The debt owed by Muslim scientists to European civilization cannot be repaid

 Mufti Muhammad Osman Sadek

It is as true as daylight that Islam, the religion of knowledge and science, has never stood in the way of development and progress. Except Islam, none of the religions in the world have played a special role in the field of science and technology, so history cannot present a single example. In the words of Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, the celebrated scholar of the 20th century, the forerunner of the Islamic renaissance - there is no horizon of living Europe that is not indebted to Islamic civilization.

Historian Muhammad Asad has rightly said that history proves beyond doubt that no other religion has contributed as brightly as Islam to the development of technology. The extent to which Islam encouraged knowledge and research resulted in the groundbreaking cultural revolutions of the Umayyad and Abbasid regimes. Modern Europe must not forget that it will never be able to repay the debt it owes to Islam.

Muslim scientists in cognitive science

Groundbreaking contribution:

Currently Europe is very advanced in knowledge science and information technology. They are running from planet to planet. New planetary satellites are being discovered. Thanks to their invention, the whole world is now at hand. The Europeans got hold of this song through the march of Muslims in Europe. From the 7th to the 11th century AD, Muslims were at the forefront of every branch of knowledge and science, and they contributed significantly to the development of social civilization. In this context Muslim heritage in our world Professor Salim T S Al Hasani wrote,

"Glory Muslim personalities of the past - including mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, physicians, scientists, engineers, architects, economists, sociologists, artists and educators - have left the mark of their religious spirit through their duty to society and humanity. They were open minded. Worked with non-Muslims in many cases with a positive and cooperative approach. This proven record of the implicit cooperation of early Muslim societies is lost today.'

Many Muslims don't even know about the glorious past of Muslims. At Kochi, Europe took the light of knowledge and civilization from the Muslims. The fact that Europe owes itself to Muslims was expressed by HHR Prince Charles on 27 October 1993 in a seminar entitled Islam and the West held at the Oxford Gi Sheldonian Theatre.

"Not only is there a misconception in the West about the nature of Islam, but we are also ignorant of the effective role Islam has played in shaping our civilization and culture. I think this is our big failure. We have inherited this failure as a historical legacy. Scholars and scholars marveled at the medieval Islamic world that stretched from Central Asia to the Atlantic coast. But we have become accustomed to seeing Islam as an enemy of the West, considering it an unfamiliar society, culture, system and religious belief. That is why we are either ignoring its great contributions or erasing the contributions of Islam from history.

Muslims have contributed enormously in the past to the construction of European-American civilization. Especially during the period of Muslim rule in Spain from 711 to 1492, non-Muslims from various Western countries flocked to study in the Muslim educational institutions of Granada-Cordora. Spain was so famous for the practice of knowledge that when a book was published anywhere in the world, if the book did not sell there, publishers would rush to sell the book. At that time there was no educational institution in Europe-America as rich as Spain or Al Azhar University in Egypt.

Basically, Muslims made numerous contributions to medieval Europe. Europe benefited greatly from Islamic civilization from the eleventh to the thirteenth century. Describing this contribution to European civilization, the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, then Mayor of London Boris Johnson said:

'You may or may not know that my great grandfather came to South London in 1908. He was a Muslim and memorized the Qur'an, at least a large part of the Qur'an was memorized. He must have been very surprised to know that his great-grandson is now the Mayor of London. I am proud of it.'

In Cordova-Granada, Spain, many examples of Muslim architectural art still exist today and they testify to the glorious past of Muslims. Next to Cordoba's famous mosque is a museum. There are biographies of many Muslim philosophers, thinkers and commentators including Muhammad Ibn Arabi, Allama Shawqani. Basically, these Muslim thinkers contributed greatly to lighting the torch of knowledge in Europe. Especially after the collapse of Muslim civilization in Baghdad by the Tatars, Muslims engaged in the study of knowledge centered in Cordova, Spain. A short walk around the city of Córdoba makes it easy to realize that it was once the 'Capital of Knowledge and Civilization' in the past.

In short, Muslim scientists pioneered the advancement of knowledge in Europe. Muslims have contributed immensely to the development and progress of today's shining Europe.

Europeans will never be able to repay the debt owed to Muslim scientists.