Abdullah Hakim Quick – Muslim Spains Legacy 1 3 By 2
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the history and importance of Islam-istic culture, including its impact on people's behavior and the legacy of its use in mathematics, scientific literature, engineering, and medicine. They emphasize the importance of understanding its impact on one's life and behavior and note its significance in history and the cycle of culture in Europe. They also touch on the impact of weather on their quarter and provide forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties. The first question is from Jason Greenfield with JP Morgan.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of the law Most Gracious most Merciful. I begin with the greeting words of Paradise salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah.
And as you heard these words mean Peace be upon you. And I hope and pray that the few moments we spend together would be a source of peace. And also, it will help us to understand each other more,
I think it is a very good idea to have topics that bring people together, of different nationalities, of different religions and different ways of life. And I was really glad to see that there are a number of student organizations who had sponsored today's event.
And
it is time really, for people to have more dialogue, to really begin to deal with topics, not only from what is given to us in the media, but But actually, as we say in America, from the horse's mouth, or as they say, in academia, from primary sources, going right to the primary source. And so tonight, we are hoping, inshallah, to look at part of the history of the Iberian Peninsula, what is known as Spain and Portugal today, and to bring to light some of the history that is not so well known in many of the institutions, but yet I feel is very crucial in understanding not only the history in the period that we'll deal with, but also an understanding what is going on today.
And
this topic, when we say Muslims legacy, it is important for the non Muslims who are here, just to shed some light on what Islam is itself. Because unfortunately, we have been targeted, we have been chosen for some political economic reason to be the bad guys, or to be the object of Hollywood, and the object of a lot of propaganda that is coming to the media.
When I was growing up by in America, the bad guys usually on television, in the movies with generally Germans, Japanese Russians, and of course the native people, this was a given. But today in the media, or in the TV, the different situation programs and the movies. The bad guys are usually Spanish drug cartels,
Jamaican posses or Afro American gangs. But the most sinister character you can bring to the screen today would be an Arab terrorist. He seizes his hostages, and he announces to the world I will not release my hostages until you release my comrades from the prison. And then the forces of justice go into action, the Delta Force Chuck Norris, analyst swats kniga, Steven Seagal. And a number of our folk heroes today go into action to rid the world of the new terror. This is stereotyping.
Many people have gone through this to Japanese, even Japanese Americans and Canadians were entered, they were put into prison during World War Two. And some of them were actually loyal to the country here.
And so stereotyping can be a really ugly thing. There are a lot of people who suffer even today and in some parts of America, there are Irish Americans who are suffering because of what is going on in the United Kingdom.
There are Irish people who are being targeted and field stereotype to a certain extent because of the IRA. And so, for us, it is important in the beginning to shed some light on really what is Islam? Because there is this tendency to think that Islam
is connected to the Middle East. Or it's a small group of people who's out planning to destroy the world or conspiring to do something. But actually, right now, in a recent census poll, it was taken in Egypt, in a special world Institute, which connected with Azhar University, which is a very famous University in the Middle East. They have now come to the point where their understanding is that Muslims make up about 23.1% of the of the earth's population.
There are over 70 million Muslims even in China itself.
There are millions of Muslims in Europe, and as we know from the Bosnian situation, and according to our traditions, when we are talking about Islam, we are talking about monotheism, we are actually talking about a relationship with the Creator, where the person
makes their devotion directly to the Creator, without any intermediary without using the sun, without using idols, without worshipping through people, the human being goes directly to the Great Spirit. And so within our teachings, there is a verse in the Quran itself, that actually tells us and an Arabic goes like this one up at bath nuff equally oma, Rasulullah, Ananda de la ha, which tend to be toggled that we have sent to every nation, our messenger, that they would worship Allah or God, the Creator, and they would stay away from false deities. So based on that, coming from our traditions, we believe over 124,000 prophets and messengers came to every nation and every tribe.
prophets came to China, to Europe, to India, to Africa, here in the Americas, every nation while occurred Botha Fie Columba
every nation, a messenger has been sent. And in my travels, I've asked people about monotheism and found, for instance, that on the Nile, that there was there's a book,
which is written according to a teacher named pata hotep, and is considered to be one of the oldest writing forms Complete Book forms that exists today, the teachings of potato chip, and papayas. And in it, you'll find clear trace of monotheism. Also in ancient Egypt, there was a pharaoh named Akhenaten's. His wife's name was Nefertiti, you probably heard that name before. And they say she was the first woman to be using cosmetics and feminine hygiene products, a number of things. But you will find in the Psalms of anatomy, you will find clear monotheism. And it is said that have not done himself had to do battle with the other people who believed in a many different gods in ancient
Egypt. And so the Psalms of Akhenaten's. And in the Quran, there's a surah, who gerat and you know, it is almost like you're reading sorts of hoogenraad. In some places, it talks about the tongues and the colors and the way that all people have been made, and that there is one God and so if not, 10, was really struggling to institute the belief in the power behind the sun, not the sun.
In the band to religion, you will find some reference to the fact that no two means the cosmic spirit. And so many of the Bantu people related directly to a great spirit, a universal spirit, and they looked actually toward oneness in Mandarin Chinese.
I went to China and I was speaking to the people and they have a term they call Shang T. And Shang t means the Creator, the main God, and the way they described their concept of Shang T, meaning there was a main God and there's like a court they said, there's a quote with other gods, it was almost the same way that the Meccans the Quraysh, the pagan Meccans, were describing a law at the time of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is just similar to that they had one universal God and they had Latin and so on, and they had many different other gods that they will also relating to
the Cherokee Nation. Recently, I have come to understand that the Cherokee Nation in this part of the world, the Iroquois as well, there is a strong tradition of monotheism in the teachings. And so, what I am saying is that monotheism is not something which is particular to the Middle East.
It is not something which is symmetric in our belief, but it is it is it is an understanding, which relates to all peoples throughout the planet. The second point is
Is that when we speak about Islam, and this is very important. And the people who are studying Islam today in think tanks, in universities going to the primary sources are recognizing when they look at history, that Islam is not a religion, in the western sense of the term. In the Western sense, your religion is your dogma, who you believe as God. And, you know, you might worship on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. But when Monday comes, you go back to work as an American.
But when we say in Arabic, in the Drina, and de Lyonne, Islam, that surely the way of life, the word Dean, surely the way of life with the Creator is Islam. And so what that means is that the word Dean is a way of life.
So in other words, in a dean, it's not just a religious dogma, it is a belief that pervades everything that you do. So in other words, your economic life, your social life, your political life, all different aspects of your existence, are affected by your deen.
And this is very germane to what I am about to say, in terms of the the the legacy of Islam, in Spain. And further on. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him we are taught, was the last of this long series of prophets and messages. And he said that the prophets and messengers who included according to our belief, Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, Jacob, and Noah, you, Joseph, and all the different prophets of monotheism, he said that it is like a building a beautiful building, and the people looked at the building, and there was one place that was empty. And he said, I am that brick, I am the last part of the building, and with me, is the seal or the finality of
prophethood.
Just before he died, a year before he died, he made what is called the arafat sermon.
And in the sermon, he established that the people should worship nothing but the Creator, that all of their business dealings should be done in economic purity, that all interest relationships are ended. Don't take interest. And usually, that's a serious statement. Because if the oil shacks, you're out the world, and the people in the Muslim world took their money out of the banks, and put it in a bank with no interest, you would change the economy of this planet. And that probably is the bottom line in terms of why some people are paranoid about an Islamic State. It's not the other things. But if you take those billions of dollars, and you start giving loans to people with no
interest than the people who are taking interest and exploiting you, they're in trouble.
And so he said, All economic relationships should be should be developed in purity. He also said do not harm other people, do not oppress other people so that you would not be oppressed yourself. He also confirmed for them that there is no preference of white over black or black over white. There's no preference of Arab over non Arab or the non Arabs over the Arab, except for taqwa it is the piety in the right action that separates the people. He also established that men have rights over women, but women also have rights over men.
He also established that if you follow two things, he said, I've left you two things. This is the Quran, the Book of Allah and my son, not my way, if you follow them, you will never go astray.
And this was was the essence of the message that he left with his followers. And he told the people who are present, that they should take this message to the people who were upset. And they took it to different parts of the world. And we are coming to realize that
many of the words that we look at in English, if you could go back before the time of Queen Victoria, you get a dictionary before Queen Victoria's time, then they tell you the roots of the word. And so there are many words that have Arabic roots that have Turkish roots, Persian roots, you know many different languages, but you don't get the roots of these words. Even in America. There are many place names and there are many common terminologies that we are using that actually have roots that can go back directly to the Arabic language and to Islam.
Just some of the places that we had discussed the last time I was here, but some of the places there's a lot a long list. When the Muslims went into the east coast of Africa,
they found a base of operations for the Persians and they
called nakada Shah and maka, the Shah became Mogadishu. They went down to the east coast of Africa and the base of our colony was set up by Moosa had been big moose I've been big Mozambique. They found some islands with a with a moon was really bright. So they call them Joseph l comma.
Choose a comma is now Comoros islands. They went into the Indian Ocean into the South China Sea. And Harvard University team, led by a man named Barry Feld, f e Ll wrote a book called saga, America found inscriptions all throughout the southwest of the United States. They also found a map. And on this map, it had Panama, it had Hudson Bay, it was showing North America. And it also had islands and some config writing and then to other pages of this writing. They found they were describing these islands in the Pacific. And they said Joseph el Hawa, choose Aloha, there's a lot of wind around these islands. And this juice of the Hawaii becomes Hawaii. also recently, another
researcher also found some interesting information. He found that when they were traveling in the area of the Hawaiian Islands, they found a harbor. You know, there's pearls there. You know, the Pearl Harbor and World War Two, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor as a key point in history of World War Two. And so they said in Arabic pearl is Lulu.
Or you can say Lulu. That's another way of pronouncing Arabic. So they said Hola, lo, Jose, say Honolulu becomes Honolulu.
And so you have so many names that I could spend the whole evening. Just going to the names of cities and places. It's an amazing study. Really, what is important for us tonight
is that in 711 Tarik Eben Ziad Rahim Allah,
a Berber from North Africa, following the commands of his leader, whose name was Musab bin Hussain Rahim Allah, who was the leader of the Muslims in North Africa at the time, when across the streets, which is now known as Gibraltar. He had stopped at a mountain so they called the mountain Jebel todich. So jumbled tonic is Gibraltar, where it comes from. He stopped at the mountain, and they were actually responding to
a cry that was being given by monotheistic people who were living in the Iberian Peninsula. And when you study the history of the Iberian Peninsula, and the Gothic people, and you study that the Catholic Church and what was going on, right around that time, around 711, there was a king named Roderick, and he was ruling the area in a feudalistic way, in the sense that the people were really in grueling toil. And they were suffering underneath Israel, and the Jewish people who were living in the Iberian Peninsula, were being tortured. And it is a report that over 50,000 of them, were forced to to accept Catholicism, they were forced to change their religion, and they were being
persecuted. And so a number of monotheistic people were being persecuted and they called out to moose up in New Zealand. And there is a report even of a ruler rodricks ruler, his name was Julian, and he was controlling suta and tengiz tunja. He was controlling this coastal parts of Morocco, for the king of the Iberian Peninsula. And you know, he was oppressed by the king is a long story about Julian, but Julian went to moose up in New Zealand. And he said, the people are ready now for liberation. They're ready for somebody to take them out of this rule into a rule where they will live under justice. And so Musa bit Musab been Nusa Rahim Allah sent todich, Eben Ziad, and they
went and 711 across, and they met Roderick in a decisive battle. And after this decisive battle, which was won by the Muslims, they continue to go north. As they went north, they found that the people were actually glad to see them. And they found that there was almost no resistance. And so by three years, within three years and must have been Noosa, actually, later on, caught up the topic and join the forces. And within three years, they had taken control of all of Spain except the northwest corner of Spain, the mountainous regions in the top, that's the only part of Spain that was left for them.
And they control the whole area. And that is interesting because there is a document which which was describing
a, a treaty that was made
This was done between Abdulaziz Ibn Musa Eben new Sayer, and was in 713.
And it was between the Visigoths Prince of Mercia,
Theo de mer, and this was about the surrender of a particular city, or whaler. I hope I'm pronouncing the word right. And when it when it discusses this treaty between Abdul Aziz and the prince of Mercia in the treaty, it clearly states that the Christians and the Jews who were living in the city would maintain their their synagogues and churches, that they would be allowed to have autonomy in the city, that the princes and the rulers in Mercia would be able to maintain most of their belongings. They did not have to surrender their belongings to the Muslims, that just about all of the slaves in the city were immediately freed.
And when you see this, when this treaty came about the people were willing to work with Joyce, the taxes that were on them in rodricks time were lifted from them.
And so this type of justice, when established in a practical way, the news of this spread throughout Spain, and this is really, I believe, the reason why the Muslims were successful in taking so much of the territory in such a short time. Because if if they were a terrible force, and were oppressing people, surely that people would have resisted. And when you look at the numbers of the Muslims, you will find that the number was very small. Some reports say that when todich Mehta, Roderick tonics, forces were only somewhere between 16 to 20,000 men rodricks forces were over 100,000. That's the type of odds that they were facing, but the people were suffering under oppression. And so they were
able to establish themselves in the Iberian Peninsula. What developed out of that was what I would call a multicultural society. It's a multicultural society, where people were allowed to be non Muslims and have their own houses of worship. They were allowed to carry on with their arts and sciences, they will also allow to a certain extent to even judge themselves in small matters, Jewish law or Christian law would apply to the people within their enclaves within their areas. The general law of the land was the law of Islam.
Also, it was a common thing to find the person in what the Muslims called Al Andalus. It was a common thing to find a person who could speak Arabic and a dialect of Spanish and could read Latin. So with this ability, be able to speak Arabic speak Spanish read Latin, they were they were prime sources of translation. And so that multicultural context that they were living in, allowed them to be sources of information where they could go from Latin, right over to Arabic, they could go from Arabic into Spanish into Latin. And so that kind of a society developed to such an extent that even in Jewish literature, may mon Maimonides, Eben maamoun, was one of the famous philosophers and
scientists of Jewish literature. He existed during this time it was considered to be during the Muslim rule one of the Golden Ages for the Jewish in terms of Arts and Sciences, they called the country Owl and Deluce. This is an Arabic word, and it means something to the effect of to become green at the end of summer
to become green, like a garden at the end of the summer. And it was such a beautiful place. And the way they described
the cities in Al Andalus, of, of Toledo and Seville and Granada, Granada and quote unquote, Abba Valencia. And the areas the descriptions that come in the literature is beautiful descriptions of people being able to live what I would call in a holistic fashion. They were able to develop science in such a way that the science did not destroy the environment. This is a very important accomplishment they made it wasn't the size of their buildings. It was not the size of their guns, but they were able to for instance, take water and bring the water down from a mountain using aqueducts using canals and canal all through the cities so that every house had access to running
water. And they did that without destroying anything or damming anything up
Locking anything. They did it in such a way they were using gravity. This is a holistic way of approaching things. And if you go to Grenada today, you will still see the waterworks are being used from the time of the Muslims. The water is flowing all over the place. And this was a great accomplishment that they made among the products that were introduced into the West through Al Andalus. I'll name a few of these products to you. Cotton, paper, glass mirrors, street lamps, salt, colored glass, silk, satin, pepper, cinnamon, handkerchiefs, deodorant, kerosene, linen, firearms, cotton balls, paper money, postage stamps, bookbinding clocks, ceramic tiles, nitric acid, soap,
Astro labs, complices for navigation, slide rules, rulers, surgical instruments, windmills, spinning wheels, rose water, maps, Globes, citrus and nectar fruits, carpets, eyeglasses, curtains, test tubes, porcelain, fine furs, velvet, almanacs, and encyclopedias. So you can see right away that some of the contributions that they have made, that's a legacy in itself, because we are benefiting from this and I can go on with the the the different aspects of culture that the Muslims developed in that part of the world and other parts of the Muslim world. And they made it in such a way that it was usable for Western society. And it helped Europe to come out of the dark ages. Because again,
if you read in most of the history books, after the fall of the Roman Empire, then they say is the Dark Ages, right? And the lights go out and use your little chapter, then the Renaissance. The Renaissance is back in the lights are on and everything has got what happened between the year 700. Okay to 1500. What happened in that time, the Dark Ages, it was the golden age of Islam. It was the golden age of Islam. And I want to just talk about some of the contributions that were made by Muslims. And this can get very complicated but just want to talk about some of them tonight. Just to show you some of the legacy that came from Spain and from Baghdad and from Cairo and and petawatt is
Morocco and all over the Muslim world in mathematics.
It is me
sabut Alma honey.
In Eunice
Gibbon, Hamza is a number of names Mohammed bin, I've met some of the achievements made, they found they found that they began algebra in symbols and equations to develop Arabic numerals. Zero Arabic numeral system, they establish a logarithm.
They found it general the general formula for solving third degree equations.
They found it trigonometric ratios, formulas and equations. And you can continue to go on and you'll see calculus and trigonometry and all of these areas of math have a depth to Islam in physics, depend on Haytham lb Rooney.
Even Eunice there's a number of names they established the science of power or mechanics, they describe the center of gravity. They describe gravity. So when the apple hit Newton and his hit, okay, he was probably reading an Arabic book and it woke him up from asleep and then he turned to the page on gravity, but what comes to us the apple hit him in his head and they say he discovered gravity, Muslim said they had described gravity in details long before Isaac Newton
also,
the describe mechanical properties of geometric bodies,
they developed the hydro meter arrow meter, the lever balance scale, they measured specific gravity of different substances invented the pendulum, the spring and wall clock.
Also you find in chemistry holiday been yazeed, Java Ibn Hajar, Al Kindi or raazi you find they introduced Atomic Theory of matter. They developed processes of evaporation, sublimation, crystallization, distillation, filtration, pigmentation melting, they introduce methods of steelmaking
metalwork they developed procedures for dyeing of cloths and textiles. They established preparations, preparation methods of chemicals, sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids, ammonium chloride, silver nitrate, macura oxide, chloride sulfide sodium, they develop chemical chemical processes and methods for manufacturing of glass soaps, perfumes, resins, oils, paints, paper, sugar, gunpowder, they introduced the uses of jars and flasks, scales and tubes and you can go on in terms of the things they were introducing in astronomy alibaug, Tawny, lb, Rooney and farahani.
And you can go on, they develop Astro labs and sextants prepared star catalogs and tables of planetary motion, named over 200 stars with Arabic names, they prove the earth as a spherical shape. They calculated the length of terrestrial degree, determine the earth circumference and diameter, they measured solar inclination angle, they charted the positions and orbits of stars and planets in medicine, you find a Razzie even see now they call him Event Center, in his in his work upon noon, tip the law in medicine, you find they performed gynecology obstetrics, they wrote medical encyclopedias, they perform therapy procedures, they prepared mercury ointment. They discovered a
blood circulation and described the pulmonary circulation and the function of lungs. They recognize the contagious nature of tuberculosis and the distribution of disease by water and soil. They perform surgical treatment of eyes, ears and teeth. They used and describe over 200 surgical instruments, over 200 surgical instruments. It's amazing. They describe 130 eye diseases and they characterize 143 drugs.
In pharmacology, Jabba urban Haryana MLB tar Tao oohed
Lee, even Isa. They prepared alcohol acids nitrates carbonates, they introduce the use of
picrotoxin. They prepared chemical medicaments in pills and solutions. They established chemists shops for dispensing prescriptions. They introduced to Europe quite a number of medicines and herbs, which betray the Arabic name elkana. Alcohol alcohol, alcohol is Arabic word Allah Cali alfalfa camp for cotton, Hakim, Jasmine saffron, etc. and geography. He Sham epinal Kelby L. Jacobi, bin jubair, al idrisi, elmas, Rudy, and you can go on. They invented many geographic and surveying instruments and devices, they prepared many accurate and detailed nautical and land, road maps of the world. They calculated and prepared ephemeris tables have ocean tides and seasonal winds, they describe the
lands and the natives of the new world in their reports. Now someone would say, Well, how do they know this? You go out and astronomy history a number of subjects? How would they be so good in these subjects, I want to take two areas, and the area of geography and astronomy. So what is important about the stars and direction, what is important about the geography of the world, all of the Muslims, up until now
are concerned with direction. Because every time we pray, we pray toward Mecca. So therefore, wherever you are, you have to determine where Mecca is, I walk around with a compass on
and that Wherever I am, I can just do my compass and you know, I can figure it out based on knowing you know which direction it is and find where Mecca is. So therefore it was a natural thing for Muslims to get into the direction and always to be looking at the sun.
To know what time of day it is, because of the cycle of prayer. It's a natural thing. Also pilgrimage to Mecca. Every Muslim should try to make pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime. And so therefore, these complicated works in geography, like row international roadmaps were developed, especially for Muslims to be able to travel from say China or India or West Africa.
Or Northern Europe and travelled to Mecca. So you find these complicated the same way today, if I want to go to Dallas, Texas, I go to the AEA, and I say I'd like to go to Texas, okay, we'll give you triptychs. And they give you they say, Okay, take route such and such. And then you go south on that route. And they'll give you the maps all the way, right. So this is a similar thing. They show you the geography, and they'll show you and stuff and many of these books are still existent today. You got to be able to read Arabic, and they'll show you, you take this route, and there's water on this side. There are hostile people over here. There's poison poisonous snakes in this area, they
describe the way for you. So you can make it safely by land or by sea, to get to Mecca. So it was a natural thing for the Muslims to be able to determine the different areas. Getting back to Spain. Now, we find that
after todich, Eben Ziad Rahim Allah in the year 756 ad, a man by the name of object man, a sucker,
man, the Falcon, who came from Damascus, he was part of the Umayyad dynasty for those Muslims or those who are studying history. He was part of the Omega dynasty, he fled because of an internal war that was going on, he fled to Andalusia. And he established the people accepted him as their ruler. And he established a dynasty, a very important dynasty of Romanians who were living there. And he was able to immediately establish his capital, he took Cordoba, we will say, cortada, he took it as capital. And he ruled from 756 to 788. For amongst his achievements, he built the Great Mosque of Cordoba, and I, in my slides, I'm going to show you some pictures of the of the cathedral, it's been
changed into a cathedral. And he built the Great Mosque of Cordoba and 786. He also used an aquaduck. And he brought water into Cordoba. And he made bath bath houses, bridges, castles, he built universities. And he made Cordoba in the ninth and 10th century, it would be what we would call like one of the wonders of the world, they use this terminology of the wonders of the world, Cordoba at that time, would have been one of the wonders of the world. And the reason why I say that is because
at that time, there were over 200,000 houses, this is the ninth and the 10th century of the Dark Ages, right. So that is no other major city functioning in Western Europe. 200,000 houses, 600 mosques, 900 public baths, 50 hospitals, you could go in any direction, and the streets were lit for 10 miles lighted streets. This is when the capitals we know as London and Paris, and the great cities in Europe were in darkness. And many cases, you have to go to mud, if it rains out this deep paved streets were in Spain. And so the the great leaders and intellectuals of Europe, went down into Andalusia to Toledo and to Seville, to the universities to study and then took it back to the
different areas of Europe. And they were able to develop the great universities that we know today. And so we find the object matter of soccer, was able to establish a mighty dynasty. And after his time, there are a number of different dynasties. And if people want to talk about that in the question period, we can go into a little more details. What is important.
For us there's two things. The first point
is that many Muslims might ask now that people might ask, why if they were so powerful, why did they go down?
Why after such heights of civilization, you find them losing strength, when we look at the society itself and even Haldane in his mocha Dhamma talks about the cyclical nature of history, that is a cycle, when you have strong dynamic generations, then you will find your civilization is powerful, but when corruption sets in, then weakness sets in and so, you know, they became weak, because they started to look at each other as nations and tribes, Arab and non Arab, African and Berber, European and Turkish, Persian. Then the rich separated from the poor.
And then the drinking of wine.
And then all types of of corruption set in and so they were, they were conquered. They were literally conquered and the forces of freedom
And Isabella, made their way down from the north, the northwest corner, the mountainous areas, they had not gone into this area and they move from the mountainous areas down slowly taking back section by section, they took backspin.
The second point which is important to us that is that in geography and astronomy, the great scientists and historians and geographers like Elon Musk Udi is that monotheism is not something which is particular to the Middle East.
It is not something which is Semitic, in our belief, but it is it is, it is an understanding, which relates to all peoples throughout the planet. The second point is that when we speak about Islam, and this is very important, and the people who are studying Islam today in think tanks, in universities going to the primary sources, are recognizing when they look at history, that Islam is not a religion, in the western sense of the term. In the Western sense, your religion is your dogma, who you believe as God. And, you know, you might worship on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, but when Monday comes, you go back to work as an American.
But when we say in Arabic, in the Dena and de Lyonne, Islam, that surely the way of life, the word Deen surely the way of life with the Creator is Islam. And so what that means is that the word Deen is a way of life.
So in other words, in a Deen, it's not just your religious dogma. It is a belief that pervades everything that you do. So in other words, your economic life, your social life, your political life, all different aspects of your existence, are affected by your deen.
And this is very germane to what I am about to say, in terms of the legacy of Islam, in Spain. And further on.
The Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him we are taught was the last of this long series of prophets and messages. And he said that the prophets and messengers who included according to our belief, Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, Jacob, and Noah, you, Joseph, and all the different prophets of monotheism, he said that it is like a building a beautiful building, and the people looked at the building, and there was one place that was empty. And he said, I am that brick, I am the last part of the building, and with me, is the seal or the finality of prophethood.
Just before he died, a year before he died, he made what is called the arafat sermon.
And in this sermon, he established that the people should worship nothing but the Creator, that all of their business dealings should be done in economic purity, that all interest relationships are ended. Don't take interest. And usually, that's a serious statement. Because if the oil checks, you're out the world. And the people in the Muslim world took their money out of the banks, and put it in a bank with no interest, you would change the economy of this planet. And that probably is the bottom line in terms of why some people are paranoid about an Islamic State. It's not the other things. But if you take those billions of dollars, and you start giving loans to people with no
interest than the people who are taking interest and exploiting you, they're in trouble.
And so he said, All economic relationships should be should be developed in purity. He also said do not harm other people, to not oppress other people so that you would not be oppressed yourself. He also confirmed for them that there is no preference of white over black or black over white. There's no preference of Arab over non Arab or the non Arabs over the Arab except for tequila. It is the piety in the right action that separates the people. He also established that men have rights over women, but women also have rights over men.
He also established that if you follow two things, he said, I've left you two things. This is the Quran, the Book of Allah and my son, not my way, if you follow them, you will never go astray.
And this was was the essence of the message that he left with his followers. And he told the people who are present, that they should take this message to the people who were upset and they took it to different parts of the world. And we are coming to realize that
many of the words that we look at in English
If you could go back before the time of Queen Victoria, you get a dictionary before Queen Victoria's time, then they tell you the roots of the word. And so there are many words that have Arabic roots that have Turkish roots, Persian roots, you know many different languages, but you don't get the roots of these words. Even in America. There are many place names and there are many common terminologies that we are using that actually have roots that can go back directly to the Arabic language, and to Islam.
Just some of the places that we had discussed, the last time I was here, but some of the places there's a long list. When the Muslims went into the east coast of Africa,
they found a base of operations for the Persians, and they called it nakada Shah, and maka, the Shah became Mogadishu. They went down to the east coast of Africa and the base of a colony was set up by Moosa. It'd been big moose I've been big Mozambique. They found some islands with a with a moon was really bright. So they call them Joseph l comma.
shuttle comma is now Comoros islands. They went into the Indian Ocean into the South China Sea, and Harvard University team, led by a man named Barry Feld, f e Ll wrote a book called saga, America found inscriptions all throughout the southwest of the United States. They also found a map. And on this map, it had Panama, it had Hudson Bay, it was showing North America. And it also had islands and some config writing. And then two other pages of this writing. They found they were describing these islands in the Pacific. And they said Joseph el Hawa, choose Aloha, there's a lot of wind around these islands. And this juice of Hawaii becomes Hawaii. Also, recently, another
researcher also found some interesting information. He found that when they were traveling in the area of the Hawaiian Islands, they found a harbor. You know, there's pearls there. You know, the Pearl Harbor and World War Two, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor as a key point in history of World War Two. And so they said in Arabic pearl is Lulu.
Or you can say Lulu. That's another way of pronouncing Arabic. So they said Hola, lo. Jose said Honolulu becomes Honolulu.
And so you have so many names that I could spend the whole evening. Just going to the names of cities and places. It's an amazing study. Really, what is important for us tonight
is that in 711 Tarik Eben Ziad Rahim Allah,
a Berber from North Africa, following the commands of his leader, whose name was Musab bin lusail Rahim Allah, who was the leader of the Muslims in North Africa at the time, when across the streets, which is now known as Gibraltar. He had stopped at a mountain. So they called the mountain Jebel todich. So Jebel todich is Gibraltar, where it comes from. He stopped at the mountain, and they were actually responding to
a cry that was being given by monotheistic people who were living in the Iberian Peninsula. And when you study the history of the Iberian Peninsula, and the Gothic people, and you study that the Catholic Church and what was going on, right around that time, around 711, there was a king named Roderick, and he was ruling the area in a feudalistic way, in the sense that the people were really in grueling toil. And they were suffering underneath Israel, and the Jewish people who were living in the Iberian Peninsula, were being tortured. And it is a report that over 50,000 of them, were forced to to accept Catholicism, they were forced to change their religion, and they were being
persecuted. And so a number of monotheistic people were being persecuted and they called out to moose up in New Zealand. And there is a report even have a ruler rodricks ruler, his name is Julian. And he was controlling suta and tengiz tunja. He was controlling this coastal parts of Morocco for the king of the Iberian Peninsula. And you know, he was oppressed by the king is a long story about Julian, but Julian went to mousse up in New Zealand. And he said the people are ready now for liberation. They're ready for somebody to take them out of this rule into a rule where they will live under justice. And so Musa Musa Musa Rahim Allah sent todich Eben Ziad, and they went and 711
across and they met Roger in a decisive battle and after this decisive
Battle which was won by the Muslims, they continue to go north. As they went north, they found that the people were actually glad to see them. And they found that there was almost no resistance. And so by three years within three years and must have been Noosa, actually, later on, caught up the topic and join the forces, and within three years, they have taken control of all of Spain except the northwest corner of Spain, the mountainous regions in the top, that's the only part of Spain that was left for them.
And they control the whole area. And it is interesting because there is a document which which was describing
a, a treaty that was made.
This was done between Abdulaziz Ibn Musa Eben new Sayer and was in 713.
And it was between the Visigoths Prince of Mercia,
Theo de mer, and this was about the surrender of a particular city. Orihuela. I hope I'm pronouncing the word right. And when it when it discusses this treaty between Abdulaziz and the prince of Mercia in the treaty, it clearly states that the Christians and the Jews who were living in the city would maintain their their synagogues and churches, that they would be allowed to have autonomy in the city, that the princes and the rulers in Mercia would be able to maintain most of their belongings. They did not have to surrender their belongings to the Muslims. That just about all of the slaves in the city were immediately freed.
And when you see this, when this treaty came about the people were were with joyous, the taxes that were on them in rodricks time were lifted from them.
And so this type of justice was established in a practical way, the news of this spread throughout Spain. And this is really, I believe, the reason why the Muslims were successful in taking so much of the territory in such a short time. Because if they were a terrible force, and were oppressing people, surely the people would have resisted. And when you look at the numbers of the Muslims, you'll find that the number was very small. Some reports say that when todich Mehta roderich charge x forces were only somewhere between 16 to 20,000 men rodricks forces were over 100,000. That's the type of odds that they were facing, but the people were suffering under oppression. And so they were
able to establish themselves in the Iberian Peninsula. What developed out of that was what I would call a multicultural society. It's a multicultural society, where people were allowed to be non Muslims and have their own houses of worship. They were allowed to carry on with their arts and sciences, they were also allowed to a certain extent to even judge themselves in small matters, Jewish law or Christian law would apply to the people within their enclaves within their areas. The general law of the land was the law of Islam.
Also, it was a common thing to find the person in what the Muslims called Al Andalus. It was a common thing to find the person who could speak Arabic and a dialect of Spanish and could read Latin. So with this ability, be able to speak Arabic speak Spanish read Latin, they were they were prime, our sources of translation. And so that multicultural context that they were living in, allow them to be sources of information where they could go from Latin, right over to Arabic, they could go from Arabic into Spanish into Latin. And so that kind of a society developed to such an extent that even in Jewish literature, may mon Maimonides, Eben moon, was one of the famous philosophers
and scientists of Jewish literature. He existed during this time and it was considered to be during the Muslim rule one of the Golden Ages for the Jewish in terms of Arts and Sciences, they call the country ln Deluce. This is an Arabic word, and it means something to the effect of to become green at the end of summer
to become green, like a garden at the end of the summer. And it was such a beautiful place and the way they describe
the cities in Al Andalus of, of Toledo and Seville and Granada, Granada and quote unquote taba
Valencia and the areas the descriptions that come in the literature is beautiful descriptions of people being able to live what I would call in a holistic fashion. They were able to develop science in such a way that the science did not destroy the environment. This is a very important accomplishment they made. It wasn't the size of their buildings. It was not the size of their guns, but they were able to, for instance, take water and bring the water down from a mountain using aqueducts using canals, and canal all through the cities so that every house had access to running water. And they did that without destroying anything or damming anything up or blocking anything.
They did it in such a way they were using gravity. This is a holistic way of approaching things. And if you go to Granada today, you will still see the waterworks are being used from the time of the Muslims. The water is flowing all over the place. And this was a great accomplishment that they made among the products that were introduced into the West through Al Andalus. I'll name a few of these products to you. Cotton, paper, glass mirrors, street lamps, salt, colored glass, silk, satin, pepper, cinnamon, handkerchiefs, deodorant, kerosene, linen, firearms, cotton balls, paper money, postage stamps, bookbinding clocks, ceramic tiles, nitric acid, soap, Astro labs, campuses for
navigation, slide rules, rulers, surgical instruments, windmills, spinning wheels, rose water, maps, Globes, citrus and nectar fruits, carpets, eyeglasses, curtains, test tubes, porcelain, fine furs, velvet, almanacs, and encyclopedias. So you can see right away that that some of the contributions that they have made, that's a legacy in itself, because we are benefiting from this and I can go on with the the the different aspects of culture that the Muslims developed in that part of the world and other parts of the Muslim world. And they made it in such a way that it was usable for Western society. And it helped Europe to come out of the dark ages. Because again, if you read in most of
the history books after the fall of the Roman Empire, then they say it's the Dark Ages, right? And the lights go out and use your little chapter, then the Renaissance. The Renaissance is back in the lights are on and everything has got what happened between the year 700. Okay to 1500. What happened in that time, the Dark Ages, it was the golden age of Islam. It was the golden age of Islam. And I want to just talk about some of the contributions that were made by Muslims. And this can get very complicated, but just want to talk about some of them tonight. Just to show you some of the legacy that came from Spain and from Baghdad and from Cairo and and peda Juan is Morocco and all over the
Muslim world in mathematics.
Our is me
sabut Alma honey.
Bin Yunus.
You've been Hamza is a number of names Mohammed bin met some of the achievements made, they found they found that they began algebra in symbols and equations to develop Arabic numerals cifa, zero Arabic numeral system, they establish a logarithm.
They found it general the general formula for solving third degree equations.
They found it trigonometric ratios, formulas and equations. And you can continue to go on and you'll see calculus and trigonometry and all of these areas of math have a depth to Islam, in physics, even in Haytham lb Rooney.
Even Yunus there's a number of names they established the science of power or mechanics. They describe the center of gravity. They describe gravity. So when the apple hit Newton in his head, okay, he was probably reading an Arabic book, and it woke him up from asleep and then he turned to the page on gravity. But what comes to us the apple hit him in his head and they say he discovered gravity. Muslim said they had described gravity in details long before Isaac Newton
also
Describe mechanical properties of geometric bodies.
They developed the hydro meter arrow meter, the lever balance scale, they measured specific gravity of different substances invented the pendulum, the spring and wallclock.
Also you find in chemistry holiday been yazeed, Java 11, Haryana, Al Kindi or raazi, you find they introduced Atomic Theory of matter. They develop processes of evaporation, sublimation, crystallization, distillation, filtration, pigmentation melting, they introduce methods of steelmaking, metalwork, they develop procedures for dyeing of cloths and textiles. They established preparations, preparation methods of chemicals, sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids, ammonium chloride, silver nitrate macura oxide, chloride sulfide sodium they develop chemical chemical processes and methods for manufacturing of glass soaps, perfumes, resins, oils, paints, paper sugar,
gunpowder, they introduced the uses of jars and flasks, scales and tubes and you can go on in terms of the things they were introducing in astronomy alibaug, Tawny lb Rooney and farahani.
You can go on, they develop Astro labs and sextants prepared star catalogs and tables of planetary motion, named over 200 stars with Arabic names. They prove the earth as a spherical shape. They calculated the length of terrestrial degree determine the earth circumference and diameter. They measured solar inclination angle, they charted the positions and orbits of stars and planets in medicine. You find our Razi even see now they call him Event Center and his in his work upon noon, tip the law in medicine, you'll find they performed gynecology obstetrics, they wrote medical encyclopedias, they perform therapy procedures, they prepared mercury ointment. They discovered a
blood circulation and described the pulmonary circulation and the function of lungs. They recognize the contagious nature of tuberculosis and the distribution of disease by water and soil. They perform surgical treatment of eyes, his and teeth. They used and describe over 200 surgical instruments, over 200 surgical instruments. It's amazing. They describe 130 I diseases and they characterize 143 drugs.
In pharmacology, Jabba Ibn Hajar it may not be taught oohed
Lee, even Isa, they prepared alcohol acids nitrates carbonates, they introduce the use of
picrotoxin. They prepared chemical medicaments in pills and solutions. They establish chemist shops for dispensing prescriptions. They introduced to Europe quite a number of medicines and herbs which betray the Arabic name elkana alcohol alcohol, alcohol is Arabic word Allah Cali alfalfa camp for cotton, Hakim, Jasmine saffron, etc. and geography. He Sham epinal Kelby l Jacobi bin jubair al idrisi, el mas Rudy, and you can go on. They invented many geographic and surveying instruments and devices. They prepared many accurate and detailed, nautical and land roadmaps of the world. They calculated and prepared ephemeris tables of ocean tides and seasonal winds. They describe the lands
and the natives of the new world in their reports. Now someone would say well, how do they know that you go on in astronomy, history, a number of subjects? How would they be so good in the subject, I want to take two areas and the area of geography and astronomy. So what is important about the stars and direction? What is important about the geography of the world, all of the Muslims up until now
are concerned with direction because every time we pray, we pray toward Mecca. So therefore
Wherever you are, you have to determine where Mecca is, I walk around with a compass on
and that Wherever I am, I can just do my compass and you know, I can figure it out based on knowing, you know which direction it is and find where Mecca is. So therefore, it was a natural thing for Muslims to get into the direction, and always to be looking at the sun.
To know what time of day it is, because of the cycle of prayer. It's a natural thing. Also pilgrimage to Mecca. Every Muslim should try to make pilgrimage to Mecca, once in a lifetime. And so therefore, these complicated works in geography, like ro international roadmaps were developed, especially for Muslims to be able to travel from, say, China or India or West Africa, or Northern Europe, and travel to Mecca. So you find these complicated the same way today. If I want to go to Dallas, Texas, I go to the AEA, and I say I'd like to go to Texas, okay, we'll give you triptychs. And they give you they say okay, take route such and such. And then you go south on that route. And
they'll give you the maps all the way right. So this is a similar thing. They show you the geography and they'll show you and in many of these books are still existent today. You got to be able to read Arabic, and they'll show you you take this route, and there's water on this side. There are hostile people over here. There's poisoned poisonous snakes in this area, they describe the way for you. So you can make it safely by land or by sea to get to Mecca. So it was a natural thing for the Muslims to be able to determine the different areas. Getting back to Spain. Now, we find that
after todich Eben Ziad Rahim Allah in the year 756 ad, a man by the name of updraft man of soccer,
man, the Falcon, who came from Damascus, he was part of the Omega dynasty, for those Muslims are those who are studying history. He was part of the Omega dynasty. He fled because of an eternal war that was going on. He fled to Andalusia. And he established the people accepted him as their ruler. And he established a dynasty, a very important dynasty of Romanians who were living there. And he was able to immediately establish his capital, he took Cordoba, we will say, quarterback, he took it as capital. And he ruled from 756 to 788. From amongst his achievements, he built the Great Mosque of Cordoba, and I in my slides, I'm going to show you some pictures of the of the cathedral. It's
been changed into a cathedral. And he built the Great Mosque of Cordoba and 786. He also used an aqueduct, and he brought water into Cordoba. And he made bath bath houses, bridges, castles, he built universities. And he made Cordova in the ninth and 10th century, it would be what we would call like one of the wonders of the world. They use this terminology of the wonders of the world. Cordova at that time, would have been one of the wonders of the world. And the reason why I say that is because
at that time, there were over 200,000 houses, this is the ninth and the 10th century of the Dark Ages, right. So that is no other major city functioning in Western Europe. 200,000 houses, 600 mosques, 900 public baths, 50 hospitals, you could go in any direction and the streets were lit for 10 miles lighted streets. This is when the capitals we know as London and Paris, and the great cities in Europe were in darkness. And many cases you have to go to mud, if it rains out this deep paved streets were in Spain. And so the the great leaders and intellectuals of Europe went down into Andalusia to Toledo and to Seville, to the universities to study and then took it back to the
different areas of Europe. And they were able to develop the great universities that we know today. And so we find that up Dr. Matta Sokka was able to establish a mighty dynasty. And after his time, there are a number of different dynasties and if people want to talk about that in the question period, we can go into a little more details. What is important
for us is two things. The first point
is that many Muslims might ask and other people might ask, why if they were so powerful. Why did they go down?
Why after such heights of civilization, you find them losing strength when we look at the society itself
Evan Haldane in his mocha Dhamma talks about the cyclical nature of history, that is a cycle. When you have strong dynamic generations, then you will find your civilization is powerful, but when corruption sets in, then weakness sets in. And so, you know, they became weak because they started to look at each other as nations and tribes, Arab and non Arab, African and Berber, European and Turkish, Persian, then the rich separated from the poor,
and then the drinking of wine.
And then all types of of corruption set in. And so they were, they were conquered. They were literally conquered, and the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella made their way down from the north, the northwest corner, the mountainous areas, they had not gone into this area and they move from the mountainous areas down slowly taking back section by section, they took backspin.
The second point which is important to us that is that in geography and astronomy, the great scientists and historians and geographers like Elon Musk, Rudy