Islam: Freedom or Slavery?

Freedom can be defined as a balance in the relationship of two comparable entities.

Slavery can be defined as an imbalance in the relationship of two comparable entities. Absolute slavery can be defined as a balance in the relationship of two incomparable entities. Absolute freedom can be defined as the lack of any relationships, absence of any connections, and absolute loneliness and extreme aloneness; but such absolute freedom is impossible for human beings due to physical, biological, anatomical, sociological, cultural, linguistic, and other reasons.

Absolute freedom, in the sense of absolute loneliness and extreme aloneness, is reserved for God only. Absolute slavery, as a balance in the relationship of two incomparable entities, is the name of the relationship between God and humans.

The balance in the relationship of two or more comparable entities, i.e., humans is called freedom. The imbalance in the relationship of two or more comparable entities, i.e., humans is called slavery. Freedom and slavery are the types and kinds of relationships and connections; if there are no relationships and connections, then the ideas of freedom and slavery become obsolete and meaningless.

Humans cannot have absolute freedom because they are constrained and limited by time, space, matter, energy, and entropy. Humans cannot obtain absolute freedom because each human needs at least two other human beings to come into being. Humans cannot be absolutely free due to sociological, cultural, and linguistic reasons; humans have to have connections and relationships with other humans.

Humans do not have the freedom to choose their race, place and time of birth, parents, language, gender, the color of skin, and other properties and attributes. Therefore, racism, nationalism, patriotism, feminism, chauvinism, and other “-ism”s are meaningless and futile; they are illogical and irrational; pride in own color of skin, language, place of birth, culture, gender is deceiving yourself because these factors are out of control of human being. On the other hand, deeds and words are in the circle of influence of human beings. That is why judging and evaluating a person on the basis of other parameters than deeds and words are stupid and foolish.

Starting from birth, the person is in the prison of entropy whose walls are the dimensions of space and time, and death is the release from the prison of entropy. The biggest mistake of the inmate is to forget that there is a life outside of the prison. Similarly, the biggest mistake of a human is to think that there is no life outside of the prison of entropy, outside of dimensions of space and time. The biggest mistake is to lock yourself mentally and intellectually in that tiny cell – that is when real imprisonment starts. We should not box ourselves in the confines of entropy, matter, space, and time; we should think above entropy, beyond matter, and out of the box of space and time. This is why freedom is not a gift, not a chance, not a coincidence; freedom is the result of purposeful and systematic thinking expressed by writing and reading.

The person might be living in a palace, but if the person does not think, write and read, then the palace becomes a prison for her. On the contrary, for the writing, reading, and thinking person prison can become a palace (12:33).

Verse 9:20 mentions three degrees and types of freedom: freedom of religion (amanu), freedom of assembly (hajaru), and freedom of speech (jahadu). (i) The verses 29:56 and 39:10 call humans to be free and achieve freedom. Verse 5:3 prepares the foundation for the freedom from fear: “…do not hold them in awe, but be in awe of Me.” The verses 12:109, 22:46, 30:9, 30:42, 32:26, 35:44, 40:21, 40:82, 47:10 ask and order people to be free and become free both mentally and physically, both in mind and body, psychologically and physiologically. These verses urge people to travel and think because slaves do not travel and cannot travel; because slaves do not think and cannot think. Thinking is equal to writing (96:4) and traveling is equal to reading (96:1) because during the travel person must “read” cities, villages, buildings, people, animals, plants, nature, trees, flowers, sky, earth, sun, moon, stars, etc. Also, reading allows us to travel in time: by reading history we go to the past and by reading science fiction we go to the future.

It is told that “Geography is destiny”, and the aforementioned verses explicitly tell people to change their geography by traveling. (ii) Also, we can add that “mindset is destiny” and these verses openly tell people to change their mindsets by thinking.

Freedom is traveling and thinking; freedom is reading (96:3) and writing (96:4). Slavery is not traveling and not thinking; slavery is not reading and not writing. The example of traveling and thinking, the model of reading and writing was provided by Said Nursi in the Thirteenth Hope of the Twenty-Sixth Flash. (iii)

Nursi, in his Third Word, argued that freedom is discipline, order, and responsibility. (iv) Therefore, slavery is caprice, chaos, and irresponsibility. In ancient times, slaves were not allowed weaponry; weaponry was the privilege of free people. This means slaves had not freedom to protect themselves, and weaponry is the tool of freedom (v) because the freedom of countries and nations is protected by armed groups that are called armies. Next, Nursi claimed that mental munitions and intellectual weaponry that protect the freedom of a person are the fear of God. This principle is expressed in verse 5:3 “…do not hold them in awe but be in awe of Me.” (vi) This means the fear of God is used as a weapon and tool that defeats the fear of people.

And the fear of people is the basis, foundation, and root of slavery. Here I understand the fear of God not as a fear of God Himself, but as a fear of losing His gift of love and present of trust.

Those, who want to be free have to carry the weaponry of critical thought (68:36) as mentioned in the Third Word. The weaponry of critical thought consists of the rifle of writing (96:4) and bullets of reading (96:3). A rifle without bullets and bullets without a rifle are useless; they have to be used together.

Slavery can have temporal dimensions. There are individuals who are slaves of the past; who are intoxicated, enslaved, and shackled by the past. However, the past is the past, and the past has passed. Such people are powerless fatalists; they lament past, miss present, and fear future; they deny and ignore willpower; they are dominated by destiny and infatuated by fate, instead of dominating destiny and fighting against fate. At the end of the Words, Nursi wrote that fatalism is applicable to the past because we cannot change the past; but willpower is applicable to the present and future because we can change present and future. (vii) Therefore, the correct balance and right combination of fatalism and willpower have to be the mindset of a person in order to avoid slavery and achieve freedom.

Slavery can also have anatomical dimensions. Nursi, in the Second Principle of the Twelfth Word, wrote about the slaves of the digestive system (batn) and reproductive system (farj), in other words, hedonists. Hedonists imprison themselves in a two-dimensional box of digestive and reproductive pleasures. That is why, Islam frees individuals from the two- dimensional prison of hedonism and opens new dimensions and sources of pleasure for people by delimiting the boundaries of permissible (halal) and forbidden (haram), by establishing the rules about food and sex. Otherwise, those, who limit themselves to food and sex, to digestion and reproduction only – are they really free? Is their pseudo-freedom animalistic or humanistic? Is their quasi-freedom two-dimensional or multi-dimensional?

 Nursi explained the meaning of permissible (halal) and forbidden (haram) at the end of the Sixth Word. (viii) Food and sex, digestion and reproduction have a huge importance in human life, but investing all time, energy, and resources into them is animalism, plain and simple.

Whereas humanism offers more dimensions of pleasure and more degrees of freedom.

Slavery can also have philosophical dimensions. Some philosophies want people’s thinking to be boxed in the limits of space, time, matter, and entropy; these philosophies do not allow human imagination to go beyond matter, fly above time, discover new dimensions of space, circumvent entropy; by this disallowing, these philosophies enslave and imprison human minds and human beings. On the other hand, Quran wants human imagination to reign free, know no limits, break the box and demolish the prison walls. This mental surgery of the Quran can produce transhumans (ix) and posthumans (x) in the dimension of mindset. Nursi, in the Second Station of the Twentieth Word, wrote that the miracles of prophets show the direction and prototypes of scientific progress and technological development.xi There he wrote about an example of the construction of large structures like ships (11:37) which can be extrapolated to spaceships; about the construction of small devices like a clock which can be extrapolated to nanobots; about adaptive technologies like clothing which can be extrapolated to spacesuits for space colonization; about transportation by air (34:12), hydrogeology (2:60), advanced medicine (3:49), metallurgy (34:10), teleportation, television, 3D-printing, internet (27:40), applied spiritualism (21:82), animal linguistics, domestication and genetic engineering (27:16, 38:19), materials science, solid-state physics, plasma physics and cryogenics (21:69), semantics and epistemology (2:31).

Also, the story of Jonah (68:48) might show the way of colonization of oceans; when large animals and fish species like whales can be domesticated and used for underwater transportation and exploration; when humans can always breathe under the water either by technological or biological enhancement; when there are bases, cities, laboratories, farms, and plantations under the water; because the total area of oceans and seas is much larger than the area of continents and oceans are waiting for their explorers and colonizers. Colonization of oceans might solve the problem of overpopulation.

The story of four different birds (2:260) might explain the transplantation of organs and body parts. The story of a bird from clay (3:49) and a serpent from staff (7:107) might be the explanation of and direction to robotics and bionics. The splitting of the Moon might be the call to start mining on Moon and asteroids (54:1). (xii) The immediate journey between two points separated by a large amount of space in verse 17:1 might be an inspiration to study and explore the space-time wormholes (Einstein-Rosen Bridge). The nine-hundred-fifty years in 29:14 might be the goal to strive for, for those who work in the field of life extension and biomedical gerontology. Also, in the Ninth Sign of the Nineteenth Letter, Nursi mentioned walking trees. (xiii) When such kinds of trees will be engineered genetically or in another way, the problem of deforestation and desertification will be solved, and vast deserts like Sahara will be turned into gardens.

The aforementioned facts, hints, and directions in the verses of Glorious Quran show that Islam has the principle of Freedom; freedom of mind, freedom of imagination, freedom of intellect, and those who want to fetter, shackle and imprison mind, imagination and intellect are either unconscious fools or conscious traitors of Islam.

Quran itself is the biggest proof of freedom. Quran is persuasion, not persecution.

Persuasion is applied to free people, and persecution is applied to slaves. God Almighty could have attached an angel to each of us, who would electroshock us every time we sin, error, and fail, but He didn’t. Instead, He gave Quran, so that we reason, understand, and use our free will to choose either evil or good. Humans are free to sin or not, to believe or not, to choose or not. Humans have the freedom and therefore, they have responsibility. Freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin; they are meaningless without each other. And responsibility demands accountability; that is why Afterlife and Judgment Day are natural and logical consequences of freedom and responsibility.

Freedom of speech is the natural and unalienable right of every human being; Freedom of speech is clearly and forcefully stated in the Glorious Quran. In verses 7:12, 38:76, and 43:52, Iblis and Pharaoh freely and clearly express their thoughts and opinions; they freely speak their minds. Almighty God could have muted them in the Quran; He could have made them voiceless, faceless, and nameless. However, All-Knowing God did not make them muted in the Quran; He gave them a voice, face, and name in the Quran; believers and Muslims are reciting and repeating the words, opinions, and ideas of Iblis and Pharaoh for fourteen hundred years, which equals half million days. Iblis and Pharaoh were enemies of God; they disobeyed God openly; they challenged the authority of God; but all of these acts were not heavy enough crimes to deprive them of the freedom of speech; to mute and silence them. That is why the freedom of speech is the right of any being granted by God even to His enemies, and deprivation of the right of free speech is a cruel, ignoble, and ignominious act that was not done even to enemies of God.

So, you want, plan, try and attempt to take away the freedom of speech that was given to me by God?! Are you more just and fair than God?! Or am I worse and lower than Iblis and Pharaoh?! If you think that verses 7:12, 38:76, and 43:52 are not the expression of free speech, not the permission of free speech, not the inspiration for free speech, then just tell me in which abyss you lost your logic and in what fire you incinerated your intellect. Abyss of pride and fire of greed? You are so cruel and so stupid (33:72). I swear you deserve Hell. However, most probably, Hell is going to be disgusted to take you in, like the dog is disgusted to take dirty bone. You are Pharaoh, and swine and monkeys near you are Korah and Haman (5:60, 29:39). No, you are worse than Pharaoh because Pharaoh did not deprive Moses of freedom of speech (7:104, 7:105, 7:106). You are lower than Nimrod because Nimrod was having a dialogue with Abraham; he did not violate the right of free speech of Abraham (2:258).

Slavery also has historical dimensions. At the end of the Words, Nursi wrote that “humankind smashed slavery.” (xiv) Also, there he mentioned five stages, and four of them roughly correspond to hunter-gatherer society, agrarian society, industrial society, and information society. These stages started from simple and grew more complex; thus, the concentration of population and knowledge was increasing during each stage. The transitions from one stage to another were called agricultural revolution (xv), industrial revolution(xvi), and information revolution (vii).

Slavery, as we understand and visualize it, was the characteristic of the agrarian society because the primary means of producing material goods was the cultivation of land, and large masses of obedient people were required for that. Let us call it “plantation slavery.”

Then, after the industrial revolution, “plantation slavery” became economically unfeasible because the primary means of producing material goods were not plantation but factories. “Plantation slavery” was abolished, but instead of it “factory slavery” was established. Then, after the information revolution which included automation and robotization of factories, “factory slavery” became economically unfeasible because the primary means of producing material goods were not factories anymore but the minds of humans. The proliferation and domination of information companies and corporations are the obvious and irrefutable proofs for that. Thus, instead of “factory slavery” another kind of slavery was born: we can call it “wage slavery”, “office slavery”, “mind slavery.”

The translator of Nursi’s works translated these five stages as (1) nomadism, (2) slavery, (3) captivity, (4) wage-earning, (5) ownership, and free enterprise. In my opinion, we are in the midst of the transition from the fourth stage to the fifth stage; information society is transforming into some kind of new post-information society. Post-information society is going to be born when intoxication and hangover of the industrial revolution and overdose of information revolution start to wear off, and we finally can have a sober look at ourselves and the world. Nomadism was primitive freedom, it was followed by three stages of lessening slavery, and finally, in the fifth stage, we can have civilized freedom.

History shows us that “plantation slavery” was abolished by societies that transformed themselves from agrarian type to industrial type. Other societies that were unable to convert themselves from agrarian to industrial were continuing “plantation slavery” because it was the attribute and feature of agrarian empires; starting from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Babylon, China and continuing up to the last agrarian empires that collapsed during the First World War. Even now, in the remaining agrarian societies, the relationship between people resembles “plantation slavery” very much.

Quran was revealed in the agrarian society whose feature was “plantation slavery” because people knew no other way of cultivating the land and producing goods, and Quran had to address and answer it. Quran was revealed in the agrarian society, but Quran was revealed not to agrarian society only, Quran was revealed to all type of societies. That is why, now, when we live in a strange combination of the industrial society and information society; when we are in the process of transitioning from the fourth stage to the fifth stage, to read and understand the Quran by using the context of “plantation slavery” is foolish, stupid, ignorant and outdated. In this time and age, the verses of the Quran concerning slavery should be read and understood in the context of “factory slavery”, “office slavery” and “civilized freedom”; thus, we should be using the last three stages of Nursi’s classification.

To put it shortly: Quran is not slavery; Quran does not promote and establish slavery; Quran targets and aims freedom; Quran was revealed in the agrarian society, but not to the agrarian society only; therefore, new outlooks and attitudes, novel interpretations of the verses need to be constructed.

The jurisprudence, laws, rules, and regulations formulated in the agrarian society, by the agrarian society, for the agrarian society are not valid in, non-acceptable in, and non-applicable to the industrial, information, and post-information societies. Therefore, new jurisprudence, new laws, new rules, new regulations have to be constructed and compiled. Not outdated, Middle Ages and Middle Eastern version of Islam, but updated, modern and global interpretation of Islam by using the basic Quranic principles of Justice, Freedom, Compassion, and Knowledge. (xviii)

Slavery can also have economic and political dimensions. Currently, the global prison population is estimated to be about ten million, and this number is surely and consistently rising. (xix) The for-profit prisons is the form of modern slavery practiced by “free”, “civilized”, and “democratic” nations; when the labor of inmates is used to fill the pockets of industrialists and politicians.xx So, slavery is not abolished, it is just slightly admonished, merely refurbished, only painted differently, just fed to us in various packages and on different plates. Prison painted pink remains prison; slavery reformulated in new terms remains slavery.

So, what is the real and lasting method of abolishing slavery? It is the change of mentality and transformation of mindset by thinking. What is thinking? Thinking is the input and output of knowledge. The input of knowledge is reading (96:3) and the output of knowledge is writing (96:4). These first and most important verses of the Quran aim the change of mentality and transformation of mindset by reading and writing because slavery starts in the mind and freedom has its roots in mentality. Therefore, if the penitentiary system is going to target the reformation and integration of inmates into society instead of incarceration and exclusion from society, then the rigorous and intensive program of reading and writing (xxi) must be designed and implemented for the benefit of inmates, not industrialists and politicians.

Freedom is the essential ingredient in the development of individuals, society, culture, and civilization. Slaves never built civilization. Slaves never invented something new. Slaves never discovered new places. The example and essence of freedom are in the scientific method. The scientist is free to make mistakes; actually, it is her obligation and job to make mistakes and learn from them. The scientist must propose hypotheses, test them, and improve them. Jerome Bruner wrote that the evolution of humans is by changes in culture and psychology, not by changes in structure and morphology. (xxii) Therefore, constant improvement of hypotheses, cultures, and psychologies is the way of development.

Humans must make mistakes in order to improve and develop; humans have the freedom to error, sin, doubt, question, and disbelieve with the attached precondition of learning from mistakes. This method of incorrect and correct hypotheses and experiments, and learning from them is mentioned in 9:102. On the other hand, the previous verse 9:101 mentions those who persist in repeating the same mistakes over and over again, and who are steadfast in not learning from mistakes.

 That is how I understand and explain to myself freedom and slavery. At the end of the Words, Nursi wrote that there are lawgivers and interpreters of the law. I do not see myself as a lawgiver; I merely and simply try to interpret and understand some things around me. I am making hypotheses and testing them. If some of them or all of them are wrong, then it is OK for me. I just want, need, and demand an updated, modern, and global interpretation of Islam that leads to Justice, Freedom, Compassion, and Knowledge.

I chose, and I am choosing freedom, not slavery.

2:111 … Say: “Produce your proof if you are truthful!” (xxiii)

25:30. And the Messenger says: “My Lord! Surely my people have made this Qur’an something worthy of no attention.” (xxiv)

-İman isteyen münafık   

References:

i Ali Ünal, The Qur’an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English, n.d., www.mquran.org www.theholybook.org.

ii Jared Diamond, “Geography Is Destiny,” accessed March 6, 2021, https://rampages.us/wealthandpoverty/jared-diamond-geography-is-destiny/.

iii Said Bediuzzaman Nursi, The Flashes, trans. Şükran Vahide, vol. 3, Risale-i Nur Collection (Nuruosmaniye Cad., Sorkun Han 28/2, Cağaloğlu, Istanbul, Turkey. Tel: 0212 527 10 10 Fax: 0212 527

82 31: Sözler Publications A. S., 2009).

iv Said Bediuzzaman Nursi, The Words: On the Nature and Purposes of Man, Life, and All Things, trans. Şükran Vahide, vol. 1, Risale-i Nur Collection, 2008, http://www.sozler.com.tr.

v Wikipedia, “Second Amendment to the United States Constitution,” in Wikipedia, March 5,

2021,

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution&old id=1010377405.

vi Ünal, The Qur’an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English.

vii Nursi, The Words: On the Nature and Purposes of Man, Life, and All Things.

viii Nursi.

ix Wikipedia, “Transhumanism,” in Wikipedia, March 3, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transhumanism&oldid=1009937991.

x Wikipedia, “Posthumanism,” in Wikipedia, January 2, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Posthumanism&oldid=997829544.

xi Nursi, The Words: On the Nature and Purposes of Man, Life, and All Things.

xii Wikipedia, “Asteroid Mining,” in Wikipedia, February 27, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Asteroid_mining&oldid=1009283489.

xiii Said Bediuzzaman Nursi, The Letters, trans. Şükran Vahide, vol. 2, Risale-i Nur Collection (Nuruosmaniye Cad., Sorkun Han 28/2, Cağaloğlu, Istanbul, Turkey. Tel: 0212 527 10 10 Fax: 0212 527

82 31: Sözler Publications A. S., 2008).

xiv Nursi, The Words: On the Nature and Purposes of Man, Life, and All Things.

xv Wikipedia, “Agricultural Revolution,” in Wikipedia, January 28, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agricultural_revolution&oldid=1003369893.

xvi Wikipedia, “Industrial Revolution,” in Wikipedia, March 1, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Industrial_Revolution&oldid=1009519719.

xvii Wikipedia, “Information Revolution,” in Wikipedia, December 7, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Information_revolution&oldid=992875230.

xviii İman isteyen münafık, “Justice, Freedom, Compassion, Knowledge,” January 29, 2021, https://www.munferit.net/2021/01/justice-freedom-compassion-knowledge.html.

xix nicic.gov, “World Prison Population List|Eleventh Edition,” National Institute of Corrections, February 18, 2016, https://nicic.gov/world-prison-population-listeleventh-edition.

xx Wikipedia, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” in Wikipedia, March 3, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capitalism:_A_Love_Story&oldid=1009968777.

xxi B. Burke, “Malcolm X on Education,” The Encyclopedia of Pedagogy and Informal Education. (blog), 2004, https://infed.org/mobi/malcolm-x-on-education/.

xxii J. Bruner, “Man a Course of Study,” Man a Course of Study. Man: A Course of Study.

Occasional Paper No. 3., 1965, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED178390.pdf. xxiii Ünal, The Qur’an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English. xxiv Ünal.