By Syed Aslam

There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world, it was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean and from northern climates to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins. And this civilization was driven more than anything, by inventions. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease.

Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration. When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others. While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I’m talking about was the Islamic world. Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Muslim mathematicians, chemists, astronomers, geologists and physicians. This is the abstract from the speech of Carly Fiorina CEO of Hewlett-Packard delivered on September 26, 2001 in Minneapolis Minnesota at a conference.

The abstract above is not a fiction but a hard fact. Four hundred years of the golden age of Islamic civilization, starting from eight century to thirteenth century was the most splendid eras of human creativity. At its pinnacle during the thirteenth century the Cairo library had some two million books and millions of books could be found in the libraries of Spain, Baghdad, Bukhara and Damascus. During this period many brilliant scientists were born and flourished. They paved the way to the modern science and technology.

Yet if you read the Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, you will find a few pages about the contribution of Muslim scientists. It is sad to say that we Muslims buried those grate achievement under the rug and totally forgot about it.

Those Muslims celebrated the power of reason and human intellect and also believed that knowledge can be achieved from any source and from any where, which was the essence of Ijtehad. This idea is not contrary to the teaching of Islam, where Qur’an commands the believer to seek rational knowledge by observation and logic.

The Prophet (s) explained us the vital importance of aggressively pursuing knowledge.

The Europeans translated the works of Muslim scientists and thinkers into their language and there schools and university flourished – finally they pulled themselves out of drake age of dogmatic Christian era into the age of Enlightenment.
By the end of seventeenth century their innovations and discoveries simply overwhelmed the Muslim world. Though late, the mighty Ottoman Empire could have caught up with the Industrial Revolution and the modern scientific knowledge from the next door European countries, but they simply ignored it.

Most of the people know more about Copernicus, Galileo and many scientists of the western world but was absolutely ignorant of our own heritage and their achievement –what a sad situation.

In this series of articles I will introduce the Muslim scientists and thinkers to our readers and try to highlight their work.

By Syed Aslam

[1] Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun was born in Tunis North Africa in 1332 CE. His ancestors were Yemeni Arabs who settled in Spain in the eighth century. After the fall of Seville his family emigrated to Tunis. Ibn Khaldun memorized the Qur`an by heart at an early age, studied grammar, jurisprudence, hadis,  philology, and poetry in Tunis.  He continued his studies until the age of nineteen, when he lost both his father and mother to the plague. 

Ibn Khaldun entered the service of the Tunisian ruler Ibn Tafrakin as a writer of fine calligraphy while he was still a teenager.  Here he got a first-hand look at the inner workings of court politics. In 1352 CE Abu Ziad, the Emir of Constantine attacked and conquered Tunis. Ibn Khaldun escaped to Fez, the capital of Morocco.

He enjoyed the company of many scholars from all over North Africa and Andalusia.  He was promoted from one position to another, finally appointed as a Chief Judge (Qadi) of Fez. The subsequent ruler did not treat him well, so he decided to move to Granada, Andalusia. The sultan welcomed and entrusted him with a diplomatic mission to king Pedro of Castile, Spain. He successfully carried the mission but the Sultan’s vizier became envious of him and did not like his presence in Granada, so he moved back to north Africa.  

In 1382 CE, Ibn Khaldun arrived at Cairo, where he was warmly welcomed by scholars and students. His fame for his writings had already preceded him. He lectured at al-Azhar and other fine schools. He again enjoyed the favors of the sultan and was appointed a Maliki Judge. During this period, Ibn Khaldun devoted his time to lecturing and studying, as well as completing his Universal History. He enjoyed  24 years of  peaceful  life in Cairo and died there in 1406 CE.

Ibn Khaldun is considered the forerunner of several social science disciplines, like historiography, demography, sociology, cultural history and modern economics. He is also considered the father of the science of sociology. Ibn Khaldun’s main work was initially conceived as a universal history.  He divided it into seven books in which  the first book, commonly known as the Muqaddema, was transformed into a unique work of its own. This book is considered a masterpiece of literature on the philosophy of history and sociology. Books two to five dealt with the history of mankind up to the time of Ibn Khaldun, including the history of the Arabs, contemporary Muslim and European rulers, the ancient history of Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Egyptians, and Islamic history. The sixth book covers the history of Berbers and the Maghreb, and the last volume covers the events of his own life, known  as Al-Tasrif. 

His 800 page book,  the Muqaddema, can be divided into six parts, namely ethnology and anthropology, rural society,  urban society, forms of government, economic facts, science and humanity.

This work  is the essence of Ibn Khaldun’s wisdom and experience. He used his political and first-hand knowledge of the people of Maghrib to formulate many of his ideas. This document summarizes Ibn Khaldun’s ideas about every field of knowledge during his day.   He wrote about astronomy, astrology, and numerology, and dealt with chemistry and alchemy in a scientific way. His discussion of tribal societies and social forces is the most interesting part of his thesis. He illuminated the world with deep insight into the makings and workings of kingdoms and civilizations.

In the field of economics, Ibn Khaldun understands very clearly the supply and demand factors which affect price, the interdependence of prices and the ripple effects on successive stages of production. He discussed the nature and function of money and its tendency to circulate from country to country according to demand and the level of activity. Ibn Khaldun puts forward the insight that all profit comes from labor, the idea which Karl Marx used  to write Das Kapital. He outlines an early example of political economy, and describes economy as being composed of value-adding processes. When  labor is added to techniques and crafts, the product is sold at a higher price. This was a powerful insight, as one can construct an entire theory of economy from this fundamental.

Ibn Khaldun was the founder of the science of sociology, he  fully realized that he had created a new discipline, ilm al-umran, the science of culture, that no one had done before. This science can be of great help to the historian by creating a standard by which to judge accounts of past events.
Ibn Khaldun’s contributions to the field of history was remarkable. He analyzed in detail the sources of error in historical writings, in particular partisanship, overconfidence in sources, failure to understand what is intended, and the inability to place an event in its real context. He understood  the desire of writers to gain the favor from rulers and kings for exaggerating small events.

On the development of the state, and the relationship between the state and society, Ibn Khaldun believed that human society is necessary since the individual acting alone can’t acquire necessary food or security. Only the division of labor, through society, makes this possible. The job of a state is to restrain the natural aggression of human beings. 

History is a constantly hanging cycle, argued Ibn Khaldun, with essentially two groups of people–nomads and townspeople, with peasants in between. He characterizes each group; nomads are rough, savage and uncultured,  freedom-loving  and so make excellent fighters. In addition, they have a strong sense of social solidarity. This greatly enhances their military potential. Towns, by contrast, are the seats of the crafts, the sciences, the arts and culture.  Luxury corrupts them, and as a result they become a liability to the state, who need to be protected. Solidarity is completely relaxed and the arts of defending oneself and fighting the enemy are forgotten, so they are no match for conquering nomads, like Mongols who overran the Islamic and Christian world in thirteenth century.

No doubt Ibn Khaldun was one of the most versatile universal thinkers and philosopher of the Islamic civilizations. His work has been translated into many languages both east and west, and have inspired following writers in the development of new disciplines.   The British historian Arnold Toynbee called the Muqaddema the greatest work of its kind that has never been created by any mind in any time or place–the most comprehensive and illuminating analysis of how human affairs works.

Ibn Khaldun’s remained a nonentity among Muslim thinkers till the west discovered him in the 19th century as one of the great mind of the Middle Ages. 

(Aslamsyed1@yahoo.com) Aslamsyed1 (at) yahoo (dot) com

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يسر المكتب التعاوني للدعوة والإرشاد وتوعية الجاليات بعنيزة

أن يقدم لكم كتاب ( الدليل المصور لفهم الإسلام ) ذلك الكتاب الذي أذهل العالم وكان سببا بعد الله في هداية الآلاف البشر إلى الإسلام

كتاب مذهل ليس في محتواه فقط بل أيضا في سعره فهو كتاب متوسط عدد صفحاته 75 صفحة مطبوعة طباعة ملونة فاخرة جداً ويكلف توزيع النسخة 2 ريال فقط فأين المشمرين وأين من يحسن أقتناص الفرص

وهذه بعض المحتويات في هذا الكتاب الرائع

يبدأ بالتحدث عن الإعجاز العلمي في القرآن من بداية نمو الجنين ومنشئ الكون وخلق السماء والأرض والجبال وربط القرآن مع الحقائق المثبته في العصر الحالي وبيان تحدي الله بالأتيان بسورة من القرآن وأستعراض نبؤات الكتاب المقدس على بعثة نبينا صلى الله عليه وسلم والمعجزات التي حدثت على يد نبينا صلى الله عليه وسلم والآيات القرآنية التي ذكرت أحداثا مستقبلية حدثت بعد ذلك ويستعرض أيضا حياة النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم واخلاقه وبساطة حياته وتأثيرها على العالم أجمع

وأيضا في الكتاب ذكر مزايا الإسلام وأنه سبب السعادة الحقيقية وانه الخلاص والسلام للنفس والمجتمع ويتم التفصيل في عقيدة الإسلام التوحيد والإيمان وأركان الإسلام والتعريف بالسنة النبوية وبأحاديث النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم وكيف يؤمن المسلم بنبوة عيسى عليه السلام وكيف يمكن أن يصبح الشخص مسلما وماهو يوم القيامة وكيف ساعد الإسلام على التقدم العلمي والتطور

وايضا يصحح الكتاب الفكرة المغلوطة عن الإسلام أنه دين الأرهاب ويستعرض الكتاب حقوق الأنسان والعدل في الإسلام وحقوق المرأة التي كفلها والترابط الأسري وصلة الرحم وكيف يعامل المسلمين كبار السن والكثير والكثير من المواضيع التي يناقشها هذا الكتاب الرائع بكل ماتعني الكلمة من معنى

وهذه بعض التزكيات للكتاب ممن تأثر فيه ودخل الإسلام بعد قرآءته وايضا تزكيات بعض المشائخ الكبار وأعجابهم بمحتواه ومضمونه وحثهم على نشره وطباعته وتوزيعه

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