- It has been a long time since I read nonsense by this
character Frosty Wooldridge. He epitomizes ignorance of the ignorant. His
statements about Islam have been out of context due to his ignorance of
history; or I should say his ignorance of even today's world situation.
-
- Last night I came across his article "Fort Dix Six,
911 And Muslims". This article was no different than his previous
mumbling, however, since he was so blatantly ignorant of what has happened
in recent history that I decided to write this short reply.
-
- Before I talk about the events in which Muslims were
supposedly involved, his disregard for the Great Prophet Muhammad (Peace
Be Upon Him) qualifies him for an appropriate Fetua (religious decree)
that Muslim scholars need to enact to deal with this individual. It is
imperative to understand that the consequences of one's actions are the
result of that individual's blatant disregard for what is sacred to other
people. Thus, Muslim scholars worldwide are debating Wooldridge's comments
and enacting a Fetua (religious decree) to deal with this ignorant beast.
I believe, they should advise him to watch his mouth and let this be the
last time he opens it inappropriately. And yes Wooldridge should apologize
for his stupid comments.
-
- Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) did not rape any
body as Wooldridge falsely stated. He had wives whose parents wanted them
to be the Prophet wives so that in the here after their entire family would
be blessed for being related to the Prophet Muhammad. By the way, the age
of marriage according to Muslim tradition is when man and woman reaches
the age of puberty. So when the Prophet consummated his marriage of a younger
wife was at the age of puberty because without consummation at the age
of puberty living with the opposite sex would constitute a sin. This is
not rape you low life-Wooldridge.
-
- Now, to the substance of what he has said about the violence
perpetrated by Muslims, his disregard for Prophet Muhammad and Islam.
- However, before I refer to the details of what he has
said, the following quotations from "educated" and powerful people
in this country point to the ignorance ingrained in this society about
Islam and Muslims:
-
- "We should invade [Muslim] countries, kill their
leaders and convert them to Christianity."
- --Columnist Ann Coulter,
- National Review Online, Sept. 13, 2001
-
- "Just turn [the sheriff] loose and have him arrest
every Muslim that crosses the state line."
- --Rep. C. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), chairman of the House
Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland security and Senate candidate, to
Georgia law officers, November 2001
-
- "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to
send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith where God sent his
Son to die for you."
- --Attorney General John Ashcroft, interview on Cal Thomas
radio, November 2001
- "(Islam) is a very evil and wicked religion wicked,
violent and not of the same god (as Christianity)."
- Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association, November 2001.
- (Challenging Ignorance on Islam: a Ten-Point Primer for
Americans by Gary Leupp)
-
-
- This should be self explanatory for any intelligent individual
to realize that when the educated and powerful people become such cattle,
it is very hard to expect much from the regular people in the masses. Wooldridge
is one of those cattle incapable of realizing what the truth is. Wooldridge
made irresponsible comments insulting the Prophet of Islam. Wooldridge
is obviously an ignorant about Islam and Prophet of Islam (peace be upon
him).
-
-
- In contrast, Western intellectuals and philosophers worldwide
have held Prophet Muhammad in great esteem in the past 200 years. The following
quotations of Western intellectuals for the past 200 years put the Prophet
of Islam in high esteem.
-
- Thomas Carlyle in 'Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic
in History,' 1840
-
- "The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal
has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only."
-
- "A silent great soul, one of that who cannot but
be earnest. He was to kindle the world, the world's Maker had ordered so."
-
- A. S. Tritton in 'Islam,' 1951
-
- The picture of the Muslim soldier advancing with a sword
in one hand and the Qur'an in the other is quite false.
-
- De Lacy O'Leary in 'Islam at the Crossroads,' London,
1923.
-
- History makes it clear, however, that the legend of fanatical
Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of sword
upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that
historians have ever repeated.
-
- Gibbon in 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
1823
-
- The good sense of Muhammad despised the pomp of royalty.
The Apostle of God submitted to the menial offices of the family; he kindled
the fire; swept the floor; milked the ewes; and mended with his own hands
his shoes and garments. Disdaining the penance and merit of a hermit, he
observed without effort of vanity the abstemious diet of an Arab.
-
- Edward Gibbon and Simon Oakley in 'History of the Saracen
Empire,' London, 1870
-
- "The greatest success of Mohammad's life was effected
by sheer moral force."
-
- "It is not the propagation but the permanency of
his religion that deserves our wonder, the same pure and perfect impression
which he engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved after the revolutions
of twelve centuries by the Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes
of the Koran....The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the temptation
of reducing the object of their faith and devotion to a level with the
senses and imagination of man. 'I believe in One God and Mahomet the Apostle
of God' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual
image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honors
of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue, and
his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within
the bounds of reason and religion."
-
- Reverend Bosworth Smith in 'Muhammad and Muhammadanism,'
London, 1874.
-
- "Head of the State as well as the Church, he was
Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions,
and Caesar without the legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without
a bodyguard, without a police force, without a fixed revenue. If ever a
man ruled by a right divine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the powers
without their supports. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity
of his private life was in keeping with his public life."
-
- "In Mohammadanism every thing is different here.
Instead of the shadowy and the mysterious, we have history....We know of
the external history of Muhammad....while for his internal history after
his mission had been proclaimed, we have a book absolutely unique in its
origin, in its preservation....on the Substantial authority of which no
one has ever been able to cast a serious doubt."
-
- Edward Montet, 'La Propagande Chretienne et ses Adversaries
Musulmans,' Paris 1890. (Also in T.W. Arnold in 'The Preaching of Islam,'
London 1913.)
-
- "Islam is a religion that is essentially rationalistic
in the widest sense of this term considered etymologically and historically....the
teachings of the Prophet, the Qur'an has invariably kept its place as the
fundamental starting point, and the dogma of unity of God has always been
proclaimed therein with a grandeur a majesty, an invariable purity and
with a note of sure conviction, which it is hard to find surpassed outside
the pale of Islam....A creed so precise, so stripped of all theological
complexities and consequently so accessible to the ordinary understanding
might be expected to possess and does indeed possess a marvelous power
of winning its way into the consciences of men."
-
- And,
-
- Alphonse de LaMartaine in 'Historie de la Turquie,' Paris,
1854.
-
- "Never has a man set for himself, voluntarily or
involuntarily, a more sublime aim, since this aim was superhuman; to subvert
superstitions which had been imposed between man and his Creator, to render
God unto man and man unto God; to restore the rational and sacred idea
of divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfigured gods of idolatry,
then existing. Never has a man undertaken a work so far beyond human power
with so feeble means, for he (Muhammad) had in the conception as well as
in the execution of such a great design, no other instrument than himself
and no other aid except a handful of men living in a corner of the desert.
Finally, never has a man accomplished such a huge and lasting revolution
in the world, because in less than two centuries after its appearance,
Islam, in faith and in arms, reigned over the whole of Arabia, and conquered,
in God's name, Persia Khorasan, Transoxania, Western India, Syria, Egypt,
Abyssinia, all the known continent of Northern Africa, numerous islands
of the Mediterranean Sea, Spain, and part of Gaul.
-
- "If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and
astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could
dare compare any great man in history with Muhammad? The most famous men
created arms, laws, and empires only. They founded, if anything at all,
no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes.
This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples, dynasties,
but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more
than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the
beliefs and the souls.
-
- "On the basis of a Book, every letter which has
become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blend together peoples
of every tongue and race. He has left the indelible characteristic of this
Muslim nationality the hatred of false gods and the passion for the One
and Immaterial God. This avenging patriotism against the profanation of
Heaven formed the virtue of the followers of Muhammad; the conquest of
one-third the earth to the dogma was his miracle; or rather it was not
the miracle of man but that of reason.
-
- "The idea of the unity of God, proclaimed amidst
the exhaustion of the fabulous theogonies, was in itself such a miracle
that upon it's utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient temples
of idols and set on fire one-third of the world. His life, his meditations,
his heroic revelings against the superstitions of his country, and his
boldness in defying the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them
for fifteen years in Mecca, his acceptance of the role of public scorn
and almost of being a victim of his fellow countrymen... This dogma was
twofold the unity of God and the immateriality of God: the former telling
what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false
gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words.
-
- "Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror
of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs.... The founder of twenty terrestrial
empires and of one spiritual empire that is Muhammad. As regards all standards
by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any
man greater than he?"
-
- Mahatma Gandhi, statement published in 'Young India,'1924.
-
- I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds
today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind.... I became
more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for
Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity,
the utter self-effacement of the Prophet the scrupulous regard for pledges,
his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his
fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and
not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle.
When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry
there was not more for me to read of that great life.
-
- Sir George Bernard Shaw in 'The Genuine Islam,' Vol.
1, No. 8, 1936.
-
- "If any religion had the chance of ruling over England,
nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam."
-
- "I have always held the religion of Muhammad in
high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion
which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing
phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied
him - the wonderful man and in my opinion for from being an anti-Christ,
he must be called the Savior of Humanity."
-
- "I believe that if a man like him were to assume
the dictatorship of the modern world he would succeed in solving its problems
in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness: I have
prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the
Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of
today."
-
- Michael Hart in 'The 100, A Ranking of the Most Influential
Persons In History,' New York, 1978.
-
- My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's
most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned
by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful
on both the secular and religious level. ...It is probable that the relative
influence of Muhammad on Islam has been larger than the combined influence
of Jesus Christ and St. Paul on Christianity. ...It is this unparalleled
combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad
to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.
-
- Dr. William Draper in 'History of Intellectual Development
of Europe'
-
- Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was
born in Mecca, in Arabia, the man who, of all men, has exercised the greatest
influence upon the human race... To be the religious head of many empires,
to guide the daily life of one-third of the human race, may perhaps justify
the title of a Messenger of God.
-
- Arthur Glyn Leonard in 'Islam, Her Moral and Spiritual
Values'
-
- It was the genius of Muhammad, the spirit that he breathed
into the Arabs through the soul of Islam that exalted them. That raised
them out of the lethargy and low level of tribal stagnation up to the high
watermark of national unity and empire. It was in the sublimity of Muhammad's
deism, the simplicity, the sobriety and purity it inculcated the fidelity
of its founder to his own tenets, that acted on their moral and intellectual
fiber with all the magnetism of true inspiration.
-
- Philip K. Hitti in 'History of the Arabs'
-
- Within a brief span of mortal life, Muhammad called forth
of unpromising material, a nation, never welded before; in a country that
was hitherto but a geographical expression he established a religion which
in vast areas suppressed Christianity and Judaism, and laid the basis of
an empire that was soon to embrace within its far flung boundaries the
fairest provinces the then civilized world.
-
- Rodwell in the Preface to his translation of the Holy
Qur'an
-
- Mohammad's career is a wonderful instance of the force
and life that resides in him who possesses an intense faith in God and
in the unseen world. He will always be regarded as one of those who have
had that influence over the faith, morals and whole earthly life of their
fellow men, which none but a really great man ever did, or can exercise;
and whose efforts to propagate a great verity will prosper.
-
- W. Montgomery Watt in 'Muhammad at Mecca,' Oxford, 1953.
-
- His readiness to undergo persecution for his beliefs,
the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to
him as a leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement - all argue
his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more
problems that it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history
is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.... Thus, not merely must
we credit Muhammad with essential honesty and integrity of purpose, if
we are to understand him at all; if we are to correct the errors we have
inherited from the past, we must not forget the conclusive proof is a much
stricter requirement than a show of plausibility, and in a matter such
as this only to be attained with difficulty.
-
- D. G. Hogarth in 'Arabia'
-
- Serious or trivial, his daily behavior has instituted
a canon which millions observe this day with conscious memory. No one regarded
by any section of the human race as Perfect Man has ever been imitated
so minutely. The conduct of the founder of Christianity has not governed
the ordinary life of his followers. Moreover, no founder of a religion
has left on so solitary an eminence as the Muslim apostle.
-
- Washington Irving 'Mahomet and His Successors'
-
- He was sober and abstemious in his diet and a rigorous
observer of fasts. He indulged in no magnificence of apparel, the ostentation
of a petty mind; neither was his simplicity in dress affected but a result
of real disregard for distinction from so trivial a source.
-
- In his private dealings he was just. He treated friends
and strangers, the rich and poor, the powerful and weak, with equity, and
was beloved by the common people for the affability with which he received
them, and listened to their complaints.
-
- His military triumphs awakened no pride nor vain glory,
as they would have done had they been effected for selfish purposes. In
the time of his greatest power he maintained the same simplicity of manners
and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from affecting a
regal state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual testimonials
of respect were shown to him. If he aimed at a universal dominion, it was
the dominion of faith; as to the temporal rule which grew up in his hands,
as he used it without ostentation, so he took no step to perpetuate it
in his family.
-
- James Michener in 'Islam: The Misunderstood Religion,'
Reader's Digest, May 1955, pp. 68-70.
-
- "No other religion in history spread so rapidly
as Islam. The West has widely believed that this surge of religion was
made possible by the sword. But no modern scholar accepts this idea, and
the Qur'an is explicit in the support of the freedom of conscience."
-
- "Like almost every major prophet before him, Muhammad
fought shy of serving as the transmitter of God's word sensing his own
inadequacy. But the Angel commanded 'Read'. So far as we know, Muhammad
was unable to read or write, but he began to dictate those inspired words
which would soon revolutionize a large segment of the earth: "There
is one God"."
-
- "In all things Muhammad was profoundly practical.
When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred and rumors of God
's personal condolence quickly arose. Whereupon Muhammad is said to have
announced, 'An eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute
such things to the death or birth of a human being'."
-
- "At Muhammad's own death an attempt was made to
deify him, but the man who was to become his administrative successor killed
the hysteria with one of the noblest speeches in religious history: 'If
there are any among you who worshiped Muhammad, he is dead. But if it is
God you Worshiped, He lives for ever'."
-
- Lawrence E. Browne in 'The Prospects of Islam,' 1944
-
- Incidentally these well-established facts dispose of
the idea so widely fostered in Christian writings that the Muslims, wherever
they went, forced people to accept Islam at the point of the sword.
-
- K. S. Ramakrishna Rao in 'Mohammed: The Prophet of Islam,'
1989
-
- My problem to write this monograph is easier, because
we are not generally fed now on that (distorted) kind of history and much
time need not be spent on pointing out our misrepresentations of Islam.
The theory of Islam and sword, for instance, is not heard now in any quarter
worth the name. The principle of Islam that "there is no compulsion
in religion" is well known.
-
- In regards to the freedom of worship for Christians,
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) granted the following Charter of Privileges to
the Monks of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai. It consisted of several
clauses covering all aspects of human rights including such topics as the
protection of Christians, freedom of worship and movement, freedom to appoint
their own judges and to own and maintain their property, exemption from
military service, and the right to protection in war. The English translation
of that document is as follows:
-
- This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant
to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
- Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers
defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out
against anything that displeases them.
- No compulsion is to be on them.
- Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs
nor their monks from their monasteries.
- No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage
it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
- Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's
covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my
secure charter against all that they hate.
- No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to
fight.
- The Muslims are to fight for them.
- If a female Christian is married to a Muslim it is not
to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting
her church to pray.
- Their churches are to be respected. They are neither
to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
- No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant
till the Last Day (end of the world).
-
- This charter of privileges has been honored and faithfully
applied by Muslims throughout the centuries in all lands they ruled
- Clarifying Confusion
-
-
- The name Allah is in Arabic for God. This is also used
by Christian Arabs and Jews (Eloh-im in Hebrew); 'Allaha' in Aramaic, the
mother tongue of Jesus.
- They all worship the same one God. There is sometimes
confusion about this because Muslims usually call God by the name Allah.
This is a contraction of Al Ilah, The God. Ilah, the Arabic for God, is
a very close cognate of the Hebrew Eloh (Elohim, with the im suffix also
seen in Cherubim, Sephardim, etc.). The main prophets of Islam are Muhammed,
Jesus (Isa), Moses (Musa) and Abraham (Ibrahim). Muslims call Christians
and Jews "people of the Book", meaning that they follow the teachings
of God's prophets as set down in the Bible. On most things, Islam and Christianity
agree. Islam and Judaism are even closer as to morality and the rules for
daily living.
- (CHRISTIANITY OR ISLAM, Mikail Juma Tariq)
- "From this Islam has derived a very basic doctrine,
namely, that although Jews and Christians have received revelations from
God, they have not preserved these faithfully. Therefore God has had to
re-issue this revelation through Muhammad and the Qur'an. And so, even
though Jews and Christians are tolerated in Muslim societies as people
of the book, according to Islam their faiths are corrupted versions of
the faith that God has corrected in Islam. God has granted numerous revelations
for example, through Moses and the Torah, through David and the Psalter,
and through Jesus and the evangel. But these always got corrupted, so the
final and definitive revelation was given through Muhammad in the Qur'an.
This one, Muslims hold, has not been corrupted but has been faithfully
preserved for these nearly 1400 years."
- "Given this basic understanding in Islamic thought,
the overwhelming majority of the world's one billion Muslims, including
American Muslims, see Christianity the way most Christians through most
of Christian history have seen Judaism as a religion that has been superseded.
Most Christians have thought that since Jesus is the fulfillment and correction
of Judaism, Jews should have believed in Jesus as Messiah and become Christians.
Judaism should have disappeared. That's how Muslims see Christianity. Because
Islam possesses the latest and definitive revelation of God in the Qur'an,
all Christians should have converted to Islam, and Christianity should
have disappeared. This explains Muslims' notorious resistance to conversion
to Christianity. As most Christians do not find any appeal in an invitation
to convert to Judaism because it seems like a step backwards, historically
and religiously, so Muslims are repulsed by any invitation to convert to
Christianity, because they see such conversion as a return to an earlier
and inferior and even corrupted religion that has been superseded by God's
latest and final revelation through Muhammad in the Qur'an."
- (Marlin Jeschke Professor Emeritus, Goshen College, Goshen,
IN)
- "As in Christianity, proselytization is a deeply
rooted Islamic tradition, yet it is in its infancy in America in comparison
to the organized Church efforts to save the souls of non-believers. Christian
institutes like World Vision, the Zwemer Institute of Islamic studies,
and Center for Ministry to Muslims are aggressively engaged to take advantage
of the presence of millions of Muslims now living in America, and they
have developed programs to focus on American Muslims to win them over to
Christianity. In response, several Islamic Associations and Societies are
functioning with clear objective of winning the hearts and minds of Christians
and Jews - the People of the Book - for Islam."
- However:
- In fact the Qur'an says the exact opposite: There is
no compulsion in religion ( 2:256 ).
- Muslim Contribution to the World
-
-
- John William Drapers wrote the contribution of early
Muslims in the field of astronomy in his book: The Intellectual Development
of Europe:
- "I have to deplore the systematic manner in which
the literature of Europe has contrived to put out of sight our scientific
obligations to the Mohammadans. Surely they can not be much longer hidden.
Injustice founded on religious rancour and national conceit cannot be perpetuated
for ever. What should the modern astronomer say, when, remembering the
contemporary barbarism of Europe, he finds the Arab Abul Hassan speaking
of turbes, to the extremities of which ocular and object diopters, perhaps
sights, were attached, as used at Meragha? What when he reads of the attempts
of Abdur Rahman Sufi at improving the photometry of stars? Are the astronomical
tables of Ibn Junis (A.D. 1008) called the Hakemite tables, or the Ilkanic
tables of Nasir-ud-din Toosi, constructed at the great observatory just
mentioned, Meragha near Tauris (1259 A.D.), or the measurement of time
by pendulum oscillations, and the method of correcting astronomical tables
by systematic observations are such things worthless indications of the
mental State? The Arab has left his intellectual impress on Europe, as,
before long, Christendom will have to confess; he has indelibly Written
it on the heavens, as any one may see who reads the names of the stars
on a common celestial globe."
-
-
- Experimental Methodology
-
-
- The Greek method of acquiring scientific knowledge was
mainly speculative, hence science as such could make little headway during
the time of the Greeks.
- The Arabs who were more realistic and practical in their
approach adopted the experimental method to harness scientific knowledge.
Observation and experiment formed the vehicle of their scientific pursuits,
hence they gave a new outlook to science of which the world had been totally
unaware. Their achievements in the field of experimental science added
a golden chapter to the annals of scientific knowledge and opened a new
vista for the growth of modern sciences. Al-Ghazali was the follower of
Aristotle in logic, but among Muslims, Ishraqi and Ibn-iTaimiyya were first
to undertake the systematic refutation of Greek logic. Abu Bakr Razi criticised
Aristotle's first figure and followed the inductive spirit which was reformulated
by John Stuart Mill. Ibn-i-Hazm in his well known work Scope of Logic lays
stress on sense perception as a source of knowledge and Ibn-i-Taimiyya
in his Refuttion of Logic proves beyond doubt that induction is the only
sure form of argument, which ultimately gave birth to the method of observation
and experiment. It is absolutely wrong to assume that experimental method
was formulated in Europe. Roger Bacon, who, in the west is known as the
originator of experimental method in Europe, had himself received his training
from the pupils of Spanish Moors, and had learnt everything from Muslim
sources. The influence of Ibn Haitham on Roger Bacon is clearly visible
in his works. Europe was very slow to recognise the Islamic origin of her
much advertised scientific (experimental) method.
-
-
- Chemistry
-
-
- Jabir Ibn Hayyan (Geber) who flourished in Kufa about
776 A.D. is known as the father of modern chemistry and along with Zakariya
Razi, stands as the greatest name in the annals of chemical science during
mediaeval times. He got his education from Omayyad Prince Khalid Ibn Yazid
Ibn Muawiyah and the celebrated Imam Jafar al-Sadiq.
- Jabir modified and corrected the Aristotelian theory
of the constituents of metal, which remained unchanged until the beginning
of modern chemistry in the 18th century. He has explained in his works
the preparation of many chemical substances including "Cinnabar"
(sulphide of mercury) and arsenic oxide. It has been established through
historical research that he knew how to obtain nearly pure vitrilos, alums,
alkalis and how to produce 'the so-called liver' and milk of sulphur by
heating sulphur with alkali. He prepared mercury oxide and was fully conversant
with the preparation of crude sulphuric and nitric acids. He knew the method
of the solution of gold and silver with this acid. His chemical treatises
on such subjects have been translated into several European languages including
Latin and several technical scientific terms invented by Jabir have been
adopted in modern chemistry. A real estimate of his achievements is only
possible when his enormous chemical work including the Book of Seventy
are published. Richard Russell (1678, A.D.) an English translator ascribes
a book entitled Sun of Perfection to Jabir. A number of his chemical works
have been published by Berthelot. His books translated into English are
the Book of Kingdom, Book of Balances and Book of Eastern mercury. Jabir
also advanced a theory on the geologic formation of metals and dealt with
many useful practical applications of chemistry such as refinement of metals,
preparation of steel and dyeing of cloth and leather, varnishing of waterproof
cloth and use of manganese dioxide to colour glass.
-
-
- Physics
-
-
- The Muslims developed physics to a high degree and produced
such eminent physicist as Kindi, Jahiz, Banu Musa, Beruni, Razi and Abdur
Rahman Ibn Nasr.
-
- Abu Yusuf Ibn Ishaq, known as al-Kindi was born at Kufa
in themiddle of the 9th century and flourished in Baghdad. He is the most
dominating and one of the greatest Muslim scholars of physics. Over and
above this, he was an astrologer, philosopher, alchemist, optician and
musical theorist. He wrote more than 265 books, the majority of which have
been lost. Most of his works which survived are in Latin having been translated
by Gerard of Cremona. Of these fifteen are on meteorology, several on specific
weight, on tides, on optics and on reflection of light, and eight are on
music. His optics influenced Roger Bacon. He wrote several books on iron
and steel to be used for weapons. He applied mathematics not only to physics,
but also to medicine. He was therefore regarded by Cardon, a philosopher
of the Renaissance, "as one of the 12 subtlest minds." ·He
thought that gold and silver could only be obtained from mines and not
through any other process. He endeavoured to ascertain the laws that govern
the fall of bodies. Razi investigated on the determination of specific
gravity of means of hydrostatic balance, called by him Mizan-al-Tabii.
Most of his works on physics, mathematics, astronomy and optics have perished.
In physics his writings deal with matter, space, time and motion. In his
opinion matter in the primitive state before the creation of the world
was composed of scattered atoms, which possessed extent. Mixed in various
proportions with the articles of void, these atoms produced these elements
which are five ih number namely earth, air, water, fire and celestial element.
Fire is created by striking iron on the stone.
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- Abu Rehan Beruni, was a versatile genius, who adorned
the durbar of Mahmud of Ghazni. His outstanding achievement in the realm
of physics was the accurate determination of the weight of 18 stones. He
also discovered that light travels faster than sound. He has also contributed
immensely to geological knowledge by providing the correct explanation
of the formation'of natural spring and artesian wells, He suggested that
the Indus valley was formerly an ancient basin filled with alluvial soil.
His Kitab al Jawahir deals with different types of gems and their specific
gravity. A voluminous unedited lapidary by Betuni is kept in manuscript
form in the Escorial Library. It deals.with a large number of stones and
metals from the natural, commercial and medical point of view. Barlu Musa
has left behind him a work on balance, while Al-Jahiz used hydrostatic
balance to determine specific gravity. An excellent treatise had been written
by Al-Naziri regarding atmosphere.
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- Khazini, was a well known scientist ofIslam, who explained
the greater density of water when nearer to the centre of the earth. Roger
Bacon, who proved the same hypotheses afterwards based his proof on the
theories advanced by Khazini. His brilliant work Mizanul Hikma deals with
gravity and contains tables of densities of many solids and liquids. It
also contains "observation on capillarity, uses of aerometer to measure
densities and appreciate the temperature of liquids, theory of the lever
and the application of balance to building." Chapters on weights and
measures' were written by Ibn Jami and Al-Attar. Abdur Rahman Ibn Nasr
wrote an excellent treatise on weights and measures for the use of Egyptian
markets.
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- Biology
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- The Muslim scientists made considerable progress in biology
especially in botany, and developed horticulture to a high degree of perfection.
They paid greater attention to botany in comparison to zoology. Botany
reached its zenith in Spain. In zoology the study of the horse was developed
almost to the tank of a science. Abu Ubaidah (728--825 A. D.) who wrote
more than 100 books, devoted more than fifty books to the study of the
horse.
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- Al-Jahiz, who flourished in Basra is reputed to be one
of the greatest zoologists the Muslim world has produced. His influence
in the subject may be traced to 'the Persian'Al-Qazwini' and the Egyptian
'Al-Damiri'. His book 'Ritab al Haywan' (book ori animals) contains germs
of later theories of evolution, adaptation and animal psychology. He was
the first to note changes in bird life through migrations, Re described
the method of obtaining 'ammonia from animal offal by dry distilling.'
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- Al-Damiri, who died in 1405 in Cairo and who was influenced
by Al-Jahiz is the greatest Arab zoologist. His book Hayat Haywarz (Life
of animal) is the most important Muslim work in zoology. It is an encyclopaedia
on animal life containing a mine of information on the subject. It contains
the history of animals and preceded Buffon by 700 years.
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- Al-Masudi, has given the rudiments of the theory of evolution
in his well known work Meadows of gold. Another of his works Kitab al-Tanbih
wal Ishraq advances his views on evolution namely from mineral to plant,
from plant to animal and from animal to man.
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- In botany Spanish Muslims made the greatest contribution,
and some of them are known as the greatest botanists of mediaeval times.
They were keen observers and discovered sexual difference between such
plants as palms and hemps. They roamed about on sea shores, on mountains
and in distant lands in quest of rare botanical herbs. They classified
plants into those that grow from seeds, those that grow from cuttings and
those that grow of their own accord, i.e., wild growth. The Spanish Muslims
advanced in botany far beyond the state in which "it had been left
by Dioscorides and augmented the herbology of the Greeks by the addition
of 2,000 plants" Regular botanical gardens existed in Cordova, Baghdad,
Cairo and Fez for teaching and experimental purposes. Some of these were
the finest in the world.
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- The Cordovan physician, Al-Ghafiqi (D. 1165) was a renowned
botanist, who collected plants in Spain and Africa, and described them
most accurately. According to G. Sarton he was "the greatest expert
of his time on simples. His description of plants was the most precise
ever made in Islam; he gave the names of each in Arabic, Latin and Berber".l
His outstanding work Al Adwiyah al Mufradah dealing with simples was later
appropriated by Ibn Baytar."
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- Abu Zakariya Yahya Ibn Muhammad Ibn AlAwwan, who flourished
at the end of 12 century in Seville (Spain) was the author of the most
important Islamic treatise on agriculture during the mediaeval times entitled
Kitab al Filahah. The book treats more than 585 plants and deals with the
cultivation of more than 50 fruit trees. It also discusses numerous diseases
of plants and suggests their remedies. The book presents new observations
on properties of soil and different types of manures.
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- Abdullah Ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Baytar, was the greatest botanist
and pharmacist of Spain--in fact the greatest of mediaeval times. He roamed
about in search of plants and collected herbs on the Mediterranean littoral,
from Spain to Syria, described more than 1,400 medical drugs and compared
them with the records of more than 150 ancient and Arabian authors. The
collection of simple drugs composed by him is the ilaost outstanding botanical
work in Arabic. "This book, in fact is the most important for the
whole period extending from Dioscorides down to the 16th cenfury."
It is an encyclopaedic work on the subject. He later entered into the service
of the Ayyubid king, al-Malik al-l(amil, as his chief herbalist in Cairo.
From there he travelled through Syria and Asia Minor, and died in Damascus.
One of his works AI-Mughani-fi al Adwiyah al Mufradah deals with medicine.
The other Al Jami Ji al Adwiyah al Mufradah is a very valuable book containing
simple remedies regarding animal, vegetable and mineral matters which has
been described above. It deals also with 200 novel plants which were not
known upto that time. Abul Abbas Al-Nabati also wandered along the African
Coast from Spain to Arabia in search of herbs and plants. He discovered
some rare plants on the shore of Red Sea.
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- Another botanist Ibn Sauri, was accompanied by an artist
during his travels in Syria, who made sketches of the plants which they
found.
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- Ibn Wahshiya, wrote his celebrated work al-Filahah al-Nabatiyah
containing valuable information about :animals and plants.
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- Transmission to the West
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- The Muslims were the pioneers of sciences and arts during
mediaeval times and formed the necessary link between the ancients and
the moderns. Their light of learning dispelled the gloom that had enveloped
Europe. Moorish Spain was the main source from which the scientific knowledge
of the Muslims and their great achievements were transmitted to France,
Germany and England. The Spanish universities of Cordova, SeviIle and Granada
were thronged with Christian and Jewish students who learnt science from
the Muslim scientists and who then popularised them in their native lands.
Another source for the transmission of Muslim scientific knowledge was
Sicily, where during the reign of Muslim kings and even afterwards a large
number of scientific works were translated from Arabic into Latin. The
most prominent translators who translated Muslims works from Arabic into
European languages were Gerard of Cremona, Adelard of Bath, Roger Bacon
and Robert Chester. Writing in his celebrated work Moors in Spain Stanley
Lane Poole says, "For nearly eight centuries under the Mohammadan
rulers, Spain set out to all Europe a shining example of a civilized and
enlightened State--Arts, literature and science prospered as they prospered
nowhere in Europe. Students flocked from France, Germany and England to
drink from the fountain of learning which flowed down in the cities of
Moors. The surgeons and doctors of Andalusia were in the van of science;
women were encouraged to serious study and the lady doctor was not always
unknown among the people of Cordova. Mathematics, astronomy and botany,
history, philosophy and jurisprudence, were to be mastered in Spain, and
Spain alone. The practical work of the field, the scientific methods of
irrigation, the arts of fortification and shipbuilding, of the highest
and most elaborate products of the loom, the gravel and the hammer, the
potter's wheel and mason's trowel, were brought to perfection by the Spanish
Moors. Whatever makes a kingdom great and prosperous, whatever tends to
refinement and civilization was found in Muslim Spain."l
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- The students flocked to Spanish cities from all parts
of Europe to be infused with the light of learning which lit up Moorish
Spain. Another western historian writes, "The light of these universities
shone far beyond the Muslim world, and drew students to them from east
and west. At Cordova in particular there were a number of Christian students,
and the influence of Arab philosophy coming by way of Spain upon universities
of Paris, Oxford and North Italy and upon western Europe thought generally,
was very considerable indeed. The book copying industry flourished at Alexandria,
Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad and about the year 970, there were 27 free
schools open in Cordova for the education of the poor.
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- Such were the great achievements of Muslims in the field
of science which paved the way for the growth of modern sciences.
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- Mathematics
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- Arabs were the founders of every day arithmetic and taught
the use of ciphers to the world.
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- Musa al-Khwarizmi (780--850 A.D.) a native of Khwarizm,
who lived in the reign of Mamun-ar-Rashid, was one of the greatest mathematicians
of all times. He composed the oldest Islamic works on arithmetic and algebra
which were the principal source of knowledge on the subject for a fairly
long time. George Sarton pays glowing tribute to this outstanding Muslim
mathematician and considers him "one of the greatest scientists of
his race and the greatest of his time".' He systematised Greek and
Hindu mathematical knowledge and profoundly influenced mathematical thought
during mediaeval times. He championed the use of Hindu numerals and has
the distinction of being the author of the oldest Arabic work on arithmetic
known as Kitab-ul Jama wat Tafriq. The original version of this work has
disappeared but its Latin translation Trattati a" Arithmetic edited
by Bon Compagni in 1157 at Rome is still in existence.
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- Algebra
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- Is a word derived from the Arabic source AlJabar and
is the product of Arabic genius.
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- Al-Khwarizmi the celebrated mathematician is also the
author ofHisab Al-Jabr Wal Muqabla, an outstanding work on algebra which
contains analytical solutions of linear and quadratic equations. Khwarizmi
has the distinction of being one of the founders of algebra who developed
this branch of science to an exceptionally high degree. He also gives geometric
solutions of quadratic equations, e.g., x2+10x=39 an equation which was
repeated by later mathematicians. Robert Chester was the first to translate
this book into Latin in 1145 A. D. which introduced Algebra into Europe.
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