This whole Tariq Jameel brouhaha reminds me of this passage from Ibn Khaldun: “There are specialists in law & hadith who claim that the plague is caused by a pinprick from the jinn [9th century Muslim scholar al-Tabari had said this] & who deny the possibility of contagion [a >
> bunch of hadeeths deny contagion] as being contrary to observation, feel, experience, & research. Concerning such people, I am reminded of an apt comment that Ibn al-Khatib made on several occasions: ‘Ignoring the things that science tells us is an act of malice, a taunt >
> against God Himself, & an insult to the hearts of all Muslims.’” Unfortunately, Islam in Pakistan is limited to Tariq Jameel & others of his ilk who wouldn’t know of Ibn Khaldun if his name was flashed in front of them. These are names we only use to remind others of the >
> past glory of “Islamic” sciences w/out ever having read this science. I wonder why Imran Khan, who has consistently talked about re-glorifying Islam in Pakistan by using our golden age scholars, can’t find a single scholar of Islam who actually knows Islamic theology & >
> philosophy tradition beyond Tariq Jameel? Btw Ibn al-Khatib mentioned here by Ibn Khaldun was the most prominent 14th century scholar of history, medicine, & Islam in al-Andalus, a vizier to 2 Nasrid kings, & he saw how thousands were dying in al-Andalus & advocated that >
> people should be advised to flee, which was against the hadeeth. He was later found guilty of heresy by 11 of his contemporary religious scholars and executed. He was a hero of Ibn Khaldun. Here is another passage from Ibn Khaldun which is eerily relevant to our times, “Just >
> a minute more before we finish. It’s not correct to attribute all the earthly causes of the plague to foul, humid air alone. Another factor involves symptoms of senility in a political regime, circumstances that are often characterized by unjust taxation and levies that >
> oppress farmers and result in reduced activity and then total collapse. That in turn leads to food shortages, inflation and rebellion, followed by famines and plagues. Politicians bear a large responsibility for this chain of events. That’s why human beings should, to the >
> extent that they can, take all possible precautions.”
