Adnan Rashid – Unveiling the Muslim Civilisation #7
AI: Summary ©
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AI: Summary ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was salam wa salam ala BL mursaleen wa Holly he was hobby out of oral my amin, woman tabia whom a sign in Elijah Medina about we will do biLlahi similarly ministry Vonda regime Bismillah Ar Rahman AR Rahim Allah Azza Naka, ihlara mattala Allah amin, for call also la he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, one levani, one aaya respected brothers and sisters, and dear friends all over the world, those who are watching this particular series of lectures
under the title unveiling the Muslim civilization, you are all welcome, again, to Episode Seven of this particular series. I know the last episode I did with live Dean, Facebook account was also titled Part Seven. But as you remember, if you remember, that particular episode was interrupted right in the middle because of a technical problem we had. So I will continue with the same episode some of the content was left and I will be continuing that content in this particular episode today. What was I discussing in the last episode or last time last week, last Saturday, this time, I was talking about the fourth event in the golden chain of events I have been talking about in the past
six episodes. What is that golden chain of events. When I was talking about the Muslim civilization, the rise of the Muslim civilization, how it actually emerged, how it came about.
I talked about a golden chain of events. Okay, and this is my own theory you have you don't have to accept it, you can accept it or you can reject it. But I believe this golden chain of events gave rise to what we know today as the Muslim civilization or the civilization of Islam or the Islamic civilization. You can call it what you like. Okay.
So this golden chain of events goes as follows. Number one, is the Quran, the revelation of the Quran event number one, event number two, or the occurrence number two, is the concept of justice that came from the Quran. Okay, event number three is piece that came from that justice. Okay. And then event number four is progress that was made as a result of that piece. So going backwards, the golden chain of events goes as follows, progress was achieved due to peace, peace was
made possible by Justice. In this particular context, in this
particular context of the Muslim civilization, that peace was made possible by Justice and justice came from the Quran. So these are the four golden the four elements or four locks of the golden chain of events.
And each event locks into the other event, they are intertwined, okay, they are interdependent, okay, they give rise to the other one gives rise to the one that comes after. So the Quran came from the Quran came the Muslim sense of justice, which was delivered from northern China to all the way to Spain, and that gave rise to peaceful coexistence. People lived in peace, and found that peace came progress, which is exactly what I will be discussing in this particular episode today. So that progress, by the grace of Allah was made possible by what we know today as
the Muslim civilization or that progress was part of the Muslim civilization. And it only came about by that piece, which was enabled by the sense of justice, which was made possible by the Muslim civilization. So my brothers and sisters in Islam, those of you who are watching this particular
feed, please share it with your context, and you will get reward for sharing it inshallah. And this is exactly what I'm doing doing right now. like I always do, in every single
episode, I share it on my social media pages,
unveiling the Muslim civilization. So progress is what we will be talking about today in sha Allah and in this episode, today, we will be
Talking about how the Muslims made or enabled that progress, which benefited
all of humanity in centuries to come. That progress basically came in many different forms. Firstly, when I was talking about it last week, I talked about peaceful coexistence. I talked about how Muslims established peace and because of this peace, many things were achieved Alhamdulillah So,
today inshallah, I will be discussing two points in particular, okay,
how the Muslim civilization enabled that progress, okay? And what came from that progress? Okay, many things came from that progress.
But I will be specifically talking about how Muslims made knowledge
easily available for all of humanity, okay, of course, other civilization that acquired knowledge that enabled other people to learn and study and read, but the Muslim civilization did it in a very unique way. Okay. And before I continue with my particular episode, or this particular episode, I want you to look at this book, this is a very, very important book, you must read on this very topic. Okay. This particular book, talks about the progress pot. Okay. Again, to repeat it, the golden chain of events is the revelation of the Quran, justice that came from the Quran, and piece that came from that justice, and then progress emerged from that piece. And this particular book,
talk talks about the progress part, which is exactly what we're discussing today. Okay. The book is titled The hidden debt to Islamic civilization. It is authored by si jazza. ie, the author's name is their s. ap, you can Google it, and you will find a copy of this book, possibly potentially, a PDF copy of this book, inshallah, free of charge, I'm pretty sure you can find it, you must get your hands on this book, and it will blow your minds away intellectually, it will blow your minds away. It covers so much about the Muslim civilization and how the Muslim civilization enabled progress. Okay.
If I was to read the contents, okay.
They go as follows. They go as follows. And you will be able to understand the importance of this particular book. Okay.
The contents page. Number one is mainstream Western approach, where the author talks about what the western approach has been towards the Muslim civilization and his contribution when it comes to making progress for humans in general. Okay, how the humans benefited from the Muslim civilization, and its achievements, right? contrasting civilizations, learning, contrasting societies, contacts and impacts against sidelining the Islamic role. So here the author actually highlights how some Western academics and scholars and historians, from the 19th century onwards during the colonial period, belittle the role of the Muslim civilization systematically. And the author in this book, in
the very beginning of the book, Indian introduction talks about that, okay, refuting mainstream history. Okay, there are so many fallacies about, you know, how the Muslims, for example, borrowed verbatim from the Greeks. And then, without any original originality without adding anything to the to the Greek knowledge, they simply forwarded this knowledge to posterity, this notion is challenged in this book, and the author shows, through evidence through solid academic evidence that that's not the case. Rather, Muslims took a lot of knowledge from the Greeks, no doubt, and they translated this knowledge. And then they
basically wrote commentaries, they corrected the Greeks where they were wrong. And then Muslims forwarded their own original theories to the rest of humanity, primarily to Western Europe, where a lot of this knowledge ended up in western universities in Paris. And in Britain, for example, wherever the universities or educational institutions were at that time, in Italy, for example, a lot of people actually attribute the Italian Renaissance, or a huge part of it to the Muslim legacy, for example, the Islamic legacy from a London who's from Spain. So this book talks a lot about that, okay.
And the contents of are too many for me to read. But this author this gentleman, he has simply pulled the rug from the feet of islamophobes people who argue that the Muslim civilization was
an oppressive, a tyrannical, a backward or regressive entity or a regressive, you know, establishment if it was an establishment, firstly, the Muslim civilization is not homogeneous, homogeneous is not monolithic. It's not the same from let's say, Northern China to all the way to, to, to Spain, it differs, okay, from period to period from dynasty to dynasty, right? from people to people, from culture to culture, from culture to culture.
there were differences, no doubt, but there was unity, there were there were commonalities because of Islam, because Islam was
the basic the fundamental factor, which gave rise to the civilization, there were many, many commonalities between the achievements of the, let's say, Central Asia, in Turks, and Middle Eastern tribes and nations, and going all the way up to Europe. In Spain, there were many, many similarities between the achievements of these people under the umbrella of the Muslim civilization. So my brothers and sisters, what you have to understand is
that Muslim civilization is not something to be belittled, it's not something to be dismissed easily. Okay, when islamophobes Islam haters or critics of Islam and Muslims today, whether they are in the West, whether they are in the east, because in the West, we have a very strong Islamophobia industry, well funded, well oiled machine pumping hatred, misconceptions, and lies about Muslims and the history. Okay, they deliberately hide all the great achievements of the Muslim civilization, all the great achievements. Look at this book, the size of this book, okay, this book is 500 pages, almost 500 pages. And this is a summary By the way, brothers and sisters. This is a summary This is
a condensed
tribute, this is a condensed tribute to the Muslim civilization, hey, the author collects a lot of information from a lot of different works written on Muslim civilization from a number of different sources, where Western authors passingly talked about the Muslim civilization. So what this author has done, he has collected all that information in one particular in this particular volume, so that Muslims can go and learn about what the what the Muslim civilization stands for. Okay? So you have to understand that when islamophobes attack the Muslim civilization,
and they claim these things that Islam or the Muslim civilization, for example, was nothing but a period of disturbances, a period of tyranny, and oppression. They talk about the Jewish people, how they suffered the Christian people or they suffered, and to talk about jizya. They talk about the meat you eat or the concept of them in Islam. I have talked about a lot of these things in the previous six episodes. So you need to go back and see how all of those claims were dismantled systematically, based upon evidence. I provided evidence in those six lectures I have delivered already under this title, unveiling the Muslim civilization. Okay. So these islamophobes are plain
liars. Okay. They are deceivers that deliberately spread hatred against Islam and Muslims because they are being paid by some unknown entities in the Western world. It is now
no secret, it is not a secret anymore, that Islamophobia is one of the biggest threat to Muslims in the world, in particular, in the West. Okay. What's happening in France today is an example how the French people are so ignorant about Islam and Muslims and Muslims and the Muslim civilization. This is because the people who are giving information on Islam and Muslims are no friends of the Muslims, right? The mainstream media, newspapers, journalists, magazines, movies, cartoons, games, you name it, everything is demonizing the Muslims, every single thing is demonizing the Muslims. That's why Western masses have come to believe now somehow, that Islam may be a problem. Okay, Islam is in
crisis as Macron the French President put it, but this is why we need to have these lectures and these talks where we can talk about the Muslim civilization but the Muslim civilization did. So when you claim that Islam or the Muslim civilization has nothing positive to cherish or nothing positive to offer to the world. Then we start talking about
1000 years
History of Islam and Muslims from China all the way from northern China to Spain. What did the Muslims do in this large chunk of land is the question. What do you do with all the Islamic monuments? All the Islamic monuments? All the Islamic act architecture, all the Observatory's Muslims established in Central Asia, let's say in the Middle East, in Persia,
in Egypt, let's say in North Africa, all the way up to Spain, all the great achievements of the Muslims are for over 1000 years. All the libraries, all the points, all the intellectuals. Okay, all the Razzies. Let's say all the Harare's. Okay, all the Omar high on the point who is dearly loved by some Western people because of some promiscuity, maybe some some secondary ideas in that poetry. That's why even more harm has been secularized by some Western translations and even Rumi. Okay, all of these intellectuals, what are you going to do with them? Whether we like them or not, I mean, as Muslims, there are many, many intellectuals and thinkers who lived throughout the Muslim history. We
don't like some of them, of course, because they ideas caused more chaos and problems than then gave solutions, right. But they are still part of the Muslim civilization, they were a product of the Muslim civilization, good or bad. Okay. If you look at
the the contribution of, of Islam and Muslims from,
from, let's say, the seventh century onwards, up to the 19th century, let's say, okay, 19th century is when Muslims went into a sharp decline after colonialism, Muslim lands were colonized by European powers, let's say in North Africa, we had Italy occupying a lot of that land, then we had
Britain
occupying a lot of that land, in India, and in Africa, okay. So after this occupation of land, a lot of the aspects of the Muslim civilization, a lot of the living
signs of the Muslim civilization, for example, the modalities, the institutions, even the language, was kind of belittled. And the result was a sharp decline in the 19th century, which intensified in the 20th century, which intensified in the 20th century. And we are still going through a decline, no doubt, okay, as a civilization, the Muslim world is in crisis, not Islam. Islam is not in crisis, the Muslim world is in a crisis. And the crisis is this identity crisis, because the Muslim youngsters have been brainwashed into thinking that hold on, there's nothing to look up to. There's nothing behind us.
What did the Muslims do? Okay. All they hear is on the news, you know, this indiscriminate violence that's taking place in the Middle East, which is geopolitical in nature, okay. Muslim youngsters read all this. And they assume that nothing was achieved in the past, a lot was achieved in the past. We just have to read about it. And once we do read about it, we will stop believing all the propaganda that's going on, on news channels and news reports, even Muslim countries have somehow adopted this narrative, or,
you know, some sort of Islamic
How can I put it?
backwardness? You know, as if the Muslims were backward, always, you know, Muslims never achieved anything. Let me tell you something. The Muslims, were the most advanced people in the world for over 1000 years. I repeat, Muslims were the most advanced progressive,
peace loving, okay. Just educated, intellectual people in the world for over 1000 years. Okay. From the seventh century onwards, the Muslims went upwards. Okay. civilizational Lee, of course, there were many disturbances. I'm not claiming the utopia, Muslims went upwards. Okay, achieving a lot of great things, achieving a lot of great things. But then what happened?
Later on, there were many, many disturbances in between, okay, there were Mongol invasions in the 13th century. crusades started in the 11th century. And they went on for as late as the 13th century. Then we had Reconquista in Spain, when the Catholic Monarchs from the northern regions of Spain started to come down towards the south where the Muslims were, and they started to take a lot of this land in the 13th century. All of this is happening simultaneously.
Mongol invasions, and Reconquista in Spain, this kind of devastated the Muslim civilization from the east to the west. All of this was happening simultaneously. And the Muslims lost a lot a lot in terms of libraries in terms of legacies they had created and this is where I want to talk about the next point inshallah to Allah. Okay, progress. What progress do we cherish and celebrate today that we can teach our youngsters, our kids today that the Muslim civilization is something great to look up to? Muslim civilization was one of the best things that happened to humanity, not only to Muslims, but to humanity. Okay? And why do I make that claim? Because when we start looking at the
progress of
Islam and Muslims enabled for the world to enjoy and take benefit from your minds will be blown away, Allahu Akbar, your minds will be blown away the magnitude is simply not possible for me to
indulge in in detail in these particular lectures. But the details are in these books, and this is one of them. Okay, this is like a reference point where you can find a lot of references, okay, this book is like an encyclopedia, every single page, if you look at the page, the bottom of the page, okay, it's full of references, full of references, mainly from Western sources. Okay, it's like an encyclopedia of information, which will give you a lot of directions to go and study further into these fields. And we need more Muslims to get involved in studying these subjects. Okay. When we talk to Muslims, a lot of Muslims.
A lot of Muslims want to study medicine, they want to become engineers, they want to become lawyers, they want to become accountants. If you are unfortunate, you want to become a politician. In this day and age, okay.
Fine, if you want to do that, but why do we neglect our history? Why do we neglect humanities? Why do we neglect intellectual subjects? Okay, why do we neglect let's say literature, poetry, philosophy, okay? History of our civilization, our ancestors, our predecessors? Okay, why do we ignore and neglect these things? This is something I really want to,
you know, highlight in my lecture so that people can turn around and go back to our history. So, having discussed all of this, you know, this, this was very important for me to talk about all of these things I just addressed. I want to move on to progress. Okay. The Muslim civilization far from being a tyrannical,
regressive, oppressive entity. It was one of the greatest things that happened to humanity. Many, many scholars have said that, and I've given you many quotes in the past six lectures, okay.
So, this progress mainly constituted off, primarily bringing people together.
coexistence between Christians, Jews and Muslims and I talked about this. One particular book, titled, ornament of the world ornament of the world, is a very interesting book by Maria Rosa menocal. Maria Rosa manacle, is a Spanish arabist. She has written this book to pay tribute to La convivencia, which he called La convivencia, or de convivencia, literally translated, translated, it is a Latin term or is a Spanish term. If you translate it, it means coexistence. So Maria Rosa manacle, she paid a tribute to coexistence that the Muslims enabled in Spain, when Muslims governed in Spain, for nearly seven centuries, just over seven centuries, parts of Spain are governed by
Muslims.
She basically talks about how Muslims brought the Jews and the Christians under one umbrella, okay, under the rule of Islam, to live in peace and harmony, and this peace and harmony enabled the Jews and the Christians to to flourish. Okay, some of the best Jewish points, intellectuals, scholars, theologians, are produced during this period. In fact, Jewish scholars call this period the golden age and I'm talking about the progress part now. Okay. After the introduction, I'm moving into the progress part. What was the most?
How can I put it important aspect of that progress? What enabled that progress? Of course, it was peace that enabled that progress. But how did peace manifest itself in the society at that time from China to Spain? How did this peace Muslims enabled, generally speaking, of course, there were periods
of chaos. They were exceptions. They were, they were they were cases of violence against people. Okay, I'm talking about a general pattern of Islam and what the Muslims achieved throughout this period and
through this land from China to Spain, okay, progress, the first aspect or the first important part of that progress was coexistence, peaceful coexistence between committed communities. And, okay, so Maria Rosa manakala, she paid this tribute. And the Jews called this particular period, the golden, the golden age of the house of Israel, okay. The Jewish scholars writing in Hebrew in their own writings, they praised this period, they praised the protection Muslims had to offer for them, because previously the Jews were facing heavy persecution throughout the Christian world. Christians naturally were very, very, very
aggressive, generally speaking towards the Jewish people. Okay, if St. Agustin had not written his defense of the Jewish people in the fourth century, basically St. Agustin was a fourth century Christian thinker, a theologian who had written that we must not persecute the Jewish people, because they are living evidence of the truth of the Lord, ie Jesus Christ. Okay. The Jews bear testimony to the truth of the Old Testament. And the Old Testament has prophecies about Jesus Christ. For that reason, used, Jews must be kept alive use must be tolerated, so that we can actually show the future generations that these are the people, Jewish people who carry this
literature called the Old Testament, by the Christians. And it is in this literature, we have prophecies for Jesus Christ for that reason, the Jews must be tolerated and protected. If St. Augustine had not written this in the fourth century, I don't know what the fate of the Jewish people would have been. I don't know, if the Jewish people would have survived into the Islamic period. It is not clear. Okay. One can only speculate. But when the Jews had survived whatever persecution they were facing, at the time,
in the Christian land, when Muslims came into Spain, the Jews welcomed them as liberators. And this progress I'm talking about,
basically,
manifested itself by giving protection to these vulnerable minorities. Okay, I talked about minor Christian sects that were suffering under the ruler, the ruling class, the Byzantine church, okay, we're also Christians, the Romans, they were persecuting all the minor Christian sects within the Middle East, in Egypt, in Syria. And when Muslims came, a lot of these Christian sects, although they were minor, I mean, in the Christian history in the grand scheme of things, but at that time, they were major, because most Christians in Syria and Egypt follow that particular version of Christianity, and Muslims give them protection against the Romans, the Byzantines church, okay.
Likewise, when Muslims came to Spain, the Jews survived for centuries to come under the protection of Islam. This is clearly testified to by Jewish historians. Okay. There are many Jewish historians like Mark Cohan, Bernard Lewis, although some of these scholars are not very upright or straight about how the Muslims protected the Jewish people because they have their own biases. Right. But they did clarify that the Jewish people lived far. You know, they were they were they lived far better lives under the protection of Islam than they did under
Christianity, basically. Okay. Mark, is a Jewish historian who has written this book title under the present and the cross whereby he talks about Jewish experience under the present, the present and the cross present means Islam basically. Okay, so,
in Spain, Muslims established this peaceful coexistence between the Jewish people and the Christians, whether they were Catholics or some other denominations, Muslims will enable that enable them to live in peace. This peace brought
basically progress, okay. And the Jewish people within their own house within their own little lessay. system. They made immense progress. The Jewish people produce the best points in Islamic Spain. They produce the best theologians like Musab in my mood, my monitor is okay. They've, you know, Judah Halevy, who was a point was
Born in Islamic Spain, okay. And many other thinkers and authors and writers who are born in Spain, right. And the other Jewish community of repute or of any importance was in Iraq, which was also living under the protection of Muslims. If you remember, Muslims had taken Iraq in the seventh century from the sassanid Empire, and Jews flourished under the assassinate sorry, the Muslim protection for centuries to come. In fact, the Jewish community lasted in Iraq for his latest, the 1940s. It was in the 1940s when the Jewish population of Iraq
migrated to Israel, current day State of Israel, okay, it was only then when they felt the need to move out because of the problems caused by the establishment of the State of Israel because as we know, the Balfour Declaration, and all the history behind it, and how a lot of the land was taken from the Arabs, and because of that, feelings were very high. And a period of mistrust and persecution started to show Jewish people felt increasingly insecure in places like Yemen, Iraq and North Africa, and they started to move to Israel, okay, because of that political turmoil. But otherwise, the Jewish people flourished for centuries. 1400 years in Iraq, okay, that was the oldest
Jewish community in the world, the Babylonian Jews, they are called the Babylonian Jews, okay. All of this is very important for us to study and talk about to understand the next part, okay. So, what you have to understand is from this,
from this very
contribution came,
yeah, from this very
peace and peaceful coexistence came the progress, which I will be addressing in Sharla. Okay, so the Jewish people, and the Christians lived together for the first time in peace without any fear. The Jews did not feel the Christians and the Christians did not fear the Jewish people because a lot of the times the Christians were accusing the Jewish people of many heinous crimes, okay, we did not commit. Okay. Medieval Christian history. When we study the history of Europe, throughout the Middle Ages, it is full of anti semitism, okay. There are a lot of
instances where the Jewish people were wiped out and they were banished and they were exiled. For example, in the time of Edward Edward, the first in Britain, when he was governing. From 1272 onwards, Edward the first started to govern England, Britain and parts of France, he started to persecute the Jewish people at one point and he exiled the entire Jewish population
to mainland Europe. Okay. And same thing happened. When in France when Philip the King of France, also managed the Jewish people and where did they find refuge a lot of them came to Islamic Spain in London was to seek refuge so Jewish people found refuge safe haven, in Spain and later on, when Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella took Granada in 1492. With the last stronghold of the Muslims in Spain. They banished the Jewish people again, they told the Jewish people to basically get out go anywhere you want. A lot of the Jewish people with the Muslims died on route to the coast and those who survived, they took refuge in the Ottoman lands and in North Africa, it to be to be
precise in the city of Salonika, which was governed by the Ottoman Empire today it is part of Northern Greece, but at that time, it was in basically an ottoman lands. Now it is called Thessaloniki. But at that time, the city of Salonika was
the hub of Jewish activity for centuries to come, because the Jewish people took refuge there. So this peaceful coexistence the Muslims had established for the Jews and the Christians gave rise to a magnificent
How can I put it?
magnificent civilization, okay.
whereby the Jews and the Christians worked together with the Muslims, and they started to discover knowledge that was hidden previously from the people. Okay, Christian Europe had neglected Greek philosophy for a long time. Okay. So what happened in this period when the most
limbs came to power in lands from China to Spain. If I was to talk about one particular figure who made some difference was, he was clearly a lot more, a lot more governed. From 193 80 onwards, Moon was the successor of Harun Rashid, famous Harun Rashid, the Cave of 1001 nights, okay. Haruna Rashid was a very famous Calif, as we all know, who basically died in 193 history and Alma moon succeeded him. Alma moon was a rationalist, okay. He's also known as
one of the Alma de la. He was, really, he was a rationalist. And he persecuted
a lot of people,
too, and you tried to force them into his view of thinking, where did his view come from Alma moon
basically had adopted a view of Islam, which was directly inspired by Greek philosophy. Okay. Many of the Greek works when Muslims came to power, and Muslims consolidated their power throughout this land I've been talking about from China to Spain.
Muslims started having consolidated power, their power throughout this land, they started to explore previous civilizations and the achievements and their legacies. So one of those legacies was the Greek legacy, right? Greek works were circulating around a Greek word at the time. In particular, in the Byzantine world, the Byzantines had collected a lot of Greek works, written by Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras and other Greek philosophers and thinkers. Right. So Alma moon was curious to know all that knowledge. So he established an institution called Bayt al hikma beta hikma, literally translated the house of wisdom in Baghdad, okay, in this particular institution, Alma mon, would
patronize scholars and translators for them to translate. Greek works into the Arabic language. Okay, so a lot of the Greek literature was translated into the Arabic language and Bayt al hikma nl Baghdad, in the city of that it was called at the time Medina to salam, okay, you can still find coins from the ambassade period mented at Medina to Salam. But you know, the Salam was later on, called Baghdad.
So, this was a very, very interesting period. Okay.
In this period now,
when beta hikma translated a lot of these Greek works, many Muslim thinkers started to read these great Greek ideas. And they started to use the Greek lens to study Islam. Okay, out of out of septillion logic, which, which promotes a lot of skepticism. Every single thinker who read these Greek works without having any foundation in Islamic theology or having without having much connection with Muslim tradition, they started to question a lot of things in Islam, and they started to rationally based upon pure human rationale, they started to
explain Islam, and that caused many problems, okay, anything that did not fit into Aristotelian logic was questioned, not the other way around. So the Quran was not the lens they were using to study Greek philosophy. Rather, they started to use the Greek philosophy as a lens to study the Quran. And what resulted was a great persecution of the alhama of scholars, like Imam Ahmed, like Mohammed bin No, and many, many other scholars, many Muslim historians have talked about it in
their Chronicles, and this period is called almena. Okay, literally that means persecution, okay, hardship, it means hardship, a period of hardship for the Muslim scholars, why? Because the kalevala Moon became an evil he became one of the martyrs he, okay, he was really, he became one of them.
And he started to persecute scholars who did not agree with him. One of the ideas he came up with was that the Quran is created, it is created it is like a reactionary text to events that occurred in history, rather than, you know, being an eternal text with a lot in a lot of knowledge. The Quran was created, okay, as events occurred, okay. This is one of the idea, ideas he came up with, and the scholars the allama. They said, No, the Quran is of Allah, it is the knowledge of Allah the knowledge of Allah cannot be created.
Law is forever. Why is a law is
not eligible for maternity a law does not just become knowledgeable by events occurring, okay? Something happens in a lot of gets gets to know it. That was the consequence when our fighting against that things happen and Allah becomes aware of those things. It doesn't work like that the Alibaba saying, Allah is knowledgeable eternally. Allah is knowledge of the past of the present and the future is is with him. So the more does it. We're a people who had influenced a lot of the thinkers in the ninth century in particular when Alma moon was governing Alma moon, as I said earlier, Khelifa Mr. Moon was a very enthusiastic
observer, or a very enthusiastic reader of Greek knowledge.
And I will quickly share this again. on my page. On my moon basically, he
came to adopt the Greek view on many things, because Greek knowledge is translated in beta hikma. Beta hikma was this institution that was created to translate Greek works into the Arabic language and into other languages,
from other languages into the Arabic language. So
Allah mon basically started to persecute many Allah. Okay, so the result was some sort of antagonism towards Greek knowledge in general. Okay, this was a, this was a natural outcome. A lot of the traditional scholars, scholars of Hadith scholars have fake or the Muslim tradition in general, they became very skeptical of Greek knowledge, they started to see Greek knowledge as a problem, they started to see Greek knowledge as a threat, basically. And because of this, much of the beneficial knowledge that came from the Greeks, was also doubted, right. But on the other hand, other scholars, they had a balanced view, what they did was they ignored harmful Greek knowledge. For example,
Aristotelian logic, they considered it very, very harmful, they put it aside, and beneficial Greek knowledge, for example, on mathematics on medicine, on other things, they accepted it, they adopted it, and they benefited from it. So a lot of this activity that took place in Baghdad, was then transferred on to other lands, throughout the Muslim civilization, even in Central Asia, a lot of libraries, a lot of institutions started to translate these works in to the Arabic language, okay. And the result was a flourishing
culture of reading, writing.
Studying all these works of the past, and together with Muslim theology with Muslim works. The question now is brothers and sisters, where did this inspiration come from? Where did this inspiration to study actually come from? This came directly from the Quran, the Quran encouraged Muslims to study
the natural phenomenon. And the inspiration came directly from the Quran.
Okay, so brothers and sisters,
what you have to understand is,
it wasn't just an accident, okay, Muslim civilization, getting into books. And reading and writing was not an accident. Muslims just didn't pop into existence, almost didn't just started to read these works just because they liked books. Rather, inspiration came directly from the Quran, the Quran had made it very, very clear that people have knowledge, the best people in the world, okay, in human history, the Quran in a number of different places, highlights the importance of knowledge. In fact, the first commandment in the Quran was to do with knowledge to read and write a Lost Planet Allah. When the Prophet was in cave salatu salam and he was in the cave of Hara when you received
the very first revelation from God. What was that the religion? The first five verses of the Quran that were revealed upon the Prophet in the cave of Hara, what were they? Okay? those verses are the first five verses of chapter 96 of the art. So total allok and they go as follows. How do we live in a shape on the regime Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem,
Accra, Bismillah baccala, the Hala, Krabi
Mira baccala the Holla Holla Holla Holla call in Santa Mina Harlock
and Allahu Allah are here Elia. Okay. Basically, these were the words that were revealed by Allah subhanaw taala carabus Mira baccala the Kala curried in the name of your Lord who created holla Collinson, Amina Allah, okay, who created from a clot, okay.
And many more verses that followed for example,
a last minute Allah taught man the use of pen, and Allah subhanaw taala taught man what he knew not so here Allah is talking about seek about the importance of seeking knowledge. So seeking knowledge is absolutely crucial for all humans. The first message that came in the Quran was to seek knowledge to build your aim to build your knowledge. Okay, now many people might turn around and say that this knowledge is primarily the knowledge of theology, the knowledge of Islam, the knowledge of the Quran and the Sunnah. Absolutely, no doubt. Primarily, the knowledge that Allah is talking about in the Quran is the knowledge of the Quran, the book that was revealed and the tradition the Sunnah of the
Prophet the legacy of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam indeed no doubt, that is the knowledge Allah is talking about primarily, but from that knowledge if you read the Quran carefully, a lot draws the attention of the reader to the natural phenomena for example, in in a chapter of the Quran Allah says all the blemishes on the regime similar monitor him of Allah yonder una illiberal he gave a wholecut Do you not see how a lot created the camel wireless semi cave roof yet? Okay, how the heavens okay how the the the skies have been made basically have been raised? What are the cables that they had? Okay? And how the planet Earth has been put straight for you For you to walk on for
you to tread on right?
So Allah yonder una Ll Emily cave Holika Bella sama ek for a while or because of the LG barlick a philosopher and look at the mountains how they have been pegged in the ground. Look at the mountains So Allah is talking about the natural phenomena here okay. Look at the camels look at the sky look at the planet Earth look at your mountains Look at all these things right? So Allah is asking us to study ignore pay homage Josie is one of the great scholars of Islam in the past, he stated that a lot of yield two types of book books, okay, one is the revelation, the Koran, the text, okay, the other is the universe. So you read both books, and you come to learn about your Creator okay. So the
Quran encouraged the knowledge reading writing and this gave rise to what we know again today as the Muslim civilization okay, because of book reading book production book translation, okay. With with this, of course, came a lot of unnecessary knowledge or harmful knowledge. According to Muslim theologians and Muslim scholars, a lot of them they saw this knowledge as harmful, right the Greek knowledge because of the experience with the basket, Caleb's Alma moon Alma the same, and Anwar al rhotic. Okay, these Caleb's together three of them, they persecuted hundreds of scholars of Islam because they became rationalist, they became more popular, they became heavily inspired by the Greek
philosophy at the time. And they started to use the Greek lens to study the literature of Islam, they started to persecute all the scholars who did not, who did not agree with them, who did not agree with them. And the result was antagonism antagonism on the part of the Muslim scholars towards Greek philosophy in general. And that gave rise to this tense relationship between the traditionalist and anything that came from Greek philosophy. But again, there were others who saw things differently and they had a balanced view. And they started to study Greek knowledge and take benefit from it. So all of this knowledge was transferred throughout the Muslim civilization. So
with the Quran,
with Hadith with the knowledge of jurisprudence, Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic law, Sharia, okay, went other knowledge everywhere the Muslims went, they established libraries, they established institutions, they opened these institutions for people to study free of charge. They establish academies, whereby
People were studying works of the past, okay. And this gave rise to scholars, scholars, thinkers, intellectuals, from Muslim from the Muslim background, as well as the Christian background and the Jewish background, the Jews produced scholars writing in the Arabic language. So the Arabic language because of this translation movement initiated, and later on, transferred to Central Asia and all the way to Spain, the Arabic language because of this translation movement became the lingua franca of the civilized world. for 500 years brothers and sisters in Islam for five centuries for 500 years. Muslims they imparted his knowledge in the Arabic language, the status the English language
enjoys today in the world, this language, the English language, which is the language of a tiny island in Western Europe called England. Okay, think about it, where I sit right now today in London, okay, I'm in London and the English language is born in
this region called England, okay. And English people are a combination or or maybe are a mixture of two tribes if not more, the angles and the Saxons Saxons came from Germany, and angles came from Scandinavia. So it is a Germanic language. English language is a mixture of Germanic languages, okay, so it is not very similar to for that reason.
It's not very similar to Latin language, or languages that that came from the Latin language for example, Spanish, Italian and French, they actually are dialects of the Latin language, okay. But English language is quite different. So English language, the language of a tiny island in Western Europe became the lingua franca of the world today, okay, most academic works, if not all most of them are either authored in the English language or translated into the English language for wider reading for wider reading, and you will agree with me on that point. So the status the English language enjoys today was enjoyed for five centuries by the Arabic language for 500 years, the
Arabic language was studied by Europeans, by Africans by the Middle Eastern scholars, by Central Asians, as far as China, so from China to Spain, to France to Germany to Britain, they were Englishman during the Middle Ages, who were studying the Arabic language, so that they can study all of these sciences and this philosophy and this knowledge that has been translated from other languages into the Arabic language. So let me repeat that again. knowledge from Greek, from Indian, from Latin, and from other languages was translated into the Arabic language. And this knowledge was then placed into libraries from China to Spain, due to the expansion of the Muslim civilization, and
then
this knowledge was made available free of charge to all people living in these lands. And that's why many, many scholars paid lavish tribute to this particular civilization that was created by the Muslims at that time, okay, many many people, okay.
who studied these works, they made progress, okay, people became scholars, people became poets people became intellectuals, okay. And there are scholars who have written on this, and they have paid lavish tributes to this particular aspect of the Muslim civilization. Okay.
Many people have done a comparison, okay.
between
other civilizations at the time, and the Muslim civilization, many people have made comparisons. One of the quotes I really want to read in this regard for you to understand the magnitude of this achievement is from Marmaduke, Pickthall Marmaduke. Pickthall was a Muslim convert, he was an English man who
was born in Britain. He was
he was an intellectual. He was also an author who has written many, many works. He has since passed away. Long ago, he translated the Quran into the classical English. Okay, Mama dog picked all was a man of literature, okay. And he converted to Islam. He embraced Islam. He wrote a book titled
The cultural side of Islam the cultural side of Islam in that book, he stays in Spain under the Obama years and in Baghdad, under the Ambassador caylus. Christians and Jews equally with Muslims are admitted to the schools and universities. Not only that, but were boarded and launched in hospitals at the cost of the states. So momodu pictoral Why do you think he became a Muslim? Why do you think he wrote this book? Because he had studied the history of the civilization of Islam, and he realized that no other civilization in human history can claim this level of progress and peaceful coexistence that was enabled by Islam. No other civilization can possibly claim this level
of freedom tolerance. And of course, I'm not saying it was perfect. The Muslims are humans. Muslims made major errors, they made major mistakes, but the model Islam and Muslims is presented to the world enabling all people to seek knowledge in universities and institutions. is unprecedented. It has absolutely unprecedented okay. And this continued discontinued, right. The ambassador Calif Abu Jafar almanzora, who died in 775, as I already mentioned, establishes beta hikma. Okay.
And again, many, many people, many kings, they followed his example, Alma moon established this institution called beta hikma, but it didn't stop there. Okay, if you look at the the libraries of other Muslim kings who followed the same example, and they promoted knowledge and learning throughout the Muslim civilization, from China to Spain again,
for example, the first library of importance and value in Europe was the Royal library of the oma yet in Cordoba. Okay, man, the first was himself a scholar and a point of the hand, the first one of the first omiya, Khelifa established
government in Spain. Basically, the umayyads, who were ousted by the ambassador in
the mainland of Islam, established another Caliphate in Spain. So in Spain, the ambassador had no influence, rather the Americans establish their own government. And Amir took full advantage of the channel, okay.
between, you know, the sea between Africa, North Africa, Morocco, and Spain, even if you were to go to Morocco today, from Spain, you would have to take a ferry right? So that channel between Morocco and Spain, of the man the first took full advantage of that, and establish an independent government in Spain, and it was called omega Caliphate of Spain. So he was the first Caliph of the caliphate, he governed from 756 to 788. Okay, he himself was a scholar and appoint his son, his Sham, the first followed his footsteps by becoming a point and an admirer of the Arabic literature. And that hukam the first also loved poetry and like to surrounded, like to be surrounded by scholars, the later
caliphs, especially of the man, the third, who was one of the most powerful monarchs in European history in the 10th century, are going from 912 to 961. His reign was very, very long, very long reign, almost 50 years. Okay. The third was one of the most powerful monarchs. And how come the second, of course, his successor, who also governed for nearly 40 years, were devoted to the hobby of collecting Rare Books. abass benassi, the agent of the man, the third traveled, as far as Mesopotamia, ie Iraq, in search of Arabic translations of Persian and Greek works on science. So in other words, people like, man, the third, the Umayyad Caliph of Spain, in the 10th century, had
agents running around for him collecting books from the entire Muslim world, okay, because the Muslim world from China to Spain, again,
had become the hub of knowledge and literature. So if you were interested in books from the Greek period from the Roman period from the sasanian period, from, let's say, from India, translated into Arabic or in the original languages, then you must frequent the book markets of Baghdad, primarily number one than Damascus, that possibly Central Asia. Okay. That's where these agents were running around collecting books for people like Amanda third, I am a book collector brothers and sisters. I'm a minor book collector, I'm a minor, you know, bibliophile. Okay? I have people looking for books for me, you know, in different places. Okay.
Sometimes when they get a book, they are booksellers Of course, they want to price for it and they come to me and they asked me if you want to buy a book, okay. And sometimes I get these books. You know, I have a large collection of printed works here in Britain and book dealers book, you know booksellers, they contact me sometimes they email me. So if someone like me in the 21st century has this passion for books, imagine the key life. Imagine the man with so much power and money. So Batman The third had his agents running around and one of them was called a Bosman, NASA, who was running around collecting rare works from different book markets in the Muslim world.
And these rare and valuable books all the new were bought and copied for how come the second in Alexandria, Cairo bada in Damascus, exactly what I was talking about. So how can the second the successor of the command the third, basically had people collecting books for him and copying for him in in Alexandria, Cairo, Baghdad and Damascus centers of book production at that time in the world, the Chief Librarian of haccombe The second was a high ranking Eunuch called Talat, according to whom there were 400,000 volumes of books in the Royal library, this list of the books recording the names, and the authors of the titles alone consisted of 44 volumes of 54 years each. So this
means 44 volumes. This is the volume 44 volumes are just a list of the books. So 44 books basically documented the names and the authors. The list of the books How come the second had in his library, such was his love for books.
This suggests alone that the rulers of Spain were strong supporters of the advancement of scientific knowledge and perhaps they were deeply inspired by the Quranic injunction in this regard. Hallelujah, via Lavina, Yala Mona Allah, Allah Allah mon se, or Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam are those who know equal to those who know not, it is only men of understanding who will remember. Okay, so this is a verse from the Quran, whereby a last panel Bala highlights the importance of the people of knowledge. So brothers sisters, this was basically a peek into the progress I have been talking about for a while, and I want you to consider seriously the legacy of the Muslim civilization.
And in the next episode, I will talk more about book production
libraries around the Muslim world and how knowledge was transferred into other nations. In the next episode, inshallah, by the grace of Allah, we are still going through the progress part by the way, remember, again, to repeat, I am talking about the four events in the golden chain of events. Okay, in the previous six episodes, I have covered a lot about the first three locks of the chain number one, the Quran, the revelation of the Quran, number two justice that came from the Koran, and number three piece that came from that justice. And now we are covering the fourth lock in the chain, or the fourth element in the chain, which is progress. And progress started with, of course,
consolidating power throughout the Muslim Empire throughout the Muslim lands, from China to Spain. And after this constant consolidation of power, establishing peaceful coexistence between communities, Christians, Jews and Muslims and Zoroastrians, and wherever, whoever lived wherever, in what, whatever part of the land they lived in, okay, all these people live together in peace. And after that started the process of institutionalization of knowledge, and
seeking
book writing book collecting libraries. And from this came what we call the Islamic civilization, the Islamic civilization. That's what the Muslim civilization came from. So in the next episode, covering the same part, titled progress, I will be talking about books,
production of the books,
libraries in the Muslim world, and how this knowledge was then transferred on to other people in other lands like Northern Europe, and parts of
the world in other places, right. Until then, brothers sisters, I'll stop now, today's episode was discussing progress of the Muslim civilization, how Muslim civilization enabled progress for humans by enabling them to live together in peace primarily number one, and then giving them
knowledge to stimulate the mind so that so that they can make this world a better place inshallah So, inshallah I stop here and I will take questions and post your questions in the comment section and I will try my best to answer them inshallah tada Okay, Until the next episode Assalamu alaikum Welcome to reliable anime. So are there any questions? I can see some okay
okay make an entire episode on Muslim contribution to Indian subcontinent you only did on orans M and T Bhutan, but cover it completely. Absolutely. Ali Haider. Thank you for that point. In this particular series of lectures, I will be covering the Indian subcontinent having covered the four
locks of the golden chain of events Okay, having gone through the golden chain of events completely, I will then start to focus on regions I will talk about Islamic Spain in more detail I will talk about let's say the Middle East in more detail, I will talk about Central Asia I will talk about the Ottoman lands and the Ottoman contribution to human development and then I will talk about India as well inshallah so your thought is well appreciated and it will be inshallah looked into
what kind of books preferable I don't know what you mean by that or what kind of books on what topic you mean history. I have recommended books in previous episodes Please don't do look at them and then you will see exactly what I think what books should be
okay
right so
while ago Salama Abdullah got a thank you so much for your comments brothers and sisters. Thank you so much for your encouragement. So it seems there are no more questions. I will stop here for now and inshallah I will see you same time next Saturday on live Dean Facebook page I would like to thank live Dean team for making this possible May Allah bless them Allah continue to bless them with more passion for this Deen so that we can continue to serve his Deen in our own little capacities designed with Locarno salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah Kanaka llama him Dec Michigan lai lai, lanten, estado federal governor to Holic