One of the most influential figures on the founding fathers of America was John Locke (d.1704), he was a philosopher and physician, regarded by the west as one of the most influential thinkers in western history and known as the “Father of Classical Liberalism”.
He helped western civilization come out of the Dark Ages it was still in, Europe had to move away from the rule of the totalitarian Church that rejected science and advancement in order to preserve it’s power over the world, and this was achieved by relying on the works and intellectual thought of various figures through western history, John Locke was one such figure.
In John Locke’s Biography, to the intellectual origins of American society the most influential individual on Locke’s life was Edward Pococke, he was the teacher at Oxford for Arabic and Islamic studies.
At the end of the Dark Ages Europe was in, the very first edict of toleration occurs in the 17th century in Budapest, it was done by a transelvanian unitarian ruler (a christian who did not believe in the trinity), he was directly under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire and paid the Jizya tax for protection from other European nations at a time when they still conquered each other. Essentially he called for the very same policies the Ottomans where using in their states, and he was the first ruler to freely allow protestants to come into his land when they where being persecuted through out Europe, this later became a model to be emulated.
The Ottoman muslims offered refuge to protestants who where being persecuted under catholic rule, they also offered refuge to the jews in sarajevo and those who fled Spain from the inquisition and went to Morocco. Historically Jews where treated very well in Muslim lands and reached many positions of influence, for example Rabbi Musa Bin Maimun (Maimonides) who was considered one of the greatest Rabbi’s in Jewish history was the personal Physician of Salah al Deen Ayubi (Saladin in the west) who defeated the crusaders and won back Jerusalem from Richard the king of England.
John Locke and Isaac Newton were both Unitarians or Socinians, and were influenced by Muslim philosophical thought, they in turn were among the great influences on the Founding Fathers of America, like Thomas Jefferson.
Much of what is found in the American constitution is borrowed from Islamic philosophical thought, this can be established by John Locke’s influence upon them. As John Locke was Arian, Socinian and what is termed today as Unitarian, he was not only directly influenced by muslim scholars he was accused of being a muslim in his time.
John Locke and Isaac Newton (1642-1727) where friends and graduates from Oxford University, and like Locke Newton was also Unitarian and was accused of being a muslim in his time.
Both Locke and Newton taught at Oxford university, when they where teaching they hid there positions on many issues because of the persecution that others suffered before them. Both had a friendship with Henry Stubbe (1632-1676) who as a result of apposing the monarchy and rule of the Church, along with the establishment, studied christian theology only to later revolt against it and their position on how they imposed authority on people, it was after he challenged them that he began studying Islam, which unlike Europe had a diverse community of people peacefully living alongside each other within it’s borders so he wanted to see how this could come about in Europe.
During that time studying Islam, reading and having a copy of the Quran was a crime, hence they hid where they were taking all of there information from and what the sources where, they wrote books on the prophet Muhammad (saws), about the myth that Islam was spread by the sword, and how Islamic theology was the original and correct monotheistic theology, relied upon by earlier Christian Saints like Saint Augustine and other influential Christian Theologians, ‘it had come to purify the corruption that was caused by the Church and the Christians from the third century onwards’.
This corruption occurred when the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine (d 337AD), adopted Christianity as the state religion, He then decided through the council of Nicaea in 325AD, what the nature of the “Son of God” was, this question itself was only relevant to the Romans because in their pagan religion they already worship a trinity so the duplicate question was posed to the Romans who were now forced to read a bible they had no cultural connection to and had been persecuting for 300 years.
The label “son of god” was used to prove their argument, but itself was a Jewish term for the prophet’s of Allah, existing for thousands of years before hand, and was never exclusive to Jesus (ra).
The pagan outcome of this council then shouldn’t be surprising considering that none of the earlier religions of Allah, had claimed this Roman trinity which already existed among them. The religion of Abraham was entirely monotheistic right back to the first days of Man. Constantine through this same council would then decide which books to include in the Bible and which to exclude, all other books were subsequently burned and their followers massacred, as later archeological evidence would show.
These Unitarian Christians wished to purify christianity of this corruption, they wrote to Muslim Khalifs and ambassadors that, we are closer to you than our closeness to established Christianity, this occurred after the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century.
The hole of the 17th century was marred by the controversies of the Socinians, and controversies between the Church and Monarchy. John Locke who was a major influence on the American constitution itself, studied the Islamic work “Hayy bin Yaqzan” by the muslim philosopher Ibn al Tufail (d.1185) which caused him to conclude that whatever Christianity and monarchy where offering are against human nature, a concept now known as Tabula Rasa (that man was born with a blank slate) was developed and he became the father of empiricism, (that knowledge only comes from sensory perception), along with materialism and the modern sciences.
In contrast to Tabula Rasa St. Augustin viewed man as originally sinful being born with a disposition, the Cartesian position holds that man innately knows basic knowledge, that we are born with innate ideas. Tabula Rasa and innatism, or the idea of a blank slate became very common in the european world from the beginning of the thirteenth century through the translations of Islamic texts, innate means something which is in the nature of the human being, and in Islam this was termed “Fitrah”, man was born with the innate belief in God, but was otherwise a blank slate molded by his parents and society.
Thomas Jefferson was to be the lead author of the American Declaration of Independence from the British Empire, the declaration was to outline their beliefs regarding man and the reason for their split from the church controlled Monarchies. Jefferson and therefore the Declaration of Independence, was heavily influenced by John Locke, it can be seen from the list of reasons given to separate from the British Empire, Locke’s words, ideas and theories coming into play.
John Locke had given the four inalienable (Maqasid) rights of Man in his writings, Locke’s own treatises provide everyone with a right to defend their life, health, liberty or possessions.
One of the most noticeable instances of direct Islamic influence is in the preamble, where the Declaration of Independence proclaims the right of every man to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
Maqasid is an Islamic term for goals and purpose, after imam Shafii developed the science of Usul al Fiqh (principles of jurisprudence), many later scholars, from the 8th century onwards, began to write works of legal theory on the Maqasid of Shariah, or the aims and intents of Islamic Law, through these the rights and liberties of Man were clearly outlined and among the most famous scholars was Imam al Ghazali (d.1111).
Jefferson in the declaration summarized Locke’s “Maqasid” into three and preferred to include what other earlier muslim scholars thought should be part of the Maqasid, and that is the pursuit of Happiness.
The Declaration of Independence explains the reasons for splitting with the British Empire, it borrows heavily from Locke’s Second Treatise, which is noticeable in the almost identical preamble, but also the idea of a Natural Law (or Locke’s state of nature). Their reasons for absolving Great Britain rule was mirrored in Locke’s idea of Representative Government, which was translated into their form of Democracy.
One of the first to detail the idea of Democracy was the muslim scholar al Farabi (d.950), he devised the different kinds of governments and concluded that the Democratic government was the government which is ruled by the people for the sake of the people, using this exact expression.
Thomas Jefferson himself incorporated many ideas from the European enlightenment which was inspired by Islamic text that were being translated on Mass to Europe to fuel these new thoughts in order to rid it of the Dark Age it was in. The right of the people to “alter or to abolish” unjust governments; the idea that it is the governments job to secure “unalienable rights”; the idea of popular sovereignty, governments derive their power from the “consent of the governed”; the idea that “all men are created equal”; these are all ideas that the enlightenment thinkers shared.
Many of the issues raised by John Locke and Thomas Jefferson are the exact terminologies or translations of the Quranic words, basically huquq al Insan, consent of the governed, and all men are created equal, are taken from the work of Ibn Tufail. John Locke believed there existed a social contract between government and its citizens as government derived its power from the consent of the governed and that people should rebel against a government that violated their natural rights; the natural rights referred to are “life, liberty and possessions.”
By this time in history the Maqasid of Shariah, Islamic Law, where well developed and three out of the famous “five Maqasid of Islamic Shariah” were used by John Locke in the Declaration of Independence. The declaration interchanges “possessions” with “pursuit of happiness” which some muslim Scholars believed should be included in the five Maqasid of Shariah.
The ideas that Jefferson adopted from Islam became central to the United States Government, they would eventually be incorporated into the constitution and then ground the argument of future revolutionaries both in the United States and around the world.
The Declaration of Independence was paraphrased from John Locke’s 1693 work “Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government”, Presidents Adams and Madison later acknowledged that these truths where already present and borrowed from elsewhere and that “the objective (of the declaration) was to assert and not discover truth”.
Al Farabi (872-950) wrote on the ideal state in a book called “al Madina al Fadila”, An Ideal State, in it he divided the states into the ideal muslim states, beginning with the prophetic state, then the democratic, then comes the dictatorship (oligarchy and monarchy), he then says the best of these is the Islamic State in which the prophet or the leader (Imam) is a philosopher and a righteous person guided by Allah (swt), the second best is then the Democratic state.
The best state for Al Farabi is one that is comprised of true justice, proportionate equality, and a body of citizens who are willing to fulfil the tasks (skills) naturally endowed to them.
Al Farabi explains the most important principle of Democracy to be its freedom and that of the six Government types, including tyranny and oligarchy, the regime of Democracy occupies the privileged position of supplying the most solid and the best starting point for the establishment of the virtuous human beings.
A Democracy promotes the concept of “rule by the people” which are the exact words of al Farabi.
Democracy is the last step towards the Ideal state where Human beings enjoy freedoms, where everybody has a role not because they have to earn money or because of political influence but because this is their human right given to them by Allah. The best of the rulers are the ones who give the upmost freedoms to every individual in the state. And the best human beings are those who use there freedoms to accomplish to the best of their ability, in other words Ihsan or Human Perfection.
Al Farabi was one of the first to use the word Democratic (Democratiya) in the 9th century, which originally came from Greek but its etymology doesn’t agree with its modern understanding; “The Democratic city is one in which each one of the citizens is given free reign and left alone to do whatever he likes. Its citizens are equal and their laws say that no man is in any way at all better than any other man…And no one…has any claim to authority unless he works to enhance their freedom…those who rule them do so by the will of the ruled, and the rulers follow the wishes of the ruled”, Al Farabi essentially helped shape the modern understanding of the term Democracy.
The Etymology of democracy (n.) as western historians traced, goes back to the 1570s, from Middle French democratie (14c.), and from Medieval Latin democratia (13c.). It can’t be traced any further with it’s current definition except through Islamic works which took it from the Greek word demokratia “popular government”, the word comes from two Greek words, demos meaning “common people”, but whose originally ancient Greek meaning was “district” (as apposed to nation, see demotic), and kratos “rule, strength”. To the Greeks the word did not represent Democratic rule, this definition was given to it by Al Farabi because that was the outline of his Book in which he used it as the second best form of government after prophetic government.
Al Faraby in the 9th century was addressing the issue of rulers, who thought they where an exception to the rule of Shariah, Al Farabi said that the Islamic state of the present day was better than the other models being used such as Monarchy and Oligarchy but the ruling class was not accountable to those they ruled, they where not following the islamic injunction of Shura (consultation of the people), mentioned in the Quran in the chapter entitled al Shurah (the Consultation) and they were restricting freedoms, this eventuated when the original Islamic Khalifah, itself founded upon Shura, or a democratic vote was turned into Dynasties by later rulers.
In the Islamic state there was much freedom, you could say what you wish and express your self freely but the exception was don’t address the ruling class. Al Faraby was addressing this issue and suggesting that to them they have not reached the level of the democratic state, and ruling by the wishes of those ruled. He suggested to the rulers that they should follow the Democratic state and then move towards the ideal state of the Prophetic Khalifah that originally existed in Madina after the prophets (saws) death.
The first four Khalifahs of Islam known as the rightly guided Khalifahs, or al Rashidun throughout history, where known and characterized by their Shura (consultation) with the people, while later Khalifs, although they applied the laws of Shariah they where closer to a Monarchy in how they governed and rule was passed on to their sons.
Al Farabi’s three Principles for Democracy were
1) Al Musaawa, Equality, All Human Beings are equal.
2) Itq or Liberty, Freedom.
3) La-ikrah, there is no compulsion in religion (2:256), Financial and Social Freedom
Three of the five objectives of Islamic Law (Maqasid al Shariah) were used in the American constitution and are translated from al Faraby into english as, Human Equality, Liberty and Freedom of Expression. From the 9th century until the 17th century these were the ideas being incorporated by the intellectual scholars of Europe.
The problem in Islamic lands was that the ruling class where not responsible to the common people, the Oligarchy of the Ottomans was criticised by Rasul Allah (saws) himself, they conquered and put an end the other major Khalifahs in the world and hoarded power until their eventual decline.
These three ideals were understood from the earliest days of Islam, that if man’s basic needs where not taken care of and secured he could not pursue higher forms of knowledge, man needed to be free in his life in order to be capable of dedicating it and perfecting his pursuits.
Imam Abu Hanifah (d.767) the founder of one of Islam’s four legal schools of thought understood this clearly, he was himself wealthy because of his trade and on account of this understanding he used to take care of the basic needs of his students so they where not distracted by securing a livelihood, they could dedicate themselves fully to knowledge and religion.
Al Farabi enjoys the concept of Equal opportunity for happiness because he believes citizens should be able to equally engage in whatever they may choose, “the actions that are determined and directed toward happiness strengthen the part of the soul that is naturally equipped for happiness, and actualise and perfect it to the extent that the power resulting from the perfection is achieved through political activities”. (Al Farabi, On Political Science, Jurisprudence and Theology, P.38)
This is the source of the pursuit of happiness of Thomas Jefferson, and is one of the Maqasid that some Islamic scholars thought should be included among the five main Maqasid of Shariah that was being taught to Islamic students of Law.
Regarding Freedom and Equality which are the Foundation of “rule by the People”, the two principles that define the basis of Al Farabi’s authoritative powers; “Authority is justified only on the basis of the preservation and promotion of freedom and equality”.
Thomas Jefferson wrote about Roger Bacon, John Locke and Isaac Newton…“I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences”.
Regarding Tabula Rasa, Locke’s “theory of the mind” is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau and Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He Postulated that the mind was a blank slate or Tabula Rasa.
John Locke’s formulation of Tabula Rasa in an Essay concerning human understanding was influenced by a 17th century translation of “Philosophus Autodidactus”, a publication by Edward Pococke of the Arabic philosophical novel “Hayy ibn Yaqzan” (Lit. “Alive, Son of the Awake”), written by the 12th century Andalusian Islamic Philosopher and novelist Ibn Tufail (d.1185) also known as Abubacer or Ebn Tophail in the west.
The word Tabula Rasa is used by Ibn Tufail whom they took it from, the word “Ra’s” means head, “tabula” means cabinet, and was originally a latin term. Contrary to pre-existing Cartesian philosophy, He maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception.
Ibn Tufail demonstrated the theory of tabula rasa as a thought experiment through his Arabic Philosophical novel Hayy ibn Yaqzan, in which, he depicted the development of the mind of a wild child “from a Tabula Rasa to that of an adult, in complete isolation from society” on a desert island through his experiences alone, the Island is what gave the child the blank slate that freed him from the preconceptions of society and was a discussion on the Islamic concept of Fitrah.
In a number of famous narrations, the prophet (saws) discussed Fitrah, or mans natural disposition when he is born. Abu Hurairah said that the prophet (saws) said, “No one is born except upon natural instinct, then his parents turn him into a Jew or Christian or Magian. As animals produce their young with perfect limbs, do you see anything defective? Abu hurairah said, “Recite the verse if you wish: Direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth, the nature of Allah upon which He has created the people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.”(30:30). (Bukhari and Muslim)
Philosophus Autodidactus inspired the concept of Tabula Rasa, which was developed in “An essay concerning human understanding” (1690) by John Locke, he was a student of Pococke, and who referred to his translation of the novel as a “novelty”. Philosophus Autodidactus also inspired Robert Boyle, another acquaintance of Pococke, to write his own philosophical novel set on an island, called “The Aspiring Naturalist”.
The First english translation of Hayy Ibn Yakzan was published by George Ashwell in 1686, based on Pockoke’s latin translation. The first translation of the Arabic original, entitled “The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the life of Hayy Ebn Yakdhan”, was published shortly after by Simon Ockely in 1708, followed by two more English translations. Baruch Spinoza also read the work and soon encouraged a Dutch translation published by his friend Johannes Bouwmeester in 1672. Another Dutch translation, De natuurlijke wijsgeer, was published by Adrian Reland in 1701.
Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677) was a jew living in Holland, among the jewish scholars, he was thought to have one of the most critical minds and applied the same thoughts upon Jewish Theology and scriptures, the work also influenced Charles Darwin and his family.
To modern man and society Spinoza was almost like a prophet, and to Jews he is an Atheist because he revolutionized their theology. He was the one who first requested the translation of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, two into the German language and another into Nederland. He also distributed it all over the region including Paris, France, where it was received by Sorbonne University, the most powerful university in France and was the centre of the french revolution, for which they where thankful and delighted with it, the work was Praised as an excellent example of classical Arabic Philosophy.
Many early and modern European scholars and writers were also influenced by “Philosophus Autodidactus”, they included Melchisedech Thevenot, John Wallis, Christian Huygens, George Keith, Robert Barclay, the Quakers, Samuel Hartlib, Karl Marx and Voltaire, these are the scholars and leaders of the enlightenment. The English translation of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan was known to the Royal Society and the New England Company in North America by 1721, when Cotton Mather’s the Christian Philosopher cited Hayy Ibn Yaqzan as an influence. Despite condemning the Mahometans as infidels, Mather viewed the protagonist of the novel, Hayy, as a model for his ideal ‘Christian Philosopher’ and monotheistic scientists’. Mather also viewed Hayy as a noble savage and applied this in the context of understanding the Native American “indians” in order to convert them to puritan Christianity.
After Locke changed his ideas and beliefs because of the work, he began to write books and was accused of being Socinian (Unitarian Christian).
Unitarians where impressed by the Ottoman civilization and the concept of oneness of God, and Jesus as his prophet along with Islamic theology, they where accused of everything including being turkish.
Traditionally Unitarians (see the Council of Rimini and Arianism), were declared heretic by the council of Nicaea in 325 which now adopted a Roman pagan Trinity, but before this time there where also ebionites, the first Christians were the Jews who believed that Jesus was the Jewish messiah. They used an early Gospel of Matthew, and their beliefs are in accordance with the earliest reports of the gospels of Luke and Matthew, and with Jewish prophecy, they were also known as “Nazarene”, and so the very first followers of Jesus were called the Nazoreans, a term used in the Quran.
As a consequence to all this in the 17th century there where people who wrote many books saying the original christianity was Nazrean and called for a stop to the corruption, to follow the Nazrean monotheistic faith or to go back to Arianism.
As a result of their work the church accused Newton and the Unitarians of not following the Bible but the Quran, and called for their deaths, these are the same people who now influenced modern Philosophy and science. (Source: This section is primarily based on the work of Zulfikar Shah).