Book launch: Bringing science and spirituality together, new book inspires discourse

The event was attended by scholars, intellectuals and academic personalities.

ISLAMABAD:

With the aim to fuse faith and rationality, Uxi Mufti’s book “Allah: Measuring the Intangible” invites a diverse cross-section of readers due to its inclusive and unassuming qualities.

The author has synthesised the works of great scientists and philosophers such as Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Socrates, Ibn Arabi and other introspective theories in search of god. Though he has mostly analysed others’ theories, his own observations are also quite insightful and resounding.

This was the consensus among a large and diverse crowd during the book’s launch at Serena Hotel on Friday. The event was an intellectual and spiritual hotpot which the city seldom enjoys.

Among the speakers were politician Akram Zaki, former National Assembly speaker Fakhar Imam, his wife Syeda Abida Hussain and Taxila Institute of Asian Civilization Acting Director Van Sky Hawk. They reviewed what they had read of the book and their own views on spirituality, religion, science and the human condition.

Hawk commented on the chronology of worship and spirituality starting from worship of fire to Achilles, Buddha and finally, Allah. “While the face and name of worship and god may change, the seed of spirituality has been the same throughout history; finding answers to questions of mortality and the universe,” he said.

Imam commented on Mufti’s chapter on principles, noting that eastern religions were largely based upon them.

He praised the author for seamlessly fusing faith and rationality while addressing the inherent antagonistic struggle between the two. He also appreciated the book for opening up channels of discourse.

University of Tennessee’s Ralph Wilbur Hood, considered to be an authority on a scientific study of religion, said, “The author persuades the reader that Islam and Allah are realities to be experienced and not fictions to be reductively understood by science, philosophy, or religious studies whose own limitations are both appreciated and recognised.”

Mufti himself noted the unrest that comes from seeking god and the daunting task of picking an answer that is unsatisfactory. Moreover, the immense reliance on perception and its nature to err is also addressed within spirituality by the author.

“Torn between extremes of metaphysics and philosophy, faith and science, religious and secular consciousness and matter, humanities and physical sciences – human beings live a split life,” he said.

The book has been published by Mumtaz Mufti Literary Trust in collaboration with Strengthening Participatory Organisation. Translated by Najeeba Arid, the book is currently available only in Urdu but will be available in English within one month, say the publishers.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2012.