The Dialogue Between Civilizations Revisited

By Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad

One of the definitions given for dialogue in the American Heritage Dictionary is that it is an exchange of ideas and opinions. Hence seeking knowledge about others is a form of dialogue. Ever since Samuel P. Huntington's Clash of Civilizations came out a decade ago there has been a lot of discussion about a dialogue between the West and the Muslim world. Some argue that a meaningful dialogue would have led to more mutual understanding and 9/11 could have been avoided. Having a dialogue with other civilizations is a healthy practice but I find something wrong with the current approach that people in Muslim countries have taken. We must pause and ask ourselves why there should be a dialogue between civilizations and why are we stressing on a dialogue between civilizations now and not fifty or hundred years ago. Is this not because we are being forced to do so? If you disagree then consider this: there are not many people in the Islamic world who talk about a dialogue between the Islamic Civilization and the Chinese Civilization, Latin American Civilization, Russian Civilization or even the Hindu Civilization.

Almost all the Muslims that I have encountered claim there is no need for a dialogue between Islam and non-Western civilizations because we cannot gain anything from it; but their justification for a West-Islam dialogue is that it will make Westerners understand us better. Herein lies our problem: we have grown so accustomed to a utilitarianism that even gaining knowledge about others has to have a pay-off in order to be a worthy cause. One does not have to be Einstein (I have listened to brothers more than once say that Einstein must be wrong because he belonged to “that” religion) or Avicenna to figure out why even in the United States most of the Muslim students either jump on the engineering or the medical bandwagon. It is not the case that they cannot perform well in other fields of knowledge, but they do it because it would make it easier to find a “beautiful Muslim wife.” Utilitarianism has become the measure of all things. I dare to suggest that we should seek knowledge just for the sake of knowledge, a statement considered to be almost blasphemous by some of our brothers though they have no problem with seeking knowledge for purely worldly gains.

The Islamic world had at one time the most extensive contact with the West -- but from the time of the high Renaissance to the rapid decline of the Ottomans in the eighteenth century, there was a decreasing flow of ideas from the West to the Islamic world despite the fact that trade between the two was extensive. Muslim scholars of this era seem oblivious to developments in Europe by figures such as Galileo and Newton. Only after it became apparent to the Islamic people that Europe had been fundamentally transformed did they begin to look towards Western learning. Instead of having dreams of conquering the West, they now had nightmares of being conquered. I do not have to remind anyone how well that turned out. This is because Western knowledge was regarded as the Infidel’s knowledge and hence not real knowledge. If the scientific revolution of the high Renaissance had trickled down through the Islamic world then maybe it could have made its way as far as China and perhaps we would not have the asymmetries in world politics that we have today.

The Ottomans were first to realize the growing gap between them and the West and soon began their hopeless enterprise of catching up. A gargantuan effort was made by the Ottomans to translate contemporary Western scholarship from the seventeenth century onwards. Despite its scale, the Ottoman effort pales in comparison to the Abbasid enterprise because the Turkish effort added almost nothing to the body of knowledge. Instead of genuinely learning from and expanding on Western developments, the Ottomans settled on blindly copying the West. It seems that blind imitation does not pay for long, neither in religion nor in science. The practice of imitation eventually permeated the cultural sphere and the Republic of Turkey is a logical consequence of this policy. The famous Orientalist Bernard Lewis has rightly pointed out that the question did not occur to the Ottomans of why the Europeans were always the ones to innovate. May be it is because we do not like “innovations.”

When Islam busted onto the world’s stage as a superpower it became the inheritor of the civilizations of Persia and Greece. Following the founding of Sultanates of Delhi, Islam became a major player in South Asia -- the heartland of Hinduism and the birthplace of Buddhism. After the Mongol episode the scholarly exchange between Islamic and Chinese civilizations increased. Although contact with the Russians was less fruitful, these examples illustrate that the Islamic people have not been hesitant to make an honest effort to understand other people and to learn from them in the past. Huntington has noted that all the civilizations of the world are rooted in a particular religion. Since Muslims believe that Islam is the final message of God, it should have been natural for them to maintain extensive contact with other people, as was the case in the early centuries of Islam. Unfortunately, the universalism of Islam was hijacked by some of us long ago and has been turned into exclusivism.

At the time the West was expanding its horizons by exploring the world, the Muslim world was turning inwards. Some people attribute the closing of the Islamic world to a distrust of non-Muslim people, especially after the Crusades. This argument does not carry much weight because the Mongols came more than a century after the Crusades and in the long run they had a positive effect on the Muslim population by opening up the Islamic world to new ideas and increased contact with many Eastern countries. The reasons for the closing of the Islamic world’s horizons should be sought somewhere else.

So what has gone wrong? Almost everything seemed to have worked fine for at least the first thousand years of Islamic history. Even the setbacks now appear to be blessings in disguise and herein lies the problem. We assumed we would always remain on top -- regardless of our behavior towards toward others, regardless of our attitude towards knowledge and regardless of our upholding principles of Islam -- as long as we upheld the “symbols” of Islam. It seems that history has caught up with our arrogance. Our present abhorrent condition is the consequence of our own ignorance.

Modern Muslim intellectual and political leadership is not upholding the once-held tradition of open exchange. The fear of a huge conspiracy against Islam is an idea that cannot be traced back much further in time. Such ideas are a result of wishful thinking and an easy way out for Muslim governments to blame their mistakes on others. It is sad but true that the Muslims missed the industrial revolution and that is why they have a lot of catching up to do. A stance taken by many contemporary Muslim writers is to emphasize the contributions made by Muslim scientists of yore. It is a healthy practice to draw inspiration from one’s predecessors but taken too far it is actually detrimental if one thinks what their predecessors did was enough. Many of these writers try to exalt Islamic Civilization by belittling the West. This practice is again against Islamic principles, because it is morally wrong to deny the contributions of others. I still remember one incident when a brother was dumbfounded when asked, “What have you people done for Science lately?” The reply of course enumerated all those conspiracies that we are familiar with.

Muslims are currently trying to have a dialogue with the West, but with the wrong mindset. It would be wrong to say that only the West exhibits prejudice. Prejudice exists in us too. This is something to be avoided because Islam does not allow us to hate other people because of their beliefs. Prejudice and ignorance always go hand in hand. We reason that eradicating ignorance about Muslims will make Westerners understand that Muslims are peaceful people just like them. Notice that there is less of an urgency in educating non-Western non-Muslims about our peaceful nature. By symmetry, learning about other civilizations could make us understand that these people are just like us. This can lead to greater mutual respect on both sides. For example, Al-Biruni’s Kitab-ul-Hind (or The Book of India) was a consequence of a quest for understanding the Hindus and not the result of a financial scouting mission. The book was the fruit of many years’ effort on Al-Biruni’s part to not only learn from the Hindus, who were renowned for their mathematical skills, but to share his knowledge with them. It is no wonder that Al-Biruni was called Vidya Sagar (The sea of knowledge) by the Hindus at a time when the Muslims were largely perceived as invaders. Contrast this with the negative generalizations made by many of us South Asian Muslims regarding the Hindus. If we knew more about them then we would treat them with more respect, and vice versa.

A dialogue with the West is absolutely necessary but with the right mindset. We need the outlook and approach that existed in the early centuries of Islam, one that made no distinction between any race and culture even if it is not a Muslim culture. We should learn from the West and then take part in its achievements as part of a global human enterprise. Knowledge should be acquired regardless of its source. A truth is a truth regardless of whether it is discovered by an American, a Chinese, a European or an African. This is in line with Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) reported saying, "Seek knowledge even if you have to go to China." A dialogue with the West is the need of the hour, but we should initiate the dialogue -- not because we have to do it, but because we want to do it. A change in epistemology can make a lot of difference.

May it be that Islamic civilization should re-learn a lesson that it has forgotten over time -- the vital importance of a dialogue between Islam and all other civilizations.

Send your comments and suggestions to aurangzeb@nyc.com.