Obaidur Rahman Nadwi

The Surah-i-Iqra, the first verse of the Qur’an, opens with an injunction addressed to the Prophet to ‘read’. The place assigned to education in Islam can be best appreciated in the light of the importance attached to ink, pen and paper, the three indispensables for acquiring and extending knowledge. The same Surah is also devoted to writing and its indispensability as a means to education. The teachings of Islam are meant for all human beings. Mohammad said education is meritorious in the eyes of Almighty; He asked everyone to acquire it. He stressed the acquisition of learning and made it compulsory for all men and women of the faith. All through the times of Khilafat-i-Rashida, the days of the first four Caliphs after Muhammad, education continued to make rapid progress. The readers of the Qur’an were mainly responsible for the spread of Qur’anic teaching and the Prophet’s traditions among the Arab and non-Arab Muslims. For the first time, Muslims started formalising their education system. Elementary education seems to have been established in the early Umayyad period and developed in the newly conquered countries such as Iraq, Syria and Persia.

People in search of knowledge went to the mosque, which, besides being a place of worship, also served as an educational centre. Under the Abbasids, education made tremendous progress because Muslims came under the influence of Greek literature and philosophy. It was during this period that the Arabs became acquainted with Indian science, particularly medicine, mathematics and astronomy. The contact of the Arabs with the outside world revolutionized their outlook on different spheres of life. This period also saw efforts for the development of higher education getting a fillip. Children of the upper class and the nobility did not attend the mosque and maktab that catered to the educational needs of the Muslim masses. The elite had private tutors to impart education with a view to making them, gentlemen.

There are many versions of the saying of the Prophet emphasizing the importance of imparting knowledge as a religious duty. The followers of Islam have always held learning and erudition in veneration. This has made the Muslims contribute to the progress of science for the benefit of mankind.

Centres for Learning

Universities such as Qartaba(Cordova) in Spain, Al-Azhar at Cairo and Madrasa Nizamiya at Baghdad has turned out scholars as Ibn-i-Khaldun, Ibn Asir, Imam-al-Ghazzali, Imam Fakhrud-din Razi, Abu Ali Ibn Sena (Avicenna), Nizam-ul-Mulk Tusi, Umar Khayyam, Saadi and Hafiz among many others.(Ref: Madrssa Education in India by Kuldip Kaur page 4-5)

It should be noted that Islam has never been a barrier to progress and development. History can not cite any instance from other religions that have played a leading role in the field of science and technology as Islam did. In the words of noted Islamic scholar late Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, “There is not a single sector of European revival which is not indebted to Islamic thought. Islam imparted a new glow of life to Europe.”

In his book, Islam at the Crossroads Muhammad Asad says, “History proves beyond any possibility of doubt that no religion has ever given a stimulus to scientific progress similar to that of Islam. The encouragement which learning and scientific research received from Islamic theology resulted in the splendid cultural achievements in the days of the Umayyads and Abbassides and Arab rule in Spain. Europe should know this well, for its own culture owes to Islam nothing less than the Renaissance after centuries of darkness.”

I am not mentioning this in order to just take pride in ourselves in those glorious memories at a time when the Islamic world has forsaken its own tradition and reverted into blindness and intellectual poverty. We have no right, in our present misery, to boast of past glories. But we must realize that it was the negligence of Muslim and not any deficiency in the Islamic teaching which caused our present decay.

Dispelling Europe’s Darkness

Similar thoughts have been expressed by Maulana S.M. Rabey Hasani Nadwi, Rector Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, and President, All India Muslim Personal Law Board: “When Europe was passing through darkness and ignorance of the Middle Ages, the Muslim world was producing scholars, thinkers, educationists and eminent masters of physical and social sciences. European writers have quite often acknowledged that for six hundred years Europe learnt and benefited from the researches of Muslims before commencing their march to progress.” In the words of Marquis of Duffering: “It is the Musalman science, Musalman art, and the Musalman literature that Europe has been in large measure indebted for its extrication from- the darkness of the middle ages.”

Dr Robert Briffault has rightly stated that science arose in Europe as a result of a new spirit of enquiry, of new methods of the investigation, of the method of experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of mathematics in a form unknown to the Greeks, and that spirit and those methods were introduced into the European world by the Arabs (Muslims).

It goes without saying that Muslim scientists not only made an original contribution to science but also to technology. In other words, they made practical use of their scientific discoveries. They observed the stars and prepared star maps for navigational purposes. Ibn Yunus made use of a pendulum for the measurement of time. Ibn Sina used air temperature. Paper, compass, gun, gunpowder, inorganic examples of scientific and technological developments of Muslim scientists, which brought about an unprecedented revolution in the human civilization (Islam and Evolution of Science, P,15).

It would not be out of place to refer some important books of prominent Muslim writers on different branches of science. “lhsa al Ulum (Enumeration of Sciences) by al Farabi (Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad. d. 339 AH.); Rasa il Ikhwan al Safa wa Khillan al Wafa (The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity and the Companions of Fidelity), (mid-fourth century AH.); Mafatih al Ulum (Keys to sciences) by al Khawarizmi (Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Yusuf, d. 387 A.H.); al Fihrist (the Book of Indices) by Ibn al Nadim (Muhammad ibn Ishaq, d. 438 AH.); Aqsam al Ulum al ‘Aqliyah (Divisions of Rational Sciences) by Ibn Sina (Avicenna), (d. 428 AH.); Maratib al ‘Ulum (Ranks of Sciences) by Ibn Hazm (d. 456 AH.); Tabaqat al ‘Ulum (Levels of sciences) by al Abyuri (Abu al Muzaffar Muhammad ibn Muhammad, d. 507 AH.); al Muqaddimah (The Introduction) by Ibn Khaldun (d. 808 AH.); Miftah al Sa’adah wa Misbah al Siyadahfi Mawdu at al ‘‘Ulum (Key to Happiness and Lantern to Sovereignty in the Fields of Science) by Tash Kubra Zadah (d. 968 AH.); Kashf al Zunun ‘an Asma’ al Kutub wa al Funun (the Unravelling of Intents in the Titles of Books and Arts) by Hajji Khalifah (d. 1067 A.H.); Kashshaf Istilahat al ‘Ulum (Index of Scientific Terms) by al Tahanawi (Muhammad ibn ‘Ali, d. after 1158 A.B.); andAbjad al ‘Ulum (the Alphabet of Sciences) by Siddiq ibn Hasan al Qunuji (d. 1307 A.H.)” (Classification of Sciences in Islam Thought: Between Imitation and Originality, Page-8-9)

 “Some scientific works of Muslims were thoroughly studied in Western academic institutions that exerted a great influence on scientific development in Europe. Kitab al Qanun by Ibn Sina, Kitab al-Manazir by Ibn al-Haitham and Kitab al –Tasrif by al-Zahrawi are mentionable. Kitab al-Qanun, which is a comprehensive medical work and is called Canon in the West, was translated into Hebrew in 1270. It was also translated into Latin by the two Gerards of Toledo, and about thirty editions of this work were published in Europe. Many commentaries on it were written in the 15th century.

A beautiful Arabic edition of this work was published in Rome in 1593. It formed half the medical curriculum of the European universities in the latter part of the 15th century and continued as a text-book up to about 1950 in the universities of Montpellier and Louvain. The translation of the first volume of the book, with the exception of the anatomical part, was made into English in 1930.

Books Translated by West

Kitab al-Manazir (book of optics) was translated into Latin under the title Opticae Thesaurus Alhazen. Ibn al-Haitham, the author of this book was called Alhazen, -a name by which he is remembered in Europe to this day. According to George Sarton, this book exerted a great influence on European scientists (from Roger Bacon to Kepler, i.e. for about 600 years).

Kitab .al-Tasrif is an encyclopedic work comprising medicine and surgery. In the 12th century, Kitab ‘al-Tasrif was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona and various editions of it were published at Venice in 1497, and at Basel in 1541. It was published in 1778 at Oxford along with the original Arabic text. One copy of this edition is present in the British Museum, and one in the Bodleian Library. Its English translation was published in 1961, and a French translation appeared in 1880. This masterpiece of al-Zahrawi held its importance for centuries as the manual of surgery at Salerno, Montpellier and other early schools of medicine in Europe. The great European historians admit that Europe owes her primary advancement in surgery to al-Zahrawi. Dr Joseph Heres has recognized Abu’l Qasim al- Zahrawi as an eminent surgeon. Dr Arnold Campbell, in his book. Arabian Medicine has written a large treatise on al-Zahrawi, which reveals the importance of this name in the West. He has disclosed that Western scholars like Roger Bacon (1214-49) gained knowledge of medicine and surgery from the books of al-Zahrawi and ibn Rushd.

The numerous Arabic words and scientific terms currently being used in European languages are living monuments of Muslims’ contribution to modern sciences. Besides, the large number of books in the libraries of Asia and Europe, the scientific instruments preserved in the museums of many countries, the mosques and palaces built centuries ago also bear eloquent testimony to this important phenomenon of world history.

It will be interesting to note a few Arabic words and terms which are currently being used in some European languages. The terms ciphra, cypher and chiffre in Latin, English and French respectively have been derived from the Arabic word Sifr (meaning empty or nil). Sifr is a numeral written at the right of another numeral to increase its value ten times. Until the end of the 17th century, the word chiffre in French was used in the same sense, but gradually it became the name of the whole subject dealing with numbers i.e. arithmetic. The English word cypher is used for some particular type of zero.”(Islam And Evolution of Science, p. 17-19)

Manzoor Ahmed writes, “The Islamic influence on the European culture reached its peak in the 10th Century (4th Century Hijri) in Spain when, according to R.W. Southern, in his book, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,1962 — Page 21) talented young Christians were reading books in Arabic and were reported to “despise the Christian literature as unworthy of attention.” They also ignored the study of Latin and took to Arabic. Arabic books were also translated into Latin in a large number between the 11th Century and 13th Century. M. Nakosteen in his book A History of Islamic Origin of Western Education AD 800-1350 (Published by University Colorado Press, 1964) has said that Universities were founded in Europe during the period to assimilate the flood of Muslim sciences and technologies inundating Europe. Incidentally, the highest point of the Muslim sciences and technologies in the West is also the lowest and the most destructive part of our history during the Mongol invasion. While the Islamic sciences stopped growing by the 14th Century, their influence lasted in Europe till 17th Century.

Causes behind Renaissance

It was the Muslim influence on Europe that brought about the Renaissance. For four centuries there was not a single advance in the field of science or technology which was not made by the Muslims. Moritz Cantor fails to explain this phenomenon in material terms when he says. “That a people who for centuries together were closed to all the cultural influence from their neighbours; who themselves did not influence others during all this time; who then all of a sudden imposed their faith, their laws and their language on other nations to an extent which has no parallel in history — all this is such an extraordinary phenomenon that it is worthwhile to investigate its causes. At the same time, we can be sure that this sudden outburst of intellectual maturity could not have originated in itself.

It will require a long study to pinpoint the reasons for the decline in Islamic learning. However, the debilitating battles of the Crusades. Taimoor’s invasion from Delhi to Angora and the Turkish political ascendancy of the Muslim world that could not pay attention to arts and culture on account of their constant warfare were some of the important reasons for the down-hill journey of Muslim sciences. The defeat and disintegration of the Muslim world at the hands of the nascent industrial powers of Europe completed this job in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.” (Islamic Education Redefinition of Aims and Methodology, Page - 8-9).

Strangely, despite this genuine fact when we hear the word science our attention is surely drawn to the West. There are two reasons behind it. One is that biased historians ignored most names of Muslim scientists. Even if they mentioned some names they presented them in a distorted form. What to speak of non- Muslims even educated Muslims do not know that Avesina, Razes and Jaber were from the Muslim community.

Some such names are listed below:

                Arabic Name        Latin name

1.            Abu’ I Qasim        Albucasis 

                al-Zahrawi                                           

2.            Muhammad Ibn Jabir

                Ibn Sinan al-Battani   Albetinius

3.            Abu ‘Ali Ibn Sina  Avicenna

4.            Muhammad Ibn

                Zakariyya al-Razi                Rhazes

5.            Ibn Rushd                             Averroes

6.            Abu Yusuf Ya’qub Ibn        Alkindus

                Ishaq al-Kindi                                      

7.            Abu ‘Ali Ibn aI-Husain        Alhazen

                Ibn al-Haitham                                   

8.            ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Ibn Alcabitius

                ‘Uthman

                Ibn ‘Al i al-Qabisi                

9.            ‘Abd aI-Malik Ibn                Avenzoar

                Abi’I-’Ala Zuhr    

It is time we must bring contributions and achievements of Muslim scientists in focus so that our new generation may learn of their achievements and derive benefit out of their works. It is unfortunate that today scant attention is being paid to education by Muslims while others are being benefited by the scientific achievements and contributions of our ancestors. We must impart our children a good education and adorn them with good qualities and sublime norms only that our past glory may come back. Besides, we may act on the first revelation which Allah sent to His last Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) for creating a new civilization.

(The author is Faculty Member, Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow)