Substituting Regressive Islamic Attitudes Towards Technology
(I wrote this quick; there is incoherence in the piece but just focus on the vibe.)
I'm currently majoring in neuroscience and decided to get passionate and creative. I began to search for a cure for sleep. Sleep takes about 1/3 of our lives away. Imagine never needing to sleep! If we can get the biological benefits of sleep artificially, then humans would never need to sleep again! Imagine the implications! Humans could potentially double their productivity while maintaining the same population! As I was explaining this idea to my dad, he said, "Don't even think thoughts like this; don't become God."
He it is That hath made you the night that ye may rest therein, and the day to make things visible (to you). Verily in this are signs for those who listen (to His Message).
Baba was implying that God made the night for humans to sleep in; because night exists, therefore sleep will and must exist. How can you improve something that God created perfectly? Then that got me thinking...
How can we ‘improve’ crops with gene modification if the perfect creator created them specifically for us to eat (as it says in the Quran) (my uncle asked me this one)? Isn't God the perfect creator?
How can we assume lab grown meat is better for our health and planet than conventionally grown meat which we believe God created for us to eat specifically? Isn't God the perfect creator?
How can we cure cancers if God had determined that it was time for that person to die? Isn't God the perfect creator?
How can a perfect creator create children with sickle cell anemia that we only now have the capacity to cure via bone marrow transplant? Isn't God the perfect creator?
I can even go as far to simply quote the problem of evil. How can a good and powerful God allow evil to exist?
But I remembered this verse.
And [mention, O Muhammad], when your Lord said to the angels, "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority." They said, "Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?" Allah said, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know."
The refutation to the problem of evil is that God has knowledge that we do not. So now that I refuted the claim that humans should not improve things via technology because God is the perfect creator. If he really wanted to create everything perfect and painless then he would have created us as angels and popped us into heaven. This world will necessarily have suffering for the simple fact that it is not heaven. This life is meant to be a test. Because this world has pain and toil in it, there is room to alleviate suffering and to improve the condition of the inhabitants of this world. We can do this by developing and sharing technology. The following verses indicate the correct attitude of the Muslim towards technological progress.
And He has subjected to you whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth - all from Him. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought.
So He has leased us this dunya. We can explore it and make stuff with it and chill in it, etc. Now, I'd like to direct your attention to this next verse.
O company of jinn and mankind, if you are able to pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass. You will not pass except by authority [from Allah].
O company of jinn and mankind, if you are able to pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass.
Ever hear of the phrase, "the sky is the limit"? I feel that this verse is referring to technology. It is as if God is challenging both man and jinn to do their best to go into space (and by implication, progress unimaginably far in scientific knowledge and technological prowess). Some humans though, have taken up this challenge. If successful, your decedents may perhaps never see earth in their lifetimes.
However, the second part of this verse says:
You will not pass except by authority [from Allah].
Any penetrating into space will not be made except with Allah's permission. This is further adding on the challenge made in the previous clause. However here is the genius; if we do so, it is because God allowed us to do so! Any technology that we discover is never God's mistake! Alternatively, it is God's will that that technology developed!
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| ONWARD! |
As a result, Muslims should have the same attitude that Ayyub had with golden locusts to technological innovation. Read the hadith below!
Whilst Ayyub was taking a bath, completely uncovered, locusts of gold fell down upon him so he began putting them in his clothes. Thereupon, his Rabb called out to him saying: “Have I not made you independent from that which you see?” He replied: “Indeed O my Rabb! However I can never be satisfied regarding Your blessings.”
If the source of all truth and knowledge, reveals knowledge to you that you can yield benefit from, then how ungrateful can you be to turn down Allah’s blessings? Back to my initial conversation with my father, if we can find a cure for sleep that will benefit humans, then it is only Allah who revealed this knowledge as he is the source of knowledge, and it would be foolish and arrogant to reject what He himself revealed.