TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE

1. A commentator asked "if the Islamic Empire (there never was an Islamic empire
in the sense of the other Empires - only an Islamic community - the Ummah) was so
good in science before why are the Orgainisation of Islamic Conference countries
lagging behind in science and technology?".

2. I had explained why before but i think I should repeat.

3. The early Muslims accepted the message of Allah in the Qur'an enjoining upon
Muslims to read (Iqraq). The verse (the first to be received by the Prophet - an
illiterate man) did not specify, much less limit what Muslims should read.

4. There were no books on Islam at that time but there were many books on the
Hebrew and the Christian religions. There were also many books or tracts on Greek
science and philosophy as well as Indian mathematics.

5. The early Muslims read and eventually translated all the writings of the Greeks,
the Indians and others. Obviously they had to learn these languages first. Then they
followed up by doing their own research.

6. And so the early Muslims were learned in the subjects pioneered by these other
races and this added to the body of knowledge they had acquired.

7. The Europeans on the other hand were wallowing in the superstitions of the Dark
Ages despite having embraced Christianity. The superior civilisation of the Muslims
overwhelmed the Europeans so that Spain, Portugal, Sicily, Greece and much of
Eastern Europe fell under Muslim rule.

8. But around the 15th Century of the Christian era, fatwas were made by Muslim
Ulamas that "Iqraq" or read was intended for reading and studying religion only.
From then on the Muslim scientists, physicians, mathematicians etc stopped their
study of these subjects in order to study religion exclusively.

9. On the other hand the Europeans noticing the greatness of the Muslim civilisation
decided to acquire the knowledge of the Muslims in the different subjects, including
those of the Greeks. To do this Christian priests learnt Arabic and were thus able to
gain access to the great libraries of Cordoba, Baghdad and elsewhere. They
translated the work of the Muslim scholars and scientists into Latin and then into
the other European languages.

10. If we care to read the history of the Muslims and the Europeans we would notice
that from around the 15th Century of the Christian era when the Muslims rejected
what they regarded as non-religious knowledge, the Muslim civilisation began to
regress.

11. The Europeans, after acquiring the knowledge of the Muslims started to emerge
from the Dark Ages and to build the civilisation that we see today.

12. Unfortunately Muslim historians seem not to have noticed the significance of the
fatwas of the 15th Century A.D. Even today Muslims seem unwilling to connect this
decline of their civilisation with the neglect of non-religious knowledge. But
European historians admit that their emergence from the Dark Ages, their
Renaissance, coincided with their study of the Islamic civilisation and its origins.

Dr. Mahatir mohammad

Former PM of Malaysia
Visit www.chedat.com to read his articles