THINKING ALOUD: Into space in a time warp

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 astronaut’s ability to perform his religious duties in space. The country’s National Space Agency (Angkasa) is holding a two-day conference that is expected to “answer questions relating to Muslim life in space, like how can Muslim astronauts pray or fast”.

The “Islam and Life in Space” 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 “the first time the Islamic world mulled life in space”.

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 Malaysia’s state-run Bernama news agency. “We have to make preparations to discuss [these issues] with Russia when the time comes,” she added.

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. 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.

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 country’s call!

For more than 100 years since 1901, the Nobel Prizes for physics, chemistry and physiology/medicine have been awarded to the world’s 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 “sighting” of the moon with the “naked eye” 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.

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. Renting a berth on another country’s 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.

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 Huntington’s famous book by that name is just that — a clash, not a competition.

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