ASM: Correct Your Error!
Dr. Pasha Calls on American Society of Microbiology to Acknowledge Debt to Qur’an – and Muslims
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
Hand Washing in Islam – And by Muslims
There are many things about Islam that leave me speechless. For the time being, consider just this one example.
Here are some of the facts:
It is the inflection of 7th Century. The venue is one of the most backward and deserted places on God’s earth. As for people, they were no more – and no less – than raw and rough children of the burning desert and boiling sun.
The place was not a center of learning like Greece. Nor was it a seat of civilization like Rome. Nor, for that matter, was it a bastion of knowledge and ancient lore like China or India.
As for water, the whole place was known more by its absence than by its presence.
In such a place, at such a time, and among such a people, a man arises and bids people:
“Wash Your Hands!”
His name is Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam: God Almighty shower his blessings upon him).
He says those words are God’s, not his. And he produces a book in evidence of his claim. And that book uses the following words to make this point:
Faghsiloo Wujoohakum wa Ayidiyakum…
Paraphrase:
“Wash your faces and your hands…”
What a thing to say to a people like that, in a place like that, at a time like that!
And that book is the most remarkable book anyone is likely to read in a lifetime. For starters, that book chooses its own name and calls itself: Al-Qur’an.
English paraphrase of that expression – that name by which the book calls itself:
The Reading.
American Society of Microbiology (ASM)
It was not until the 1990s that American science, spearheaded by American Society of Microbiology (ASM), after considerable research and significant expense, determined that washing hands was a good idea.
ASM is the world’s oldest and largest association of scientists. It dates back to the end of 19th Century and boasts a global membership of around 60,000 scientists.
Sadly, such a premier and undisputed leader in the world of science gave no credit to Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam: God Almighty shower his blessings upon him) for its idea of Hand Washing.
Nor did ASM acknowledge its debt to the Qur’an, the book that Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam: God Almighty shower his blessings upon him) produced and claimed it was directly from God.
Nor did ASM make any reference, as is required in common academic culture, to Islam, the system of belief and behavior that Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam: God Almighty shower his blessings upon him) practiced and promulgated in the world.
Nor did ASM take cognizance of the fact that hundreds of millions of Muslims practice Hand Washing around the world, many of them no less than five times a day.
And they have been doing that without a day’s interruption ever since the cusp of the 7th Century – all these 1400 years.
Muslims Must Sue ASM
This failure of ASM to give credit to Islamic teachings, Muhammad’s preaching (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam: God Almighty shower his blessings upon him), and universal and unbroken daily Muslim practice, is one of the most glaring academic, social and cultural tragedies and scandals of modern times.
It borders on serious academic malpractice. And Muslims who have the means to do so should sue ASM demanding ASM rectify its error by giving retroactive credit to Islam, Muslims, the Qur’an and Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam: God Almighty shower his blessings upon him) for the concept of Hand Washing.
This omission, and this error, by ASM amount to crude cultural myopia. They constitute a travesty of established academic norms and practice. And they border on fraud and falsehood, perpetrated on the world through omission, by a body that is academic and professional home to tens of thousands of world’s respected scientists.
The sooner the ASM corrects its record, and duly and properly publicizes that correction using all academic channels of communication at its disposal, the better it will be for removing this glaring blemish from its record.
“Islam” Is Not an Excuse
The fact that Islam passes for “religion,” and science cannot legitimately associate itself with “religion,” is a poor excuse.
For, Hand Washing is not only an Islamic “religious” teaching, it is an established and verifiable empirical reality whose validity could be easily determined by taking a short walk or drive by an official ASM Commission constituted for this purpose to a neighborhood mosque – in any part of the world.
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