The Business | EDITORIAL/OPINTuIesdOay , JNanuary 050, 24021 Al-Faquenrtly taalk about thie maarvelouns cadliphs t hroeugh tdo Kharuijites acnd thae Htusseiin oNasr inn his book ‘Science contributions Muslims made during Sultanate. ‘Muslims: The First Soci - and civilization in Islam’ has a sec - their glorious period in the five cen - ologists’ by Dr Basharat Ali is an - tion ‘Al-Farabi and the classification Chief Editor turies after the advent of Islam, our other book of just 140 pages of the sciences’. Following in the curriculum at nearly all levels is de - containing in brief the sociological footsteps of his distant predecessor Irfan Athar Qazi void of any reference to the great thoughts of major Muslim thinkers. Aristotle and immediate predecessor minds that existed in our midst. Too There are dozens of Muslim thinkers Alkindi, Al-Farabi surpassed both. E-mail: [email protected] many chapters and texts from scrip - and writers whose books present a His was the most influential classifi - tures and traditions hardly leave any treasure trove for students of social cation contained in his book ‘Ihsa al- [email protected] room for content about the great sciences. ulum’ (Enumeration of the sciences). chemists, geographers, philosophers, Of course, many of them have reli - He in turn was surpassed by his suc - musicologists, physicians, political gious leanings but the same applies to cessors Ibne Sina and Ibne Rushd in Tijarat House, 14-Davis Road, Lahore scientists, and sociologists who a majority of European writers up the following centuries. Perhaps the 0423-6312280, 6312480, 6312429, 6312462 graced the world with their un - until the 18th and 19th centuries. best aspect of that period was that all matchable contribution at their time. Still, St Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, these scholars interacted with and Cell # 0321-4598258 At most, we hear about Ibne Sina and many others – despite their ex - learned from Christian and Jewish and Ibne Khaldun, and that too with - plicitly Christian background – find thinkers too. out any careful considerations. ample space in Western books on po - There was an atmosphere of over - DR NAAZIR MAHMOOD Even books written by Western litical and social sciences. There are all tolerance in Muslim societies, 1270-B, Peoples Colony No I, Off: Chenone scholars and used in our universities dozens of Muslim thinkers and writ - apart from the possibility of inviting Road, Faisalabad, Ph: 041-8555582 t is an unfortunate fact that ed - tend to simply ignore contributions to ers whose contribution is worth the wrath of the rulers. Al-Farabi was ucation in Pakistan fluctuates the world’s intellectual heritage by studying just in the same manner as one of the first writers in the world to between various extremes. On Eastern thinkers and writers. A two- we diligently read about the likes of write on such diverse subjects as ISLAMABAD / RAWALPINDI theI one side, we have proponents of volume compendium titled ‘The Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Though alchemy and interpretation of dreams. N-125 Circular Road, Ph: 051-5551654, education who advocate for, and Great Political Theories’, edited by most of what they said or wrote has In his classification, the first branch 5532761, Cell # 0300-8567331 stress on, scientific and technical ed - Michael Curtis, covers political phi - little significance in today’s world, included the science of language in - KARACHI ucation. The acronym STEM – for losophy from Aristotle to Mon - they help us understand the intellec - cluding grammar, poetry, pronuncia - tesquieu in volume one, and from tual journey of humankind. An Urdu tion, and syntax. The second branch 3rd Floor Kehkashan Mall 172-I Block II PECHS science, technology, engineering, and Burke and Kant to modern times – book compiled by Siddique Qureshi included the science of logic with its Opp Rehmania Masjid Main Tariq Road mathematics – has become a buzz - word to throw around in any discus - without even mentioning in passing titled ‘Aham Siyasi Mufakkirin’ sub-branches. The third was Ph: 021-34524550, Cell # 0300-8251534 sion on education. any works by eastern or Muslim (Major Political Thinkers) introduces propaedeutic (introductory or A majority of state-funded confer - thinkers and writers. Or take ‘An In - us to over two dozen Muslim writers preparatory) sciences which included ences and seminars revolve around troduction to the History of the Sci - on political science. One of the best sciences such as arithmetic, cosmol - how important it is to promote STEM ence of Politics’ by Frederick Pollock introductions to Muslim political ogy, and geometry which he divided and of course nobody can dispute or ‘A History of Political Theory’ by thought is by Dr Tara Chand who into practical and theoretical. LNG issues that. On another extreme are the busi - George Sabine that is used in many worked under the instructions of Interestingly, he was also a musi - ness, marketing, and management fo - Pakistani universities as a standard Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first cologist and wrote the first major cused institutions that have been textbook. Indian minister for education. Dr Tara treatise on music ‘Kitab al-Musiqa churning out thousands of BBAs and Even a new anthology titled ‘50 Chand’s at least two books have been Alkabir’ (Grand Book of Music). He MBAs looking for jobs in the private Political Classics’ which compiled translated into Urdu. Dr Abu Salman includes music in his third branch of The previous government agreed to a very stringent sector; again, nobody can challenge so-called seminal texts on politics, translated ‘Muslim Afkar-e-Siyasat’ knowledge that all students must deal that allowed virtually no flexibility to the buyer that. At yet another extreme is the and included writings from Aristotle and M Masood Ahmed translated ‘In - learn in their introductory courses. but then, there argument is this is what happens in a emphasis on religious education from and Plato to even Gandhi and Martin fluence of Islam on Indian Culture’ His fourth branch included the sci - ‘sellers market’ which the LNG is. The problem lies in primary to tertiary and higher educa - Luther King, has just one piece of published by Majlis-e-Taraqqi-e- ences of nature with physics and that we have not paid attention to building sufficient tion. This mainly encourages rote writing from Fareed Zakaria, bypass - Adab Lahore. The latter focuses on metaphysics. Physics had eight sub- storage for LNG so that we can take advantage of sea - learning in scriptures and traditions ing the likes of Al-Farabi, Al - Islam in India only. branches and metaphysics three. The marawdi, and even Tusi and Ibne But where does one start and how fifth and last was the science of soci - sonal variations in the spot market to bring down our not only in seminaries but also in government and private educational Khaldun who wrote extensively on deep can one go? Well, perhaps the ety, including jurisprudence and rhet - average cost of the product. Now we are contractually institutions. politics. Similarly, ‘Fifty Great Polit - best starting point is Al-Farabi (870- oric. Luckily, Prof Nomanul Haq has caught in it the best the government can do is to pay There are also left-wing and lib - ical Thinkers’ by Ian Adams and RW 950) one of the first Muslim poly - done us a favour by editing a series of urgent attention to augmenting storage and transmis - eral critics who frown upon any ref - Dyson published in 2004 has no Mus - maths and arguably the greatest studies in Islamic philosophy pub - sion capacity to trim costs wherever and whenever erence to religion at all. However, lim name in it. Of course, in our uni - thinker and writer in the world after lished by the Oxford University Press possible. Ideally, although it is important to sort out reading Islamic history and under - versities there are some exclusive Aristotle. It is not without reason that (OUP). If I have been able to arouse LNG supply chain bottlenecks to ensure price stabil - standing Muslim societies is signifi - courses covering topics such as Is - even in Europe those who read him some of your interest, go for a book ity for the consumer, the government should look cant for at least two reasons. One, it lamic political thought and Islamic called him the Second Teacher in titled ‘Alfarabi: the political writings’ away from fossil fuels for the long term. The collapse helps you comprehend how in his - institutions, but they fail to stress the over a thousand years after Aristotle. which contains Al-Farabi’s selected in oil prices and the subsequent buyer’s market, while tory various schools of thoughts universality of many of our thinkers. Haroon Khan Sherwani in his book aphorisms and other texts translated One does not need to have only ‘Studies in Muslim Political from the Arabic language by Charles it suits countries like Pakistan just fine for the time evolved, and are still playing nega - tive or positive roles. Two, it also thick tomes for our students; we may Thought’ first published in 1948 in Butterworth. If you have interest and being, is in fact indicative of the coming end of the fos - tells us that, just like in Western also use brief accounts to enlighten Hyderabad Deccan devotes a full 30- patience, I am sure you’ll enjoy it. sil fuel industry. Oil producers can get together and thought, various developments in our students at various levels. For ex - page chapter discussing the political maintain prices for a while, through OPEC quotas and Eastern and Muslim societies have ample, ‘Politics in Islam’ by Khuda writings of Al-Farabi. The writer holds a PhD from the like, but such steps will not be able to resist the collectively contributed to where the Bakhsh summarizes in just 180 pages But, Al-Farabi’s contributions went the University of Birmingham, winds of technological change for too long.