One
point of agreement conspicuous in the Western publications concerning Islam and
in the books which travellers wrote about Islam is that Muslims are extremely
ignorant, that most of the Muslim people they contacted in Asia and Africa did
not know how to read and write, and that there is not a Muslim name among the
scientists who made a reputation in science or culture throughout the years covering
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some of those Western sources make a
narrow-minded diagnosis, alleging that the Islamic religion is an impediment to
progress, while others reach the ungrounded conclusion that it is this
ignorance that blindfolds Muslims from the greatness of Christianity and
hampers them from accepting Christianty despite all the efforts of
missionaries.
A retrospective look into
history will reveal that the truth is quite counter to the Christian
allegations. For Islam always commends knowledge and encourages Muslims to
learn. The ninth âyat-i-kerîma of Zumar Sûra purports, “... Say: Are those
equal, those who know and those who do not know? It is those who are endued
with understanding that receive admonition.”
(39-9) The following commandments of our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ are universally known:
“Even if knowledge is in China, go and learn it.” “There is Islam
wherever there is knowledge.” “It is farz
(Islam’s commandment) for Muslim men and Muslim women to look for knowledge and learn
it!” Islam holds knowledge equal with worshipping, and
the ink used by scholars equal with the blood of Muslims. Muslims reject
Christianity because the Islamic religion is much more logical and much more
true than Christianity.
Islam is not a regressive
religion, but on the contrary it commands to follow all the renovations, to
explore new facts daily, and to always make progress. It is for this reason
that from the earliest days of Islam great value was attached to men of knowledge,
the Muslim Arabs reached the highest summits in medicine, in chemistry, in
astronomy, in geography, in history, in literature, in mathematics, in
engineering, in architecture, and in ethical and social sciences, which are the
bases for all those sciences, educated valuable scholars, judges, experts and
masters, who are still being remembered with deep reverence today, and
became the teachers of the entire world and the guides of
civilization. Europeans, who were semi-barbarians in those times, studied
science in Muslim universities, and even Christian religious authorities, such
as Pope Sylvester, attended lectures in the Andalusian universities. A number
of scientific terms used in European languages today are of Arabic origin, e.g.
‘Chemistry’ from ‘Kimyâ’, ‘Algebra’ from ‘Al-jebîr’. For it was the Muslim
Arabs who taught these sciences to the world.
Europeans were loitering around the
misconception that the earth was a flat space of ground surrounded with walls,
when Muslims explored that it was a round, rotating planet. The length of a
meridian which they measured in the wilderness of Sinjar in the vicinity of
Mousul astoundingly concurs with today’s measurements. It was the Muslim Arabs,
again, who protected from extinction and annihilation the ancient Greek and
Roman books of philosophy, which were vehemently banned by the vulgarly
ignorant and bigoted priests of the Middle Ages, by undertaking their
translation. It is a fact acknowledged by reasonable Christians today that the
real Renaissance, (which means the revival of the ancient valuable sciences,)
came not in Italy, but in Arabia, during the reign of Abbasids; that is, a very
long time before the European Renaissance. It is a shame, though, that the
giant progress suddenly lost its impetus in the seventeenth century. What
fostered this catastrophic breakdown was the masonic and Jewish policy which
was formulated to obviate further scientific research on the part of Muslims by
infusing recessive notions into them, such as,
“Everything made by
Christians is a heresy forbidden (harâm) for Muslims. Those Muslims who adopt
or imitate them will become disbelievers,” and those
religiously ignorant bigots who believed them. In recent centuries the Ottomans
were the greatest guides of Muslims in knowledge. The entire Christendom
launched political and military offensives for the debilitation of that Islamic
Empire in order to reduce it to a state of disinterestedness towards the
improvements and explorations taking place in the world. Crusading attacks, on
the one hand, and the subversive and separatist activities of the heretical
Muslims employed by them, on the other, sabotaged the Ottoman guidance in
science and technology. The aggressions coming both from without and from
within caused lasting damages to the Turks. They were no longer able to make
effective new weapons. Nor could they properly tap the great resources in the
possession of their country. They had to
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forfeit the industry and the trade of their own country to
foreigners. They became poor.
Continuous improvements in all
areas are daily events in the world. We have to follow them continuously, learn
them, and teach them. We should follow our ancestors, not only in industry and
technology, but also in religious and moral attitudes, and we should raise
believing and decent generations. Let us give you a small example:
The Turks were universally known as
invincible wrestlers. Indeed, they always won the international wrestling
championships. In recent years, however, we have scarcely made ourselves felt
in the rings. Do you know why? Formerly, Europeans did not know wrestling. They
learned it from us, improved it and perfected it, adding new and swift acts,
new tricks, and new techniques. On the other hand, we still insist on the old
styles, which we do not know, either. We have not yet been able to examine the
improvements in wrestling properly. Nor do we seem to be willing to learn
lessons from foreign wrestlers. So, owing to the new techniques they have
developed, they easily wrestle our players to the ground. Therefore, we have to
learn worldly practices from people who know and do them better than we do. A
person who considers himself to be better than others in everything is either
an idiot or a megalomaniac.
Our religion has separated
religious knowledge from scientific knowledge. It has vehemently forbidden to
make a slightest alteration in religious teachings, in Islamic ethical
principles, or in the modes of worship. When it comes to worldly affairs and
scientific knowledge, however, Islam commands us to keep pace with all the
improvements, to learn and utilize all the new inventions. The so-called
intellectuals who seized power in the Ottoman administration reversed this set
of instructions. Falling for the masonic ruses, they attempted to modify
religious teachings and to demolish the essentials of Islam. They closed their
eyes to the scientific improvements and new explorations taking place in
Europe. In fact, they martyred the progressive-minded Ottoman emperors who
intended to follow the time’s scientific knowledge and modern technology. Quite
deprived of their personal initiatives in the hands of freemasons, they sought
progress in religious reforms and separatism. Astonishing to say, the heinous
attempts to pollute the pure religious teachings became a trend among political
parties and maintained its grip
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until recent years. Some politicians were carried away by that
vicious fad with such blind zealotry as to stigmatize some true Muslims whose
only fault was to show little interest in politics, or rather, not to support
their party. May infinite thanks be to Allâhu ta’âlâ that He eventually created the saviors to stop those people from leading our pure and noble people to disasters.
Otherwise, we would have been deprived of our blessed religion and beautiful
country, and fallen into the paws of communists. Al-hamd-u-lillâh ’alâ
hâzih-in-ni’mah!
Today, [in 1985 C.E.], there are nineteen
universities in Turkey. Young Muslim Turks are trying to learn modern worldly
knowledge and positive sciences and thereby to guide other Muslim countries. As
of 1981-82, the number of the students coming to Turkish universities from
Muslim countries was several thousand. The following is an excerpt translated
from an article published by a reasonable European concerning the scientific
research carried on in Muslim countries. The article, written by a French
writer named Jean Ferrera, appeared in the number 724 issue, dated January
1978, of a periodical entitled Science et Vie.
The headline of the article was Les Universites du Petrole =
(Petroleum Universities). Some of Ferrera’s observations are as follows:
“Muhammad ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’
passed away inthe arms of his beloved wife Âisha in Medina in 632. In the course
of the following years the Muslims, moving from their homeland which is called
Saudi Arabia today, established a colossal Islamic Empire astride a vast area
extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the river of Amur. Extremely strong,
patient and brave people as the Muslims were, they demonstrated great
compassion in the aftermath of their victories. At each place they passed by,
they established a civilization whose immense size most of us still do not
know. The Islamic universities, established on a vast area extending between
Baghdâd and Cordova, resuscitated the ancient civilizations which the European
ignorance was about to eradicate. While translating into Arabic the works of
Ptolemy, Euclid and Archimedes, the Muslims also rendered into their language the
works written by Indian scientists, studied them, and republished them
worldover. A group of envoys sent by the Caliph Hârûn-ur-reshîd to visit Aix
la-Chapellede Charlemagne for the first time in the eighth century were
appalled to find the people in the palace mostly ignorant and illiterate.
Europeans’
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first
experience with figures was in the ninth century, when the Muslims taught them
numbers, beginning with zero. In actual fact, Indians were the explorers of zero.
It was the Muslims, however, who transmitted it to Europeans. Likewise, the
Muslims were the earliest tutors who taught trigonometry to Europeans. The
Muslim teachers in Muslim universities taught sine, cosine and, some time
later, trigonometry to their European pupils. Whatsoever progress was made in
the name of knowledge in the world between the ninth and twelfth centuries
originated from one source of knowledge: Muslim universities.
[The number of the men of
knowledge and science educated in the Ottoman Empire defies computation. The
great services that those people rendered to today’s civilization are reflected
in their books. One of those great people is Mustafâ bin Alî Efendi
‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’, the muwaqqit (timekeeper) of the mosque of Yavuz
Sultân Selîm ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’, [d. 926 (1520 C.E.)] in Istanbul, and the
Reîs-ul-munajjimîn (Chief Astrologer of the Sultân). He passed away in 979
[1571 C.E.]. His geography book I’lâm-ul-ibâd and
his books of astronomy, Tes-hîl-ul-mîqât fî-’ilm-il-awqât, Teysîr-il-kawâkib and Kifâyat-ul-waqt fî rub’-i-dâira,
contain astounding information. Also, the book Kifâyat-ul-waqt
li-ma’rifat-i-dâir, by Abd-ul-’Azîz Wafâî
‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ [d. 874 (1469 C.E.)], provides modern astronomical
information.]
“Because books of medicine written
by the ancient Greeks were burned by the ignorant Christians of the Middle
Ages, we do not have their original copies today. A few pieces of those
original texts were forgotten here and there and thereby survived the barbarous
destructions. Those pieces were translated into Arabic by Huseyn ibni Johag of
Baghdâd. That great celebrity translated also the works of Plato and Aristotle
into Arabic.
“Muhammad bin Mûsâ Harazmî, one
of the three brothers educated as scholars of arithmetics, geometry and astronomy
in Baghdâd during the caliphate of Ma’mûn,[1] calculated the altitude
of the sun and the length of the equator, and made the instruments called
usturlâb (astrolabe) [rub’i-dâira] and used to determine the prayer times. His
book entitled Jebr (Algebra) was
---------------------------------
[1] The seventh Abbâsid Khalîfa. A son of
Hârûn-ur-reshîd, the fifth Khalîfa. He was born in the vicinity of Baghdâd in
786, and passed away in 833. He was buried in Tarsus.
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translated into English, and his book Usturlâb (Astrolabe) was
translated into Latin. He passed away in 233 [847 C.E.].
“Proving that the earth has a
spherical shape, the Muslim astronomers wiped out the European superstition
that ‘the earth is flat like a tray. If you go on a long sea voyage you will
fall down.’ They managed to measure correctly the circumference of the earth.
Sad to say, the Abbasid Empire, who taught many facts to Europeans and who
prepared the conditions that would give birth to Renaissance, began to suffer a
gradual decline, which reached its nadir with the Mongols’ invasion of Baghdâd
in 656 [1258 C.E.]. Burning and devastating the city, the Mongols put an end to
a civilization established by the Muslims. How are the situations now? Should
we expect another renaissance in the Islamic civilization?
“In the Middle Ages, Muslims
looked for gold, valuable spices, odorous-scented wood [such as aloe wood,
etc.], and exported some of them to Europe. Today, black gold has superseded
these things, [as was the case in the time of Suleymân (Solomon)
‘alaihis-salâm’.] I wonder if Muslims will manage to establish once again a
state as enormous as the empires established by Alexander [d. 323 B.C.] and
Napoleon [1769-1821 C.E.]? The present Arab welfare is due to petroleum. They
are trying to become powerful by utilizing this rich treasure in their hands.
The strategy conceived by Prof. Muhammad al Shamalî, Director of Quwait
Research center, is as follows: First of all, we have to make progress in
knowledge and science. This, in its turn, requires increasing our efforts in
scientific research and educating men of knowledge.”
This is the end of the passage
translated from the article by the French writer Ferrera.
Islamic scholars state that Islamic knowledge
consists of two parts: Religious knowledge, and Scientific knowledge. For
being an Islamic scholar it is necessary to learn both these parts. Every
Muslim has to learn and practice the religious knowledge, (the first part). In
other words, it is farz-i-’ayn. As for the scientific knowledge,
(i.e. the second part;) it is to be learned, as much as necessary, only by
those Muslims whose professions necessitate to do so. In other words, it is farz-i-kifâya.
A nation which carries out these two precepts will certainly make progress and
attain civilization. Allâhu ta’âlâ purports in
the twentieth âyat of the
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Shûrâ
Sûra of the Qur’ân al-kerîm, “To any that desires
the tilth of the Hereafter, We give increase in his tilth; and to any that
desires the tilth of this world, We grant somewhat thereof, but he has no share
or lot in the Hereafter.” (42-20) Desires are not obtained
with mere words. It is necessary to hold fast to the causes, i.e. to work. Allâhu ta’âlâ promises to give the wishes of those who
exert themselves to obtain the blessings of this world and the next. He
declares that He will give anyone who works, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
Europeans, Americans, and Communists attain worldly blessings because they work
for them. Muslims of the Middle Ages were the guides of civilization because
they worked as required. The subversive activities carried on by the enemies
who had begun to undermine the Abbasids and the Ottomans from within as well as
from without prevented them from learning and teaching science and from doing
any work in science and arts. Consequently, the great empires collapsed. The
religious knowledge consists of îmân (belief), worship, and moral behaviour.
Absence of any one of these three components means that the religious knowledge
is incomplete. And something incomplete, in its turn, is useless. The ancient
Romans and Greeks and all the European and Asian states had scientific
knowledge. Yet their religious knowledge was incomplete. For this reason, they
misused the blessings that they had attained in science and technology. They
used some works of art in indecencies, while some of them used their
technological inventions in tormenting and persecuting other people. Let alone
attaining civilization, they broke to pieces, collapsed, and perished.
By the same token, despite the
present dazzling and flourishing state of advancement that some non-Muslim but
theoretically Islamic socialist states have attained in science and technology,
they are deprived of all the three components of the religious knowledge. They
are committing the most vicious sorts of atrocity which wildest people, let
alone civilized ones, would be disgusted to do. States of this sort, entirely
devoid of Islamic knowledge, are doomed to extinction. History consists of
repetitions. Countries like Saudi Arabia should learn lessons from history and
correct their belief and morals instead of only working for worldly blessings.
Mere scientific progress will not guide them to civilization or save them from
perdition.
The Turks, working like their ancestors,
have become the
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scientific
guides of other Muslim nations. However, if some young people fall for some
deceitful political trends, become involved in sectarian squabbles and try to
strangle one another instead of studying science and medicine and working for
the welfare of their country, alas for the pains taken for their future, alas
for the hopes placed on them, and alas for our poor country! The only thing
that will protect our young people from such harmful thoughts, heretical ideas
and wrong ways is for them to purify their hearts and beautify their moral
attitudes. And the source of these two virtues, in its turn, is religion. For
religion, as we have repeatedly stated, protects a person from doing vices and
deviating into heresies, attaches him to his country and to the heroes of his
country, and shows him the truest way. What we mean by ‘religion’ is the ‘true
religion’, ‘Islam’, and ‘to learn it correctly’. The aberrant and heretical
beliefs which some hypocritical miscreants advocate in the name of religion for
the purpose of misleading young people have nothing to do with religion! The
Islamic religion is productive. It has never been destructive or separative. O
you valuable youngsters! Keep away from those people who try to provoke you
into subversive and separative acts! For those people are the enemies of Islam
and our country.
HÜSEYN HiLMi IŞIK
'Rahmat-allahi alaih’
Hüseyn Hilmi Işık, 'Rahmat-allahi alaih’, publisher
of the Waqf Ikhlas Publications, was born in Eyyub Sultan, Istanbul in 1329
(A.D. 1911).
Of the one hundred and forty-four books he
published, sixty are Arabic, twenty-five Persian, fourteen Turkish, and the
remaining translated books consist of French, German, English, Russian and
other languages.
Hüseyn Hilmi Işık, 'Rahmat-allahi alaih' (guided by Sayyid Abdulhakim Arvasi, ‘Rahmat-allahi alaih’, a profound scholar of the religion and was perfect in virtues of tasawwuf and capable to direct disciples in a fully mature manner; possessor of glories and wisdom), was a competent, great Islamic scholar able to pave the way for attaining happiness, passed away during the night between October 25, 2001 (8 Shaban 1422) and October 26, 2001 (9 Shaban 1422). He was buried at Eyyub Sultan, where he was born.
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1 - Our Prophet 'sall-Allâhu 'alaihi wa sallam' stated: "A person whom Allâhu ta'âlâ loves very much is one who learns his religion and teaches it to others. Learn your religion from the mouths of Islamic scholars!"
A person who cannot find a true scholar must learn by reading books written by the scholars of Ahl as-sunna, and try hard to spread these books. A Müslim who has 'ilm (knowledge), 'amal (practising what one knows; obeying Islam's commandments and prohibitions), and ikhlâs (doing everything only to please Allâhu ta'âlâ) is called an Islamic scholar. A person who represents himself as an Islamic scholar though he lacks any one of these qualifications is called an 'evil religious scholar', or an 'impostor'. The Islamic scholar will guide you to causes which in turn will open the gates to happiness; he is the protector of faith. The impostor will mislead you into such causes as will make you end up in perdition; he is the Satan's accomplice.[1] (There is a certain) prayer (called) Istighfâr (which), whenever you say, (recite or read) it, will make you attain causes which will shield you against afflictions and troubles.
2 - The
Nejât-ul-musallî
was written in Turkish in the year 1217 (A.H.) by Ahmed Şevki Efendi, and was printed
in İstanbul in 1305. İt consists of a hundred and ninety-seven (197) pages. İt is stated as follows on its final
page: Ibni Jezerî, (751 [1350 A.D.], Damascus - 833 [1429], Shîrâz,) states as follows in his
book Hisn ul-hasîn:
A hadîth-i-sherîf reads as follows:
"If an invalid person says Lâ ilâha illâ anta
subhânaka innî kuntu min-az-zâlimîn,' forty times, he will die as a martyr
(if his predetermined
life-span is over). If he recovers, all his sins
will be pardoned."
This prayer is the eighty-seventh âyat-i- kerîma of Anbiyâ sûra. Please see the final
parts of the thirteenth and the fifteenth chapters of the current book!
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[1] Knowledge that is acquired not for the purpose of practising it with ikhlâs, will not be beneficial. Please see the 366th and 367th pages of the first volume of Hadîqa, and also the 36th and the 40th and the 59 th letters in the first volume of Maktûbât. (The English versions of these letters exist in the 16th and the 25th and the 28th chapters, respectively, of the second fascicle of Endless Bliss).
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