<b>Into space in a time warp â Razi Azmi</b>
When the Soviet Union launched the worldâs first satellite into space in 1957, the United States scrambled to catch up and created the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA). Four years later, Yuri Gagarin of Russia became the first man to go into space.
American Alan Shepard followed him after 23 days, on May 5, 1961. The huge American investment in space research paid off and, eight years later, the US became the first country to land man on the moon.
The stiff competition between the two superpowers had crossed the frontiers of this earth as we knew it and entered space, the forbidden zone traditionally known as high heaven. The world viewed it as the contest between two systems vying for global superiority, the capitalist and communist systems.
For their part, many Muslim countries of the world continued to be client states of either the United States or the Soviet Union, seeking the economic and military support of one or the other superpower, sometimes switching sides from political, military or economic expediency, or threatening to do so to increase their bargaining power.
<b>As to scientific and technological achievements, large numbers of Muslims even refused to believe that Neil Armstrong had, indeed, stepped on the moon and rejected the American claim as false. A man walking on the moon contradicted their traditional religious beliefs and was, therefore, regarded as impossible.</b>
But as more and more American and Russian space probes landed on the moon sending photos and bringing back specimen rocks and the force of evidence appeared overwhelming, most traditionalist Muslims silently, if reluctantly, reconciled themselves to the reality of manâs physical intrusion of the forbidding sky, hitherto regarded as the realm of the spirits, satans and angels. A few even began to stretch some obscure references in the sacred texts to contend that space travel was not just possible but had been foretold.
<b>Then, the Ummah rejoiced in the happy ânewsâ that Armstrong had converted to Islam, apparently as a result of hearing the azaan (the Muslim call to prayer) on the moon. Of course, there was no such incident and no conversion, but so strong was the rumour that Armstrong was constrained officially to deny it.</b>
Now, a Muslim is ready to enter space, but as a passenger on a Russian spaceship. The agreement to send a Malaysian aboard a Russian spacecraft was part of a billion-dollar deal in which Russia will sell Malaysia 18 Sukhoi 30-MKM fighter jets. For the time being, that is the pinnacle of achievement by any Muslim country in the arena of space science.
While the Russians provide the technological wherewithal and deal with the complex scientific aspects of the space voyage, Muslim Malaysia is pondering the weighty spiritual issues, such as its astronautâs ability to perform his religious duties in space. The countryâs National Space Agency (Angkasa) is holding a two-day conference that is expected to âanswer questions relating to Muslim life in space, like how can Muslim astronauts pray or fastâ.
The âIslam and Life in Spaceâ conference is to be attended by more than 150 scientists, astronauts, religious scholars and academics. An official from the Malaysian Astronomy and Islamic Law Association said that the conference would be âthe first time the Islamic world mulled life in spaceâ.
Performing ablutions for Muslim prayers with water rationing in space and preparing food according to Islamic standards will be among the issues discussed, Angkasa Director General Mazlan Othman was quoted as saying by Malaysiaâs state-run Bernama news agency. âWe have to make preparations to discuss [these issues] with Russia when the time comes,â she added.
<b>The astronaut will also visit the International Space Station, which circles the earth 16 times in 24 hours, raising many delicate questions. For instance, ascertaining the direction of Mecca for prayers in space will require pinpointing a moving target while in zero gravity. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Prayer times for Muslims are linked to the times of the sunrise and sunset, but in orbit the sun appears to rise and set more than 12 times a day.</span></b>
One hopes the 150 assembled scientists and religious scholars will find appropriate answers to these questions that are agitating the Malaysian government. After all, which Muslim government worth the name will want one of its Muslim citizens to be cast in hell in the hereafter for the sake of space research in this world, especially when he is doing so in response to his countryâs call!
For more than 100 years since 1901, the Nobel Prizes for physics, chemistry and physiology/medicine have been awarded to the worldâs most distinguished scientists every year. Sad to say, however, that the only Muslim to be honoured with a Nobel Prize in any of these fields is US-based Ahmed Hassan Zewail of Egypt (Chemistry, 1999).
The closest the Ummah ever came to getting a Nobel Prize in physics was when UK-based Professor Abdus Salam of Pakistan was awarded the prize in 1979. But he belonged to the Ahmadi sect and the national parliament of his country had, five years earlier, voted to expel the sect from the fold of Islam. In fact, under Pakistani law, the learned professor could have gone to prison if he had offended the religious sensitivities of his Muslim compatriots by referring to himself as a Muslim, rather than an Ahmadi!
It is interesting to note that mullahs and their followers heartily adopt and enjoy the products of science while disparaging and discouraging the pursuit of science. This includes a whole range of products, from computers, airplanes, motor vehicles and organ transplants down to printing, tape-recorders and loudspeakers.
Science has long made it possible to predict with absolute accuracy the time of the appearance of the moon in any particular region many years in advance. Yet, Muslims insist on the actual âsightingâ of the moon with the ânaked eyeâ as per tradition to begin and end the fasting month of Ramazan.
In an interesting and opportunistic twist to tradition, however, our leading clerics in the shape of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee (literally, the Committee for the Sighting of the Moon) fly in an airplane provided by the government to sight the moon with their own two eyes to announce the beginning and end of the holy month!
Computers are now used to store, retrieve and disseminate religious texts and messages and to broadcast the azaan in homes. Tape recorders and loudspeakers are used at mosques and printing is extensively used for publishing religious tracts. Yet, the aversion for science, technology and reason persists in the name of religious tradition.
<b>Muslim countries are destined to remain on the fringes of science, while the rest of the world forges ahead, so long as they do not reject the traditionalist and literal interpretations of their religion by mullahs and ayatollahs and adopt common sense, reason and science. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Renting a berth on another countryâs spacecraft or making a nuclear bomb or a missile with borrowed or imported technology do not rate as achievements but rather lay bare the deficiencies of the Muslim world.</span>
There can be no competition between a Muslim culture which is frozen in time and the West which has moved light-years ahead thanks to its uninhibited pursuit of scientific knowledge. The clash of civilisations often cited in editorial comments since the appearance of Samuel Huntingtonâs famous book by that name is just that â a clash, not a competition.</b>
The writer can be contacted at raziazmi@hotmail.com
Cheers
When the Soviet Union launched the worldâs first satellite into space in 1957, the United States scrambled to catch up and created the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA). Four years later, Yuri Gagarin of Russia became the first man to go into space.
American Alan Shepard followed him after 23 days, on May 5, 1961. The huge American investment in space research paid off and, eight years later, the US became the first country to land man on the moon.
The stiff competition between the two superpowers had crossed the frontiers of this earth as we knew it and entered space, the forbidden zone traditionally known as high heaven. The world viewed it as the contest between two systems vying for global superiority, the capitalist and communist systems.
For their part, many Muslim countries of the world continued to be client states of either the United States or the Soviet Union, seeking the economic and military support of one or the other superpower, sometimes switching sides from political, military or economic expediency, or threatening to do so to increase their bargaining power.
<b>As to scientific and technological achievements, large numbers of Muslims even refused to believe that Neil Armstrong had, indeed, stepped on the moon and rejected the American claim as false. A man walking on the moon contradicted their traditional religious beliefs and was, therefore, regarded as impossible.</b>
But as more and more American and Russian space probes landed on the moon sending photos and bringing back specimen rocks and the force of evidence appeared overwhelming, most traditionalist Muslims silently, if reluctantly, reconciled themselves to the reality of manâs physical intrusion of the forbidding sky, hitherto regarded as the realm of the spirits, satans and angels. A few even began to stretch some obscure references in the sacred texts to contend that space travel was not just possible but had been foretold.
<b>Then, the Ummah rejoiced in the happy ânewsâ that Armstrong had converted to Islam, apparently as a result of hearing the azaan (the Muslim call to prayer) on the moon. Of course, there was no such incident and no conversion, but so strong was the rumour that Armstrong was constrained officially to deny it.</b>
Now, a Muslim is ready to enter space, but as a passenger on a Russian spaceship. The agreement to send a Malaysian aboard a Russian spacecraft was part of a billion-dollar deal in which Russia will sell Malaysia 18 Sukhoi 30-MKM fighter jets. For the time being, that is the pinnacle of achievement by any Muslim country in the arena of space science.
While the Russians provide the technological wherewithal and deal with the complex scientific aspects of the space voyage, Muslim Malaysia is pondering the weighty spiritual issues, such as its astronautâs ability to perform his religious duties in space. The countryâs National Space Agency (Angkasa) is holding a two-day conference that is expected to âanswer questions relating to Muslim life in space, like how can Muslim astronauts pray or fastâ.
The âIslam and Life in Spaceâ conference is to be attended by more than 150 scientists, astronauts, religious scholars and academics. An official from the Malaysian Astronomy and Islamic Law Association said that the conference would be âthe first time the Islamic world mulled life in spaceâ.
Performing ablutions for Muslim prayers with water rationing in space and preparing food according to Islamic standards will be among the issues discussed, Angkasa Director General Mazlan Othman was quoted as saying by Malaysiaâs state-run Bernama news agency. âWe have to make preparations to discuss [these issues] with Russia when the time comes,â she added.
<b>The astronaut will also visit the International Space Station, which circles the earth 16 times in 24 hours, raising many delicate questions. For instance, ascertaining the direction of Mecca for prayers in space will require pinpointing a moving target while in zero gravity. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Prayer times for Muslims are linked to the times of the sunrise and sunset, but in orbit the sun appears to rise and set more than 12 times a day.</span></b>
One hopes the 150 assembled scientists and religious scholars will find appropriate answers to these questions that are agitating the Malaysian government. After all, which Muslim government worth the name will want one of its Muslim citizens to be cast in hell in the hereafter for the sake of space research in this world, especially when he is doing so in response to his countryâs call!
For more than 100 years since 1901, the Nobel Prizes for physics, chemistry and physiology/medicine have been awarded to the worldâs most distinguished scientists every year. Sad to say, however, that the only Muslim to be honoured with a Nobel Prize in any of these fields is US-based Ahmed Hassan Zewail of Egypt (Chemistry, 1999).
The closest the Ummah ever came to getting a Nobel Prize in physics was when UK-based Professor Abdus Salam of Pakistan was awarded the prize in 1979. But he belonged to the Ahmadi sect and the national parliament of his country had, five years earlier, voted to expel the sect from the fold of Islam. In fact, under Pakistani law, the learned professor could have gone to prison if he had offended the religious sensitivities of his Muslim compatriots by referring to himself as a Muslim, rather than an Ahmadi!
It is interesting to note that mullahs and their followers heartily adopt and enjoy the products of science while disparaging and discouraging the pursuit of science. This includes a whole range of products, from computers, airplanes, motor vehicles and organ transplants down to printing, tape-recorders and loudspeakers.
Science has long made it possible to predict with absolute accuracy the time of the appearance of the moon in any particular region many years in advance. Yet, Muslims insist on the actual âsightingâ of the moon with the ânaked eyeâ as per tradition to begin and end the fasting month of Ramazan.
In an interesting and opportunistic twist to tradition, however, our leading clerics in the shape of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee (literally, the Committee for the Sighting of the Moon) fly in an airplane provided by the government to sight the moon with their own two eyes to announce the beginning and end of the holy month!
Computers are now used to store, retrieve and disseminate religious texts and messages and to broadcast the azaan in homes. Tape recorders and loudspeakers are used at mosques and printing is extensively used for publishing religious tracts. Yet, the aversion for science, technology and reason persists in the name of religious tradition.
<b>Muslim countries are destined to remain on the fringes of science, while the rest of the world forges ahead, so long as they do not reject the traditionalist and literal interpretations of their religion by mullahs and ayatollahs and adopt common sense, reason and science. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Renting a berth on another countryâs spacecraft or making a nuclear bomb or a missile with borrowed or imported technology do not rate as achievements but rather lay bare the deficiencies of the Muslim world.</span>
There can be no competition between a Muslim culture which is frozen in time and the West which has moved light-years ahead thanks to its uninhibited pursuit of scientific knowledge. The clash of civilisations often cited in editorial comments since the appearance of Samuel Huntingtonâs famous book by that name is just that â a clash, not a competition.</b>
The writer can be contacted at raziazmi@hotmail.com
Cheers