ISBN: 09070524282
Author: Afzalur Rahman
Publisher: Seerah Foundation London (1987)
Pages: 326 Binding: Paperback
Description from the publisher:
Preface:
The object of writing on the subject of the political philosophy of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is to show mankind how the prophet initiated the movement of liberty, equality, fraternity and justice in the Arabian Peninsula and how it gradually spread to other countries of the world; and how, in the wake of this enthusiasm for knowledge, new schools, universities and centers of learning were established in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus and other cities of the Middle East; and how this seed-pot of learning, in its multidimensional aspects, sown in the fertile plains and valleys of Spain by the Arabs and blossoming into the luster of Moorish elegance and beauty in all its richness, circulated unimpeded for centuries throughout the peninsula of Spain, particularly in cities like Cordova, Seville, Toledo, Granada, Malaga, Saragossa, Lisbon, Jaen and Salamanca, among others and the South of France. Then from there it radiated to other parts of France, Germany and the rest of Europe and across the Channel to England.
Thus manifold influences from the civilization of Islam bathed European life in their radiance in diverse ways. Neither Roger Bacon nor his later namesake introduced the experimental methods into science. Roger Bacon, like many other earlier European scientists, was just one of the messengers who brought Muslim science and method to Christian Europe. We would not be wrong in emphasizing that “but for the Arabs, modern European civilization would never have arisen at all; Columbus would not have made his voyage to the New World; and without the Spanish Moors, there would have been no troubadours, and without the troubadours, no Dante.” (Robert Briffault, The Making of Humanity, pp. 185-211). There is absolutely no doubt that a new spirit of inquiry and a new method of investigation, the method of experiment and observation, which was totally unknown to the Greeks, was introduced into Europe by the Arabs. And along with it, diverse elements of Muslim culture came directly to Europe and Britain. These influences, among other things, brought the movement of liberty, equality, fraternity and justice to the European peoples, and influenced men like Rousseau, Voltaire, Locke, Hobbes and many others and thus laid the basis of modern democratic institutions. This subject will, Inshallah, be dealt with in two or three volumes. The first is on “Liberty” which is now being presented to our readers.June, 1987 Afzalur RahmanLondon
