THE FIRST MUSLIM & SAHABI RASOOL  FROM INDIAN REGION FIRST ASIAN MASJID                                                 Thajuddin (R.A)known asCheraman Perumal

The First Indian to accept Islam

Cheraman Perumal, (Tajuddin. r.a)  king of india-Kodungallur, Kerala (AD 622-628. Hijra 1-7) was the first Indian to accept Islam. Many historians have recorded this fact in their writings.
 Kerala is a state of India.  The state stretches for 360 miles (580 kilometers) along the Malabar Coast on the southwestern side of the Indian peninsula.  King Chakrawati Farmas of Malabar was a Chera king, Cheraman perumal of Kodungallure.  He is recorded to have seen the moon split.  The incident is documented Hamidulla writes in "Muhammad Rasoolullah  in a manuscript kept at the India Office Library, London, reference number: Arabic, 2807, 152-173 A group of Muslim merchant passing by Malabar on their way to China spoke to the king about how God had supported the Arabian prophet with the miracle of splitting of the moon.  The shocked king said he had seen it with his own eyes as well, deputized his son, and left for Arabia to meet the Prophet in person.  He embraced Islam at the hand of the Prophet   and when returning home, at the direction of the Prophet, died at the port of Zafar, Yemen,(Present salalah Oman) where the tomb of the Indian king was piously visited for many centuries.A tradition of the Holy Prophet has also been reported from one of the companions, Abu Saeed al Khudri, regarding the arrival of Cheraman Perumal
 
“A king from India presented the Messenger ofAllah

with a bottle of pickle that had ginger in it.

 The Holy Prophet(saw)distributed it among his companions.

also received a piece to eat.” 

Hakim reports in ‘Al Musthadrak’ . 

Tomb of Cheraman perumal maha raja (Tajuddin al Hindi r.a) in Salalah City : Al Baleed Area of Oman

The king met the prophet at Jeddah on Thursday 27th Shawwal, six yeas before Hijrah (617 A.D.) . He embraced Islam  and accepted the name Tajuddin ( the crown of the faith) . After remaining in Arabia for few years the king returned to Malabar, but on the way he died at Shahar Muqalla in Yemen on Monday Ist Muharram in the first year of Hijrah (622 A.D.)

#JUST BELIEVE GENTLEMAN !

THE GREAT MAN OF 20th CENTURY: MUHAMMAD ALI

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942) is an American former professional boxer, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the sport's history. 

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is one of the most famous boxers of all time. His conversion to Islam and draft evasion conviction surrounded him with controversy and even exile from boxing for three years. Despite the hiatus, his quick reflexes and strong punches helped Muhammad Ali become the first person in history to win the heavyweight champion title three times. At the lighting ceremony at the 1996 Olympics, Muhammad Ali showed the world his strength and determination in dealing with the debilitating effects of Parkinson's syndrome.

Dates: January 17, 1942 --

Also Known As: (born as) Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., "The Greatest," the Louisville Lip

Married:

• Sonji Roi (1964 - 1966)
• Belinda Boyd (1967 - circa 1977)
• Veronica Porche (1977 - 1996)
• Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams (1996 - Present)

Early Life of Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. at 6:35 p.m. on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky to Cassius Clay Sr. and Odessa Grady Clay. Cassius Clay Sr. was a muralist, but painted signs for a living. Odessa Clay worked as a housecleaner and a cook. Two years after Muhammad Ali was born, the couple had another son, Rudolph ("Rudy").

Inspiration of  Muhammad Ali : Stolen Bicycle

When Muhammad Ali was 12 years old, he and a friend went to the Columbia Auditorium to partake in the free hot dogs and popcorn available for visitors of the Louisville Home Show. When the boys were done eating, they went back to get their bicycles only to discover that Muhammad Ali's had been stolen.

Furious, Muhammad Ali went to the basement of the Columbia Auditorium to report the crime to police officer Joe Martin, who was also a boxing coach at the Columbia Gym. When Muhammad Ali said he wanted to beat up the person who stole his bike, Martin told him that he should probably learn to fight first. A few days later, Muhammad Ali began boxing training at Martin's gym.
                                      From the very beginning, Muhammad Ali took his training seriously. He trained six days a week. On schooldays, he woke early in the morning so that he could go running and then would go workout at the gym in the evening. When Martin's gym closed at 8 pm, Ali would then go train at another boxing gym. Over time, Muhammad Ali also created his own eating regimen that included milk and raw eggs for breakfast. Concerned about what he put in his body, Ali stayed away from junk food, alcohol, and cigarettes so that he could be the best boxer in the world.

Olympics of 1960's

Even in his early training, Muhammad Ali boxed like no one else. He was fast. So fast that he didn't duck punches like most other boxers; instead, he just leaned back away from them. He also didn't put his hands up to protect his face; he kept them down by his hips.

In 1960, the Olympic Games were held in Rome. Muhammad Ali, then 18 years old, had already won national tournaments such as the Golden Gloves and so he felt ready to compete in the Olympics. On September 5, 1960, Muhammad Ali (then still known as Cassius Clay) fought against Zbigniew Pietrzyskowski from Poland in the light-heavyweight championship bout. In a unanimous decision, the judges declared Ali the winner, which meant Ali had won the Olympic gold medal.

Having won the Olympic gold medal, Muhammad Ali had attained the top position in amateur boxing. It was time for him to turn professional.

Became Heavyweight Champion

As Muhammad Ali started fighting in professional boxing bouts, he realized that there things he could do to create attention for himself. For instance, before fights, Ali would say things to worry his opponents. He would also frequently declare, "I am the greatest of all time!" Often before a fight, Ali would write poetry that would either called the round his opponent would fall or boast of his own abilities. Muhammad Ali's most famous line was when he stated he was going to "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

His theatrics worked. Many people paid to see Muhammad Ali's fights just to see such a braggart lose. In 1964, even the heavyweight champion, Charles "Sonny" Liston got caught up in the hype and agreed to fight Muhammad Ali.

On February 25, 1964, Muhammad Ali fought Liston for the heavyweight title in Miami, Florida. Liston tried for a quick knockout, but Ali was too fast to catch. By the 7th round, Liston was too exhausted, had hurt his shoulder, and was worried about a cut under his eye. Liston refused to continue the fight. Muhammad Ali had become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world.

Respect For ISLAM:

The day after the championship bout with Liston, Muhammad Ali publicly announced his conversion to Islam. The public was not happy. Ali had joined the Nation of Islam , a group led by Elijah Muhammad that advocated for a separate black nation. Since many people found the Nation of Islam's beliefs to be racist, they were angry and disappointed that Ali had joined them.                                                       

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Up to this point, Muhammad Ali was still known as Cassius Clay. When he joined the Nation of Islam in 1964, he shed his "slave name" (he had been named after a white abolitionist that had freed his slaves) and took on the new name of Muhammad Ali.

Banned From Boxing: Draft Evasion

During the three years after the Liston fight, Ali won every bout. He had become one of the most popular athletes of 1960s. He had become a symbol of black pride. Then in 1967, Muhammad Ali received a draft notice.

The United States was calling up young men to fight in the Vietnam War. Since Muhammad Ali was a famous boxer, he could have requested special treatment and just entertained the troops. However, Ali's deep religious beliefs forbade killing, even in war, and so Ali refused to go.

In June 1967, Muhammad Ali was tried and found guilty of draft evasion. Although he was fined $10,000 and sentenced to five years in jail, he remained out on bail while he appealed. However, in response to public outrage, Muhammad Ali was banned from boxing and stripped of his heavyweight title.

For many years, Muhammad Ali was "exiled" from professional boxing. While watching others claim the heavyweight title, Ali lectured around the country to earn some money.

#JUST BELIEVE GENTLEMAN !

Pioneers of Aviation: 17th Century Flight in Istanbul

One of the most enduring (and incorrect) accusations made about the Ottoman Empire is that it was intellectually stagnant. Orientalist historians claim that the Ottomans saw science and religion as mutually exclusive and incompatible, unlike earlier Muslim dynasties. While this accusation may be true for some time periods in Ottoman history, there were many examples of Ottoman scientific and intellectual progress. One notable example is the attempts at human flight made by a pair of brothers in the 1600s in Istanbul.

Hezarafen Ahmed Çelebi and History’s First Intercontinental Flight

Hezarafen taking off from atop the Galata Tower in Istanbul

The idea of humans having the ability to fly is an enchanting one. For thousands of years, people from all corners of the world have attempted to defy gravity and soar like birds. Abbas ibn Firnas, a Spanish Muslim inventor of the 9th century managed to achieve un-powered glider flight in Cordoba in the 800s by building a set of wings covered in bird’s feathers. While his attempt was successful, his inability to slow down led to a disastrous crash landing that probably discouraged further attempts by enterprising inventors like him.

In the 1600s, another brave man attempted to succeed where Abbas ibn Firnas failed. Hezarafen Ahmed Çelebi was a polymath who lived in Istanbul during the height of the Ottoman Empire. In 1630, he built a set of glider wings that he could attach to his body. According to the Ottoman historian and traveler, Evliya Çelebi, Hezarafen jumped from the top of the Galata Tower in Istanbul with his wings and managed to glide across the Bosphorus strait to Doğancılar Square – about 2 miles away. Because of the height of the tower and its position on top of a hill, Hezarafen had the necessary altitude to make a successful crossing of the Bosphorus.

Since the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul separates the continents of Europe and Asia, Hezarafen Ahmed Çelebi’s flight can be considered as the first intercontinental human flight in history. He was rewarded for his achievement by Sultan Murad IV with gold coins, but was later exiled after numerous advisors of the sultan convinced him that Hezarafen was a threat to the sultanate.

The First Rocket Flight

A 17th century engraving of Lagari Hasan Çelebi launching into the sky

Perhaps inspired by the achievement of Hezarafen Ahmed Çelebi, his brother, Laragi Hassan Çelebi sought to also defy gravity and reach the skies. In 1633 he built a rocket made for a human passenger. The rocket was powered by over 300 pounds of gunpowder. According to Evliya Çelebi, to celebrate the birth of Sultan Murad’s daughter, Laragi Çelebi tested his rocket at the shore of the Bosphorus, near the sultan’s residence, Topkapi Palace.

After numerous assistants lit the fuses for his one of a kind rocket, Lagari soared up about 300 meters into the air. When his rocket ran out of fuel, he opened a pair of wings he fashioned for himself, and gently managed to glide down to the Bosporus, and then swim to the shore. Like his brother, he was rewarded for his achievement with a pouch of gold, and was also made a cavalry officer in the Sipahi corps of the Ottoman Empire. He likely died soon afterwards in battle in the Crimea

#JUST BELIEVE GENTLEMAN !

DUTCH POLITICIAN ACCEPTED ISLAM :

In the early days of Islam, Omar ibn al-Khattab, who would later become a caliph, was in a frenzied rage and set out to assassinate Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). As he passed the house of his sister, he heard her recite passages from the glorious Qur'an. After rebuking her, something made him pause and contemplate the meaning of the verses. He had previously dismissed this new religion and listened to the hate-filled propaganda doing the rounds in the streets and valleys of Makkah. Convinced by the truth and beauty of the message, he immediately resolved to embrace Islam. The rest is glorious history.
History repeats itself in the most remarkable of ways. The city remains Makkah, but over 1,400 years later, and in the midst of all the new development, a man arrived who had a similar experience to that of the second caliph of Islam. 

Just a few years ago, Arnoud van Doorn, a prominent Dutch politician from an educated and privileged family, was the vice president of the far right Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom) in the Netherlands, an unashamedly anti-immigration and anti-Islamic party led by the infamous Geert Wilders. The party had produced hate-filled rhetoric not seen in Europe since World War II. Van Doorn’s former party was responsible for producing the film Fitna, which defamed Islam, resulting in widespread protests throughout the world.
And then came his change. “My story of how I came to Islam is not remarkable,” he says very humbly. When he saw the outrage caused by the film, he made a concerted effort to study the Qur’an, Hadith collections and the biography of the Prophet (peace be upon him). After some time, he realized that Islam was the total opposite of what he had thought it was, and it then became easy to embrace the faith. Van Doorn acknowledges that his views on Islam were formed 10 to 15 years ago based solely on negative stereotypes and prejudices spread by the media. 
“For me, Islam was a violent religion that oppressed women and was no good for society,” he says. After embracing Islam and assisted by the Toronto-based Canadian Da’wah Association, Van Doorn visited the Kingdom this week to perform Umrah. He also visited the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah. 

Van Doorn met Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais, imam of the Grand Mosque and head of the Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques. Al-Sudais said he was delighted that Allah had selected Van Doorn to become a Muslim. Van Doorn expressed his sorrow and regret for helping to distribute Fitna, although he had no part in its production, to which Al-Sudais quoted the Qur’anic verse stating that good deeds wipe out bad ones. Van Doorn intends to do good by making a film about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), to present a true picture of Islam. Van Doorn’s impression of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also been transformed. “Before I came here, people asked me why on earth I was coming here!” He has been surprised by the wonderful culture and friendly, hospitable people.
He thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for all the developments taking place in Makkah and the holy sites. Van Doorn remains a member of the Dutch Parliament and a member of the Hague City Council. In his view, the rise and success of the far right in Europe is due to the continent's economic problems. This will only get worse, in his view, because Europe has a history of turning on its minorities when things get tough.
His advice to Muslims living in Europe is to be patient, steadfast and adhere to the standards of good conduct and fine character required by Islam. “Like it or not, we all represent Islam,” he says. “Any mistake we make could be attributed to our religion.” Van Doorn came to the Kingdom courtesy of the Canadian Da’wah Association's celebrity relations program, which is inspired by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), who sent out invitations to regional leaders inviting them to embrace Islam, according to its president, Shazaad Mohammed, who is an Ambassador for Peace with the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), which operates under the United Nations. He is also an adviser to many celebrities. Former guests of the celebrity program include comedian David Chappelle, former rap stars Napoleon, Philadelphia Freeway, LOON and Jack Frost, and former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson. The CDA plans many such high-profile trips in future.

Horoscopes - Reality in Islam

Horoscopes - Reality in Islam

It is no secret that horoscopes and astrology have made their mark in popular culture, to the extent that almost every reputable newspaper today carries a daily section on horoscopes. Same is the case for magazines, online web portals and morning shows on television. If you were to visit an average bookstore, there too you would find dozens of books, readily available on the subject, predicting the lives of people one day at a time. However, despite their immense popularity, how authentic are horoscopes? What in fact, is their origin? And how are they affecting the lives of people in the 21st Century?

DEFINITION

According to Chambers dictionary, the word “horoscope” finds its origins in the Greek words hora, meaning “hour” and skopos, meaning “observer”. In terms of its definition, a horoscope is described as “an astrologer’s prediction of someone’s future, based on the position of the stars and planets at the time of their birth” or alternatively, “a map or diagram showing the positions of the stars and planets at a particular moment in time”. So in essence, a horoscope is the observation of the hour of birth of an individual, using it to make predictions about his future.

ORIGIN

Historians have traced the origins of astrology back to Babylon, approximately around 2000 BC. It is believed that this ancient civilization had great respect for the sun, as it was clearly essential for their needs. Similarly, they also concluded that other heavenly bodies must also be equally important for the human beings in the way with which they impact them on a daily basis. The importance of the heavenly bodies was usually given to them by their size, the sun being the largest and the moon second. Therefore they named the sun, moon, and planets after their main gods and the stars after lesser deities.

Having established the significance of the heavenly bodies, they developed a belief system where the movements of the stars and planets were considered to represent actions or activities of the gods. Thus by carefully studying the movements of these bodies, they hoped to determine the “will of the gods” and thereby predict the future. Whenever the stars moved a particular way, they observed the events that followed. They then assumed that the next time these heavenly bodies moved in similar way, that similar results were to be expected. This is what led to the foundational principles of astrology and its later formulization into the study of horoscopes.

In 525 BC, when Egypt was conquered by the Persians, there was an influence of the Babylonians on what was later known as Egyptian astrology. As an example, the famous historian Tamsyn Barton gives an example of two signs; the Balance and the Scorpion, both of which were surprisingly common between these two distant civilizations.

When Alexander the Great began his conquest of Asia, he exposed the Greeks to the cultures and cosmological ideas of Babylon, Persia and central Asia. Around 280 BC, the Greeks with their newfound attraction for astrology, researched the heavenly bodies mathematically and "scientifically" and defined the signs of the Zodiac. The names of Greek and Roman gods were then assigned to the planets.

So all essence, it is clear from the pages of history that astrology finds its roots in pagan idolatry.

INFLUENCE ON ISLAM

After the conquest of Alexandria by the Muslims in the 7th century, and the founding of the Abbasid empire in the 8th century, the second Abbasid caliph, Al Mansur established the city of Baghdad as a centre of learning, which became a major impetus for Arabic-Persian translations of Hellenistic astrological texts.

Scholars such as Masha'Allah ibn Athari (c. 740–815 CE), Sahl ibn Bishr al-Israili (c. 786–845 CE) and Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi (c. 787–886 CE) were some of those at the forefront of translating ancient texts, taking up astrology as their preferred field of study and attempting to make it compatible with the principles of Islam.

However, they were heavily refuted on theological grounds by renowned astronomers such as Al-Farabi (c. 872–950 CE), Ibn al-Haitham (c. 965 –1040 CE) and Ibn Sina (c. 980–1037 CE). It was determined that the methods used by the astrologers were conjectural (speculative) rather than empirical (based on experimental evidence). It was also established that the views put forth by the astrologers conflicted with the well known and accepted Islamic principles, in particular the assumption that the Will of God can be precisely known and predicted in advance.

Looking now at our present times, we find the horoscopes and astrology has taken firm roots in the lives of vast number of people. Below are just some of the reasons why people are attracted to such beliefs:

1. Predicting the future: The future often intrigues people, especially when times are tough. Whenever there is an air of economic recession, warfare, societal problems etc. people wish to see a ray of hope, even if it be through an unsubstantiated means.
2. Knowing one’s personality traits: People are generally pleased to know what others have to say about them. Similarly with horoscopes, it makes them feel good to find out what character traits they possess based on their star sign.
3. Taking advice from the stars: Quite often, people will seek solutions to their problems, be they related to business, marriage, financial matters or career issues by relying on the stars and which months, dates or times are most favourable for them.
4. Explaining life’s meaning: Astrology makes a claim to mysteriously determine the forces behind occurrences and events, and why things happen the way they do. People are fascinated by this and wish to discover their own life’s meaning.
5. Making one feel special: Horoscopes make it seem as if a particular individual is the only person with that specific star sign, thereby all of the predictions are made to seem tailored for that person, thereby making them feel special. However, the truth is that the same predictions are simultaneously made applicable to millions of other people around the world (with the same star sign), which when examined logically and rationally, cannot be true by any standards.

SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION

Those who try to offer a scientific explanation to how heavenly bodies affect our behaviour, need to realize that we are living, intelligent beings and our character is formed by living, intelligent beings. This includes, inheritance from our ancestors, influence of family and friends, social setup and upbringing. The sun, moon, and planets are all lifeless and unintelligent, with no evidence to show that they form our characters.

Having said that, it must be acknowledged that heavenly bodies do have some physical influence e.g. the sun gives light and produces energy, all other bodies can be seen giving light, the moon's gravity causes tides in the oceans etc. But all these influences affect everyone in a given area equally, regardless of what time of year they were born.

ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

The Islamic view on horoscopes and astrology is very clear. Allah says in the Qur’an:
“Say, ‘None in the heavens and the earth knows the Ghaib (Unseen) except Allah’”
[an-Naml 27:65] 

The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: “Whoever learns anything of astrology has learned a branch of witchcraft…”
[Abu Dawood. Classed as sahih.]

He (SAW) also said: “He is not one of us who practises augury or has it done for him, who tells fortunes or has his fortune told, or who practises witchcraft or has that done for him.”
[al-Bazzaar]

Likewise all matters pertaining to fortune telling, regardless of the method used, all fall under one of the branches of shirk (associating partners with Allah). The Prophet (SAW) said: “Whoever goes to a fortune-teller and asks him about something, his prayer will not be accepted for forty nights.”
[Muslim 2230]

In another narration, he (SAW) said: “Whoever...goes to a fortune teller and believes what he says, has disbelieved in that which Allah revealed to Muhammad (SAW).”
[Abu Dawood 3904, at-Tirmidhi 3904, Ibn Majaah 936; classed as sahih.]

Based on the above, we can safely say that Islam not only disassociates itself from practices such as astrology and horoscopes but considers them to be sins that can take a person to the biggest sin, which is associating partners with Allah, the Almighty.

START OF EDUCATION IN THE WORLD THROUGH ISLAM

From the very earliest days of Islam, the issue of education has been at the forefront at the minds of the Muslims. The very first word of the Quran that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was, in fact, “Read”. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ once stated that “Seeking knowledge is mandatory for all Muslims.” With such a direct command to go out and seek knowledge, Muslims have placed huge emphasis on the educational system in order to fulfill this obligation placed on them by the Prophet ﷺ.

Throughout Islamic history, education was a point of pride and a field Muslims have always excelled in. Muslims built great libraries and learning centers in places such as Baghdad, Cordoba, and Cairo. They established the first primary schools for children and universities for continuing education. They advanced sciences by incredible leaps and bounds through such institutions, leading up to today’s modern world.

Interest Towards Education

Today, education of children is not limited to the information and facts they are expected to learn. Rather, educators take into account the emotional, social, and physical well-being of the student in addition to the information they must master. Medieval Islamic education was no different. The 12th century Syrian physician al-Shayzari wrote extensively about the treatment of students. He noted that they should not be treated harshly, nor made to do busy work that doesn’t benefit them at all. The great Islamic scholar al-Ghazali also noted that “prevention of the child from playing games and constant insistence on learning deadens his heart, blunts his sharpness of wit and burdens his life. Thus, he looks for a ruse to escape his studies altogether.” Instead, he believed that educating students should be mixed with fun activities such as puppet theater, sports, and playing with toy animals.

The First Education

Ibn Khaldun states in his Muqaddimah, “It should be known that instructing children in the Qur’an is a symbol of Islam. Muslims have, and practice, such instruction in all their cities, because it imbues hearts with a firm belief (in Islam) and its articles of faith, which are (derived) from the verses of the Qur’an and certain Prophetic traditions.”

A miniature from the Ottoman period of students and their teacher

The very first educational institutions of the Islamic world were quite informal. Mosques were used as a meeting place where people can gather around a learned scholar, attend his lectures, read books with him/her, and gain knowledge. Some of the greatest scholars of Islam learned in such a way, and taught their students this way as well. All four founders of the Muslim schools of law – Imams Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi’i, and Ibn Hanbal – gained their immense knowledge by sitting in gatherings with other scholars (usually in the mosques) to discuss and learn Islamic law.

Some schools throughout the Muslim world continue this tradition of informal education. At the three holiest sites of Islam – the Haram in Makkah, Masjid al-Nabawi in Madinah, and Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem – scholars regularly sit and give lectures in the mosque that are open to anyone who would like to join and benefit from their knowledge. However, as time went on, Muslims began to build formal institutions dedicated to education.

From Primary to Higher Education

Dating back to at least the 900s, young students were educated in a primary school called a maktab. Commonly, maktabs were attached to a mosque, where the resident scholars and imams would hold classes for children. These classes would cover topics such as basic Arabic reading and writing, arithmetic, and Islamic laws. Most of the local population was educated by such primary schools throughout their childhood. After completing the curriculum of the maktab, students could go on to their adult life and find an occupation, or move on to higher education in a madrasa, the Arabic world for “school”.

The Registan complex in Samarkand, Uzbekistan contains three madrasas in the same square

Madrasas were usually attached to a large mosque. Examples include al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt (founded in 970) and al-Karaouine in Fes, Morocco (founded in 859). Later, numerous madrasas were established across the Muslim world by the great Seljuk vizier, Nizam al-Mulk. At a madrasa, students would be educated further in religious sciences, Arabic, and secular studies such as  medicine, mathematics, astronomy, history, and geography, among many other topics. In the 1100s, there were 75 madrasas in Cairo, 51 in Damascus, and 44 in Aleppo. There were hundreds more in Muslim Spain at this time as well.

These madrasas can be considered the first modern universities. They had separate faculties for different subjects, with resident scholars that had expertise in their fields. Students would pick a concentration of study and spend a number of years studying under numerous professors. Ibn Khaldun notes that in Morocco at his time, the madrasas had a curriculum which spanned sixteen years. He argues that this is the “shortest [amount of time] in which a student can obtain the scientific habit he desires, or can realize that he will never be able to obtain it.”

When a student completed their course of study, they would be granted an ijaza, or a license certifying that they have completed that program and are qualified to teach it as well. Ijazas could be given by an individual teacher who can personally attest to his/her student’s knowledge, or by an institution such as a madrasa, in recognition of a student finishing their course of study. Ijazas today  can be most closely compared to diplomas granted from higher educational institutions.

Education and Women

Throughout Islamic history, educating women has been a high priority. Women were not seen as incapable of attaining knowledge nor of being able to teach others themselves. The precedent for this was set with Prophet Muhammad’s own wife, Aisha, who was one of the leading scholars of her time and was known as a teacher of many people in Madinah after the Prophet’s ﷺ death.

Later Islamic history also shows the influence of women.  Women throughout the Muslim world were able to attend lectures in mosques, attend madrasas, and in many cases were teachers themselves. For example, the 12th century scholar Ibn ‘Asakir (most famous for his book on the history of Damascus, Tarikh Dimashq) traveled extensively in the search for knowledge and studied under 80 different female teachers.

Women also played a major role as supporters of education:

The University of al-Karaouine in Fes, Morocco was founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859

• The first formal madrasa of the Muslim world, the University of al-Karaouine in Fes was established in 859 by a wealthy merchant by the name of Fatima al-Fihri.
• The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid’s wife, Zubayda, personally funded many construction projects for mosques, roads, and wells in the Hijaz, which greatly benefit the many students that traveled through these areas.
• The wife of Ottoman Sultan Suleyman, Hurrem Sultan, endowned numerous madrasas, in addition to other charitable works such as hospitals, public baths, and soup kitchens.
• During the Ayyubid period of Damascus (1174 to 1260) 26 religious endownments (including madrasas, mosques, and religious monuments) were built by women.

Unlike Europe during the Middle Ages (and even up until the 1800s and 1900s), women played a major role in Islamic education in the past 1400 years. Rather than being seen as second-class citizens, women played an active role in public life, particularly in the field of education.

Modern Education

The tradition of madrasas and other classical forms of Islamic education continues until today, although in a much more diminshed form. The defining factor for this was the encroachment of European powers on Muslim lands throughout the 1800s. In the Ottoman Empire, for example, French secularist advisors to the sultans advocated a complete reform of the educational system to remove religion from the curriculum and only teach secular sciences. Public schools thus began to teach a European curriculum based on European books in place of the traditional fields of knowledge that had been taught for hundreds of years. Although Islamic madrasas continued to exist, without government support they lost much of their relevance in the modern Muslim world.

Today, much of the former Ottoman Empire still runs education along European lines. For example, what you are allowed to major in at the university level depends on how you do on a certain standardized test at the end of your high school career. If you obtain the highest possible grades on the test, you can study sciences such as medicine or engineering. If one scores on the lower end of the spectrum, they are only allowed to study topics such as Islamic sciences and education.

Jameah Darul Uloom

Al Azhar University

 Despite the new systems in place in much of the Muslimworld, traditional education still survives. Universities such as al-Azhar, al-Karaouine, and Darul Uloom in Deoband, India continue to offer traditional curricula that bring together Islamic and secular sciences. Such an intellectual tradition rooted in the great institutions of the past that produced some of the greatest scholars of Islamic history and continues to spread the message and knowledge of Islam to the masses.

#JUST BELIEVE GENTLEMAN !

The Unrivalled Fact: The Palestinian (1800 - 2014)

One of the most jarring and important events of recent Islamic history has been the Arab-Israeli Conflict. This conflict is multifaceted, complex, and is still one of the world’s most problematic issues in international relations. One aspect of this conflict is the refugee problem that began in 1948, with the creation of the State of Israel. Over 700,000 Palestinians became refugees that year, in what is known as the “Nakba”, which is Arabic for catastrophe. 

Background

In the 1800s, a new nationalistic movement was born in Europe. Zionism was a political movement advocating the creation of a Jewish state. Many Jews believed having their own state was necessary in the face of discrimination and oppression by Europeans. After debating where to create this new state should exist at the First Zionist Congress in 1897, the Zionist movement decided to aim at creating their state in Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. The sultan/caliph of the Ottoman Empire, Abdülhamid II, refused to accept this, even in the face of a 150 million British pound payment proposed by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, in exchange for ownership of Palestine.

Palestine 1946 to 2011

The door would open for Zionism  however, after the First World War. During the war, Britain captured Palestine from the Ottomans in 1917. At around the same time, the British foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, issued a declaration to the Zionist movement promising British support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

After the war, Palestine became a League of Nations mandate under British control in 1920. Since it was under British control, the Zionist movement heavily advocated the emigration of European Jews to Palestine. The result was an exponential rise in the number of Jews living in Palestine. According to British census data, in 1922, there were 83,790 Jews in Palestine. By 1931, it was 175,138. And by 1945, the number had jumped to 553,600 people. In 25 years, Jews had gone from 11% of the total population to 31%.1

Naturally, the reaction from the Palestinian Arabs was less than enthusiastic. Tension between new Jewish settlers and native Palestinians erupted on numerous occasions.  Eventually, the British decided by the 1940s that they could no longer control the territory, and decided to end the mandate of Palestine and leave the country.

UNO and Israeli Brutality 

The left map shows the Jewish-majority areas in the Mandate of Palestine. The right map illustrates the UN Partition Plan.

Seeing the coming end of British control over Palestine, and the inevitably conflict between the Arabs and the Jews, the newly-created United Nations took up the issue in 1947. It came up with a plan known as the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. The plan advocated the creation of two states in what has historically been known as Palestine. One for Jews, known as Israel, and one for Arabs, Palestine.2

While the Jews in Palestine accepted the plan with enthusiasm, the Arabs vehemently rejected it. In their view, it took away land that had been a historically Muslim Arab land since the Crusades and gave it to the new Jewish minority in the country. Tensions rose again between the two sides.

In the midst of this rising tension, Britain declared an end to the Mandate of Palestine, and withdrew from the country on May 14th, 1948. That day, the Zionist movement in Palestine declared the establishment of a new country, Israel. The following day, the neighboring Arab countries declared their rejection of the declaration and invaded Israel.

Without going into the details of the war itself, the result of the 1948 war was an enormous increase in the size of Israel. The resulting state was much larger than the state proposed by the United Nations, capturing approximately 50% of the proposed Arab state.

Distribution of the Palestinians

Perhaps the largest human impact of the 1948 War was the expulsion of much of the Palestinian population. Within the borders of the new State of Israel, there had been close to 1,000,000 Palestinian Arabs before the war. By the end of the war in 1949, between 700,000 and 750,000 of them had been expelled.3 Only 150,000 remained in Israel.

Palestinian refugees in 1948

Refugees are always an unfortunate side-effect of war. Throughout history, groups of people had fled to escape fighting and conquest. What makes the Palestinian refugees of 1948 unique, however, iswhy they became refugees. Since this is still very much a real conflict today, historians analyzing the causes of the Palestinian exodus are heavily influenced by politics and international relations. Historians (including Israeli historians) have however defined a few key reasons for the exodus:

Palestinians on the Stake:                                               Many Palestinians left because due to fear of Israeli attacks and atrocities. These fears were not unwarranted. On April 9th, 1948, about 120 Israeli fighters entered the Palestinian town of Deir Yassin, near Jerusalem. 600 villagers were killed.4 Some died defending the city in battle against Israeli forces, while others were killed by hand grenades thrown into their homes, or executed after being paraded through the streets of Jerusalem.

Naturally, once word of this massacre spread throughout Palestine, Palestinians feared the worst from the Israelis. In many cases, entire Palestinian villages fled Israeli advances, hoping to avoid the same fate as Deir Yassin. Some Israeli groups, such as Yishuv, accelerated this feeling through psychological warfare intended to intimidate Palestinian towns into surrendering or fleeing. Radio broadcasts were aired in Arabic, warning Arab villagers that they could not stand up to Israeli advances, and resistance was futile.

Attack of Israeli Forces:  
                                         Fear was the main motivating factor for refugees early in the war. As the war dragged on through 1948, however, deliberate Israeli expulsion became more popular. As the Israelis conquered more and more territory, their forces became more thinly spread throughout the country. As a result, many newly-conquered villages were forcibly emptied by Israeli forces.

Notable examples of this were the cities of Lydda and Ramla, near Jerusalem. When they were conquered in July of 1948, Yitzhak Rabin signed an order expelling all Palestinians from the two towns, amounting to between 50,000 and 70,000 people.5 Israeli forces bused some of them to the Arab front lines, while others were forced to walk, only being allowed to take with them whatever they could carry. This expulsion alone accounted for about 10% of the total Palestinian expulsion in 1948.

Support of Arab Forces:

                                             In some cases, the Arab armies from neighboring countries, particularly Jordan, encouraged Palestinian towns to evacuate. One possible reason for this was that to provide an open battlefield without civilians in the crossfire. In any case, many Palestinian civilians left their homes under direction from Arab armies, hoping to return soon after the inevitable Arab victory, only to become refugees in neighboring countries.

End Of War :

A Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, Syria in 1948.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War created a massive refugee problem in the Middle East. Over 500 towns and cities throughout Palestine were completely depopulated during this time. The 700,000+ refugees from these towns became an economic and social burden on neighboring countries and the West Bank, Palestinian land under Jordanian authority. In 1954, Israel passed the Prevention of Infiltration Law. It allowed the Israeli government to expel any Palestinians who managed to sneak back to their homes in what was now Israel. It also allowed the government to expel any internally displaced Palestinians still within Israel if they sought to return to their homes.

Today, the right of return is still a major problem that has yet to be solved by peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. The forcible expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 proved to be a problem that continues to last even after the lives of the original refugees draw to a close in the early 2000s.



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Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi – The Pioneer of Modern Surgery

Al Zahrawi

1. Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi, also known in the West as Albucasis, was an Arab Muslim physician and surgeon who lived in Al-Andalus. Wikipedia
3. Born: 936 AD, Medina Azahara, Spain
4. Died: 1013                                                                                       
5. Books: Al-Tasrif

It has often been stated on this website that the Muslim period of Spain’s history (also known as al-Andalus) was a Golden Age of Islamic civilization and society. Harmony between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism prevailed, great advancements were made in the sciences, and wealth and stability were the rule rather than the exception.

One of the great figures of Muslim Spain was Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, Islam’s greatest medieval surgeon. He revolutionized how surgery was performed by inventing new methods and tools to help heal patients. His thirty-volume encyclopedia of medicine was used as a standard text for medicine throughout Europe for centuries. The impact he had on how medicine was practiced was truly revolutionary.

Background

Al-Zahrawi lived during most powerful period of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba. He was born in 936 and died in 1013, and served the Umayyad Caliph al-Hakam II and the military ruler, al-Mansur. Throughout his life, al-Zahrawi was a court physician, having been patronized by the rulers of al-Andalus and recognized for his medical genius. He served in such a capacity as a doctor for over 50 years.

Unlike many doctors and hospitals in the “modern” world today, al-Zahrawi insisted on seeing patients regardless of their financial status. By seeing a wide variety of patients every day and recording his treatment of them, he left behind a very valuable text of medical knowledge that he called al-Tasrif.

Book: Al-Tasrif

A page from the original al-Tasrif written by al-Zahrawi in the 900s

His encyclopedia of medicine is divided into 30 volumes. Each one of which dealt with a different aspect of medicine. He discussed how to diagnose diseases in one of the early volumes. He noted that a good doctor should always rely on his own observation of the patient and his/her symptoms instead of simply accepting what the patient says – a practice still employed by doctors today.

Al-Zahrawi takes a holistic approach to medicine. Not only does he discuss how to treat diseases, he describes how to prevent them. He dedicates parts of his books to discussing what foods should be avoided, how to maintain a healthy diet, and how to use food as part of a treatment plan. He particularly notes the effects of alcohol on the body. He states:

“[Alcohol causes] general weakness of most of the nerves of the body, difficulties in articulation, weakness of voluntary movements, arthralgias, gout, etc.. disturbances of the liver which causes tumors and obstructions which is a definite cause of ascites and general ill health”1

Surgery

His most influential volume of al-Tasrif is the 30th, the one dedicated to surgery. In it, he explains in detail how to perform certain surgeries to cure certain ailments. He insists in it that all surgeons must first be very well versed in general medicine, anatomy, and even the writings of philosophers who studied medicine.

Al-Zahrawi pioneered many of the procedures and materials still used in operating rooms today. He was the first to use catgut as the thread for internal stitches. Catgut is a thread made from the lining of the intestines of animals. It is the only material that can be used for stitches and still be absorbed by the body, preventing the need for a second surgery to remove internal stitches. He invented many tools necessary for modern surgery. He was the first to use foreceps in childbirth, greatly decreasing the mortality rate of babies and mothers. He performed tonsillectomies with the same tongue depressors, hooks, and scissors used today. He used concealed knifes to cut into patients without making them apprehensive  He used both local and oral anesthesia in order to reduce the pain patients experienced during surgery. He performed mastectomies  removing a woman’s breast if she had breast cancer, a procedure still done today. He described how to set bone fractures, amputate limbs, and even how to crush bladder stones. To describe all his “firsts” in medicine would take a book of its own.

An early inhaler invented by al-Zahrawi. At the top is the original Arabic while the Latin translation is at the bottom.

Despite his immense knowledge and ability, he always refused to do risky or unknown surgeries that would be stressful physically and emotionally for the patient. He believed in the importance of human life and sought to extend it as long as possible. His precedent was a prime example for effective bedside manner that all doctors should exhibit.

Legacy

Al-Tasrif made its way from al-Andalus throughout the Muslim and Christian worlds. Over the course of centuries, it was translated into Latin and other European languages. Thus, many of the procedures he pioneered were given names that do not indicate that he originated them. For example, the “Walcher position” of childbirth and the “Kocher method” for fixing dislocated shoulders were invented by al-Zahrawi but credited to later European physicians.

Regardless of credit, al-Zahrawi’s contributions to medicine and particularly surgery were revolutionary for his time. Without the procedures and tools that he pioneered, surgery today may still be a barbaric guessing game. His abilities and his consistent recording of procedures helped advance medicine for centuries, and we are still in debt to his genius.


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