Unawareness of the Modern Age

Unawareness of the Modern Age Sayyed Ahmad Shahid and Shah Ismail Shahid rose to launch an Islamic Revolution. However, they did not send a delegation of accomplished Ulama to Europe to study the secret of the power and progress of that community that was spreading as fast as a storm, using new instruments, new resources, new methods, and new sciences and arts. They never thought of finding what sort of institutions had been established in its homeland, what forms of knowledge it possessed, the pillars of its civilisation, and what, in contrast to it, we [Muslims] lacked. (Tajdid-o-Ihya-e-Din, 1999, Lahore, p. 128) Sentiments of this sort have been repeatedly voiced for a long time now, yet not a single Muslim religious scholar of note has so far travelled to the West with the specific purpose of doing this sort of research. Nor has any such scholar studied Western literature in-depth with this goal in mind. In recent years, some Ulama has indeed got the opportunity to travel to Europe and America, but these visits had nothing to do with the sort of research we are talking about here. All the Ulama who go to Europe or America, do not go there in the true sense of the term. They simply travel to meet some Muslims living in Europe