THE IMMENSE CONTRIBUTION OF THE ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE TO THE BUILDING OF MODERN CIVILIZATION
The House Of Wisdom: Abbasid Caliphate; Baghdad (8th. Century - 1258)
The Islamic Golden Age was a period in Islamic history that took place during what is referred to by Europeans as the Middle Ages.
Under the Abbasid Caliphate (the Sunni Caliphate, based in Baghdad), there flourished a centre of learning and study called The House Of Wisdom - where great scholars from all over the (known) world were invited to study, explore and share their knowledge and wisdom in every field of academia...

Ancient knowledge and wisdom from, for example, the Greek Philosophy, was saved and preserved there, and great breakthroughs in Science, Philosophy, and the Arts were made during the centuries that The House Of Wisdom existed; knowledge that was the foundation of the modern age...
The House Of Wisdom was destroyed during the siege and sack of Baghdad by the Mongols, in 1258...
But much of the knowledge and wisdom preserved and discovered there remains...
What's unfair is, that with the decline of the Islamic world's influence, it is common today that this wisdom is assumed to be of (relatively recent) Western European innovation - and the Golden Age of Islamic intellectual and artistic genius is overlooked...
This video addresses that error...
THE FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM
Lesson Plan
The Five Pillars of Islam
Year 8 Introduction Lesson
(Worksheet adapted from a TES resource)
Timings are approximate / flexible
Introduce myself and the lesson (5 mins)
Recap with class previous lessons on Islam (5 mins)
Arrange class in 5 groups. Hand out worksheets:
Sheets 1 and 2: one each.
Sheet 3 1 per group
Sheets 4 – 8 1 to each group (5 mins)
Video: The Five Pillars Of Islam (about 6 mins): get class to make notes of important points and words.
Discuss the video (4 mins)
Complete Prologue Verse of 5 Pillars Poem (? mins: no more than 10 mins: I have a completed version, just in case).
Each group write a ‘Fast Think Poetry’ verse on the particular Pillar of Islam that they have been given. (remaining time: allow a couple of minutes to pack up).
If any time remains: two short videos.
https://youtu.be/Jb8Yk8LaUoc The Five Pillars of Islam (Start from 1:15)
https://youtu.be/H9U8T8x1AhQ Five Pillar: simpler
https://youtu.be/M9mTID6uVwY Ramadan Moon: a simple song, explaining Ramadan to childred (Yusus / Cat Stevens): end of lesson – if time allows.
Teacher’s notes
The Five Pillars:
Shahada: Declaration of Faith: There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger
Salat: Prayer: 5 times a day: dawn; midday; afternoon; sunset; late night
Zakat: Giving 2.5% of savings to charity to help the poor
Sawm: Fasting during the month of Ramadan: during daylight hours.
Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca; to the Kaaba.
Textual content: (this lesson) © Copyright MLM Arts 04. 03. 2020.Edited: 13. 10. 2024
AL-GHAZALI (1058 - 1111 CE): Persian polymath Imam: one of humanity's great geniuses...
This is a rebuttal to a shocking myth that was made popular by modern pop scientist, Professor Neil De-Grass Tyson.
On more than one occasion, Tyson has declared that Imam Al-Ghazali was the main cause of the end of the Islamic Golden Age - and the decline of civilization in the Islamic world, because (Tyson asserts), the Imam declared Mathematics to be the work of the Devil - and should be shunned by Muslims.
That is utterly false. Al-Ghazali never said any such thing; nor did any other Muslim leader.
Here's a direct quote of what Al-Ghazali actually - REALLY - did say:
'...Great indeed is the crime against religion committed by anyone who supposes that Islam is to be championed by the denial of these mathematical sciences. For the revealed Law nowhere undertakes to deny or affirm these sciences, and the latter nowhere address themselves to religious matters...'
(Source: Al Ghazali. 'Deliverance From Error and The Beginning Of Guidance' My copy: Translated by W. Montgomery Watt. Published by Islamic Book Trust (Kuala Lumpur) 2005. Pages 20 - 23.)
Al-Ghazali's point (in brief) is that Mathematical sciences can neither confirm nor deny the existence of God / Allah; the problem arises when people are so thoroughly impressed by the power of Mathematics to calculate and discover the workings of the Universe, that they become convinced that Mathematics is the answer to all questions - and that God / Allah cannot exist - because Mathematics would have discovered God's existence if God did exist...
Which is pretty much what's happening today, with people who are totally impressed and convinced by the dominant Materialist paradigm in Science.
(I found this image online (and added the caption on top). My acknowledgdement and thanks to whoever posted / owns it (Identity unknown to me).)
Textual content (this article) © Copyright MLM Arts 02. 08. 2022. Edited and re-psxoted: 13. 10. 2024
