Revival of any Islamic science is part of the revival of Islamic civilization and will pave the way for the revival of other sciences as well. But unlike other Islamic sciences, Islamic medicine has the distinction that despite all the efforts to wipe it out — many at the hands of Muslims themselves—it is still a living tradition, unlike physics and chemistry. Reviving it is thus easier.

There are things our physicians can do individually.
Our physicians need to recognize the great and unique opportunity that they have for doing good not only for the body but also for the soul of their patients. Doctors are in the best position to promote Islamic lifestyle, which is the best protection against the diseases brought on by our modern lifestyles. This refers to diseases of all kinds— physical, mental, and spiritual, although the last one is not always recognized. Today we are more concerned about the hardening of the arteries than we are about the hardening of the hearts. But Muslim physicians can furnish treatments for both.

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“Had Allah not given us the world around us with its beautiful nature, would we be able to realize that it had a Creator? That is to say, that if we were the only ones here on Earth–wouldn’t we think that we were ‘gods’? But Allah has put the world around us and shown us that there is One who is much greater than us.

But there is more to consider. The above ayah mentions that we are to contemplate upon the creation of the Heavens and Earth. How exactly are we to do this?

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Now consider how people all around the world are destroying the Earth. Are we not losing wisdom and understanding? It’s one thing to lose nature by damaging the environment but to lose the wisdom that Allah teaches through it–means that we will eventually lose our understanding of ourselves and therefore a key avenue for coming closer to Allah SWT. That is why we must take a serious and hard look at preserving the environment.”

The complete post at Muslimology.

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“Our turning away from Allah simply results in Allah’s anger, and this is why Muslims suffer many calamities. You must remember that Allah warns his people and he gives enough time for his servants to repent, but if they still don’t take heed, then Allah only shows a slight spark of his anger which results into cities and countries left helpless when struck by disasters.”

The full article.

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So think of a society that uses both, technology and spirituality together. That’s what Muslims did during the Abbassid caliphate. We were the best in technology at the time and we were a military power. Our collapse, which came many centuries later, came because we lagged technologically and spiritually.

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Having just returned from a visit to NASA Kennedy Space Center myself, the following reminder from In Shaykhs Company seemed appropriate.

“During a visit to America, Mufti Taqi Uthmani hafizahullah, visited the NASA space centre. The respected Mufti narrates that when he reached there, he noticed, to his amazement, that there were no security guards visible; there was just one sign which stated that “You are being watched.”

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Bilal Zuberi reminds us that environment has huge economic cost too. He argues that comments like- “how can we worry about environment when our economy is suffering” do not hold much water.

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The Earth was at the center of the universe. The movement of the stars above the moon decided the fate of the world below. This was the science of Aristotle.

The scholars of the new Islamic empire, established when the Roman Empire had given way to the Christian Byzantines, began to translate Greek books. They were astonished by the originality of the Greek sciences in measuring and determining the orbit of the stars. Whereas the Christians of that era had been extremely suspicious of such “pagan” texts, the Caliphate had been continuously absorbing books and sciences from Greece, Rome, Persia, India and else where, since the early days of its inception. During this time, the Greek sciences were subject to criticism and development; a process especially highlighted when they became difficult to reconcile with religion.

For example, Islam says that man decides his own destiny, whereas all the Greek philosophers, including Aristotle, believed that the movement of stars decided man’s fate (astrology), thus leading to an inevitable clash of ideas. The problem was eventually solved by the abandonment of astrology; the new breed of philosophers were simply observing God’s universe to know Him better, and not to determine the future. However, in spite of a fierce attack from Islamic Jurists, it cannot be denied that some astrologers remained (people love to know their future – so much so, that they are ready to invent it).

Greek science, as a whole, tended to be theoretical. Although very often the philosophical discourses were shaped by experience, philosophers never went back to Nature to verify their assumptions or conclusions. They thought man, being rational and the best of living beings, could understand the universe by thinking.

It didn’t work. Aristotle, for example, assumed that human beings must have the most number of teeth, because man is the best of all the animals. All he had to do was open the mouth of one of his students, do the same to his horse, and start counting; he would have soon realized his error – but he never did.

We cannot decide how the universe “should work”. To learn about the world around us, we must observe it and find out how it “does work”. We can even go one step further, and demand that all the conclusions we draw should be verified by experience. This idea, that all theories must be verified via experimentation (or in other words, must be consistent with our observations), is known as empiricism, and is the principle upon which modern Science (with a capital S) is hinged.

The scientist whose work first reflected this idea was ibn Al-Haitham (or Al-Haytham; 965 – 1039). In his own words:

“the seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration”

Portrait of Al-Haitham on the Iraqi dinar.

In brief, Al-Haitham is credited with “inventing” Science. In less passionate terms, he invented the Scientific Method; and because of that, he is recognised as the first scientist.

And quite a scientist he was. He was the first to experimentally demonstrate that light travels in a straight line. He invented the pin-hole camera, determined the laws of

refraction, and established the field of experimental psychology. In addition, his analysis of the Greek models of the universe led him to conclude that they were inadequate and faulty.

Al Haitham published his most famous book, Optics, around 1015 (the exact year is unknown).

What is really exciting is that we are now approaching a thousand years from the publication of Optics. In other words: we are approaching a Thousand Years of Science, thousand years since Science earned a capital S.

(Logo of 1000 years of science designed by Fara.)

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Muslims often point to the connection between the word “Allah” and the Hebrew ”El” or its plural “Elohim” (which is used in the Bible as a reference to God) to show that Muslims don’t worship a pagan Arab god (as claimed), but rather the God of Abraham and all the Prophets. One Christian argument has been that even though the connection between “Elohim” and “Allah” (and the Aramaic equivalent “Alaha“) may be there, Muslims still don’t worship the One True God since His name, according to them, is Jehova or Yahweh.

The earlier piece on Science in the Quran is also a very interesting read.

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Filled with academically enriching, spiritually enlightening and emotionally stirring moments, The Language of God keeps readers deeply engrossed. The book can be appreciated from various angles; it can be seen as a lesson in the history of major benchmarks in science, or as a spiritual refresher that resonates with readers from diverse traditions. Even I can attest to this, as despite my Islamic convictions, the words of this devout Christian author have been spiritually moving. The book has reminded me of the indisputable signs of God’s existence, signs that we often forget to appreciate in our busy lives. Perhaps I can call the arrival of this book into my hands a fortuitous event, although, with Collins’s reminder fresh in mind, it would be more accurate to ascribe this event to fate, to God’s long-term plans. God has already written a script for the course of history, and His cast includes planets, mountain ranges, trees, reptiles, and even human beings. However, this script is written in a text incomprehensible to us, a text we will never decrypt in our lifetimes: This is the Language of God.

Link.

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Should prove an exciting and invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in Islamic Art, Civilization and History, inshallah.

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