[size=14pt]Understanding Muslims’ contributions to civilisation[/size]


Written by Ibrahim Babatunde
Friday, 09 September 2011
The world is held up by four pillars: The wisdom of the learned, the justice of the great,the prayers of the righteous and the valour of the brave.”

This inscription was found at the entrance to universities in Spain during the Muslim era. It will be noticed that wisdom heads the list, which is not surprising when one recalls that Islam praises learning in several verses in the Glorious Quran, coupled with the proclamation of prophet Muhammed (SAW) that “scholar’s ink is more precious than the martyr’s blood.”

For several centuries, Muslims remained faithful to this tenet of their religion. According to Philip K. Hitti in his Precis d’Histoire des Arabs, that is, Short History of the Arabs, “no other people made important contribution to human progress as did the Arabs, if we take this term to mean all those whose mother-tongue was Arabic and not merely those living in the Arabian peninsula. For centuries, Arabic was the language of learning, culcivilisation, it should be borne in mind that this civilisation was not created by the Arabs alone, it was and still is, the work of people of different races and tongues, brought together under Islam into one spiritual and supernatural community. It is not a gain saying that Islam owes the glories of the civilisation through its faith that imparted the lesson of the unity of God and impressed that there is no partner in His sovereignty and authority, and also that He is free from anthropomorphism, injustice and tyranny, defects and shortcomings.

When talking about the muslim created in the crucible of Islam, one cannot emphasise strongly enough the formative role played by Arabic, that fascinating language with all its marvellous subtlety and evocative power, which for hundred years, like Latin in christendom during the middle ages, was not only the language of culture but also the virtual lingua franca of all the countries of Islam. Arabic as a liturgical language has left an immense and profound impression on most of the languages of Muslim community and its predominance during the centuries when Islamic civilisation was at its peak.

It is not feasible to overlook Muslim’s contribution to language and literature during the fourteenth century and later there have been many renowned men of letters, whose literary writings and style bear the lasting impression of the Arabic literature. In 1349 A.D, Boccaccio, and Italian novelist and poet, the author of Decameron, has written stories under the caption “Ten morns” in which the style of world renowned stories, the Arabian Nights, has been imitated.

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/eyes-of-islam/27940-understanding-muslims-contributions-to-civilisation

am surprised u brought two positive topics on. .Do i av to say dat i sense some hypocrisy too