Miscellany
Announcement
Call for Papers
Seminar on The Philosophy of Ibn Rushd on October 7 to 9, 2004. Sponsored by Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi.
Ibn Rushd is the most famous, and probably also the most versatile, philosopher in the traditional Islamic thought as it flourished in the late medieval times. While credited for having rehabilitated philosophy in the Muslim world, he also enjoyed a great following in the circles of Christian philosopher-theologians of the West around thirteenth century and onwards. As a bearer indeed of Aristotelian legacy he can even be said to have facilitated Europe’s transition from its medieval dogmatism to its rationalist present.
The objective of this seminar is to recapture and revive the rationalist spirit of Islam which is by all appearances presently in a state of slumber.
Scholars are invited to write papers on any topic of their choice relating to the themes mentioned. The papers should be well researched, highlighting some less familiar aspects of Ibn Rushd’s Philosophy original contributions may also be made on issues that have a bearing on the subject.
1. Ibn Rushd and the rationalist legacy in Islam
2. Religion and Philosophy: harmony and conflict
3. Ibn Rushd’s contribution to Islamic hermeneutics
4. Ghazali and Ibn Rushd
5. Ibn Rushd and the West
6. Ethical and Political Philosophy of Ibn Rushd
7. Relevance of Ibn Rushd to modern world
* Scholars invited for presentation of papers will be paid AC II rail fare and provided full local hospitality.
* International participants will also be given the in-country AC II rail fare besides hospitality.
Key Dates:
Abstract Submission: 30.6.2004
Full Paper Submission: 6.8.2004
Selected Paper Information: 1.9.2004
* The manuscript should be submitted in two copies accompanied by a floppy disk or may be e-mailed as attachment typed on word document.
Contact: Dr. Preeti Sayeed, Department of Philosophy, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002, India, Ph: (0571) 2700916-20-21-26 (extn. 1550-51); 2701223, 9837021473; email: ibnrushd_seminar@yahoo.com
Convenor : Dr. Tasadduq Husain
Secretary: Dr. Preeti Sayeed
Director : Prof. Jalalul Haq
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY, ALIGARH – INDIA
Hamdard Loan Scholarship
Hamdard Education Soceity, at the instance of late Janab Hakeem Abdul Hameed instituted in 1986 a Talent Search and Scholarship Scheme for bright Muslim students. The Scheme is being implemented ever since under the over all direction of Janab Abdul Mueed, President, HES. Looking back, from 1986 till 2003 as many as 251 scholarships have been sanctioned and 137 book-grants given.
Applications are now invited from students who have passed the examination mentioned below in 2004 and intend to continue their education at least upto the academic year 2005-2006. While awarding the loan scholarships the main stress will be on Science, Engineering and Medicine, but students of Commerce and Social Sciences including Economics may also be considered. The purpose of the scheme is to select extraordinarily bright Muslim students and to fund subsequent education of those among them who are needy and continue to show excellent results, so as to produce leaders in various walks of life. The criterion for selection would be merit-cum means.
Loan scholarship will be awarded at the following rates to students selected out of those who have passed the respective examinations:
1. High School/Higher Sec. Rs. 250/- per month
2. Intermediate or equivalent Rs. 350/- per month
3. Graduation Rs. 500/- per month
4. Students pursuing Doctorate Rs. 1200/- per month
The amount of the loan scholarship will be paid back to H.E.S. in the same number of installments in which it is given. The repayment will commence two year after completion of education. The loan scholarship is renewable subject to the progress being adequate. In case of decline in studies or failure to report progress the scholarship will be suspended and the entire amount of loan scholarship be recalled from the awardee.
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80% marks (aggregate) in High School or Higher Secondary Examination
75% marks (aggregate) in Intermediate or equivalent Examination, and
70% marks (aggregate) in Graduation or Post-Graduation Examination, and who are needy. Marginal relaxation in the cut-off point may be made, at Secretary’s direction, in respect of candidates from backward states or areas.
Documents should be enclosed by needy students in support of inadequacy of means:
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In addition to a high percentage of marks, intellectual brilliance, creative capability, quality of leadership and the urge to make a mark in life, will be assessed and kept in view while awarding loan scholarship and book-grants.
The best students emerging from a scrutiny of applications will be called for a written examination and interview at Delhi. They will be paid second class Rail fare to and fro. Arrangements for their boarding and lodging will be made by the Society. Those selected will be given either a loan scholarship to be determined according to the means criterion, or a book-grant. While deciding on scholarships, means criterion will receive special weight. Those who get a scholarship will have to execute a bond for repayment. Scholarship forms can be had from the Secretary, Hamdard Education Society, Talimabad, Sangam Vihar, New Delhi-110062. The last date for receipt of application forms in this office is 21st August, 2004. Examination and interview are likely to be held in the month of September, 2004.
Incomplete, illegible and time-bared applications will not be considered. Applicants may kindly note that it would not be possible for this office to reply to individual queries. We should be able to intimate only those candidates who are selected (a) at the first stage of scrutiny on the basis of paper qualifications and (b) the second stage of selection after the written examination and personality test. The Scheme is intended for the benefit of very bright students. It can’t be stretched to accommodate hard cases on compassionate grounds.
Book Reviews
Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writing of Abdolkarim Soroush Translated and edited, with a critical introduction by Mahmoud Sadri and Ahmad Sadri New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 236 pages
While the public role of intellectuals in North America, and perhaps in the West more generally, is declining, one may hazard to say that their role remains significant in the Muslim world, judging by the number of intellectuals who have been censored in Muslim societies. Iran, in particular, has a strong tradition of public intellectuals, the latest of whom is Abdolkarim Soroush, a vocal critic of the post-revolutionary clerical regime. An official in the early years of post-revolutionary Iran, he has subsequently been harassed and censored for arguing that secularism is the best way to guard against the abuse of power. Since Soroush has quickly gained a following both inside and outside Iran, the editors are to be commended for editing and translating his wide-ranging ideas and making them accessible to the English reading public.
The editors’ introduction contextualizes Soroush’s work by locating him within a current of Iranian enlightened-religious intellectuals, and, more generally, in a current of Muslim reformist thought that includes the likes of Muhammad Iqbal and Ali Shariati. Chapter 1, an interview with Soroush, reveals the major influences on the development of his thought, while the remaining 11 chapters are a collection of his essays, lectures, and speeches. Most of this material consists of lectures that he delivered in the early 1990s. Chapter 2, 4, and 6-9 represent the core of his ideas on the limits of religious knowledge, secularism, and the mutual dependence of freedom and critical reason. The remaining chapters nicely round out the book with topics ranging from a defense of critical reason, science, and freedom to the differences between the educational model of the traditional religious seminary versus the modern university.
Chapter 2 presents Soroush’s theory of the contraction and expansion of religious knowledge. Here, he makes the controversial (at least in the post-revolutionary Iranian context) argument that while religion and sacred scriptures may be flawless and constant, the interpreters of religion are not. Hence, Soroush argues that traditional Islamic knowledge needs to be treated like any other branch of knowledge, “as incomplete, impure, insufficient, and culture-bound” (p. 32).
Chapter 4 and 6-9 discuss the issue of morality in religious and secular forms of governance. In these latter essays, one senses Soroush’s assertiveness in objecting to Iran’s clerical regime and the threat that his ideas present. He argues that while the combination of religion and politics endows government with a sense of sacredness that puts it above critique, secularism is a form of non-religious reason that provides crucial limitations to the abuse of power by fallible leaders. In so doing, secularism may marginalize religion to the extent that it separates religion and politics. But, according to him, this need not entail an irreligious society.
Furthermore, Muslim societies seeking to harmonize Islam and democracy should begin this attempt by discussing human rights, justice, and the restriction of power, that is, with precisely those issues that are out of the jurists’ purview. In fact, this is a general point in Soroush’s arguments: Religious thought will only develop as a result of competition and struggle with ideas coming from outside of religion.
Although clearly rooted in Soroush’s desire to limit the power of Iran’s post-revolutionary regime by relativizing the fiqh-based understanding of religion and society, his work is theoretical and claims to be general. But this becomes problematic. Read outside of the Iranian context and in view of the innumerable critiques of critical reason, liberal democracy, modernization, and secularization, his unquestioning faith in the epistemological premises of liberalism and secularism appears exaggerated and naïve.
It is not that Soroush is unaware of the multifarious critiques; he just does not take them seriously enough. For instance, without falling prey to economic determinism, Soroush’s naïve belief in the competition and struggle of ideas would benefit from the argument of political-economy that the competition of ideas is never as free from distortions as the ideologues of liberalism make it out to be. Furthermore, he regards only the positive aspects of modernity – the liberal democratic version in its own ideal representation. He overlooks the fact that the socialist experiment, which was equally secular and modern, is the other half of modernity, as Z. Bauman has pointed out.
Another set of problems in Soroush’s work are the fundamental rifts that he draws between religion and religious knowledge, a traditional conception of the natural order to things and a modern conception of the conscious management of the social order, and a religious discourse of obligations and a secular discourse of rights. These dichotomies not only betray his desire to synthesize traditional Islamic teachings with modern philosophies, but also indicate that he has completely bought in an evolutionary model of history. However, tradition and modernity interpenetrate in so many subtle ways that go beyond dichotomies and evolutionary models.
These problems notwithstanding, this is an immensely interesting book. We are given insight into what an Islamist government cannot tolerate and to the latest turn in the current of reformist Muslim thought. Yet it will also appeal to those interested in more theoretical issues, such as the philosophy of science and social science, the sociology of knowledge, and the epistemological underpinnings of modernity.
Reviewed by:
Ali Hassan Zaidi