The Royal Society
The Establishment Of Science
Jan 7th 2010
From The Economist print edition
Celebrating The 350th Anniversary Of The Birth Of Modern Science
THE streets surrounding St James’s Palace in London are dotted with gentlemen’s clubs, many of which now also admit women. This year, one such establishment is marking its 350th anniversary. The club in question is not merely a meeting place for like-minded members, however: it is the society that founded modern science.
The first fellows of the Royal Society, as it is now known, were followers of Sir Francis Bacon, a 17th-century statesman and philosopher who argued that knowledge could be gained by testing ideas through experiments. On a damp and murky night in November 1660, a dozen of them met to hear a lecture by a 28-year-old astronomer called Christopher Wren, who would later become the architect who designed St Paul’s Cathedral. Inspired, they determined to meet every week to discuss scientific matters and to witness experiments conducted by different members of the group. In so doing, they invented the processes on which modern science rests, including scientific publishing and peer review, and made English the primary language of scientific discourse.
The French Academy of Sciences, founded in 1666, proved no great rival; the American Association for the Advancement of Science was not formed until 1848. The first account of the Royal Society’s scheme of work, published in 1667, was accompanied by a frontispiece (see picture) showing Charles II, who granted the society its royal charter, with Sir Francis on his left and the society’s first president on the king’s right.
Sir Isaac Newton, who defined the laws of gravity, became president of the Royal Society in 1703. Its members (no more than 44 outstanding British scientists are elected to fellowship each year, along with up to eight foreign members) go on to win Nobel prizes; indeed, 74 of the society’s 1,300 living members are Nobel laureates. Before such honours were bestowed, many worthy of the accolade were fellows of the Royal Society, including Michael Faraday, who discovered electromagnetic induction, Charles Darwin, who uncovered evolution, and William Thomson, who formulated the first two laws of thermodynamics.
Such is the excitement at the Royal Society’s anniversary that Britain’s state broadcaster, the BBC, has created a year of science-related programming to celebrate it. Bill Bryson, a popular American author, has edited a book on the story of science that highlights the society’s role. The British Museum is holding a series of lectures on science’s contribution to the objects that it holds. The Royal Society itself is organising a festival billed as “a huge and splendid celebration of the joy and vitality of science, its importance to society and culture, and its role in shaping who we are and who we will become”. A proud tradition, indeed.
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15214028
Related Posts:
The 19 Grand Ideas Of Science: What Is The Universe Made Up Of And How Does It Operate? Quotes Of Aga Khan IV And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/11/501-19-grand-ideas-of-science-what-is.html
A Collection of Posts on this Blog about Great Scientists; Quote of Aga Khan IV.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/437a-collection-of-blogposts-on-great.html
"Science is a wonderful, powerful tool and research budgets are essential. But Science is only the beginning in the new age we are entering. Islam does not perceive the world as two seperate domains of mind and spirit, science and belief. Science and the search for knowledge are an expression of man's designated role in the universe, but they do not define that role totally....."(Aga Khan IV, McMaster University Convocation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, May 15th 1987)
"The great Muslim philosopher al-Kindi wrote eleven hundred years ago, "No one is diminished by the truth, rather does the truth ennoble us all"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May 1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)
"It is no exaggeration to say that the original Christian universities of Latin West, at Paris, Bologna and Oxford, indeed the whole European renaissance, received a vital influx of new knowledge from Islam -- an influx from which the later western colleges and universities, including those of North Africa, were to benefit in turn"(Aga Khan IV, 16 March 1983, Aga Khan UNiversity, Karachi, Pakistan)
"The truth, as the famous Islamic scholars repeatedly told their students, is that the spirit of disciplined, objective enquiry is the property of no single culture, but of all humanity. To quote the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Sina: "My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the universe so that I may know all its conditions." "(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"It (Surah of Light from the Quran) tells us that the oil of the blessed olive tree lights the lamp of understanding, a light that belongs neither to the East nor West. We are to give this light to all. In that spirit, all that we learn will belong to the world and that too is part of the vision I share with you"(Aga Khan IV, Speech to the Asia Society, New York, USA, September 25 1979)
"Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, our academic or secular elite must be deeply aware of Muslim history, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)
"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)
"One hour of contemplation on the works of the Creator is better than a thousand hours of prayer"(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Did the Qur'anic authors borrow information of science from external sources?
A common claim propagated by Muslims in the recent era is the claim of modern scientific discoveries being predicted in the Qur'an, which then obviously begs the question: how could a nomad such as Muhammad, who cut of from the world and aquainted only with the dessert and the camels possess such knowledge?
Let me first say, that I have done extensive study on must of these so-called scientific predictions in the Qur'an and my conclusion remains that the Qur'an reveals the knowledge of Muhammad's era only; hence the claim that the Qur'an is miracolously predicting in the seventh century what science recently has discovered is not a sustainable claim.
In this short thread I intend merely to assess the claim that Muhammad was so cut off and remote from the outside world, its knowledge and science as Muslims want us to believe. Or is it plausible that such knowledge was available and obvious to the prophet of Islam via those individuals to whom he was aquainted?
Muhammad and the two claims
Pre-Islamic Arabs are usually portrayed as simple nomads, strongly acquainted with dessert-life and particularly poetry; yet lacking every existing insight into the thought and science of its present era.[1] According to Iabal the scientific advancements that emerged with Islam were caused primarily by the appearance and study of the Qur’an; which later laid the foundation for Islam’s interaction with the world-powers and their knowledge.[2]
Based on this, two assertions run frequently: primarily that Muhammad would have no access to nor possess any knowledge of the science promoted by his contemporaries; secondly, that the cause behind the science promoted by the Qur’an must therefore be of divine revelatory origin.
This proposition has in recent years been particularly promoted by Maurice Bucaille, who writes:
‘How could a man living fourteen hundred years ago have made corrections to the existing description to such an extent that he eliminated scientifically inaccurate material and, on his own initiative, made statements that science has been able to verify only in the present day? This hypothesis is completely untenable’.[3]
Hence to assess this claim, we need to ask whether Muhammad was divinely inspired and uninformed, or whether he possessed access to the scientific postulates of his day. Furthermore, we need to ask whether the scientific claims of the Qur’an are consistent with the claims of modern discoveries.
Muhammad a man of knowledge
O’Leary points out that there are elements of definite Greek scientific origin, which made its way to the Arabs by a transmission of which route and date are uncertain.[4] This suggests that early Arabs might have possessed a slight insight into the ideas of the Greeks, even prior to the era of Islamic conquests. According to early sources Muhammad possessed knowledge and pursued it, as evident from Tabari’s narration: ‘Muhammad said:
“Man’s glance at knowledge for an hour is better for him than prayer for sixty years”. He therefore commanded all believers to seek knowledge and to go to China in search of knowledge, if required’.[5]
Muhammad certainly possessed insight into the celestial world and their orbits; al-Tabari writes:
‘The Prophet [Mohammed] replied: “Ali, they are five stars: Jupiter (al-birjis), Saturn (zuhal), Mercury (utarid), Mars (Bahram), and Venus (al-zuhrah). These five stars rise and run like the sun and the moon and race with them together. All the other stars are suspended from heaven as lamps are from mosques,… (al-Tabari vol.1 p.235-236).”’[6]
If therefore, Muhammad was acquainted only with the impoverished life of northern Arabia and its cultural exclusiveness and remoteness, from where did such insight derive? Is it plausible that Muhammad’s environment and social circle was not as scientifically impoverished as we are made to believe? Is it possible that Mecca and dessert cities were indeed impacted by external cultures?
Here we first need to consider the situation and history of ancient Arabia.
Prior to Muhammad Arabia was divided into the South, the Sabaens, also referred to as the Yemenites, and the North, referred to as Arabs.
The South was a populated and sedentary community, living in cities, while the North was inhospitable, nomadic and isolated; hence we know that Arabia was not solemnly remote and isolated.
Yet were there any interactions between Arabs in the south and north and other factions that might have enriched or established knowledge among the dessert people? The Sabaenas, ran two trade routes, an ocean based route between India and Africa, and the land-based, particularly toward Syria and Egypt.[7]
There is evidence that literary interaction between the South-Arabs, the Greeks and the Indians took place even centuries before Islam. Since 1300 BC, the South Arabs left inscriptions in the North, what the nomads referred to as musnad. Interestingly, the musnad alphabet was effected by Greek language, which reveals the impact of Hellenism even in the south prior to appearance of Islam.
Furthermore since alters to Arabic deities have been found in Delos we know that the Arabs actually traded in the Greek world.[8]
For these routes to operate intermediate centres were needed; these were the oasis alongside the land-route between Yemen and Syria of which one was Mecca.[9] This confirms that the trades required among the Arabs a certain acquaintance with Greek and other languages, which became the communication of administration.[10] Hence the influence of trade and their international influence and the stations, certainly imply that Greek knowledge was spreading around.
Yet there were also other means of international interaction, such as the intervals of Northern dominance.
At one point the South weakened and the Northern tribes took the advantage to invade extensive parts of the South Syrian territory.[11] Even though no signs are evident of the Greek culture passing to the Arabs here, yet because Arab states were formed a long the eastern border of Syria and left untouched,[12] it is plausible that centuries of proximity prior to Muhammad’s era caused ideas to pass on. Further escalation between the political powers of the Byzantine in the North, the Persians in the East and the rulers of the south caused North Arabia to be caught in between.[13]
In 450 AD the community in the South suddenly declines, its proliferation vanishes, which causes massive migration to the North. These immigrants strengthened the oasis and their communities and establish intellectual centres among the people of the dessert.[14]
A third influence was the dispersion of various Christian sects and Judaism, which also impacted the dessert community.[15] The Christian Nestorians reached deep into the Arabian dessert with their message, as far as to Wadi I-Qura, near Medina. Beside the Nestorians, there were other Christian factions who expanded their influence; such as the Monophysites whose centre in Arabia was Najran.[16]
These sects were connected to Christian factions to which science was greatly valued; who possessed schools which emphasised and propagated the Christian faith, including philosophy and science. Their contribution to translating literature e.g. into Syrian language and their knowledge was not only confined to monasteries but were transmitted to the communities.[17]
The extensive influence impacted even scientific centres such as Jundishpur in Persia, in which global science was accumulated and dispersed into all direction;[18] plausibly into Arabia.
We need to consider that these factions of Christianity were proliferating in Arabia prior and in Muhammad’s era.
We know also that Muhammad visited Syria at least once.[19] Arthur Jeffery suggest that a range of religious vocabulary in the Qur’an, such as Qur’an, Isa and Injil derives from the Syrian Christian faction. If this is true it reveals strong, intellectual interaction and borrowing, which Jeffery seems to suggest.[20]
In the early era of Islam a group of Muhammad’s followers settled in the Christian Abyssinia, which led to interaction between Muhammad, the earliest Muslims and the ruling body of Abyssinia.[21]
Furthermore, O’Leary points out the possibility of runaway Ethiopian slaves who joined the Muslims, who interestingly might be the ones who were suspected to help Muhammad composing the Qur’an.[22] The Bukhari indeed refers to a Christian convert to Islam, who helped narrating Muhammad revelations. Initially he left Islam and informed about his contribution to fabricate the Qur’an with Muhammad; Bukhari informs us that Allah caused him to die.[23]
Greek scientific ideas would also have been passed on to Muhammad by the Jewish community; in fact some of the scientific ideas of the Qur’an, both terminology and chronology, resemble the writings of the Talmud significantly.[24]
A strong notion to this influence upon the author of the Qur’an does not only derive from the presence of the Jewish community, to which Muhammad interacted, but early Jewish converts to Islam. One of these Jewish converts was Abdullah ibn Salim who lived in Medina and was a companion of Muhammad. Qadir, points out that Salim was acquainted with cosmology and even ‘spread his knowledge among the Muslims’.[25]
Based on this information; Muhammad would be acquainted with Christians and Jews who were aware of Greek science; particularly being based in Mecca and then Medina.
Additionally, he might presumably possessed insight into the information passed on through centuries of trading, invasions, political interactions and simply information being passed on by travellers, settlers and immigrants.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Hottinger points out that the Greek philosophy and science was virtually absent from Arabia as fruitful contact between the two worldview was still nonexistent; the Arabic hold upon the Greek heritage was to arrive in the Abbasid era (Arnold Hottinger, The Arabs, Their History, Culture and Place in the Modern World, London: Thames and Hudson, 1963: 80); see also Muzaffar Iqbal, Islam and Science, England, Hampshire, Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2002:6-9; he states that the rapid invasions of nations brought the Muslims in contact with the existent scientific centres of the world
[2] Iqbal, 2002: 1; Iqbal refers to the two advancements as the intellectual (the Qur’an) and the social revolutions (Islam’s expansion).
[3] Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, the Qur’an and Science, Pakistan, Karachi: Idaratul Qur’an, Wa-Uloom – Il Islamia: 1975: 148; here Bucaille emphatically states that Qur’anic science is unique and distinct from any former religion and philosophy
[4] De Lacy O’ Leary: How Greek Science passed to the Arabs, part one, chapter one: Introduction, 1979[5] C.A. Qadir, Philosophy and Science in the Islamic World, London and New York: Routledge 1990: 15-6; Qadircomments on this Hadith: ‘In the eyes of the Prophet, knowledge ranked higher than worship.’
[6] al-Tabari vol.1 p.235-236 (Astronomy and the Qur’an, 2005 http://www.muslimhope.com/AstronomyAndTheQuran.htm)
[7] Richard Hooker, World Civilizations: Islam: Pre-Islamic Arabic culture, 1996(http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ISLAM/PRE.HTM)
[8] D.M. Dunlop, Arab Civilization to AD 1500, Longman, Librairie du Liban, Beirut, 1971: 6-7; musnad meansuncertain, perhaps, set up; which implies their inability to read it; the Delos alters existed already in 2nd century BCand reveals virtually centuries of trade and interaction between these civilisations. These alters were built to Wadd anArabic deity, mentioned in the Qur’an (Sura 71: 23).
[9] Dunlop, 1971: 10; Dunlop states that Meccah was prosperious by contemporary standards, but less significant thane.g. southern cities such Ma’rib and Ma’in; hence Muhammad was used to city life, not the nomad life.
[10] Qadir, 1990: 34; Greek, Syriac and Persian were the official languages used for administration even beyond theinauguration of Islam. It was only much later that Muslims demanded Arabic to supplement it with Arabic.
[11] The oasis might have been dominated by the south at least until the sudden decline of political power in Mesopotamiaand South Arabia in the first millennium BC, which not only gave the north Arabians control over these centres butalso mobilized the tribes to expand their control beyond their territory. Later as the Ancient Seleucids Syria turnedpolitically and militarily weak, the northern Arabs took their advantage and occupied its territories all way north toPetra and toward the south to Najran; initially they collided with Roman militia (65 BC), who arrived mainly to takeprovincial control over Syria; this caused the Arabs to retreat back south (Richard Hooker, World Civilizations:Islam: Pre-Islamic Arabic culture, 1996; see also O’ Leary, Chapter II: Hellenism in Asia: (1) Hellenization of Syria,1979
[12] O’ Leary, Chapter II: Hellenism in Asia: (1) Hellenization of Syria, 1979
[13] Richard Hooker, World Civilizations: Islam: Pre-Islamic Arabic culture, 1996
[14] Dunlop, 1971: 7-8; Dunlop refers to the centres of Lakhmids (al-Hira) and Ghassanids (Syria)
[15] Richard Hooker, World Civilizations: Islam: Pre-Islamic Arabic culture, 1996
[16] O’ Leary mentions the city of Hira which had become a centre of great significance; it was the most influential Arabcity located by the Persian border. At the time of Muhammad, the king of Hira, Nu’man embraced the Nestorian typeof Christian faith; see O’Leary, Chapter 3 (3) The Nestorian Schism, 1979) (http://evans-/experientialism.freewebspace.com/oleary02.htm) (http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/oleary03.htm)
[17] See Qadir, 1990: 31-33 & Iqbal, 2002: 172
[18] Dunlop, 1971: 219 (see also Iqbal, 2002: 39-41): The Persian Jundishapur, is also of importance here as it became acentre in which Christian and Zoroastrian schools of thought as well as Greek, Syrian, Persian, Hindu and Jewish,culture and science was accumulated, and its written works translated into various languages. When the school ofEdesse was closed down in the middle of the fifth century, the students fled to e.g. Nisibis in Persia, these impactedJurundishapur and the community. Initially in 531-79 AD, ‘Jundishapur was the principal intellectual centre of theworld.’ While no direct connection to Muhammad’s environment has been recorded, it is highly likely due to itsinternational impact and its proximity, that the intellectuals of Northern Arabia and Christians communities andmonasteries gained a hold on its insight.
[19] Dunlop, 1971: 11; this particular journey occurred in Muhammad’s early years, while he was still married to Khadija
[20] Arthur Jeffery Y, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an, Oriental Institute Baroda, 1938; 71 (Isa); 219 (Qur’an); 233(Injil). Jeffery assess hundreds Qur’anic terms and traces them back to their Syrian and Aramaic origins. The entirebook can be read on http://www.answering-islam.org/Books/Jeffery/Vocabulary/index.htm
[21] Martin Lings, Muhammad, His life based on the earliest Sources, London Unwin Paperbacks, 1986: 80-4; theaccounts describes the early Muslim connection with king Negus in Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
[22] O’Leary, Chapter 4: The Monophysites: 4 Organization of the Monophysite Church, 1979 (http://evans-/experientialism.freewebspace.com/oleary03.htm): An additional probability of influence upon the environment ofMuhammad was the arrival of run-away Ethiopian slaves. The Ethiopian invasion of Arabia approximately AD 570,led to the Arabian trend to obtain Ethiopian slaves as mercenaries; several of these later escaped to Medina and joinedMuhammad. Some scholars have suggested that these were the secret teachers (Sura 22: 12), who derived there byviolence and fraud (Sura 25: 5), with foreign tongues (Sura 16: 105) from whom it was suspected that Muhammadobtained much of his Qur’anic information
[23] Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 56, Number 814: Narrated Anas, Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Translator: M.Muhsin Khan (http://www.memon.com/HTML/Islam/Bukhari/bukhari.htm)
[24] The Qur’an makes reference to seven heavens and an equal number of earths (65: 12); this number follows in linewith the Talmud; see Aboth D ’Rabbi Nathan, chapter XXXVII, A, Cohen (ed.) The minor Tractates of the Talmud,Massektoth Ketannot, vol.2, London:The Soncino Press, 165, 185. For further information on the influence of Greek philosophy on the Jewish communitysee Stead Christopher, 1998, in (ed) Craig, Edward, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Volume 5, London andNew York, Routledge 1998: 819 & Zeller Eduard, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, USA, Cleveland andNew York, Meridian Books/The World Publishing Company, 1963: 277-84
[25] Qadir, 1990: 27; for more information see The Encyclopedia of Islam, New EDN, Vol.1 A-B, edited by an editorialcommittee consisting of H.A.R. Gibb, J. H. Kramers, E. Levi-Provencal, J. Schacht, assisted by S.M. Stern asSecretary General (pp.1-320). B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat and J Schacht, assisted by C. Dumont And R. M. Savory aseditorial secretaries (pp.321-1359), London, Luzac & Co, 1960: 52
Let me first say, that I have done extensive study on must of these so-called scientific predictions in the Qur'an and my conclusion remains that the Qur'an reveals the knowledge of Muhammad's era only; hence the claim that the Qur'an is miracolously predicting in the seventh century what science recently has discovered is not a sustainable claim.
In this short thread I intend merely to assess the claim that Muhammad was so cut off and remote from the outside world, its knowledge and science as Muslims want us to believe. Or is it plausible that such knowledge was available and obvious to the prophet of Islam via those individuals to whom he was aquainted?
Muhammad and the two claims
Pre-Islamic Arabs are usually portrayed as simple nomads, strongly acquainted with dessert-life and particularly poetry; yet lacking every existing insight into the thought and science of its present era.[1] According to Iabal the scientific advancements that emerged with Islam were caused primarily by the appearance and study of the Qur’an; which later laid the foundation for Islam’s interaction with the world-powers and their knowledge.[2]
Based on this, two assertions run frequently: primarily that Muhammad would have no access to nor possess any knowledge of the science promoted by his contemporaries; secondly, that the cause behind the science promoted by the Qur’an must therefore be of divine revelatory origin.
This proposition has in recent years been particularly promoted by Maurice Bucaille, who writes:
‘How could a man living fourteen hundred years ago have made corrections to the existing description to such an extent that he eliminated scientifically inaccurate material and, on his own initiative, made statements that science has been able to verify only in the present day? This hypothesis is completely untenable’.[3]
Hence to assess this claim, we need to ask whether Muhammad was divinely inspired and uninformed, or whether he possessed access to the scientific postulates of his day. Furthermore, we need to ask whether the scientific claims of the Qur’an are consistent with the claims of modern discoveries.
Muhammad a man of knowledge
O’Leary points out that there are elements of definite Greek scientific origin, which made its way to the Arabs by a transmission of which route and date are uncertain.[4] This suggests that early Arabs might have possessed a slight insight into the ideas of the Greeks, even prior to the era of Islamic conquests. According to early sources Muhammad possessed knowledge and pursued it, as evident from Tabari’s narration: ‘Muhammad said:
“Man’s glance at knowledge for an hour is better for him than prayer for sixty years”. He therefore commanded all believers to seek knowledge and to go to China in search of knowledge, if required’.[5]
Muhammad certainly possessed insight into the celestial world and their orbits; al-Tabari writes:
‘The Prophet [Mohammed] replied: “Ali, they are five stars: Jupiter (al-birjis), Saturn (zuhal), Mercury (utarid), Mars (Bahram), and Venus (al-zuhrah). These five stars rise and run like the sun and the moon and race with them together. All the other stars are suspended from heaven as lamps are from mosques,… (al-Tabari vol.1 p.235-236).”’[6]
If therefore, Muhammad was acquainted only with the impoverished life of northern Arabia and its cultural exclusiveness and remoteness, from where did such insight derive? Is it plausible that Muhammad’s environment and social circle was not as scientifically impoverished as we are made to believe? Is it possible that Mecca and dessert cities were indeed impacted by external cultures?
Here we first need to consider the situation and history of ancient Arabia.
Prior to Muhammad Arabia was divided into the South, the Sabaens, also referred to as the Yemenites, and the North, referred to as Arabs.
The South was a populated and sedentary community, living in cities, while the North was inhospitable, nomadic and isolated; hence we know that Arabia was not solemnly remote and isolated.
Yet were there any interactions between Arabs in the south and north and other factions that might have enriched or established knowledge among the dessert people? The Sabaenas, ran two trade routes, an ocean based route between India and Africa, and the land-based, particularly toward Syria and Egypt.[7]
There is evidence that literary interaction between the South-Arabs, the Greeks and the Indians took place even centuries before Islam. Since 1300 BC, the South Arabs left inscriptions in the North, what the nomads referred to as musnad. Interestingly, the musnad alphabet was effected by Greek language, which reveals the impact of Hellenism even in the south prior to appearance of Islam.
Furthermore since alters to Arabic deities have been found in Delos we know that the Arabs actually traded in the Greek world.[8]
For these routes to operate intermediate centres were needed; these were the oasis alongside the land-route between Yemen and Syria of which one was Mecca.[9] This confirms that the trades required among the Arabs a certain acquaintance with Greek and other languages, which became the communication of administration.[10] Hence the influence of trade and their international influence and the stations, certainly imply that Greek knowledge was spreading around.
Yet there were also other means of international interaction, such as the intervals of Northern dominance.
At one point the South weakened and the Northern tribes took the advantage to invade extensive parts of the South Syrian territory.[11] Even though no signs are evident of the Greek culture passing to the Arabs here, yet because Arab states were formed a long the eastern border of Syria and left untouched,[12] it is plausible that centuries of proximity prior to Muhammad’s era caused ideas to pass on. Further escalation between the political powers of the Byzantine in the North, the Persians in the East and the rulers of the south caused North Arabia to be caught in between.[13]
In 450 AD the community in the South suddenly declines, its proliferation vanishes, which causes massive migration to the North. These immigrants strengthened the oasis and their communities and establish intellectual centres among the people of the dessert.[14]
A third influence was the dispersion of various Christian sects and Judaism, which also impacted the dessert community.[15] The Christian Nestorians reached deep into the Arabian dessert with their message, as far as to Wadi I-Qura, near Medina. Beside the Nestorians, there were other Christian factions who expanded their influence; such as the Monophysites whose centre in Arabia was Najran.[16]
These sects were connected to Christian factions to which science was greatly valued; who possessed schools which emphasised and propagated the Christian faith, including philosophy and science. Their contribution to translating literature e.g. into Syrian language and their knowledge was not only confined to monasteries but were transmitted to the communities.[17]
The extensive influence impacted even scientific centres such as Jundishpur in Persia, in which global science was accumulated and dispersed into all direction;[18] plausibly into Arabia.
We need to consider that these factions of Christianity were proliferating in Arabia prior and in Muhammad’s era.
We know also that Muhammad visited Syria at least once.[19] Arthur Jeffery suggest that a range of religious vocabulary in the Qur’an, such as Qur’an, Isa and Injil derives from the Syrian Christian faction. If this is true it reveals strong, intellectual interaction and borrowing, which Jeffery seems to suggest.[20]
In the early era of Islam a group of Muhammad’s followers settled in the Christian Abyssinia, which led to interaction between Muhammad, the earliest Muslims and the ruling body of Abyssinia.[21]
Furthermore, O’Leary points out the possibility of runaway Ethiopian slaves who joined the Muslims, who interestingly might be the ones who were suspected to help Muhammad composing the Qur’an.[22] The Bukhari indeed refers to a Christian convert to Islam, who helped narrating Muhammad revelations. Initially he left Islam and informed about his contribution to fabricate the Qur’an with Muhammad; Bukhari informs us that Allah caused him to die.[23]
Greek scientific ideas would also have been passed on to Muhammad by the Jewish community; in fact some of the scientific ideas of the Qur’an, both terminology and chronology, resemble the writings of the Talmud significantly.[24]
A strong notion to this influence upon the author of the Qur’an does not only derive from the presence of the Jewish community, to which Muhammad interacted, but early Jewish converts to Islam. One of these Jewish converts was Abdullah ibn Salim who lived in Medina and was a companion of Muhammad. Qadir, points out that Salim was acquainted with cosmology and even ‘spread his knowledge among the Muslims’.[25]
Based on this information; Muhammad would be acquainted with Christians and Jews who were aware of Greek science; particularly being based in Mecca and then Medina.
Additionally, he might presumably possessed insight into the information passed on through centuries of trading, invasions, political interactions and simply information being passed on by travellers, settlers and immigrants.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Hottinger points out that the Greek philosophy and science was virtually absent from Arabia as fruitful contact between the two worldview was still nonexistent; the Arabic hold upon the Greek heritage was to arrive in the Abbasid era (Arnold Hottinger, The Arabs, Their History, Culture and Place in the Modern World, London: Thames and Hudson, 1963: 80); see also Muzaffar Iqbal, Islam and Science, England, Hampshire, Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2002:6-9; he states that the rapid invasions of nations brought the Muslims in contact with the existent scientific centres of the world
[2] Iqbal, 2002: 1; Iqbal refers to the two advancements as the intellectual (the Qur’an) and the social revolutions (Islam’s expansion).
[3] Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, the Qur’an and Science, Pakistan, Karachi: Idaratul Qur’an, Wa-Uloom – Il Islamia: 1975: 148; here Bucaille emphatically states that Qur’anic science is unique and distinct from any former religion and philosophy
[4] De Lacy O’ Leary: How Greek Science passed to the Arabs, part one, chapter one: Introduction, 1979[5] C.A. Qadir, Philosophy and Science in the Islamic World, London and New York: Routledge 1990: 15-6; Qadircomments on this Hadith: ‘In the eyes of the Prophet, knowledge ranked higher than worship.’
[6] al-Tabari vol.1 p.235-236 (Astronomy and the Qur’an, 2005 http://www.muslimhope.com/AstronomyAndTheQuran.htm)
[7] Richard Hooker, World Civilizations: Islam: Pre-Islamic Arabic culture, 1996(http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ISLAM/PRE.HTM)
[8] D.M. Dunlop, Arab Civilization to AD 1500, Longman, Librairie du Liban, Beirut, 1971: 6-7; musnad meansuncertain, perhaps, set up; which implies their inability to read it; the Delos alters existed already in 2nd century BCand reveals virtually centuries of trade and interaction between these civilisations. These alters were built to Wadd anArabic deity, mentioned in the Qur’an (Sura 71: 23).
[9] Dunlop, 1971: 10; Dunlop states that Meccah was prosperious by contemporary standards, but less significant thane.g. southern cities such Ma’rib and Ma’in; hence Muhammad was used to city life, not the nomad life.
[10] Qadir, 1990: 34; Greek, Syriac and Persian were the official languages used for administration even beyond theinauguration of Islam. It was only much later that Muslims demanded Arabic to supplement it with Arabic.
[11] The oasis might have been dominated by the south at least until the sudden decline of political power in Mesopotamiaand South Arabia in the first millennium BC, which not only gave the north Arabians control over these centres butalso mobilized the tribes to expand their control beyond their territory. Later as the Ancient Seleucids Syria turnedpolitically and militarily weak, the northern Arabs took their advantage and occupied its territories all way north toPetra and toward the south to Najran; initially they collided with Roman militia (65 BC), who arrived mainly to takeprovincial control over Syria; this caused the Arabs to retreat back south (Richard Hooker, World Civilizations:Islam: Pre-Islamic Arabic culture, 1996; see also O’ Leary, Chapter II: Hellenism in Asia: (1) Hellenization of Syria,1979
[12] O’ Leary, Chapter II: Hellenism in Asia: (1) Hellenization of Syria, 1979
[13] Richard Hooker, World Civilizations: Islam: Pre-Islamic Arabic culture, 1996
[14] Dunlop, 1971: 7-8; Dunlop refers to the centres of Lakhmids (al-Hira) and Ghassanids (Syria)
[15] Richard Hooker, World Civilizations: Islam: Pre-Islamic Arabic culture, 1996
[16] O’ Leary mentions the city of Hira which had become a centre of great significance; it was the most influential Arabcity located by the Persian border. At the time of Muhammad, the king of Hira, Nu’man embraced the Nestorian typeof Christian faith; see O’Leary, Chapter 3 (3) The Nestorian Schism, 1979) (http://evans-/experientialism.freewebspace.com/oleary02.htm) (http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/oleary03.htm)
[17] See Qadir, 1990: 31-33 & Iqbal, 2002: 172
[18] Dunlop, 1971: 219 (see also Iqbal, 2002: 39-41): The Persian Jundishapur, is also of importance here as it became acentre in which Christian and Zoroastrian schools of thought as well as Greek, Syrian, Persian, Hindu and Jewish,culture and science was accumulated, and its written works translated into various languages. When the school ofEdesse was closed down in the middle of the fifth century, the students fled to e.g. Nisibis in Persia, these impactedJurundishapur and the community. Initially in 531-79 AD, ‘Jundishapur was the principal intellectual centre of theworld.’ While no direct connection to Muhammad’s environment has been recorded, it is highly likely due to itsinternational impact and its proximity, that the intellectuals of Northern Arabia and Christians communities andmonasteries gained a hold on its insight.
[19] Dunlop, 1971: 11; this particular journey occurred in Muhammad’s early years, while he was still married to Khadija
[20] Arthur Jeffery Y, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an, Oriental Institute Baroda, 1938; 71 (Isa); 219 (Qur’an); 233(Injil). Jeffery assess hundreds Qur’anic terms and traces them back to their Syrian and Aramaic origins. The entirebook can be read on http://www.answering-islam.org/Books/Jeffery/Vocabulary/index.htm
[21] Martin Lings, Muhammad, His life based on the earliest Sources, London Unwin Paperbacks, 1986: 80-4; theaccounts describes the early Muslim connection with king Negus in Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
[22] O’Leary, Chapter 4: The Monophysites: 4 Organization of the Monophysite Church, 1979 (http://evans-/experientialism.freewebspace.com/oleary03.htm): An additional probability of influence upon the environment ofMuhammad was the arrival of run-away Ethiopian slaves. The Ethiopian invasion of Arabia approximately AD 570,led to the Arabian trend to obtain Ethiopian slaves as mercenaries; several of these later escaped to Medina and joinedMuhammad. Some scholars have suggested that these were the secret teachers (Sura 22: 12), who derived there byviolence and fraud (Sura 25: 5), with foreign tongues (Sura 16: 105) from whom it was suspected that Muhammadobtained much of his Qur’anic information
[23] Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 56, Number 814: Narrated Anas, Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Translator: M.Muhsin Khan (http://www.memon.com/HTML/Islam/Bukhari/bukhari.htm)
[24] The Qur’an makes reference to seven heavens and an equal number of earths (65: 12); this number follows in linewith the Talmud; see Aboth D ’Rabbi Nathan, chapter XXXVII, A, Cohen (ed.) The minor Tractates of the Talmud,Massektoth Ketannot, vol.2, London:The Soncino Press, 165, 185. For further information on the influence of Greek philosophy on the Jewish communitysee Stead Christopher, 1998, in (ed) Craig, Edward, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Volume 5, London andNew York, Routledge 1998: 819 & Zeller Eduard, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, USA, Cleveland andNew York, Meridian Books/The World Publishing Company, 1963: 277-84
[25] Qadir, 1990: 27; for more information see The Encyclopedia of Islam, New EDN, Vol.1 A-B, edited by an editorialcommittee consisting of H.A.R. Gibb, J. H. Kramers, E. Levi-Provencal, J. Schacht, assisted by S.M. Stern asSecretary General (pp.1-320). B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat and J Schacht, assisted by C. Dumont And R. M. Savory aseditorial secretaries (pp.321-1359), London, Luzac & Co, 1960: 52
Debunking the claim that the Quran Predicts Modern Science: The Qur’an and the World of Atoms
Does the Qur'an Predict the Sub-atomic world and particles? This is the claim of certain Islamic apologists, such as Mustafa Mlivo, Muhammad Assaid and Zakir Naik among others:
Mustafa Mlivo, Quran and Science , The Qur’an prior to Science and Civilisation; see:
http://www.preciousheart.net/Main_Archives/Links_Folder/SUPER_List_Islam.htmAnd
Muhammad Assadi, in his book: The Unifying Theory of Everything: Koran and Nature’s Testimony; see http://www.amazon.com/Unifying-Theory-Everything-Natures-Testimony/dp/0595129048
Zakir Naik; see http://www.scribd.com/doc/18926563/Quran-and-Modern-Science-EnglishBy-Dr-Zakir-Naik
These among others claim that the Qur’an is miraculous in its prediction of the sub atomic world (that is sub atomic particles).
Let's assess the claim:
The particular Qur’anic (Sura 34: 3) passages reads:
‘...by him who knows the unseen,—from who is not hidden the least little atom in the heavens or on earth; nor is there anything less than that, or greater, but is in the record of perspicuous ’
See also Sura 10: 61:
‘He [i.e., Allah] is aware of an atom’s weight in the heavens and on the earth and even anything smaller than that...’
Firstly we need to consider that there is a debate whether the Qur’an is literally referring to atoms or insects or possibly dust.
But let us for a moment assume that the Qur’an does refer to atoms and the sub-atomic particles, are we then correct to presume that this reference is miraculous or is possible that the Qur’an only makes a lucky guess or even that sub-atomic particles were already a common idea flourishing in the time of Muhammad?
The theory of atoms was founded by Leucippus (440 BC) and Democritus (432 BC), who proposed that atoms constituted and composed everything in existence even heaven and earth. The theory perceived the atoms as physical particles, which are in constant motion; being indivisible, indestructible and infinite in number and varieties.
All this is slightly correct indeed, expect of course that the number of atoms and their varieties are infinite.
Indeed the early atomists predicted a range of up-to-date details, such as Democritus’ ‘moving at random’, which according to Russel in his book: 'History of Western Philosophy' suggests denotes the kinetic theory of gasses; and furthermore the collisions of atoms which collected them and formed vortices and later material bodies (Russell, 82-84); all this was in agreement with the latter theory of Lucretius (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe, p. 185).
Yet Democritus and many early atomists seem to have committed the fallacy of considering atoms to contain no void, which made them impenetrable and indivisible (Russell, History of Western Philosophy, p. 88).
This error excluded the existing reality of e.g. the neutrons, protons and electrons, and the newly proposed theory of the quarks. That is of course unless we move Democritus’ understanding as a theory of the Quark world and what preceded it.
Hence according to certain Muslim writers, e.g. Mlivo and Muhammad Assadi and Zakir Naik, this suggests that the Qur'an solely gets the information right and must therefore be of divine origin.
However, there are serious flaws within this Muslim proposition.
Its primary failure is the failure to grasp that atomic science developed through the centuries.
The emphatic claim of Democritus, that atoms were the first cause-particles which could not be further divided appears to be slightly diminishing at the time of Lucretius (approximately 50 BC); Lucretius seems to refer to new ideas in his time which suggests that atoms could be divided (at least he alludes to ideas quite different from those presupposed by Democritus); Lucretius writes in 50 BC:
‘It is with a mass of such parts, solidly jammed together in order, that matter is filled up. Since they cannot exist by themselves, they must stick together in a mass from which they cannot by any means be prized loose. The atoms therefore are absolutely solid and unalloyed, consisting of a mass of least parts tightly packed together. They are not compounds formed by the coalescence of their parts, but bodies of absolute and everlasting solidity. To these nature allows no loss or diminution, but guards them as seeds for things. If there are no such least parts, even the smallest bodies will consist of an infinite number of parts, since they can always be halved and their halves halved again’ (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe 45)?
What are these least parts of which the atoms consist? And how about the opposite position, but otherwise proposed impossibility, that atoms can be halved and halved again?This idea seems to have been raised 600 years prior to Islam.
And there are further indications, that even the Epicurean's postulated particles smaller than atoms.
The Epicurean theory theorized that our body throws off thin films, which travel to touch the soul-atoms to create sensation; if these were considered to operate between atoms, then we might assume they are smaller (Russell, History of Western Philosophy, p. 255).
If however, atoms are the principle of matter and thus life, why is it that the Qur’an, being a divine revelation does not provide further insight into the world of atoms or quantum?
Why is the Qur’an making no reference to atoms in relation to compounds or the combination of atoms to form a greater mass, as was expounded upon by Lucretius more 600 years prior to Islam (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe, p.41); Lucretius writes:
‘At that time the sun’s bright disc was not to be seen here, soaring loft and lavishing light, nor the stars that crowd the far-flung firmament, nor sea nor sky, nor earth, nor air nor anything in the likeness of things we know nothing but a hurricane raging in a newly congregated mass of atoms of every sort’ (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe, 184).
This completely refutes Zakir Naik in his debate with William Campbell, in which he admitted the similarity between Qur’anic and Greek science but then claimed that Qur’anic science is more specific and even corrects Greek science.
The Qur’an does not explain that the atoms are the fundamental building blocks and existed prior to cosmological expansion and the accretion of the earth, nor does it describe their existence as prior to the galactic dimension the pre-stellar material existed.
Lucretius’ description of a primordial congregated mass of atoms in the writings of Lucretius is fairly accurate and presents an idea that is much more advanced and explicit than the Qur’anic simple reference to the world of atoms and lesser matter.
Lucretius continues:
‘...they (the atoms) began, in fact, to separate the heights of heaven from the earth, to single out the sea as a receptacle for water detached from the mass and to set apart the fires of pure and isolated ether. In the first place all the particles of earth, because they were heavy and intertangled, collected in the middle and took up the undermost stations. The more closely they cohered and clung together, the more they squeezed out the atoms that went to the making of sea and stars, sun and moon and the outer walls of the great world’ (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe, 184-5).
While Lucretius’ postulate is outdated and contains a number of flaws, it does reveal a much more advanced insight into the atomic world than the Qur'an does and some details actually predicts modern science.
If the Qur’an is a miracle due to its reference to atoms and smaller matter, then certainly a number of Greek philosophers and indeed the atheist Lucretius were divinely inspired.
What is much more logical however is that the Qur’an simply describes the ideas that were flourishing within its time and era; unfortunately for the Muslim position is the fact that these pre-Islamic sources provide a much more advanced and accurate picture of the atomic world than the Qur’an.
Mustafa Mlivo, Quran and Science , The Qur’an prior to Science and Civilisation; see:
http://www.preciousheart.net/Main_Archives/Links_Folder/SUPER_List_Islam.htmAnd
Muhammad Assadi, in his book: The Unifying Theory of Everything: Koran and Nature’s Testimony; see http://www.amazon.com/Unifying-Theory-Everything-Natures-Testimony/dp/0595129048
Zakir Naik; see http://www.scribd.com/doc/18926563/Quran-and-Modern-Science-EnglishBy-Dr-Zakir-Naik
These among others claim that the Qur’an is miraculous in its prediction of the sub atomic world (that is sub atomic particles).
Let's assess the claim:
The particular Qur’anic (Sura 34: 3) passages reads:
‘...by him who knows the unseen,—from who is not hidden the least little atom in the heavens or on earth; nor is there anything less than that, or greater, but is in the record of perspicuous ’
See also Sura 10: 61:
‘He [i.e., Allah] is aware of an atom’s weight in the heavens and on the earth and even anything smaller than that...’
Firstly we need to consider that there is a debate whether the Qur’an is literally referring to atoms or insects or possibly dust.
But let us for a moment assume that the Qur’an does refer to atoms and the sub-atomic particles, are we then correct to presume that this reference is miraculous or is possible that the Qur’an only makes a lucky guess or even that sub-atomic particles were already a common idea flourishing in the time of Muhammad?
The theory of atoms was founded by Leucippus (440 BC) and Democritus (432 BC), who proposed that atoms constituted and composed everything in existence even heaven and earth. The theory perceived the atoms as physical particles, which are in constant motion; being indivisible, indestructible and infinite in number and varieties.
All this is slightly correct indeed, expect of course that the number of atoms and their varieties are infinite.
Indeed the early atomists predicted a range of up-to-date details, such as Democritus’ ‘moving at random’, which according to Russel in his book: 'History of Western Philosophy' suggests denotes the kinetic theory of gasses; and furthermore the collisions of atoms which collected them and formed vortices and later material bodies (Russell, 82-84); all this was in agreement with the latter theory of Lucretius (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe, p. 185).
Yet Democritus and many early atomists seem to have committed the fallacy of considering atoms to contain no void, which made them impenetrable and indivisible (Russell, History of Western Philosophy, p. 88).
This error excluded the existing reality of e.g. the neutrons, protons and electrons, and the newly proposed theory of the quarks. That is of course unless we move Democritus’ understanding as a theory of the Quark world and what preceded it.
Hence according to certain Muslim writers, e.g. Mlivo and Muhammad Assadi and Zakir Naik, this suggests that the Qur'an solely gets the information right and must therefore be of divine origin.
However, there are serious flaws within this Muslim proposition.
Its primary failure is the failure to grasp that atomic science developed through the centuries.
The emphatic claim of Democritus, that atoms were the first cause-particles which could not be further divided appears to be slightly diminishing at the time of Lucretius (approximately 50 BC); Lucretius seems to refer to new ideas in his time which suggests that atoms could be divided (at least he alludes to ideas quite different from those presupposed by Democritus); Lucretius writes in 50 BC:
‘It is with a mass of such parts, solidly jammed together in order, that matter is filled up. Since they cannot exist by themselves, they must stick together in a mass from which they cannot by any means be prized loose. The atoms therefore are absolutely solid and unalloyed, consisting of a mass of least parts tightly packed together. They are not compounds formed by the coalescence of their parts, but bodies of absolute and everlasting solidity. To these nature allows no loss or diminution, but guards them as seeds for things. If there are no such least parts, even the smallest bodies will consist of an infinite number of parts, since they can always be halved and their halves halved again’ (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe 45)?
What are these least parts of which the atoms consist? And how about the opposite position, but otherwise proposed impossibility, that atoms can be halved and halved again?This idea seems to have been raised 600 years prior to Islam.
And there are further indications, that even the Epicurean's postulated particles smaller than atoms.
The Epicurean theory theorized that our body throws off thin films, which travel to touch the soul-atoms to create sensation; if these were considered to operate between atoms, then we might assume they are smaller (Russell, History of Western Philosophy, p. 255).
If however, atoms are the principle of matter and thus life, why is it that the Qur’an, being a divine revelation does not provide further insight into the world of atoms or quantum?
Why is the Qur’an making no reference to atoms in relation to compounds or the combination of atoms to form a greater mass, as was expounded upon by Lucretius more 600 years prior to Islam (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe, p.41); Lucretius writes:
‘At that time the sun’s bright disc was not to be seen here, soaring loft and lavishing light, nor the stars that crowd the far-flung firmament, nor sea nor sky, nor earth, nor air nor anything in the likeness of things we know nothing but a hurricane raging in a newly congregated mass of atoms of every sort’ (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe, 184).
This completely refutes Zakir Naik in his debate with William Campbell, in which he admitted the similarity between Qur’anic and Greek science but then claimed that Qur’anic science is more specific and even corrects Greek science.
The Qur’an does not explain that the atoms are the fundamental building blocks and existed prior to cosmological expansion and the accretion of the earth, nor does it describe their existence as prior to the galactic dimension the pre-stellar material existed.
Lucretius’ description of a primordial congregated mass of atoms in the writings of Lucretius is fairly accurate and presents an idea that is much more advanced and explicit than the Qur’anic simple reference to the world of atoms and lesser matter.
Lucretius continues:
‘...they (the atoms) began, in fact, to separate the heights of heaven from the earth, to single out the sea as a receptacle for water detached from the mass and to set apart the fires of pure and isolated ether. In the first place all the particles of earth, because they were heavy and intertangled, collected in the middle and took up the undermost stations. The more closely they cohered and clung together, the more they squeezed out the atoms that went to the making of sea and stars, sun and moon and the outer walls of the great world’ (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe, 184-5).
While Lucretius’ postulate is outdated and contains a number of flaws, it does reveal a much more advanced insight into the atomic world than the Qur'an does and some details actually predicts modern science.
If the Qur’an is a miracle due to its reference to atoms and smaller matter, then certainly a number of Greek philosophers and indeed the atheist Lucretius were divinely inspired.
What is much more logical however is that the Qur’an simply describes the ideas that were flourishing within its time and era; unfortunately for the Muslim position is the fact that these pre-Islamic sources provide a much more advanced and accurate picture of the atomic world than the Qur’an.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
541)Salim Mansur Speaks My Mind With A Clarity That Is Astonishing: "Target The Terrorists, Not The Public"; Quote Of Easy Nash
Target the terrorists, not the public
By SALIM MANSUR
January 9th 2010
There comes a moment in life, private and public, when what is grudgingly tolerated becomes intolerable.
When life has reached such a tipping point, then, at any instance, the most insignificant annoyance or the least provocation can undo the carefully arranged order of living and uncork a cascade of fury in those indignant of being abused for no fault of their own.
I sense the public in the West quite justifiably is approaching a tipping point for the endless provocations since 9/11 from jihad-waging Islamists.
The recent Swiss vote that overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets -- the slender tower that architecturally distinguishes a Muslim mosque -- is a sign of how frayed the tolerance of some Europeans for anything Islamic has become. It is my guess that if such referendums were held in other European states, the results would be similar or close to how the Swiss voted.
The failed Christmas Day bombing attempt by 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, likely an al-Qaida operative, to blow up a transatlantic flight en route to Detroit has possibly pushed the American public closer to the tipping point.
Cartoonist targeted
A few days later, an axe-wielding 28-year-old Somali immigrant -- later identified by Danish police as someone connected with the al-Qaida-linked Islamist group Al-Shahbab -- burst into the home of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in a failed attempt to kill him for drawing the 2005 cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.
The Islamist war declared against the west is taking its toll. The small and big attacks in the West since 9/11, and the untold many prevented, are too numerous to list.
Airports and air travel symbolize the extent to which the Islamists have succeeded to put the West under siege. But they could not have done this by themselves.
The idiocy of political correctness has worked in tandem with the Islamists to collectively punish the public in liberal-democratic societies, incrementally stripping them of the hard-won individual freedoms that have distinguished the West from all other cultures past and present as an open society.
This has resulted in a widening disconnect between the public and the political elite. The public senses acutely their society is being undermined from within, while the political elite remains unresponsive or reluctant to forthrightly address the source of the problem.
The same public, generous to a fault, have watched in dismay the near absence of Muslim opposition to the Islamists. This refusal of Muslims in general to confront the Islamists, despite the mounting evidence of their jihadi crimes, has more or less broken the trust of non-Muslims and drawn the public in the West closer to the tipping point.
Instead, Muslim organizations in the West, while steeped in apologetics, polemics and bigotry of their own, have pressed politicians with their politically correct demands to refrain from common sense policies -- such as profiling for security purposes -- that would ease the collective harassment of the public.
An open society cannot function without security. But there is a delicate balance between security and freedom and the public recognizes this balance has been abused.
It is time for politicians to act wisely before the public goes over the tipping point.
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/salim_mansur/2010/01/09/12401446-sun.html
salim.mansur@sunmedia.ca
Related:
David Frum: England made Abdulmutallab
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/01/09/david-frum-england-made-abdulmutallab.aspx
Canada a beacon in a troubled world
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/salim_mansur/2010/01/02/12323841-sun.html
Having Purged Myself Of The Putrefaction Of Liberalism + Socialism Here Is A Collection Of Posts Coursing Nourishing Conservatism Through My Veins
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/06/489having-purged-myself-of-putrefaction.html
Easy Nash
If there are 23,000 jihadist websites and blogsites out there in cyberspace, there is no reason why we should not create 100,000 non-jihadist websites and blogsites: Easy Nash(2007).
If my Blog was a four year undergraduate degree I guess my major would be Science and Religion and my minor would be Politics: Easy Nash(2010).
The mother of all insecurities: 1.6 billion Muslims on the planet and they lather themselves into a dingbatty islamofascist rage if one or two Muslims happen to be pro-zionist: Easy Nash(2010).
By SALIM MANSUR
January 9th 2010
There comes a moment in life, private and public, when what is grudgingly tolerated becomes intolerable.
When life has reached such a tipping point, then, at any instance, the most insignificant annoyance or the least provocation can undo the carefully arranged order of living and uncork a cascade of fury in those indignant of being abused for no fault of their own.
I sense the public in the West quite justifiably is approaching a tipping point for the endless provocations since 9/11 from jihad-waging Islamists.
The recent Swiss vote that overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets -- the slender tower that architecturally distinguishes a Muslim mosque -- is a sign of how frayed the tolerance of some Europeans for anything Islamic has become. It is my guess that if such referendums were held in other European states, the results would be similar or close to how the Swiss voted.
The failed Christmas Day bombing attempt by 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, likely an al-Qaida operative, to blow up a transatlantic flight en route to Detroit has possibly pushed the American public closer to the tipping point.
Cartoonist targeted
A few days later, an axe-wielding 28-year-old Somali immigrant -- later identified by Danish police as someone connected with the al-Qaida-linked Islamist group Al-Shahbab -- burst into the home of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in a failed attempt to kill him for drawing the 2005 cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.
The Islamist war declared against the west is taking its toll. The small and big attacks in the West since 9/11, and the untold many prevented, are too numerous to list.
Airports and air travel symbolize the extent to which the Islamists have succeeded to put the West under siege. But they could not have done this by themselves.
The idiocy of political correctness has worked in tandem with the Islamists to collectively punish the public in liberal-democratic societies, incrementally stripping them of the hard-won individual freedoms that have distinguished the West from all other cultures past and present as an open society.
This has resulted in a widening disconnect between the public and the political elite. The public senses acutely their society is being undermined from within, while the political elite remains unresponsive or reluctant to forthrightly address the source of the problem.
The same public, generous to a fault, have watched in dismay the near absence of Muslim opposition to the Islamists. This refusal of Muslims in general to confront the Islamists, despite the mounting evidence of their jihadi crimes, has more or less broken the trust of non-Muslims and drawn the public in the West closer to the tipping point.
Instead, Muslim organizations in the West, while steeped in apologetics, polemics and bigotry of their own, have pressed politicians with their politically correct demands to refrain from common sense policies -- such as profiling for security purposes -- that would ease the collective harassment of the public.
An open society cannot function without security. But there is a delicate balance between security and freedom and the public recognizes this balance has been abused.
It is time for politicians to act wisely before the public goes over the tipping point.
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/salim_mansur/2010/01/09/12401446-sun.html
salim.mansur@sunmedia.ca
Related:
David Frum: England made Abdulmutallab
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/01/09/david-frum-england-made-abdulmutallab.aspx
Canada a beacon in a troubled world
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/salim_mansur/2010/01/02/12323841-sun.html
Having Purged Myself Of The Putrefaction Of Liberalism + Socialism Here Is A Collection Of Posts Coursing Nourishing Conservatism Through My Veins
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/06/489having-purged-myself-of-putrefaction.html
Easy Nash
If there are 23,000 jihadist websites and blogsites out there in cyberspace, there is no reason why we should not create 100,000 non-jihadist websites and blogsites: Easy Nash(2007).
If my Blog was a four year undergraduate degree I guess my major would be Science and Religion and my minor would be Politics: Easy Nash(2010).
The mother of all insecurities: 1.6 billion Muslims on the planet and they lather themselves into a dingbatty islamofascist rage if one or two Muslims happen to be pro-zionist: Easy Nash(2010).
Friday, 8 January 2010
540)Emulating Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham; Renewing the Impetus of Philosophical Thinking in Islam: Paper presented by IIS's Dr Nader El-Bizri in Iran
IIS Scholar Presents Paper at Conference on Islamic Philosophy
December 2009
Dr Nader El-Bizri presented a paper titled: ‘Renewing the Impetus of Philosophical Thinking in Islam?’, at the international conference, Islamic Philosophy and the Challenges of the Present-Day World. The conference was held in Tehran and Hamedan, Iran, between 10th and 13th November 2009.
Dr. El-Bizri also gave three interviews in English and Arabic, on ‘Philosophy, Science and Islam’ to the Iranian media and press, including Radio Tehran.The conference was organised by the Iranian Institute of Philosophy, the Academy of Science, the Ministry of Science, Research & Technology, in association with UNESCO (Tehran Office and Paris Headquarters), and Bu Ali Sina University in Hamedan.
This academic event corresponded with the UNESCO celebration of ‘World Philosophy Day’ in November 2009. International colloquia and symposia also took place in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, as well as in Tehran and Hamedan.
The focus of the conference in Tehran and Hamedan was primarily on the legacy of Ibn Sina, who is also known by his Latinised name of Avicenna. The conference coincided with a highly distinguished national ceremony held at Ibn Sina’s shrine in Hamedan. Delegates from fifteen countries were in attendance at the ceremony, as well as participating in the conference sessions in Iran.
By critically conceptualising the ‘impetus of philosophising in Islam’, Dr. El-Bizri’s paper focused on the fundamental question concerning the ‘renewal of philosophical thinking’ that is inspired by Islam as a vibrant lived faith and a rich intercultural sequence of civilisations.In this context, he drew a distinction between the philosopher who is motivated by the systemic unfolding of fundamental questions and concepts, and the archiving exegete who is primarily bent on reporting them. This calls for rethinking some of the principal systems in ontology and epistemology in relation to history of ideas in Islam.
The foundational traditions that had a deepimpacton philosophical and scientific thinking in Islam and a profound influence on European scholarship in the mediaeval and Renaissance periods, are best represented by the legacies of two influential polymaths: Abu ‘Ali Ibn Sina (d. 1037 CE) and al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (also known as Alhazen, d. ca. 1041 CE). Both offer pointers and directives that may in part assist in reformulating the essential classical questions in ontology and epistemology, and in devising new responses to their conceptual prolongations in the light of contemporary philosophy, the exact sciences, and ‘the unfolding of the essence of technology’.
Dr. El-Bizri sees this line of enquiry as an ‘exercise in thinking’, rather than a research project per se, and as one intellectual pathway amongst many others. In its epistemic possibilities, this study may potentially facilitate the founding of new modes of rethinking metaphysics and cosmology, while being inspired by intellectual history in Islamic civilisations. It is essentially oriented by lived and concretised aspirations in the unfurling of genuine philosophical thinking in relation to ‘Islam in the 21st Century’.
The conference and accompanying events were covered by Iran’s national media and press. The conference was concluded by a high-profile ceremony. The Minister of Science, Research & Technology, the Minister of Culture, the Director of the Academy of Sciences, Professor Reza Davari Ardakani, and the Institute of Philosophy, Professor Gholamreza Aavani, attended, along with various other Iranian dignitaries.
Prestigious awards were also granted to distinguished scholars for their contributions to the field of ‘philosophical studies in relation to Islam’. Award winners included Ayatollah ‘Abdallah Javadi Amoli, Dr Ali Akbar Velayati, Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Professor Gholamreza Aavani.
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=110938
"In this context, would it not also be relevant to consider how, above all, it has been the Qur'anic notion of the universe as an expression of Allah's will and creation that has inspired, in diverse Muslim communities, generations of artists, scientists and philosophers? Scientific pursuits, philosophic inquiry and artistic endeavour are all seen as the response of the faithful to the recurring call of the Qur'an to ponder the creation as a way to understand Allah's benevolent majesty. As Sura al-Baqara proclaims: 'Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah'.The famous verse of 'light' in the Qur'an, the Ayat al-Nur, whose first line is rendered here in the mural behind me, inspires among Muslims a reflection on the sacred, the transcendent. It hints at a cosmos full of signs and symbols that evoke the perfection of Allah's creation and mercy"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, Institute of Ismaili Studies, October 2003, London, U.K.)
"....AND SHOULD'NT IB SCIENCE STUDENTS not learn about Ibn al-Haytham, the Muslim scholar who developed modern optics, as well as his predecessors Euclid and Ptolemy, whose ideas he challenged...."(Aga Khan IV, "The Peterson Lecture" on the International Baccalaureate, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 18 April 2008)
"The truth, as the famous Islamic scholars repeatedly told their students, is that the spirit of disciplined, objective enquiry is the property of no single culture, but of all humanity. To quote the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Sina: "My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the universe so that I may know all its conditions." "(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
December 2009
Dr Nader El-Bizri presented a paper titled: ‘Renewing the Impetus of Philosophical Thinking in Islam?’, at the international conference, Islamic Philosophy and the Challenges of the Present-Day World. The conference was held in Tehran and Hamedan, Iran, between 10th and 13th November 2009.
Dr. El-Bizri also gave three interviews in English and Arabic, on ‘Philosophy, Science and Islam’ to the Iranian media and press, including Radio Tehran.The conference was organised by the Iranian Institute of Philosophy, the Academy of Science, the Ministry of Science, Research & Technology, in association with UNESCO (Tehran Office and Paris Headquarters), and Bu Ali Sina University in Hamedan.
This academic event corresponded with the UNESCO celebration of ‘World Philosophy Day’ in November 2009. International colloquia and symposia also took place in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, as well as in Tehran and Hamedan.
The focus of the conference in Tehran and Hamedan was primarily on the legacy of Ibn Sina, who is also known by his Latinised name of Avicenna. The conference coincided with a highly distinguished national ceremony held at Ibn Sina’s shrine in Hamedan. Delegates from fifteen countries were in attendance at the ceremony, as well as participating in the conference sessions in Iran.
By critically conceptualising the ‘impetus of philosophising in Islam’, Dr. El-Bizri’s paper focused on the fundamental question concerning the ‘renewal of philosophical thinking’ that is inspired by Islam as a vibrant lived faith and a rich intercultural sequence of civilisations.In this context, he drew a distinction between the philosopher who is motivated by the systemic unfolding of fundamental questions and concepts, and the archiving exegete who is primarily bent on reporting them. This calls for rethinking some of the principal systems in ontology and epistemology in relation to history of ideas in Islam.
The foundational traditions that had a deepimpacton philosophical and scientific thinking in Islam and a profound influence on European scholarship in the mediaeval and Renaissance periods, are best represented by the legacies of two influential polymaths: Abu ‘Ali Ibn Sina (d. 1037 CE) and al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (also known as Alhazen, d. ca. 1041 CE). Both offer pointers and directives that may in part assist in reformulating the essential classical questions in ontology and epistemology, and in devising new responses to their conceptual prolongations in the light of contemporary philosophy, the exact sciences, and ‘the unfolding of the essence of technology’.
Dr. El-Bizri sees this line of enquiry as an ‘exercise in thinking’, rather than a research project per se, and as one intellectual pathway amongst many others. In its epistemic possibilities, this study may potentially facilitate the founding of new modes of rethinking metaphysics and cosmology, while being inspired by intellectual history in Islamic civilisations. It is essentially oriented by lived and concretised aspirations in the unfurling of genuine philosophical thinking in relation to ‘Islam in the 21st Century’.
The conference and accompanying events were covered by Iran’s national media and press. The conference was concluded by a high-profile ceremony. The Minister of Science, Research & Technology, the Minister of Culture, the Director of the Academy of Sciences, Professor Reza Davari Ardakani, and the Institute of Philosophy, Professor Gholamreza Aavani, attended, along with various other Iranian dignitaries.
Prestigious awards were also granted to distinguished scholars for their contributions to the field of ‘philosophical studies in relation to Islam’. Award winners included Ayatollah ‘Abdallah Javadi Amoli, Dr Ali Akbar Velayati, Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Professor Gholamreza Aavani.
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=110938
"In this context, would it not also be relevant to consider how, above all, it has been the Qur'anic notion of the universe as an expression of Allah's will and creation that has inspired, in diverse Muslim communities, generations of artists, scientists and philosophers? Scientific pursuits, philosophic inquiry and artistic endeavour are all seen as the response of the faithful to the recurring call of the Qur'an to ponder the creation as a way to understand Allah's benevolent majesty. As Sura al-Baqara proclaims: 'Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah'.The famous verse of 'light' in the Qur'an, the Ayat al-Nur, whose first line is rendered here in the mural behind me, inspires among Muslims a reflection on the sacred, the transcendent. It hints at a cosmos full of signs and symbols that evoke the perfection of Allah's creation and mercy"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, Institute of Ismaili Studies, October 2003, London, U.K.)
"....AND SHOULD'NT IB SCIENCE STUDENTS not learn about Ibn al-Haytham, the Muslim scholar who developed modern optics, as well as his predecessors Euclid and Ptolemy, whose ideas he challenged...."(Aga Khan IV, "The Peterson Lecture" on the International Baccalaureate, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 18 April 2008)
"The truth, as the famous Islamic scholars repeatedly told their students, is that the spirit of disciplined, objective enquiry is the property of no single culture, but of all humanity. To quote the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Sina: "My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the universe so that I may know all its conditions." "(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
539)Arabic- And Persian-Named Stars, Clusters and Constellations As Seen On A Clear Night From A Cruise Ship In The Southern Hemisphere;& A Bond Movie
Beneath the banner "Movies under the stars" on the outside top deck of our cruise boat, lying on beach chairs, snuggling under warm red blankets, munching on popcorn just like at Silver City Fairview Mall, we watched Daniel Craig play a brutish James Bond in Casino Royale. But this Bond was actually falling in love with the alluring Vesper Lynd who herself had vowed never to fall for the pull of his "perfectly formed arse", among other things. She does eventually fall in love with him but ends up breaking his heart. Can you imagine James Bond with a broken heart?! I think this Bond will turn out to be a good one despite M's attempts to mother him, a 007 agent licensed to kill.
How appropriate for me to be watching an action movie on a gigantic screen blaring out the headline "Movies under the stars". When the movie ended my attention turned to the heavens and it immediately dawned on me how clear the night sky was. Many stars in our Milky Way galaxy as well as a galaxy or two nearby were clearly visible, if not with the naked eye then definitely with binoculars. What I witnessed was a visual feast far more alluring than the movie I had just seen.
I recognized some clear patterns in the night sky which anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy would find with ease. I was on the hunt for living proof of Islam's ascendancy in the field of astronomy about a millenium ago. If you don't believe the quotes of Aga Khan IV in Blogpost Four Hundred, the cardinal post of my Blog on the link between Science and Religion in Islam and the high octane fuel that powers my Blog, or Jim al Khalili as he narrates the blockbusting BBC 7-part series "Science and Islam"(this series was recently featured on the much-visited and wildly popular ISMAILI MAIL website)-if you don't beleive them-then just look up at the sky and see for yourself.
Many stars discovered, observed and described by Muslim astronomers from the 7th to 14th centuries have retained their Arabic and or Persian names in the 21st century and many of those names are quite imaginative in their descriptions.
Clearly visible in the skies of the southern hemiphere(our cruiseboat was steaming up the southern Pacific coast of Chile in South America) the first cluster that screams out at you is the Southern Cross, shaped like a crucifix. This structure is not visible without serious telescopic magnification in the northern hemisphere, which is where I live.
The individual stars, star clusters or constellations with Arabic or Persian names present in that night sky in the southern hemisphere during the waning days of December 2009 were:
1)Eri, the brightest star in the Eridanus cluster, latinized word for the Arabic, which means "end of the River"
2)The 3 very large stars that form the belt of Orion: Al-Nitak, Al-Nilam and Mintaka
3)Nearby stars to Orion's belt: Betelgeuse and Rigel
4)Aldeberan, a star inside the Hyades constellation
5)Algol, a star in the Perseus constellation
6)Hamal, a star in Aries
7)Mira and Diphda, stars in the Cetus constellation
8)Achenar, a star near the Phoenix constellation
9)Alnair, a star in the Grus constellation
As we approach the northern hemisphere in January 2010 many of the stars mentioned above continue to be visible here but also those that make up the Big Dipper and Little Dipper:
Big Dipper:
1)Dubhe
2)Merak
3)Phecda
4)Alioth
5)Miza
6)Alcor
7)Alkaid
Little Dipper:
1)Yildun
2)Gildun
3)Vildiur
4)Yilduz
5)Pherkard
6)KhochabAlifa al Farkadain
7)Anwar al Farkadain
Other stars that are visible include Alteb and Denair, which lie close to the curve of the Milky Way galaxy.
Let's also not forget the crater on our Moon named after Ibn Battuta, the famous Muslim traveller from the Middle Ages..........
"The great Muslim philosopher al-Kindi wrote eleven hundred years ago, "No one is diminished by the truth, rather does the truth ennoble us all"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May 1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)
"The truth, as the famous Islamic scholars repeatedly told their students, is that the spirit of disciplined, objective enquiry is the property of no single culture, but of all humanity. To quote the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Sina: "My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the universe so that I may know all its conditions." "(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives - the more our imagination staggers.........What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration.....the Power and the Mystery of Allah as the Lord of Creation"(Aga Khan IV, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)
"Astronomy, the so-called “Science of the Universe” was a field of particular distinction in Islamic civilization-–in sharp contrast to the weakness of Islamic countries in the field of Space research today. In this field, as in others, intellectual leadership is never a static condition, but something which is always shifting and always dynamic"(Aga Khan IV, Convocation, American University of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, June 15th 2006)
Above quotes from:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Related Posts:
Al-Nitak, Al-Nilam, Mintaka, Betelgeuse, Al-Deberan: Arabic-named stars in nearby constellations in space.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/289al-nitak-al-nilam-mintaka-betelgeuse.html
Big Dipper and Little Dipper in the night sky: legacy of Astronomy during Islam's golden era.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/295big-dipper-and-little-dipper-in.html
Islam and Astronomy: Vestiges of a fine legacy; Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Ibn Sin
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/05/358islam-and-astronomy-vestiges-of-fine.html
A Collection of Posts on Astronomy; Quotes of Noble Quran, Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III, Nasir Khusraw, Abu Yakub Al Sijistani and Aristotle.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/456a-collection-of-posts-on-astronomy.html
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
How appropriate for me to be watching an action movie on a gigantic screen blaring out the headline "Movies under the stars". When the movie ended my attention turned to the heavens and it immediately dawned on me how clear the night sky was. Many stars in our Milky Way galaxy as well as a galaxy or two nearby were clearly visible, if not with the naked eye then definitely with binoculars. What I witnessed was a visual feast far more alluring than the movie I had just seen.
I recognized some clear patterns in the night sky which anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy would find with ease. I was on the hunt for living proof of Islam's ascendancy in the field of astronomy about a millenium ago. If you don't believe the quotes of Aga Khan IV in Blogpost Four Hundred, the cardinal post of my Blog on the link between Science and Religion in Islam and the high octane fuel that powers my Blog, or Jim al Khalili as he narrates the blockbusting BBC 7-part series "Science and Islam"(this series was recently featured on the much-visited and wildly popular ISMAILI MAIL website)-if you don't beleive them-then just look up at the sky and see for yourself.
Many stars discovered, observed and described by Muslim astronomers from the 7th to 14th centuries have retained their Arabic and or Persian names in the 21st century and many of those names are quite imaginative in their descriptions.
Clearly visible in the skies of the southern hemiphere(our cruiseboat was steaming up the southern Pacific coast of Chile in South America) the first cluster that screams out at you is the Southern Cross, shaped like a crucifix. This structure is not visible without serious telescopic magnification in the northern hemisphere, which is where I live.
The individual stars, star clusters or constellations with Arabic or Persian names present in that night sky in the southern hemisphere during the waning days of December 2009 were:
1)Eri, the brightest star in the Eridanus cluster, latinized word for the Arabic, which means "end of the River"
2)The 3 very large stars that form the belt of Orion: Al-Nitak, Al-Nilam and Mintaka
3)Nearby stars to Orion's belt: Betelgeuse and Rigel
4)Aldeberan, a star inside the Hyades constellation
5)Algol, a star in the Perseus constellation
6)Hamal, a star in Aries
7)Mira and Diphda, stars in the Cetus constellation
8)Achenar, a star near the Phoenix constellation
9)Alnair, a star in the Grus constellation
As we approach the northern hemisphere in January 2010 many of the stars mentioned above continue to be visible here but also those that make up the Big Dipper and Little Dipper:
Big Dipper:
1)Dubhe
2)Merak
3)Phecda
4)Alioth
5)Miza
6)Alcor
7)Alkaid
Little Dipper:
1)Yildun
2)Gildun
3)Vildiur
4)Yilduz
5)Pherkard
6)KhochabAlifa al Farkadain
7)Anwar al Farkadain
Other stars that are visible include Alteb and Denair, which lie close to the curve of the Milky Way galaxy.
Let's also not forget the crater on our Moon named after Ibn Battuta, the famous Muslim traveller from the Middle Ages..........
"The great Muslim philosopher al-Kindi wrote eleven hundred years ago, "No one is diminished by the truth, rather does the truth ennoble us all"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May 1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)
"The truth, as the famous Islamic scholars repeatedly told their students, is that the spirit of disciplined, objective enquiry is the property of no single culture, but of all humanity. To quote the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Sina: "My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the universe so that I may know all its conditions." "(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives - the more our imagination staggers.........What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration.....the Power and the Mystery of Allah as the Lord of Creation"(Aga Khan IV, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)
"Astronomy, the so-called “Science of the Universe” was a field of particular distinction in Islamic civilization-–in sharp contrast to the weakness of Islamic countries in the field of Space research today. In this field, as in others, intellectual leadership is never a static condition, but something which is always shifting and always dynamic"(Aga Khan IV, Convocation, American University of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, June 15th 2006)
Above quotes from:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Related Posts:
Al-Nitak, Al-Nilam, Mintaka, Betelgeuse, Al-Deberan: Arabic-named stars in nearby constellations in space.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/289al-nitak-al-nilam-mintaka-betelgeuse.html
Big Dipper and Little Dipper in the night sky: legacy of Astronomy during Islam's golden era.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/295big-dipper-and-little-dipper-in.html
Islam and Astronomy: Vestiges of a fine legacy; Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Ibn Sin
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/05/358islam-and-astronomy-vestiges-of-fine.html
A Collection of Posts on Astronomy; Quotes of Noble Quran, Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III, Nasir Khusraw, Abu Yakub Al Sijistani and Aristotle.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/456a-collection-of-posts-on-astronomy.html
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Monday, 4 January 2010
538)ISMAILI MAIL'S Top Posts Of 2009 Feature A Few By Easy Nash; A Successful Year.
It is appropriate to begin the new year and the new decade elaborating on a post made by ISMAILI MAIL in the waning days of 2009: their Top 15 most visited Posts for 2009:
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/years-top-posts-at-ismailimail-2009/
Yours truly Easy Nash featured in two, perhaps three, of those Top 15 most visited Posts:
1)ISMAILI MAIL'S Number 7 Top Post came straight from my Blog and garnered 3134 views; it is an offshoot of Blogpost Four Hundred, the cardinal post on my Blog on the link between Science and Religion in Islam and the high octane fuel that powers my Blog:
Golden Jubilee Quotes of Aga Khan IV:
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/golden-jubilee-quotes-of-aga-khan-iv/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/434golden-jubilee-quotes-of-aga-khan-iv.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
2)ISMAILI MAIL'S Number 13 Top Post was an online interview I conducted on behalf of Ismaili Mail of Canadian Conservative Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Hon. Jason Kenney during his visit to Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi, India in January 2009. It garnered 1525 views:
Minister Jason Kenney visits Humayun’s Tomb in New Delhi, India
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/conservative-minister-jason-kenney-visits-humayuns-tomb-in-new-delhi-india/
The Minister Jason Kenney collection on Ismaili Mail:
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/?s=jason+kenney&searchbutton=go%21
3)ISMAILI MAIL'S Number 2 Top Post garnered a blockbusting 4164 views and reflects Canada's Stephen Harper Conservative government's ongoing love affair with His Highness Aga Khan IV, 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Nizari Ismaili Muslims:
Government of Canada will be seeking to extend ‘Honorary Citizenship of Canada’ to His Highness the Aga Khan
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/government-of-canada-will-be-seeking-to-extend-honorary-citizenship-of-canada-to-his-highness-the-aga-khan/
To really see the full impact of this ongoing love affair you need to read this post on my Blog:
The Conservative Government Of Prime Minister Stephen Harper Has Consistently Shown The Utmost Deference And Respect To His Highness The Aga Khan.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/06/486the-conservative-government-of-prime.html
Related Post:
A Tribute To ISMAILI MAIL'S Publisher; My Final Post Of 2009; My Final Post Of The Decade. http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/12/537a-tribute-to-ismaili-mails-publisher.html
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/years-top-posts-at-ismailimail-2009/
Yours truly Easy Nash featured in two, perhaps three, of those Top 15 most visited Posts:
1)ISMAILI MAIL'S Number 7 Top Post came straight from my Blog and garnered 3134 views; it is an offshoot of Blogpost Four Hundred, the cardinal post on my Blog on the link between Science and Religion in Islam and the high octane fuel that powers my Blog:
Golden Jubilee Quotes of Aga Khan IV:
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/golden-jubilee-quotes-of-aga-khan-iv/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/434golden-jubilee-quotes-of-aga-khan-iv.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
2)ISMAILI MAIL'S Number 13 Top Post was an online interview I conducted on behalf of Ismaili Mail of Canadian Conservative Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Hon. Jason Kenney during his visit to Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi, India in January 2009. It garnered 1525 views:
Minister Jason Kenney visits Humayun’s Tomb in New Delhi, India
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/conservative-minister-jason-kenney-visits-humayuns-tomb-in-new-delhi-india/
The Minister Jason Kenney collection on Ismaili Mail:
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/?s=jason+kenney&searchbutton=go%21
3)ISMAILI MAIL'S Number 2 Top Post garnered a blockbusting 4164 views and reflects Canada's Stephen Harper Conservative government's ongoing love affair with His Highness Aga Khan IV, 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Nizari Ismaili Muslims:
Government of Canada will be seeking to extend ‘Honorary Citizenship of Canada’ to His Highness the Aga Khan
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/government-of-canada-will-be-seeking-to-extend-honorary-citizenship-of-canada-to-his-highness-the-aga-khan/
To really see the full impact of this ongoing love affair you need to read this post on my Blog:
The Conservative Government Of Prime Minister Stephen Harper Has Consistently Shown The Utmost Deference And Respect To His Highness The Aga Khan.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/06/486the-conservative-government-of-prime.html
Related Post:
A Tribute To ISMAILI MAIL'S Publisher; My Final Post Of 2009; My Final Post Of The Decade. http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/12/537a-tribute-to-ismaili-mails-publisher.html
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http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
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In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
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