AN APPRAISAL OF THE SOURCE OF ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION IN SCIENCES AND ARTS

INTRODUCTION

Knowledge is the bedrock of human civilization progress and development. Contemporary Muslims all over the world need not to fold their arms but re-awake from their slumber in order to regain their intellectual capabilities as the custodians of knowledge, progress and civilization.

Islam as a dynamic religion did not leave any stone unturned. Islam has indeed covered all aspect of human, plant and animals life. Both science and modernization derived their origin from Islam.

Therefore, Islamic civilization came from the Quran and Sunnah of prophet Muhammad (SAW) therefore any civilization that does not conform to the injunction of Allah is not a civilization. A civilization must have its tools in the Quran and the Sunnah before it can be accepted as an Islamic civilization.

Islamic civilization can be defined as advancements of mankind and achievements recorded by the Muslims as a result of strict following of the commands of Allah and his prophet (SAW). Religion of Islam is the basis of Islamic civilization because Islam is the complete way of life.

A Muslim finds all requirements of his life from the Al-Quran and Sunnah of the prophet Muhammad (SAW). Therefore a lot has been said about Islamic civilization what is it? Islamic civilization could be defined as an advanced level of social and cultural development which makes Muslim community (the Ummah) distinct from other communities and which makes life comfortable for Muslims and those who live amongst them.

The extremely rapid and unprecedented wide spread of Islam within its first 100 years brought with it a civilization, the type of which was never witnessed and on which todays so called western civilization was build. The era of Islamic civilization spanned a period of about 1000 years from Islamic 1^st to its 10^th century I.e. from about 700 to 1700 C.E during this period Engineers, scholars and Traders of Islamic world contributed enormously to the Arts, Agriculture, Economics, Industry, Literature and Science etc. both by preserving and building upon earlier traditions and by adding many inventions and innovations of their own. By the year 900 C.E, Muslims had established an Islamic empire, the largest that the world had ever seen. About that period, and Islamic civilization was inaugurated by the ascension of the Abbasid caliphate name after the prophets uncle, Al-Abbas and the transfer of the capital to Baghdad in Iran from Damascus in Syria that was under the Umayyad(name after Mu’aweyyah who succeeded the caliph Ali Ibn Abu Talib).

The Abbasid were influence by the Quran and Hadith injunction that stress the value of knowledge during this period. And Islamic civilization became the unrivalled intellectual Centrefor science, philosophy, medicine and education, as Abbasside championed the course of knowledge and established the equivalent of today’s universities called Baitul Hikmah (house of wisdom) in Baghdad where both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars gathered and translated all the worlds knowledge into the Arabic language. Many classical works that would otherwise have been translated into Turkish, Persian, Hebrew and Latin. During this period the Muslim world was a huge reservoir of cultures that collected analyzed and significantly improved on the knowledge gained from the ancient Roman, Chinese, and India, Persian, Egyptian North African and the rest.

By this time the Islamic civilization has reach its peak and it is this time we reach to the Golden Age of Islamic civilization.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ISLAMIC AND WESTERN CIVILIZATION

GENERAL CHARACTERRISTICS OF ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

Islam was destined to be a world religion and to create a civilization which stretched from one end of the globe to the other. Already during the early Muslim caliphates first the Arabs then Persian and later the Turks set about to create classical Islam civilization and soon thereafter Muslim kingdoms were established in the Malay Indonesian world while Chinese Muslims flourished throughout china.

Islam is a religion for all people from whatever race or background they might be. That’s why Islamic civilization is based on a unity which stands completely against any racial or ethnic discrimination.

The four rightly guided caliphs contributed in one way or the other to the religion of Islam upon death of the prophet, Abu-Bakr became the first caliph and first male to embrace Islam. That is Islam brought civilization in the sense that in any community or society or organization there must be a leader to rule and he rule for two years while Umar who was the second caliph for a decade and during whose rule Islam spread extensively East and West conquering the Persian empire Syria and Egypt. It was Umar who marched on foot at the end of Muslim army into Jerusalem and ordered the protection of Christian sites, Umar also established the first public treasury administration.

He established many of the basic practices of Islamic government and he was succeeded by Uthman Ibn Affan who ruled for some years during his time the Islamic expansion continued, he was known for the noble Quran copied and sent to the to the four corner of the Islamic world, he was in turn succeeded by Ali Ibn Abi-Talib who was known to this day for his eloquent sermons and letters and also for his bravery. With his death the ruled of the rightly guided caliph who hold a special place of respect in the heart of the Muslims came to an end.

The Umayyad caliph established in 661 was to last for about a century. During this time Damascus became the capital of and Islamic world which stretched from western borders of china to southern France. Not only did the Islamic congress continue during this period through north Africa to Spain and France, in the west and to Sind, central Asia and Tranoxiana in East but the basic social and legal institutions of the newly founded Islamic world.