{bit.ly/IEML221216} This is the first message to our newly launched Islamic Economics mailing list (JOIN via: http://bit.ly/AZIEML ), created in connection with my newly launched book “Islamic Economics: The Polar Opposite of Capitalist Economics”. I decided that the best way to start would be by introducing myself, and explaining my reasons for writing the book, and creating this mailing list.

Like all of us, my personality has been strongly shaped by my childhood experiences – in my case, my Parents. For more details, see: Remembering My Father  http://bit.ly/AZfather. Critical Lessons from my Father were:

1. Trust people daringly – he had immense faith and confidence in us, and asked us to do advanced tasks, far beyond our age-level capabilities.
2. He had immense love for us, and always encouraged us to aspire to the highest visions.

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Islamic teachings launched a revolution in world history, 14 centuries ago. They transformed ignorant and backward Bedouin into world leaders, and created a civilization which enlightened the world for more than a thousand years. The homepage for this book provides access to chapter-by-chapter summaries, and an online course based on this book: IE: PoC

Most Muslims today believe that progress today depends on following Western models, developed over the past few centuries. They believe that the powerful teachings of the Quran have been absorbed and assimilated by Western philosophers in building their apparently successful economic systems. In accordance with this view, they consider Islamic Economics to be a variety of Capitalism (the most advanced economic system of the West).

My newly launched book asserts that Islamic Teachings are just as revolutionary today as they were 14 centuries ago. Capitalism developed after the rejection of Christianity in Europe, and was based on the idea that there is no Creator. Human beings are just another kind of animal, and the world is a jungle governed by survival-of-the-fittest. This leads naturally to selfishness, competition, individualism, and hedonism as the principles underlying capitalist society. In diametric opposition, Islamic societies are built on generosity, cooperation, social responsibility, and pursuit of the pleasure of God on the day of Judgment. My book explains how this opposite core principles leads to different social institutions at all levels, from state, justice, finance, education, community, down to the individual.

For a brief period of time, I will be offering the ebook for free, for promotional purposes. Please join my mailing list for Islamic Economics to learn about the dates of the free offer, and receive weekly emails about ongoing attempts to implement these principles in the real world today. Sign up at; http://bit.ly/AZIEML

This is a brief outline of my paper entitled: Building Genuine Islamic Financial Institutions(SSRN) . For more information, join my Islamic Economics Email List at: http://bit.ly/AZIEML  Our goal in this talk is to clarify the differences between authentic Islamic Institutions, and copies of Capitalist Institution that dominate the landscape in the Islamic world today. A previous post on this topic provides access to a detailed summary, videos, as well as Urdu and Turkish translations: Building Genuine Islamic Financial Institutions (Blog)

What are Institutions?

Institutions are the embodiment of collective goals of a society.

What does that mean?

If a society has a common goal, it must create some concrete means of achieving this goal. This is done via institutions. If institutions to achieve collective goals are not created, then common goals remain unrealized dreams. 

What are the goals of a Capitalist Society? Money!

Max Weber: The spirit of capitalism is pursuit of wealth, as an end in itself, to the point of being absolutely irrational.

That is, wealth is not earned to be used for enjoyment or other purpose – making this pursuit meaningless!

Banks are the institutions which make it possible for people to accumulate money.

Corporations are institutions which make collective accumulation of wealth possible.

If this goal is irrational, why did it become widely accepted?

This is a long and complicated story. For a brief sketch of the process, see The Great Transformation of European Thought: http://bit.ly/AZGTET This is based on Polanyi’s work, which explains that the Industrial Revolution led to massive overproduction. To enable this overproduction, society had to change in many ways. One of the things that had to be changed was the social values.

Dramatic Transition in Social Values:

Sixteenth Century Europe was governed by Biblical values: “Love of Money is the root of all evil”

Eighteen Century Europe was governed by the opposite values: “Lack of Money is the root of all evil”

Many details are provided in Tawney: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. See: http://bit.ly/tawney1  

Changing Social Values Led to Changes in Institutions:

16th Century: Merchant of Venice: Moneylenders were Jews. Christians did not do moneylending.

Complex Sequence of Events led to rise of Secularism, to replace Christianity:

Religious Shocks, Declining Influence of Christianity – Henry VIII dissolves monasteries. Cromwell’s Revolution. Restoration. Massive Landgrab by Aristocracy.

Declining influence of Religion, rising spirit of secular society.

1695: Bank of England setup. By the end of the 18^th Century, pursuit of wealth becomes permissible or desirable. This leads to widespread emergence of banks, as financial institutions to help in the process of accumulation of wealth.

Banks embody spirit of accumulation of wealth, in capitalist societies.

Spirit of an Islamic Society: Generosity

Quran (2:219) Spend whatever is surplus to your needs!

Prophet SAW’s advice to those who acquired wealth in Khyber: Set up a WAQF. This will preserve capital and earnings will earn rewards of the Akhira until day of Judgment.

Instead of earning wealth of this world, target the earnings of the Akhira.

How This Islamic Spirit Translates to Institutions:

One third of land in Ottoman Empire was devoted to WAQF.

Education, Health, Orphans, Widows, all social welfare provided for by Waqf.

Farz-e-Kifaya: A society has collective responsibility to take care of all needs of members.

WAQF was the institution created to achieve this collective goal.

Worked successfully for more than a thousand years, prior to colonization by the West.

Colonizers destroyed domestic institutions, and seized properties of the Awqaf, paralyzing social welfare in Islamic Societies.  

Central Question: What to do with excess money – beyond your needs?

Capitalism: Use it to make more money! (why?):

Institutional Embodiment: BANKS

Islam: Use it to provide for people who have less than what they need.

Institutional Embodiment: WAQF

For a detailed discussion of the dramatic contrast between capitalist and Islamic Economy, see: http://bit.ly/AZgift  

What would GENUINE Islamic Institutions be?

Deposits and Savings: Dar-ul-Amanah – meant to keep money safe. If depositor permits, money could be used to selectively provide Qarz-e-Hasna to deserving entrepreneurs. Microfinance like Akhuwat.

Investment Bank: Money placed for investment, subject to risks of business enterprise.

Return on money is justified by placement in productive enterprise, beneficial to society, and the risk involved.

NO Rentier class – people who make money without productive contribution to society.

Some Key Take-Aways  

•             Loans are ONLY for social purpose, NEVER for business purpose. Money advanced for business MUST participate in business risk.

•             We must separate Deposit Banks from Investment Banks.

•             Investment Banks must participate in Business as partners, and share risks.

•             Deposit Banks can be used for social purposes, with agreement of depositor.

•             Special purpose service banks can be created, different from conventional banks: transport, Hajj, Housing, etc.

LINKS to Related Materials:

Building Genuine Islamic Financial Institutions (August 9, 2013). “Building Genuine Islamic Financial Institutions”, Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, 2015: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2478277

Turkish translation: Özgün İslami Finansal Kurumlar İnşa Etmek

For Urdu and English full-length videos on this paper, and also a 3300 word summary, see Building Genuine Islamic Financial Institutions.

A New Vision for Islamic Banks: http://bit.ly/AZibf Main business of banks is creation of credit. This is only possible and permissible with government support and consent. Therefore, banks must be motivated by public service, not be private profits. Specialized types of loans to serve the public interest are discussed. Training Loans to provide job-skills, to be repaid by share of wages. Income-producing Asset Loans and Social Support. Life-Loans: All needs of children, until they become productive members of society.

Islamic Macroeconomics: Private Banks are just one part of the Macroeconomy, and must operate within a broad Islamic framework. These issues are discussed in:

An Islamic Monetary Policy: http://bit.ly/AZRiba1 Money is a public resource, which must be created in the public interest. Some aspects of how this can be done, to create an Islamic Monetary system.

Transitioning to An Islamic Economy: https://fb.watch/hfPVFk6jVH/ Constructing an Islamic Economy involves a lot more than just a zero-interest rate. The steps required to enable a zero inflation and zero interest economy are outlined in talk above.

I have recently published a book Islamic Economics: Polar Opposite of Capitalist Economics. This is currently available as an ebook on Amazon for $4.99. It will be offered FREE for a short, promotional period. To be notified when this happens, join my email list at: http://bit.ly/AZIEML

{bit.ly/AZmmai} Milton Friedman was a powerful magician. His words charmed people into believing that night was day, against the evidence of their own eyes. Friedman’s maxim that “inflation is everywhere and always a monetary phenomenon” is widely believed by economists, even though it is abundantly obvious that costs of production, especially energy costs, play a major role in creating inflation.

Today, inflation is soaring around the globe. Economists under the spell of Friedman search for, and find, monetary causes. Central Banks around the world pursued vastly expansionary monetary policies to combat the Great Recession which followed the Global Financial Crisis of 2007. To the great surprise of many top-ranked economists, there was no inflationary impact. Emboldened by this experience, Central Banks again poured money into a stuttering economy during the COVID era. Again, inflation did not respond. But now, after the end of all this monetary expansion, high inflation has suddenly hit. Since Friedmanites believe that inflation must have monetary causes, they are forced to think that the fifteen years of monetary expansion since 2008 suddenly caused soaring inflation in 2022.

If we open our eyes to global events, we can find much more obvious sources for the current inflation. The COVID crisis led to the collapse of global supply chains. As global economies recovered, and demand increased to pre-COVID levels, producers found it necessary to turn to alternative, more expensive, suppliers. USA’s intensifying trade wars with China have increased costs of production in both countries. Soaring energy prices in Europe due to the Ukraine War have crippled industry and led to massive price increases USA, Europe, and China are the three largest economies that produce more than 60% of global output. None of these factors have anything to do with the money supply or interest rates. A policy lesson for Pakistan would be to put maximum priority on developing indigenous alternatives for energy production. Not only would this counter imported inflation, but it would also combat climate change which has had disastrous impact in the form of floods.

We will conclude this article by discussing some simple economic theory, which continues to baffle Friedmanites. Friedman’s views are based on a very simple idea of classical economics. Given a fixed amount of goods, if we double the amount of money in the economy, then prices will also double. Keynes observed that this did not hold during the Great Depression, when the production levels were very low relative to what they could be. He noted that pouring money into the economy would lead to increased production. If we double the goods and double the money, then no inflation would result. Friedmanites (monetarists) reject this basic Keynesian idea. They argue that inflow of money does not lead to increased production, so inflation will result from the increased money supply. Empirical experience strongly supports Keynes against Friedman. In contrast to monetarists, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) builds upon, and sharpens, this Keynesian insight, as we discuss below.

Historical experience showed that expansion of money supply by the Central Bank did not necessarily reach the sectors of the economy where there was high unemployment. Instead, the money might flow into sectors operating at full capacity and cause inflation, contrary to Keynesian views. This phenomenon was termed “stagflation” – unemployment together with inflation. MMT suggests that money should be targeted at unemployment, to prevent this from happening. The key policy recommendation of MMT is a Job Guarantee Program. The most valuable unemployed resource in an economy is the labor. If we spend money on providing a productive job to an unemployed laborer, then the increase in money will automatically be offset by the increase in production. More money combined with more output will not lead to inflation. Job Guarantee programs have been successfully tried in Argentina, India, Sweden, Ethiopia, China, Tunisia, and many other countries. Crafting an effective Job Guarantee program requires ensuring that Central Bank-created money goes to productive labor, not to idle consumers who will increase demand without increasing production. Our youth is the most valuable resource Pakistan has. The most important challenge facing our policymakers is to apply MMT to provide all of them with productive jobs.

Above article was published in DAWN on Nov 12, 2022: https://www.dawn.com/news/1720438     

For related articles, see Class-Conflict Theory of Inflation and The Veil of Money. See also MMT for Pakistan, for an extended discussion of how insights from MMT can be used to help the Pakistani Economy, and monetary management in Pakistan.

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{bit.ly/AZrss2} For Part 1, see: http://bit.ly/AZrss1 English Version of Lecture at Islamia University of Bhawalpur, 6 Sep 2022

Brief Summary of Part 1

1. Trauma of Loss of Faith in Christianity led to the necessity of rebuilding the entire stock of human knowledge on new foundations.
2. These new secular foundations were seriously flawed, because they dispensed with Christian morality, and replaced it by a very short-sighted self-seeking set of values.
3. This is why we need to rebuild the entire stock of human knowledge on the sound foundations of Islamic epistemology.

Building Knowledge from ZERO:

Imam AL-Ghazali considers the question of how to arrive at truth, starting from zero. He realizes that we cannot trust our senses or logic to guide us. He quotes the Quran to say that reality will appear to us in true form only after we die:

al-Munqidh min al-Dalal: God tells us that when we wake up after death, life on this Earth will appear in a different light. “We have removed your veil, and today your sight is keen”. There is NO path to certainty.

He writes that:

When these thoughts occurred to me they penetrated my soul … This malady was mysterious and it lasted for nearly two months. … At last, God cured me, but not by arguments and reason. It was the effect of a light cast into my heart. That light is the key to knowledge!!

The key to knowledge is the Noor given by Allah, into our hearts.

Descartes and Imam Al-Ghazali: Descartes borrowed from Al-Ghazali. Both start out from a position of complete doubt about everything. The arguments and conclusions are SUBTLY different.

Descartes copies, but misses the main point. Starting from a position of complete doubt, how to get to knowledge? Senses are not reliable: I could be dreaming. BUT, unlike Ghazali, he takes some aspects of REASON as reliable: “I think therefore I am” – my existence is certain – regardless of doubts about reason. Fallacious logic (but continues to be basis of Western thought, just like TRINITY). Descartes continues the argument by saying that My existence must have been created, so GOD exists. GOD is not a deceiver, so we can trust our senses. But this path to knowledge is very different from the Noor of the heart which is the source of certainty for Imam Al-Ghazali.

European Theories of Knowledge

European intellectual took either the senses or reason as the primary source of knowledge:

Continental School of Rationalists: Primacy of reason. Descartes, Kant, Liebniz.

British School of Empiricists: Primacy of the senses. Hume, Locke, Berkeley.

Both positions were combined in 20^th Century Logical Positivism: ALL knowledge comes from observations and logic. This position continues to be the basis of European thought. However, this position was rejected by Imam Al-Ghazali more than a thousand years ago: His book, Marvels of the Heart! Tells us that Enlightenment of the Heart is the key to all knowledge!

Descartes, and all Western philosophers, explicitly reject the heart. WHY? Because the heart misled them on the matter of religion! The heart testified to the truth of Christianity, but reason contradicted this.

Re-imagine the Descartes experience: I am in complete doubt about everything, including my own existence. What will reassure me? When I reflect on myself, I feel my breathing, my beating heart, my skin sensations, smells and sounds. “I feel, therefore I am”. This sensory experience is much stronger and more reliable than weak logic. Descartes argument is FAULTY. Use of word “I” already presumes existence. The Heart is the CENTRAL instrument of cognition, as the Quran tells us:

Quran (7:179) They have hearts they do not understand with, eyes they do not see with, and ears they do not hear with. They are like cattle. In fact, they are even less.

Quran (22:46) Have they not travelled in the land, and have they hearts wherewith to feel and ears wherewith to hear? For indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are within the bosoms, that grow blind.

Hadeeth: Truly in the body there is a morsel of flesh which, if it be sound, all the body is sound and which, if it be diseased, all of it is diseased. Truly it is the heart.

The heart is the central instrument of cognition, but Western intellectuals rejected this completely.

Eastern versus Western Knowledge

East: Enlightenment of the HEART, (supplemented by senses and logic) is the key to all knowledge

West: The BRAIN supported by eyes and ears (but NOT the HEART) is the source of all knowledge.

Three Factors Which Shaped Western Minds

The West learned to think of knowledge as a set of universal invariants, like the laws of physics. In fact, our knowledge is strongly shaped by historical factors. Three major factors in European history have strongly influenced European thought:

1. Religious Wars => Loss of Faith => Heartless Knowledge.
2. Industrial Revolution => Market Mentality: Everything for sale.
3. Conquest of Globe => Superiority Complex; Racist and Eurocentric Views.

Of particular importance is Epistemology: the Theory of Knowledge. “What is Knowledge?” It is of crucial importance to realize that the answer to this question was CHANGED radically by the West! One book which explains this intellectual transformation is:

Julie Reuben: Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality. For a summary, see: http://bit.ly/AZmme

Knowledge encompassed spiritual, emotional, rational truths. BUT, in early 20^th Century definition of knowledge was changed. SCIENCE was the only source of valid knowledge. All other types were just ignorance and superstition, not worthy of the name “KNOWLEDGE”!! Change in the meaning of knowledge led to a change in the university curriculum. Character development was abandoned as goal of education, and replaced by a purely technical education.

A lot more analysis is possible, but we skip over this, and turn to solutions. First, let us clearly state the problem: Our minds have been shaped by the same three poisons via a European education:

1. Loss of Faith => Emphasis on pleasure, power, profits as life-goals
2. Market Mentality => Consumer Society: everything for sale.
3. Global Domination => Inferiority Complex

HOW to free our minds? Focus on the OPPOSITE Extremes. Do not look for balance! We must push HARD to achieve freedom from the deep indoctrination we have received. We are so deeply trapped that there is no danger of breaking free and going to the opposite extrem.

FIRST PRIORITY: Breaking the spell of Western Knowledge

Education is about setting priorities. A Western Education teaches us that Science is the only valid form of knowledge. But, What can science teach us about how the universe was created? NOTHING – that is META-Physics, not science. Questions about origins of universe go beyond observations and logic. Only what is present in the universe can be observed. The Most Important Questions are:

1. What is the best way to spend the precious few moments that we have been given of LIFE?
2. How can we develop the potential for excellence within ourselves?

SCIENCE has no answers to these questions.

1. Science: Study of the External World
2. Islam: Study of our Inner World

We must learn to prioritize our inner worlds, learning how to live, over knowledge of the external world. The realization of this has been spreading, and has led to Rapidly Developing Fields of Knowledge Built on Islamic Foundations. These foundations can be stated as:

1. Islamic civilization is committed to two basic principles: oneness of God and oneness of humanity.
2. Islam does not allow any racial, linguistic or ethnic discrimination; it stands for universal humanism.

Some of the areas where there has been development are listed below:

Islamic Psychology: Western psychology has developed very flat models of human behavior which do not take into account the depth and complexity of the Islamic intellectual tradition. A lot of work has been done by https://isip.foundation about building psychology using the Nafs, Qalb, Rooh, and Aql, as a four-dimensional framework.

 Islamic Economics:  A course outline is available from http://bit.ly/AZie2019. Capitalist economics is built in principles of greed, competition, individualism, and hedonism. Islam invites us to build a society on the opposite principles of generosity, cooperation, social responsibility, and pursuit of success in the Akhira. It is obvious that this would results in a radically different economic system.

Prof. Dr. Recep Şentürk has developed a framework for rooted revival of the Islamic Science based on Maratib-al-Uloom, renamed as Multiplexity. His lectures on Decolonizing Social Sciences: From Uniplexity to Multiplexity  are available from YouTube (search by title). These provide a rich intellectual and analytical framework for building social science on foundations of the Islamic intellectual heritage.  

I have developed a course/textbook called “Real Statistics: A Radical Approach”, which rebuilds the entire discipline of statistics on new foundations. Conventional statistics studies numbers in isolation, to learn about properties of the set of numbers. This is because it is founded on a positivist philosophy, which takes the appearances and the observables as the only source of knowledge.  REAL statistics considers the numbers as CLUES to the real world. These clues must be used to acquire knowledge of the real world. The clues are NEVER sufficient, and must be supplemented by additional knowledge about the real world.

Rebuilding the Social Sciences

Extremely destructive Religious Wars in Europe led to abandonment of “scholastics” or “schoolmen” approach to social science, based on the Bible. INSTEAD, secular social science was created.  The Christian Deen (way of life) was replaced by Social Science. Social Science is the DEEN of the West, built on rejection of Christianity. We have our own Deen based on Islam. This MUST be used to construct an alternative to Western Social Science. An outline of how this might be done is developed in my post on:

Uloom-ul-Umran: Islamic Alternative to WSS. The key elements of this new approach to social science are:

1. We will study social change, based on methodology of Ibne-Khaldun
2. Key driver of change is community, united by common identity.

For details of how this methodology differs from the one currently in use in Western social sciences, see: http://bit.ly/AZUUU  

As a final element of the efforts for rooted revival of the Islamic Intellectual tradition, we make note of The Ghazali Project for Revival of Islamic Civilization. The Central Problem we face today is shock-and-awe of Western knowledge, as discussed in: The Modern Mu’tazila – http://bit.do/aztmm The solution to this problem is: The Ghazali Project: http://bit.ly/AZGhazali1 which is built on three elements:

1. Deliverance from Doubt: Building strong faith in the complete and perfect guidance from God.
2. Incoherence of the Philosophers: Rejecting Western Wisdom.
3. Ihya-Uloom-ud-Deen: Rebuilding the stock of human knowledge on Islamic Foundations.

Concluding Remarks

The Central Battleground is that of Knowledge. Colonization of Minds, created by Western Education, trains us into believing that Western Wisdom is superior to the Quran. The Quran provides complete and sufficient guidance for our modern problems. We need to rebuild the stock of knowledge on Islamic foundations. 

{bit.ly/AZrss1} English version of Lecture at Islamia University of Bhawalpur,  Tuesday, 6^th Sep 2022; Original Urdu Lecture : http://bit.ly/AZuRSS. Followup to Previous lecture at GSCWU on 5^th Sep: http://bit.ly/AZbIES1 For second part, see: Rebuilding Social Sciences on Islamic Foundations Part 2

The REAL Battleground is KNOWLEDGE

Not guns, bombs, and armies – these are secondary.

Pre-Islamic era was the Age of Ignorance.

The FIRST Wahy to our prophet:

Read in the name of thy Lord who created; [He] created the human being from blood clot. Read in the name of thy Lord who taught by the pen: [He] taught the human being what he did not know

God gave mankind knowledge, which enlightened the world for over a 1000 years.

What Was this knowledge?

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For Part 1, see: http://bit.ly/AZbIES1. English Version of talk at GSCWU Bhawalpur by Dr. Asad Zaman on 4th Sep 2022. Slides from SlideShare

Summary of Part 1

Western educational systems have been shaped by a theory of knowledge (logical positivism) which says that Science is the only valid form of knowledge.

This has led to prioritization of study of external reality, and abandonment of our internal reality. Life-experiences which lead to spiritual growth are not part of the curriculum.

This 2^nd part focuses on the role of the social sciences, which provide normative ideals for European societies to follow, based on their own analysis of their own historical experiences.

Birth of Social Science in early 20th Century

The idea that “science” was the only valid form of knowledge led to diminishing prestige of “humanities” – just talk, not knowledge! In turn, this led to the creation of “SOCIAL SCIENCE” in early 20th Century: Economics, Psychology, Political Science, Business Management, etc. These were all created using a methodology based on Logical Positivism which explained what science was (incorrectly). Of importance, LP rejected human internal experiences – heart, soul – as sources of knowledge.

Social SCIENCE makes TWO false claims:

1. It is a study of FACTS, not opinions – “Science”
2. These FACTS are Universal Truths – equally valid across time and space, for ALL societies.

ONLY such facts – universally valid truths – are worthy of the name of KNOWLEDGE, according to Logical Positivism

The First Claim: Universal Applicability to All Societies: is false

• Social Science is, and must be, study of human societies.
• But WHICH society?
• Social Science consists of Lessons derived from historical experience of European societies. NOT Universally applicable AT ALL.

This is discussed in greater detail in The Puzzle of Western Social Science http://bit.ly/AZpss

The Second Claim: Iron Laws applicable across time and space  (like those of physics) is also false

• Human beings are free to choose between good and evil.
• Their behavior is not predictable, and not subject to mathematical laws.

Why Does Social Science Make These Obviously False Claims? To answer this question requires exploring the history of emergence of the social sciences in Europe. In a nutshell, religious wars led to the rejection of Christianity as a basis for knowledge. A historical sketch is outlined below:

1. Corruption of Catholic Church leads to REFORMATION
2. Protestant factions rejects Catholicism. Wars between the two factions being
3. Over a century of deeply destructive religious wars in Europe.
4. Social theory was done by schoolmen, scholastics, based on Bible.
5. This was rejected as basis for organizing society.
6. Because it led to continuous warfare both within and between states.
7. On a broader level, Christianity was rejected as basis for knowledge about organizing society.

Deep and fundamental beliefs (in Christianity), accepted by all from top to bottom, had been proven wrong. The entire stock of (European) knowledge was in doubt. It became necessary to rebuild the entire stock of knowledge, starting from scratch. All Enlightenment philosophers were engaged in this task.

Social Science: Replacement for Christianity

Historical Experience of European Societies showed that Christianity was a failure at providing principles for organizing society. It led to continuous warfare and violence. Social Science was created as a replacement for Christianity, to provide a new set of principles for organizing society. It was based on the rejection of God, Judgment, and after-life. Naturally, the focus was shifted to Worldly Pleasures. This means that Social Sciences are in direct conflict with Islamic teachings. As a specific example, consider economics.

According to Economics, goal of life is to maximize pleasure from consumption. This is wrong, both as a description and also as a prescription. People do not actually do this. Nor should they do this. Real long-term happiness comes from character and social relationships, not from consumption.

When Social Science replaced religion in the public sphere, religion became restricted to a set of Personal Beliefs. The meaning of the word “religion” changed. Christianity encompassed all dimensions of life. Teaching of Christianity in public sphere were replaced by Social Science.

Central Epistemological Conflict

To summarize, Western theories of knowledge exclude religion, and build on science. But this excludes life purpose and personal experiences from knowledge. Islamic theories of knowledge give central place to meaning of life, character, society. Social Science is in direct conflict with Islamic theories of social sphere. Our suggestion for radical change in education builds on this analysis.

What is the ROOT strategy for RAPID change? Change the Theory of Knowledge! Europeans changed  the meaning of “KNOWLEDGE” to  Logical Positivism:  Science is the only valid source of knowledge

Islam gives central importance to the heart and spirituality, as source of knowledge about God and the purpose of our creation. In accordance with this, an education should give students experiences which create INTERNAL changes. Spiritual Development, Growth, and Maturity. Deeper understanding of LIFE!

Islam teaches us how to develop our maximum potential as human beings. The Quran says that We created man in the best of forms, and reduced him to the lowest of the low.  What does this mean? Man has potential to rise above the angels, and also the potential to be the worst among the beasts. Islam teaches us how to develop our maximum potential as human beings.   This places great responsibility of teachers: If you save a life, it is as if you have saved all of humanity. All of our students are born with infinite potential. How can we make our students – everyone of them – REALIZE the potential for excellence with which they have all been created?

The key is to teach only USEFUL knowledge! Our Prophet SAW made dua for useful knowledge

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ عِلْمًا نَافِعًا

And he sought Protection of Allah from USELESS knowledge

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ لاَ يَنْفَعُ

One of the characteristics of useful knowledge is that it enters the heart. By this criterion, we teach ONLY useless knowledge! This is PROHIBITED by Islamic teachings. This is the result of dramatic shift in Western epistemology, which took place in early 20th Century. This new TOXIC theory of knowledge – logical positivism – shaped the education currently being provided in Western universities. We are BLINDLY imitating the West, and we are POISONING the minds of our students with USELESS knowledge.

Modern Social Sciences are built on Western Values. We need to rebuild them on Islamic foundations Modern Universities teach technical skills, but do not provide guidance about life. For my personal experiences, see: Lessons MIT did not Teach Me http://bit.ly/mit4az1  As an example of how the social sciences need to be rebuilt, consider Economics.

Is Economics the Study of Scarcity? NO. Let us look to the Quran for economic teachings. One of them is the verse: They do not urge the feeding of the poor. This leads to the idea of “Hunger, as the primary economic problem” https://ssrn.com/abstract=2571779 The first fundamental problem of economics is to ensure that the basic needs of all are met – NOT scarcity. By centering our studies on the foundations of the Quran, we can change things rapidly and dramatically. USEFUL Knowledge is life-changing experience (not science). How can our students experience learning?  Give students real-life projects, individual and collective

1. Change the life of one person in your neighborhood.
2. Collective Project: Visit a nearby Katchi Abadi, study their lives, and make ONE small change to improve their lives.

A central element of an Islamic education must be: How to build character? There are multiple approaches. The most difficult is to “Be a model of excellence”. This is Sufi method where the Mureeds of the Shaykh take him as the model. This is difficult because most of us cannot model excellence. An alternative is the Fellow Travellers model widely used by the movement of Dawah and Tableegh. This takes the stance that we are all far from the ideals demonstrated by our Prophet SAW, so “Let us learn together to improve ourselves. For this purpose, we should:

1. Study examples of great character in our lives (immediate experience)
2. Ask students to describe people they admire and their characteristics
3. Ask students to reflect on their own lives, and pick out things which they did, which they think will have weight on day of judgement.

A very important consideration here is that we should not look for examples of perfection – those no longer exist. Rather, we should look for isolate acts of greatness, or isolated good characteristics. That is, from among a hundred faults, pick out, recognize, and praise the single virtue that someone may have.

Problems of Camaraderie

If we shift from Western pedagogy, which addresses the mind only, to Eastern pedagogy, which engages hearts, we will automatically create closer personal relationships with out students. This is an unfamiliar model for both teachers and students, and can be a source of multiple problems. In particular, students may abuse this closer relationship and ask for undue favors. The teacher must act like a parent, and combine love with discipline and strictness as required. New ways of teaching and learning are required to make this model work.  

I would like to close this essay be describing briefly “The Ghazali Project” which aims transform Islamic societies by transforming education from Western patterns to Islamic ones. See “Central Ideas of the Ghazali Project” http://bit.ly/Ghazali1

Links to Related Materials

• This talk, as blog post: Improving Our Education Systems Part 2: http://bit.ly/AZbIES2
• Previous Part: Improving Our Education Systems Part 1: http://bit.ly/AZbIES2
• Urdu Video complete: http://bit.ly/AZuIES
• Follow-up Talk at Islamic University of Bhawalpur: http://bit.ly/AZuRSS — Rebuilding the Social Sciences on Islamic Epistemological Foundations.   

{bit.ly/AZbIES1} Slides from SlideShare

Let us start by acknowledging the bitter truth:

• We produce TERRIBLE educational results
• Our students waste years, learning NOTHING!

Can we CHANGE things? Can we provide a SIGNIFICANTLY better education, with CURRENT resources? YES, we can – with ALL our limitations. HOW can we do this? NOT by doing more-of-the-same. Some of the popular wrong paths to progress are:

• Teacher Training
• Improving Student Backgrounds – ZERO semester
• Improving Pedagogical Methods
• Increasing Salaries, Working Conditions/
• Libraries,
• Research Facilities and/or  Methodology

BOLD, out-of-the-box thinking. COURAGEOUS change-steps are required

WHY should change require boldness & courage?

Wouldn’t Strong Positive Change be Welcome?

NO!

The Central Battleground is KNOWLEDGE!

Knowledge can Enslave or Liberate!

Radical Changes in Educational System will be STRONGLY resisted by Powers-That-Be

But, strongly welcomed by students, people – and this is what creates the possibility of launching a revolution in education. Rapid Change, with Strong Positive Results, ewith Current Resources? YES, it is possible. But HOW?

The First VITAL Step:

Recognizing Useful Knowledge and differentiating it from useless knowledge. Our current educational system provides useless knowledge, which is why it is so harmful to our students. How did this happen?

Brief Summary: Europeans changed their theory of knowledge. Rejecting Christianity as basis for knowledge, they went to Observations and Logic. This led to prioritization of knowledge of the external world. And LOSS of knowledge of our internal world.

Western Education provides “knowledge”. But what is “knowledge”? To learn the answer, we must study Julie Reuben: Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality A summary is provided in:  http://bit.ly/AZmme

Very briefly, In early 20th Century, GOAL of education was to build character, teach social and civic responsibility, leadership skills. THIS was the most important kind of knowledge!

New Theory of Knowledge became widely popular: Logical Positivism. It states that Science is the only valid form of knowledge. Science produced FACTS – objective, universal truths.  Everything else was OPINION – subjective and NOT knowledge. EDUCATION was re-shaped by this (DEADLY) theory of knowledge. Character Building was abandoned. Purely Technical Education was adopted. Since Western education dominates the world, children around the globe are given this type of education.

Teachings of Islam launched a revolution 14.5 Centuries ago! These teachings transformed ignorant and backward Bedouin into world leaders. They created a civilization that enlightened the world for more than a thousand years. They are just as revolutionary today, as they were 14 centuries ago! These teachings provide an education radically different form that provided by the West. To understand how loss of this education has damaged and impoverished our lives, see: See: Syed Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi: What the World Lost Due to the Decline of the Islamic Civilization. A brief summary is provided in:   http://bit.do/azrdm

Islam provides us with essential knowledge:

• What is the purpose of our lives?
• How should we spend the precious few moments we have?

Science cannot be a guide to life. SCIENCE, or knowledge of external reality, has no answers to these central questions.  Western education provides us with knowledge of external reality, but none about the central question we face in our lives.

End of Part 1 – For Part 2, see: Improving Our Educational Systems P2

Original URDU Lecture by Dr. Asad Zaman at Government Sadiq College Women’s University, Bhawalpur. On Monday 5th Sep. 2022, at 10:00 AM, on invitation by Dr. Taseer Salahuddin: http://bit.ly/AZuIES

A Followup Lecture was given at Islamia University of Bhawalpur, Tuesday 6th Sep 2022 at 10:00 AM on: Rebuilding Social Sciences on Foundations of Islamic Epistemology – URDU Lecture: http://bit.ly/AZuRSS — English Version: See Rebuilding Social Sciences 

{bit.ly/RSRAb02B} This is Section B of Chapter 2: Moral Foundations of Knowledge.This is part of a textbook Real Statistics: A Radical Approach – To register for ongoing online course based on this textbook: http://bit.ly/AZRealStats.

In the previous Section A, we explained that statistics is NOT Objective and Factual, even though it claims and pretends to be so. What we consider worth measuring, and how we go about measuring it, reflects value judgments:

1. Most numbers that we use are “INDEX numbers” which combine multiple factors to get one overall measure of a complex multidimensional phenomenon. Whenever we combine factors, subjective value judgments are involved in the selection of factors, and in assigning relative importance (weights) to these factors, in order to come up with a single numeric measure.
2. Whenever we APPLY statistics to the solution of real-world problems, real-world context calls for value judgments. This value-laden aspect of statistics is hidden because the standard approach separates theory from practice. In these lectures, we will show that this separation cannot be done, because the theory we use depends on the real-world application. When we do theory and practice together, Islam provides us with guidance on the values required.

At the core of an Islamic epistemology is the idea of the unity of knowledge, which is in sharp contrast with the duality at the core of Western epistemology. In contrast to the idea of a sharp separation between facts and values, facts acquire importance (and become worth measuring) only if they are relevant to the achievement of our life-goals. From this perspective, the study of statistics must be framed within the context of the following questions:

1. Why are we studying statistics?
2. How will this knowledge help us to achieve our life goals?
3. What are our life goals?

These questions arise naturally for all students asked to devote significant amounts of time, effort, and money to the study of statistics (or of any branch of knowledge). Why does the western intellectual tradition fail to discuss these questions? Reasons are deep, coming from the assumption of the meaninglessness of life itself. The following poetic quote from Bertrand Russell explains a fundamental background assumption that human life is a product of chance, and without any purpose or meaning:

MAN … his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, … Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.

The Quran (92:4) tells us that “Surely the ends you strive for are diverse”. Different people have different goals, and therefore acquire different kinds of knowledge, relevant to their goals. There is widespread consensus on the idea that meaningless lives are not worth living. In this course, we will adopt an Islamic perspective on the purpose of life, which is the opposite of that of secular modernity. Those who consider life to be meaningless are not part of the intended audience for this course: if life itself is meaningless then all human effort and knowledge is also meaningless. However, non-Muslims who do find life meaningful, and strive for higher goals than the pursuit of pleasure, will find substantial common grounds with an Islamic approach to knowledge.

Islam firmly rejects the idea that the Creation is without purpose, and that human life is without meaning. Islamic teachings clearly specify the purpose of our lives:

Say: Lo! my worship and, my sacrifice and my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the Worlds. (Qur’ān, 6:162)

Islam teaches us that human lives are very precious: [Quran 5:32] “whoever saves a life is as though he had saved all mankind”. Human beings are the best of the creations, and have a huge amount of potential, in terms of capabilities that can be developed. History furnishes us with examples of human beings who have achieved spectacular excellence, and also those who have been spectacularly evil. How we answer the question of “how we can develop our potential to the maximum?” determines how we spend the brief and precious moments that have been given to us. Any use we make prevents us from using these moments in other ways. Thus, all human choices – to acquire knowledge (about statistics) or to choose not to do so – are dependent on the goals of our lives, and whether or not we can use this knowledge to achieve our goals.

To use our study for the pursuit of excellence, we must make the highest intentions: the service of the creation for the sake of the love of the Creator. How can learn statistics to serve mankind, for the love of Allah? Note that Statistics is used routinely for deception. Examples are given in “How to Lie with Statistics” & “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”, which show how data can be used to deceive. So, we must learn statistics to learn to distinguish truth from lies, and to protect humans from harms caused by false and deceptive statistics[1]. In contrast to deceiving ourselves and others by numbers, Islam offers us a distinctive alternative. Allah T’aala Himself asks us to seek knowledge: “Rabb-e-Zidni Ilma”. Many Hadeeth teach us about the value of knowledge. Those who seek knowledge are given higher status than warriors and pious people. The thirst for knowledge was the driver for the amazing rise of ignorant and backward Bedouin to world leaders, and the creation of a dazzling Civilization that lasted more than a thousand years. The loss of this thirst for knowledge is responsible for our current lowly condition.

The powerful knowledge, which can transform our inner lives and the external world, requires struggle. Many Ahadeeth on the rewards for seeking knowledge are there to produce high motivation for the Great Effort Required, Allah T’aala says in the Quran that ‘And those who strive in Our (cause),- We will certainly guide them to our Paths: For verily Allah is with those who do right”. This shows us an action-oriented approach to learning. It is in the process of struggling to use knowledge to create positive change, in our lives, and in the world, that Allah T’aala will give us the understanding we need. In particular, neutral detached observation is not permissible. Allah T’aala asks us to struggle with our hands, and with our tongues, and with our hands, to remove evil and to create good. It is important to note that we have full responsibility for the knowledge that we acquire: whether it is used for good or evil. So, unlike that traditional theory/practice divide, the Muslim statistician must be concerned with the issue of whether or not his data analysis will be used for good or bad purposes.

The greatest motivation for the effort to acquire knowledge comes from the understanding that We (human beings) have been created with the greatest potential:  to be  Ahsan-e-Taqweem (best of the creations), and rise higher than the angels. Every human life is (potentially) worth the entire humanity! How can we realize our hidden capabilities to the maximum? This involves acquiring the knowledge and life-experiences which will bring out these capabilities. Some steps in this direction are discussed in related posts linked below:

1. Recognizing our true identities: Learn Who You Are: bit.do/azwya
2. Reaching Beyond the Stars: Aim high to get great results. bit.do/azrbs

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[1] Joan Robinson: “The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.”

Slides in video for lecture available from slideshare: https://www.slideshare.net/AsadZaman6/the-illusion-of-objective-knowledge-253369361 To register for an ongoing online course based on these concepts, https://alnafi.com/courses/real-statistics Registrations will close on Oct 20, 2022

As described in the Preface, a radical rupture between “facts” and “values” was created in the early 20^th century by the emergence of the philosophy of Logical Positivism. This philosophy took the intellectual world by storm, and was used to dramatically revise the foundations of the social sciences: henceforth, they were to be fact-based and shun values of any kind. The idea that there can be value-free knowledge, heavily contested initially, became widely accepted, and forms the basis of modern Western thought. The Islamic perspective matches the pre-positivist Western perspective: all human knowledge is built on moral foundations. The central importance of the UNITY of God in Islam is reflected in the unity of knowledge: knowledge is useful if it guides us towards the recognition of God, and useless or harmful if it creates obstacles in the path towards God. This textbook on statistics attempts to illustrate this central epistemological idea by showing how it illuminates and transforms the study of statistics.

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