Adnan Rashid – How the Quran Inspired the Islamic Civilisation #02

			disciples of the Prophet of Islam Salallahu alaihe salam actually didn't know that the Quran was a
very first actual Arabic book. It's quite interesting and that, you know, and when people say,
		

			Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him wrote this, or came up with this you got an illiterate
		

			person who comes up with the a, a book that actually later on becomes the grammar of the language.
It just doesn't make any sense. Absolutely. Look, we are absorbed very, very strong in literature in
poetry, their poetry was fascinating. Some of the Arabic poetry
		

			from pre Islamic period is fascinating, right. But they had not
		

			necessarily written down these poetical collections in a book form. They were they were scrolls,
they would have scrolls, they would have a long piece of vellum, they would write their poetry in
whatever
		

			unstandardized text they had pioneered by them. But it was after Islam after the revelation of the
Quran, when the Arabic script was standardized. It was standardized by the companions of the Prophet
of Islam. So the Arabic script and the alphabet alphabet we have today, we're actually used in this
way in this form, for the first time by the companions of the Prophet of Islam. Of course, we have
earlier forms, don't get me wrong, there are earlier forms, but they were not standardized. They
were not standardized as they are today. Right? So there are pre Islamic inscriptions in Arabia, no
doubt,
		

			in the Arabic language, but again, they vary from place to place from town to town, from person to
person, or from tribe to tribe. So there was no standardized Arabic text. So why am I telling you
all this? I'm telling you all this is because this book, or this text was revealed upon and
unlettered people
		

			who, after the revelation of this particular text started to read and write. So this book, or the
revelation of this book, or this text, called an educational revolution in Arabia,
		

			there was no tradition of children, learning how to read and write as young as five to six or seven
years old, when the kids were that at that age, they were not necessarily taught by parents to read
and write. In fact, in Quraysh, within the life of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, there were only 17
people who could read and write. This was a huge privilege to be able to read and write in the
Arabic language was a huge thing among the Arabs, okay. You would be like a PhD doctor or someone
like a professor nowadays, right? I mean, there are many, many professors. Being a professor is not
a big deal today in this day and age. But at that time to be able to read and write was a huge deal.
		

			It was a big deal. And what does that show you that shows you that this was predominantly and
unlettered society, now comes a text with a profit, right? And he teaches people to not only
memorize this text, or write it down as well. You must write it down, so that you can read from it.
And the first commandment, in this text, or in this revelation was to read the very first
commandment that came down on upon the Prophet salallahu salam, when he was in the cave of Hara.
		

			The first revelation came down, and the angel Gabriel brought the revelation and the first
revelation from the Quran, this very book, what was it? Read in the name of your Lord? Okay, Chapter
96 of the Quran. The first five verses were revealed upon the Prophet, talking about the importance
of reading, learning, and the use of pen. So this is the first commandment in the history of Islam
given by God Almighty, to the final messenger of God. This is a big deal. This shows you how
important learning, reading, writing, book production, bookmaking
		

			and book loving for that matter how important all of that is in Islam, because the first thing God
communicated to humanity through his final message to humanity is to read is to write, learn,
educate yourself, this is the message. So an unlettered man is receiving a message about education.
So he taught his companions and his companions duly learned how to read and write, and they produced
large libraries and large collections of
		

			manuscripts of the Quran, they started to read and write
		

			The Koran so they had to begin with the Quran. So the first thing they did was to write the Quran,
standardize the text of the Quran and the alphabet and then write the Quran in that particular text.
And then what followed was later on in later generations in latent in later ages, they started to
read and write other books. For example, they started to write hobbies, the tradition of the Prophet
sallallahu sallam, they started to write the opinions of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu sallam, they started to write the opinions of the students of the companions of the
Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam. And then by the time we get to the second century of, of Islam,
		

			mid second century, they are already reading and writing books produced by other civilizations, and
they started to translate those books into the Arabic language. So a lot of the Greek literature,
Indian literature, Persian literature, Roman literature, was translated into the Arabic language
		

			in the eighth century,
		

			mid eighth century, and after that, the process basically became bigger and bigger, larger and
larger. People started to collect books, they started to translate books produced by other
civilizations, neighboring civilizations, into the Arabic language. So this is how it happened. The
Umayyad period was mainly concerned with consolidating the power, the political power of Islam,
throughout the lands that were conquered
		

			during the early Islamic period, and then the text of the Quran was disseminated widely throughout
the Muslim world. And then the Hadith of the Prophet was penned down, and the opinions and the
teachings of the companions of the Prophet Prophet Muhammad, what we call the prophetic tradition
that was preserved through writing. Then when the a basket period started in the year 730 to
		

			Hijri or 750. c, when the basket period started,
		

			the Muslims started to read books from other civilizations that brought a lot of problems to no
doubt, because other alien influences came in and that caused some
		

			mischeif as well throughout the Muslim land, but at the same time, the benefit outweighed the loss
or controversy, by far.
		

			So is this is this what would you refer to as the translation movement in Baghdad or is that later?
Yeah, this is this is this started predominantly. Although translations are already started in the
Umayyad court in Damascus.
		

			There were influences from the Greek civilization, the Umayyad caliphs, and
		

			the Omega ruling class was already exposed to medicine, Greek medicine, let's say and other ideas
from the Greek
		

			civilization, what later on during the a basket period in Baghdad, this process of translating