Why Jamaluddin Afghani Blamed Islam for Lack of Progress in the Muslim World

By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam 1 August 2023 Jamaluddin Afghani Attributed the Advancement of Europe Over the Muslim Lands Due to The Fact That Christianity Had a Head Start (Of Roughly 500 Years) As Compared to Islam Main Points: 1. Jamaluddin Afghani was a pan Islamist thinker and activist of the 19th century, who rallied against British imperialism. 2. He is said to be a profound influence on the Islamist thinker, Muhammad Abduh. 3. But in answer to Ernest Renan, he comes across as a thinker who was much admiring of western science and philosophy. 4. He argued that the Muslim aversion to science was because of the community’s attachment to the dogmas of religion. ------- Jamaluddin Afghani (1839-97) is one of the most intriguing figures of the Muslim world. He is normally considered as one of the founders of Islamic modernism and also a pan Islamist who campaigned against British imperialism. As a modernist, he is said to have influenced Muhammad Abduh, the Egyptian reformer and Islamist. As a fighter against British imperialism, he toured the world, lecturing Muslims to throw off the yoke of foreign occupation. He came to India too and proposed that Hindus and Muslims should come together to fight the British. In the process, he was particularly scathing in his criticism of Syed Ahmad Khan, whom he referred to as British collaborator par excellence. His political campaigns though, should be the subject of another story. Far more interesting though were his views on Islam and science. The French philosopher Ernest Renan (1823-92) had given series of lectures in Paris on the relationship between Islam and science. These lectures were published on March 29th 1883. He made a number of critical observations in those lectures but the point of interest for us is that he argued that Islam (the religion) had throttled science and that’s the reason why Muslims could not progress and develop. Afghani, who was in Paris at the time, read Renan’s articles and wrote a rejoinder which was published in the same journal on May 18th 1883. In this rejoinder, Afghani, the father of Islamic modernism, in fact accepts the core arguments of Renan. Afghani even improves upon Renan and puts forward an evolutionary view of religion, something which would become fashionable in the social sciences only in the 20th century. Afghani attributed the advancement of Europe over the Muslim lands due to the fact that Christianity had a head start (of roughly 500 years) as compared to Islam. Afghani argues: “All religions are intolerant, each one in its own way. The Christian society…. has emerged from the first period to which I have just alluded….it seems to advance rapidly on the path of progress and science. The Muslim society has not yet freed itself from the tutelage of religion. Realizing that the Christian religion has preceded the Muslim religion in the world by many centuries, I cannot keep from hoping that the Muhammadan society will succeed someday in breaking its bonds and marching resolutely in the path of civilization in the manner of Western society.” We see that far from Afghani being a hater of Western modernity, in fact comes across as someone who was seeing it as the model for a future Muslim society. There is no doubt that today he would have been extremely morose to learn that the scientific output of the Muslim world was less than that of South Korea. Afghani has some other controversial things to say about the Muslim religion. Renan had argued that Muslims were slaves of their dogma. Rather than opposing Renan, we actually see Afghani echoing the same sentiments, albeit in a more elaborate way: “A true believer [Muslim], must in fact, turn from the path that have for their object scientific truth…. Yoked like an ox to the plow, whose slave he is, he must walk eternally in the furrow that has been traced for him in advance by the interpreters of the law. Convinced, besides, that his religion contains in itself all morality and all sciences, he attached himself resolutely to it and makes no effort to go beyond…. what would be the benefit of seeking truth when he believes that he possesses it all…wherefore he despises science.” These observations are profound to have been made 140 years ago. Much of the Muslim world still believes in the perfection of its religion. And since perfection cannot be improved, they make no effort to make Islam align with contemporary reality. Afghani in the passage above also makes a modern methodological point. The way much of research in the Islamic sciences is conducted can never lead to the truth. This research is more in the nature of confirmation bias, where much of what the researcher assumes is sought to be confirmed through the research. Just look at the Barelvi Ulama “proving” that the sun goes round the earth! There is no understanding that the assumption itself can be wrong. Because the assumption is derived from the Quran, it cannot be doubted and hence generations get lost in utterly fruitless scholarship. Afghani reminds Renan of the time when Arab and Islamic sciences lit up the whole world. But soon enough, he asks the obvious yet important question: “Why this torch has not been relit since? Why the Arab world still remains buried in profound darkness?” For Afghani, there is no one to blame but the Muslim religion for the extinction of science and philosophy. He continues: “Here the responsibility of the Muslim religion appears complete. It is clear that wherever it became established, this religion tried to stifle the sciences and it was marvellously served in this design by despotism. …. Caliph al-Hadi put to death 5000 philosophers in Baghdad to destroy science to its very roots. I find in the past of the Christian religion analogous facts. No agreement and no reconciliation are possible between these religions and philosophy.” We see in his answer to Renan that Afghani was clearly in favour of science and philosophy. Moreover, he argued that the initial Islamic civilizations gave a lot to the world precisely because they were masters of sciences of the time. But as soon as Islamic orthodoxies settled, that proved to be a hindrance in the path of development and progress. Far from being an Islamist, Afghani in these pages appears to be a man ahead of his times. When he came to India, he condemned the followers of Syed Ahmad Khan as Naturis (Materialists). In India, Afghani is regarded as an orthodox who saw any deviation from the traditional path as problematic and hence heavily criticized the likes of those who were copying the western sciences. But it appears that he was a far more complicated thinker, the desire to box him as orthodox/progressive is too simplistic. We should also know that when his disciple, Muhammad Abduh, came to know the contents of Afghani’s Paris publication, he refused to get it translated into Arabic as he feared that such material was dangerous for the minds of young Muslims. We have then a deliberate attempt here to make Afghani conform to certain orthodoxies of the Islamic tradition. But Abduh perhaps didn’t come across the famous adage from Ibn Rushd: “Ideas have wings, no one can prevent them from reaching people.” ------ A regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in South Asia. 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