The polymath who claimed to know all!

Once again they had prepared a question for him — A question they believe will at least takes hours to get answered; with major chances of loopholes. They encountered him and asked, “Tell us which animals breastfeed their newborns and which animals don’t?”. But contrary to their expectation of giving a long list of animals; he answered, “Those animals that chew food, breastfeed their new-born while those that do not chew food, do not breastfeed their animals”. This was not the first time he gave an answer like this. A few days back these same people came and asked about animals laying eggs and giving birth to live young ones. Once again, instead of giving list, his division was on the basis of external ears. And، while we have to tweak the definition of mammals to bring in organisms like Platypus, Ali ibn Abi Talib‘s classification seems to be so far adhering to zoological discoveries.

So why is Ali ibn Abi Talib never discussed as a zoologist? In fact, why we haven’t ever heard his name in this field? The problem lies in the history: Ali ibn Abi Talib is regarded as the founder of what is known as the protestant version of Islam, the Shi’ah. His followers believe that Ali ibn Abi Talib was the rightful person to lead the Islamic state after the death of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (it is customary according to Muslims to add Peace be Upon Him with his name). Today, the whole Islamic world and the current civil war within Islam find its roots to this religiopolitical theory. But the problem is, while other polymaths like Aristotle and Leonardo da Vinci did had their own theories for religion and politics, it never overshadowed their contribution to other fields of science.

File Photo of George Jordac from an Iranian Magazine.

The extent of this problem in the case of Ali ibn Abi Talib can be understood better through the book of George Jordac. The Lebanese Christian author studied the social justice system during the rule of Ali ibn Abi Talib (he was the ruler between 656 and 661 AD). In an interview the author said that he received more help from Christians than from the main stream Muslims in publishing his book Sautu’l `Adalati’l Insaniya (translated in English as the Voice of human Justice). While George Jordac died a few months back, his book allows us to study the work of Ali ibn Abi Talib in social sciences.

This problem was also there during the time of Ali ibn Abi Talib himself. At times, his lectures at the mosque were interrupted to ask questions like the ones mentioned in the beginning of this article. It is said that on one occasion, when Ali ibn Abi Talib was discussing about harnessing the energy of flowing water, a man asked him to tell how many hairs he has on his head (that discussion then never got completed). These pointless questions were asked specially when he used to open his lectures for questions through his classical statement “Ask me before you lose me”. But sadly, no one at that time was eager to ask the polymath a relevant question. The hunger for scientific knowledge in Muslims was brought almost a hundred years later; by none other than the grandchildren of Ali ibn Abi Talib — Muhammad al-Baqir and Jafar al-Sadiq.

Today, we have lectures of Ali ibn Abi Talib compiled in a book form named Nahj al-Balagha (English translated as Peak of Eloquence). But his lectures are praised more for linguistics than for scientific insights (the name of the book explains it all). However, what is regarded as the finest Arabic literature is actually filled with answering the question we raised in our previous blog: “God and Cosmology”.

Front cover of one of the translated versions of Nahj al-Balagha

Many of the lectures of Ali ibn Abi Talib start with explaining God, His attributes and how He created this magnificent universe. I, in my personal capacity, have tried getting in touch with scholars at Islamic Seminary of Najaf and Qum (the largest religious universities of Shi’ah Islam) to find whether if any work has been done to explore the cosmological theories of Ali ibn Abi Talib. While the answer is so far in negative, this means there is a door yet to be open; and we will be peaking inside it in our upcoming posts. After all, if religion brings God as the center of every existent, it should also answer the very existence rationally. For today we are ending it with some translated words of Ali ibn Abi Talib from his first lecture of Nahj al-Balagha,

He initiated creation most initially and commenced it originally, without undergoing reflection, without making use of any experiment, without innovating any movement, and without experiencing any aspiration of mind. He allotted all things their times, put together their variations gave them their properties, and determined their features knowing them before creating them, realizing fully their limits and confines and appreciating their propensities and intricacies.

Disclaimer: The writer was born and raised in a Shi’ah family.

There is no God out there!

A week back John G. Messerly, a PhD in philosophy and author of Meaning of Life, wrote a post for Salon. In it, he pointed out that religious belief in scientists is getting a sharp decline (7% only). On the other hand, 14% philosophers believed in the notion of theism (contrary, 23% believed that Zombies are metaphysically conceivable). So how the human race has reached a point where God no more enjoys a pivotal position within the intellectuals of the society?

The prime reason is that while every other idea gets critically examined, God particularly remained safe. Preachers still aren’t ready to evaluate the definition of God, while if a scientist or philosophers demands or brings in a new interpretation to it, the boundaries of religion have no place to incorporate it. For example, is the idea of God and creation of the universe.

Religiously, we are being told that there is a God out there who let’s say created this universe in 6 days. We currently have the relation of God with us–the creation–of that of carpenter and the chair; particularly in the case of Adam. However, this can not be possible, neither scientifically nor through philosophy.

The reason that carpenter and the chair example does not fit in the creation of universe is because it brings us to two separate entities, the God who created the universe and the universe that got created. This means the creator and the created share a different space. And while no preacher will agree that there is a God at the end of this universe watching me write this article yet the ideas of pantheism and panentheism are not very much encouraged in the religious circles, in fact to an extent considered heresy.

“Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.” Baruch Spinoza

The religion of Einstein, pantheism, explains the relation of God and creation as that of factory and the chair, was an idea given by Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. No matter how many chairs are created, they exist within the factory and share the space of the factory. Whether, the chair is factory or in factory is what separates pantheism from panentheism.

So, if there is no God out there (not at least the way clerics say), then what is the relation of God and His creation and how the chairs were and are made inside his factory. These are the questions that will be explored in the later posts. For today let us end with the words of Einstein,

“We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.”