Scientific renaissance in Muslim countries

By Hasan Zillur Rahim

A remarkable interactive exhibition called “Islamic Science Rediscovered” at the Tech Museum in San Jose, California in the heart of Silicon Valley is drawing large number of visitors. The exhibition celebrates “a Golden Age of Science and Technology” when, from the 8th to the 13th century, Muslims led the world in such fields as architecture, arts , astronomy, engineering, exploration, flight, mathematics, medicine, optics and water management.  (http://www.thetech.org/islamic_science_rediscovered/)

A timeline highlighting the significant events in Islamic culture and science during the golden age greets the visitor at the entrance to the exhibit. Once you grasp the outline, you can begin to focus on the specifics.In “Technology and Inventions,” we are acquainted with the remarkable Banu Musa Brothers – Muhammad, Ahmad and Hasan (800/805/810-873) – who excelled in engineering, mathematics and astronomy. Al-Jazari (1136-1206) was a polymath who invented over fifty mechanical devices and automated machines, described in meticulous detail in his “Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.” What distinguished Muslim technologists were that their inventions made people prosperous without causing any social disruption.

Shari’ah Issues in Multi Level Marketing

Realities of MLM Business:

1.     “MLM is a sales system under which an agent (or salesperson or distributor) of a company receives a commission on his own sales and a commission on the sales from each person he convinces to become an agent. First a person becomes an agent of the company by buying a product of the company and registering as its member; (or just registering as its member without buying any product). After that each agent has to sell the company's products or services to other individuals and recruit those as agents to sell the company's products or services. Each new person the agent gains are asked to bring his own recruits. The result is that under an agent a hierarchical substructure gets developed known as a down line. Each distributor gets sales commissions on his or her direct product sales. He or she also makes a commission on the sales of the distributors in their down line according to the method of a pyramid scheme.”

China vs USA - The Currency War : Where Lies the True Solution?

In the twenty first century after the War on Islam dubbed as war on terror, probably one of the most debated issues in the international arena is the Chinese currency being undervalued. It is something that has received huge criticism from the western world especially from USA. For last few years USA has repeatedly called China to devalue its currency. Even USA has labeled China as currency manipulator! The past two G-20 summits has been dealing with this issue. The question is should China revalue it and let the currency appreciate or keep it as it is? Is that the appreciation of Chinese currency will solve the problem for USA and the rest of the western world? If so, then why the Chinese currency was kept low (if it is artificially) earlier? Or there are even bigger issues in this. This article tries to explain all of these and the issues within by going through the history of currency standard, why and how devaluation is done, and why it is that now an appreciation of Chinese currency has been repeatedly asked for? And why does it concern USA so much?

How Islamic Civilization Changed the World We Live Today

From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Islamic Civilization through its accountable political system of Khilafah over a 1300 years has given service to mankind by giving us many innovations that we take for granted in our daily life. This article highlights those inventions that we use today for granted. However, as we all are aware that, the Islamic Khilafah state in its golden age has developed many scientific and material inventions for the service of humankind some of which have been considered as impossible even in modern day’s secular capitalist system. The Islamic civilization has stretched from southern Spain as far as China. With it principle of `no copyright policy', Islamic civilization has encouraged many great inventions and intellectual ventures from the 7th century onwards, in which scholars of many faiths built on the ancient knowledge of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, making breakthroughs that paved the way for the Renaissance in science and technology. Indded the active help of Islamic khilafah system has helped development of cities like Alexandria, Baghdad, Samarkand, Bukhara, Granada, Istanbul, Cairo, Cordoba, etc to poster intellecual and scientific inventions. Indeed this all happened when the continent Europe was fully sinked into medivial dark age and USA not even discovered.

Heroes of Islam : Abdur-Rahman ibn Awl r.a.

He was one of the first eight persons to accept Islam. He was one of the ten persons (al-asharatu-l mubashshirin) who were assured of entering Paradise. He was one of the six persons chosen by Umar r.a. to form the council of shura to choose the Khilafah after his death.

His name in Jahiliyyah days was Abu Amr. But when he accepted Islam the noble Prophet sws called him Abdur-Rahman r.a. - the servant of the Beneficent Allah swt.

Abdur-Rahman r.a. became a Muslim before the Prophet sws entered the house of al-Arqam. In fact it is said that he accepted Islam only two days after Abu Bakr as-Siddiq r.a. did so.

Heroes of Islam: Abdullah Ibn Jahsh

Abdullah ibn Jahsh r.a. was a cousin of the Prophet sws and his sister, Zaynab bint Jahsh r.a., was a wife of the Prophet sws. He was the first to head a group of Muslims on an expedition and so was the first to be called "Amir al-Muminoon" (Commander of the Believers).

Abdullah ibn Jahsh r.a. became a Muslim before the Prophet sws entered the House of al-Arqam which became a meeting place, a school and a place of refuge for the early Muslims. He was thus one of the first to accept Islam.

Hajj: The Ultimate Call Towards Unity

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The Challenge of Al-Quran

Ramadan known as month of Quran, month of Revelation has arrived. It is the month when Allah swt descended the Quran upon Prophet Muhammad sws to guide whole of mankind. The achievement of 23 years life of our noble prophet sws, reminds us the importance of Quran to our life. How Quran can transcend ignorance with enlightment, decline with revival. Indeed this is the guideline i.e. huda which helped the ignorant Arabs from the desert, living in the margin of history to transform into the best generation of people in human history. This is the book that helped those Arab to lead the world and rule the world with justice, provided security and prosperity unprecedented in human history.

Heroes of Islam: Jafar Ibn Abi Talib

In spite of his noble standing among the Quraysh, Abu Talib, an uncle of the Prophet, was quite poor. He had a large family and did not have enough means to support them adequately. His poverty-stricken situation became much worse when a severe drought hit the Arabian peninsula. The drought destroyed vegetation and livestock and, it is said, people were driven to eat bones in the struggle for survival.

Intellectual Enlightment Under Islam: The Oldest Universities of the World

The following is brief desription of the universities during the time of Khilafah. These universities were built at a time when the westerners even did not knew the term university.

The University of Al-Karaouine or Al-Qarawiyyin (Arabic: جامعة القرويين‎) (other transliterations of the name include Qarawiyin, Kairouyine, Kairaouine, Qairawiyin, Qaraouyine, Quaraouiyine, Quarawin, and Qaraouiyn) is a university located in Fes, Morocco. Founded in 859, as a religous school, the university is one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Muslim world.