Writings on science and other topics, and occasional articles and discourses by Abdassamad Clarke

The Einstein Case: determinism's rearguard action

If we regard Thales as the man who was so enamoured of the heavens that he fell down a well which he hadn't noticed, then we might depict Einstein as the man who so enthralled others with the picture he painted of the cosmos that they didn't even notice they themselves had already fallen down the well.

The British Isles before, during and after the time of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

The Deen Foundation. Leicester Sunday 19/12/04

Asking myself the question, what is this for? Why are we doing this and studying this? brought me an answer which gave some focus to what we want to do. The answer is, I believe, from George Orwell, in my paraphrase: whoever controls the past, controls the present, and whoever controls the present controls the future. So my addendum is that those who have control of the present on the earth in this time have done so by taking control of our past, and so it is a vital move for us to reclaim the past.

Wahhabism

To see things clearly, with focus and in perspective one needs two eyes. Then things appear in three dimensions. We have been looking at the matter of terrorism with one eye. That is why our actions are ineffective. The first eye must look on the history of Islam, and in this case the history of wahhabism. The second eye must look on something in Europe, because we have been here before. In the nineteenth century and early twentieth we had an almost identical phenomenon.

Live Coals

A poem

New World Order

A poem written in the early 90s.

The Expansion of the Universe and the Qur'an

The following examination of the ayah of Qur'an which is taken to refer to the expansion of the universe is a single example of what is becoming a burgeoning literature among Muslims claiming that science proves the Qur'an to be true.

The Wings of the Butterfly

"There is much that is strange, but nothing that surpasses man in strangeness."

When I remember these words of Sophocles I am heart-sore at the thought of what has gone and yet heart-whole. To suffer at the hands of passion is pain indeed but better by far than the life lived in ease and cocooned from all trouble. (An unpublished novel).

Two names

A poem in Arabic on the name Maalik as opposed to Malik.

The People of Prophetic Guidance and Europe

Based on the notes for a talk delivered in Edinburgh at the ISLAM IN EUROPE CONFERENCE 2005 on Sunday 27th March 2005, this article contains both less and more than that talk, concluding slightly differently. Those interested can probably get the entire conference on CD or DVD from http://www.education-clinic.co.uk

Introduction to Science for the Young Muslim

The existing Islamic perspective on science is not a great deal more enlightening than the encyclopaedists' view of Islam. In some modernist works we rub shoulders with an assortment of Isma'ili and Mu'tazili heretics and other figures who are somehow assembled under the label 'Islamic'. Other authors quite desperately contrive to interpret ayat of Qur'an as prefiguring a heliocentric map of the solar system, modern embryology, or even relativity, etc., forgetting that if tomorrow any of these theories are revised, their 'faith' will be seriously compromised. This is in clear contravention of the ayat of Qur'an in Surah Ali 'Imran where Allah, exalted is He, tells us that of the ayat of Qur'an there are those which are muhkamah, i.e. decisive, clearly explicit and unambiguous, which are 'the core of the Book', and there are those which are mutashabihah, i.e. open to interpretation, ambivalent, ambiguous or metaphorical, and that 'those in whose hearts is deviation follow up that of it which is open to interpretation seeking dissension and seeking its inner interpretation.' They also ignore the clear warnings of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, against interpreting the Book of Allah in the light of one's own opinion.

Rigorous mathematics and Deductive Reasoning

…One day, the French mathematician Laplace presented his newest, most extraordinary work, Celestial Mechanics, to the emperor Napoleon. The emperor said, “Monsieur Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the system of the universe and have never even mentioned its Creator.” Laplace is said to have answered, “I have no need of this hypothesis.”

It was almost precisely at this moment in the history of mathematics that the cracks in the building began to show.

Allah says, “The building they built will not cease to be a source of doubt in their hearts unless their hearts are cut to shreds. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.” (Surat at-Tawbah)

The Muslim: not blinded by science

Some correlations between … science and usury, are, for example, Galileo’s patronage by the Medicis – and many people count Galileo as the distinct beginning point of modern science, and Newton’s accepting the posts of Warden and then Master of the Mint in the new order that emerged after the Glorious Revolution that saw in the Bank of England, and his setting the price of gold in terms of the new paper currency and thus validating paper money. All of that leads up to the situation we have today about which eminent geneticist R. C. Lewontin avers, “No prominent molecular biologist of my acquaintance is without a financial stake in the biotechnology business.”

A Talk on the book Rijal: narrators of the Muwatta of Imam Muhammad

A talk at the Froud Centre in London, Sunday 6/6/04.

God is Dead! (og på dansk) Gud er Død!

A poem inspired by Nietzsche, before the author came to know of Nietzsche's forthright affirmation of Islam in his penultimate work The AntiChrist.

Father Jeremiah O'Callaghan and the Topic of Usury

An article originally commissioned by an Irish magazine of the arts, but refused when it was feared that the magazine's advertisers which included many banks, might withdraw their sponsorship. O'Callaghan, a contemporary of William Cobbett, rediscovered the ancient prohibition of usury at precisely that moment when the church was trying to forget it.

Examination of a 'fatwa' in favour of suicide-bombing

Here we examine the text of the lengthiest and most thoroughly stated fatwa in favour of suicide-bombing that we have seen. This text,in essence, incorporates all the others that we have seen, and so it is this one that we have preferred to examine.

Workshop on Peace and Spirituality

People’s Forum at Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) IV, Copenhagen/September 19 to 22, 2002, “Peace and Spirituality – Role of Spirituality and Religion for People-centred Security” – September 21st, 2002, Challenges of globalisation and religious fundamentalism for peace movement.

In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful. Sidi Ali al-Jamal, one of the people of knowledge and spiritual illumination in Islam, said:

A basic wisdom is that the key of things are their opposites. (The Meaning of Man, Diwan Press, Norwich, UK. p118

Examination of a document on the need for an Islamic state

We examine here the argument advanced for a so-called Islamic state.

16 December, 2013 1:46