The great scientific legacy of Muslims
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The great scientific legacy of Muslims

Islam spread from Arabia to North Africa and from North Africa to Europe. This golden age lasted from 9th to the 13th century.

Post by on Tuesday, January 4, 2022

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The Qur’an places great emphasis on education, learning and seeking knowledge. The modern West attributes the Muslim world as conservative and religious fanatics, but in the Middle Ages, when the West was plunged into the darkness of ignorance, the Muslim world was the custodian of knowledge and wisdom. Islam encouraged them to understand the universe and excavate the assets created by Almighty Allah (SWT).

During the 11thcentury, a Muslim physician was summoned by a Christian pastor to his tent and asked to treat a horseman who had an abscess on his leg. As soon as the patient began to feel better with the treatment of the Muslim physician, a French Christian doctor entered into the tent, pushed the Muslim physician aside, and asked the patient: ‘What is better for you, to live with one leg or to die with two?’. At the same time, he struck him on the leg with a heavy hammer, but a single blow did not work. The second decisive blow caused a splash of blood from the patient’s leg and he died on the spot.The Muslim physician came out of the tent and said that this is the knowledge of Christians and their medical abilities. This one incident is enough to show the difference in medical potentiality between Muslims and Christians. The research and knowledge of the contemporary world is based on the scientific discoveries of the Muslim scientists of that time, who revealed all sources of knowledge. They discovered new ways in Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Chemistry, and other branches of knowledge that are being used by the whole world today, but, unfortunately, the West is not ready to accept this reality due to its traditional prejudice.

In the early Islamic era, there was a fierce Cold War between Christians and Muslims. The two civilizations considered each other as barbaric, ignorant, and far from the real world. In Europe, the Muslims were thought to be wild beasts, while the Muslims described the people of Europe as cruel human beings. The accusations levelled at each other on both sides were largely false, but the portrayal of the West by Muslims was closer to the truth. Throughout this period, knowledge was limited to the church in the West, especially the Christian clergy who considered knowledge to be a taboo subject for the common man, but on the other hand, knowledge was spreading among the common people among the Muslims.

Islam spread from Arabia to North Africa and from North Africa to Europe. This golden age lasted from the 9thto the 13th century. During this period the Muslims were highly advanced, modern, and scientific.Because of this knowledge, they took a small island and reached the Indus River in the east and northern Spain in the west. They didn’t dominate the world by any coercement, but their greatest defense was the importance of knowledge in Islam, and the promotion of Islamic culture. Unlike other religions, Islam is a system free from the discrimination of caste and creed; rather it is completely based on justice where religious harmony is highly respected and highly encouraged.

When Tariq ibn Ziyad set foot in Spain in 711 C.E., he was astonished that the locals did not show much resistance; rather they warmly welcomed the Muslim army, as the locals at that time were fed up with the persecution of the Christian rulers. This conquest opened new avenues for Muslim development and trade due to which the religious and secular sciences began to spread rapidly in the society. Cordova, in southern Spain, was one of the most beautiful and ideal areas in the world during Muslim rule. There were six thousand mosques, and innumerable libraries, in which the largest library belonged to the caliph consisting of more than five lakh books on various subjects. The streets of all the cities were lit up and decorated during the night. On the other hand, the big cities of the West, London and Paris, were plunged into darkness. The Muslim merchants, princes, and caliphs were always surrounded by experts of knowledge and wisdom. The caliph who had the most philosophers and scientists around him was the most respected in society.

Caliph Mamun founded Bait-ul-Hikmah in 830 C.E. in Baghdad, where scientists, scholars, and philosophers spent hours, days, and even months in discussing, writing, and researching science, mathematics, physics, philosophy, and other sciences. They translated Greek knowledge and philosophy into Arabic and equally promoted it. These translations provided the basis for the Muslims to excel in knowledge and wisdom. It is the Qur’an that says, Travel through the land and observe how He began creation”. (AL-Qur’an, 29:20). Through these sciences, the understanding of the Qur’an and its progressive interpretation opened new avenues of knowledge and wisdom for the welfare of the whole of humanity. During this period, knowledge, rationality, and consciousness were not considered sins like other religions, rather Islam encouraged these sources, and declared them obligatory and necessary tools for the betterment of humanity, and to know the universe and its Creator. This thinking produced great scholars, philosophers, and researchers in the Muslim world during this era. Although education was provided in the Arabic language at that time, and whenever a new book or new research in another language was published, it was translated into Arabic because Arabic was the language of knowledge and wisdom in the world as is the English language today, due to which the Muslims performed remarkable feats in education.

The greatest invention in mathematics was the determination of prayer times. In the 8th century, the Muslim mathematician Khwarizmi wrote a small book on numbers, which revolutionized mathematics. Knowledge of the stars was necessary to check the direction of the Kabbah during prayers. While searching for the direction of the Kabbah, the Muslims gained a great deal of knowledge from astronomy and stars. Especially the equator of the earth, the diameter of the earth is due to the efforts of the Muslim scientists.

In the 11th century, Muslim scientists invented the treatment of connecting the bones of the nose and ears and cleaning the membranes of the eyes and the wounds. Through their constant scientific struggle, efforts and experiences, they understood the various components of the human body and discovered their cure. In the same century, Al-Razi discovered the cure for measles. The greatest philosopher of Islam in medicine was Ibn Sina, who acquired the knowledge of medicine in different languages, from different countries and compiled it in one book “Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb”. The book was then the most important medicinal encyclopaedia in the world and was taught in schools and universities all over the world and even today it is included in the curriculum of many universities.

In addition, Muslims were also experts in running modern pharmacies and hospitals of that time. Al-Adudi Hospital’ in Baghdad was the largest, most famous, and well-equipped hospital in the world in the 11th century, where doctors, physicians, and medicine specialists would travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to teach and research Medicine. There was another hospital in Cairo ‘Bimaristan al-Mu’ayydi’ (also known as Maristan), where all kinds of diseases were treated. The hospital consisted of one thousand beds, twice as large as the largest Rex Hospital in Norway today. Muslims at that time did research in the same way, using the same scientific methods that are used today in western universities and research centres. 

With the return of Christian rule in Spain in the 12th century, the knowledge, research, and wisdom of the Muslims transferred to the Christians. Narrow and fanatical thinking began to restrict the mental freedom of Muslims in various ways. The message of the Qur’an, which made the Muslims curious about research and discovery, gave the whole world treasures of knowledge but with the passage of time narrow-mindedness creeped among Muslims, the consequences of which are still being felt by the Muslims till date. Muslim scholars and scientists who were well-versed in astronomy and mathematical were excluded from Islam because mathematics was declared against faith by some Muslim theologians.

Today every fifth person on earth is a Muslim. From South Asia to West Asia there is an important geographical belt on the world map of many Muslim states. The ruins of the Muslim civilization are telling that their past glory was very prodigious. It teaches us a lesson as to why we Muslims stand on the back foot in the contemporary world, and we see nothing else but disappointment and injustice. From Muslim rulers to social and religious institutions there is a pervasiveness of misguided and erroneous systems everywhere; where ordinary people get nothing; where upper class has occupied the resources by promoting hypocritic policies, mischief, selfishness, greed, and mistrust. In other words, incompetent leadership and lack of unity has brought Muslim Ummah and institutions to the brink of destruction.

 

(The author is a Columnist (RK), and Senior Researcher of Islamic Studies at the BGSB University, Rajouri, Jammu & Kashmir. He can be reached at Khalid6484@bgsbu.ac.in)

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