At the mercy of ‘ignorant’
muhammad matwalli sha’arawi, the biggest contributor – in my opinion – to the absence of the minds in this nation, and perhaps the most harmful of all his sayings, is when he said holding the quran in his hand, that he stopped reading any book thirty years ago and was only satisfied with reading the holy book.
i do not know how it is permissible to say that in light of all this rapid scientific progress that requires all scientists, doctors, pharmacists, engineers, and those with dozens of important and sensitive professions, financial and insurance experts to continue reading books and reports constantly, attending conferences and seminars, and reviewing periodicals, just to be informed of what is going on in the world. we can imagine the amount of harm that a patient can suffer from at the hands of an ignorant doctor, or one who hires a more ignorant lawyer.
although nearly a quarter of a century has passed since he said that, its direct and indirect impact is still prevalent among us as a result of the confusion between the sacred religious text and the complex requirements of modern life led by science which is emerging and developing every second and not every century as some belief.
the renowned egyptian thinker, youssef ziedan, author of the bestselling novels, including azazel, says that we must rebuild concepts and give culture its due. in order to get out, as arabs (and muslims), from the predicaments we are in, we must work out our minds, and this does not mean using them to build new cities, railways, and advanced armies, despite the importance of that, but rather to spread science and culture in society, and we are not an exceptional case in the history of peoples to think that we do not need science and culture.
all developed countries today were backward, and their exit from the abyss of ignorance was thanks to science and culture, and not by any other factor.
the book is not a luxury, nor is it a tool for entertainment and passing time, but rather a certificate for survival. all the peoples that have perished or living on the borders of life, such as the aborigines of australia or the red indians of the americas now numbered in the hundreds of thousands after they were in the tens of millions; this happened because, in most cases, did not leave a trace of writing or care about writing, unlike others such as the jews whose survival, intelligence, progress and steadfastness over thousands of years, despite their small numbers, are due to their insistence, religiously and culturally, on reading and their remarkable interest in culture and writing down history. this preserved them as an element and as a people for centuries.
people who write do not die, people who do not read do not understand, and people who do not understand are weak and it is easy to defeat them in every field. this is the very ignorance, i.e. the lack of belief in reading, as is the case with the majority of our people, thanks to the ideas and sayings of the so-called scholars, our scholars.
i, my family, and my loved ones extend my sincere congratulations to all the christians of the eastern orthodox churches, wishing them a merry christmas and a better year.
