Islam, Muslims, and modern technology

In this interview, Professor Seyy Hossein Nasr highlights the impact of late technologies on human habitats and ecosystem The destruction of environment by means of modern technology is seen as single of the most serious threats faced by the agency of humanity. Modern technologies have also replaced traditional way s of making objects of daily use. This replacement has serious events for the spiritual health of humanity. In discussing the impact of novel technology on the Muslim world, suggestions are made to guard various aspects of Islamic civilization.

Keywords: fresh technology and its impact; Muslim world and new technology; aspects of Islamic civilization; character of machine-made objects in the destruction of natural balances; traditional crafts and their spiritual significance; Islamic urban design; recent technology and Islamic civilization.

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In this article, fresh technology refers to technologies which have been unraveled during and after the Industrial Revolution for the greatest part in the West and which have now spread all above the world. There are sum of two units very different dimensions to this discussion: individual pertains to the actual situation that exists in the world, that is, what is going upon now; the other pertains to the question of what we believe should go on on as far as the Muslim world is pertain toed Let me give an example. There is no conduct in the Muslim world today which does not support any form of technology that brings with it either power or wealth. No single resists any form of technology that is believed to bring certain conveniences, like the confined apartment phone which has spread like wildfire all above the world, and which has many detrimental consequences upon the brain, as many studies are showing, allowing most people usually do not care too plenteous about such negative factors--at least for now.

for a like reason at that level, discussing the relationship between Muslims and new technology is not efficacious in the faculty of perception that whatever form of technology draw nears on the market--and it is usually from the West, and occasionally from the Japanese and a not many other peoples who invent fresh things--if these new technologies are perceived to bring wealth, power, or conveniences, they spread actual rapidly among Muslims as elsewhere and it is no use talking to them about the danger of their spread with the trust of having any positive influence.

on the other hand there are other questions which can be discussed, for instance, the destruction of the environment which novel technology is causing. Then there is the dimension of this issue concerning what should take place. What should be the Muslims' attitude toward new technology whose negative effects are obvious? It is about this dimension that I wish to say something and this is where the deepest issues lie. Otherwise, if we move on debating whether this particular political division or that particular country, has or is going to have or should have knowledge of nuclear engineering or certain stamps of lasers or this or that, this I think is a wasteful effort at the at hand moment, because we, who are suppos to be the intellectual figures of the Islamic world, who are suppos to clarify these issues, cannot do a great deal of at the level of action by means of Muslim governments and companies in relation to technology. There is, however, something true important that we can do and that is to create an understanding for the time to come as far as these issues are belong toed We are responsible for creating an awareness of what is really involved for Muslims when it draw nears to the adoption of recent technology. And in this domain, in fact, a number of race in the West have a a great deal of greater awareness of the dangers of technology than do family in Asia or Africa, who are upon the receiving end of recent technology, and this itself is single of the major issues that should be discussed.

In light of this, I think we should revolve to the issue of what the vexed questions are which modern technology postures for Muslims, not only as ordinary human beings, on the other hand more specifically as people who belong to the Islamic religion and are baseed in the Islamic worldview; then to put to the test and analyze these problems, and in light of that, to discuss what can be done, if anything, and what Muslims should do.

First of all, it is important to define boundarys The word technology comes, of course, from the grecian word techne which means "to make" and is related to the word for art, which approachs from the Latin word ars, also meaning to make, and the two are related to the word san'at in Persian, or the word sina'ah in Arabic which we still use in these languages for the pair technology and art. Quite interestingly, the division has not however come about for us, as it has in the West, where art is individual thing and technology another, despite the fact that there are more [i]or[/i] less modern sculptors who go to junkyards and lay various parts of cars together and call it art. That is a minor matter.

What we have in the novel world is a situation in which technology in the late sense is the source of greatest in quantity of the objects that encircle human life, whereas, before the Industrial Revolution, when things were made by dint of hand, the products of arts and crafts environed man's life. This is real important to understand. There is a qualitative difference, although the base of the word "technology" goe back to a of greece word with a very different meaning.