Islams Contribution to the World ᴴᴰ - During the Golden Period of Islam, the time of the Abbasid Khilafah, from the 8th Century to the 15th Century scientists, geographers, poets, engineers and philosophers amongst others, contributed significantly to their respective fields, by creating new inventions and by preserving and building upon earlier work. Their contributions directly affected every major civilisation to come after them and continue to be invaluable to the present day. Institutions such as public hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, astronomical observatories and public libraries, were the development of Muslims; they made developments in all of the major fields at the time. The deen of Islam, rather than holding these scientists back, was actually the cause of their advancement. In Medicine, the Persian scientist known as Ibn Sina or Avicenna, wrote the famous book The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard textbook taught in various universities around the world until the 18th Century, in which he introduced: the contagious nature of infectious disease; the use of quarantine to curb the spread of infection; neuropsychiatric conditions such as epilepsy, stroke and dementia; the symptoms and complications of diabetes and the use of clinical trials in experimental medicine. The progress made in Medicine, was due to the Muslims following the commands of Allah as laid out in the Quran and Sunnah. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, in his famous hadith: There is no disease that Allah has created, except that He also has created its treatment. (Sahih Al-Bukhari) The existence of a cure for every disease encouraged the Muslims to make progress in biomedical research. In Mathematics, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi developed Algebra and used the knowledge he gained to formulate the rules of inheritance as linear equations, which would allow calculation of inheritance shares. Muslim astronomers also developed Trigonometry to assist with determining the phases of the moon to calculate the start of Ramadhan and Eid. Al Hassar, a mathematician from Al-Maghreb, developed the modern symbolic mathematical notation for fractions, where the numerator and denominator are separated by a horizontal bar. Many others contributed to and developed other areas of Mathematics such as Calculus, Geometry and number theory. In the field of technology, engineers such as Al-Jazari, who invented the crankshaft - an essential component in the steam engine and internal combustion engine - and the Banu Musa brothers, who invented the valve and the gas mask, were well known names during the Medieval period. The mechanical alarm clock and the steam turbine were invented by Taqi al-Din, one of a growing number of Muslim polymaths (people whose knowledge covers many fields). A pioneer of practical chemistry was an 8th Century polymath called Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan; he invented most of the chemical processes , which are still used in laboratories today, for example: pure distillation, filtration, sublimation, liquefaction, crystallisation, purification, oxidisation and evaporation. The knowledge and number of inventions that originated from the Muslim world during the Golden Age of Islam, was truly staggering and influenced so much of the present day technological advancements. There were a number of factors, which facilitated this period of growth and which, unfortunately, do not exist in the Muslim lands in the current day. The primary reason the Muslims were able to develop, was the existence of a Khilafah, a state which was ruled according to the Quran and Sunnah and under which, both Muslims and non-Muslims had their rights protected. The Khilafah took care of the necessities of its citizens and the Khalifah ensured that nobody was without food, shelter, healthcare and education. The Hudood or punishments were applied to cases where crimes had been committed and this allowed society to live in peace. The armies of the Khilafah protected the citizens of the Islamic state from invasion by foreign nations and were also involved in bringing new lands to be ruled by Islam, in accordance with the peoples wishes. The Baitul Mal or House of Wealth (the central treasury), collected the taxes from both Muslim and Non-Muslim citizens and ensured that this money was spent on the provision of public services and institutions, such as hospitals and universities, which is where much of the scientific research and developments occurred. Islam also drove the Muslims to excel in all of the fields that they participated in.
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 06:03:50 +0000
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