Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!m2c!wpi.WPI.EDU!zahle.wpi.edu!shari
From: hanan@mcs213k.cs.umr.edu (Hanan Lutfiyya)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Earth is the Center of the Universe
Message-ID: <1991Apr23.153835.31416@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 23 Apr 91 15:38:35 GMT
Sender: news@wpi.WPI.EDU (News)
Organization: University of Missouri - Rolla
Lines: 44
Approved: shari@zahle.wpi.edu
Originator: shari@zahle.wpi.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: zahle.wpi.edu



In Message-ID: <1991Apr19.122327.2824@wpi.WPI.EDU> (iftikhar uz zaman) writes

>	The point of this post though, is to suggest that we try to
>break down some of these monolothic characterizations of people as
>"backwards" and "forwards."  The "mulla" is a much maligned individual,
>however, fortunately or unfortunately, he has read the sources a
>lot more extensively than a lot of us have.  Thus, until we do the
>reading ourselves, one cannot simply "throw the baby out with the
>bathwater" and think we can dispense with all types of mullas
>(from Malik, Shafi'i, Ahmad etc. to Ibn Hajar, 'Ayni, etc...to
>the modern ones like Albani).  What we can do is put large question
>marks where we have questions and learn from them what we can...
>then, later, perhaps try to investigate the questionable points...
>Eventually, the investigation of the questions may lead us to throw
>out everything these "mullas" have told us.  But it seems like
>cultural suicide (taking Islam as a "culture" here) to completely
>disavow the work of centuries which has gone into the texts of Islam
>which these people (many of them sincere along with being knowledgeable)
>have invested....

>	We do this kind of selective listening to any "expert" in
>everyday life--why can we not give our religious scholars the same
>treatment?  Is there perhaps a visceral reaction here? A "hatred"?

>These are just questions: not accusations.


    I'm not disagreeing with you.  What I resent is the following:
Sometimes, when a person tries to investigate the questionable points, 
they are given labels.  The original posting that started this thread
seemed to imply that a person who does question, is being influenced
by Satan.  I consider this unfair especially if one believes that
Allah has given us free will.  There are many differences between
the way religious scholars perceive things.  It is because they
question.  I believe that the "average person" also has this right.
The right to question, investigate and learn and not be labeled.  Of
course, the learning process will involve learning from many
of these religious scholars.

Hanan Lutfiyya
University of Missouri-Rolla