Nuh

There is a difference between the desire for achieving progress and the potential for achieving it. Do you know the difference? The desire for achieving progress stems from being serious and determined to achieve it, whereas the potential for achieving such progress is limited by time. The nations, which are under the same circumstances, are of two types:

Have you realized the difference between the desire and ability? According to the ‘Life Makers’ program, there is always the desire for achieving progress, even if there is no potential. Therefore, it is highly important to start working.

In previous episodes, we tackled many issues, such as the arts, culture, industry, education and women. We always explain each field and ask you to participate with us online. After that, our teamwork aims at urging people to participate in these fields. Consequently, the professionals and specialists start studying each field. They then recommend a certain project to start with. Today's field is ‘the challenge of the age:’ the field of technology, without which we will never achieve any progress and will remain as we are.

I will start by defining this field. Take for example a man who makes tools to improve the surrounding environment. Such tools are: ideas, methods, instruments and machines. Every now and then we hear of the communications revolution. It is indeed a revolution that has changed the whole world and peoples' way of thinking. However, we are far behind. Do you know what will happen to us if we do not try to change in the coming 20 years? We will be out of history. We will be like someone who travels to outer space and is beyond the earth's atmosphere. Technology is relevant to our religion. Without it, we are like someone wandering around the desert. Eventually he finds a tent that belongs to a human being, who is entirely ignorant of anything taking place around him. He lives there, performing prayers, observing fast and worshipping Allah (SWT), the Almighty, yet, he is entirely secluded from the whole world. Accordingly, he cannot influence any decision concerning this world. He will continue living in the desert in isolation, until a flood destroys him. Similarly, we will be a peripheral part of history.

I want to explain an important point to whoever watches or listens to my program: technology is quite different from science, for example, there are a great number of scientists who get masters and doctorate degrees. When we compare this number to other countries, we are almost better. However, technology transforms science to useful potential for human beings.

Science is merely an accumulation of ideas and theories, until someone applies these theories. Thus, technology is the practical application of science. Actually, all our countries and many Muslims think that we are concerned with science only. Nevertheless, we are concerned more with its application: technology. Take for instance, al-Hassan Ibnul-Haytham who invented the theory of Kamarh, which we have previously discussed. This is the scientific theory of light reflection. The outcome of this theory resulted in the invention of the camera. The word camera is derived from Kamarh. Thus, the application of al-Hassan Ibnul-Haytham's scientific theory resulted in the scientific discovery of the camera and the microscope, which improved our lives.

The United States leads the world with its technology, despite the fact that Europe has all the scientists. Therefore, all the development of scientific theories and technologies take place in the United States. Hence, the world is now divided into two parts. One possesses technology and therefore leads the whole world while the other lacks technology, and is therefore led by the former. Besides, if you have simple technology and try to develop it, you will not dominate the rest, but you will feel proud.

Our topic today focuses on the fact that Muslims nowadays have neither science, nor technology. Therefore, they have to be led silently. I will tell you about the importance and danger of technology. I will try to simplify the subject and convey my point. Indeed we have specialists in this field who know more than I do, however, I wanted to tackle this issue to make it common knowledge. It will become more like a cultural topic, through which we will achieve technology. Mothers will urge their children not to cheat in their exams, so let us hope that the coming generation will not seek a degree for the sake of it. In fact we need them to be geniuses, capable of inventing things that benefit the nation. Consequently, we will be proud of our ability to achieve progress in the field of technology like other countries.

Firstly, let us consider all means of communications around the world, such as planes and booking offices. Actually, there are twelve countries that let people book tickets. These countries organize everything for the rest of the countries: plane tickets, and dates without any clashes. If we want to achieve this, we really need to use technology.

Secondly, I will tackle the field of agriculture. Can you imagine how the West implements technology in this field nowadays? Actually, it is difficult to explain. They have huge probes, which examine the moisture of the soil, to make sure that water reaches the plants. If the water level is insufficient to reach the plants, the probes send instant signals to sprinklers. Then the sprinklers start watering hundreds of acres of fields. In this way, they avoid any reduction of water level; therefore the product is perfect. Everything is balanced and done through computers, such as the application of fertilizers.

Thirdly, in the field of education, European schools send daily reports about their students' levels in every subject to their parents via e-mail. It is possible to learn from a distance, via computers and modern technology, for example, one can attend university lectures, while staying at home. Furthermore, you can receive the subject matter, take your exams, and then get your results. You can even talk to your university lecturer via a computer and the internet.

Fourthly, in the field of medicine, an operation being performed by a surgeon in London, can be broadcast in real time. He can seek the assistance of another physician in Australia, who watches the surgery at the same time. Unfortunately, we are deprived of such progress. Physicians exchange experiences, opinions and ideas through conferences. They come from various countries such as the United States and Australia. In these conferences they gain experiences and become extremely influential. In addition, computers are capable of designing some complicated medical instruments. Such medical instruments discover diseases and cure them. Actually, curing genetic diseases, interbreeding, improving eugenics of plants and animals are all done by computer. Thus, plants grow healthy and strong, yet we are completely unaware of all this.

As for trade in Europe, each company has its own website from which its customers are able to purchase online, without physically going to the companies. Customers can choose, evaluate and modify goods via the Internet.

In the fields of culture and arts, we cannot not even produce cartoon films for our children, which reflect our culture. All the cartoon films that our children watch are imported. The West produces these films very well and economically. However, if we were to try to produce such films, they would cost a great sum of money, and will still not be as good as their films, due to the lack of machines that manufacture such animation.

In the West, all scientific research and other fields are available online. You can get any information on the field you want, from the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia, by writing the title of the research topic. On the other hand, if you want to get an Arabic book for your PhD, you will have to contact libraries and ask people who may have a copy of it. In fact, there is no such progress in the Arab world as that in the West. Do you now know why today's topic is entitled ‘The Challenge of the Age?’

Now I will direct my speech to women. In fact, if we are keen to achieve such progress, women should be highly cultured in this field to urge their children to be aware of the surrounding circumstances. Youth are required not only to get their university degrees, but also to cope with daily development. Our religion urges us to be active. I would like to give you a word of warning; if we do not change, there will be no hope for us.

Now, a word to the youth, who are interested in surfing the web merely to chat with girls, or visit obscene sites, our nation is deteriorating and is becoming a peripheral of history. Allah (SWT), the Almighty, says in His Glorious Book the Qur'an what can be translated as, “Thus We have made you (true Muslims - real believers of Islamic Monotheism, true followers of Prophet Muhammad and his Sunnah (legal ways)), a just (and the best) nation, that you be witnesses over mankind.” (TMQ, 2:143)[1].

How are we going to bear witness to something that we have no idea about? We are almost outside history. I fear that Allah (SWT) will gather the nation of Muhammad (SAWS[2]) on the Day of Judgment. Then, He will ask all Muslims from the beginning of the Prophet's message to bear witness to the whole of humanity. However, when He asks our generation, they will not be able to bear witness. He will tell us that we are unable to bear witness; hence we are not part of it. Allah (SWT) is fair, He will ask those who have been associated with civilization and have witnessed it. We are detached from the previous two cases. Hence, we will never be granted the right to bear witness to humanity.

This issue is quite relevant to Islam. Therefore, there should be geniuses, who are creative and innovative, to cope with technology. We should not be mere consumers, enjoying whatever is new in this field. At the moment we are incapable of innovation and inventions; we are only consumers, not producers.

The UN report for 2002 states that 0.6% of Arabs use the internet. However, 90% of them use it for accessing obscene sites. Thirty-one percent of Arabs have personal computers. Western scientists are constantly in touch, whereas our Arab scientists are entirely isolated, unaware of what is happening around them. Arab countries are never united. On the other hand, the establishment of the UN resulted in great technical development. It meant that all scientific geniuses were united and exchanged experiences. They cancelled the need for a visa to travel between European countries. They established a railway line that crosses through the whole of Europe.

All countries witness the development of globalisation, and they have no problem with that. Their main concern is technology; to develop their countries and prove their efficiency. However, each Arab country is concerned with its own affairs. Consequently, we will never witness any technical development. The problem is that our scientists never exchange experiences. I will try to find a solution for this problem during this episode.

Let me tell you a strange fact. During the past 20 years, 100 graduates a year from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, have travelled to America to get their PhDs. The overall number of graduates, who left during the last ten years, amounted to 1,000, yet none of them returned to Egypt. They work in America and participate in technical development. Did any one try to solve this problem or did any one think about how we could benefit from them? Whether they are to blame or not, I do not know. I have asked them previously to participate with us in ‘Life Makers,’ while they are in their countries. Today I put it to them that I would like them to help us in achieving development.

I will show you two statistics. The first is concerned with the status of scientific research around the world:

The second is concerned with patents in the field of technology. In 2000, the percentage of patents in the following parts of the world was as follows:

As for the Arab countries they are entirely out of it, because the number of patents was too small to be enlisted in this statistic. I know that you feel frustrated after seeing this, yet, what I aim at is to urge you to change our culture and way of thinking. Let me ask you a question: do you love your religion and your country? Do you have the desire to achieve progress or do you want us to be lacking behind? Let us try to find solutions! Is there any hope for us to change? If the great numbers of youth are well guided, we will get impressive results.

Twenty years ago Korea and Malaysia were underdeveloped. Now, Korea encourages students to study abroad and is keen to make its students come back home. When they do, they are awarded and taken care of. Korea also establishes centres for scientific research, and spends great amounts of money on scientific research. Besides, it launches commercial campaigns, through the media, to encourage technological development. People of Korea are highly cultured in this field. Mothers are keen to raise cultured children. They urge employees to contribute part of their salaries that goes to the expenditure on scientific research. Consequently, they are exempted from paying taxes. Thus, everybody participates in the development of scientific research and technology. We have a glimpse of hope of being like Korea one day and to cope with the latest technology. In the coming 20 years we will be successful due to our insistence and desire for achieving technological development.

This is our reality with technology, and the aim of this episode is to establish scientific superiority. I would like to point out a dangerous issue, more than anything I have discussed in this episode: it is the danger of importing technology. That does not mean that we should destroy any imported technology, of course I do not mean that, but what I mean is the danger of not trying to innovate and becoming dependent on importing technological items, whether they are useful or not.

We now accept anything that is imported, and we are satisfied with being (and I'm sorry to say it) the lower hand and the lower hand has always been the worse of the two. The Prophet (SAWS) always said, “The upper hand is better than the lower hand.” We do not produce, we just import. Even when a factory of the highest level is established in our countries, the machines and motors are imported from foreign countries. The owner of the factory becomes very proud of his machines, but he forgets that they were all manufactured abroad, because we cannot manufacture a machine or a motor. Then this owner becomes proud of the production levels, but this is not production; it is merely assembling imported materials.

I would like to clarify the difference between two words, ‘technology’ and ‘tankology’, from the word tank, which means ‘store.’ When the West is done with their own technology, they send us their poor quality excess, instead of storing it, from cars to machines, pipes, and factories etc. This is tankology, but they always possess the superior technology. They only export what has been used before, and they will never reveal their real technology. They want to keep it to themselves, so that they are always superior in this field. There’s a funny Egyptian proverb, “The kite (similar to a falcon) doesn't give away chicks.”

Consequently, in the field of weapons development, the West is always advancing. What we are allowed to buy from their weapons is not as advanced as the weapons they keep for themselves, so that they could defeat us if they had to use them against us. Even in the field of industry, the same thing happens, and this is their right as long as we are in this state of surrender to them and do not try to depend on ourselves, by manufacturing our own weapons and having our own industry.

We always look forward to what is easy and ready, and as we mentioned before, we celebrate buying the latest mobile phone, and other products, and our state remains stagnant. Are you now aware of the danger of importing technology?

Firstly, using up our resources very inefficiently, and I'll give you an example. In the past, mothers used to buy potatoes, cut them into slices, fry them, and then serve them to her kids. Now what happens? We buy crisps from the supermarket, which are manufactured abroad, the machines are also manufactured abroad, the plastic bag itself in which the crisps are kept is manufactured abroad. It is originally manufactured to suit Westerners, and is made of antioxidant layers; such ingredients are not available in our countries.

I'll give you another example of the danger of importing technology. Sometimes this technology reaches you ‘poisoned.’ All the systems that perform calculations in our banks are imported from abroad, so consequently, if that someone who exports this system to us wants to spy on us, he will do it, because he has knowledge of the internal operation of this system. The same goes with airline operations systems; consequently he can control our airlines, as he owns the main system. He can change the destination of the planes and may subject them to danger, so are we aware of this danger?

An example of Western technology that might be unsuitable for us currently is something they have invented for the working woman: she calls her home phone; it rings and gives a signal to the oven to start heating the food, so that it is ready to be eaten once she reaches home. Do we need such technology? We have to plant our land first, and then eat from it.

Another example is when the West introduces an invention to reduce the human workforce. We already suffer from unemployment, but the West needs this technology because workers are very expensive. In our countries, workers are cheap, so this technology can’t be transferred from their countries to ours. We are unaware of the danger of blindly importing technology, because we are imitators.

Technology is made for the sake of improving the society that produces it, and we depend on others in producing this technology. From what I have said, I want us to start producing our own technology, meaning that inventors and innovators should start appearing in our countries. To the students of the Applied Sciences, to students of the Faculty of Engineering and all other students, I say these words: inventors and innovators should emerge from amongst you, and that's the aim and the message of this episode.

What we need are useful inventions for our societies, and I stress once again that this is a part of our religion. We are worshipping Allah (SWT) by innovating our own technology. As long as we don’t have inventors and innovators, we are all sinners, because there is a minimum adequacy norm, which should be fulfilled by some people, so that the rest wouldn't be judged as sinners on the Day of Judgment. When nobody fulfils it, all people will be judged as sinners; all Muslims will be judged for not producing technology that is useful for our society, for the inadequacy of parents, teachers, and university professors for not guiding the students.

Let us look at the great inventions that have changed history. How was life before inventing paper and before printing? Before Gutenberg invented the printer? How did it feel to those who wanted to write books that needed the effort of 100 people to copy? Do you know why the Muslims' library in Baghdad was destroyed? Because all books at that time had only one copy, and when the Mongols invaded Baghdad and threw the books into the river, the result was the loss of this great treasure of Muslim sciences.

Consequently, if you read a book by Ibnul-Qayyem, you'll find him saying, “And as I mentioned in my book X, but this book does not exist anymore because it was lost with the books that were thrown into the river.” The first thing Gutenberg did when he invented the printer was to make a copy of the Bible, and he admitted that this was the reason for his invention, as he was religious and aware of his religion. Let us compare this to our religious youth who want to leave their studies to study religious sciences. We have hundreds of preachers who can do that work, but how many students of Applied Sciences do we have, who love this religion and want to produce what is useful for it?

Another invention: the rifle, which turned Muslims upside down when Napoleon's campaign reached Egypt. Muslims did not have anything but swords to defend themselves with at that time, whilst Napoleon's soldiers fought using rifles. The result was inevitable.

An invention like electricity, which was invented by Faraday. He was a 14-year-old boy, and was a bookseller until he was 20, but, while working in the bookshop, he kept on reading, until he invented electricity. Therefore, an inventor is not super, unusual or an alien. I'm sure that our youth can do it, and when you see the determination and glitter in their eyes, you'll be sure of their success; all that remains is correct guidance.

Why doesn't another Khawarizmi appear from among us? He was a simple man, but he loved his religion. He discovered Algebra, and he discovered algorithms, which are present in Western science books now. Algorithms give us a way of finding the solution to many mathematical problems. Not only this, he invented something that has changed history, and is considered the most important invention in the field of mathematics, which is the zero. Can we imagine how mathematics was before the invention of the zero? How could computer operations take place without the zero? I will read what he said about his invention, “It's a symbol that points to the number ‘nothing.’” He expressed it by the symbol ‘0,’ and said, “It's not considered negative or positive, and it represents the border between negative and positive numbers.” Then he explained his invention with poetry, as Muslims were well-cultured at that time:

This is al-Khawarizmi, who, when dying, said, “Allah, I worshiped you through my science. Please forgive me.”

I don’t want to talk more than that, but I finally want to say a word to the youth: inventors and innovators must come from amongst you, and for this to happen, four criteria must be satisfied. Firstly, choose the field that you love the most, and be high-spirited.

Secondly, it's not necessary that you study all the subjects of the field that you've chosen; science is not like that anymore. The important thing is to learn and become perfect in some subjects. Then concentrate on a part of these subjects; the result will be a new invention.

Thirdly, persevere in your experiments, even if the experiment fails several times. Edison for example, when he invented the electrical lamp, made 99 wrong trials, and succeeded in the last one.

Fourthly, be patient. When Edison was asked how he succeeded in his invention, his answer was, “Success is 1% ingenuity and 99% hard work.”

We'll start working immediately starting with this episode, so that it would be parallel to the 'Promoting Computer Literacy' project that will help in this field too. We'll start by establishing a website on the internet related to the site www.amrkhaled.net to gather the most possible number of specialists, as well as youth who want to learn technology, in order to help them become innovators. We'll show them the scientific steps, which will be supervised by specialists in that field, and we'll show them the universal technology; there will be conversations and forums. Mr. Ahmad Moharram, whom we introduced before, will be responsible for the site and will talk to us about it. I'd like to say something about him in brief: he won the 'Best Industrial Innovation' award in 1999 from the Arabic Organization for Industrialisation. He's an innovator and young like you. He also won the 'Best Database Security System' award from the same organization in 1999, and then he won a third award for the 'Best Industrial Universal Site' in 1999. He has a site on the internet, and the ‘Universal Industrial Sites’ union granted that last award to him. I'm trying to fill you with enthusiasm by telling you this, he will be responsible for the site, as he is the one who will develop the website, and we'll explain how to get in contact with him.

Mr. Ahmad Moharram: “In fact, we said that we would establish a site on the internet, on www.amrkhaled.net, and here an important question emerges: there are many sites on the internet, so why develop this site? What is so special about it? Firstly, this site will specialize in technology and is directed to the ‘Life Makers team.’ The first and most important thing in this site is the presence of a group of specialized forums, as technology has numerous branches, and each branch will have its own forum. The aim of these forums is that in each branch there are those who have knowledge and science in this specific field. However, innovations come only when someone who has an idea in a certain branch of these branches, meets someone who has another idea, so they talk and discuss, and take ideas from each other, and this results in producing a new idea.

“In fact there's another forum that's very important for specialists in branches other than technology. They will have a special forum for them, to help them know the sites they should visit, to meet the specialists that can help them with the technology of their field. Through this site, we aim to establish a place for those who are experienced, not only for the development of a particular technology, but for the development in all other fields that lead to this technology.

“One of the important things on the site is a library that contains free books and lectures, and those who are responsible for preparing this library are specialists either from inside or outside the Arab countries. In addition, they will also have had hands-on experience in developing technology, and may be from inside or outside our countries. There will be links between our site and all other sites that can offer help of that kind to people.

“Nowadays, all specialized scientists in the field of technology log onto the internet, and find numerous sites that could be used to search for the latest developments that will be useful for them in their fields. We’ll save them this time by creating a news page. The specialist will just enter the site, and then his field will determine what data should appear on the site, which will show him the recent pieces of information in this field. We won't only save them time, but we'll also make use of the time they will dedicate to others. In this way, we'll spare the specialist's time, so that in return he would help others on the site.

“Another very important point is that if we take a look at the number of projects that are accomplished in the Faculties of Engineering, and especially in our countries, we find that the number is very huge. All these projects are wasted after students graduate, and this is wrong. There should be a way to gather these projects on the site. Therefore, there will be a page on the site that aims at gathering all the projects, applied research and innovations from the members that visit the site, to facilitate searching.

“All the aforementioned is not enough. We have a very serious problem, namely the gap between education on one hand, and production and services on the other hand. Youth specialize in certain fields, but they are not aware of business needs. They are also unaware of what companies needs are, with respect to their capabilities after their graduation. On the other hand, we find that all companies lack the experience of choosing the right graduate, who can be useful to the company, or who can help in its development.

“Also amongst other issues are the educational establishments. How many educational establishments offer the high school student the opportunity to get to know the subjects he will study in college? Actually, the choice depends on the high school graduation grade; if their score enables them to join more than one faculty; they chooses the faculty that sounds better, but are they aware of the details of the educational curricula? How can we solve such a problem? Actually this problem is a problem of communication. When the student enters the site, they will register their data, for example, whether they is a student or a graduate, whether they have any experiences or not, what he has studied and what he wishes to study.

“On the other hand, we need each team of the ‘Life Makers’ teams in the Arab countries to collect data about companies and scientific corporations, as well as their requirements, their private data and the specialties that they need when hiring employees. As we mentioned before, they will register this data on the site. This way will enable the youth, after graduation, to search through companies, as their data is present on the site, in order to find the company that will offer them a suitable job. The site will give youth the capability of seeking out the scientific corporations which provide a match between their preferred specialty and the company's needs. Next Saturday at 9:00 p.m. on www.amrkhaled.net, there will be a meeting with specialists, and then we'll tell you the results.”

Now we have reached the end of the episode. The site will be established, and you'll meet our brother Ahmad Moharram on Saturday, 9:00 p.m. All those who are interested in technological issues, will consider all these ideas and study them, and determine the way to reach innovation. Then the site will start working, and this will be the first step to gather those who are interested in technology together.

The second issue of promoting computer literacy is very important, because it's the main door to everything that we have talked about in this episode. You have to be patient. To our housewives, I say this: please learn how to use a computer. Also children are asked to learn. We’ll go on with this project, and give it a great deal of effort until we overcome this illiteracy, by promoting the computer literacy of 20 or 30 or 40 thousand people. Enter the site, and tell us the number of people whose literacy you've helped to promote. Last but not least, we want you to vote for the visions (posted on the site) in the field of technology.

[1] TMQ=Translation of the Meaning of the Qur'an. This translation is for the realized meaning, so far, of the stated (Surah:Ayah) of the Qur'an. Reading the translated meaning of the Qur'an can never replace reading it in Arabic, the language in which it was revealed.

[2] Sala-llahu Alahi Wa Salam = All Prayers and Peace of Allah be upon him.

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