On Luddites. What they are, how they function, why they're a cancer with the Islamic world as a case study (AKA An appeal to Islamic Luddites).

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم 

Humanity, by nature, is built to survive. There is no doubt that every one of us has habits that are shared with the primal, the wild, the savage, that trigger even in some mild situations where we simply 'sense' danger. With time, our urges and nature, coupled with aspirations and inclination towards better has made us innovate and even our odds of survival with societal and technological progress. Sounds great, right? Well, with any technological innovation comes radical innovation in society. The fiber which holds everything to do with statesmanship may be shaken up by one innovation, though you may reap the benefits after the complete adoption. Every time a technological breakthrough is made and radical innovations happen, the people must learn the ways of new and adapt it to the old for sake of optimality. Though historically the masses initially oppose it, their offspring carry on the process until it is something we cannot live without. Examples? You're looking at it right now. Want older examples? Printing press, mechanical clocks, factory mechanization, radio, time, the list is endless. The Ottoman Empire opposed the use of printing presses until it was popularized in the westernmost provinces of the Caliphate, the Persian world in Tehran and Egypt in the 19th century, though it was still not commonly used until the 1920s. The literacy of folk drastically increased, though too late. [1] Mechanical clocks were opposed in the Islamic world because it was traditional to use prayer times as orientation [2], now most Muslims can't even tell when it is time for Asr without looking at numbers or notches that go in circles. 

Factory mechanization was opposed by Muslim and kafir alike due to it initially destroying the society of manufacturers, which is why many began opposing technology as a whole and sabotaging those pioneers who used it though the Islamic world was still largely feudal at the time. Modernization efforts were fruitless due to the nature of the Ottoman culture and lifestyle which opposed radical progression for 500 years. The engineering sector suffered the most, to the point where almost all native Ottoman engineers were educated abroad, which were small in number. The vast majority of engineers were in fact foreigners from France and the German world. They would contribute to all manners of projects (Hejaz railway, Berlin-Baghdad), though most notably in the navy. The concentration of foreigners was so severe that the French language was in usage for official communication along with Ottoman Turkish. [3] And now? Industry is the economy, which is the foundation of every single (successful) state. You cannot have a functioning state without it. Radio and Television as a matter of fact were both opposed, though for varying reasons. Radios were falsely attributed to Jinn possessions, which was an explanation of the old as to why simply turning on that contraption made noises made by living creatures, music and whatnot. It was either that or the belief that literal people lived in radios, which was further made fact by people who would open it up and see cities full of transistors, resistors and capacitors who are connected by roads of wiring. Television, however, was opposed under the practice of Iconoclasm. A television was nothing more than a thing which constantly drew pictures of living beings, even giving it life. [4] The same can be said about a computer just as easily. But if that is the case, what are you doing here? What have you and your parents been doing for the past half a decade, living in this world? What will you do when your children begin mining cryptocurrency and buying lattes with $XRP? 

The answer is simple. Since opposing technological progress is evidently futile, and accepting it by radically eradicating the status quo is chaotic and damaging, stable and slow adoption whilst integrating it into the way of old is needed. But the way of old isn't always reliable, is it? A man shouldn't opt not to go to the dentist just because his predecessor had to endure taking teeth out without anaesthesia. You don't have to opt not to use artificial lights just because Allah created the day and night cycles like the scholars of Egypt believed. [5]

We, as the best nation Mankind has ever seen, are a civilization with no equal, and we must act the part. [6] Every empire, even ours has had technological and societal innovation that has benefited us and spread our ways to foreign lands. The battle of the Trench was won because of innovation in military, as suggested by Salman al Farsi (may Allah be pleased with him) [7], the translation of the Quran to a foreign language which spread Islam to the Persians who did not speak Arabic (also done and suggested by the noble companion Salman) [8], the Ottomans who pioneered gunpowder usage in the region and the West and managed to spread their Empire further than any other Islamic Empire had done before (though they grinded to a halt after their lack of innovation in the field) [9], the Mughals who by themselves were a colorful Empire that existed for centuries before the English and had its own share of progress (societal, scientific and cultural). [10]

This may just be only 1% of our history, there are more than enough examples to show, but these I think these are big enough to show a simple, concise picture. A Luddite would, with false hubris in his soul and mental regression in his brain, exclaim: "These are false examples, as Salman was a companion of the Prophet (blessings be upon him and his righteous family), and the Ottomans are innovators/gone/irrelevant!". And to that effect, a Muslim who uses his intellect and understands his religion would reply: "If a member of the Salaf wouldn't bat an eye at such innovations which aren't theological, but innovations in the tools to spread the pure theology, why should we stop the process?". The process, which must be gradual, should be one of our main objectives, after the formation of an organization which would represent Muslim interests, wherever that may be. Be it Baden, Innsbruck or Timbuktu, we must innovate our methods if we are to beat the system of kufr, whether by force or ideologically. Those who refuse to do so - let them die out. Whether it is because a kafir killed them or natural causes, it is them who have ultimately done this to themselves for attempting to sabotage the supremacy of law and ideology that is Islam. Their children will either be swallowed up by the system if they follow their parents' footsteps or will join the Ummah - and use the same things their parents and their scholars forbade under fear of losing control of them and letting themmake their own, radical decisions for the betterment of our situation. That radical 1%, which is of pure theology and independent allegiances in this world, will serve Allah effectively and will, by the will of Allah, give us victory in this World, new and old.

Authorship: Lilo Lefebrve

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[1] - Moinuddin Aqeel, “Commencement of Printing in the Muslim World“ (Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies, 2-2 (March 2009), pp. 10–21)

[2] - Uluengin, Mehmet Bengü. “Secularizing Anatolia Tick by Tick: Clock Towers in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 42, no. 1, 2010, pp. 17–36. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40389583 

[3] - Martykánová, Darina, and Meltem Kocaman. “A Land of Opportunities: Foreign Engineers in the Ottoman Empire.” Philosophy of Globalization, edited by Concha Roldán et al., 1st ed., De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2018, pp. 237–252. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbkk12k.20.

[4] - Rural Bosniak folktales, though I imagine other Eastern cultures had the same or similar sentiment.

[5] - Zainuddin ibn Najim, الاشباه والنظائر على مذهب أبيي حنيفة النعمان pp. 320-321

[6] - Ibn Kathir, Tafsir ibn Kathir pp. 836-844

[7] - Ibn Kathir, Tafsir ibn Kathir pp. 3984

[8] - Al-Mustaghfari, Faḍā'il al-Qurān vol. 1 p. 493

[9] - Rhoads Murphey, Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700 (University of Birmingham) pp. 13-49

[10] - Douglas E. Streusand, Islamic Gunpowder Empires: Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals pp. 272-288