Contents

Chapter VI

Islam’s Embrace of Science

Islam embraced science and learning from the first verse revealed in the Quran, in which God addressed His Messenger saying: “Read in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created. Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood. Read! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful. He Who taught (the use of) the Pen. Taught man that which he knew not” (Al-‘Alaq: 1-5). Teaching “through the pen” (bi’l-qalam) in these verses refers to learning in the generic sense, and had not been tied to any particular branch of learning, thus covering all the sciences which God has bestowed knowledge of on man. Some of these forms of learning could be acquired through true reports (i.e. revelation), while some can be acquired through sense experience. Other forms of knowledge could be gained through intuition, and yet others could be acquired by reasoning, whether deduction or induction. God also honoured learning by swearing by the pen and the learning and knowledge written down by it, saying in Sura 68 (Al-Qalam): “By the pen, and by (the Record) which (men) write” (Al-Qalam: 1). And God instructed His Prophet to pray to Him for more knowledge and learning: “but say: ‘O my Lord! advance me in knowledge” (Ta Ha: 114).

God also bestowed a great honour on men of learning, granting them equality with the angels in testifying to His oneness, as was affirmed in Sura 3 (Al-Imran): “There is no god but He: that is the witness of Allah, His angles, and those endued with knowledge” (Al-Imran: 18). The esteemed worth of learning in the eyes of God was demonstrated by the conversation related in the first part of Sura 2 (Al-Baqarah: 30-33) between God -exalted be His name- and His angels, when He decided to put Adam as a vicegerent on Earth. The angels then exclaimed in surprise: “Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?” The gist of their argument was that whoever is prone to bloodshed and corruption could not be suitable to populate and develop the earth. The angels, therefore, were more worthy of this mission. But God said to them: “I know what ye know not.” And then: “He taught Adam the names of all things,” this happening either by direct instruction, through intuition or by disposing him by nature to know them and be able to recognise them if asked. Then God showed all the objects to the angels and said to them: “Tell Me the names of these if ye are right.” But the angels could not, whereupon God asked Adam to tell them their names, which he did. Thereupon God asked the angels to prostrate themselves to Adam, “and they bowed down.” This episode symbolises the elevation of learning to the highest status, unmatched for anything else, since the Almighty had ordered the noble heavenly angels, who never cease to praise Him and glorify His name, to prostrate themselves before Adam, thus lifting his knowledge of names above the worship of the angels and their praise and glorification of God, which is honour beyond compare.

It is on the basis of this that the Prophet emphasised repeatedly that learning is exalted above the worship of God, and that a learned man is above the person dedicated to worship in status [in front of God]. In one famous hadith he says: “The learned man shines above the person dedicated to worship in the same way the moon on a full moon night shines above all other planets and stars.” He urged people repeatedly to pursue learning, saying that to seek learning is a duty on every Muslim man and woman. The angels, he told them, spread their wings over the seeker of learning. A man from the tribe of Murad once came to him at the Mosque and said to him: “O Messenger of God, I came seeking knowledge.” He replied: “Welcome to the seeker of learning. Indeed the seeker of knowledge is surrounded by angels and they spread their wings over him.” Just as the men of learning were exalted above the worshippers, the Prophet also exalted them above martyrs, saying: “Learned men are one degree above martyrs.”

The Holy Quran injected the spirit of learning into Muslims. The first indication of this is that the Quran had changed the customary meaning of some familiar terms and endowed these with new significance. Terms like “Islam” (submission or dedication [to God]) Iman (belief) kufr (unbelief) shirk (partnership), and even the word “Quran” itself, which God has employed to designate all the specifically designated body of revelation which He had transmitted to His Messenger during twenty three years and was written in the mushaf (the Book containing the Quranic text). The term “Islam” originally denoted “submission” or “yielding”. God used it to designate His True Religion, as in the verse: “This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion” (Al-Ma’idah: 3). The etymological root of the word “Iman” comes from “amn” (security and freedom from fear). In the Quran it came to denote belief in the unity of God, His Prophet and His law. Kufr originally meant “covering up” or “hiding,” and it came to signify in the Quran the worship of deities other than God. Shirk originally denoted partnership in any matter or form, but in the Quran it was used to refer to the adoption of deities and worshipping them together with God, as in the verse where Luqman, the Wise, says to his son: “O my son! Join not in worship (others) with Allah : for false worship (shirk) is indeed the highest wrongdoing” (Luqman: 13).

Some Quranic words were newly coined terms which had no origin in pre-Islamic linguistic usage, like the term nifaq (hypocrisy). Linguists say that Arabs in pre-Islamic times did not use the word or the verb derived from it, and the word, which appears repeatedly in the Holy Quran, did not figure in pre-Islamic poetry. The word nafiqa did exist, though, and it denoted the tunnel dug by the jerboa, which used to have a secret back entrance to be used in case of attack. The hypocrite was thus likened to this animal, since he accepts Islam (coming in through the “door”) but leaves it through a “secret entrance”, by continuing to be an unbeliever at heart. A similar word coined anew in the Quran is the term fasiq (a rebel against God). Ibn al-A’rabi, an authoritative linguist, says that this word has never been known in the language of pre-Islamic Arabs and did not occur in their poetry. This indicates that it had been coined anew in the Quran to refer to this act of rebellion or insubordination.

One of the first sciences to emerge in Islam was thus the science of tafsir (Quranic exegesis or commentary), in compliance with the verse: “And We have sent down unto thee (also) the Message; that thou mayest explain clearly to men what is sent for them” (Al-Nahl: 44). The Prophet thus began to explain and clarify for his Companions the rules contained in the verses of the Quran, and to elucidate the meaning of its verses. The Prophet -peace be upon him- could thus be considered the first interpreter of the Quran and its teachings. Says Ibn Mas’ud, one of the Prophet’s prominent companions: “It used to be that if a man amongst us learned ten verses from the Quran, he would not go beyond them [to learn new ones] until he had understood their meanings and the practical injunctions included in them.” After the death of the Prophet, the Companions began to explain the Quran to Muslims in the way they have learned from him. Al-Sayouti relates that he had been able to gather more than ten thousand reports containing interpretations of Quranic verses by the Prophet -peace be upon him- and his Companions, which he collected in a book of his named Turjuman al-Qur’an, (The Quran Interpreter) and later abridged in a book he called al-Durr al-Manthour, fil-Tafsir bi’l-Ma’thour (The Scattered Pearls in [Quranic] Exegises Using Traditions).

The science of Hadith (prophetic traditions) also arose quickly to make up for the fact that rules and teachings usually appeared in the Quran in general form, without much elaboration or detail. It was the Prophet (peace be upon him) who elaborated and explained these rules. For example, the Quran did not include much detail on how to perform prayer and zakah, two of the central pillars of Islam, but would give generalised commands like: “perform prayer and pay zakah.” It is the Prophet’s sayings (hadith) and practice (sunna) which explained how prayer could be performed, telling us that it starts with the pronouncement of takbir (“God is greatest”), followed by the recitation of sura 1 (Al-Fatihah), then proceeding to ruku’ (bowing down) and sujud (prostration) and the tasbih (glorification of God’s name) to be recited during them. In the middle of each prayer (or the end for fajr (dawn) prayer), one recites tashahhud (witness to the unity of God according to a given formula) to be followed by one raka’ (full sequence of reciting a sura, bowing and prostrating) in the maghrib (sunset) prayer and two in zuhr (midday), ‘asr (afternoon) and ‘isha (evening) prayers. Each prayer is concluded by reciting the tashahhud again. The sunna also instructs us of the times of these prayers, and the fact there are five of them. The Quran had spoken of the ablution needed as a preparation for prayers, and explained how it could be performed.

Similarly, zakah was mentioned in the Quran in a general form, but it was the Prophet who indicated the amounts that should be paid by every Muslim annually in cash, crops, cattle, camels, etc. Hundreds (even thousands if we count minor details) of hadiths have been reported which contained the Prophet’s explanations and elaborations of matters of Shari’a. Hadith was thus regarded as complementary to the Quran in explaining Shari’a. God instructs the Muslims repeatedly in the Quran to adhere to every instruction the Prophet gives, obeying his commands and desisting from whatever he prohibits : “So take what the Messenger assigns to you, and deny yourselves that which he withholds from you” (Al-Hashr: 7). The Prophet called his sayings or hadiths his sunna, meaning the practice and policy he had adopted together with his Companions. He was reported to have said: “I urge you to stick to my sunna, hold on tight to it [lit. ‘bite on it with your teeth].” Ibn Abbas said: “The Messenger said: ‘O God, please have mercy on my khulafa’ (successors).’ We said: ‘O Messenger of God, who are your successors?’ He said: ‘Those who relate my words and teach them to people.’” He always asked delegations who came to see him to teach his sayings to their people when they go back. The Companions were keen to preserve, relate and study these sayings, and the next generation of Muslims learned it from them. This science of hadith was thus a discipline that had been, from the start, regarded with reverence.

A third science which began to emerge since the time of the Prophet is the science of fiqh, or jurisprudence, which concerns itself with all the acts of responsible adults, and whether they could be considered obligatory, prohibited, recommended or reprehensible. It covers all acts of worship, transactions, contracts, inheritance, etc. We concern ourselves here with just a reference to some of the terms relating to acts of worship, such as prayer, fasting, zakah and hajj (pilgrimage). The term salah in Arabic originally referred to “prayer” (as in praying to God), but the Quran used the term to refer the basic act of worship of Islam, which is preceded by wudu (ablution, the Arabic term originally meant washing, but it came to refer to the prescribed ritual washing before each prayer), followed by standing up, pronouncing takbir, then ruku’ and sujud. Linguistically, ruku’ is “bending down”, but it came to mean bowing down in a prescribed manner while repeating words of glorification to God. Sujud originally meant humiliating oneself, but in the Quran it came to mean placing one’s forehead and hands on the ground in a prescribed way and reciting tasbih. If no water could be found for ablution, then tayammum could be performed instead. Originally, the term tayammama meant “to head towards” some known goal, but the term came to mean striking slightly one’s hands on earth and wiping his face with them, as a ritual substitute to ablution. The term zakah comes from a root which signifies growth, but the term was used in the Quran to mean the obligatory setting aside a portion of a person’s wealth which he must pay to the poor under certain conditions. Related to zakah is sadaqa (non-mandatory alms), which comes from a root signifiying friendship, as if God -exalted be His name- wanted to indicate that this act of giving and generosity towards their poorer brethren promotes love and friendship between members of the community. The linguistic meaning of the term siyam (fasting) originally referred to abstinence, but it came to denote, in the Quran, the act of abstaining from food, drink and sexual intercourse from dawn to sunset. Hajj (pilgrimage) comes from a term meaning to “head towards”, but it came to denote, in the Quran, heading towards the Holy Mosque in Makkah during a certain time of the year to perform prescribed rituals. The Quran mentions, in conjunction with hajj, the performance of umrah before it, as in the verse: “If any one wishes to continue (tamatta’a) the Umrah on to Hajj”(1) (Al-Baqarah: 196). Umrah derives linguistically from the term i’timar (visit), but in the Quran it denotes a ritual involving circumambulating the Holy Ka’aba, walking between (the two hills of) Safa and Marwah, with tasbih and certain restrictions on dress and conduct. This ritual can be performed at any time of the year. Tamattu’ generally means “enjoyment” or “benefiting” by something. In the Quran, it denotes the interruption, after performing ‘umrah and while waiting to perform hajj, of ihram, or restrictions on dress and conduct obligatory for the pilgrim. A person who does this can then enjoy all the freedoms he had been restricted from enjoying during ihram until it is time for him to perform hajj. The rituals of hajj referred to in the Quran include circumambulating the Ka’aba, walking between Safa and Marwah, the advance from Mount ‘Arafah to Muzdalifa (ifadah).

We content ourselves with this selection of terms from amongst scores of terms used in fiqh. We find God -glory be to Him- calling on the Muslims, immediately after commanding them to rise up and fight the enemies of Islam with the Prophet, to rush to His Messenger to learn from him the meaning of the Quran, his sunna and the provisions of Shari’a, so as to teach what they had learnt to their tribes and communities. “Nor should the Believers all go forth together: if a contingent from every expedition remained behind, they could devote themselves to studies in religion, and admonish the people when they return to them- that thus they (may learn) to guard themselves (against evil)” (Al-Tawbah: 122). This is a remarkable injunction, calling on the Muslims to learn the law of Islam and its sciences and propagate them among the community. They responded to it with enthusiasm, turning Madinah into a great centre of study and the hub of a great movement of learning, where the main teacher was the Prophet, who was the Muslim community’s greatest jurist, the interpreter of its lofty Quran, and where his Companions were the disciples.

It is well-known that Islamic Shari’a encompasses much more beside mere acts of worship, covering all aspects of life and legislating for the family, marriage, inheritance, etc. It commands the believers to honour their parents, and it regulates marital relations, divorce and care for the divorced wife. It also regulates commercial relations and transactions, borrowing and lending, trade, agriculture, mortgages and collection and distribution of zakah. It outlaws murder, theft, usury, adultery, alcohol consumption and gambling. It regulates war, tells of how holy war could be waged, details the rights of fighters and instructs on how to conclude treaties. It also tells how government must be conducted on the basis of justice, consultation and in conformity with the highest moral standards.

It is clear from the above that Islam does not only embrace learning, but actually merges into it, creating new sciences of its own: tafsir, fiqh and hadith. In addition to these religious sciences, the Quran highly commends the natural sciences, including astronomy, mathematics and medicine. The Quran refers constantly to the blessings God has bestowed on man, creating for him the earth and endowing it with mountains to stabilise it, and running rivers feeding from rain water or from springs so that people could drink and water their crops and their trees bearing grapes, dates, olives and all sorts of wonderful fruits. God had also propagated on earth all types of animals, created and tamed camels, horses and other beasts of burden for man to use, provided the sea for man to navigate with ships for trade and other benefits, and populated the sky with birds of every colour. Every aspect of the universe is referred to in the Quran: the earth with its mountains, the sea, birds, plants, trees, animals, reptiles, snakes, insects, etc. If we direct our attention to other sciences, such as astronomy and mathematics, we find God mentioning the sun and its buruj (positions) to demonstrate His power, as in the verse: “By the Sky, (displaying) the Zodiacal Signs” (Al-Buruj: 1). The term buruj (constellations or zodiacal signs) was used by the ancients to refer to the apparent positions of the sun and the planets known to them, indicated by the signs of the zodiac, which fall on a belt of heaven divided into twelve equal parts and named after the constellations these positions used to contain. The Almighty also says: “It is He who had made the sun a shining glory and the moon to be a light (of beauty) and measured out stages for it; that ye might know the number of years and the count (of time)” (Yunus: 5). The stages of the moon are the positions in which it appears every night, which are twenty-eight, divided along the zodiac belt and named in the books of astronomers. God also says in Sura 6 (Al-An’am: 96): “He makes the night for rest and tranquillity, and the sun and moon for the reckoning (of time)”, meaning that He decreed them to move according to a certain pattern of days, nights, months and years so that you may regulate your livelihoods and transactions and know the date and time, which are a fundamental requisites of civilisation.

The Quran contains various references to the medical sciences, leading to numerous international conferences being convened to elaborate the references and miraculous revelations contained in it. One such is the reference in Sura 23 (Al-Mu’minun: 12-16) to the creation of embryos inside the womb, where it is mentioned at the start of this sequences of verses that man has been created from “a quintessence of clay,” in reference to the creation of Adam out of clay. The verses then detail the phases of development of the embryon: “Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed”; (meaning his mother’s womb) “Then we made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then We made out of that lump bones, and clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another creature.” These Quranic verses contain a truly miraculous divine revelation, picturing with great accuracy the successive phases of the evolution of the embryo until it develops into a living human being.

All these references in the Quran to the earth sciences, astronomy and medical knowledge, together with the fusion of Islam with learning when it created its own religious sciences, filled Muslim hearts with the love of knowledge in all fields. Soon after the Prophet’s death, the Muslims applied themselves diligently to the study of the religious sciences, and -after the conquests- also tried to explore what sciences other Arabised communities possessed, including chemistry, astronomy, mathematics and medicine. Soon after that, an energetic movement of translation was launched, covering all these sciences and others as we have mentioned in the preceding chapters. The Muslims assimilated these new sciences and created new ones, like grammar and language sciences to fulfil the demand of the newly Arabised communities who needed to perfect their knowledge of Arabic. A great renaissance resulted in all areas of learning, including religious sciences, linguistic sciences and the new foreign sciences. Muslims then -as mentioned earlier- assumed world leadership in all fields of science and civilisation for the next six centuries (until the eighth/fourteenth century).

God has truly made the Islamic community one of science and learning. Children usually started their education in Quranic schools (kuttab), where they learned reading and writing, some Quranic verses, a little math and grammar and some poetry and proverbs. For little girls, the preference was to teach them the Quran, especially Sura 24 (Al-Nur). Muslims did not in the past have graduated stages of learning like we do today, but the kuttab occupied the place of present day elementary and intermediate schooling. Mosques were the great arena of learning, and the youth who wanted further education after kuttab had to frequent the learning circles in mosques. The mosques were not just places of worship, but centres for higher learning as well. Each prominent learned figure ('alim) in each branch of learning had a large circle in which students gather. He would normally sit with his back to one of the pillars in the mosque or on a high chair, and dictate his lectures to the students. If the students were too numerous and could not all hear his words, an aide would repeat his pronouncements for those further afield. The circles of jurists were the most popular, since mastering fiqh qualified the person to occupy such posts as market supervisor, police chief, judge and even governor. No qualifications were demanded from students wishing to attend except the desire to learn. This led to two significant developments: the first was the great number of learned men specialising in every discipline, to the extent that it had been related that when al-Nadr ibn Shumayl, a disciple of al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, left Basrah in Iraq for Khurasan, he was seen off by three thousand scholars, including ulama of hadith, grammarians, linguists, prosodists and historians. No doubt there were, in addition to this multitude of men of learning in the Basrah of the second hijri century, many more who chose not to see him off. And if Basrah had this many, Baghdad no doubt had several times this number of men of learning.

The second phenomenon which contrasts with the first is the appearance of certain class of scholars and men of letters who diversified their knowledge greatly, not satisfied with frequenting just one circle, or circles in one discipline. They would sit at most, if not all, the circles of learning available, learning something about everything. They tended to resemble journalists in our day, being able to discuss most aspects of culture and knowledge and to write interestingly about them. Al-Jahiz called this class of people in his town of Basrah the Masjidiyyin (men of the mosque), and says that they used to have a circle of their own in mosques where they would debate anything they fancy. He related in his book al-Bukhala’ (The Misers) samples of their debates on how to economise in expenditure and how best to cultivate and augment wealth. This group was popular at the courts of caliphs, viziers and notables because of their entertaining conversations.

The most important factor which ignited the learning movement in the Abbasid era and injected it with vigour was the proliferation of debates and contests in mosques and at the courts of rulers and notables. The youth used to attend the debates of jurists, theologians and linguists to learn the art of disputation and find out how to marshal arguments and overcome opponents. Yahya ibn Khalid, the Barmakid vizier of Al-Rashid, organised a debating circle where Muslim and non-Muslim theologians met to debate issues of philosophy and theology. Al-Mas’udi reported an interesting discussion in this circle on the nature of love. The court of Al-Mamoun used to be a great debating arena. The caliph was himself a cultured intellectual, well-versed in the religious and linguistic sciences, as well as philosophy and other branches of knowledge. His audiences at the seat of the caliphate in Baghdad regularly turned into colloquia discussing all branches of knowledge. In his book Baghdad, the author Tayfour presents a portrait of these gatherings and what was debated in them. Al-Mas’udi says that al-Mamoun’s debating circles had taught people the art of disputation, investigation and reasoning. Some participants in these circles wrote books to outline and defend their positions. The circles of theologians were also the setting for frequent debates, and we have seen in chapter four how they used to organise large meetings attended by theologians from all faiths and sects. Many books written in the Abbasid era come with title “Rejoinder to...” or “Refutation of ...” as if debating had become the language of the age. Al-Jahiz would often write a treatise praising something or some group, and then he would write another treatise attacking the same thing. He had a book of “advantages and disadvantages”, which is a compendium of a long list of qualities and dispositions. In it, he relates the good aspect of one quality, and then marshals its disadvantages and defects, supporting his arguments with stories and anecdotes drawing on Arab, Persian, Indian and Greek cultures.

An important factor contributing to the great Islamic renaissance in science and learning which took off in the last quarter of the second hijri century (eighth CE) was the establishment in Baghdad of a paper factory, set up by al-Fadl ibn Yahya al-Barmakid, the vizier of al-Rashid. People then shifted from writing on parchments and papyrus sheets to writing on the much cheaper and lighter paper, this resulting in a large increase in the number of books and publications, with a corresponding increase in the number of copyists/booksellers (warraqin) who earned their livelihood copying and selling books. The many shops they set up were frequented by youth not only to buy, but to read books. Young scholars used to rent these shops for the night and spend it reading and copying works by lamplight. This had a great effect on the cultural renaissance, due to the availability of books for youth and students, from which they could learn at will, which was much easier than having to attend ulama circles in mosques.

Soon private and public libraries began to be set up as well. Al-Rashid established a big library which he named Dar al-Hikma, for which he employed a large number of translators as we have mentioned before. His son Al-Mamoun took even more care of it and expanded it further. Yahya ibn Khalid established a big library of his own, and it was said that it included three copies of every book it acquired. Learned men also set private libraries. That of Al-Waqidi, the historian, was reported to have contained six hundred boxes full of books, and he had too slaves he set to work copying books for him, working day and night. Some wealthy notables, who were themselves educated, took care to establish public libraries open to all who wanted to use them. One such was Ali ibn Yahya the astrologer, a contemporary of the caliph Al-Mutawakkil, who built a palace and turned it into a huge library where people used to come from far away places and live in while consulting the books it contained. Public and private libraries proliferated in all Muslim cities and towns, especially mosque libraries, which were open to the public. Famous public libraries in big cities included the library of the Fatimid ruler Al-Aziz in Egypt, which was said to have contained two hundred thousand volumes. In Qurtuba (Cordova) in Muslim Spain, the library of al-Hakam al-Mustansir attained wide fame. He employed booksellers in major Muslim capitals to procure books for him, and the index of his library was in forty volumes of twenty sheets each (fifty according to another report). From the end of the second century, copyists’ shops proliferated in every city, and there were tens of them grouped in business districts of their own in each town.

Muslims applied themselves to reading and learning with a diligence unknown to a previous nation, due chiefly to the influence of Quran and sunna and their persistent urging to Muslims to apply themselves to learning. So much so that the Muslim community could be regarded the community of learning par excellence. The love of learning was manifested by all members of the community, with a great many among them dedicating themselves to the pursuit of learning in the sciences and literature. Many also wrote a large number of books, like Al-Jahiz who authored a huge library of volumes and treatises on his own. Muhammad ibn Jarir Al-Tabari, the Quran exigisist, was determined to write every day a set number of pages which he had imposed on himself, as if it was a duty towards society. Some of his disciples made a tally of the sheets he had written, and found that he had continued to write forty sheets a day for forty years, with his total output averaging fourteen sheets for every day of his life since the day he was born. It is no wonder, therefore, to discover that Muhammad ibn Zakariyya Al-Razi (d. 320H), a contemporary of Al-Tabari’s, has authored, according to al-Bayrouni, 56 books in medicine, 44 books in the natural sciences, ten books in mathematics, 17 books in philosophy, eight books in logic and 23 books in chemistry. One of Al-Razi’s most famous books was al-Hawi, a medical encyclopedia. He also wrote a book on spiritual healing. His counterpart in Muslim Spain was Al-Zahrawi, who wrote a medical encyclopedia in thirty volumes. Not to mention Ibn Sina (Avicena) whose books treatises numbered several hundreds. His book of medicine al-Qanun, together with Al-Razi’s works and Al-Zahrawi’s encyclopedia, continued to be taught in western universities from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. In every other science we also encounter huge encyclopaedic works in addition to hundreds of books. It is enough to point to the dictionary Lisan al-Arab (The Arab Tongue) which runs into twenty volumes.

An important phenomenon associated with learning among the Arabs since its inception was the fact that it had not confined to special categories, but was diffused amongst all classes. This was helped by the free access to teaching circles in mosques and the proliferation of copyists’ shops and public libraries in all Islamic cities from the end of the second hijri century. Education was also free, and no fee was exacted for attending learning circles. The lower classes did take part, even a prominent part, in the learning movement. A glance at the biographies of learned men, literary figures, poets and writers will indicate that most of them had originated from the working classes. Their surnames were often something like the “Smith”, “Taylor”, “Silk Merchant”, “Glass Maker” “Bow Maker”, “Perfumer” “Arrow Maker” or “Embroiderer”. Among the theologians we find names like Abu Ahmad al-Tammar (date seller) Shu’ayb al-Qallal (jar maker). The famous poet Abu Nawwas started as an apprentice with a perfumer, while another famous poet, Abu al-’Atahiyya, started his life peddling jars, which he carried on his back, on the streets of Kufa. Al-Jahiz starting his life selling fish and bread on the banks of Sihan, a stream near Basrah. Many sources testify to the fact that the masses had unrestricted access to learning and did acquire various degrees of cultural erudition. Al-Jahiz, writing in the third century, makes a remark such as this: “And I have asked a perfumer who adhered to the Mu’tazilite doctrine...”, as if it was quite natural for perfumers at that time belonged to different schools of theology, some following the Mu’tazilah, others to adhere to other schools of thought. No doubt other traders and journeymen were similarly aware of major trends of thought and actively involved in them. Thus every teacher or leader of a school had a follower, not only among the intellectuals, but among the general public as well.

We hope that what had been said demonstrates clearly that learning and the sciences have spread in all quarters, even among the masses and the lower classes. This assessment is supported by the resort of an Ismaelite shiite group to writing anonymous philosophical and scientific treatises to propagate its extremist shiites views among the masses. This group produced 52 treatises which it called Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa (The Epistles of the True Brothers). The authors kept their names secret, but disseminated these epistles through copyists’ shops. They included 14 treatise on mathematics and logic, 17 on the natural sciences and psychology, 10 on Metaphysics and 11 on mysticism, astrology and magic. They sprinkled elements of Ismaelite shiite ideas throughout these texts so as to further the cause of the Ismaelite movement. The very fact that the “True Brothers” had elected -in order to propagate their shiite ideology among the masses- to publish philosophical and scientific tracts, is in itself an indication of the popularity of works of this type among the masses. One might be excused if he were to believe that all the inhabitants of Baghdad had attained some level of scientific or philosophical knowledge. This is supported by the portrayal of the chattering barber in The Thousand and One Nights, who is shown telling a young customer: “God has blessed you with a barber who is also an astrologer, well-versed in Alchemy, natural magic, grammar, inflection, language, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, astronomy, geometry, jurisprudence, hadith and tafsir.”

The preceding account about the flourishing of the sciences under Islam covers only the first four centuries of Islamic history. During this period, learned persons in Europe were scarce indeed, and books existed there only in monasteries. By contrast, books in the Islamic world were freely available in mosques, public libraries and copyists’ shops. Schools began to be set up in Muslim lands from the fourth hijri century by notables who regarded themselves as protectors and sponsors of learning. Nizam al-Mulk, the vizier during the Seljuk era, started to establish a school or college in every major Iraqi or Iranian city. These schools were more like universities, since they used to teach all branches of knowledge, and were provided with residential quarters for teachers and students, who were all paid stipends. These schools began to proliferate all over the Muslim world, occasioning a fierce competition between learned men in all parts of the Muslim world, which was regarded as one unit from the perspective of learning and education. Many of the great mosques which had been established in major cities evolved into universities in their own right, and all branches of religious and linguistic sciences were being taught there by prominent ulama. Among these were the Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez, the ‘Uqbah Mosque in al-Qayrawan, al-Zaytouna Mosque in Tunis (both in Tunisia), the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. The latter continues, to this day, to provide housing and pay an allowance to students from all over the Muslim world.

Muslims led the whole world for over six centuries in all branches of learning, attaining the summit of achievement in every field, whether this be their own religious and linguistic sciences, or the sciences which they had acquired from preceding nations, such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, engineering and geometry. They also succeeded early in creating their own Islamic philosophy, which blended the spirit of Islam with the concepts of Greek philosophy. Over the ages, many Muslim philosophers were to excel and shine. All this scientific and cultural renaissance was a direct result of the love of science and learning instilled in all Muslims by the Holy Quran and the sunna, to the extent that this love of learning became almost an integral part of the Muslim faith.

In the eleventh century AD, Europe rose from its long slumber to be faced with this breathtaking Islamic scientific renaissance, and soon many of its young men started to explore it. Some of them travelled to Spain, seeking to partake of its learning. They learned Arabic, studied under Muslim professors, and then proceeded to translate the philosophical and scientific treasures of learning available in Arabic into Latin, their language of learning at the time. Aldo Amiele, in his book Arabic Science and its Impact on the Development of International Science, writes: “Almost all the books of great Arab scientists had been translated into Latin in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.” These books were then studied, comprehended and assimilated by western students, thus helping to illuminate the path to the modern scientific renaissance in the West.

It was only natural, with Quran and hadith calling on the whole community, men and women, to pursue learning, that women should assume an important role in the learning movement since the age of the Companions. Their leading teacher in this -throughout the ages- was Ayisha, who as wife of the Prophet, merits the title “Mother of the Faithful”. Ayisha reported over two thousand of the Prophet’s sayings (hadiths), containing many rules of Shari’a which are considered authoritative by leading jurists, together with many reports by other wives of the Prophet and women Companions. It is well known that the caliph Omar ibn Al-Khattab enlisted the help of al-Shaffa’ bint Abdillah, a woman from Quraysh who had been among the early Muslim emigrants to Madinah, who he employed as market supervisor, monitoring trade and prices and arbitrating in disputes. Following the conquests, participation of women in learning became common in every country. Girls would be taught some suras of the Quran, some hadiths and some of the rules pertaining to their religious obligations. With the flourishing of the learning movement from the second century onwards, women made their presence felt in the circles of jurists, theologians and hadith scientists. In each Muslim country, some women gained prominence as reporters of hadith. Among these was Sayyida Nafisa, daughter of al-Husayn ibn Zaid, a descendant of the caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib. This lady, who died in 208H, used to dictate hadith to its Egyptian students, both men and women, in her mosque in al-Fustat (Cairo). Among those who used to attend her lessons was Imam al-Shafi’i, the leading jurists and founder of one of the four main sunni schools of jurisprudence.

Every Muslim country boasted a number of famous learned women, whether in the science of hadith, Quranic reading or Quranic interpretation. In his book al-’Iqd al-Thamin fi Tarikh al-Balad al-Amin (The Precious Necklace in the History of the Secure Town), which is a history of Makkah, dedicates the eighth chapter to biographies of women from Makkah who were experts on hadith, under whom many a great scholar of hadith studied. A slave girl owned by the mother of the caliph al-Muqtadir named Thamil was a famous jurist. She reportedly used to hold council in the year 306H to rule in disputes and petitions, with senior judges and scholars present. This occasioned a debate over whether it was lawful for a woman to become a judge. Al-Tabari, the greatest Quran interpreter of his time, said she could. This ruling is an indication of the high level of attainment achieved by women at the time in the fields of jurisprudence and in the sciences of Islamic Shari’a. Since the second hijri century, a large number of women became famous for dedicating themselves to worship. Most prominent among these was Rabi’a Al-Adawiyyah, the mystic from Basrah. She is the author of wonderful poems and remarks about mystical love of God which transcends all feeling and senses. She is rightfully regarded as one of the founders of Islamic mysticism.

Many other women excelled in the various sciences. Part 8 of al-Dhayl wa’l-Takmila (The Addendum and the Supplement), a book by Abd Al-Malik Al-Marrakeshi, includes a long list of learned women in Muslim Spain. They hailed mostly from the families of rulers in Spain and Maghreb and from the families of viziers and ulama, as well from the common people. Some of them taught the seven authoritative readings of the Quran as well as the reading ascribed to Warsh, the Egyptian. Others taught tafsir, hadith, fiqh, language, prosody or famous literary works, such as Al-Mubarrad’s al-Kamil, or Ali Al-Qali’s, al-Amali. Some propagated the Ash’arite theological doctrine in their towns. From the fifth/eleventh century, a number of Andalusian ladies gained fame as skilled doctors, and they in turn taught medicine to Maghrebi women. Throughout the centuries, a large number of Muslim women became famous for their asceticism and dedication to worship. The famous Andalusian mystic, Ibn al-‘Arabi, admits that it had been his wife, Maryam, who had led him to adopt mysticism, due to her piety which he had observed, and to her persistent admonitions. Another influence in his life was a lady from Qurtuba, named Nuna Fatima, with whom he studied for two years. In Tunisia, a lady by the name of Ayisha Al-Manoubiyya, nicknamed “Lalla”, a disciple of Abu Al-Hassan Al-Shadhli, founder of the famous sufi order bearing his name, became famous. A big zawiya (prayer and learning complex) is dedicated to her name there. Mosques and zawiya’s dedicated to these holy women are scattered throughout the Muslim world, most notably the Mosque of Sayyidah Zaynab in Cairo. Not to mention the active participation of women in propagating sufi mysticism in Sudan. Many participated in meetings of religious singing, and some even sang while men, standing in two lines facing each other, recited formulas in praise of God against the background of her singing. In all areas of the Maghreb, it was women who shouldered the burden of primary education for both boys and girls up to the age of twelve, teaching them reading and writing, mathematics and some basics of knowledge, as well as helping them to learn some suras of the Quran.

In spite of this intimate relationship between Islam and science, affirmed by the Quran and sunna, which turned the Muslim world into a universe of learning and light, we still find some of our intellectuals comparing our situation to what happened in the West in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, regarding the opposition of the Christian Church to modern western science. They seem to think that this state of affairs is also applicable to Islam. They read, for example, that the Church had tortured the Italian scientist, astronomer and mathematician, Galileo (1564-1642), and put him on trial for his writings on the shape of the earth, forcing him to retract his views. And on the basis of this, they argue that a similar conflict between religion and science had also occurred in Islam. But this is a clear error, since no conflict ever occurred between Islam and science. On the contrary, the two of them had embraced each other from the start. This had engendered, among Muslim men and women, an enduring love of learning and created the scientific renaissance which we discussed earlier.

As we have affirmed several times, it is inconceivable that this religion, which God had chosen to be the vehicle of happiness for mankind in this life and the next, could be an obstacle in the way of the assimilation of science by the Muslims. It had, on the contrary, elevated learning above the worship and praise of the angels as a powerful incentive to Muslims to cherish and value learning. Similarly, the Prophet had encouraged the Muslims in this path, telling them, as mentioned above, that the angels spread their wings for the seeker of learning to carry him to wherever he wanted to go. This spurring of Muslims to learning by God and His Prophet caused them, every time they attained some knowledge in some area, to demand even more and more of it. They have started by applying themselves to religious learning, and then moved to linguistic sciences and from there to medicine and other foreign sciences. There is no doubt then that Islam does not just embrace the sciences known to Muslims, but will embrace any sciences which will be discovered in the future as well, for Islam and science are siblings, nay, even twins.

I could not here refer to the illustrious Muslim scholars in every discipline, for this would require many volumes. What I am discussing here is an overview of the relation between Islam and science and how Islam had ignited the flame of learning among the Muslims, and caused it to glow until the lands of Islam became resplendent with light, and to be blessed with religious, linguistic, natural, medical, mathematical and chemical sciences. Similarly, I could not mention the superb books and encyclopaedias authored by Muslims and the marvels which defied time and merited eternal recognition, for this would be difficult in any branch of learning, the titles being too numerous. It is enough to mention that we have inherited from our forefathers thousands of volumes in every discipline, of which we are truly proud, as we are truly proud of its authors from our illustrious scholars.

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1) As can be seen from the elaboration below, the above translation of Yusuf Ali’s is not entirely accurate. A more faithful rendering of the verse would be: “Whoever wished to enjoy [the interruption of ihram obligations] from umrah to hajj.”

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