Jamal-al-Din Afghani

It is not the religious beliefs, whether right or wrong, which are opposed to culture and material progress, but that belief which prohibits learning of sciences, earning one's livelihood and the ways of culture.

Sayyid Muḥammad ibn Ṣafdar Husaynī (1838–1897), known primarily as Sayyid Jamāl-al-dīn al-Afghānī or Sayyid Jamāl-al-dīn Asadābādī, was a Muslim political activist in Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. He was one of the founders of Islamic modernism and an advocate of pan-Islamic unity.

Quotes

• The world is a game of chess; the loser loses and the winner wins.
  • As quoted in Jamāḷ al-Dīn al-Afghāni: A Muslim intellectual (1984) by Anwar Moazzam, p. 3

• It is not the religious beliefs, whether right or wrong, which are opposed to culture and material progress, but that belief which prohibits learning of sciences, earning one's livelihood and the ways of culture. I do not believe that there is any religion in the world which opposes these things. I would rather say that it is non-believing which inevitably leads to disorder and distortion of culture as in the case of the Nihilists.
  • As quoted in Jamāḷ al-Dīn al-Afghāni: A Muslim intellectual (1984) by Anwar Moazzam, p. 13

External links

• Jamal-Al-Din Afghani profile in Encyclopedia Iranica
• Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani profile
• Seyyed Jamaluddin Asadabadi, the Founder of the Pan-Islamic Front
• Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani's Profile at Afhani.net
• Al-Afghani’s Response to Imperialism by Richard Seymour (11 May 2009)