Islam, which originated with the commandment of Allah to the prophet in the cave of Hira to ‘read’ (Iqra) found its religious expression in the from of Quranic revelation in Makkah, evolved into a community in Medina, and developed into a vibrant and dynamic culture and civilization in the cities of Kufa, Fusta, Damascus, Baghdad, Cordova, Seville, Granada, Bukhara, Samarakand and Delhi with its phenomenal and meteoric expansion.

Arabs, during the pre-Islamic period, had nomadic culture and had no civilization in a sedentary sense. The emergence of Islam in the Arabian peninsular in the sixth century set in motion a powerful and dynamic intellectual revolution which found expression and manifestation both in the realm of ideas and thought and material achievements which gave birth to a creative civilization.

Quran and Sunnah, from the mainspring of Islamic culture and civilization, hence it was religion that acted as the main force behind all the literary, scientific, philosophical, contribution of the Muslim scholars. Religion and science are generally considered to be mutually antagonistic to each other. This view has found strong favour with some western historians due to the Euro- centric view of history, becourse in Europe, the conflict between reason and revolution caused the prolonged conflict between the christen church and the scientists like Bruno, Copernicus, and Galelio. But the historical experience of Islam presents a totally different picture. Here, the religion of Islam itself acted as a catalyst for scientific progress. Islam laid equal emphasis on reason and revelation. According to Islamic epistemology, the reason and revelation are the two wheels of the vehicle of life and in order to reach one’s destination, both wheels have to be equal in size, strength and lubrication.

Islam is a religion based on knowledge- a knowledge in which the ‘intellect’ (Aql) itself plays the leading role of leading man to the divine. The Holy Quran and the Traditions of the prophet laid great emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge. Quran, on innumerable occasions stresses that man should exercise his reason and intellect to acquire the knowledge of the world of nature and it also exhorts man to observe and investigate the natural phenomena to discover the laws of nature. Thus, if we glance through the pages of the Quran, its positive attitude towards knowledge, reflection and contemplation becomes all the more perceptible.

“In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day, there are surely sings for men of understanding, says the Quran (ch. 3, verse 189). It is pertinent to observe in this context that the verse then qualify the phrase ‘men of understanding’ as being ‘those who remember God standing and sitting and lying on their sides and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth”. (ch. 3, verse 190)

Here, it is evident that the faithful Muslim is the one who not only conquers self by remembrance of god, but also the one who probes into the secrets of nature. There are innumerable verses in which Quran teaches men to reflect on the phenomena of nature, creation of heavens and the earth, the changes of seasons, the cycle of day and night, the oceans, the clouds, the wind, the sun and the moon, the hills, streams, vineyards, gardens of palms, the canopy of the starry heavens, the ships sailing on the sea. According to Prof. Abdus Salam, seven hundred and fifty verses of the Quran almost one – eight of the book- emphasizes reflection on the law of nature with examples drawn from cosmology, physics, biology and medicine. ¹

It was this inspiring message of the Quran that stirred the minds of early Muslims and created in them an unmistakable thirst for knowledge which took them to the farthest corners of the then known world with devotional intensity, dedication and commitment in search of knowledge. Al Kindi (d. 866 A.D) one of the greatest philosophers and scientists of Islam portrays in the following words the catholicity of sprit and the open mindedness of early Muslims in their passionate zeal for knowledge.

“We should never be ashamed to approve the truth and acquire it, no matter what its source might be, even if it might have come from foreign people and alien nations far removed from us”.²

With the expansion of Islam and the conquest of countries like Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Persia, which were under the domination of the Byzantine and Sassanide empires, Muslims encountered the intellectual traditions and the culture legacy of Greece, Persia and India and as quite rightly stated by Seyyed Hosayn Nasr ‘being essentially a way of knowledge Islam could not remain indifferent to any from knowledge.³

In three-quarters of a century, after the founding of the Abbaside capital of Baghdad, the Muslims were in possession of the chief philosophical works of Aristotle, of the leading Neo-platonic commentators, and most of the medical works of Galen, as well as Persian and Indian scientific works and a concerted and organized effort was made to translate them into Arabic. The Golden age of translation lasted for nearly 150 years from about 726 – 912 A.D before the age of translation was brought to an end practically all the extant works of Aristotle, became accessible to the Arab reader. “All these took place, says Prof. Hitti, while Europe was almost totally ignorant of Greek thought and science. For a while Haroun Al Rashid and Mamun were delving into Greek and Persian philosophy, their contemporaries in the West, Charlemagne and his lords, were reportedly dabbling in the art of writing their names. ⁴

In this field, Muslims were not passive imitators and mere transmitters. In only a few decades, Arab scholars assimilated what had taken Greeks centuries to develop. They not only assimilated the intellectual legacy of Greece, Persia and India, but also enriched it with their original contributions adopting this intellectual legacy within the context of the intellectual orientation, spiritual vision, and world view. Robert Briffault explains the remarkable changes effected by the Muslims in the field of science that distinguishes them in many ways from the Greeks.

The Greeks systematized, generalized and theorized, but the patient way of investigation, the accumulation of positive knowledge, the minute method of science, detailed and prolonged observation, experimental inquiry were alien altogether to Greek temperament. What we call science arose in Europe as a result of a new spirit of inquiry of new methods of investigation, of the method of experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of mathematics, in a from unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and those methods were introduced into the European world by the Arabs. ⁵

Many branches of knowledge, which today we consider as science, developed in ancient times under pressure of expediency and force of necessity. Thus was born astronomy, surveying and irrigation, medicine and surgery, philosophy and navigation and even the rudimentary beginnings of arithmetic. With the Greeks, in addition to these practical considerations, an uncanny intellectual curiosity led them to investigate practically everything from the atom to music of the spheres. Hence, Greek science remained speculative as stated above, and it is only with the Arabs that the sciences took on a decisive empirical orientation. Muslim scientist made immense contribution to the development of mathematics, astronomy, physics chemistry, medicine, pharmacology, botany, zoology, and agriculture.

Mathematics is the language of science. From ancient times, mathematics had gone hand in hand with astronomy. Thabith Bin Qurrah Al Battani, Ibn Yunus, Omar Khayyam, Nasr Al Din Tusi are only a few popularly known names of a legion of mathematicians who adorn the intellectual heritage of Islam. Al Khwarizmi (850A.D) is of special interest in the field of mathematics. He produced many illuminating treaties on many branches and aspects of this discipline. The word ‘algebra’ is derived form the word ‘Al jabr’ in the title of the book ‘Hisab al jabr wal Muqabala’ (the calculation of integration and equation) written by Al Khwarizmi around 850 A.D and his special importance lay in the fact that Europe became familiar with the Arab numerals and of new branches of mathematics through works of Al Khwarizmi.

In the field of astronomy, Muslims made momentous contribution. Pre-Islamic astronomy was a field on which mythology was pervasive as the Muslim had to purge it clear of myth and commenced the creative task of transferring into the modern science as known today. Abdul Abbas Al Fagani, Al Battni, Al Beruni, Umar Khyayam are some illustrious figures in the field of astronomy. Ibrahim Al Fagani was the first Muslim to construct an astrolabe. One of the earliest Arabic treatises on this instrument was written by Ali Ibn Isa Al Astralub (maker of astrolabe). ⁶

The greatest observatory in the then known world was built at Maraghah in 1258 under the direction of Nasir Al Din Tusi, who equipped it with a number of astronomical instruments built for him by a team of the best astronomers whom he had assembled from all corners of the Muslim World. ⁷

Nearly 900 years ago, Muslim scientists studied the fundamental question of physics, of such phenomena as force, motion, light, heat, vacuum, specific gravity and the main principals of mechanics and hydrostatics among the array of Muslim physicists. The figure of Ibn Al Haythem who is popularly known as Al Hazam looms large. Al Hazam’s major contribution was in the field of optics, it was he who probed this branch of physics fully. Until his times in optics, the views of Ptolemy and Euclid held sway. The mechanics of seeing it was believed to be a consequence of rays emanating from the eye and impinging on the object seen. This was challenged by Al Hazen bringing out the inadequacy of this theory of Euclid and Ptolemy. He pointed out that in the process of vision, light transmitted from the object to the eye. He also enumerated the law of inertia which later became Newton’s first law of motion. ⁸

In the peculiarities of Islamic heritage, medicine, surgery and pharmacopia are not divorced from, but grounded upon the Islamic conception of man. Hence, from the very beginning, school of medicine in Islam, has been closely allied to other sciences, especially philosophy. The wise man or ‘Hakim’ who was the vehicle of transmission of culture in Islamic civilization has invariably been physician.

In Islam, at least, in early Islam, the kinship between medicine and philosophy had been so close that both the sage and the physician were designated- Hakim. ⁹

Avicenna, the most encyclopedic mind of Islam was considered the ‘prince of physicians’. Al Kindi, the pioneer Arab philosopher produced remarkable treatises on medicine. Avicenna, the greatest commentator on Aristotle was a jurist and a court physician. Al Razi’s prodigious intellectual output is amazing even by modern standards. The portraits of Al Razi and Ibn Sina adorn the great hall of the scholars of medicine at the University of Paris.

Islamic medicine was born and began to grow rapidly. The science of medicine prompted the development of pharmacology, and this of botany, and chemistry, of physiology and surgery. Al Kindy, Ibn Rushd, Al Razi, Ibn Sina, are some illustrious figures in the animals of Islamic medicine. Al Razi known to the west as ‘Al Rhazis’ (d.932) was the greatest and most original of all the Muslim physicians. His crowing work was ‘Al Hawi fi al Tilb’, and encyclopedia of all the medical knowledge of his age. His treatise ‘Al- Judan wal Hasbah’ is the work that gives the first of section in surgery. Ibn Sina (d.1037) was another famous physician and philosopher, His main work Qanun fills Tilb’ remained the ultimate reference in medicine for centuries as from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries. This work served as the chief guide to medical science in the West. Al Zahrani (1013) was the greatest surgeon of his century. His work Al Tasrif is in its major part deals with surgery and its instruments and practices. Under the patronage of Islam, pharmacology was separated from medicine and achieved an independent status as a discipline as of profession. The first hospital in Islam was established by Hassen Al Rashid at the beginning of ninth century, not long afterwards, a large number of hospitals were founded in many parts of Islamic world.

While the Muslims inspired by the Quranic message was building up a great intellectual culture, Europe was in a state of intellectual stagnation and steeped in backwardness. It was in the twelfth century that European scholars interested in science and philosophy came to appreciate how much they had to learn from the Arabs and set about studying Arabic works in these disciplines and translating chief of them into Latin. Spain and Sicily were main centers of translation from Arabic to Latin and acted as channels of transmission of Islamic culture influences to Europe. A general account and evaluation of the influence of Arab science in Europe will be found in the Studies in the History of Medieval Science by the historian Charles Homer Haskins. ¹⁰

By the thirteenth century, there was a vigorous intellectual movement in Europe, capable of assimilating all the Arabs had learnt in science and philosophy. The story of the transmission of Arab science and philosophy to Europe forms one of the fascinating chapters of the intellectual history of mankind.¹¹ It was this transmission of the intellectual heritage of Islam and its assimilation by the West that paved the way for the Renaissance in Europe which laid the foundation for the modern scientific and technological civilization of the West. This is acknowledged by no less a person than Robert Briffault in the following words:

It is highly probable that but for the Arabs, modern European civilization would never have arisen at all; it is absolutely certain that but for them, it would not have assumed that character which has enabled it to transcend all previous phases of evolution. For although there is not a single aspect of European growth in the decisive influence of Islamic culture is traceable, nowhere in it is so clear and momentous as in the genesis of that power which constitutes the paramount distinctive force of the modern world and the supreme source of its history- natural science and the scientific spirit. ¹²

The history of the intellectual legacy of Islam points out to the fact that the knowledge and learning is not the monopoly of a single nation but the common heritage of mankind. This is the universal vision of Islam.

‘The Arabic culture’ says George Sarton, ‘is of a singular interest to the student of human traditions in general, to those whose general task it seems to them is the rebuilding human integrity on the face of national and international disasters, because it was, and to some extent still is, a bridge, the bridge between east and west. ¹³

REFERENCES

1. Abdus Salam, Islam and Science – Hamdard Medicus, Vol. xxix, No. 4, p 3
2. Philip K. Hitti, Makers of Arab History, New York, 1964, p 91.
3. Nasr, S.H, Islamic Life and Thought. Lahore, 1981, p 37.
4. Hitti, P.K, History of the Arabs,   London, 1958, p 315.
5. Briffault, Robert, The Making of Humanity, London, 1919, p 191
6. Nallino, C.A, Art, ‘Astronomy’, Encyclopedia of Islam
7. Ismail R. Al Faruqi, The Culture Atlas of Islam, London, p 333
8. Abdus Salam cit. p 5.
9. Nasr, S.H, Science and Civilization in Islam, Lahore, 1983, pp 213, 214
10. George Sarton, Introduction to History of Science, Cambridge 1927, vols. ii, iii
11. Montgomery Watt, W, The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe, Edinburgh, 1922, pp 58- 67
12. Briffault, Robert, The Making of Humanity, London, 1915, pp 28-29
13. George Sarton, A Guide to the History of Science, New York, 1952, pp 28 – 29.