Life Journey 1: Enlightenment
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The document summarizes the author's life journey and education that led him to question the deficiencies of a purely western education. It discusses his upbringing with a father who emphasized non-conformity and search for truth. His university education at MIT and Stanford taught math and sciences but nothing of meaning, purpose, or best way to live. He encountered Tableegh and found meaning through faith but it conflicted with what his western education taught about only scientific knowledge being valid. He realized he must reconcile the teachings of the heart and head.
Life Journey 1: Enlightenment
- 1. From Darkness to Light Part 1 Dr. Asad Zaman Brief: My life-experiences which led me to the realization that the education I received at the finest universities of the world was deeply deficient in terms of answering central questions posed by life.
- 2. Early Experiences: 0-15 • Specialized Training by my father, Mohammad Masihuzzaman For details see: http://bit.ly/AZfather Some crucial takeaways • Infinite faith in me and infinite love for me gave me courage and inspiration for high visions. • Non-conformity: Non-acceptance of the beliefs of the masses, and disregard for approval by peer group – instead, search for truth, and acting according to beliefs, without regard to worldly consequences. • Formal Education as a paper-chase: life-experience matters
- 3. Education (16- 22): BS Math MIT, MS Statistics & Ph.D. Econ Stanford “Social Revolutions”: http://bit.ly/iwv4sr Article explains my experiences as a teenager in the USA. Our education trained us to disregard society, and pursue pleasure, without concern for others. “Lessons MIT did not teach me” http://bit.ly/mit4az1 MIT taught me math, physics, chemistry, and biology – but nothing about how to become a better human being, and nothing about the meaning of life, and what is the best way to live our lives. Essential questions about life cannot be answered by the “science” which is worshipped by the West, as the sole form of valuable knowledge.
- 4. Guidance towards the light • Youth as secular modern. • Meaninglessness of secular life goals • Search for meaning. • Encounter with Tableegh. • FAITH in the unseen. The essential importance of the HEART, in our search for knowledge. See my autobiographical interview for INSIGHTS magazine: http://bit.ly/AZinsight
- 5. Deep Conflict Created by Faith • Islamic teachings took mankind from depths of ignorance to pinnacles of wisdom, 14 centuries ago. • Quran provides complete and perfect guidance for all times. But my western education taught me that: • Knowledge created in the West over the past few centuries is the ONLY type of valid and worthwhile knowledge. All else (including the Quran) is ignorance and superstition. • For guidance today, we can do without the Quran, but we cannot do without Western intellectual tradition.
- 6. Methodological Revolution Western Methodology: In conflicts between head and heart, ignore the heart, and pay attention only to the head! I think, therefore I am – Our experienced bodily sensations are ignored as evidence, and only the head can provide evidence. Eastern Methodology: Let the heart guide you to the truth. My heart testifies to God, and to the power of the message. My head shows me that my heart is wrong. Believe in the heart, and revise thinking to conform to the heart. Dua to Allah T’aala to help me solve this conflict of head and heart.
- 7. End of Part A of Life Journey, Chapter 0 of Real Statistics: A Radical Approach For the full video, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6YPaYhTAfw “My Journey Towards the Light” YouTube Channel Asad Zaman: https://www.youtube.com/c/AsadZaman7 Slides: http://bit.ly/RSRAs00A Video: http://bit.ly/RSRAv00A PDF of Chapter 0: Life Journey: The experiences which led me to the creation of this radical new approach to statistics. http://bit.ly/RSRAch00a Register for the Online Course at: http://bit.ly/AZRealStats
Editor's Notes
- #2: Bismillah: I was trained at the finest universities in the West. But life experiences led me to the understanding that this education was ignorance masquerading as knowledge. This is the first part of a longer talk which describes my life-journey.
- #3: My journey began with the training given to me by father. His faith in me, and his love for me, inspired me to reach for the highest goals. He taught me to reach for the truth, and ignore public opinion. He also thought that life experience was the real source of knowledge, and formal education was just a paper chase.
- #4: His philosophy was to finish formal education as quickly as possible, so that we could start the real business of life. Accordingly, I got into MIT at 16 and finished my BS at 19. I completed a Masters and Ph.D. in another 3 years at Stanford. The most important question we all face is how we should live our brief and precious lives. Our technical education did not furnish any clues, and the lifestyle I picked up by imitating my peers was toxic – pure pursuit of pleasure, without social responsibility.
- #5: Lifestyles pursued by my peers created spiritual emptiness, and I started to search for a more meaningful life philosophies. Allah T’aala answered my prayers and guided me towards Eeman. Crucial in this change was my experience with the movement of Tableegh and Dawah, which changed my ways of thinking and being. In particular, I learned the central importance of the heart as a source of knowledge.
- #6: My faith created a deep conflict. On the one hand, my heart testifies to the truth of the Quran, which contains complete and perfect guidance for all time. On the other hand, my Western education had taught me that all valuable knowledge today is a product of the Western civilization. Our modern problems can only be resolved by Western training, and the message of the Quran has nothing valuable to offer today.
- #7: I made Dua to Allah to help me resolve this conflict, and guide me towards His Noor. Gradually, it became clear to me that what I had learnt at the top universities in the West was merely ignorance masquerading as knowledge. The Quran offers us deep insights, and provides guidance for our modern problems which is not available anywhere else. In the remaining portions of this talk, I will discuss how this transformation in my thinking took place. After learning about the flawed foundations on which Western education is founded, I was able to see how to rebuild this knowledge on the sound foundations created by Islam.
- #8: In later portions, I will explain how this understanding led me to realize that modern statistics, created in early 20th Century on the basis of false philosophical foundations, is fatally flawed. In response, I have created a new online course “Real Statistics: A Radical Approach”, which rebuild the entire discipline on new foundations. This video talk on my life experience is meant to provide an introduction to the thinking which went into the creation of this course.