"When it comes to science, Nobel not Noble"

Dr. Zaman Khan, MBBS, Pakistan, on returning from attending Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates in science, has made an amusing comment on his new blog about Laureates. He writes:

Let the Laureates fight in the battle of ideas for they've received their Nobel Prize for science, not for peace.

It makes one smile... Read rest of the blog-post here.

Iranian Militia Parade

Came across this military parade in Iran, attended by its supreme leader, the sign of God. In middle is a beautiful Quran recitation by one of their soldier.

Implementation

Today I'd talk about what I just implemented: a thought. I may become too dogmatic in your falconian eyes. But I fear nothing than my own sins. You cannot enjoy and appreciate the quality of this manly act unless you know a little bit about 'neo-classical' (capitalistic) economics that is being completely implemented today from the pulpits of Western stupidity and enterprise, accepted blindly by those who read economics in Western or Westernized universities, usually.

In a nutshell, it began my mental acceptance of what Prof Dr Asad Zaman has shown through his research that modern economics, like other western social sciences, is simply wrong from Islamic point of view and observable evidence. In this lecture he produces evidence that can demolish some of the basic tenets of western economics, and is being demolished in West as well*: The Crisis in Islamic Economics. Judging the arguments, following words of Dr Zaman struck me:

"4. Data on Firms, Consumers CONTRADICTS theories in Samuelson.

That is, economic theories as presented in leading conventional textbooks (Mankiw, Varian, etc.) are basically wrong – these theories do not describe the realities of economics in the real world. That means we can throw it all away without any loss in knowledge to us. What pretends to be concrete and factual is simply incorrect." [Emphasis mine.]

Then he goes on to give a set of examples of the incorrectness of the concepts presented in such books which render it entirely useless.

I took a bold step. And in afternoon today threw two books by Georgy N. Mankiw in the big dustbin near my home's gate, which I had read in economic courses and which I used to refer to in case I needed to know something about economic principles. Next thing I want to do is to inform Mr Zaman of this act of intelligence coupled with a leap of faith.

How do you feel?

Update: I just informed Prof Dr Asad Zaman in one of his discussion forums. you read the thread here.

* For instance, in an article in recent Harvard Business Review, two fundamental doctrines of capitalism/economics have been ruthlessly destroyed by their own scholars in light of evidence of recent global financial crisis: a) Humans behave rationally, b) invisible hand of market leads people to the good of society at large.

A most shocking historical fallacy

It is a myth that medieval people used to believe that earth was flat which was invented in 19th century. This is the finding of a book by Jeffrey Burton Russell, Professor Emeritus, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, called: Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians (1997).

I came across this paper which briefly documents evidence against what may turn out to be, as information of the research of professor trickles down, one of the biggest historical lies taught at school and wide-spread in public discourse in the world. Author goes on to write:

A curious example of this mistreatment of the past for the purpose of slandering Christians is a widespread historical error, an error that the Historical Society of Britain some years back listed as number one in its short compendium of the ten most common historical illusions. It is the notion that people used to believe that the earth was flat--especially medieval Christians.

[...]

In my research, I looked to see how old the idea was that medieval Christians believed the earth was flat. I obviously did not find it among medieval Christians. Nor among anti-Catholic Protestant reformers. Nor in Copernicus or Galileo or their followers, who had to demonstrate the superiority of a heliocentric system, but not of a spherical earth. I was sure I would find it among the eighteenth-century philosophers, among all their vitriolic sneers at Christianity, but not a word.

Read rest of the short article here.

A quote on the endeavor of Ijtihad in Islamic Law

Hamza Yusuf writes in his historical-juristic essay on the rulings of Islamic law on chess:

Contrary to the Orientalists’ claims that the gates of ijtihad were closed in the ninth century CE, ijtihad has always been an active endeavor of the community of jurists throughout the Muslim world.[4]

In the foot-note # 4, he writes:

The only closure—if there was one—was on what is known as “absolute ijtihad” that historically was achieved by a handful of scholars in the early part of Islam and later considered impossible to achieve. However, although many consider this door closed and locked, it has always been viewed as a door that is possible for one to enter, if one has the key. [Emphasis added.]

Indiscriminate Violence: A Prophetic Tradition

Toward the latter days of indiscriminate violence, be like the first and better of the two sons of Adam who said, “If you raise your hand to kill me, I will not raise mine to kill you; surely I fear God, the Lord of the worlds.”

- From a sound tradition of the Prophet Muhammad

narrated by Imam Tirmidhi.

Academics & Fun

[I'm sorry I published the raw outline! Allow me some time to complete, meanwhile, you're requested to be patient.]

Problem Statement: why is that 'school work' (or in my case university work) doesn't come naturally to many? Why do I keep seeking something other than it to do, but something important and urgent, like, a worldcup football semi-final match, or a lenghty complex lecture by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad [give link to his page on Masud.co.uk], some research paper of Dr Asad Zaman [give link to his website] , or some deep, important topic for presentation in English Prose course? This brings us to the idea of making serious things enjoyable and fun-doing. And when it becomes fun-doing, it comes all naturally. People say it with experience not with their fantasy.

Let's just contain ourselves to academic work at different levels, beginning from school level.

KG-Preschool

its made all fun-you develop through play-[give link to when play is work]-need to kill academic morbidity

School-High-School

imagination must be targeted-problem solving/test preparation [no conclusion]-ansar's saying: use of intellect-problems of math: stereotyping as 'difficult'-difficult here stands for use of intellect, that's all!-battling weapons of distractions-spiritual training-spiritual/religious people in medical universities.

Higher education

Pain is necessary-new theme I came across-
Distractions: Nafs is the problem-story of an alim, how his father beated him on missing hadith class in favor of optional ibadah, as a case study-

Road to Interest-free Economy: Power of a singular bold step

Today is major day in life. It is so because one firm has decided to give up earning interest on funds of its employees, and to adopt halal way of making profit. It is an HR firm that outcourses thousands of low-level employees to companies. Its clients gives it a large sum of money for its employees as 'gratuity'. Because of inflation or salary increases the reserve for gratuity gets low (I can explain if you want in comments section). This is what they call short-fall. To meet this short-fall they need money, which is earned by putting that alrge sum in bank, on which they get interest. This is haram. Although the firm never used the interest for itself, but nonetheless it earned interest to make up for its shortfall in money. But this is no excuse for the company to indulge in such haram a transaction as earning interest or riba.

The point of mirth and shukar (gratitude to Allah) is that I pointed out this 'moral ambuity; to CEO, who has a deep relation with me, as he explained me what I have explained to you about gratuity and all that stuff. And although I'm no employee or board of directors, he was moved saying he 'has been caught red-handed'... He is a man of action. He took a bold step and is ready to make things in conformity with Sharia'.

Long story short, CEO immediately called his CFO and asked him to suggest new, 'healthy' ways to get out of it. As a first step, he has ordered to shift millions of money from bank deposits to 'current account' on which the depositor gets no money/interest/profit. That is huge, actually. Till December they'll have to come up with ways to earn profit on millions of rupees. It can be risky, nay, clearly it is. And here CHANGE MANAGEMENT is involved. This is a major paradigm shift. Some key people in the organization are disturbed by this decision. And I fear a covert resistance that may undermine the project. Here we're not left alone. Alhamdulilah, there's a vast body of literature on change management. It tells all about this science, what change means, how do people in organizations can react to it, how to implement a successful change program, what pitfalls to avoid, etc., etc.

One important book has been written in the cultural context (2 Cs) of Pakistan by former Dean of my university's school of management. It's called, simply, Managing Change, by Dr. ZIQ. (Managing Change is both a text-book in which frameworks are given to solve case-studies, each theoretical chapter is followed by case-studies of purely Pakistani companies.

I am rambling too much! Because. I feel so indebted to Allah that a few words of mine have seemingly changed substantially business life of a firm. I've been asked to propose solutions and not just pin-point messy problems... So... Tomorrow after jumma prayer I intend to meet one of my professors who'd guide me to alternatives, inshaAllah! For you, if you're Muslim business-student or -man, it's your duty to help your brother in faith by suggesting brilliant ideas for profit-earning ventures. Judgment criteria: We always need every year more than 1.7m in our reserves to pay the gratuity of employees in order to meet expected short-falls. If you've problems understanding, please mention inshaAllah I'd clarify.

To Dr. Asad Zaman: On Social Sciences

I wrote following mail to Dr Asad Zaman, alumni MIT (BS Mathematics) & Standford (MS Stats; PhD Economics), professor at IIIU. Visit his website for all of his works and data: http://sites.google.com/site/asaduzaman/home. He is a leading Islamic scholar on Islamic economics, critic of western social scientist, an educationist, Islamic political theorist, and a sea of knowledge and TAQWA

Assalamualaekum!

I am Umer Toor, BSc Business, FC College, Lahore. I've been reading your papers and writings on your website; at first I read your interview in Intellect mag which led me to discover you and your thought.

I'm particularly interested in critique of yours on Western Social Science. One of my professors at F.C. is thinking of introducing Islamic Sociology course there. Your paper on Origins of Western Social Sciences [also see Nature of Social Science page] enumerates some foundational works, which we would be reading.

We seek your guidance on this matter. Do you have ideas on Islamic social science courses that may serve to be an inspiration and yardstick for our us?

Moreover, I've a bunch of students learning in elite universities who have launched amongst themselves the Revival of Islamic Intelligentsia Program [they work as members of ESEF] - can you groom us by giving some lectures, or best, can we visit you personally in Islamabad, which is our dream?

JazakAallh!

Of Assets

Today, I ended up gifting my 9th grade friend Einstein's book on relativity, a subject which no students gets to study in Pakistan's school before 2nd year in high school (read: F.Sc.). Although it's written in a very lucid and clear prose, but chances of his fully understanding quantum mechanics, lengthy proofs of relativity, 'mysteries' of general and special relativity seem bleak, but not beyond the bounds of possibilities. I know a friend, regarded as genius by the world, who wrote a very original and authentic book on mathematics and physics in tenth grade!

Nonetheless. For him as for everyone, tomorrow is never the same. I have books in my Philosopher's Corner (my room) as old as 14 years that I inherited from my father. When young, I used to wonder and fantasize about the lengthy books which are part and parcel of my life today. I can recall how oceanic all of it seemed - just too tremendous to get hold of. I rarely understood a word. Today, by just remaining in its company for so long, has helped to open up the treasures of knowledge to me. Maybe the same could work for him. As a long-term asset, its payback period won't be short, but the fruits - may Allah wills it - be immensely sweet and plentiful.

With these 'hopes and prospects', when he asked whether he could own it, I instantly gifted him this pillar of modern science (the book), without a second-thought, although I intended him to see it for a day or two.