Islam's Reformers .pdf

comprehension, knowledge and power to the unconscious willof the coincidence, it is obvious that man’s work will make himmore succesful if he connects the wheel of his will to the regularmotions of a machine that includes everything from the atom tothe sun, that is, if he tries to set his measures by thepredestination. A member of the Jabriyya can be silenced bysaying, “If you were at a dangerous place and told that theenemy would attack and you believed it, would you say, ‘Theywill do what is predestined. They cannot do anything else.There is no way out of what Allah has predestined,’ and remainthere or would you get ready to resist or go somewhere else?”Thus it will be affirmed also by the Jabriyya that the sense ofneed for escaping the danger and working for one’s needsexists in man’s creation. It is not reasonable to believe in qadarin insignificant affairs and deny it when you are in great dangeror need.It is because of ignorance, inattention and laziness thatMuslims lag behind. And I wrote about the origin of theignorance in the preface. Muslims’ belief should not becorrupted by confusing such noble knowledge of qadâ’ andqadar with the guilt.31 - The reformer says:“Because Europe was small and crowded and its soil wasbarren, Europeans had to struggle with nature and makeprogress in science and arts in order to live. Also the fightsamong needy Europeans caused this. The hot climates in Africaslackened the people. The plentiful and various fruits in theequatorial jungles caused laziness. Since the hot deserts ofAfrica and the cold mountains of Europe did not exist in Asia,Asians lived comfortably. They worked easily in earning theirliving. The continent of Asia became the cradle of civilization.Then an eastern country may work and progress also. Thereason why the Ottomans lagged behind was not their beingorientals or the climate of the country. The reason was in thereligion and in the concept of qadâ’ and qadar.”Even if it would be admitted for a moment that the Ottomansmisunderstood qadâ’ and qadar, abhorred themselves andsurrendered to the events, the reasons which gave birth to theirretrogression were different. Let us explain them:As soon as the progressives, who disliked Muslims’surrendering to the event, opened their eyes, they took- 55 -