Nah, I have heard of him, and I have read the history. I am on a scholarship *****, and when UNI starts I am going to be majoring in History... Don't act like just because you're triple my age, that you know more than I do about History regarding the Middle East. Thats only step one *****. You can learn a thing or two if you weren't so ******* closed minded about things. Like I said before, you're suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress which makes you hate Islam. You fought in a war, you were a casualtie, and you blame Islam. Get a clue.
And if you knew anything, instead of going on Wikipedia, you would know that it was Amr ibn-al-As by order of Umar Ibn al-Khattab to burn down the library.
Islamic teachings advocate respect of all religion and their books and Muslims can, without reservations, benefit from those books. So, the tale seems contradictory to the Islamic practices which would not allow any bad treatment of anything bearing the name of *** or his teachings within the Qur'an. Get it? Books about knowledge and understanding?
If you knew anything about Islam, which you don't, you would know that Islam is knowledgable with todays sciences. This is why Scientologists don't try to put their hands up Muslim's ***** so hard, and instead they go after other religions.
The names of some Suras or chapters of the Quran are like this : The Thunder, The Light, The Smoke, The Star, The Moon, The Ways of Ascent (to Heaven), The Signs, The Night-Visitant (a star), The Dawn, The Sun, The Night, The Morning Light, The Earthquake. All the above mentioned chapters call to scientific research about the earth and the heavens. One reads in the Quran: "Say 'Behold all that is in the heavens and on earth. But neither signs nor warners profit those who believe not" (Quran: X - 101) And "Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of Night and Day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding" (Quran: III - 190.) A lot of the traditions of the Prophet urge Muslims to resort to medicine when they get ill. All the traditions concerning preservation of health and the rules for food and drink have been gathered under the title of "Prophetic Medicine." The Arabs Islamic civilization which gave the world great scientific progress in all the fields of life did that because the Holy Quran asks Muslims to do so by saying: "Say [O Muhammad] are they equal, those who know and those who do not know? It is those who are endued with understanding that receive admonition" (Quran: XXXIX - 9). We see then that *** honors knowledge and its people, and considers them privileged over others. *** makes the testimony of the scholars equal to His testimony and that of the angels when he says in the holy Quran "There is no *** but He. That is the witness of ***, His angels, and those endued with knowledge, standing from justice. There is no *** but He, the Exalted in power, the Wise." (The Quran: III - 18 ) So *** honors scholars when he makes His witness equal to that of the angels and that of the scholars. *** also instructs Muhammad, to supplicate by saying "My Lord grant me more knowledge" (Quran: XX - 114), that knowledge which benefits man in this life and in the hereafter. Islam makes reason the basis for judging every case. In the Quran, we find so many verses which have phrases like "Ulal albab" or "Ulunuuha" which mean (people of good reason or mind). In other instances, we find phrases which address (people who understand well). Islam calls for all kinds of science which erase ignorance in life or in religion.
If we wanted to mention everything about Islam's call to science in all its kinds, it would take us too much time. It suffices to know that Islam considers the whole community guilty, if they did not have enough numbers of scholars in every field of specialization. The Muslim jurisprudents even say that if the community needed a hundred scientists in one field and they had only ninety then the whole nation would be considered guilty until they manage to have the required number. Many western scientists and scholars have recognized the great Islamic progress in the fields of medicine, chemistry, biology, mathematics, philosophy, social sciences, geography, history and astronomy. Zigrid Honke's book about the effects of the Arab civilization on Europe is a testimony of gratitude to the Arabs for the sciences they have provided to humanity. Gustav Lebon says that Islam is one of the closest religions to the discoveries of science (Gustav Lebon: The Arab civilization. p.126) Dreiber, a professor at the university of New York, author of "The Conflict between Religion and Science", says that Baghdad became the greatest capital of science and knowledge on earth in the days of the Abbasid - Al Ma'amoun in 813, who collected innumerable books, honored men of science and was very generous to them. Dreiber added, that the Arabs greatly developed the old sciences and discovered some sciences unknown before. The universities of Muslim countries were open to European students who traveled to those universities for the sake of science and learning. Even the kings and princes of Europe visited the Muslim countries for treatment in their hospitals. Sedillot in his book (History of the Arabs) said "In the Middle Ages the Arabs were unique in science, philosophy and art. They spread knowledge wherever they went. Their science moved to Europe and that was the reason for its rise and progress." Sedillot continues to say "When Muslims talked about earth as being a sphere, there was a great trouble in the Christian world. The Church decreed that Christopher Columbus was against religion when he went across the Atlantic ocean hoping to discover a new land! The meeting of (Salamonk) agreed on that and nothing saved him but the intrusion of some kings of Europe. The Church people consulted the saying of the Fathers, the Letters of the Apostle, the Bible, Psalms and Old Testament and found Columbus guilty." "It is really ridiculous to know that the Church was enraged when a lady called Mary Montage in 1721 introduced the method of injecting virus under the skin as a way of treatment. This was in fact discovered by the Muslims (Sedillot in his book "Islam, a Universe Call.)" Gustav Lebon says in his book "Arab civilization": "We cannot see in history a nation of such vast influence as the Muslim Arabs. All the nations who contacted them adopted their civilization even for a period." He adds: "The influence of the Arabs in the East was not only clear in religion, language and arts but also in the scientific culture." Professors Libri says: "If the Arabs had not existed on the stage of history, the rise of Europe would have been delayed for centuries."
