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Tajikistani
Guest
Aga Khani, Shia Imami Isma'eeli min al-Tajikistan
ISLAM AND SCIENCE II
In contradiction to the false concept of "Illusion" or Maya advocated
by the priests and philosophers of yore, the Holy Qur'an for the first
time emphatically announced the fact that this creation had not been
brought into existence merely in the spirit of creative sport on the
part of the Creator:
"We have not created the heights and the surfaces and whatever is
between the twain, for mere sport: We have not created them but for a
positive (creative) purpose; but the greater part of mankind
understands it not." (44:38-39).
The emphasis is laid on the fact that this creation or the natural
phenomena around us, has not been created in vain, nor is it
unreal. It has a very serious purpose in view and man's sojourn on the
earth is for a creative and positive purpose that can only be served
when there is an interweaving and integration between the psychic, or
inner, being and the observable aspect of Reality, which we call the
Phenomenal Universe. The Holy Qur'an is full of passages emphasizing
and illustrating these truths. I quote a few of the verses:
"Verily in the creation of the heights and of the surfaces and in the
succession of the night and the day are signs for men of understanding
who, standing, sitting and reclining, remind themselves of their
Creator and reflect on the creation of the heights and the surfaces
and say: 'O our Sustainer, Thou hast not created this in vain.' "
(3:190-191).
"Assuredly in the creation of the heights and of the surfaces, in the
alteration of night and day and in the ships which pass through the
seas with what is useful to man; and in the rain which God sendeth
down from above, giving life to the earth after its death and
scattering over it all kinds of cattle; and in the change of winds and
in the clouds that are made to do service between the heights and
surfaces are signs for those who understand" (2:164).
"And it is He Who hath made the stars for you that ye may be guided
thereby in the darkness of the land and of the sea. So clear have we
made Our signs to men of knowledge.
And it is He Who hath created you of one breath and hath provided an
abode and a place for your passage. Clear have We made Our signs to
men of insight. And it is He Who sendeth down rain from above; and We
bring forth by it the produce of all the plants and from them bring We
forth green foliage out of which We produce grain heaped up; of the
date palm and its sheaths some clusters of dates hanging low and near;
and then there are gardens of grapes and olives, and pomegranates,
each similar in kind yet differing in variety" (6:97-99).
"Hast thou not seen how thy Sustainer spreads out the shade? Had He
pleased, He would have made it stationary. But We made the sun to be
its torch; thereby contracting and drawing in the shade" (25:45-46).
"Can they not look up to the clouds how they are gathered and formed;
and the heights how they are upraised; and to the mountains how they
are routed and to the earth how it is outspread?" (88:17-20).
For the fulfillment of the purpose for which this universe has been
created, it is nor enough merely to give knowledge or the faculty of
naming it, but it is also necessary that man should be endowed with
the power of obtaining control and utilizing the forces of nature that
exist between the heights and surfaces. The Qur'an goes on to say:
"See ye not how God hath subjected to your control all that is above
and all that is below, and hath been bounteous to you in His favours
both in relation to the manifest and the potential." (31:20).
"And He hath subjected to you the night and day. The sun and the moon
and the stars, too, are subjected to you by His behest. Verily in this
are signs for those who understand" (16:20).
Even a superficial reading of the above quotations would leave no
doubt in the mind as to what the Holy Qur'an means by "men of
understanding and knowledge". Those who endeavour to bring under
subjection and control and gain a mastery over the forces of nature,
integrating them with the forces within and then developing the
product thereof and utilizing the same in accordance with the
Fundamental Laws which must govern humanity are, in the eyes of the
Qur'an, "the men of understanding and knowledge" or the 'ULEMAS. There
is no such thing as theology in the Qur'an and by men of understanding
it does not mean those who are commonly called theologians. The Qur'an
draws pointed attention to the material universe and says:
"Hast thou not seen that God causeth water to fall from above and
reproduces therewith fruits of diverse hues? And among the hills are
streaks, white and red, of diverse hues; and others raven black. And
men and beasts and cattle are in like manner of diverse hue?"
(35:27-28).
And after the understanding and appreciation of the laws governing the
phenomena of nature, the Qur'an has use the word 'ULEMAS or the
learned, as signifying those who as a result of their probing deep
into knowledge of nature obtain a comprehension of His greatness
(35:28).
Those who move about on this earth dead and unconscious of the
phenomena of nature around and with no desire to understand their
environment, the Holy Qur'an terms as "those who are possessed with
physical eyes but devoid of inner eyes" (22:46). And those who are
thus devoid of insight and comprehension here are termed as the
"blind". They shall be "blind" here as well as "blind" in the
"Hereafter" (17:72).
>From what I have stated above and the quotations from the Holy Qur'an,
it will be more than evident that the Qur'an does not confine
salvation to a state of mere physical or mysterious being, introverted
and shrinking with its own shell. On the other hand the Qur'an lays
the greatest emphasis on the integration and development of man's
inner being as well as his conquest of the forces of nature without;
and this endeavour in this existence provides the roots for the plant
which is to flower both "here" and the world "Hereafter"; it is a
continuous evolutionary process (bounded in time and space here but
free of these shackles in the "Hereafter") and unless the roots are
nurtured here and provided with necessary nourishment, the flowering
and fruition both here and in the "Hereafter" cannot come into being.
A system of life which lays so much emphasis on the study and conquest
of the forces of nature around, must, if followed in its true spirit,
preclude men who would in their lives give a positive proof of this
method of the development and evolution of the human mind. The history
of Muslim peoples is replete with such instances which I shall
endeavour to recount presently.
Unfortunately most of the historians and orientalists on whom we
depend today for giving us an account of the development of scientific
progress ushered in by the Muslims, are Western Christian writers
whose intense and inveterate prejudices against anything Muslim
derives from the crushing defeats which the Crusaders suffered at the
hands of the Saracens. History presents only one single period of time
when the different otherwise mutually warring nations of Europe came
together and coalesced on a single issue, and that was the safety of
Christendom against the Muslim heretics contemptuously referred to as
the "Heathen Dog". It nurtured only one single emotion -- namely
intense hatred of anything Muslim, and this emotion dominated the
European mind even after the Renaissance in Europe, in spite of the
fact that the defeat of the Crusaders had become an event of the dim
past of history. This feeling remained dominant till the beginning of
the Industrial revolution in Europe, which ushered in the era of
Colonial Imperialism.
Briffault in his book, THE MAKING OF HUMANITY, says:
"The debt of Europe to the 'Heathen Dog' could of course, find no
place in the scheme of Christian history, and the garbled
falsification has imposed itself on all subsequent conceptions. Until
the last century, there did not even exist anything approaching
accurate knowledge of Saracen history and culture. Even today the
history of the re-birth of Europe from barbarism is constantly being
written without any REFERENCE whatsoever to the influence of Arab
civilization -- the history of the Prince of Denmark without Hamlet."
It is only recently that the European mind has slowly recovered from
its state of perverse hatred of the Muslim and shaken off its
inferiority complex after having wreaked its vengeance against the
Muslim invader who brought in light and knowledge to the darkness that
was Europe.
Having settled accounts with the invader, in the coin of the
Inquisition and burning at the stake, and his subsequent subjugation
under the imperialistic heel, even though he had ushered in the era of
their emancipation, the European Christian mind slowly veered round to
the acknowledgment of the debt that it owed to Islam. This may be
summed up in the words of Dorsey:
"It is easier for us to say, 'No Copernicus' -- or to say, 'No Arab
astronomy, no Copernicus' -- or to say, 'No Judaism, no Christianity'
than to say, 'No Arabs, no modern civilization.'"
This fact is further acknowledged by Sir Oliver Lodge in his book,
PIONEERS OF SCIENCE where he admits that it was the Arabs who formed
the only effective link between ancient and modern science -- the Dark
Ages in Europe form a gap in the history of science and for a period
of thousand years in between there was no scientist or philosopher
except among the Arabs.
How garbled and unreliable were the accounts of the annals of Islam
published by the orientalists of Europe before the beginning of the
nineteenth century may be judged from Professor Bevan's remarks in his
CAMBRIDGE MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. Professor Bevan says:
"Those accounts of Mohammed and Islam which were published in Europe
before the beginning of the nineteenth century are now to be regarded
as literary curiosities."
* THE ARABS, NOT ROGER BACON, INTRODUCED THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD *
Briffault, who, of the modern European writers is a shining example of
a balanced man, risen far above the narrow and parochial prejudices of
European Christianity against Islam, has with candid frankness
admitted the fact that the advent of Islam was the turning point in
the making of humanity, when it emerged from the ancient to the modern
sphere of its evolution. Briffault deserves our gratitude for honesty
of appreciation and candour of expression and I must be forgiven for
quoting him at length:
"It was under the influence of the Arabs and the Moorish revival of
culture and not in the fifteenth century that a real renaissance took
place. Spain, not Italy, was the cradle of the re-birth of
Europe. After steadily sinking lower and lower into barbarism it had
reached the darkest depths of ignorance and degradation when the
cities of the Saracenic world, Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova, and Toledo,
were growing centers of civilisation and intellectual activity. It was
there the new life arose which was to grow into a new phase of human
evolution. From the time when the influence of their culture made
itself felt, BEGAN the stirring of a new life.
It was under their successors at the Oxford School (that is,
successors to the Muslims in Spain) that Roger Bacon learned Arabic
and Arabic science. Neither Roger Bacon nor his latter namesake has
any title to be credited with having introduced the experimental
method. Roger Bacon was no more than one of the apostles of Muslim
science and method to Christian Europe: and he never wearied of
declaring that Arabic science was for this contemporaries the only way
to true knowledge. Discussions as to who was the originator of the
experimental method ... are part of the colossal misrepresentation of
the origins of European civilisation. The experimental method of the
Arabs was by Bacon's time widespread and eagerly cultivated throughout
Europe.
Science is the most momentous contribution of the modern world; but its
fruits were slow in ripening. Not until long after Moorish culture had
sunk back into darkness did the giant which it had given birth to rise
in his might. It was not science only which brought Europe back to
life. Other and manifold influences from the civilization of Islam
communicated its first glow to European life.
For although there is not a single aspect of European growth in which
the decisive influence of Islamic culture is not traceable, nowhere is
it so clear and momentous as in the genesis of that power which
constitutes the permanent distinctive force of the modern world, and
the supreme source of its victory -- natural science and the
scientific spirit.
The debt of our science to that of the Arab does not consist in
starting discoveries of revolutionary theories; science owes a great
deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence. The astronomy and
mathematics of the Greeks were a foreign importation never thoroughly
acclimatized in Greek culture. The Greeks systamized, generalized and
theorized, BUT THE PATIENT WAYS OF INVESTIGATION, THE ACCUMULATION OF
POSITIVE KNOWLEDGE, THE MINUTE METHODS OF SCIENCE, DETAILED AND
PROLONGED OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTAL INQUIRY WERE ALTOGETHER ALIEN
TO THE GREEK TEMPERAMENT. ONLY IN HELLENISTIC ALEXANDRIA WAS ANY
APPROACH TO SCIENTIFIC WORK CONDUCTED IN THE ANCIENT CLASSICAL
WORLD. What we call science arose in Europe as a result of a new
spirit of inquiry, or new methods of investigation, of the methods of
experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of
mathematics in a form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and these
methods were introduced into the European world _BY_ the Arabs.
It is highly probable that but for the Arabs, modern European
civilization would never have arisen at all; it is absolutely certain
that but for them, it would not have assumed that character which has
enabled it to transcend all previous phases of evolution."
These frank and honest admissions from quarters which have imbibed the
spirit of scientific enquiry and search for truth from the original
Arab sources, go to confirm the basic soundness of those peoples and
their culture. Their culture was the direct result of the teachings
and the spirit of the Qur'an, which those early Arabs understood and
followed, IN THE BARE, BALD THEISM OF ISLAM, WITH ITS NEGATION OF
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, OF MYTH, OF TRADITION, ALMOST DESTITUTE OF
RITUAL, AND ABOVE ALL, ENTIRELY OF PRIESTHOOD.
It would not be out of place here to make a brief mention of the
pioneers of science who owed their inspiration to the Qur'an.
In the field of geography and commerce, the Caliph al-Mamun had
ordered the first measurement of a geographical degree in the Syrian
desert. Muhammad bin Musa was in charge of this survey party. This was
the beginning of the longitudinal and latitudinal survey of the globe
and the seventy scholars who were engaged on this study ultimately
produced the first map of the globe (813-833 C.E.). This activity of
the Arabs in the beginning of the ninth century was to be the
forerunner of Columbus's hazard across the seas five centuries later,
in the firm belief that the earth was a globe and not a flat saucer as
the Greeks had thought it to be. Thus in search for the Indian
continent, Columbus, who had been taught this knowledge of geography
by an Arab, found the American continent, which is today the most
advanced region of Western civilization. When Vasco da Gama after his
circumnavigation of the African continent in 1498 C.E. had reached
Malindi on the East Coast of Africa, it was an Arab pilot (Ahmad Ibn
Majid) who showed him the way to India. According to Portugese sources
this pilot was in possession of a very good sea map and of other
maritime instruments, hitherto unknown to European seafarers. This
Arab pilot is also known as the writer of a SAILING MANUAL for the
Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the South China Sea and
the East Indian Archipelago.
Al-Mas'udi (950 C.E.) was the Arab globetrotter who collected on his
travels a large amount of geographical and ethnographical
knowledge. He wrote several books, two of which are preserved in the
British Museum.
It was the Arab who in the first instance, translated all the then
extant knowledge in this field from the Greek sources and brought it
within the fold of THEIR own living language. This knowledge, but for
these translations, would have been lost to the world. Having
collected this knowledge, the Arabs started their own research and by
the EMPIRICAL METHOD they were able either to confirm or refute the
purely theoretical concepts which the Greek civilization had
laboriously produced. Al-Mamun created in Baghdad a regular school for
translation. One of the translators here was Hunian Ibn Ishaq (809-877
C.E.), a particularly gifted philosopher and a physician of wide
erudition. He translated practically the whole immense CORPUS of
Galenic writings. This amounted to a hundred Syriac and thirty-nine
Arabic versions of Galen's medical and philosophical books. He also
translated HIPPOCRATES' APHORISMS, the great synopsis of Oribasius and
the seven books of Paul of Aegina. Among the Arabic translations
ascribed to Hunian are works of other Greek physicians and veterinary
writers together with several Aristotelian physical works. Hunian's
own compositions are nearly as numerous as his translations. They
include many summaries and commentaries on Galen's work and skillful
abstracts and recapitulation in the form of textbooks for
students. His TEN TREATISES ON THE EYE is the earliest systematic text
book of opthalmology known.
* SOME MUSLIM SCHOLARS OF REPUTE *
We turn now from the translations to the original works of the
period. In physics, al-Kindi is the most frequently named scholar. No
less than 265 works are ascribed to this first Arab physicist and
scientist. Of these at least fifteen are on specific weights, on
tides, optics and notably on the reflection of light, and eight are on
music and sound. His OPTICS, preserved in a Latin translation,
influenced Roger Bacon and other Western men of science.
Another famous scientist and author of this period is al-Razi (865-925
C.E.). He is considered to be the greatest physician of the Islamic
world and at least one of the great physicians of all time. His
greatest medical work, and perhaps the most extensive ever written by
a medical man, is his AL-HAWI (The Comprehensive), which includes
Greek, Syriac and early Arabic medical knowledge in its entirety.
Jabir is world-famed as the father of Arabic alchemy. About 100
alchemic works ascribed to Jabir are in existence. From the practical
side Jabir described improved methods of evaporation, distillation,
sublimation, melting and crystallization.
Then comes Abu 'Ali al-Husain Ibn Sina, known universally to the West
as Avicenna (980-1037 C.E.). His gigantic CANON OF MEDICINE (Al-Qanun)
is the culmination and masterpiece of Arabic systemization: for, this
medical encyclopaedia deals with general medicine, simple drugs,
diseases affecting all parts of the human body, special pathology and
pharmacopaeia. The book was translated into Latin in the twelfth
century and the demand for it may be gleaned from the fact that in the
last thirty years of the fifteenth century it was issued sixteen times
and re-issued more than twenty times during the sixteenth
century. These figures do not include editions of portions of the
works. Apart from this, we owe to Avicenna to treatises on the
formation of mountains, stones and minerals. It is important for the
history of geology as discussing the influence of earthquakes, wind
temperature, sedimentation, desiccation and other causes of
solidification.
The Brethren of Purity (IKHWAN AL-SAFA), a secret philosophy founded
in Mesopotamia in the tenth century, wrote an encyclopaedia composed
of fifty-two treatises, seventeen of which deal with natural
science. We find here discussions on the formation of minerals, on
earthquakes, tides, meteorological phenomena and the elements, all
brought into relation with the celestial spheres and bodies.
Meteorological studies were much in favour with the Muslims of the
later centuries, particularly those on balances. AL-Jazri finished in
1206 C.E. in Mesopotamia a great book on mechanics and clocks. "On the
side of mathematics, it must," in the words of the late Sir Mohammad
Iqbal, from his RECONSTRUCTION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS IN ISLAM Oxford,
1932, "be remembered that since the day of Ptolemy (87-165 C.E.) till
the time of Nasir Tusi (1207-1274 C.E.) nobody gave serious thought to
the difficulties of demonstrating the certitude of Euclid's parallel
postulate on the basis of perceptual space. It was Tusi who first
disturbed the calm which had prevailed in the world of mathematics for
a thousand years."
Al-Biruni in his APPROACH TO THE MODERN MATHEMATICAL IDEA OF FUNCTION
saw, from a purely scientific point of view, the insufficiency of a
static view of the universe. Again, to quote Iqbal, "the
transformation of the Greek concept of 'Number' from pure magnitude to
pure relation really began with Khawarizmi's movement from arithmetic
to algebra. Al-Biruni took a definite step forward towards what
Spengier describes as chronological number which signifies the mind's
passage from being to becoming."
Side by side, with the progress of mathematical thought in Islam, we
find the idea of organic evolution gradually shaping itself. It was
Jahiz who was the first to note the changes in bird life caused by
migration. Later Ibn Miskawiah gave it the shape of a more definite
theory, adopted in his famous work, Al-Fauz Al-Ashgar. Ibn Miskawaih's
idea of life as an evolutionary movement and al-Biruni's approach to
the conception constituted the intellectual inheritence of Ibn
Khaldun, of the the greatest historians of the world and undoubtedly
the FOUNDER OF THE CONCEPTION OF NATURE AS A PRECESS OF BECOMING,
constituted the inheritence of Ibn Khaldun, one of the greatest
historians of all time, and the undoubtedly the FOUNDER OF THE
CONCEPTION OF HISTORY AS A SCIENCE -- A SCIENCE OF DEMONSTRATIVE CAUSE
AND EFFECT. This tendency to treat history as a science is a direct
emanation from the Qur'an itself, which lays the greatest emphasis on
a constant reminder of the historical Cause and Effect as a method of
assessing the importance and the trend of the developments of human
problems at any given period of time.
* THE EARLY MUSLIMS DID NOT INDULGE IN SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS MERELY
AS A MENTAL LUXURY *
The historical evidence which I have taken the liberty of recounting
somewhat at length goes clearly to show that it was not only in a
spirit of pure mental gymnastics that Islam laid such great emphasis
on the scientific master over the forces of nature but that early
Muslim history gives positive proof of the development of the Muslim
mind in the direction which the Qur'an had so emphatically impressed
upon it. These Muslim scientists did not indulge in scientific
pursuits purely as a mental luxury. Their intentions and objectives
were very clear and those were to fulfill the purpose of this existence
as enunciated by the Qur'an itself, namely, to obtain a mastery over
nature "without" by an integration and development of the forces
"within," man, and thereby to obtain that power which, when utilized
in the creative and positive direction would achieve for man his
transcendence over matter and thereby fit him for the next stage of
his evolutionary life, which obviously lies in the regions of cosmic
consciousness. The practical laboratory, which this existence
provides, is the crucible for humanity wherein man's final sublimation
is to take place. It is only after the achievement of that sublimation
that he can equip himself for the Existence Hereafter, where the
bounds of time and space as well as the constant phases of change will
have been mastered and controlled, this achieving an eternal and
conscience existence for Self, that is man, and not an obliteration or
negation of his entity which mysticism considers to be the goal of
life.
* HOW MUSLIMS CAN REGAIN THEIR LOST LEADERSHIP
The rich heritage which Islam provided for this world appears to have
been divided into two parts. The major part, namely purely scientific
development, appears to have been taken up with both hands by the
West. The East appears to have got lost in the maze of its own mental
acrobatics. It is about time that an integration of both these aspects
of existence within, and the forces of nature without, bound and knit
together by all-pervading "Fundamental Values" was brought into
existence. The West today has advanced into the realms of nuclear
physics in their scientific pursuits. The Atom and the Hydrogen Bomb
along with an X-Bomb now, have begun to terrify humanity. Most of
scientific development is proceeding in a negative direction. There
are vast fields of research and activity in the positive and creative
direction also, which have still to be studied and mastered by the
inter-play of thought and empirical methods. For those who care to
study the Qur'an there are plenty of positive clues which will guide
them in the right direction. Mere mental gymnastics will not do; we
have to get down to acquiring a complete mastery for the utilization
and harnessing of the limitless energy which a Beneficient Providence
has stored for us in boundless Space. Positive and well directed
scientific research with constant empirical and practical checking up
and the technical "know-how" are the fields of activity for our young
minds to delve deep into, keeping constantly in mind the fact that
where the West has gone wrong is that it has ignored the fundamental
values which must govern the utilization of the benefits to be derived
from the mastery over the palpable universe. If we go forward with a
firm faith and behalf in the unity of Godhead and the consequent unity
of humanity and thereafter utilize our achievements for the benefit of
mankind as a whole, we have before us an immense field for
achievement. We shall then regain our lost leadership of mankind and
make our contribution in the fulfillment of the purpose of this
existence -- in its march and evolution forwards and upwards with ILA
RABBIKA MUNTAHAHA (79:44) (i.e., Towards the Sustainer lies its Goal),
as the limit for our achievements.
ISLAM AND SCIENCE II
In contradiction to the false concept of "Illusion" or Maya advocated
by the priests and philosophers of yore, the Holy Qur'an for the first
time emphatically announced the fact that this creation had not been
brought into existence merely in the spirit of creative sport on the
part of the Creator:
"We have not created the heights and the surfaces and whatever is
between the twain, for mere sport: We have not created them but for a
positive (creative) purpose; but the greater part of mankind
understands it not." (44:38-39).
The emphasis is laid on the fact that this creation or the natural
phenomena around us, has not been created in vain, nor is it
unreal. It has a very serious purpose in view and man's sojourn on the
earth is for a creative and positive purpose that can only be served
when there is an interweaving and integration between the psychic, or
inner, being and the observable aspect of Reality, which we call the
Phenomenal Universe. The Holy Qur'an is full of passages emphasizing
and illustrating these truths. I quote a few of the verses:
"Verily in the creation of the heights and of the surfaces and in the
succession of the night and the day are signs for men of understanding
who, standing, sitting and reclining, remind themselves of their
Creator and reflect on the creation of the heights and the surfaces
and say: 'O our Sustainer, Thou hast not created this in vain.' "
(3:190-191).
"Assuredly in the creation of the heights and of the surfaces, in the
alteration of night and day and in the ships which pass through the
seas with what is useful to man; and in the rain which God sendeth
down from above, giving life to the earth after its death and
scattering over it all kinds of cattle; and in the change of winds and
in the clouds that are made to do service between the heights and
surfaces are signs for those who understand" (2:164).
"And it is He Who hath made the stars for you that ye may be guided
thereby in the darkness of the land and of the sea. So clear have we
made Our signs to men of knowledge.
And it is He Who hath created you of one breath and hath provided an
abode and a place for your passage. Clear have We made Our signs to
men of insight. And it is He Who sendeth down rain from above; and We
bring forth by it the produce of all the plants and from them bring We
forth green foliage out of which We produce grain heaped up; of the
date palm and its sheaths some clusters of dates hanging low and near;
and then there are gardens of grapes and olives, and pomegranates,
each similar in kind yet differing in variety" (6:97-99).
"Hast thou not seen how thy Sustainer spreads out the shade? Had He
pleased, He would have made it stationary. But We made the sun to be
its torch; thereby contracting and drawing in the shade" (25:45-46).
"Can they not look up to the clouds how they are gathered and formed;
and the heights how they are upraised; and to the mountains how they
are routed and to the earth how it is outspread?" (88:17-20).
For the fulfillment of the purpose for which this universe has been
created, it is nor enough merely to give knowledge or the faculty of
naming it, but it is also necessary that man should be endowed with
the power of obtaining control and utilizing the forces of nature that
exist between the heights and surfaces. The Qur'an goes on to say:
"See ye not how God hath subjected to your control all that is above
and all that is below, and hath been bounteous to you in His favours
both in relation to the manifest and the potential." (31:20).
"And He hath subjected to you the night and day. The sun and the moon
and the stars, too, are subjected to you by His behest. Verily in this
are signs for those who understand" (16:20).
Even a superficial reading of the above quotations would leave no
doubt in the mind as to what the Holy Qur'an means by "men of
understanding and knowledge". Those who endeavour to bring under
subjection and control and gain a mastery over the forces of nature,
integrating them with the forces within and then developing the
product thereof and utilizing the same in accordance with the
Fundamental Laws which must govern humanity are, in the eyes of the
Qur'an, "the men of understanding and knowledge" or the 'ULEMAS. There
is no such thing as theology in the Qur'an and by men of understanding
it does not mean those who are commonly called theologians. The Qur'an
draws pointed attention to the material universe and says:
"Hast thou not seen that God causeth water to fall from above and
reproduces therewith fruits of diverse hues? And among the hills are
streaks, white and red, of diverse hues; and others raven black. And
men and beasts and cattle are in like manner of diverse hue?"
(35:27-28).
And after the understanding and appreciation of the laws governing the
phenomena of nature, the Qur'an has use the word 'ULEMAS or the
learned, as signifying those who as a result of their probing deep
into knowledge of nature obtain a comprehension of His greatness
(35:28).
Those who move about on this earth dead and unconscious of the
phenomena of nature around and with no desire to understand their
environment, the Holy Qur'an terms as "those who are possessed with
physical eyes but devoid of inner eyes" (22:46). And those who are
thus devoid of insight and comprehension here are termed as the
"blind". They shall be "blind" here as well as "blind" in the
"Hereafter" (17:72).
>From what I have stated above and the quotations from the Holy Qur'an,
it will be more than evident that the Qur'an does not confine
salvation to a state of mere physical or mysterious being, introverted
and shrinking with its own shell. On the other hand the Qur'an lays
the greatest emphasis on the integration and development of man's
inner being as well as his conquest of the forces of nature without;
and this endeavour in this existence provides the roots for the plant
which is to flower both "here" and the world "Hereafter"; it is a
continuous evolutionary process (bounded in time and space here but
free of these shackles in the "Hereafter") and unless the roots are
nurtured here and provided with necessary nourishment, the flowering
and fruition both here and in the "Hereafter" cannot come into being.
A system of life which lays so much emphasis on the study and conquest
of the forces of nature around, must, if followed in its true spirit,
preclude men who would in their lives give a positive proof of this
method of the development and evolution of the human mind. The history
of Muslim peoples is replete with such instances which I shall
endeavour to recount presently.
Unfortunately most of the historians and orientalists on whom we
depend today for giving us an account of the development of scientific
progress ushered in by the Muslims, are Western Christian writers
whose intense and inveterate prejudices against anything Muslim
derives from the crushing defeats which the Crusaders suffered at the
hands of the Saracens. History presents only one single period of time
when the different otherwise mutually warring nations of Europe came
together and coalesced on a single issue, and that was the safety of
Christendom against the Muslim heretics contemptuously referred to as
the "Heathen Dog". It nurtured only one single emotion -- namely
intense hatred of anything Muslim, and this emotion dominated the
European mind even after the Renaissance in Europe, in spite of the
fact that the defeat of the Crusaders had become an event of the dim
past of history. This feeling remained dominant till the beginning of
the Industrial revolution in Europe, which ushered in the era of
Colonial Imperialism.
Briffault in his book, THE MAKING OF HUMANITY, says:
"The debt of Europe to the 'Heathen Dog' could of course, find no
place in the scheme of Christian history, and the garbled
falsification has imposed itself on all subsequent conceptions. Until
the last century, there did not even exist anything approaching
accurate knowledge of Saracen history and culture. Even today the
history of the re-birth of Europe from barbarism is constantly being
written without any REFERENCE whatsoever to the influence of Arab
civilization -- the history of the Prince of Denmark without Hamlet."
It is only recently that the European mind has slowly recovered from
its state of perverse hatred of the Muslim and shaken off its
inferiority complex after having wreaked its vengeance against the
Muslim invader who brought in light and knowledge to the darkness that
was Europe.
Having settled accounts with the invader, in the coin of the
Inquisition and burning at the stake, and his subsequent subjugation
under the imperialistic heel, even though he had ushered in the era of
their emancipation, the European Christian mind slowly veered round to
the acknowledgment of the debt that it owed to Islam. This may be
summed up in the words of Dorsey:
"It is easier for us to say, 'No Copernicus' -- or to say, 'No Arab
astronomy, no Copernicus' -- or to say, 'No Judaism, no Christianity'
than to say, 'No Arabs, no modern civilization.'"
This fact is further acknowledged by Sir Oliver Lodge in his book,
PIONEERS OF SCIENCE where he admits that it was the Arabs who formed
the only effective link between ancient and modern science -- the Dark
Ages in Europe form a gap in the history of science and for a period
of thousand years in between there was no scientist or philosopher
except among the Arabs.
How garbled and unreliable were the accounts of the annals of Islam
published by the orientalists of Europe before the beginning of the
nineteenth century may be judged from Professor Bevan's remarks in his
CAMBRIDGE MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. Professor Bevan says:
"Those accounts of Mohammed and Islam which were published in Europe
before the beginning of the nineteenth century are now to be regarded
as literary curiosities."
* THE ARABS, NOT ROGER BACON, INTRODUCED THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD *
Briffault, who, of the modern European writers is a shining example of
a balanced man, risen far above the narrow and parochial prejudices of
European Christianity against Islam, has with candid frankness
admitted the fact that the advent of Islam was the turning point in
the making of humanity, when it emerged from the ancient to the modern
sphere of its evolution. Briffault deserves our gratitude for honesty
of appreciation and candour of expression and I must be forgiven for
quoting him at length:
"It was under the influence of the Arabs and the Moorish revival of
culture and not in the fifteenth century that a real renaissance took
place. Spain, not Italy, was the cradle of the re-birth of
Europe. After steadily sinking lower and lower into barbarism it had
reached the darkest depths of ignorance and degradation when the
cities of the Saracenic world, Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova, and Toledo,
were growing centers of civilisation and intellectual activity. It was
there the new life arose which was to grow into a new phase of human
evolution. From the time when the influence of their culture made
itself felt, BEGAN the stirring of a new life.
It was under their successors at the Oxford School (that is,
successors to the Muslims in Spain) that Roger Bacon learned Arabic
and Arabic science. Neither Roger Bacon nor his latter namesake has
any title to be credited with having introduced the experimental
method. Roger Bacon was no more than one of the apostles of Muslim
science and method to Christian Europe: and he never wearied of
declaring that Arabic science was for this contemporaries the only way
to true knowledge. Discussions as to who was the originator of the
experimental method ... are part of the colossal misrepresentation of
the origins of European civilisation. The experimental method of the
Arabs was by Bacon's time widespread and eagerly cultivated throughout
Europe.
Science is the most momentous contribution of the modern world; but its
fruits were slow in ripening. Not until long after Moorish culture had
sunk back into darkness did the giant which it had given birth to rise
in his might. It was not science only which brought Europe back to
life. Other and manifold influences from the civilization of Islam
communicated its first glow to European life.
For although there is not a single aspect of European growth in which
the decisive influence of Islamic culture is not traceable, nowhere is
it so clear and momentous as in the genesis of that power which
constitutes the permanent distinctive force of the modern world, and
the supreme source of its victory -- natural science and the
scientific spirit.
The debt of our science to that of the Arab does not consist in
starting discoveries of revolutionary theories; science owes a great
deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence. The astronomy and
mathematics of the Greeks were a foreign importation never thoroughly
acclimatized in Greek culture. The Greeks systamized, generalized and
theorized, BUT THE PATIENT WAYS OF INVESTIGATION, THE ACCUMULATION OF
POSITIVE KNOWLEDGE, THE MINUTE METHODS OF SCIENCE, DETAILED AND
PROLONGED OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTAL INQUIRY WERE ALTOGETHER ALIEN
TO THE GREEK TEMPERAMENT. ONLY IN HELLENISTIC ALEXANDRIA WAS ANY
APPROACH TO SCIENTIFIC WORK CONDUCTED IN THE ANCIENT CLASSICAL
WORLD. What we call science arose in Europe as a result of a new
spirit of inquiry, or new methods of investigation, of the methods of
experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of
mathematics in a form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and these
methods were introduced into the European world _BY_ the Arabs.
It is highly probable that but for the Arabs, modern European
civilization would never have arisen at all; it is absolutely certain
that but for them, it would not have assumed that character which has
enabled it to transcend all previous phases of evolution."
These frank and honest admissions from quarters which have imbibed the
spirit of scientific enquiry and search for truth from the original
Arab sources, go to confirm the basic soundness of those peoples and
their culture. Their culture was the direct result of the teachings
and the spirit of the Qur'an, which those early Arabs understood and
followed, IN THE BARE, BALD THEISM OF ISLAM, WITH ITS NEGATION OF
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, OF MYTH, OF TRADITION, ALMOST DESTITUTE OF
RITUAL, AND ABOVE ALL, ENTIRELY OF PRIESTHOOD.
It would not be out of place here to make a brief mention of the
pioneers of science who owed their inspiration to the Qur'an.
In the field of geography and commerce, the Caliph al-Mamun had
ordered the first measurement of a geographical degree in the Syrian
desert. Muhammad bin Musa was in charge of this survey party. This was
the beginning of the longitudinal and latitudinal survey of the globe
and the seventy scholars who were engaged on this study ultimately
produced the first map of the globe (813-833 C.E.). This activity of
the Arabs in the beginning of the ninth century was to be the
forerunner of Columbus's hazard across the seas five centuries later,
in the firm belief that the earth was a globe and not a flat saucer as
the Greeks had thought it to be. Thus in search for the Indian
continent, Columbus, who had been taught this knowledge of geography
by an Arab, found the American continent, which is today the most
advanced region of Western civilization. When Vasco da Gama after his
circumnavigation of the African continent in 1498 C.E. had reached
Malindi on the East Coast of Africa, it was an Arab pilot (Ahmad Ibn
Majid) who showed him the way to India. According to Portugese sources
this pilot was in possession of a very good sea map and of other
maritime instruments, hitherto unknown to European seafarers. This
Arab pilot is also known as the writer of a SAILING MANUAL for the
Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the South China Sea and
the East Indian Archipelago.
Al-Mas'udi (950 C.E.) was the Arab globetrotter who collected on his
travels a large amount of geographical and ethnographical
knowledge. He wrote several books, two of which are preserved in the
British Museum.
It was the Arab who in the first instance, translated all the then
extant knowledge in this field from the Greek sources and brought it
within the fold of THEIR own living language. This knowledge, but for
these translations, would have been lost to the world. Having
collected this knowledge, the Arabs started their own research and by
the EMPIRICAL METHOD they were able either to confirm or refute the
purely theoretical concepts which the Greek civilization had
laboriously produced. Al-Mamun created in Baghdad a regular school for
translation. One of the translators here was Hunian Ibn Ishaq (809-877
C.E.), a particularly gifted philosopher and a physician of wide
erudition. He translated practically the whole immense CORPUS of
Galenic writings. This amounted to a hundred Syriac and thirty-nine
Arabic versions of Galen's medical and philosophical books. He also
translated HIPPOCRATES' APHORISMS, the great synopsis of Oribasius and
the seven books of Paul of Aegina. Among the Arabic translations
ascribed to Hunian are works of other Greek physicians and veterinary
writers together with several Aristotelian physical works. Hunian's
own compositions are nearly as numerous as his translations. They
include many summaries and commentaries on Galen's work and skillful
abstracts and recapitulation in the form of textbooks for
students. His TEN TREATISES ON THE EYE is the earliest systematic text
book of opthalmology known.
* SOME MUSLIM SCHOLARS OF REPUTE *
We turn now from the translations to the original works of the
period. In physics, al-Kindi is the most frequently named scholar. No
less than 265 works are ascribed to this first Arab physicist and
scientist. Of these at least fifteen are on specific weights, on
tides, optics and notably on the reflection of light, and eight are on
music and sound. His OPTICS, preserved in a Latin translation,
influenced Roger Bacon and other Western men of science.
Another famous scientist and author of this period is al-Razi (865-925
C.E.). He is considered to be the greatest physician of the Islamic
world and at least one of the great physicians of all time. His
greatest medical work, and perhaps the most extensive ever written by
a medical man, is his AL-HAWI (The Comprehensive), which includes
Greek, Syriac and early Arabic medical knowledge in its entirety.
Jabir is world-famed as the father of Arabic alchemy. About 100
alchemic works ascribed to Jabir are in existence. From the practical
side Jabir described improved methods of evaporation, distillation,
sublimation, melting and crystallization.
Then comes Abu 'Ali al-Husain Ibn Sina, known universally to the West
as Avicenna (980-1037 C.E.). His gigantic CANON OF MEDICINE (Al-Qanun)
is the culmination and masterpiece of Arabic systemization: for, this
medical encyclopaedia deals with general medicine, simple drugs,
diseases affecting all parts of the human body, special pathology and
pharmacopaeia. The book was translated into Latin in the twelfth
century and the demand for it may be gleaned from the fact that in the
last thirty years of the fifteenth century it was issued sixteen times
and re-issued more than twenty times during the sixteenth
century. These figures do not include editions of portions of the
works. Apart from this, we owe to Avicenna to treatises on the
formation of mountains, stones and minerals. It is important for the
history of geology as discussing the influence of earthquakes, wind
temperature, sedimentation, desiccation and other causes of
solidification.
The Brethren of Purity (IKHWAN AL-SAFA), a secret philosophy founded
in Mesopotamia in the tenth century, wrote an encyclopaedia composed
of fifty-two treatises, seventeen of which deal with natural
science. We find here discussions on the formation of minerals, on
earthquakes, tides, meteorological phenomena and the elements, all
brought into relation with the celestial spheres and bodies.
Meteorological studies were much in favour with the Muslims of the
later centuries, particularly those on balances. AL-Jazri finished in
1206 C.E. in Mesopotamia a great book on mechanics and clocks. "On the
side of mathematics, it must," in the words of the late Sir Mohammad
Iqbal, from his RECONSTRUCTION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS IN ISLAM Oxford,
1932, "be remembered that since the day of Ptolemy (87-165 C.E.) till
the time of Nasir Tusi (1207-1274 C.E.) nobody gave serious thought to
the difficulties of demonstrating the certitude of Euclid's parallel
postulate on the basis of perceptual space. It was Tusi who first
disturbed the calm which had prevailed in the world of mathematics for
a thousand years."
Al-Biruni in his APPROACH TO THE MODERN MATHEMATICAL IDEA OF FUNCTION
saw, from a purely scientific point of view, the insufficiency of a
static view of the universe. Again, to quote Iqbal, "the
transformation of the Greek concept of 'Number' from pure magnitude to
pure relation really began with Khawarizmi's movement from arithmetic
to algebra. Al-Biruni took a definite step forward towards what
Spengier describes as chronological number which signifies the mind's
passage from being to becoming."
Side by side, with the progress of mathematical thought in Islam, we
find the idea of organic evolution gradually shaping itself. It was
Jahiz who was the first to note the changes in bird life caused by
migration. Later Ibn Miskawiah gave it the shape of a more definite
theory, adopted in his famous work, Al-Fauz Al-Ashgar. Ibn Miskawaih's
idea of life as an evolutionary movement and al-Biruni's approach to
the conception constituted the intellectual inheritence of Ibn
Khaldun, of the the greatest historians of the world and undoubtedly
the FOUNDER OF THE CONCEPTION OF NATURE AS A PRECESS OF BECOMING,
constituted the inheritence of Ibn Khaldun, one of the greatest
historians of all time, and the undoubtedly the FOUNDER OF THE
CONCEPTION OF HISTORY AS A SCIENCE -- A SCIENCE OF DEMONSTRATIVE CAUSE
AND EFFECT. This tendency to treat history as a science is a direct
emanation from the Qur'an itself, which lays the greatest emphasis on
a constant reminder of the historical Cause and Effect as a method of
assessing the importance and the trend of the developments of human
problems at any given period of time.
* THE EARLY MUSLIMS DID NOT INDULGE IN SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS MERELY
AS A MENTAL LUXURY *
The historical evidence which I have taken the liberty of recounting
somewhat at length goes clearly to show that it was not only in a
spirit of pure mental gymnastics that Islam laid such great emphasis
on the scientific master over the forces of nature but that early
Muslim history gives positive proof of the development of the Muslim
mind in the direction which the Qur'an had so emphatically impressed
upon it. These Muslim scientists did not indulge in scientific
pursuits purely as a mental luxury. Their intentions and objectives
were very clear and those were to fulfill the purpose of this existence
as enunciated by the Qur'an itself, namely, to obtain a mastery over
nature "without" by an integration and development of the forces
"within," man, and thereby to obtain that power which, when utilized
in the creative and positive direction would achieve for man his
transcendence over matter and thereby fit him for the next stage of
his evolutionary life, which obviously lies in the regions of cosmic
consciousness. The practical laboratory, which this existence
provides, is the crucible for humanity wherein man's final sublimation
is to take place. It is only after the achievement of that sublimation
that he can equip himself for the Existence Hereafter, where the
bounds of time and space as well as the constant phases of change will
have been mastered and controlled, this achieving an eternal and
conscience existence for Self, that is man, and not an obliteration or
negation of his entity which mysticism considers to be the goal of
life.
* HOW MUSLIMS CAN REGAIN THEIR LOST LEADERSHIP
The rich heritage which Islam provided for this world appears to have
been divided into two parts. The major part, namely purely scientific
development, appears to have been taken up with both hands by the
West. The East appears to have got lost in the maze of its own mental
acrobatics. It is about time that an integration of both these aspects
of existence within, and the forces of nature without, bound and knit
together by all-pervading "Fundamental Values" was brought into
existence. The West today has advanced into the realms of nuclear
physics in their scientific pursuits. The Atom and the Hydrogen Bomb
along with an X-Bomb now, have begun to terrify humanity. Most of
scientific development is proceeding in a negative direction. There
are vast fields of research and activity in the positive and creative
direction also, which have still to be studied and mastered by the
inter-play of thought and empirical methods. For those who care to
study the Qur'an there are plenty of positive clues which will guide
them in the right direction. Mere mental gymnastics will not do; we
have to get down to acquiring a complete mastery for the utilization
and harnessing of the limitless energy which a Beneficient Providence
has stored for us in boundless Space. Positive and well directed
scientific research with constant empirical and practical checking up
and the technical "know-how" are the fields of activity for our young
minds to delve deep into, keeping constantly in mind the fact that
where the West has gone wrong is that it has ignored the fundamental
values which must govern the utilization of the benefits to be derived
from the mastery over the palpable universe. If we go forward with a
firm faith and behalf in the unity of Godhead and the consequent unity
of humanity and thereafter utilize our achievements for the benefit of
mankind as a whole, we have before us an immense field for
achievement. We shall then regain our lost leadership of mankind and
make our contribution in the fulfillment of the purpose of this
existence -- in its march and evolution forwards and upwards with ILA
RABBIKA MUNTAHAHA (79:44) (i.e., Towards the Sustainer lies its Goal),
as the limit for our achievements.