Islam and the Discovery of Freedom

Abstract

This very stimulating and perceptive work was born out of the author’s solid conviction that freedom is the ideal that all societies should strive for and that the history of humanity has been one of constant struggle against oppressive forces of authority in order to realize this utopia. The original edition of her work, The Discovery of Freedom: Man’s Struggle Against Authority, unfortunately lacked academic credibility due to several factual errors it contained, and was withdrawn from circulation after its publication by the author herself, and would have been relegated to the obscurity of history were it not for the work of Dr. had-ad-Dean Ahmad. He chose to concentrate on the section of her work relating to Islam and published it separately from the original version under this new title, Islam and the Discovery of Freedom. By providing detailed annotations and a running commentary throughout, as well as rectifying most of the historical errors, he has been able to redeem the force and quality of the author’s original argument. Although more famously known for her mother’s best selling book, Little House on the Prairie, Rose Wilder Lane (18861968) was a journalist dedicated to the cause of freedom as well as a best selling author and biographer in her own right. She acquired her knowledge of Islam through her work for the Red Cross just after the First World War when she documented their activities in Russia, the Balkans and the Middle East. To understand the important place Mrs. Lane has given to Islam one has to understand the central thesis of her original work. She maintains that mankind has made three notable attempts to free itself from the shackles of oppressive power and authority. The first attempt was orchestrated by the Prophet Abraham, the second by the Prophet Muhammad and the third, though less radical, resulted from the American Revolution. Her study highlights the dangers of unbalanced distribution of power, for she argues that vesting total control and authority in a single leader or small group of people is highly dangerous as the word and opinion of that authority can very easily become Law, suppressing, and even persecuting, all those with different views. Furthermore, she asserts that this state of affairs is nowhere more apparent nor more dangerous than in the societies whose leader(s) claim to speak for or act in accordance with “the will of God.” The example of Abraham is used to reflect a society where superstition and the capricious will of its gods dominated all areas of life. It is a type of control ...