Transhumanism and Islam - Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad

The trend of transhumanism is gaining popularity across the world, first and foremost in the West where it originated. Its symbol is a circle with the letter “H” for “human” and the plus sign: H . The supporters of this trend enthusiastically accept all modern technology and take the idea of progress to its logical conclusion. In their opinion, the enhancement of technology is leading humanity to a state in which more perfect beings can be artificially created out of the human species. This is to be achieved by refining all parts of the human body by means of replacing them with artificial attachments that are indistinguishable from body parts and internal organs. This includes the technological simulation of consciousness or the registration of consciousness in different “receivers”, the cartography or mapping of the brain. The latest discoveries in the genome structure allow organisms to be corrected and their quality to be enhanced on a fundamental level. H is a new level of humanity which will be free from disease, imperfections, and will ultimately achieve physical immortality. The body will be able to be changed or corrected and, at some point, even printed by 3-D printers. Virtual networks will become humans’ new habitat and will gradually come to completely replace our normal reality. Compared to H , the utopias or dystopias of The Lawnmower Man or The Matrix will become something archaic and overcome. Transhumanism is not simply a pastime for eccentrics, designers, or technological progress’ fanatics. It is the result of the last few centuries over the course of which humanity has come to seriously believe in the myth of progress and evolution. H is the final, logical conclusion of the modern era, Modernity. The main idea of Modernity was liberating man from any and all constraints. First, they started with religion, tradition, and caste society, and then they fell the State and nation in favour of civil society. Then they abolished the normative view of gender and the normal family, legalizing the most diverse forms of gender mutations and perversions. And all of this took place against the backdrop of the technological development of new forms of production, computers, and advances in programming and the synthesis of new materials. Ideology and technology gradually merged into something one and indivisible. Technological progress has become an ideological factor, and ideology has, in turn, become nothing other than technology. Hence the replacement of classical political forms with spin doctors. Now we have come to the final phase of humanity’s liberation from its limitations. In the West, there is already no longer any religion, political hierarchies, normal families, or State in the fullest sense of the word. All borders have been completely crossed, i.e., transgressed. Now all that remains is one final step: overcoming the boundaries of the human species itself. This is H – the last word of liberalism. Transhumanism is no bizarre side product of technological development – it is the logical end of the modern age. According to Modernity, we were supposed to reach the age of cyborgs, hybrids, mutants, and chimaeras, and now we have arrived. Of course, the vast majority of humanity today are not ready to become cyborgs or mutants. But no one asked the majority of mankind. All history is made by elites. The masses are never ready for anything. But this means absolutely nothing. They are not ready – they are being prepared, and no one even notices. Transhumanism is inevitable if we accept the main trend of the modern era, faith in progress, development, and the betterment of humanity. This religion, or rather pseudo-religion of progress was introduced to Europe and the world by the Enlightenment. This heresy gradually replaced or pushed into the periphery all traditional forms of religion, first and foremost Christianity. It is impossible to stop halfway on this path of progress. Saying “a,” we have to say “b,” “c,” “d”, and all the other letters of the alphabet. H is the last letter. Henceforth only computer language begins. The only ones who are on the opposite side of post-humanism are consistent and fundamental traditionalists. They reject not only the final mutation, but all of the Modernity, the very idea of progress and development, the scientific image of the world, and democracy and liberalism. Instead, traditionalists affirmed and affirm God, Church, Empire, caste, power, and folk customs. Not progress. The modern world is not progress, but the result of decline. It is the kingdom of the Antichrist. Fighting against H to reject the final transformation dictated by the very logic of the liberal ideology of Modernity while still accepting other aspects of Modernity is meaningless. Transhumanism is the inevitable tomorrow if we agree with what our today is. If we want to change our fate, we must go back in time and understand where we committed the fatal mistake.