Abdullah Hakim Quick – Pivotal Moments in Islamic History P04 – The Islam of the Mongols #05
AI: Summary ©
The "slack age" in Islam is a pivotal moment during the golden age of Islam, where individuals were forced to develop new methods and techniques to increase knowledge. The "slack age" was created by Jesus to create a source of wonder for human beings to the day of resurrection, and the "slack age" was a pivotal moment during the golden age of Islam, where the church had to develop new methods and techniques to increase knowledge. The "slack age" was a major scientific research project, and the "slack age" was a major scientific research project. The transcript discusses the history of Muslim science, including the development of the magnetic needle and the first true compass, and the importance of mathematics and computers in the modern world. The " pivot" in civilization and the importance of technology and mathematics for modern dayams is also discussed, as well as the success of the Surah incremental machine and the importance of mathematics and computers in modern dayams.AI: Transcript ©
All praises are due to Allah, lord of
the worlds,
and peace and blessings be constantly showered upon
our beloved prophet Muhammad,
his family, his companions, and all those who
call to his way and establish his sunnah
to the day of judgment.
As to what follows,
to our brothers and sisters, our viewers, our
friends,
We thank Allah
for the gift of life,
and we pray that Allah would enable us
to be able to understand his message,
to share his message,
and to act upon what we have learned.
We are looking at
a very important,
topic, and that is pivotal moments
in Islamic history,
where things went from darkness into light,
where Muslims were able to make
amazing
achievements
to call to the good, to forbid evil.
And we have looked at these moments from
the time of the prophet, peace be upon
him, through his companions
and through the great,
male and female
Muslims
who have risen up in every nation and
every tribe.
And we have to remember
when we look at pivotal moments,
in,
the Muslim world,
Islam is perfect in itself.
But we have to remember that Islam
traveled to different parts of the world and
every nation and every tribe, and Allah tells
us in Surat An Nahl verse 36,
And we certainly sent into every
nation a messenger
saying, worship Allah and avoid false deities.
For Minhul menhadallah
were Minhul menhaqat alayhdulalah.
And of the people were some who Allah
guided,
and
of them were those upon whom error was
decreed.
So travel in the earth. See fasiru fil'art.
Travel on the earth
and see what was the end of those
who denied the truth.
And so prophets came to China,
to India,
to Africa, to Europe, to the Americas,
to every nation and every tribe.
Somebody was teaching them about the worship
of 1 God, creator of the heavens and
the earth.
And that is the essence of the theme
of Islam. It is not a Semitic religion.
It is not an Arab religion.
It is not an Eastern religion,
but it is a religion of all of
humanity
perfected by the creator of the heavens and
the earth.
And
the
monotheism,
a Tawhid,
which is the basis of the Islamic message,
could be divided into 3 parts.
Tawhid is a deep concept, and that is
wahadayuwahidu,
and that is to unite,
to bring things together.
And, of course, the essence of tawhid
in Islam
is the oneness of our understanding of the
creator,
that we worship 1 god with no partners,
no rivals.
Lays a commit le hishay.
There's nothing similar
to Allah.
And that is what generally is known by
Tawhid,
But there's another part to it, and that
is that we are one human family.
So Islam came
not to divide us,
not to make the rich more powerful than
the poor,
or to make a chosen people,
but to unite humanity as one family.
The third part is that there is one
source of knowledge,
that all knowledge comes from Allah Azzawajal,
whether it be
sacred knowledge
or secular knowledge,
because some people want to divide up what
came in the books, the heavenly books.
They wanna divide that from science
as though there's a difference, but
Tawhid came
to teach the Muslims
that it's all coming from the same source.
Allah made systems in the world.
Allah made the creation
in such a way that it could sustain
itself
and that it would be a source of
wonder
for human beings to the day of resurrection.
And
in Surat al Mujadila,
Allah tells us Allah will exalt those of
you who believe
and those of you who are given knowledge,
high degrees. Allah will raise you high degrees,
and Allah is well aware of all that
you do.
So
those who
Utul'ilim
those who have knowledge
Allah will give them
a high place.
And so knowledge was always put
on a high level for the Muslims,
and all of us would seek it.
And the prophet
even said in one tradition that you should
seek knowledge
from the cradle to the grave.
In other words, your whole life,
you should be seeking knowledge.
And the and the olamau, the scholars would
tell us that if somebody says,
I know
or I am a scholar, then that means
he has become Jahil. He's ignorant.
Because the only one with perfect knowledge
is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So the seeking of knowledge
was part of the message.
Islam is not a military system.
It is not a conquest religion.
But it is based upon
understanding the creation,
flowing with the creation,
seeking more
of the knowledge that Allah has put into
all different aspects of the universe.
And with this in mind,
with the message coming out in the 7th
century, This is the final message of Islam,
of course.
We believe that Islam was already there,
but the final form, the seal
coming in the Quran,
that this
was special
because
it gave the Muslims a type of
flexibility,
a type of open mindedness.
And that was strange in the 7th century
because
the different societies in the world, the backwardness
that had struck the Roman Empire
and the Persian Empire,
the different
ethnic groups and linguistic groups.
Everybody was locked in their own corner.
But Muslims had open minds
because they taught that all knowledge comes from
Allah.
And
they began to assemble
the writings. Now as they're going
to different parts of the world, not with
huge conquering armies, they had small
armies. They were calling to the good and
forbidding evil,
and they were usually
responding to an attack.
And
they reached the knowledge of the ancient Egyptians,
whose knowledge went back 1000 of years.
Ancient Indians, Syrians, Persians, Greeks, other
people, and they started to bring this together.
And so it was in this time period,
you could say,
was the golden age
of Islamic knowledge.
This is really when the Muslims took full
advantage
of the freshness of their faith
and also encountering
other
societies
and other ways of life. So arbitrarily, we'll
say from 16/22
to around 14/92
I'm just using these dates,
as sort of
barriers for us or limits.
This, you could say, was the Islamic golden
age of knowledge.
But the cover up,
what we are not made aware of,
is the fact that Europe
that had been
advanced
heavily
during the Roman Empire.
No doubt about it. This was the largest
empire in recorded history at that time.
They had gathered together
scientists from different parts of the world,
but Europe fell. The Romans became corrupted and
they fell,
And their society became corrupted.
And so between 400 to, say, 1500 or
so, this is what the Europeans call the
dark ages
because the lights went out,
in Europe.
The problem is
is that when you get
a Western oriented
Eurocentric
history book,
it's teaching you that during this time period,
nothing was happening,
that literally knowledge was stuck in monasteries,
and the rest of the world was in
a state of darkness
until the renaissance came, which is the rebirth,
of knowledge.
This is a cover up.
There was a pivotal moment
during the golden age of Islam
that we want to look at because
we've been looking at pivotal moments in the
sense that,
Muslims were under attack. They they they suffered,
and a hero came.
And a group of people stood up, and
there was a major change in Islamic society.
These have been the pivotal points that we
we've looked
at to a great extent.
But this time,
the pivotal point
has nothing to do with warfare
or
politics.
This is knowledge.
It's a pivotal point in knowledge
because the Arabs at the time
were not distinguished
for their science, for their math,
for their physics.
They were not distinguished for this.
They were distinguished for their language because Arabic
language is a very complicated language,
and they took pride
in their poetry
and their literary expression.
But they were not well known
for scientific
achievements.
And Dennis Long began to move out. And
it started to encounter people
who had been,
solidified in knowledge,
secular knowledge.
And they had made achievements,
but they were backwards spiritually.
And so the 2 came together,
and it was
within the 9th to 11th centuries.
So this is our pivotal moment. We're stretching
moment a little bit. It's
a pivotal period,
especially with the establishment of
Betel Hikma.
And I wanna use this as a focal
point.
There were different parts of the Muslim world
where the believers were able to raise up
in knowledge.
But this particular
achievement,
this particular
pivot
in Baghdad,
in the Abbasid
Khirafat,
You could say it really changed the course
of history, not only for the Muslims,
but it changed the course
for the whole planet.
What happened during that time?
It was in this time that the house
of wisdom
was established
and that the Muslims were able
to develop so many things.
They developed a scientific method and and perfected
it. And and they they took the the
the theories of the ancient ones and made
precise
experiments.
So this is what today's science looks at
in terms of experimentation
and
and and going from a lower level to
a higher level.
Betel Hikma,
this was an important place,
and it was in the Abbasid period.
Remember knowledge coming in from different parts of
the world,
that many foreign works
were translated into Arabic,
especially from Greek, Chinese, Sanskrit, Persian, Syriac,
other languages as well.
It was like a translation movement.
And you can see on the right side,
an Arabic texts.
And normally, you see Arabic and you think
it's Hadith or tafsir or Quran.
No. This is dealing with,
science.
Okay? And,
it is during this during the reign of
the Khalifa
of the Abbasids Harun al Rashid.
And Harun al Rashid is probably the greatest,
of the Abbasid, rulers
that he
took personal
interest
in scholarship.
And at that time Baghdad
was the center of
the Middle World.
Muslims had reached the far ends of the
known world at the time,
and so much tribute and trade was coming
into
Baghdad. It was one of the wealthiest places
on the face of the planet Earth. So
now you have a
leader
who's interested in scholarship. He's interested in poetry,
and he's got vast
amount of wealth. And so they start translating
things.
Get the knowledge of the Greeks. Get the
knowledge of the Egyptians.
The knowledge of India.
Get the knowledge of Africa.
Bring it all together. Translate it into Arabic
so we can understand it,
and let's use it in a modern way.
The next caliphah
following this was the caliphah Ma'mun,
and he ruled from around 813 to 833.
So he,
gave special help
or assistance to this house of wisdom.
And he loved science.
And no doubt about it,
he was in need of science
because Babadad was one of the wonders of
the world and there were so many
different levels of society.
They needed architecture. They needed
waterways.
They needed agriculture.
They needed understandings,
of the world.
And so
he used the money of the Abbasids
to to develop
the house of wisdom.
And it is reported also that even business
people got involved in this. Merchants got involved.
Even the
military was actually involved. So when you have
a society like this
that is focusing on knowledge, it's a pivot.
It's gonna take the world in a total
different direction now
because so much,
is being put in other parts of the
world. They're just trying to eat food. They're
just trying to survive,
or they're using their wealth for conquest.
In this case,
it is the love of knowledge
And
the,
the books of the ancient ones
were considered to be
so valuable that in some cases, the person
would bring a book, and he would get
the weight of that book in gold.
And so they were able to make so
many,
different achievements.
And it is even reported that in one
of the treaties
between
the Abbasids and the Romans
that, you know, as part of the,
tribute that was being paid by the Romans,
The Muslims wanted, Al Magist. They wanted a
book.
So as part of the tribute, you give
us your science books.
K? So it's not just gold and silver
and thing. They wanted knowledge.
And so this is this is unique.
This is a unique pivot point.
And this Beit al Hikma in Baghdad. Baghdad
was one of the wonders of the world.
Look how beautiful the artist's conception,
makes Baghdad.
And,
the scholars there
were,
multidisciplinary
in a sense that they were masters of
Arabic and Quran, and they knew their Islamic
sciences, but they also knew
sometimes they would be engineers,
architects.
They could also be doctors.
So they were involved in construction programs.
They
developed
precise
calendars.
They They were public servants, consultants.
And so so that's the kind of flexibility,
that you need to develop
a wonder city
that was giving so much to the world,
at that time.
And
the Khalifa, for instance,
and this is his famous book,
Al Magest.
He commissioned the mapping of the world,
the confirmation of data from Almagest,
and the deduction of the real size
of the Earth.
So this now
is probably the first time they're trying to
find out the real size of the earth.
Think about this.
This is not the dark ages.
Europeans had no clue
about the real size of the earth.
But the Muslims, because of the reach of
the Abbasids
and because of the wealth that they were
putting in the science,
they were deducting
the real size of the earth and came
very close to what we scientifically have today.
He also promoted Egyptology.
And this is an interesting subject, which I
myself went into very deeply, and that is
the knowledge of the ancient Egyptians.
Because people, when they think of ancient
Egypt, you think of Pharaon.
You think of the pharaohs,
and they were just idol worshippers, and that's
it. No.
Egypt was united
in 3,200
BC.
So this is, like, over 2000 years before
Musa, alayhis salaam.
Egypt was united,
and
the pyramids the major pyramid at Giza was
built,
the Saqqara temple even before that.
And the Egyptians were doing amazing thing. 2,300,000
blocks of granite
are put into one building.
Some of the blocks are 20 tons.
How could you get
something like this?
Where did the science come from?
How are you able to to bring it
up
from Aswan North
and then put it in place?
And don't tell me it was aliens.
Don't tell me it was Jinny.
It was done by human beings using
their their their god given talents.
Amun
was so open minded.
And the Betel Hikma, they wanted wisdom from
everywhere
that they actually did excavations
at the pyramids of Giza
because they wanted to know what was the
knowledge of the ancient Egyptians.
He built the 1st astronomical
observatories
in Baghdad.
He was also the 1st ruler
to fund and monitor
the progress of major
research
projects
involving teams of scholars and science scientists.
So he's funding these projects.
And you could say
that he was the 1st ruler to fund
big science.
So this is major scientific
projects.
This is what the west
has taken the lead in the world,
today. That's why China's coming up on them
because the Chinese are investing in knowledge.
The Chinese are involved in experimentation.
And so they're rising now in the world.
At that time,
this was a pivot point for the Muslims
and the whole of the planet Earth,
at that time.
And so Moon and
his people,
they were so
busy in this
that he even sent out expeditions
of scholars
from Betel Hikma seeking knowledge. Think about this.
Not out in jihad like you you are
told Muslims with curved swords who are chopping
off people's heads. No. He sent out expeditions
seeking knowledge.
So they would go to the great centers
of the world,
and they would collect textbooks.
They would seek knowledge
from foreign lands.
And one of the directors of Beitel Hikma
was sent to Constantinople,
which is now Istanbul,
specifically because this was one of the major
cities
on the face of the planet Earth. This
is a picture. You can see an actual
picture,
of on the right side,
you know, is the Muslim Khalifa.
On the left side is the Roman king,
and they're exchanging books,
not exchanging arrows
and swords.
They're exchanging knowledge.
And because the Muslims had this flexibility
and had this
desire,
it was an amazing time,
to live in.
And so by the second half
of 9th century,
Betel Hikma
was the greatest
repository of books in the world,
and it became one of the greatest hubs
of intellectual
activity
in the medieval time.
Look at the world today.
You have London. You have Paris.
You have the great centers of of of
European knowledge, and
now you have China coming up.
K. At this time,
more books
in this center than anywhere else on earth.
And this is not magic.
You can see it.
It's based upon the real
achievements
and striving of the Muslims at that time.
And so they attracted
brilliant scholars
to Baghdad.
They did have the university system as we
know the university system today,
but it was an ordered,
organized approach
to knowledge and to science,
and it was results
oriented.
K. So this is key point,
in the levels that they reached.
I wanna give you an example.
And you can see a text here on
the right side.
That's how their Arabic texts, you know, would
look.
And
Ma'mun
was in need of,
problem solving
because
inheritance is the division of your wealth, 1
half, 1 quarter, 1 eighth, 1 sixteenth.
You also had land
that needed to be divided.
You had great finances, zakat.
So now your zakat is being given 2
a half percent of your wealth. How do
you divide?
How do you know what 2 a half
percent of your wealth is?
Construction,
agriculture,
navigation,
booty distribution.
And so
he needed
fractions.
So you need 1 half, 1 quarter, 1
eighth.
A science of fractions.
And so he went to his one of
his great scientists. Again, they were all around
people,
Al Huarizmi,
and asked him,
put together something for us.
So al Khawarizmi,
did his
major work, hitab al Muqtasa
Hisab al Jabawal Muqamala.
And you can see the Arabic
reading the trends reading it for you.
Kitab al Muqtasah.
Right? So this is an abbreviated book,
on calculation
by completion and balancing.
Okay?
So now you can do your calculations now.
Algebra.
Algebra.
This is where the word algebra comes from.
It's an Arabic word.
How many people
in the world today studying their math and
their sciences
know that algebra actually was an Arabic word
coming from Al Hawadism. He was not originally
Arabic.
The person speaking Persian.
How how many people knew this?
This is what was happening there
in medicine.
Hunain
wrote an important,
treaties,
ophthalmology.
Other scholars were were writing on smallpox,
infections,
surgery.
Okay. And so many of these textbooks
that at this pivot point
were being written
were later used by Europe in its renaissance.
So the renaissance from the dark ages into
the rebirth
did not come by magic.
It came through the striving of the Muslims
who were putting together the knowledge of the
world at that time. And you can see
in this picture
an actual,
drawing of an examination
being done,
because surgery was being done on people.
And in this case, it's like a tumor,
you know, being taken out the neck
of a person.
And and you can see some of the
tools that they're using.
And it's amazing because some of their their
their instruments, like these in instruments here of
al Zahrawi,
Right? These these instruments are being used during
this time period,
for surgery.
Look at the shapes.
And and some of these instruments are still
being used
basically
today
because the shapes were so precise
in terms of getting through corners,
going into the body,
and being used for surgery.
Another shocking
bit of information
is that during this time, Abu Ali al
Hassan ibn al Haytham,
he develops,
what he call kamara.
So he's using light and reflections,
and that is the first camera.
So he literally
was reflecting
pictures of people and things,
And it was called Kamara,
and we're still using it up until today.
That's your camera.
Okay?
And so
amazing developments
happening during that time. Just just to give
you a basic idea
of sciences
developed by Muslims in this pivotal point,
in our history.
Algebra, of course, anesthesia,
biology, botany,
cardiology,
chemistry from leukemia,
dermatology,
embryology, emergency medicine,
geology, metallurgy, modern surgery,
modern medicine, modern arithmetic, optics,
parasitology,
pharmacology,
pulmonary medicine, toxicology,
urology.
This is a university.
It's literally a university.
These are developed by the Muslim during this
time
in this pivotal time
for the planet
in terms of its
understanding
of the sciences of the world.
And these are some of the substances
and devices
that were introduced into Europe during this time.
Pendulums,
cotton,
paper
came from Chinese, but there was papyrus in
Egypt as well.
Muslim introduced
it. Glass mirrors,
crystal street lamps,
colored glass,
satin,
pepper,
paper
money,
postage stamps,
book binding,
clocks,
soap,
astrolabes,
compasses,
slide rules,
flasks,
surgical instruments,
windmills,
artificial teeth,
very crucial for many of us,
spinning wheels
for textiles,
globes,
citrus fruits, eyeglasses
porcelain,
gunpowder,
cables,
velvet,
almanacs.
Almanac is from the word almanach,
which is an Arabic word. That's what we
had before Google. You had almanacs and encyclopedias,
right?
Muslim developed that.
Putting all types of knowledge together
where you'd have it,
you know,
at your fingertips.
Saddles and leather shoe. This is just some
of the substance. It's an amazing study
to see how most revolutionized
civilization
in this world.
In 19 thirties, Walt Taylor recorded approximately a
1000 English words
of Arabic origin.
Some of these words are as follows,
admiral,
which is Amir al Baha.
Think about this.
Alcohul,
which is alcohol,
alquba,
alcove,
aljebba, algebra,
alhuarismi,
algorithms.
So your algorithms today that you're freaking out
about,
what the algorithm doing to you,
that comes from a Muslim name.
How many people in Silicon Valley know this?
How many people were looking at looking at
their for that algorithm that's chasing you around
and destroying your life?
It originally came out of Muslim thinking
and then was distorted.
Amber.
Arsenal,
which comes from Dar esina'a.
Assassin.
That sounds like Muslims. Right?
It comes from Hashashin.
Calibre from Khaleeb,
Camphor is Carrefour,
your check.
Right, your Bank of Montreal,
your Bank of London,
Bank of America, check,
sec.
It's an Arabic word.
Chemistry is from leukemia.
Cotton, you have cotton.
Lemon is from.
Magazine,
like your Time Magazine, McLean's Magazine,
Mattress is for Matra.
Monsoons
is from Mosim.
Sugar, sukhar,
syrup is your shut up.
Typhoon
is your tufan,
and 0 is Siffer.
And you can go on,
in this amazing study
of Muslims who had beards and turbans and,
you know, scarfs on hijab,
Right? Making amazing,
stuff.
One of the astounding achievements
was the development of the magnetic
needle.
Okay. So this led to
the first true compass.
Now compass is now,
especially on the boats
traveling in the earth,
it revolutionized
travel.
First true compass
developed by Muslims.
Some other,
contributions for those who are into math,
popularization of Arabic numerals. You're counting 0, Sifa.
Right? 0.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
It came out of India,
but the Muslims put it together in a
usable form now.
Okay. Arabized it. So 1, 2, 3, 4,
5 is Arabic numerals.
K. A logarithm from.
Non Euclidean geometry,
the development of trigonometry and the first use
of sine and cosine,
spherical trigonometry,
and trigonometry of tangents.
Amazing achievements.
But let's take it a step further.
What is one of the most
visible,
achievements in science?
That is we're flying all around the world,
which people would think it is the jinn
that are flying around. How can human beings
fly?
Only birds can do that.
But in the 9th century,
a genius,
Abbas ibn Firdas of Cordoba,
Cordoba in Spain, Al Andalus.
He was a poet, an astronomer, an engineer.
At 70 years old, he designed a flying
machine
and went up to the Jebel Arus,
and he tried to fly, and he flew
for a period of time and something looking
looking something like this.
He also cut crystals. He produced glass.
He made a planetarium
with thunder and lightning inside of it.
Mad, 9th century.
Okay? That's 800.
Abdul Ahmed,
ibn Mohammed ibn Khaldun,
very famous Tunisian scholar.
He was a judge,
diplomat,
economist,
philosopher,
and you could say
he was the father of sociology.
Because
he looked at history not just for the
names and the dates.
What is the relationship
of the peoples
involved?
You see? So he was able to develop
this type of under looking at society, how
we relate.
And
and and, you know, his foundations
are the basis of modern day sociology.
But the Europeans,
wanting to take credit
for
the renaissance.
How could you
continue to hold your head up
when there's so much that the Muslims actually
did, and you wanted to make them your
enemies because the Europeans at that time launched
crusades.
They went into the Muslim world to conquer
the Muslim world.
So they launched crusades.
So how can your enemy
be the one who taught you?
So they start changing names.
So instead of,
they say.
Instead of,
So they changed the name.
You never did El Petrogias.
Never think of a Muslim name.
Okay?
Our men fear man was the name they
used for Abbasid and Furness.
Elhazen
for Iber al Hatham.
Abu Casas
for Zahrawi.
You see?
Rasis for Arasi.
See how they changed the names
in order to trick people into thinking that
these people were
Europeans,
but they weren't Europeans.
They were Muslims who pivoted the whole of
civilization
in a very important time
in the history of humanity
to the point where the Muslims even developed,
you could say, the world's oldest degree
giving
universities.
They were universities
throughout history. You know, I'd say one of
the oldest.
Because in ancient Egypt at Karnak,
there were universities.
There were. But
in the way that we have,
degrees being given,
so they would give out this ijaza,
this degree.
In some cases, they called it,
which means you have the right to
report or to teach your teachers' teachings.
Bihaqa rewaya baccalaureate.
So degrees were being given out
at Al Qarawiyyin.
This is in Morocco
in Fez, Morocco.
This is an actual picture,
from the university there,
in what is left of El Caddo yin
in Morocco.
So this is from the golden age,
of Islam,
and it is an amazing time
and amazing achievements
that the Muslims made.
I want to, at this point,
open up the floor
to see if there's any questions. This is
our pivot this week.
It's not a military pivot.
It's not a hero coming out to save
you, but it's a pivot in knowledge,
a pivot in civilization.
So the floor is open for any questions,
that anybody may have.
Any comments from people who are online, different
parts of the world? Anybody coming in?
Yeah. We have Christopher Cawley. So that's saying
salaams.
Couple other people just saying salaams as well.
So as we continue on
in this
pivot,
one of the areas which is of extreme
importance
to the Muslims was astronomy.
And
this was
a natural thing for Muslims
because when we pray,
we pray facing
Qibla.
We face Mecca.
So if you are east of Mecca, you
gotta go west.
If you're north, you gotta face south.
So you need directions.
So you need to know where the north
star is.
You need your directions so you can make
your prayers.
Also, if you want to make pilgrimage to
Mecca,
then you gotta go you gotta travel, so
you need directions.
Okay.
And geography. You gotta know geography.
And so
books were being written. Achievements were being made
in astronomy and navigation.
Okay, and this is a natural thing for
the Muslims. It was not,
any,
magic,
a hocus pocus. It was a natural
achievement.
And some of the astronomical instruments,
for instance, the astrolabe,
quadrants,
sextents,
compasses,
so many more,
things that actually happened.
These are
major achievements
done by the Muslims.
And surprisingly enough, in astronomy,
there's some amazing things. You know, how people
are so, you know,
caught up by the the eclipse, the solar
eclipse.
And they come outside as though we Western
people, you know, we can witness this.
No. Go back, you know, into into the
golden age of Islam, and you will see
that Muslims
catalogued
the maps of the visible stars.
They corrected sun and moon tables.
The first use
pendulum built
observatories.
The invention of the sundial
was the 11th century.
They predicted
sunspots,
eclipses,
comets.
See the eclipses.
Muslims were predicting the eclipses
just like the scientists predicted today and say
it's our civilization
and we will go out and we will
look at it.
So some of the famous astronomers were Ibn
Yunus,
al Farghani,
al Battani,
al Bayuni,
Ibn Rushd.
Amazing achievements
that they were making during that time.
And so,
in Surah Yusuf, Allah tells us
in their histories
that in their histories there is certainly a
lesson for men of understanding.
This was a pivot in knowledge,
and Allah blessed the Muslims with it.
And we today
not only need a pivot
in our protection of the innocent and the
weak who are suffering in Palestine and Sudan
and other places,
but we also need to make a pivot
with science
because the earth is being destroyed.
How can we use technology to benefit the
earth instead of destroying the earth?
How can we use wealth
to make everybody
wealthy
instead of only a few?
How can we use technology
to save life instead of taking life?
This is a pivot that is needed now,
and I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
would enable Muslims and enlighten people
to make this pivot at this critical point
in history.
So I leave you with these thoughts, and
I ask Allah,
to have mercy on me and you.
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