refused to just believe. Surely the words of Allah must be rational, must be based on reason. Religion cannot be just about performing rituals. There must be reasons for everything, for God has given Man the capacity to think. To think is to reason. It could not be that there should be no reason in our faith.

For a long time I tried to find reasons for the miracle of life. Science taught me all about the bodily functions; our having to eat, to breathe, to rid ourselves of bodily waste, etc. But why should we live at all if in the end despite eating and breathing, we would still die?

Even as I studied biology, chemistry and physics in my first year at university I mulled over the fact called the miracle of life. Then slowly it dawned on me that science could not explain “why”, it could only explain “how” things were the way they were.

We are told that we breathe in oxygen from the air to oxygenise the blood in the body, which in turn oxidises the cells of the tissue to enable them to live. The cells then pass into the blood the waste from the oxidation process in the form of carbon dioxide and other waste which are then expelled through the lungs, kidneys or the nether end. This way the organism, the creature, or the human being is able to live.

But why should this be so? The process described above is about “how” the body oxidises and generates waste, but it does not answer “why” this process gives life to the organism.

Why oxygen? Why not chlorine or some other gas? Science will explain that chlorine would poison the body. Science explains at length the process by which chlorine kills living organisms. Every time I asked why something behaved in the way it did, whether it was a living process or a “dead” one, invariably the answer explained only how the process took place.

In the end I was forced to conclude that there was a power which determined why everything happened the way it did. Scientists call it “Nature”. But what is Nature? Why does it determine things the way it does?

I concluded that in identifying the power of Nature, scientists were trying to avoid admitting that there is a power which they could not explain that determined everything that happened in the world. This power determined even the laws of science and the way they govern every action and reaction.

I concluded that “Nature” must actually be God or Allah, the Almighty, the power that determines everything that governs the behaviour of all things on earth and beyond.

The power is far greater than what we have been taught to believe. We now know that the universe, with its stars (suns) and its myriad constellations, is far bigger than we had earlier been taught to believe. We know of the vastness of space such that it takes light years to travel even within each constellation.

Yet here on Earth everything is made up of electrons, protons and other particles that are so small, so tiny, that we cannot see them. These particles determine the properties of a given substance and its behaviour. At the molecular level, they can be so loosely packed as gas that objects can pass though them, but they can be so densely packed as solids that they resist vigorous efforts to change their physical shapes.

The power that creates this immeasurably huge universe and these tiny atoms, electrons, protons and other subatomic particles; the power which determines their properties and behaviour; the power that creates life and the chemical, physical and biological processes that are entailed; the power that governs everything from the smallest to the immense vastness of the universe must be a power that is really beyond human comprehension. That Power must be the Creator, God, Allah. If we do not believe in there being a Creator, we cannot explain why everything happens the way it happens in the universe. We would just be lost, unable to understand why things are the way they are.

I was relieved to discover this. Now I knew the limitations of science. Science explains how things are, and a knowledge of science can yield many practical uses. But that is as far as science can go. The moment science is asked to explain why things are, there is and there will be no answer.

Our scientists are now “creating” life through cloning by using stem cells, etc. They have succeeded and they can tell you how they did the things they have done. But when asked why it is possible to clone, to create new life, they have no answer.

What they have done is nothing more than harness the behaviour of living things as ordained by God, by Allah. After all, every one of us can create life. We do that through the miracle of birth. We can explain how the sperm fertilises the ovum, but again we cannot explain why. Why don’t humans lay eggs? This process can create life just as well. But we are conceived in the womb of a woman. Had Allah wished that Man should procreate through the process of laying eggs, what would we say? We will explain how the eggs are laid, fertilised and hatched. But we would not be able to explain why the conception is not in the womb of a woman as it is now. All we can say is that it is God’s Will.

Gradually at first, but more rapidly as I learnt more about the physical, chemical and biological processes of science, I regained my faith.

My faith became stronger than before because I now knew what the early Arab Muslims did not—that the power of Allah is far greater than they thought, that it extends into millions of years in time, and that it governs a universe that is unimaginably enormous. Science cannot negate the power of the Creator. Science cannot displace faith. Therefore there is nothing to fear from learning science. The study of science should not undermine faith. It will in fact strengthen it. There is therefore no reason why Muslims should not study science.

I regard this fact as very important because one of the reasons for the backwardness of Muslims is their ignorance in the scientific field. Attributing all phenomena to the Will of Allah is correct, but by not studying the “how” of science, we are unable to make use of Allah’s creation for our betterment.

The greatest disservice done to the Islamic civilisation is the conclusions and teachings of the learned ones that Muslims should not study science because it is secular and not religious. Almost immediately after such teachings, the Muslim civilisation regressed and eventually Muslims became weak and incapable of defending themselves.

Worse still, the learned ones attribute this regression merely to Allah’s Will. They ignore the injunction that Allah will only help the 
ummah
 if it makes the effort to help itself first. Surely the acquisition of scientific knowledge will give Muslims the capacity to defend the 
ummah
. When they fail to do this, then their prayers will not be answered.

Of course there are things that can be done even now. But despite the bounty Allah bestowed on Muslims they have done nothing for their defence, and their well-being. And yet Islam is very clear on the need to perform what is categorised as 
fardhu kifayah
, the injunction which requires that Muslim communities must have among them individuals whose ability and actions will serve in the defence and promotion of the welfare of their communities and of Islam itself. If there is no one capable of these things then the whole community must be regarded as having committed a grave sin.