65

Book Reviews

Muslim Intellectual Deficit: 
The Scriptural Foundation of Islamic Cosmology

Tauseef Ahmad Parray
Jammu & Kashmir: Idara Matbu’at-e-Talaba, 2018. 109 pages. 

It is no exaggeration to say that some of the greatest intellectual movements 
in the annals of human civilization were launched under the aegis of Is-
lam. Islamic contributions to the promotion of knowledge and learning 
are noteworthy. Franz Rosenthal, for one, perceptively observed that Is-
lam’s lasting and invaluable gift to humankind is that it made the hidden 
treasures of knowledge available to all sectors of society. The intellectual 
revolution ushered in under the direction of Islamic civilization blossomed 
and came to fruition through the central importance attached to the arts 
of language. (The earliest verses of the Qur’an revealed to the Prophet, for 
example, highlighted their crucial significance.) The importance attached 
to learning and the transmission and dissemination of knowledge was in-
stitutionalized through a wide network of schools, colleges, universities, 
libraries, observatories, and medical residencies in the Islamic world. The 
selfless devotion of individual scholars, the munificence of private donors, 
waqf endowments, and royal patronage played a central role in the incep-
tion and maintenance of these institutions.

For Muslim intellectuals, the question of intellectual decay has long 
been worrying, yielding repeated efforts to analyze and diagnose the his-
torical and spiritual factors responsible for the stagnation and decline of 
the Muslim world. Parray’s introduction highlights Qur’anic terms key to 
his effort, including furqān (distinction), dhikr (remembrance), and hudā 
(guidance), which also signal how he reads the scripture. He quotes Mus-
tansir Mir, renowned Pakistani expert on Qur’anic studies, who says of the 
various aspects under which the Qur’an presents itself, that these names 
“not only represent so many facets of the Islamic scripture, but they also 
make up, when seen as inter-related and inter-connected, a coherent and 



66 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 36:1

meaningful statement in their own right, shedding light on the ethos, ori-
entation, and function of the scripture” (18).

Parray devotes Chapter 1 to the “Islamic concept of knowledge” (‘ilm), 
and explains that the Qur’an gives due importance to knowledge for ac-
complishment, attainment, and success in life (as evident too across Mus-
lim history). Numerous Qur’anic verses encourage Muslims to be equipped 
with knowledge and understanding, giving a religious mandate to learn. 
Unfortunately the author does not quote prophetic traditions or other Is-
lamic sources in this chapter. Nor is it fully clear what substantively com-
prises “knowledge”.

Chapter 2 addresses “Muslim Intellectual Contribution in ‘the Gold-
en Age’”, which the author understands as the Abbasid period. A time of 
economic prosperity and intellectual awakening, Parray believes Muslim 
culture and civilization was then at its zenith. Notably, this was when Mus-
lims gained access to the Greek medical tradition of Hippocrates and Galen 
through translations of their works in the seventh and eighth centuries. 
These initiatives by Muslims had effects beyond textual transmission, as 
seen in the different aspects of the healing arts that were developed. The 
later translation movement of the twelfth century in Latin Europe relied on 
this work, and affected every known field of science.

In Chapter 3, Parray discusses “what went wrong and where,” locating 
the roots of decline in the fall of Baghdad and of Muslim rule in Spain (33). 
He write that the Nizamiya Madrassa of Nizam ul Mulk was responsible for 
the division of labor and of the sciences, fostering development among the 
‘religious sciences’ alone at the expense of scientific knowledge. He invokes 
Isma‘il Raji al-Faruqi, who held that the “present dualism in Muslim educa-
tion, its bifurcation into an Islamic and a secular system, must be removed 
and abolished once and for all.” These “two systems”, namely the Islamic 
and the Western, must be united and integrated, and the emergent system 
must be infused with the spirit of Islam and must function as an integral 
part of its ideological program. Again following al-Faruqi, Parray considers 
the closing of the ‘gates of ijtihād’ and subsequent dependence on taqlīd to 
have yielded “the separation of thought from action”.

The author insists that since the end of formal colonialism, most Mus-
lim countries have adopted the ‘Western style’ but have failed to follow 
their “objectivity and methodology” (47) (chapter 4). He quotes Ziauddin 
Sardar, who suggests that “to be true to their belief, Muslim societies need 
to put as much effort into science as they do on prayer; and place science 
where it belongs: at the very center of Islamic culture” (51). The primary 



 67Book Reviews

causes of intellectual decay in the Muslim world being the fall of Muslim 
rule, schismatic sectarianism, division of knowledge, replacement of ijti-
hād by taqlīd, reason vs. revelation debates, and colonialism, it is clear that 
political and intellectual collapse are interlinked. More concretely, today, 
Muslims lack suitable academic and research platforms, with meager wages 
being paid to academicians, resulting in so-called ‘brain drain’ (53). 

In Chapter 5, Parray highlights the activities of modern research in-
stitutes, including The Islamic Foundation (Leicester, est. 1972); Interna-
tional Islamic Fiqh Academy (Jeddah, est. 1981); Oxford Center for Islamic 
Studies (Oxford, est. 1985); Center for Islamic Sciences (Istanbul); Iqbal 
International Institute for Research and Dialogue (Islamabad). The main 
purpose for mentioning these institutions is to explore the possibility of 
emulating their activities elsewhere and so contributing to a full-fledged 
revival of Islamic knowledge.

The concluding sixth chapter presents possible solutions, even coming 
up with a six-point remedy: 1) addressing the lack of proper platforms; 2) 
initiatives to be taken at the community level to establish academic research 
institutes/centers; 3) proper training for younger researchers; 4) creating a 
suitable environment for academic engagements; 5) adopting courses for 
enhancing writing skills in higher and lower educational institutions; and 
6) overcoming the lack of fellow-feeling, namely that the umma is one’s 
community to whose welfare one should contribute (98). Taken together, 
he presents a comprehensive diagnosis that looks to the past, rethinks what 
went wrong and where, and suggests concrete steps by which to resolve this 
intellectual deficit.

Muslim Intellectual Deficit is by and large well documented, footnotes 
and references are satisfactory, and the bibliography attached at the end of 
the book is rich and extensive. Barring some typographical errors, the style 
of presentation is well-thought. The book will generate soul-searching and 
introspection.

Ashaq Hussain 
Post-Doctoral Fellow 

CCAS, University of Kashmir