IBN SINA- THE FATHER OF MODERN MEDICINE

Ibn Sina, or as he is known in the West, Avicenna, is a role model for both Muslims and non-Muslims. He memorized the entirety of the Qur'an by the age of 10, and began practicing medicine by the age of 16. He wrote 450 works in topics that ranged from philosophy to medicine to physics. His most famous works include, The Book of Healing, a vast scientific and philosophical encyclopedia, The Canon of Medicine, the standard medical textbook in Europe until the Enlightenment. Ibn Sina is regarded as the most famous polymath of the Islamic Golden Age, and the father of modern medicine.

He was born in Bukhara, 940 CE, in the town of Afsan. His father, a governor, made sure that he received a good education at an early age. Besides memorizing the Quran at the age of 10, he also studied mathematics and Hanafi fiqh. According to his biography, as a teenager, whenever he would face an obstacle in his studies, he would perform wudhu (ablution), go to the masjid (mosque), and pray until light broke on his problems. 

It is said that he read through the Metaphysics of Aristotle forty times until the words were imprinted in his mind; but he could not grasp their meaning, until one day he found illumination from the commentary of Farabi (another giant Muslim polymath), which he bought for three dirhams. So great was his joy at the understanding that he gave thanks to Allah by giving charity to the poor.

He started to pursue medicine at the age of 16. Not only did he master the medical knowledge of his time, but he discovered new methods of treatment. According to his own words, "Medicine is no hard and thorny science, like mathematics and metaphysics, so I soon made great progress; I became an excellent doctor and began to treat patients, using approved remedies." The young physician's fame spread quickly and he treated patients without payment.

Going back to the Canon of Medicine, this book contained all of medical knowledge of the time. Ibn Sina documented all known illnesses and their proper treatments into one book. The book's influence lasted in Europe from the 12th century to the 17th as the primary source of medical knowledge. And thus, the foundation upon which modern medicine is built.

However, as is evident, Ibn Sina was not only a man of science and medicine; he was also a devout Muslim. He sought to reconcile philosophy with Islamic theology. The young doctor wrote five treatises commenting on Surahs (chapters) from the Qur'an. One of these texts included the Proof of Prophecies, in which he comments on several Quranic verses and holds the Quran in high esteem.

The primary lesson that we can derive from the life of Ibn Sina is that science and Islam can co-exist. In an age of science and technology, Muslims should not hesitate to pursue both. In fact, it is possible to pursue both, and ibn Sina is an example of that. However, as individual Muslims, we will only succeed when we stick to Islam.

QURAN AND SUNNAH IS TO ISLAM LIKE MATH IS TO SCIENCE

Recently I read an article that prompted an interesting thought. The article was about the validity of math when it comes to science. What makes math the universal language of science? Is math made up or discovered?

Whatever the answer is to these questions, the fact is that we accept math to be the universal language of science. For example, Einstein's Theory of Relativity is valid because he was able to show it mathematically. Einstein's theory of mass-energy equivelance is also valid because he has the math to show it, E=MC^2.

The interesting thing is that most of us blindly accept that if the math is there, it's valid. And why wouldn't we? There's practical value to it and it has worked for us for hundreds of years. We intellectually and practically figured out that math works and that it is the truth. So, if any science has accurate math in it, it also must be true.

Now, here's the thought: this relationship between science and math is equivalent to the relationship between the Qur'an-Sunnah and Islam. The Qur'an and Sunnah are the math of Islam. So, if there's a ruling that a scholar derives using the Qur'an and Sunnah, then it is valid. Just like if there's a theory that a physicist derives using math, it is valid.

In summary, we intellectually figure out that the Qur'an and Sunnah are the truth, then whatever is derived using the Quran and Sunnah, we must accept it. The comparison would be to Einstein coming up with the Theory of Relativity (in Islam let's say the theory is that it is forbidden to terrorize), and then him using math to prove it (in Islam it would be using Quran and Sunnah to prove that terrorism is forbidden). If the math works, then the theory works, if Quran and Sunnah work, then Islam also works.

AL-KHWARIZMI- THE FOUNDATION FOR MODERN MATHEMATICS

His full name is Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi. In Latin he's known as Algoritmi, hence "algorithm" in modern English. As you might have assumed, the word "algorithm" is Latinization of Al-Khwarizmi. 

Today, he's mostly known for inventing algebra. Many people associate the word "algebra" to his name. However, that is wrong. "Algebra" is derived from the Latinization of "al-jabr", part of the title of Khwarizmi's most famous book “Al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala” (“The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”), in which he introduced the fundamental algebraic techniques to solving equations. 

Khwarizmi was born in 780 C. and died in 850 C., a Persian-Muslim mathematician, astronomer and geographer during the Abbasid Caliphate. He was one of the first directors of Darul Hikmah (House of Wisdom), a center built for scholarship, both secular and religious, a place where Muslims and non-Muslims worked side by side. Khwarizmi oversaw massive projects that translated Greek and Indian science into Arabic. During his time in Darul Hikmah, he produced work that would forever change the world of science.

His most important contribution, in my humble opinion, is our modern numerals of 0 to 9. Kwharizmi derived these numbers from the Indian numerical system with the addition of the concept of zero and decimal places. They were recognized for their simplicity and accuracy, and thus widely accepted by the Muslim world. Later, they were adopted by Europe with translations of his work into Latin by Adelard of Bath and others in the 12th Century (one of the possible benefits of the Crusades). 

Along with algebra, Khwarizmi developed a  formula for systematically solving quadratic equations. He also developed the lattice multiplication method, a method algorithmically equivalent to long multiplications. This lattice method was introduced into Europe by Fibonacci, one of the most valuable carrier of Islamic knowledge to Europe. 
Al-Khwarizmi, in addition to mathematics, made major contributions to astronomy and geography. He built the quadrant, a device used to accurately measure time based on the position of the sun. He also revised Ptolemy's "Geography" and produced a newer version that coordinated a list of 2,402 cities of the known world. 


Al-Khwarizmi is one of the greatest mathematicians in human history, in fact he's the founding grandfather of modern mathematics. However, most of us know little to nothing about him. Why? The answer to this "why" would require another blog post. 

The main lesson to grasp from this post is that Khwarizmi's passion for science and mathematics stemmed from his devotion to Islam. He developed algebra to accurately calculate the complicated inheritance laws applied by Islam. He invented the quadrant in part to accurately calculate the five daily prayer times. To quote Al-Khwarizmi himself:

That fondness for science, ... that affability and condescension which Allah shows to the learned, that promptitude with which he protects and supports them in the elucidation of obscurities and in the removal of difficulties, has encouraged me to compose a short work on calculating by al-jabr and al-muqabala , confining it to what is easiest and most useful in arithmetic ( Katz, 271).

Islam has inspired hundreds of people that are the likes of Al-Khwarizmi. People like Khwarizmi exemplify what Islam can do to a civilization. If Muslims go back to Islam, if we go back to the Quran and Sunnah and adhere to them, we can gain back the honor we once had.





Citation:

• Katz, Victor J. A History of Mathematics: An Introduction. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. Print.
• Mastin, Luke. "Al-Khwarizmi - Islamic Mathematics - The Story of Mathematics."Al-Khwarizmi - Islamic Mathematics - The Story of Mathematics. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

TO GAIN BACK OUR HONOR, WE NEED TO GO BACK TO THE QURAN AND SUNNAH

If you go on the streets of Cairo and ask an average well-educated young man about the direction that Egypt should take, whether to be more liberal and follow in the footsteps of the West or to be more conservative and follow in the footsteps of the Muslims of the Golden Age, he will most likely reply that Egypt should follow in the footsteps of the West because we live in the 21st century. In fact, that is the response most Muslims will give. We live in 2014, so we can not follow something that is 1400 years old. We need to change it and modify it to fit our times and situations.

I will not try to argue from a religious point of view. I will not quote hadiths or Quranic verses to make my case that the way to move forward as Muslims is to cling to our past. I will simply use the demise of the Ottoman empire and the demise of our Caliphate to make my case. As the Ottoman Empire started leaving the Quran and Sunnah, it became "the sick man of Europe" and eventually diminished along with the Caliphate.

The basis of the Ottoman empire in the 1300s was Sharia (a political system based on the Quran and Sunnah). It prided itself in following the Quran and Sunnah. As it grew in size and might, it eventually assumed the position of defending Islam and the position of the Caliphate. It gave refuge to persecuted Christians and Jews, followed Shariah in giving them their rights and place in Ottoman society. The empire swelled in size and might, conquered half of Europe and controlled most of Muslim lands. It was the ultimate super power of the world.

However, things started to change in the 1800s for the Ottoman Empire. In the face of rising European powers like Spain, England and Germany, many within the government of the Ottomans began to question the direction in which the Empire should head. The influentials amongst the government proposed that in order to be more powerful than the Europeans, the Empire needed to be more European.

Soon, came the Tanzimat reforms that basically abolished Shariah law from the Empire. The ideology at the time was that if you get rid of religion in general, just like the Europeans, you will become more successful. Some of the changes included: government workers wore European-styled uniforms, military troops came only from Turkish descent, secular courts replaced Islamic judges, a finance system based on the French model, legalization of homosexuality, enforcement of an “Ottoman” identity instead of unique cultural identities, and the reform of the educational system to be based on a science/technology curriculum instead of traditional subjects such as Quran, Islamic studies, and poetry. There was an overall attempt to remove Islam from the government and public life.

All of these changes took place in the 19th century leading up to World War I in the early 20th century. And we all know what happened during and shortly after the war. The Caliphate was abolished, Palestine in British/Zionist control, and all of the Middle East divided up by different European nations, while Russia took the Bulkans.

Umar Ibn al-Khattab, the second Rightly Guided Caliph, once said:

“We were the most humiliated people on earth and Allah gave us honor through Islam. If we ever seek honor through anything else, Allah will humiliate us again.”

This is exactly what happened to the Ottomans. They tried to seek glory and power in something other than Islam and in return the entire empire along with the Caliphate (that ran continuously for 1300 years) was abolished. So, to say that we need to keep chasing secularism and leave Islam to gain back our glory as Muslims, is pure insanity. History has proven to us that this approach does not work. And if we do not learn from history, we are nothing but madmen.



Credit: Lost Islamic History, lostislamichistory.com

A CASE FOR RELIGION PROMOTING SCIENCE

When we think of science and religion, thoughts of Galileo and the Catholic church ignite in our heads. Thoughts of the church burning books and imprisoning great thinkers haunt us. We think of the "Dark Ages," when little to no advancement in science or culture was made. So naturally, we conclude that science and religion can not co-exist. If we want a religious society, we must avoid science, and if we want a free thinking society, we must leave religion.

However, the concept of science and religion being incompatible is uniquely a Western problem. For the bulk of Christian Europe, science was suppressed. It has only been about 400 years that scientists and philosophers freely, to a certain extent, think. However, this was not the situation in the rest of the world, especially in Muslim and Asian lands. For most of Muslim history, science was promoted by their religion.

The problem with us, Westerners, is that we view every culture and society through the lens of our own history. Since science and religion did not work out in the West, it should not work in the rest of the world either.

Many Western Muslims are confused by this dilemma as well. That in order to be a critically thinking person, we must leave Islam and follow the West into "separation of church and state."

However, if we analyze Muslim history and its contribution to human civilization, we realize that Muslims need Islam to become a productive civilization again. From the 7th century to the 18th century, Muslims had the most powerful empires; the greatest scientists, philosophers, engineers and doctors, while at the same time being extremely devout to their religion.

Muslims produced the greatest Islamic scholars along with the greatest scientific scholars. While one scholar codified Islamic jurisprudence, another scholar created the numerical digits that we use today. They all worked side by side and complimented one another, a relationship that was to be found nowhere else in the world.

All of this was going on while Europe had little to no progress. Spaniards and Frenchmen would travel to Muslim empires to seek knowledge and bring it back to their home lands. Interestingly, today it is the other way around. The only difference is that the West is not religious. It is extremely secular, just like the Muslims were extremely religious.

However, this form of scholarship and knowledge would eventually vanish from Muslim lands. Why? Because Muslims left Islam. In my next post I will dive into this topic more. When the Ottomans adopted a policy of secularism, it perished in scholarship and economic might, and the entire empire eventually crumbled, creating problems that we (Americans) still deal with today in the Middle East. Stay tuned!

THE FIRST MODERN UNIVERSITY IN THE WORLD ESTABLISHED BY A MUSLIM WOMAN

Al-Qariwiyin University, Fez, Morocco

When we think of universities and hall marks of education of the world, we usually think of Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. Therefore, it is natural for people to also think that the first university in the world was established in the West (Cambridge). Surprisingly, that is not true.

The first University in the world was established by a Muslim woman in Fez, Morrocco in 841 CE (talk about women's rights in Islam).

Quest for knowledge is heavily emphasized in both the Quran and the Sunnah (Sunnah is the sayings and life style of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him). This meant that in early Islam, all over the Muslim world, advanced subjects were taught in Mosques, schools, and homes of the scholars.

During the middle ages, a student would go onto master Arabic grammar, Islamic theology, memorization of the Quran, algebra, history and biology after completing his primary education. This would all take place mainly in a mosque. The place of learning in Islam is intrinsically tied to the mosque. The word 'University' in Arabic is 'jamiah,' which comes from the root word 'jami,' the feminine word for 'mosque' in Arabic. So in Islam, the place of religious learning, advanced learning and worship are completely tied together. There is no equivalent in other cultures or religions.

In other words, in the traditional Muslim world, and even today to a certain extent, the university is physically connected to the mosque, and the mosque is physically connected to a school and place of learning.

A grand university-mosque complex was al-Qarawiyin in Fez, Morocco. Fatima al-Fihri originally built this as a mosque in 841 CE. She became a successful businesswoman after inheriting a lump sum of wealth from her father. Due to her religiosity, she decided to give back to her community by building a mosque that her community can benefit from. Upon launching the project, she began a daily fast until the construction of the building was completed.

Like many other mosques of the time, Qarawiyin became a place of religious learning and political discourse. It gradually extended its education to all major subjects, particularly the natural sciences. Studies were in the Quran, theology, Arabic grammar, logic, geography, math, medicine, chemistry and Muslim history. This variety of subjects and Qarawiyin's high quality learning drew teachers and students from all over the world.

The number of attendees became so overwhelming that the university had to place a rigorous selection system, just like the universities of today. Thus, al-Qarawiyin became the very first modern university. At the time the pre-requisites to attend the university were good knowledge of the Quran, Arabic and general sciences.

Financial aid was part of the education package for students. Students did not pay fees, unlike students of today. They were given monetary allowances for food and accommodations. Students lived in residential quads in two to three story buildings. All of this was possible through endowments from royal families. Like any good university, al-Qarawiyin had vast libraries with major collection of books and literature. Al-Qarawiyin, thus truly became the first modern university.

There are many other university-mosques such as, al-Azhar in Cairo that still survives today. However, I will not get into detail about these universities in this post. Perhaps, I will update another article on this and the general educational standard of the Muslims of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, I hope you get the point of this article. Learning and higher education is not as euro-centric as it appears in our text books. Other cultures and people have been a huge part of it, especially during the "Dark Ages."

Credit: Muslim Heritage in Our World by al-Hassani

MUSLIMS INVENTED SOAP! THANK GOD FOR THE MUSLIMS!

“For Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean...” (al-Baqara, 222).

Medieval times are often depicted as being dark, smelly, and unclean. Images of open sewers, disease and plagues are often shown on TV, and rightly so. In the West it is normal to show these images about the Middle Ages, because that is what the West was in the Middle Ages, unclean and unsanitary. However, the rest of the world was different, especially the land of the Muslims. Products in the bathroom cabinets of the 10th century Muslims and their hygienic practices rival that of today's.

A Muslim's faith requires him to be pure and clean. He is required to shower immediately after intercourse and shower before going into the Friday sermon. He is also required to perform ablution (or wudhu) 5 times a day before each prayer. The wudhu consists of rinsing the nose and mouth, washing the face, arms and feet and wipe behind one's ears. I can go on and on about when and how the Muslims are to keep clean. But I hope you get the point.

As you can see, Muslims had to be really clean. So, it is no surprise that Muslims were the ones to invent the essential of cleanliness, the soap. The invention of this product can not be attributed to one single Muslim, it is an accumulation of knowledge by Muslim chemists. They made soap by mixing oil (usually olive oil) with al-qali (a base, yes the opposite of acid, that base). This was then boiled to achieve the right mix, left to harden and then used in the bath houses.

Manuscripts from the 13th century details more recipes for soap making. For example, take some sesame oil, a sprinkle of potash, alkali and some lime, mix and boil. As with many other Muslim products and ideas, soap arrived to Europe with the crusaders. By the 18th century soap was already an established industry, but added to it was colorful perfumed soaps, toilet soaps and medicinal soaps.

Islam inspired men to create the glorious soap and revolutionize the world, the world of cleanliness as well.

Credit: Muslim Heritage in Our World