World Muslims need to introspect: why only two Nobel Laureates, including an Ahm adi who was hounded

in Pakistan as a Kafir

By Aftab Zaidi November 13, 2011 Photo: Zakariya al-Razi, Persian physician, scientist and philosopher. 865-925 ACE. The 2011 Nobel Prizes were announced recently at a ceremony held in Europe. It i s rather sad that no Muslim was able to garner this prestigious award. After all Muslims constitute 21 percent of the total world population and are around 1.57 billion. It is an irony that so far the Muslim world has produced only nine Nob el laureates since the inception of this award by Alferd Nobel in 1895. This statistic seems even more horrifying if the Peace Prize winners are exclude d from this list which leaves it with only two Nobel laureates in the field of s cience namely Dr Abdus Salam in Physics and Ahmed Zewail in Chemistry. Moreover, Dr. Salam was hounded and persecuted in his home country on account of his Ahme di faith and is not even considered a Muslim. His numerous achievements were nev er acknowledged. In fact the word Muslim was officially erased from his gravestone. O the contrary, Jews who make up 0.20 percent of the total world population at 13 .2 million have had 178 Nobel Prize winners. This pathetic state of affairs depicts that there is something seriously wrong i n the Muslim world. After all Muslims were one of the pioneers of modern science . The period between 9th and 13th century is considered as the golden age of Isl am. Although some of the ideas were translated from the Greeks and Romans, there were also original concepts brought up by Muslim scientists. Al Razi made signi ficant contributions to medicine, alchemy, music and philosophy. His work has be en recorded in over 200 books and articles. Al Furabi was a cosmologist, logicia n and musician. Jabbir Ibn Hayyin was a cosmopolitan figure, being an astronomer , astrologer, engineer, geologist, physicist, pharmacist and a physician. However despite this strong foundation, Muslims lost the tide. During the last 8 00 years there has been no major invention or innovation brought forward by the Muslim world. Western civilization is to be lauded for conceiving concepts like Quantum Mechanics, genetic engineering, theory of relativity and for creation of antibiotics, electricity, computers and a host of other modern gadgets that has made life comfortable today. Muslims on the other hand have had almost a neglig ible role to play in formulating such mind boggling ideas. Zakariya al-Razi, Persian physician, scientist and philosopher. 865-925 ACE. There has been some introspection to actually decipher the causes of the decline of intellectual vigor in the Muslim civilization. The scholars have come up wit h two different competing narratives. The conservatives declare the loss of fait h and the debauchery, such as drinking and dancing in the Caliphs courts, as the causes for this downfall. Additionally they also lay blame on the invasion of B aghdad in 1258 by the Mongol forces of Hulaku Khan whereby a treasure trove of d ocuments and manuscripts related to astronomy, astrology, alchemy, history and o n number of science subjects were destroyed. However this is a faulty hypothesis. Science came into Islam through the spirit of tolerance and inquiry. After all that is the basis of any intellectual discip line. The early Muslim conquerors came upon the scholarly treasures of Greek and Roman civilizations. Those works were not discarded rather they were decoded an d translated. Thus they became a source of considerable knowledge. It was not a divine duty but the natural human instinct of curiosity which made them acquire knowledge and wisdom from those sources. Hunan Ibn Ishaq translated Greek scient ific and medical works into Arabic and Syriac during the prime of Abbasid caliph ate. He was considered the most productive translator of Greek treatises of his time and became known as the Sheikh of Translators among the Arabs. The reigns of Caliph Haroon Ur Rasheed and Al Mammon are still remembered for th eir liberal outlook and research endeavors. These rulers were the noninterventio nists of their time and belonged to the Mutizillah School of Thought. The Mutizi llahs believed in rationalism, intellectual inquiry and reason. The application of logic and judgment to resolve theological conundrums was also one of their qu

alities. In their opposition was the Ashari School of Thought. The Asharis were firm believers inpredestination. They held the view that although humans possess freewill they have no power to create anything in the material world as that is the domain of God alone. The result was that there was a very bloody battle las ting over several years between predestinates and the freethinkers. In the end t he Asharis succeeded. Therefore after the 14th century, and especially after Ibn Khuldun, there have been no big names among Muslim intellectuals. This is the m isfortune of the Muslim civilization, one that it is yet to recover from. Source: nirmukta.com URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamicSociety_1.aspx?ArticleID=6415

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COMMENTS 1/20/2012 10:26:32 PM satwa gunam I agree saudi must take the lead as the protector of two mosque and come out wit h an award equivalent of nobel. Award money must be 100 times more than what no bel gives and it must be decided by a committee comprising of islamic scholars a ll over the world but head by saudi.

1/20/2012 5:50:25 PM Lee Jay Walker Again, some truths followed by the usual "myths." The Islamic war machine invaded Buddhist areas, Christian areas, Hindu areas, Zo roastrian areas, and Pagan areas - stole from the native population and civiliza tions ......and once Islamization took hold....then year zero and backwardness.. . Pagan Egypt dwarfs the entire Muslim period......Zoroastrian Persia dwarfs anyth ing under the entire Muslim period.....and it goes on and on. If Islamic science and education was so great then name one single Muslim instit ution which belongs to the elite or one single university in a majority Muslim n ation which belongs to the elite? Simple....isn't it? Also, why is it that Islam had to borrow from the Pagan Greeks and so forth give n the fact that nothing was meant to be before "the light of Islam"......it is a contradiction....in fact, the "light of Science" came from the Pagan world.... ...and "the light of darkness" would come from the Islamic world once Islamizati on took hold. Afghanistan, once a land of Buddhists, Hindus, and other faiths....then Islamic invasions, dhimmitude, jihad, slavery, and what is left.......yes, year zilch an d one huge begging bowl on one hand and on the other hand Islamists who stone pe ople to death in the 21st century..... Wake up, stop being in denial......when did Islamization create progress by itse lf..... Muslims wanted to leave mother India and look at modern day Pakistan.....yes, th e modernizers are losing to the religious zealots..... On March 11 in 2002 many young girls were left to be burnt alive in Saudi Arabia ....why, simple, they weren't covered up enough so the religious police just let them die......this is Islam in its true color.......but this won't stop hypocri

tes from trying to spread a religion based on ritual, do this, do that, don't d o that, abide by this fatwa, and so on......

1/20/2012 12:32:47 PM Syed Rizvi Muslims can start their own Noble Prize committee. Call it with any Muslim nam e. It can be done with the enormous amount of ptero dollars. Muslim can star t awarding the prize left and right and surpass the number in one year that the Jewish scientists have received throughout the history of the Noble Prize. In Pakistan, we have been giving out PhD degrees at such a fast pace that India cannot keep up with us.

1/19/2012 10:51:34 PM satwa gunam I agree that the mistake is with the Muslim masses. Mullah have removed their a bility to think in the name of discipline and fear of religious offence. Then t hey have used the mass as their toy for perpetuating hatred in the name of relig ion for their own ego satisfaction and benefit. Probably the liberal must increase their interaction with the masses to encourag e reflection rather than following the interpretation of the mullah of the holy books. Absence of the same create ridiculous fatwa and still the masses take t heir consulting with these mullah show the state of mind of these masses.

1/19/2012 4:05:49 PM Ghulam Mohiyuddin The fault lies not with Muslim scientists but with Muslim societies which have d iverted their attention and resources to militarism, excessive religiosity, madr asa education and internecine deisputes and away from progess, research and open -mindedness.

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