How Islamic Inventors Changed the World
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Interesting link
http//www.freemuslims.org/news/article.php?article=1933
Interesting indeed. However it is all in the past. No need to dwell too much into what were behind us. The Mongolians are still proud of Genghis Khan's achievement in the past while Mongolia today is total crap. The same thing with Macedonia. Macedonians are still proud of Alexander the Great but the truth is their country is also crap now.
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A very interesting book about this theme is
Sigrid Hunke's "Allahs Sonne Uber Dem Abendland Uber. Arabisches Erbe", translated by Farouk Beydoune under the title of "Sun of Arabs Rises on the West" or in french "le soleil d'allah brille sur l'occident"
an eye opener which i think should be part of western school programms in order to promote a better understanding between people
peace lk
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Interesting indeed. However it is all in the past. No need to dwell too much into what were behind us. The Mongolians are still proud of Genghis Khan's achievement in the past while Mongolia today is total crap. The same thing with Macedonia. Macedonians are still proud of Alexander the Great but the truth is their country is also crap now.
He who does not learn the past, is doomed to repeat it.
It's important for us to know the past, but as you point out, we should give more bandwidth to studying the mistakes of the past than glorifying our past achievements. Knowing what went right, while it gives us a sense of pride, will help much less than knowing what went wrong.
Nurd
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I would imagine that by studying the glorious past it's easy to realise why we're in the rut we're in. Abandoning the Quran and it's injunctions to think, reflect and study God's signs in the scripture and nature. It was following this inquisitive attitude that caused so much progress and so many innovations.
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He who does not learn the past, is doomed to repeat it.
It's important for us to know the past, but as you point out, we should give more bandwidth to studying the mistakes of the past than glorifying our past achievements. Knowing what went right, while it gives us a sense of pride, will help much less than knowing what went wrong.
Nurd
I agree with that. I believe we all should realise that everyone had their part in making contributions to the world. In Indonesia, most school textbooks only mention western scientists. Is the case the same in the Middle East? I heard right there they taught children about Ibn Frisna instead of the Wright brothers.
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I really recommend this book
http//shop1.actinicexpress.co.uk/shops/muslimheritageconsulting/index.php
http//shop1.actinicexpress.co.uk/shops/muslimheritageconsulting/images/catalog/BoocCoverEd23D-1.jpg
It is also a very nice site.
http//www.1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.viewSection&intSectionID=240
I will quote Muhammed Asad on the 'Golden Age of Islam'
"Less than a century after the Prophet's death, the political form of pristine Islam began to be corrupted and, in the following centuries, the original programme {what a beautiful definition! programme} was gradually pushed into the background. Clannish wrangling for power took the place of a free agreement of free men and women; hereditary kingship; as inimical to the political concept of Islam as polytheism is to Islam's theological concept, soon came into being- and with it, dynastic struggles and intrigues, tribal preferences and oppressions, and the usual degradation of religion to the status of a handmaiden of political power.
In short, the entire host of 'vested interests' so well known to history. For a time, the great thinkers of Islam tried to keep its true ideology aloft and pure; but those who came after them were of lesser stature and lapsed after two three centuries into a morass of intellectual convention, ceased to think for themselves and became content to repeat the dead phrases of earlier generations-forgetting that every human opinion is time-bound and fallible and therefore in need of eternal renewal.
The original impetus of Islam, so tremendous in its beginnings, sufficed for a while to carry the Muslim commonwealth to great cultural heights-to that splendid vision of scientific, literary and artistic achievement which historians describe as the Golden Age of Islam; but within a few more centuries this impetus also died down for want of spiritual nourishment, and Muslim civilization became more and more stagnant and devoid of creating power. I had no illusions as to the present state of affairs in the Muslim world.
The 4 years I have spend in those countries had shown me that while Islam was still alive, perceptible in the world-view of its adherents and their silent admission of its ethical premises, they themselves were like people paralysed, unable to translate their beliefs into fruitful action. But what concerned me more than the failure of present-day Muslims to implement the scheme of Islam were the potentialities of that scheme itself. It was sufficient for me to know that for a short time, quite at the beginning of Islamic history, a successful attempt HAD been made to translate that scheme into practice; and what had seemed possible at one time might perhaps become really possible at another. What did it matter, I told myself, that the Muslims had gone astray from the original teachings and subsided into indolence and ignorance?
What did it matter that they did not live up to the ideal placed before them by the Arabian Prophet 13 centuries ago-if the ideal itself still lay open to all who were willing to listen to its message?
And it might well be, I thought, that we latecomers needed that message even more desperately than did the people of Muhammad's time. They lived in an environment much simpler than ours, and so their problems and difficulties had been much easier of solution. The world in which I was living-the whole of it -was wobbling because of the absence of any agreement as to what is good and what is evil spiritually and, therefore, socially and economically as well. I did not believe that individual man was in need of 'salvation' but i did believe that modern society was in need of salvation. More than any previous time, I felt with mounting certainty, this time of ours was in need of an ideological basis for a new social contract it needed a faith that would make us understand the hollowness of material progress for the sake of progress alone-and nevertheless would give the life of this world its due; that would show us how to strike a balance between our spiritual and physical requirements; and thus save us from the disaster into which we were rushing headlong."
Taken from Article on Muhammed Asad's book 'Road to Mecca'
http//19.org/index.php?id=91,551,0,0,1,0
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Salam,
To be frank i?m personally not particular impressed by what Muslims in the past have achieved.
People from other cultures/religions in the past have contributed a lot to the world.
Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Isaac Newton and many other great minds got their inspiration from Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). Rabbi Yehuda Berg said that the dimming of the spiritual light of Jewish mysticism (because rabbis were concealing the scripts so that they can remain in authority, and the layman won't gain eminence) also coincides with
the dark ages.Is there anybody here that studies kabbalah?
peace -
Salam,
To be frank im personally not particular impressed by what Muslims in the past have achieved.
People from other cultures/religions in the past have contributed a lot to the world.
Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Isaac Newton and many other great minds got their inspiration from Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). Rabbi Yehuda Berg said that the dimming of the spiritual light of Jewish mysticism (because rabbis were concealing the scripts so that they can remain in authority, and the layman won't gain eminence) also coincides with
the dark ages.Is there anybody here that studies kabbalah?
peaceExcept, as far as I know Kabbalah developed in Muslim Spain and was probably inspired by Sufism. Anyway, I have a question. Why do we call Ibn Rushdie, Al Kindi, or Ibn Sina Muslim scientists? Because we do not call Galileo Galilei or Nicolas Copernicus Christian scientists.
Peace,
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It always bothers me when some people of Islamic or Christianity or Jewish or Hindu or other faiths come up with "scientific proofs" of how "amazing" their scripture is in predicting certain tangible and intangible things. This post is typical of how amazing ANY "scripture" is.
Morals are morals. Science is Science. Anyone can figure out right from wrong or real science from junk science; either on their own or by the experiences of others. No doubt the men who wrote the bible or the scriptures that were revealed to men had their view of what was wrong and right, and they wrote it down. It's their opinion or interpretation, they wrote it.
I dont think people need God to tell them that drinking till you are puking sick when you are pregnant probably isn't a good idea. Good thing we have the "word" though, or else we would all have fetal alcohol syndrome
Here's what I found on a "christian" website
GRAVITY. Ancient Egyptians said earth floated in a river. Ancient Indians (Hindu) said earth was on the back of 4 elephants standing on the back of a giant turtle, swimming in a sea of milk, encircled by a great snake. Ancient Greeks had earth on the back of Atlas. Buddhists had earth on the back of a giant catfish.
-Job 267 (2000 BC) "?He suspends the earth over nothing."
GLOBE. People thought earth was flat until the 1400s AD.
-Isaiah 4022a (700 BC) "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,"
CONTINENTAL DRIFT. Land masses move a few inches yearly.
-Job 95a (2000 BC) "He moves mountains without their knowing it"
THE WATER CYCLE from evaporation to cloud formation to rain was not clearly understood by scientists until the 1800s AD.
-Job 3626-29 (2000 BC) "He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture & abundant showers fall on mankind?"
-Ecclesiastes 17 (950 BC) "All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again."
PREGNANT WOMEN drinking alcohol was not clearly understood as being dangerous until modern times.
-Judges 133-4 (1100 BC) "?going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean,"
UNCOOKED MEAT can carry many diseases.
-Leviticus 1710 (1300 BC) "Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood-I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people."
GERMS were not known or accepted by doctors until the 1800s AD.
-Leviticus 1345-46 (1300 BC) "The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt (uncovered), cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp."
-Leviticus 1351-52 (1300 BC) "On the 7th day he is to examine it, and if the mildew has spread in the clothing, or the woven or knitted material, or the leather, whatever its use, it is a destructive mildew; the article is unclean. He must burn up the clothing, or the woven or knitted material of wool or linen, or any leather article that has the contamination in it, because the mildew is destructive; the article must be burned up."
-Deuteronomy 2312-13 (1300 BC) "Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement."
SHIP BUILDING. The dimensions given to build Noah's ark are accurate for an ocean going vessel. Noah was a farmer with no previous sailing skills mentioned.
-Genesis 615 (1300 BC) "This is how you are to build it The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high."
BLOOD COAGULATES best when an infant is exactly 8 days old.
-Genesis 1711-12 (1300 BC) "You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is 8 days old must be circumcised,?"
BLOOD CIRCULATION is needed to survive. A harmful blood-letting procedure was often used by doctors up to the 1800s AD.
-Leviticus 1711 (1300 BC) "For the life of the creature is in the blood,?"
CONCLUSION Men and women could not have known these facts at the time that these verses were written. This is very strong evidence that only God (the creator) could have written the Bible.
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As I stated in previous thread I agree with everything Harry said, however I do not think this thread has to do with the promotion 'amazing scientific proofs' of any scripture. I guess we are only talking about achievements contributed by people in the past who happened to be Muslims.
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Peace all,
angel said
To be frank i?m personally not particular impressed by what Muslims in the past have achieved.People from other cultures/religions in the past have contributed a lot to the world.
i agree with you in the sens that each culture has contributed. This is what should be taught in schools...
elke