Trigger Warning
Most Muslims practice some form of ‘Traditional’ Islam, including many near and dear to us. Yet, they are blissfully ignorant of the Tragic Errors and Inconvenient Implications that inevitably result from this type of Traditionalist thought (also true of traditional practitioners of other religions). If you are a Traditional Muslim, the content herein might rudely conflict with your romantic myths about Traditional Islam.
Dear Reader,
as salaam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
If you are a Muslim, read this only if you have a pro-science or an analytic orientation. If you do not, you will not ‘get’ this — your valuable time is perhaps better spent in first acquiring such orientation (no offense intended).
If you are non-Muslim, you are not my target audience, and this is not a good place to begin your discovery of the vast and valuable treasure of Islam, since this site delves deep into intra-mural debates – a future page will address you, including a memo to atheists. Until then, you are better off with other resources listed in the Reading List on the FAQ page. As with any other religion, there are large disagreements within schools of thought in Islam. I assume the reader is very familiar with the arguments and practices of Traditional Islam. Also, dear non-Muslim, if you chose to mine this content for negative tropes about Islam, you will find that similar unflattering realities can easily be unearthed in whatever ideology you subscribe to.
A Personal Preface
What motivates me to write this?
I wish to make at least a small dent in the Big Five problems that vex us, beyond the obligation of Zakat, which is necessary but not sufficient. The most visible problem is Poverty, which the Muslim world is drowning in. To escape it, we need to urgently solve the Brain Drain problem, which is a result of the long-lived root problem of theological Authoritarianism, and derivative problems of Patriarchy and Politicization (and its handmaiden, Sectarianism). These large problems won’t resolve overnight – however, with BioIslam, a theohumanist and pro-science interpretation, we greatly increase our chances of improving human welfare.
My search for the Islamic truth started early. Briefly, I grew up in a moderately conservative and Traditional Sunni Muslim family. My childhood experiences prompted a lifelong search for an answer — why do we have so much poverty, sectarianism, and disappointing ethical behavior in our ummah.1 Why are we not visibly better, in these key dimensions of human experience, than those in the non-Muslim world? It is not sufficient to say there is a yawning gap between ideals and reality, as there is with any ideology, since there is no consensus on the ideals.2 This reality gap is exploited by the Islamophobes who only ask, “what went wrong”, a one-sided prejudiced question.3 Inversely, Islamophiles have blind spots too, and limit themselves to “what’s right with Islam”.4 Our community is no worse than others in any overall moral sense, but I believe it behooves us to be better, since we are the beneficiaries of a most inspiring divine wisdom. Is it naïve to expect such an outcome?
Many attribute our Big Five problems to post colonial distress. That’s partly true. However, I never found comfort in the popular sport of the blame game. Our problems precede colonialism, although the latter greatly aggravates. Also, I am bothered by nagging questions — why did it take our ulema so long to abolish the tragic error of riq-slavery; should we not have done that well before (not after) Europe, given the Quran’s pro-manumission missive? (BioMuslims believe: the Prophet ﷺ abolished riq-slavery, but later rulers reinstated it.) Why did the Prophet ﷺ not choose to role model his personal life differently from what the Traditional sources describe? (BioIslam’s view: he did.) Sensible answers to these questions require acknowledging the formative errors of the canonical textual-Sunnah, which I believe differs substantially from the unknowable original-Sunnah.
Disclaimer — I am not an Islamic scholar. My qualifications — intellectual honesty, coupled with insatiable curiosity, in matters of both religion and science, and a longstanding desire to reconcile the two. Although I lack an ijaza, I have been blessed to benefit from a good amount of formal Islamic instruction, and a large amount of formal education in critical thinking, by way of a PhD in an empirical field.
Finally, I may have erred, despite my best intention (niyya) to ferret out the truth (al haqq). My theohumanist intention is piety, peace and prosperity for all. Any search process risks error, but only such a search can lead me closer to the truth and my Creator. For errors in this quest for al haqq, I apologize and seek forgiveness from Allah subhan-wa-tala. Is BioIslam the true version of Islam, as was originally revealed? I personally think so, but only Allah knows best (wa allahu ‘a’lam), and a return of Isa/Jesus will clarify all conundrums ﷺ. As suggested by the sage of many a Sunni, the Shaykh al-Islam al-Ghazali, who charitably credits Imam Ali, it is not easy to know which alim to believe – which suggests that the seeker’s sincere journey is what really matters5 …
Do not know the truth
by the men,
But know the truth,
and then you will know,
Who are truthful.
Peace,
An anonymous BioMuslim *
* I request anonymity to protect the feelings of many Traditionalist friends and family members, who will always remain near and dear to me. This interpretation of Islam is highly heretical for Traditionalists, and given the explicit nature of the content here, it would sadden them to be associated with it.
- Transparency International’s 2017 Corruption Perception Index shows 19 out of 21 Arab states scored below 50, where 0 is highly corrupt, 100 is very clean, and two-thirds of the countries are below 50. Non-Arab Muslim-majority countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan are well below the average score of 43.
- SH Nasr in Ideals and Realities of Islam cautions against using the many imperfections of reality to critique the noble ideals of the faith
- Bernard Lewis’s What Went Wrong? was published with impeccable timing, mere months after the 9/11 tragedy, and fails to fully appreciate the postcolonial and neocolonial trauma syndromes that weigh down most Muslim countries
- Feisal Abdul Rauf in What’s Right with Islam paints a heartfelt vision by which Muslims can integrate with the West, but does not adequately critique the large errors of interpretation in the mainstream of traditional Islamic scholarship.
- The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali, 40, translated by W. Montgomery Watt. He prefaces the quote below with a statement that many in our time would consider elitist or irreverent, ‘It is customary with weaker intellects thus to take the men as criterion of the truth and not the truth as criterion of the men’