2.1 Modernism & postmodernism
In modernism it was believed that materiality or phenomena was everything there is and that it is superiour to anything else. This philosophy of science is called positivism - it is a rejection of metaphysics, as it holds that the goal of knowledge is simply to describe the phenomena that we experience, which we can observe and measure and nothing beyond that. 
In some quarters there was still an underlying, dormant longing for the construction or discovery of the Grand Design (4*), meaning a new unity of being, of what reality really is, but a unity which had to do without religion and metaphysics. ( 2.3ff )
)(4*) Probing the "Grand Design, in posing the greatest questions: How vast is the Universe, the entirety of existence? Was there a beginning? Will there be an end? What is the origin and fate of the Universe?"
< From "Cosmology: A Cosmic Perspective" >, x L 20120703
< From "Cosmology: A Cosmic Perspective" >, x L 20120703
However, as Charles Upton has shown ( SAC-33 )
in postmodernism it is always held (as a conviction or belief ?!) that:
(1) there is no Grand Design,
(2) truth is plural and ultimately subjective,
(3) reality is only as it is configured,
(4) there is nothing out there but chaotic potential.
So much for the quest for truth! ( 2.2 )
in postmodernism it is always held (as a conviction or belief ?!) that:
(1) there is no Grand Design,
(2) truth is plural and ultimately subjective,
(3) reality is only as it is configured,
(4) there is nothing out there but chaotic potential.
So much for the quest for truth! ( 2.2
)Furthermore, with today's "celebration of diversity", normal logical thinking seems to have evaporated from many a contemporary mind, as modernism and postmodernism even can work together, or so it seems, in the mind of a single individual, confounding it and neutralizing any attempt toward a traditional or metaphysical view of reality! SAC
____So much so that by now "modernism has become nothing more than a sub-set, one more disrelated item in the postmodern spectrum of "diversity" ." SAC-34/5
____So much so that by now "modernism has become nothing more than a sub-set, one more disrelated item in the postmodern spectrum of "diversity" ." SAC-34/5
For positivism see: < Positivism & Post-Positivism >, x L 20120703
2.2 Postmodernism in a nutshell:
(1) There is no objective truth or realitytherefore => (2)
(2) reality is constructed
therefore => (3)
(3) all comprehensible worldviews are oppressive
therefore => (4)
(4) such worldviews should be deconstructed
therefore => (5)
(5) Deconstructionism is the progressive pulverization of reality
therefore => (1)
(1) ! !
SAC-34
2.3 Higher Levels of Reality Became Eliminated
Because of the process of isolation of reason and rationality from their transcendant and immutable principles, a tendency which became ever more dominant since the French revolution of 1789 in Western, European thought and imagination, it happened that the higher levels of reality were eliminated from intellectual research and attention.
From now on man himself became the centrepoint of being and there was nothing higher than human reason and no object of science more dignified to receive scientific attention than what was possible to perceive empirically through the human senses. (Typical for this was 'positivism'.)
____It meant that from now on man was "not able to go further than outward appearances". EW p.216 Seeing that every science centered around man, however, made his research and therefore his civilization restricted to only one level of being, the materialistic viewpoint.
____In postmodernism human rationality and what was left of human intelligence became relativized, relying on the sub-human and the irrational. In this restricted scientific field sense-experience has become the only source of knowledge. But man thinks according to what he is; or as Aristotle knew for sure, 'knowledge depends upon the mode of the knower.'"
____It meant that from now on man was "not able to go further than outward appearances". EW p.216 Seeing that every science centered around man, however, made his research and therefore his civilization restricted to only one level of being, the materialistic viewpoint.
____In postmodernism human rationality and what was left of human intelligence became relativized, relying on the sub-human and the irrational. In this restricted scientific field sense-experience has become the only source of knowledge. But man thinks according to what he is; or as Aristotle knew for sure, 'knowledge depends upon the mode of the knower.'"
A study of the modern concept of man as being 'free' of Heaven, complete master of his own destiny, earth-bound but also master of the earth, oblivious to all eschatological realities which he has replaced with some future state of perfection in profane historical time [utopia], indifferent if not totally opposed to the world of the Spirit and its demands, and lacking the sense of the sacred, will reveal how futile have been and are the efforts" ...
... of wishing to modernise an integrated tradition such as Islam, or even 'harmonizing' Islam and modernism. TIM p.103
... of wishing to modernise an integrated tradition such as Islam, or even 'harmonizing' Islam and modernism. TIM p.103
.In the traditional sciences however, where everything is related to and dependent on the higher levels of reality, there is in consequence always a vast field of scientific investigation above those practical applications which are the result of what modern man usually depicts as science. EW
____This was shown for example by Imam Al-Ghazali
, who in his Ihya 900 years ago, described the "only intellectually rigorous escape from the trap of postmodernity."
____He and his his school taught that "no universal statements about the world or the human condition can be reached by purely ratiocinative or inductive methods, because these cannot transcend the material context of the world in which they are framed." A H Murad
____This was shown for example by Imam Al-Ghazali
, who in his Ihya 900 years ago, described the "only intellectually rigorous escape from the trap of postmodernity."____He and his his school taught that "no universal statements about the world or the human condition can be reached by purely ratiocinative or inductive methods, because these cannot transcend the material context of the world in which they are framed." A H Murad
2.4 The Lack of Principles
Secondly has the lack of principles led human, i.e. Western civilization into the unsteadiness - to say the least - of ever new trends and ideas in all realms of life, not only in natural science, but also in politics, economy, sociology and of course in the emergence of new or not so new religious trends such as the many forms of "New Age".
____Instead of calming man's egotism (nafs) if not curbing it and leading him towards conditions which would allow for a more contemplative and pious way of life, this modern superficiality and confusion has instead led society to "creating ever greater artificial needs," which cannot be even satisfied in 100 lives at least. CMW p. 92
____Instead of calming man's egotism (nafs) if not curbing it and leading him towards conditions which would allow for a more contemplative and pious way of life, this modern superficiality and confusion has instead led society to "creating ever greater artificial needs," which cannot be even satisfied in 100 lives at least. CMW p. 92
2.4.1 The Reduction of Human Nature
When the modern perception of reality had thus been reduced to the material and profane level, it also reduced human nature to its physical and psychological aspects, only.
____However the soul is not only a psychic entity, but first of all a spiritual one, which is its principal aspect. This is according to the teaching of all world traditions or metaphysical doctrines:
____However the soul is not only a psychic entity, but first of all a spiritual one, which is its principal aspect. This is according to the teaching of all world traditions or metaphysical doctrines:
Thus man has (not two but) *three* levels of being:
the physical, the psychic or psychological and the spiritual.
____The organ for the spiritual is mentioned in the words of German theologian Meister Eckehart (d.1327):
the physical, the psychic or psychological and the spiritual.
____The organ for the spiritual is mentioned in the words of German theologian Meister Eckehart (d.1327):
"There is something in the soul, which is not created and not possible to create (increatum et increabile); if the whole soul were such, it would be not created and not possible to create; and this is the Intellect (intellectus)."
This modernist 'development' therefore stripped man off his divine, sacred potential. It led to a concept of human nature which is "too unstable, changing and turbulent to be able to serve as the principle for something" or anything at all, because it is grounded on the emotional and often irrational levels of being.
____This tendency to reduce human nature can even be observed in some overtly exoteric religious circles - influenced by modernism itself, where there may be lipservice to the Divine, but in practice great focus on moral, behavioural or political issues, neglecting the essential demands of the Divine Law, in respect to inner transformation and spiritual striving.
____This tendency to reduce human nature can even be observed in some overtly exoteric religious circles - influenced by modernism itself, where there may be lipservice to the Divine, but in practice great focus on moral, behavioural or political issues, neglecting the essential demands of the Divine Law, in respect to inner transformation and spiritual striving.
2.4.2 Principles Are Necessary to Transcend the Human Level
However, doctrines and principles are necessary to gain meaning from empirical sense-data and to gain meaning is proof of perfection and permanency, and giving up on the quest for meaning leads to ignorance and despair. As one of the ancient savants, Aristotle, declared:
"The things which are most knowable are first principles and causes; for it is through these and from these that other things come to be known, and not these through the particulars which fall under them." AM I.ii.6
Man has therefore to prepare himself to a way of life concerning thought and practice, which will enable him to transcend the materialistic, and only psychological levels of understanding.
see also: < Is Belief In God Enough? >
2.4.3 The Validity of the Modern Sciences
Transcending the materialistic and psychologic levels of understanding is neither intended nor envisaged by modern science. Obviously can neither empiricism, nor validification through induction, nor "reliance upon the data of the senses as confirmed by reason, serve as principles in the metaphysical sense." TIM These scientific methods are valid on their own restricted levels leading to results and applications of the sciences which created them, but they are neither able to answer our existential questions nor improve our normal human condition. (normal: how man was meant to be, ... 
)
____What is worse, modern science has with all its inventions brought about a serious disequilibrium in this world - despite their partial benefits - , precisely because of it being divorced from - and its inability of taking account of - the higher principles, even if this may not always have been the intention of the individual scientist.
)____What is worse, modern science has with all its inventions brought about a serious disequilibrium in this world - despite their partial benefits - , precisely because of it being divorced from - and its inability of taking account of - the higher principles, even if this may not always have been the intention of the individual scientist.
see also: < Review (of) The Quantum Enigma, by S H Nasr >
2.5 The Theory of Evolution
2.5.1 As Weapons Against Religious Thought
The theory of evolution, being a very pervasive modern theory, has been one of the strongest weapons against religious thought in the West at first against believing Christianity, later against traditional thought and religious belief in general. [traditional:
]
____"Our belief in evolution and our worship of progress ... are modernist dogmas which have [in the Western and in the modern world] specifically replaced (among others) Christian charity and hope in Divine Providence."SAC-403 ____Once Darwin "with his half-baked theory of evolution" (Imran Khan) had refuted the doctrin of creation; belief in God itself, the Almighty, was shattered and the truth of the Bible ridiculed. (And later the truth of every Divine Revelation, see 2.5.3)
]
____"Our belief in evolution and our worship of progress ... are modernist dogmas which have [in the Western and in the modern world] specifically replaced (among others) Christian charity and hope in Divine Providence."SAC-403 ____Once Darwin "with his half-baked theory of evolution" (Imran Khan) had refuted the doctrin of creation; belief in God itself, the Almighty, was shattered and the truth of the Bible ridiculed. (And later the truth of every Divine Revelation, see 2.5.3)
2.5.2 As If A Proven Scientific Fact
After generations of indoctrination, not the least by passing years through the educational system, very many if not most people have become convinced and have accepted 'evolution' as an irrefutable truth, not only in the West in the 18th century but especially today and "it is paraded around as if it were a proven scientific fact", instead of bothering to seek for proofs for this quasi-theory, because there are no proofs and the theory is unscientific. TIM p.105
____Many contemporary scientists have acknowledged the defects of this theory, but their criticism is not much publicised, and if it is publicised, it has rarely come to the attention of the general public. What remains today as 'contemporary popularized science' is not always what has been refuted by many sincere scientists years ago.
(See also Evolution Deceit, by H Yahya)
____Many contemporary scientists have acknowledged the defects of this theory, but their criticism is not much publicised, and if it is publicised, it has rarely come to the attention of the general public. What remains today as 'contemporary popularized science' is not always what has been refuted by many sincere scientists years ago.
(See also Evolution Deceit, by H Yahya)
2.5.3 The Pervasiveness of The Theory of Evolution
The theory of evolution has become pervasive, because its view of relating different stages in the development of bioligical life and referring to evolution as a blueprint for human development, was not restricted to biology alone, but was soon transferred to completely different areas of human thought, such as sociology, history, politics and even the arts.
____ So for example in psychology we now have something called 'Evolutionary Psychology', or 'Sociobiology' stating "that psychology should be put on a biological and cultural basis."
____But psychology is knowledge of the soul, in which evolutionists of course only see to its coarser or lower levels. Studying the apes individually or in flock will of course not increase our knowledge of the essential core of man, much less of any higher states of being by which the human species has been honoured over the rest of creation.
____Or evolutionary theory in everyday speech, as someone saying that this or that situation will evolve - meaning in a positive direction - as if by natural growth and as if by itself!
____Or socially, if there is a level of personal suffering coming to the open, it may "signal to your social-Darwinian competitors, that you are probably not fitted to survive because insufficiently 'evolved'," thus getting rid of compassion. SAC-283 cu
____Thus it has become a pseudo-religion, explaining this and that and almost everyhting, even the otherwise unexplainable! ( For its logical absurdity and a survey of all the scientific facts see L. Bournoure and D. Dewar, quoted in TIM or Evolution Deceit )
____ So for example in psychology we now have something called 'Evolutionary Psychology', or 'Sociobiology' stating "that psychology should be put on a biological and cultural basis."
____But psychology is knowledge of the soul, in which evolutionists of course only see to its coarser or lower levels. Studying the apes individually or in flock will of course not increase our knowledge of the essential core of man, much less of any higher states of being by which the human species has been honoured over the rest of creation.
____Or evolutionary theory in everyday speech, as someone saying that this or that situation will evolve - meaning in a positive direction - as if by natural growth and as if by itself!
____Or socially, if there is a level of personal suffering coming to the open, it may "signal to your social-Darwinian competitors, that you are probably not fitted to survive because insufficiently 'evolved'," thus getting rid of compassion. SAC-283 cu
____Thus it has become a pseudo-religion, explaining this and that and almost everyhting, even the otherwise unexplainable! ( For its logical absurdity and a survey of all the scientific facts see L. Bournoure and D. Dewar, quoted in TIM or Evolution Deceit )
2.5.4 Its most important features
Its most important features and 'shortcomings' are that it "refuses to see permanence anywhere, (and that for it) the greater somehow 'evolves' from the lesser and (that it is) totally blind to the higher states of being. This in itself is but a result of that loss of principles alluded above." TIM p.106
____Thus is the state of the modern world in which we are living, that in the words of S H Nasr:
____Thus is the state of the modern world in which we are living, that in the words of S H Nasr:
"Evolutionism is but a desperate attempt to fill the vaccum created by modern man's 'cutting off' of the 'Hands of God' from His creation and negating any principle above the merely human, which then falls of necessity to the level of the subhuman.
Once the [Transcendant] Principle is forgotten, the world becomes a circle without centre and this experience of the loss of the centre remains an existential reality for anyone who accepts the theses of modernism, whether he be [a Jew], a Christian or a Muslim." TIM p.106
Once the [Transcendant] Principle is forgotten, the world becomes a circle without centre and this experience of the loss of the centre remains an existential reality for anyone who accepts the theses of modernism, whether he be [a Jew], a Christian or a Muslim." TIM p.106
2.5.5 Man did not 'evolve'
As long as man has lived on this earth he has had a traditional outlook or perspective on life, which is proven by the many old cultural remnants, not the least his holy scriptures. It was then that he relied on the Higher Being, God, Allah and lived under His protection and guidance. Man has never only been an individual with a brain without heart, nor just a heap of molecules in a DNA-structure, meaning that the mind is luckily more than nerve-threads and electrical signals. Instead man has a potential for knowing God and his soul and for choosing what is better in any given situation, or creative of the most beautiful, - as God's viceregent.
The traditional outlook on life is opposed to the modern or postmodern way of seeing reality, in fact the two are irreconcilable. Man has always been man, he did not have to evolve from some lower being, from an ape or a fish ... The idea of bringing out the higher from the lesser is a modern myth, it is both illogical and unscientific!
____Imagine a piece of computer evolving - by accident - from its integrated IC-circuits, from its bits and zeros into the practical machine which it is - without the mind to design it and programme it! How much less is this conceivable in the - much more complex - biological domain of life itself !
____Imagine a piece of computer evolving - by accident - from its integrated IC-circuits, from its bits and zeros into the practical machine which it is - without the mind to design it and programme it! How much less is this conceivable in the - much more complex - biological domain of life itself !
Or the words of Charles Upton:
"The projection of this false myth of progress on biology results in the ideology known as 'evolutionism', the doctrin that the less is the causal origin of the greater, that the higher and more complex life forms, including man, have developed incrementally from simpler forms. The Traditionalists, on the other hand, teach that the advent of new life forms, which the fossil record shows to be more discontinuous than continuous - thus calling Darwin's 'natural selection of random mutations' into serious question - actually represents the descent of matter-organizing spiritual archetypes from the higher planes of Being, in response to God's creative word. These 'Platonic Ideas' of species then draw themselves the matter they need in order to construct physical vehicles for their life in space and time."SAC-105
"The projection of this false myth of progress on biology results in the ideology known as 'evolutionism', the doctrin that the less is the causal origin of the greater, that the higher and more complex life forms, including man, have developed incrementally from simpler forms. The Traditionalists, on the other hand, teach that the advent of new life forms, which the fossil record shows to be more discontinuous than continuous - thus calling Darwin's 'natural selection of random mutations' into serious question - actually represents the descent of matter-organizing spiritual archetypes from the higher planes of Being, in response to God's creative word. These 'Platonic Ideas' of species then draw themselves the matter they need in order to construct physical vehicles for their life in space and time."SAC-105
Nowadays in the age of unhindered individualism and postmodern deconstruction of 'tall stories' and all-encompassing ideas and 'worldviews' and due to the recent disappointments in socio-political engineering ( faschism, communism ) the ideas of progress and utopia have lost much of their attraction. But while these ideas had to 'retreat' somewhat from the level of political discourse, they still form the imagination of average, individual man and woman. They are still forming their mentality including their ideas of personal accomplishment, seeing that everyone seems to be his own forlorn master in the ungodly endeavour of an earthly paradise.
____It can be shown that the idea of continous human progress (nowadays individual progress) towards some kind of earthly (individualistic) utopia is related to and sustained by the allround-theory of evolution. As in the latter, so for example in technological or today in biogenetic development, it is generally maintained and taken for granted, that man's situation will but improve, that 'things will turn out alright' and 'everything will be fine'.
____But what if this solely technological progress is combined with social and moral regression and creeping corruption, as obviously the case?
____What if the broken promises by political leaders and technocrats lead to a growing climate of disappointment and dispair, when average man has nowhere to turn (not even to consumerism)?
____What if utopianism is just another vain dream amidst the bleak prospects for man's godless future?
____It can be shown that the idea of continous human progress (nowadays individual progress) towards some kind of earthly (individualistic) utopia is related to and sustained by the allround-theory of evolution. As in the latter, so for example in technological or today in biogenetic development, it is generally maintained and taken for granted, that man's situation will but improve, that 'things will turn out alright' and 'everything will be fine'.
____But what if this solely technological progress is combined with social and moral regression and creeping corruption, as obviously the case?
____What if the broken promises by political leaders and technocrats lead to a growing climate of disappointment and dispair, when average man has nowhere to turn (not even to consumerism)?
____What if utopianism is just another vain dream amidst the bleak prospects for man's godless future?
Also have the anti-traditional ideas of an utopia and progress penetrated quite a few fundamentalist minds of all world-religions. This shift of emphasis toward the materialistic ("das Grobstoffliche") is one of the symptoms of the decadence of time as foretold by the Prophet of Islam 
.
____So it is not surprising, that the greater the loss of true spirituality in a community, the stronger will be the imagination of some kind of earthly paradise.
.____So it is not surprising, that the greater the loss of true spirituality in a community, the stronger will be the imagination of some kind of earthly paradise.
When analyzing recent history in the West it is not very difficult to realize the dire consequences which this modernist idea of human progress has had during the so-called century of democracy and progress of the 20th century:
it has wrought wars and chaos upon the modern world on a scale which is too hard to conceive, and it will regrettably continue doing so. The price which the peoples of the world had to pay and are still paying today - for turning their back to Tradition - has been extremely high, as it has "led and still leads to deep social and political upheavals whose goals and methods (are) completely alien to the ethos and aims of traditional Islam." TIM p.107 Or - because people are led to a godless life and future.
it has wrought wars and chaos upon the modern world on a scale which is too hard to conceive, and it will regrettably continue doing so. The price which the peoples of the world had to pay and are still paying today - for turning their back to Tradition - has been extremely high, as it has "led and still leads to deep social and political upheavals whose goals and methods (are) completely alien to the ethos and aims of traditional Islam." TIM p.107 Or - because people are led to a godless life and future.
Finally one more charactersitic of modern thought is the loss of the sense of the sacred, which - among all of the symptoms of modern and postmodern thought - is of course its most devastating consequence. The reduction of intellect to reason ( and in postmodernism, the abolishment of any universal acceptable concept of reason) has made sacred knowledge "inaccessible and to some even meaningless". KS p.4
____This state of affairs has to be taken into account in any analysis of modern mentality, because without this sense of the sacred, tradition will never be rightly understood.
____This state of affairs has to be taken into account in any analysis of modern mentality, because without this sense of the sacred, tradition will never be rightly understood.
On top of this has Islam itself been affected - in the minds of some of our contemporaries - by 'the wheel of time', in this case by the modernist concept of "rationality". This has as a consequence tended in some quarters to reduce this wonderful religion (dîn) to only one of its dimensions, namely to - what they understand as, which is a reduced and crippled caricature of it - the Sharî'ah and to "divest it of those intellectual weapons which alone can ward off the assaults of modern thought upon its citadel." TIM p.109
____But as Islam is a living tradition lasting to the end of time, it will also avert those modernist attacks. (See this site: *living islam - Islamic tradition*) This we know from the authority of our religion.
____However, there is no doubt that the intellectual challenges posed by modernism in the form of evolutionism, rationalism, existentialism, agnosticism, individualism, nihilism and the like and by postmodernism with its deconstructionism, can only be answered intellectually, they can neither be confronted juridically nor militarily.
____But as Islam is a living tradition lasting to the end of time, it will also avert those modernist attacks. (See this site: *living islam - Islamic tradition*) This we know from the authority of our religion.
____However, there is no doubt that the intellectual challenges posed by modernism in the form of evolutionism, rationalism, existentialism, agnosticism, individualism, nihilism and the like and by postmodernism with its deconstructionism, can only be answered intellectually, they can neither be confronted juridically nor militarily.