Why Islam

TRANSFER OF ISLAMIC TECHNOLOGY TO THE WEST

2009-03-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

TRANSFER OF ISLAMIC TECHNOLOGY TO THE WEST
PART II
TRANSMISSION OF ISLAMIC ENGINEERING

here: http://www.history-science-technology.com/Articles/articles%2071.htm

Twin Cylinder Suction Pump of Al-Jazari

The Real Men Of The Renaissance

2009-03-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

Most western authors contend that the Renaissance emerged when Europeans studied Greek and Roman civilizations then developed new arts and sciences. These racist views hide or deny the massive effort to translate Arabic books to Latin, study them, and copy the Muslim civilization without giving appropriate credit to the "real" authors. Most Europeans had discovered the magnificent Muslim civilization during their crusades against the Muslims in Iberia and the Middle East.

The Qur'an, as the final word of God, anticipated many of the modern scientific discoveries which were beyond human imagination 14 centuries ago. The Muslim scientific revolution, which produced the renaissance that put Muslims at the top of the civilized world for 8 centuries, was a result of contemplating the clues in the Qur'an about the physical world.

The Muslim contributions are still evident today, 7 centuries after the destruction of the Muslim cultural centers in Asia by Genghis Khan and Hulagu, and 5 centuries after the destruction of the great Muslim cultural centers in Iberia by the Spaniards.

Arabic numerals, algebra, logarithms, and algorithms prove the West learned mathematics from the Muslims. al-Khawarizmi who died in 850 AD, introduced Algebra, the zero, negative numbers, algorithms (programs or software), and the decimal system to the West. One cannot imagine computers using Roman numerals. One cannot imagine the digital age without zeros.

read the full article here: http://home.att.net/~a.f.aly/renaissance.htm

Arab Contributions to Civilization

2009-01-26T12:58:00.000-08:00

source , and full article: http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=247

Much like America today, the Arab world of the seventh to the thirteenth centuries was a great cosmopolitan civilization. It was an enormous unifying enterprise, one which joined the peoples of Spain and North Africa in the west with the peoples of the ancient lands of Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia in the east. It was the rapid expansion of Islam that initially brought this empire together. Alliances were made, trade routes were opened, lands and peoples were welded into a new force. Islam provided the dynamism, but it was the Arabic language, which provided the bond that held it together. Islam spread to lands more distant than North Africa and the Fertile Crescent, but it was in this area that a common Arab culture emerged. To be Arab, then as now, was not to come from a particular race or lineage. To be Arab, like American, was (and is) a civilization and a cultural trait rather than a racial mark. To be Arab meant to be from the Arabic-speaking world – a world of common traditions, customs and value – shaped by a single and unifying language. The Arab civilization brought together Muslims, Christians and Jews. It unified Arabians, Africans, Berbers, Egyptians, and the descendants of the Phoenicians, Canaanites, and many other people. This great “melting pot” was not without tensions, to be sure, but it was precisely the tension of this mixing and meeting of peoples that produced the vibrant and dynamic new civilization, the remarkable advances of which we outline in this ADC Issues.

Letter from Mecca, Malcolm X

2008-12-17T04:43:00.000-08:00

Letter from Mecca

Malcolm X

April, 1964

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this Ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.

I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca. I have made my seven circuits around the Ka'ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad. I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam. I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al-Marwah. I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat.

There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.

America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered 'white'--but the 'white' attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to re-arrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)--while praying to the same God--with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions in the deeds of the 'white' Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana.We were truly all the same (brothers)--because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man--and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their 'differences' in color. With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called 'Christian' white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster--the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves. Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities--he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth--the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.

Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a 'white' man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. ... Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors--honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King--not a Negro.All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.

Sincerely,

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz

(Malcolm X)

Malcolm X, America needs to understand Islam

2008-11-24T05:26:00.000-08:00

The Oneness of Man Under One God

It was during his pilgrimage that he began to write some letters to his loyal assistants at the newly formed Muslim Mosque in Harlem. He asked that his letter be duplicated and distributed to the press:
"Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors. . . .
You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.
During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana.
We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude.
I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color."

watch this video interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYo9UTDj2HA

Islam and finance

2008-11-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

Wall Street, ready to adopt the principles of Sharia?

Wall Street, mûr pour adopter les principes de la Charia ?

Par Roland Laskine le 25 septembre 2008 8h35

http://www.jdf.com/indices/2008/09/25/02003-20080925ARTJDF00004-wall-street-mur-pour-adopter-les-principes-de-la-charia-.php

translation into english (by google): http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://blog.jdf.com/jdf-laskine/2008/09/wall-street-mur-pour-adopter-l.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DWall%2BStreet,%2Bm%25C3%25BBr%2Bpour%2Badopter%2Bles%2Bprincipes%2Bde%2Bla%2BCharia%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff

see also: "Le pope ou le Coran"
http://www.challenges.fr/magazine/0135.16203/reactions.html?limit=1

Spread of Islam

2008-11-17T01:41:00.000-08:00

"... Islam itself was the main cause for its triumph. Islam not only was at once accepted (by many peoples and races) by Arabia, Syria, Persia, Egypt, Northern Africa and Spain, at its first outburst; but, with the exception of Spain, it has never lost its vantage ground; it has been spreading ever since it came into being. Admitting the mixed causes that contributed to the rapidity of the first swift spread of Islam, they do not account for the duration of Islam. There must be something in the religion itself to explain its persistence and spread, and to account for its present hold over so large of a proportion of the dwellers on the earth... Islam has stirred an enthusiasm that has never been surpassed. Islam has had its martyrs, its recluses, who have renounced all that life offered and have accepted death with a smile for the sake of the faith that was in them.
A. J. Arberry holds the same view:
The rapidity of the spread of Islam is a crucial fact of history... The sublime rhetoric of the Qur’an, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy”. (M. Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an, p.vii) ...
This, and the urgency of the simple message carried, holds the key to the mystery of one of the greatest cataclysms in the history of religion. When all military, political and economic factors have been exhausted, the religious impulse must still be recognized as the most vital and enduring.”
Brockelman, usually very unsympathetic and partial, also recognizes Islam’s religious values as the main factor for its spread. Rosenthal writes: “The more important factor for the spread of Islam is religious law of Islam (Sharia which is an inclusive, all-embracing, all-comprehensive way of thinking and living) which was designed to cover all manifestations of life.”
Along with many other reasons, Islam spread because of its followers’ exemplary lifestyle and unceasing efforts to transmit its message throughout the world. These lie at the root of Islam’s conquest of hearts. Islamic universalism is closely associated with the principle of amr bi al-ma‘ruf (enjoining the good), for this is how Muslims are to spread Islam. This principle seeks to convey Islam’s message to everyone, without exception, and to establish a model community that displays Islam to the world: Thus We have made of you an Ummah justly balanced, that you might be witnesses (models) for the peoples, and the Messenger has been a witness for you (2:143).
Muslims, both as individuals and as a community, therefore have certain goals to achieve: communicating Islam to others, conveying the truth to everyone, striving to prevent oppression and tyranny, and establishing justice. To do this, they must live an exemplary life. Thus Islam’s moral and ethical values usually have played an important part in its spread.
One nineteenth-century European writer recorded his impressions on how Islamic ethics influenced black Africans as follows:
As to the effects of Islam when first embraced by a Negro tribe, can there, when viewed as a whole, be any reasonable doubt? Polytheism disappears almost instantaneously; sorcery, with its attendant evils, gradually dies away; human sacrifice becomes a thing of the past. The general moral elevation is most marked; the natives begin for the first time in their history to dress, and that neatly. Squalid filth is replaced by some approach to personal cleanliness; hospitality becomes a religious duty; drunkenness, instead of the rule, becomes a comparatively rare exception... chastity is looked upon as one of the highest, and becomes, in fact, one of the commoner virtues. It is idleness that henceforward degrades, and industry that elevates, instead of the reverse. Offences are henceforward measured by a written code instead of the arbitrary caprice of a chieftain—a step, as everyone will admit, of vast importance in the progress of a tribe. The Mosque gives an idea of architecture at all events higher than any the Negro has yet had. A thirst for literature is created and that for works of science and philosophy as well as for commentaries on the Qur’an." Source, and full article: http://www.thewaytotruth.org/islam-humanity/rapidspreadofislam.html

From Atheism to Belief by Dr. Jeffrey Lang - Video Lectures

2008-11-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVQ1BWqjTjs

"Jeffrey Lang (born January 30, 1954 in Bridgeport, Connecticut) is an American mathematician, currently a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kansas.[1]
He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1981. His thesis, on Zariski surfaces, was written under the direction of William Heinzer and Piotr Blass.[2]" copied from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Lang

2008-11-08T04:23:00.000-08:00

"It is well to recall that Islam not only caused Islamic civilization to develop but also enabled the European Renaissance to take root and grow ..."
copied from: www.twf.org/Library/Renaissance.html

read this article:

http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=208
http://www.muslimheritage.com/uploads/Introduction_to_Muslim%20Science.pdf

Averroës - The Great Muslim Philosopher Who Planted The Seeds of the European Renaissance

2008-11-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

By Habeeb Salloum
Abû al-Walîd Muhammad Ibn Rushd, better known in the West as Averroës, but also in medieval times as Avén Ruiz and Averrhoes, was born in 1126 A.D. in Cordova, once the illustrious capital of Moorish Spain. The descendant of a distinguished Cordovan family of scholars, he was the third generation of his lineage to hold the office of qâdî (judge). One of the foremost figures of Arab civilization, he became known as the 'Prince of Science’- the master of jurisprudence, mathematics, medicine and, above all, philosophy.The twelfth century produced some of the most outstanding scholars of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), like the neo-Aristotelian school developed by vempace (Ibn Bajja), Ibn Tufayl and Maimonides (Ibn Maymûn) which was to have considerable influence on Christian Europe. However, Ibn Rushd, who it is said never missed reading or writing except the day he married and the day his father died, in medieval intellectual thought, was to overshadow them all. In the Middle Ages, his ideas influenced the transformation of thought in medieval Europe. The last of the great Muslim thinkers, his beliefs were to have an affect of the minds of many of the Middle Ages intellectuals, living well beyond the borders of Moorish Spain. As was the practise of the well-known families in his time, Ibn Rushd acquired his education within the family, excelling in Qur'anic studies, jurisprudence, theology and tradition. In addition, he became versed in astronomy, literature, mathematics, music and zoology, but his most outstanding accomplishments were in the areas of medicine and philosophy.

Source: http://www.arabworldbooks.com/articles19.html

See "Islam; Empire of faith" video

2008-11-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

Library of Congress

Dome of Jefferson's Building

Crediting foundation of Physics to Islam

Islam was necessity to the development of humanity. It came to raise humankind to higher levels of awareness and civilization.
For example, European Renaissance didn’t begin in Italy, but rather in the Muslim Sicily.

Part 1: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4222791480425043142&hl=en

Part2: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7502243539190558658&hl=en

Part 3: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=94144204270367302&hl=en

2008-11-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

Some interesting books:

The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Arab-Conquests-Spread-Changed/dp/0306815850/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393064727/ref=s9sdps_c2_14_img4-rfc_p-frt_p-3215_g1-3102_p?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1ZJB9JJ7GZY3XJJ24G1P&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=436516001&pf_rd_i=507846

How Islam Created the Modern World http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590080432/ref=s9sdps_c2_14_img3-rfc_p-frt_p-3215_g1-3102_p?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1ZJB9JJ7GZY3XJJ24G1P&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=436516001&pf_rd_i=507846

Forgotten history

2008-11-06T15:35:00.000-08:00

Islam: Empire of Faith, A must-see PBS documentary:

http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/

Al-Idrisi's map