Islam and the Discovery of Freedom By Rose Wilder Lane, with an introduction and commentary by Imad-ad- Dean Ahmad. Amana Publications and Minaret of Freedom Institute, I997, 86 pp.

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and was withdrawn from circulation after its publication by the author herself,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 ...