Loss of Tawhidi Worldview in Islamic World

Abstract

Modernization and the concomitant changes in people behavior are now blamed for the deterioration of the environment. This article points up desacralization of knowledge and the demise of esoteric tradition that followed to have an ecological impact in the Islamic world as the Muslims began to hold the bifurcated notion of “this-worldly” and “heavenly” in a completely distinct manner. Through modern education, Muslims adopted the notion of “independent existence” according to which nature exists in and of itself. Hence, the modernist vision of development and progress that threw the life-support system of the earth out of balance was possible in the Islamic world where religion and its cultural traditions remained strong. The twentieth century’s awareness about the need of an integrative framework to reconcile rational thought and science with a spiritual sense of awe for the cosmos, should remind the Muslims of the unitive worldview that arise from the core of Islamic belief—tawhid—expounded by esoteric Islam. Further, this article argues that science needs to repossess a metaphysical foundation, and that ethics and values need to be reintegrated into our rationality. Three case studies reveal mental crises caused by an overweening trust in science. I use data from my own extreme life experience, and biographical data suggestive of existential depression of two arguably highly gifted individuals. Drawing upon the data, the article juxtaposes the “unitive worldview” associated with mystical experience and the “evolutionary worldview” given rise by Darwin’s evolutionary biology, to put forward an examination of the effects that worldviews might have on human minds. The analysis adopts organic inquiry within transpersonal psychology research method, and content analysis of biographical data. Designed to investigate the “non-objective” spiritual reality, organic inquiry offers a rigorous method for those attempting to incorporate spiritual experience and mysticism into academic work. As a whole, the case studies present an example of the biologization of ethics; discusses social Darwinism and giftedness phenomena; and explicate the unitive worldview granted by mystical experiences.

How about a Green Caliphate?

“…Against this ethical dilemma, a reconciling and reuniting worldview is needed. Toward this end, I humbly propose the Tawhidi (unitive) worldview explicated in my recent work on Islamic mysticism (Alkatiri 2021a). 6 It is a set of assumptions about the world that have powerful effects on people's cognition and behavior.…”

“…Schumacher found that 'materiality' has been the spirit of development, as explicitly stated in a British Government White Paper on Overseas Development: "To do what lies within our power to help the developing countries to provide their people with the material opportunities for using their talents, or living a full and happy life and steadily improving their lot" (Schumacher 1973: 173). I have argued elsewhere that a belief in 'infinite material progress' has discommodious relations with Darwin's theory of evolution and the secularization of Christianity's doctrine of incarnation (Alkatiri 2021a). When the Global South achieved its independence from European rulers, that belief in progress congealed into what is called 'development ideology'.…”

“…Perceptively, Schumacher ascribed this fallacy to the self-delusion of unlimited intelligence. It could be that their astonishing scientific and technological achievement is what made people believe that natural resources too have no limits, but that belief, disastrously, constitutes the modern economic rationality (Alkatiri 2021a).…”

“…The conversations within "Muhammad's nation" were extracted from my ethnographic accounts. The Environmentalist position (B) represents myself and my works(Alkatiri 2015(Alkatiri , 2017(Alkatiri , 2021a(Alkatiri , 2021b.12 Heidegger distinguished between 'calculative thinking' (goal-driven thinking)and 'meditative thinking' (deeply contemplative of "the meaning which reigns in everything that is")(1995/2003: 89). A product-oriented calculative thinking is the defining feature of modern rationality.13 The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres admitted: "The collective political will was not sufficient to overcome some deep contradictions" (UN 2021: line 8).14 On plastic waste and marine pollution in Indonesia, an archipelagic country and the world's second largest fish producer after China, see my work, "The Dilemma of Anti-Fish Campaign"(Alkatiri 2022).15 In today's world, kindness is no longer enough.…”