Zaman Emas Islam, biasanya disebut berlangsung sejak pertengahan abad ke 8 sampai pertengahan abad ke 13. Di Zaman ini para ilmuwan dan ahli teknik (dari berbagai kepercayaan termasuk Muslim, Kristen, Yahudi, Hindu, dll) yang tinggal di negara2 Islam menyumbangkan karya2 besar di bidang2 seni, sastra, filosofi, sains, dan teknologi melalui menyimpan dan mengembangkan ilmu2 terdahulu dan menambahnya dengan penemuan2 dan perbaikan2 mereka sendiri. Para filsuf, penyair, seniman, saintis, bangsawan, dan pekerja2 yang terlahir sebagai Islam menciptakan budaya unik yang mempengaruhi masyarakat di setiap benua. Prestasi2 saintifik dan intelektual tumbuh subur di “Zaman Emas” dan lalu diserahkan kepada Eropa untuk kemudian dikembangkan di Zaman Renaisans Eropa.
Tapi apakah sebenarnya kekuatan dinamis di belakang “Zaman Emas” ini? Apakah ini karena firman illahi dalam agama Islam – iman buta terhadap Allah? Ataukah ini karena hasil kekuatan rasionalisme beberapa orang2 sekuler? Jawaban atas pertanyaan ini merupakan hal utama dari artikel panjang ini.
Islam adalah satu2nya agama yang pura2 mengaku semua hal2 yang baik di dunia ini adalah miliknya. Muslim menganggap Islam sebagai agama terbaik dari Allah dan Muslim adalah manusia terbaik, dan Allah hanya mencintai Muslim. Muslim yang fanatik pada khususnya dan sejumlah besar Muslim yang mudah dibohongi pada umumnya, seringkali mengungkapkan nostalgia spesial tentang ‘Zaman Emas Islam.’ Muslim modern saat ini dengan penuh semangat menyalahkan kebudayaan barat secara umum dan super power Amerika secara khusus sebagai alasan terhadap semua masalah di negaranya. Mereka sengaja mengungkit tentan kehebatan sejarah Zaman dulu (Zaman Emas) Kalifah Islam hanya untuk membangkitkan semangat Muslim dan melawan balik kebudayaan barat untuk mencapai kembali Zaman keemasan Islam.
Nostaligia Islam tanpa akhir ini begitu berakar kuat dalam benak mereka sehingga ini bagaikan penyakit kanker yang tak bisa diobati lagi. Meskipun sekarang sudah ada negara2 Muslim seperti Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan Taliban, Sudan, dll, yang semuanya diatur dengan ketat berdasarkan hukum Sharia, para Muslim tetap saja tidak bisa memunculkan kembali Jaman Emas Islam. Kalau ditanya mengapa, mereka ramai2 bilang, “Wah, negara2 itu sih tidak diatur dengan Islam yang murni!” Artinya negara2 itu bukanlah negara2 Islam yang murni. Dalam pikiran mereka, Jaman Emas Islam hanya bisa diraih kembali jika mereka mampu mendirikan Kalifah Islam sama seperti yang dulu dilakukan Nabi Muhammad dan keempat Kalifah Utama Teladan (yang benar2 mengikuti jejak Muhammad) yakni Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman, dan Ali yang berkuasa setelah Muhammad dan menerapkan Sharia Islam berdasarkan Qur’an secara ketat. Jika ini dilaksanakan, maka para Muslim mengira semua masalah mereka akan terpecahkan untuk selamanya.
Di saat ini, beberapa ilmuwan barat munafik seperti Maurice Bucailee dan Prof. Keith Mooretelah mendongkrak semangat Islami tentang impian mereka akan “Zaman Emas” dengan mengeluarkan penemuan ilmiah bohong2an dengan bayaran uang dari Muslim untuk membuktikan bahwa teori2 sains yang kacau balau dalam Qur’an adalah benar. Penemuan ilmiah palsu tentang sains Qur’an ini telah menciptakan utopia bahwa Qur’an benar2 firman Allah. Hal ini juga digunakan para Muslim berpendidikan barat sebagai umpan ampuh propaganda Islam untuk lebih mendorong lagi masyarakat Muslim yang mudah tertipu untuk terus mundur ke belakang ke abad 7 Masehi.
Para Islamis terus-menerus membanggakan banyak tokoh2 yang lahir sebagai Muslim (yang berjasa menciptakan Zaman Emas Islam) dan dengan penuh semangat menyebut mereka sebagai “ilmuwan Islam” dan menganggap prestasi mereka sebagai “sains Islam.” Menurut mereka, tokoh2 kuno yang lahir sebagai Muslim ini merupakan hasil dari agama Islam dan mereka semua adalah Muslim yang taat dan sukses mereka adalah akibat dari ajaran2 Islam. Mereka ingin menggunakan ini sebagai bukti nyata bahwa Islam memang benar2 agama illahi yang sejati. Kesimpulannya, Muslim2 munafik berpendidikan barat ini berusaha untuk mencuci otak Muslim2 yang mudah dibohongi dan memaksa mereka untuk percaya bahwa ‘Islam sebenarnya memperkenalkan sains dan modernitas pada dunia’.
Selama 30 tahun terakhir aku telah berkutat dengan dunia sains, dan sayangnya sampai sekarang aku tidak pernah menemukan teori sains apapun yang ditemukan oleh agama apapun di dunia. Ini berarti aku tidak menemukan sains Islam, sain Kristen, atau sains Hindu. Aku telah belajar dari sejarah bahwa “Tiada agama yang bisa menganggap sains sebagai miliknya.” Sepanjang hidupku aku telah mendengar bahwa agama dan sains tidak bisa bercampur dan disatukan dengan baik. Beberapa orang malah mengatakan sains dan agama saling bertentangan. Ada lagi orang2 lain yang mengatakan sains dan agama merupakan musuh satu sama lain. Aku juga telah mengalami bahwa jika aku percaya akan sains, maka aku jadi sukar percaya dengan dogma agama. Ini berarti agama dan sains bagaikan minyak dan air yang tidak bisa bercampur. Di kebanyakan madrasah di negara2 Muslim, para murid bahkan dilarang mempelajari sains. Lihat contohnya teori evolusi Sir Charles Darwin. Meskipun teori ini diterima secara luas di dunia sains modern, para agamawan tetap saja sukar menerima kebenaran teori Darwin. Dengan itu bisa disimpulkan bahwa Muslim2 berpendidikan barat dan semua Mullah2 di seluruh dunia tidak percaya akan teori evolusi 100%. Karena itu, apakah yang membuat sains dan agama sebagai pasangan yang serasi?
Dalam kata pengantar dari buku Dr. Parvez Hoodboy (ahli fisika nuklir lulusan M.I.T.), pemenang hadiah Nobel Pakistan ahli fisika Dr. ABDUS SALAM menulis:
“Hanya ada satu Sains universal; masalah dan konsep dasarnya bersifat internasional dan tidak ada hal yang namanya Sains Islam, Sains Hindu, Sains Yahudi, Sains Kong Hu Cu, ataupun Sains Kristen.”
Dr. Salam pemenang Nobel Muslim itu tidak dapat menemukan sains yang dimiliki agama apapun. Tapi yang menarik, Dr. Salam dianggap sebagai saintis Islam dalam benak penuh impian para Islamis di seluruh dunia. Dan ini tentunya terjadi hanya setelah Dr. Salam menang penghargaan Nobel. Sebelum ini terjadi, dia malah dianggap sebagai kafir. Dunia tahu sekali bahwa Pakistan jelas2 menganggap umat Ahmadiyah adalah kafir. Karena Dr. Salam adalah anak umat Ahmadiyah Kadiani, maka tentunya dia pun dianggap kafir. Tapi setelah dia menerima hadiah Nobel, tiba2 saja dalam waktu sekejap Dr. Salam dianggap sebagai Muslim tulen. Ajaib, bukan? Bahkan beberapa Islamis yang terlalu bersemangat menyebut prestasi Dr. Salam sebagai “sains Islam”. Pertanyaannya adalah bagaimana mungkin sains memiliki suatu agama? Dr. Salam (seorang anak Muslim) dan Dr. Weinberger (atheis) bekerja sama menemukan teori sains “gabungan kekuatan kuat dan elektromagnetik”. Haruskah kita menyebut penemuan ini sebagai sains Islam atau sebagai sains atheis? Harus disebut apa?
Khalifah2 Abbasid yang Liberal dan Sekuler
Yang disebut sebagai “Zaman Emas Islam” tak lain daripada kesuksesan beberapa orang terlahir Muslim yang sekuler di Zaman dinasti sekuler liberal Kalifah Abbasid. Kalifah Abbasid ke tujuh yakni al-Ma’mun (813-833), menerapkan sistem pendidikan dan sains yang bahkan lebih meluas daripada Harun al-Rashid. Dia berusaha keras untuk memiliki naskah2 tua Yunani dan bahkan mengirim utusan ke Kaisar Byzantium Leon Sang Armenia (813-890) untuk tujuan ini. Dia memerintahkan semua naskah itu diterjemahkan. Dia mengelola pendidikan sains di Baghdad yang disebut sebgai Rumah Hikmat (Bayt al-hikma), yang memiliki sebuah perpustakaan dan pusat penelitian. Dia mendorong prestasi dari semua ilmuwan dari segala latar belakang agama, dan penelitian ilmiah dalam jumlah raksasa dilakukan di masa pemerintahannya. Ini merupakan usaha ilmiah yang paling ambisius sejak didirikannya Museum Alexandria (kira2 di pertengahan abad ke 3 Masehi).
Al-Ma'mun 'Abdallah al-Ma'mun' lahir di Baghdad di tahun 786, dan dia wafat di dekat Tarsus di tahun 833. Al-Ma’mun adalah kalifah ke tujuh dan terbesar dari kekalifahan ‘Abbasid (813-833). Ibu dan istrinya adalah orang2 Perisa, dan ini berpengaruh banyak pada pandangan Persia dan ‘Alid-nya. Dia merupakan penganut Mu’tazil dan tidak segan untuk memaksakan pandangannya dengan kekerasan. Dia menulis empat surat panjang menjelaskan bagaimana Qur’an ditulis, dan dia menghukum kejam siapapun yang berani punya pandangan berbeda dengannya (misalnya Ibn Hannibal). Dia lalu menggabungkan pemikiran sekuler dan sikap tak toleran terhadap pandangan Islam yang berbeda dengannya. Meskipun dia menghukum siapapun yang berani menentang kepercayaan Mu’tazilisme, orang2 Yahudi dan Kristen bebas bergabung dalam pemerintahannya.
Anggapan Spiritual Zaman Emas Islam
Sekarang mari kita tinjau sejarah hidup spiritual beberapa tokoh terkenal dari “Zaman Emas Islam” untuk meneliti kebenaran sejarah apakah para tokoh sekuler yang terlahir sebagai Muslim ini memang betul2 Muslim taat atau pengikut agama lain dengan taat. Kita juga akan memeriksa apakah inti ajaran Islam mempengaruhi atau memberi sumbangan (seperti yang sangat diyakini kebanyakan pendukung Islam) pada kesuksesan saintis2 Muslim di abad pertengahan. Mari kita lihat ketertarikan terhadap agama (itu juga kalau memang ada) dari beberapa ilmuwan kuno terkenal yang sering disebut sebagai pemikir dan saintis Islam:
1. Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakarīya al-Rāzi (865-925)
Al-Razi berasal dari Persia, dan dia adalah ahli fisika, filsuf, dan ilmuwan. Menurut al-Biruni, dia lahir di Rayy, Iran, di tahun 865 M dan wafat di tahun 925 M. Dia mungkin merupakan saintis terlahir sebagai Muslim yang paling ternama di seluruh dunia Islam. Dia merupakan satu dari ahli2 fisika besar sepanjang masa. Al-Razi memberikan sumbangan besar di bidang kedokteran, kimia, filosofi, dan tulisannya tercantum dalam lebih dari 184 buku dan artikel di berbagai bidang sains. Dia mahir dalam pengetahuan kedokteran Yunani dan India dan dia pun menyumbang banyak pada kedua sumber pengetahuan itu melalui penelitiannya sendiri. Dia adalah penulis ensiklopedia al Hawi yang sangat luas cakupannya dan ini dikerjakannya selama lima belas tahun. Sekarang, mari kita baca apa pendapat al-Razi tentang agama2 pada umumnya.
Terhadap Agama:
Al-Razi menulis tiga buku tentang agama:
(1) Tipuan2 Licik sang Nabi
(2) Akal2an Orang yang Mengaku sebagai Nabi (Arabic حيل المتنبيين)
(3) Bantahan terhadap Agama2 yang Diwahyukan (Arabic مخارق الانبياء)
Di buku ketiga, dia menulis kritik2 tajam terhadap agama2, terutama yang mengaku diwahyukan melalui pengalaman2 kenabian.
Ini tulisan al-Razi tentang nabi2:
“Nabi2 – kambing2 berjenggot panjang ini,” begitu julukan yang diberikan al-Razi bagi mereka, “tidak bisa menunjukkan kelebihan spiritual atau intelektual apapun. Kambing2 berjenggot ini pura2 datang dengan wahyu Tuhan, bersusah payah memancarkan kebohongan2 mereka, dan memaksakan ketaatan membuta pada “firman illahi.”
About Prophets al-Razi wrote: “The prophets—these billy goats with long beard”, as Ar Razi disdainfully describes them, “cannot claim any intellectual or spiritual superiority. These billy goats pretend to come with a message from God, all the while exhausting themselves in spouting their lies, and imposing on the masses blind obedience to the "words of the master." The miracles of the prophets are impostures, based on trickery, or the stories regarding them are lies. The falseness of what all the prophets say is evident in the fact that they contradict one another: one affirms what the other denies, and yet each claims to be the sole depository of the truth; thus the New Testament contradicts the Torah, the Koran the New Testament. As for the Koran, it is but an assorted mixture of ‘absurd and inconsistent fables,’ which has ridiculously been judged inimitable, when, in fact, its language, style, and its much-vaunted ‘eloquence’ are far from being faultless.” According to Albert Hourani, “he laid emphasis on reason as the sole guide, and dismissed revelation a false and religion a dangerous.”
About God’s messenger, al-Razi continued, “On what ground do you deem it necessary that God should single out certain individuals [by giving them prophecy], that he should set them up above other people, that he should appoint them to be the people’s guides, and make people dependent upon them?” Al-Razi argued that, “it would be illogical for God to reveal himself only to a selected few. God should not set some individuals over others, and there should be between them neither rivalry nor disagreement which would bring them to perdition.” Concerning the link between violence and religion, Al-Razi expressed that “God must have known, considering the many disagreements between different religions, that "there would be a universal disaster and they would perish in the mutual hostilities and fightings. Indeed, many people have perished in this way, as we can see.”
He was also critical of the lack of interest among religious adherents in the rational and analysis of their beliefs, and the violent reaction which takes its place: “If the people of this religion are asked about the proof for the soundness of their religion, they flare up, get angry and spill the blood of whoever confronts them with this question. They forbid rational speculation, strive to kill their adversaries. This is why truth became thoroughly silenced and concealed.Al-name of so-and-so..”
Razi believed that common people had originally been duped into belief by religious authority figures and by the status quo. He believed that these authority figures were able to continually deceive the common people "as a result of [religious people] being long accustomed to their religious denomination, as days passed and it became a habit. Because they were deluded by the beards of the goats, who sit in ranks in their councils, straining their throats in recounting lies, senseless myths and "so-and-so told us in the name of so-and-so..”
He believed that the existence of a large variety of religions was, in itself, evidence that they were all man made, saying, "Jesus claimed that he is the son of God, while Moses claimed that He (God) had no son, and Muhammad claimed that he [Jesus] was created like the rest of humanity." and "Mani and Zoroaster contradicted Moses, Jesus and Muhammad regarding the Eternal One, the coming into being of the world, and the reasons for the [existence] of good and evil." In relation to the Hebrew's God asking of sacrifices, he said that "This sounds like the words of the needy rather than of the Laudable Self-sufficient one.”
Asked if a philosopher can follow a prophetically revealed religion, al-Razi frankly replies:
How can anyone think philosophically while listening to old wives' tales founded on contradictions, which obdurate ignorance, and dogmatism? Gentility of character, friendliness and purity of mind, are found in those who are capable of thinking profoundly on abstruse matters and scientific minutiae.
About Quran, al-Razi said: “You claim that the evidentiary miracle is present and available, namely, the Koran. You say: "Whoever denies it, let him produce a similar one." Indeed, we shall produce a thousand similar, from the works of rhetoricians, eloquent speakers and valiant poets, which are more appropriately phrased and state the issues more succinctly. They convey the meaning better and their rhymed prose is in better meter. ... By God what you say astonishes us! You are talking about a work which recounts ancient myths, and which at the same time is full of contradictions and does not contain any useful information or explanation. Then they say: “Produce something like it”? [Wikipedia]
Custom, tradition, and intellectual laziness lead men to follow their religious leaders blindly. Religions have been the sole cause of the bloody wars that have ravaged mankind. Religions have also been resolutely hostile to philosophical speculation and to scientific research. The so-called holy scriptures are worthless and have done more harm than good, whereas the writings of the ancients like Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, and Hippocrates have rendered much greater service to humanity.”
About religious devotees al-Razi wrote: “The people who gather round the religious leaders are either feeble-minded, or they are women and adolescents. Religion stifles truth and fosters enmity. If a book in itself constitutes a demonstration that it is true revelation, the treatises of geometry, astronomy, medicine and logic can justify such a claim much better than the Quran”.
His views on religion in general and Islam in particular earned him public condemnation for blasphemy. Al-Razi’s hostility towards the Islamic creed even angered some of the prominent thinkers of the Islamic world with liberal leaning, including Alberuni. Only bits and pieces of his refutation of revealed religion are left in a refutation of his book by an Ismaili author. From this, it is clear that the greatest mind of the Islamic golden age was not sympathetic towards Islam at all. Almost all of Ar Razi’s philosophical books were destroyed by the revival force of back to Islamic darkness.
2. Avicena or Ibn Sina (973-1037): The Uzbek born great philosopher, physician and scientist Abu Ali Sina, known as Avicenna in the West. His “major contribution to medical science was his famous book al-Qanun, known as the "Canon" in the West. The Qanun fi al-Tibb is an immense encyclopedia of medicine extending over a million words. It surveyed the entire medical knowledge available from ancient and Muslim sources. Due to its systematic approach, formal perfection as well as its intrinsic value, the Qanun superseded Razi's Hawi, Ali Ibn Abbas's Maliki, and even the works of Galen, and remained supreme for six centuries" (1) This book was taught as the textbook to the students of Medicine in the University of Bologna until the 17th Century.
“Avicenna's philosophy was based on a combination of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. Contrary to orthodox Islamic thought, Avicenna denied personal immortality, God's interest in individuals, and the creation of the world in time. He was holding philosophy superior to theology. In his commentary on theology, he dealt with God, creation, and angels etc. and many of his views on them stood in clear contradiction with their conception in the Islamic theology. He rejected the central Islamic doctrine of resurrection of the dead in flesh and blood. Ibn-Sina had also thoroughly rejected religions, including Islam, as lies. However, as Ibn Sina himself hailed from Khurasan, one cannot dismiss the possible influences of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism on his philosophy. Because of his views, Avicenna became the main target of an attack on such philosophy by the Islamic philosopher al-Ghazali and was even called “apostate.”
3. Al-Ma'arri, (973-1057): the greatest Syrian philosopher poet, skeptic and freethinker known as Lucretius of the East, al-Ma’arri was born in Syria and became blind at the age of five. Al-Ma’arri despised religions in general and Islam in particular. In condemnation of religions in general, he wrote his poetic verses:
“Religion are noxious weeds and fable invented by the ancients, worthless except for those who exploit the credulous masses.”
“Hanifs ( Muslims) are stumbling, Christians all astray
Jews wildered, Magians far on error's way.
We mortals are composed of two great schools
Enlightened knaves or else religious fools.”
Ma’arri’s contempt of all religions and their prophets were expressed as:
"Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The "sacred books" are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce."
“ The Prophets, too, among us come to teach,
Are one with those who from the pulpit preach;
They pray, and slay, and pass away, and yet
Our ills are as the pebbles on the beach
Mohammed or Messiah! Hear thou me,
The truth entire nor here nor there can be;
How should our God who made the sun and the moon
Give all his light to One, I cannot see.”,
Al-Ma’arri further states that the so-called sacred rites and creed are deceptive invention of dishonest and greedy men:
Oh fools, awake! The rites a sacred hold
Are but a cheat contrived by men of old
Who lusted after wealth and gained their lust
And died in baseness – and their law is dust.
Al-Ma’arri calls the sacred books out and out fiction and forgery and regards “reason” as the only means of uncovering the truth:
They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me
that these are a fiction from first to last.
O reason, Thou (alone) speakest the truth
Then perish the fools who forged the religious traditions or interpreted them!
4. Omar Khayyam (1048-1122):
He was one of the greatest mathematicians, astronomers, and poets of Iran whose Ruba’iyat (quatrains) are translated into most of the languages of the world and who has earned a universal recognition by everyone. Omar Khayyam was an epicurean philosopher, a rationalist skeptic and freethinker and follower of Greek philosophy, and scornful of religion and in particular of Islam. His views on Islam were in sheer contradiction with its fundamental precepts. He objected to the notion that every particular event and phenomenon was the result of the intervention of Allah. He did not believe in resurrection, Judgment Day or rewards and punishments in an alleged afterlife. Instead he was a naturalist and maintained all phenomena of observed on earth were guided by the laws of nature.
The following poem from his famous Rubayyat, will clearly highlight his mindset about his love of freethinking rational Greek philosophy against blind-faith theological Islamic doctrines:
"If Madrasahs of those drunks
Became the educational institutes
Of teaching philosophy of
Epicures, Plato and Aristotle;
If Abode and Mazars of Peer and Dervish
Is turned into research institutes,
If men instead of following blind faith of religion
Should have cultivated ethics,
If the abode of worships were turned into
Centers of learning of all academic activities,
If instead of studying religion, men
Would have devoted to develop mathematics - algebra,
If logic of science would have occupied the place of
Sufism, faith and superstition,
Religion that divides human beings
Would have replaced by humanism…
Then world would have turned into haven,
The world on other side then would have extinguished
The world would then become full of
Love-affection-freedom-joy,
And there is no doubt about it."
Edward Fitzgerald sums up the delightful nature of Omar Khayyam and his philosophy thus:
"...Omar’s Epicurean Audacity of thought and Speech caused him to be regarded askance in his own time and country. He is said to have been especially hated and dreaded by the Sufis, whose practice he ridiculed, and whose faith amounts to little more than his own, when strips of the Mysticism and formal recognition of Islamism under which Omar would not hide.”
Khayyam did not believe in any other world except this one. He was more concerned to enjoy the simple pleasures of life than confused world of the unknown. He was an agnostic par excellence “preferring rather to soothe the soul through the senses into acquiescence with things as he saw them, than to perplex it with vain disquietude after what they might be.”
Here are some examples Omar’s quatrains translated by Fitzgerald
Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!
Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.
Dreaming when Dawn’s Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry:
‘Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life’s Liquor in its Cup be dry.’
5. Ibn Rushd (1126-1198): This great mind born in Andalusa, Spain and was an important philosopher and scientist, known in the Western world as Averroes. His influence on European thought tends to be forgotten by Arabs and Europeans alike. But in the 13th and 14th century Averroism was as influential as was Marxism in the 19th century. Ibn Rushd worked as a mediator between the Arabic and the Western world by commenting and interpreting Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato, making them accessible to Arabic culture. He considered Aristotle as ‘the Prefect Man’. He wrote extensive commentaries on Aristotle and earned the epithet of “The Commentator”. “He expounded the Quran in Aristotelian terms. In many of his works, he also tried to mediate between philosophy and religion.
Religious leaders did not always praise his works; he was condemned for heresy by the Christian, the Jewish and the Islamic orthodoxy and his works were frequently banished and burnt.” Ibn Rushd fell out of favor with the Caliph due to the opposition that theologians had raised against his writings. He was accused of heresy, interrogated and banned to Lucena, close to Cordova. At the same time, the Caliph ordered the books of the philosopher to be burnt, with the exception of his works on Medicine, Arithmetics and Elementary Astronomy (around 1195). Somewhat later the Caliph revoked the banishment and called Ibn Rushd back to Marrakesh. The works of Ibn Rushd also aroused admiration in Europe, even among those theologians who saw a danger for religious faith in his writings. In the 13th century, Ibn Rushd was condemned by bishops from Paris, Oxford and Canterbury for reasons similar to those that had caused his condemnation by the orthodox Muslims in Spain.
Abu Yaqub, the Caliph of Morocco, called him to his capital and appointed him as his physician in place of Ibn Tufail. His son Yaqub al-Mansur retained him for some time but soon Ibn Rushd's views on theology and philosophy drew the Caliph's wrath. All his books, barring strictly scientific ones, were burnt and he was banished to Lucena. However, as a result of intervention of several leading scholars he was forgiven after about four years and recalled to Morocco in 1198; but he died towards the end of the same year. Ibn Rushd was a liberal, an exponent of liberation of women and regarded “much of the poverty and distress of the times arises from the fact that women are kept like “domestic animals or house plants for purposes of gratification, of a very questionable character besides, instead of being allowed to take part in the production of material and intellectual wealth, and in the preservation of the same.
6. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780-850): Was born in Khwarizmi (now Khiva) in Uzbekistan. He worked most of his life as a scholar in the house of wisdom (established by Caliph al-Mamun) in Banghdad. He was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer. Some of his contributions were based on earlier Persian and Babylonian Astronomy, Indian numerals, and the Greek sources.
His Algebra was the first book on the systematic solution of linear and guadratic equations. Consequently he was considered father of algebra, a title he shares with Diophantus. Latin translations of his Arithmatic, on the Indian numerals, introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world in the 12th century. He revised and updated Ptolemy’s Geography as well as writing several works on astronomy and astrology. His contributions not only made a great impact on mathematics, but on language as well.
Most of the positional base 10 numeral systems in the world have originated from India which first developed the concept of positional numerology. The Indian numeral system is commonly referred to the West as Hindu-Arabic numeral system, since it reached Europe through the Arabs.
History of Algebra: The Chinese, the Persians, and the people of India used algebra thousands of years ago. The Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks contributed to the early development of algebra. Al-Khwarizmi a teacher in the mathematical school in Baghdad, collected and improved the advances in algebra of previous Hindu and Arab scholars. His works included the translation of Greek and Sanskrit scientific manuscript.
Acording to the historian al-Tabari—al-khwarizmi was an adherent of the old Zorostrian religion. Others considered him as orthodox Muslim. Nevertheless, al-Khwarizmi never indicated that he was influenced by religiousity or he received any scientific theory out of Koran or hadiths.
7. Al-Biruni (973-1048): born in Khwarezm, Khorasan (now Uzbekistan) Abu Rayhan Biruni, (widely known as Al-Biruni) was a Persian-born Muslim polymaths. He was a sceintist and physicist, an antropologist, an astronomer, an astrologer, an encyclopedist, a historian, a geographer, a geologist, a mathmatician, philosopher, teacher, and a traveller. He was the first muslim scholar to study about India and the Brahminical tradition and has been described as the father of Indology.
In Islamic theology, al-Beruni assigned to the Qur’an a separate and autonomous realm of its own and held that the Qur’an dose not interferes in the business of science nor does it infringe on the realm of science.
8. Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (c. 801–873):
Al-Kindi was born in Kufa (modern Iraq) a Muslim Arab polymath. He was a philosopher, scientist, astrologer, astronomer, chemist, mathematician, musician, physician and physicist who was well known for his utmost interest in Greek philosophy. He was the first prominent philosopher of the Islamic world and was a member of the former Christian Arab tribe of Al-Kinda and was the only pure blooded Arab philosopher. The Italian Renaissance scholar Geralomo Cardano (1501–1575) considered him one of the twelve greatest minds of the Middle Ages.
Al-Kindi became a prominent figure in the House of Wisdom, and a number of Abbasid Caliphs appointed him to oversee the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language. This contact with "the philosophy of the ancients" (as Greek philosophy was often referred to by Muslim scholars) had a profound effect on his intellectual development, and lead him to write a number of original treatises of his own on a range of subjects ranging from metaphysics and ethics to mathematics and philosophy and pharmacology. In the field of mathematics, al-Kindi played an important role in introducing Indian numerals to the Islamic and Christian world.
His own thought was largely influenced by the Neo-Platonic philosophy of Proclus, Plotinus and John Philoponus, amongst others, although he does appear to have borrowed ideas from other Hellenistic schools as well. Earlier experts had suggested that he was influenced by the Mutazilite school of theology, because of the mutual concern both he and they demonstrated for maintaining the pure unity (tawhid) of God. However, such agreements are now considered incidental, as further study has shown that they disagreed on a number of equally important topics.
During his life, al-Kindi was fortunate enough to enjoy the patronage of the pro-Mutazilite Caliphs al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim, which meant he could carry out his philosophical speculations with relative ease. This would change significantly towards the end of his life when al-Mutawakkil supported the more orthodox Asharite school, and initiated persecution of various unorthodox schools of thought, including the philosophers. He also engaged in disputations with the Mutazilites, whom he attacked for their belief in atoms. But the real role of al-Kindi in the conflict between philosophers and theologians would be to prepare the ground for debate. His works, says Deborah Black, contained all the seeds of future controversy that would be fully realized in al-Ghazali's Incoherence of the Philosophers.
9. Al-Farabi (870-950):
Al-Farabi, the Turkoman thinker, was the greatest scientists and philosophers of the Islamic world. Among the scholars of the Middle Period - (tenth and eleventh centuries ad) al-Farabi was considered the foremost Aristotelian, and was indeed known as the Second Teacher (Aristotle himself being the First Teacher). He made notable contributions to the fields of mathematics, philosophy, medicine, sociology and music. He was inspired by the Platonism and Neo-Platonism and was a great exponent of the Aristotelian school of philosophy. He wrote rich commentaries on Aristotle and like al-Razi, he considered reason superior to revelation and advocated for the relegation of prophecy to philosophy. According to him as quoted by Nicholson, “…reason should govern and control the life of man. He definitely did not believe in the inherent doctrines of the Islamic creed and wished it could be reformed guided by philosophy. He was also a major political scientist and may rightly be acclaimed as one of the greatest of Islamic philosophers of all time. While his name tends to be overshadowed by that of Ibn Sina, it is worth bearing in mind that the latter was less original than the former.
10. Geber Geber: (721-815):
Geber, aka Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan, was a prominent Islamic alchemist, pharmacist, philosopher, astronomer, and physicist. He has also been referred to as "the father of Arab chemistry" by Europeans. His ethnic background is not clear; although most sources state he was an Arab, some describe him as Persian. Jabir was born in Tus, Khorasan, in Iran, which was at the time ruled by the Umayyad Caliphate. He was the son of Hayyan al-Azdi, a pharmacist of the Arabian Azd tribe who emigrated from Yemen to Kufa (in present-day Iraq) during the Umayyad Caliphate.
Jabir is mostly known for his contributions to chemistry. He emphasised systematic experimentation, and did much to free alchemy from superstition and turn it into a science. He is credited with the invention of many types of now-basic chemical laboratory equipment, and with the discovery and description of many now-commonplace chemical substances and processes - such as the hydrochloric and nitric acids, distillation, and crystalization that have become the foundation of today's chemistry and chemical engineering. Jabir's alchemical investigations were theoretically grounded in an elaborate numerology related to Pythagorean and Neoplatonic systems. In his writings, Jabir pays tribute to Egyptian and Greek alchemists Hermes Trismegistus, Agathodaimon, Pythagoras, and Socrates.
His books strongly influenced the medieval European alchemists and justified their search for the philosopher's stone. In spite of his leanings toward mysticism (he was considered a Sufi) and superstition, he more clearly recognised and proclaimed the importance of experimentation. Jabir became an alchemist at the court of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, for whom he wrote the Kitab al-Zuhra ("The Book of Venus", on "the noble art of alchemy"). In the middle Ages, Jabir's treatises on chemistry were translated into Latin and became standard texts for European alchemists.
11. Abulcasis (936-1013):
Abul Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas al-Zahrawi (known in the west as Abulcasis) was a Spanish Muslim Philosopher born in 936 A.D. in Zahra in the neighbourhood of Cordova. He became one of the most renowned surgeons of the Muslim era and was physician to King Al-Hakam-II of Spain. After a long medical career, rich with significant original contribution, he died in 1013 A.D. He is best known for his early and original breakthroughs in surgery as well as for his famous Medical Ecyclopaedia called Al-Tasrif, which is composed of thirty volumes covering different aspects of medical science. He is considered the father of modern surgery and as Islam’s greatest medieval surgeon whose comprehensive medical texts, combining Arab medicine and Greco-Roman teachings, shaped both Islamic and European surgical procedures up until the Renaissance. His greatest contribution to history is the Kitab al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume encyclopedia of medical praxctices. According to Dr. Cambell (History of Arab Medicine), his principles of medical science surpassed those of Galen in the European medical curriculum.
12. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali [aka: Algazel] (450-505 AH) or (1058-1111 AD): was born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia (Modern day Iran). He was one of the greatest Muslim theologians, jurist, philospher and mystics of the 12th Century. He wrote on a wide range of topics including jurisprudence, theology, mysticism and philosophy.
Imam Al-Ghazali is widely known for his heroic role to defeat Mu‘tazilites (rationalized movement) and revived pure Islam. While it is well known that Al-Ghazali himself intended to "shut the door of ijtihad" (the process through which Islamic scholars can generate new rules for Muslims) completely and permanently, which led the Islamic societies to be "frozen in time". Works of critics of Al-Ghazali (such as Ibn-Rushd, a rationalist), as well as the works of any ancient philosopher, were practically forbidden in these "frozen socities" through the centuries. As a result, all chances were lost to gradually revitalize religion of Islam. His 11th century book titled “The Incoherence of the Philosophers” marks a major turn in islamic epistemology (study of the nature, methods, limitations, and validity of knowledge and belief) and marked a turning point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement rejections of Aristotle and plato. The book took aimed bitter attack to the group of Islamic philosphers (from the 8-11 centuries) most notablely Avicenna and Al-Frabi etc. who drew intellectually upon the Ancient Greeks. Ghazali bitterly denounced Aristotle, Socretics and other Greek philosophers and writers. And lebeled those who adopted their methods and ideas as corruptters of the true islamic faith.
Another of Ghazali’s major work was: Ihya al-Ulum al-Din (The revival of religious sciences) was widely regarded as the greatest work of Muslim spirituality, and has, for centuries, been the most read work after the Qur’ān in the Muslim world. In this book Imam Ghazali rejuvenated Islamic dogmas (full of ridiculous hadiths with untold superstitions and absurdities) only to push back Muslim societies deep into the darkness of Islamic radicalism. He mastered philosophy and then criticized it in order to Islamicize it. Philosophy declined in the Sunni world after al-Ghazali, and his criticism of philosophers (Islamic luminaries who followed Aristotles, Pluto, Socretics etc) certainly accelerated this decline. Nearly a century later, IBN RUSHD (Averroes) made desperate efforts to resist the trend by refuting al-Ghazali’s Tahafut in his Tahafut al-tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence) and Fasl al-maqal (The Decisive Treatise), but he could not stop it.
