Religion and Science Islamic Perspective 13th. Christian – Jewish – Muslim Dialogue November 14, 2017

In the Beginning 1 And when your Lord said to the angels, “I will place a viceroy in the earth,” they said, “Will You place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we hymn Your praise and sanctify You? He said, “Surely, I know that which you do not know.” (2: 30)

In The Beginning 2 And He taught Adam all the names, then showed them to the angels, saying, “Inform Me of the names of these, if you are truthful.” They said, “Glory be to You. We have no knowledge except that which You have taught us; surely You are the Omniscient, the Wise. He said, “Adam, inform them of their names.” (2: 30-33)

The First Revelation Read: In the name of your Lord who created; Created humankind from a clot. Read; and your Lord is the Most Generous, He taught by the pen, Taught humankind that which he knew not. (96: 1-5)

Summary Human beings are able to Learn Educate Use learning tools.

Seeking Knowledge “Have they not travelled in the land, and do they not have hearts to feel with and ears to hear with? For indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are within the bosoms, that grow blind.” (22: 46) “Say, ‘Travel in the land and see how did God originate the creation.’” (29: 20) “Seeking knowledge is an obligatory duty for every male and female.” (Prophetic tradition)

References in the Qur’an to Scientific Phenomena Initial gaseous mass before creation of galaxies (41:11) Shape of the earth is spherical (31:29, 39:5) Moonlight is reflected light (25:61, 10:5, 71: 15-16) The Sun and Moon rotate (21:33, 36:40) Mountains are like tent pegs (78: 6-7, 21:31) Embryology (32:8)- Keith Moore

“Most of the branches of religious knowledge are intellectual for one who comprehends them, and most of the branches of intellectual knowledge are religious for one who knows them.” al-Ghazaly (1058 – 1111 C.E.)

Schools Medina Cordoba Cairo and other cities Captives Ransomed for teaching (626 C.E.) Cordoba Twenty-seven free schools for the poor (961 to 976 CE) Cairo and other cities Dar al-’Ilm (House of Knowledge) (1005 C.E.) Nizamiyyah (Nizam al-Mulk) Baghdad Naishapur North Africa (1067 C.E. )

Writing Paper Paper was introduced in 751 C.E. First paper factory in Baghdad 794 C.E.

Libraries and Research Centers (813-833 C.E.) Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad. (961 to 976 CE) Al-Hakim II Library in Cordoba had 400,000 volumes (1004) Dar al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) in Cairo. True public libraries started to appear in the 10th. Century. (1380 CE) 400 years later the Bilbliotheque Nationale in Paris had 1200 volumes.

Stages of Development of Science in the Muslim World the stage of translation of foreign scientific sources into Arabic (7th- 9th centuries); the stage of excellence and genuine contribution to science (9th- 13th centuries); the stage of decline (after 13th century).

Observatories Shammasiyah in Baghdad (828) Dayr Murran near Damascus. Hamadan (1023 C.E.) Maragheh (1259 C.E.) Ulugh Beg in Samarkand (1420)

Hospitals Walid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik (707 C.E.) in Damascus. Al-Rashid (786-809 C.E.) in Baghdad. Medical Education organized. 9th. Century C.E. Graduates were administered Hippocratic oath.

Medical Education Ishaq b. Ali Al-Rahwi (9th. Century) Adab al-Tabib (Ethics of the physician) The conduct of the physician, The conduct of the patient, And the conduct of the public at large towards the medical profession and their patients. 

Examples of Muslim Scholars

Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan (721-815 C.E.) Geber His seventy books were translated into Latin as the “Liber de septuaginta” by Gerard of Cremona in 12th century. The first one to extract Sulpheric acid (Zait al-Zag) Nitric Acid (Maa al-Fiddah) Sodium Hydorxide (Soda Kawiyyah)

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780-850) Algebra The decimal system

Abu ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn al-Haytham (965-1039) AlHazen Theory of Light Ibn al-Haytham is credited with explaining the nature of light and vision, through using a dark chamber he called “Albeit Almuzlim”, which translates into Latin as the “camera obscura”; the device that forms the basis of photography.

Abu “Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn al-Haytham (965-1039) AlHazen His Book of Optics was translated into Latin and had a significant influence on many scientists of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Enlightenment.

Abu ‘Ali al-Husain ibn Sina (980-1037) Avicenna “The Prince of Physicians” Wrote 250 books. The Canon of Medicine Translated by Gerard of Cremona in the second half of the 12th Century. Became a reference source for medical studies in the European universities until the end of the 17th. Century. Book of Healing Translated into Latin in the 12th Century.

Ismail al-Jazari (1136-1206) The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices. Water raising machines. Canonical valves mentioned by Leonardo da Vinci and patented in England in 1784. (Freely, p.112)

Ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288) Discovered the blood circulatory system 300 years before William Harvey. Ophthalmology Comments on “The Canon of Medicine” by Avicenna. ibn al-nafis (1213–1288) was an Arab physician who made significant contributions to the early knowledge of the pulmonary circulation. However, little has been written about him in the physiological literature. He forms a link between the early studies of the school of Galen (130–199) in the 2nd century and the European Renaissance scholars such as Michael Servetus (1511–1553), Realdus Columbus (1516–1559), Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564), and William Harvey (1578–1657). The intervening period of some 1300 years, part of which is sometimes referred to as the Islamic Golden Age, is often largely ignored, and some of its contributions are emphasized here. Ibn al-Nafis was a remarkable man and deserves to be better known. John B. West

Ibn al-Shatir (Damascus 1304-1375 C.E.) Incorporated various ingenious modifications to Ptolemy’s theory, to solve the problem of the equant. Ibn al-Shatir’s model was rediscovered in the late 1950’s by E.S. Kennedy and his students at the American University of Beirut. Copernicus (1473 – 1543 C.E.) used a similar model to eliminate the equant.

Bibliography Bakar, Osman. 1999. The History and Philosophy of Islamic Science. Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic Texts Society. Dallal, Ahmad S. 2011. Early Islam in Science and Religion Around the World. New York, USA: Oxford University. Dallal, Ahmad. 2010. Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History. New Haven, USA: Yale University. Freely, John. 2011. Light From The East. New York, USA: I. B. Tauris. Hill, Donald R. 1993. Islamic Science and Engineering. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University.

Bibliography Iqbal Muzzafar. 2002. Islam and Science. Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing. Lerner, Fred. 1998. The Story of Libraries. New York: The Continuum. Majeed, Azeem. 2005. How Islam changed Medicine. British Medical Journal (331) 1486.  doi: https://doi-org.proxy1.lib.uwo.ca/10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1486 Nasr, Seyyed Hussein. 1987. Science and Civilization in Islam. Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic Texts Society.

Bibliography Sarton, George. 1927. Introduction to the History of Science. V1. London: Bailliere, Tindall, and Cox. Turner, Howard R. 1997. Science in Medieval Islam. Austin, USA: University of Texas. West, John B. 2008. Ibn al-Nafis, the pulmonary circulation, and the Islamic Golden Age. J. of the Applied Physiology, 105(6), 1877-1880. doi:  10.1152/japplphysiol.91171.2008