M:rza Taq: Sh:r"z:’s fomenting of the 1920 revolt in Iraq to...

M:rza Taq: Sh:r"z:’s fomenting of the 1920 revolt in Iraq to expel the colonisers. All of this and more is the best evidence to prove the continuing struggle of the Sh:!a and their protection of the land, their concern with propagating and protecting Islam, their sacrifices for it, and their defending it against attack.

As for their efforts at the current time, it is sufficient to know that a number of prominent Sh:!a scholars have spent their lives in exile or in prison and under arrest in defence of Islam and protecting the Muslims. Similarly they have played a well acknowledged part in defending Palestine and Jerusalem and other occupied territories.

In addition, the services the Sh:!a have provided to Islamic culture and economics, peace and politics, developing the land and industry, are great in number and would require large volumes to enumerate. The Shia and Islamic Sciences The Sh:!a laid the foundation of Islamic sciences.194 For example, AbY Aswad al-Duval: (605-688 C.E.) was the first to write about grammar under the tutelage of Imam !Al: ibn Ab: ھ"lib (a.s.). Al- Khal:l ibn A9mad195 was the person to lay down the science of prosody.

J"bir ibn .ayy"n the student of Imam Ja!far al-£"diq (a.s.) was the pioneer of modern chemistry. In over 700 books he dealt with subjects such as: metals and their oxides and salts; nitric, sulphuric, and chloric acids; he also dealt with the preparation of alkalis and their purification through crystallisation, distillation, filtration, and sublimation. He added to Chemistry the fields of experiment and method and hence the world considers him to be the father of Chemistry.

According to Abdul-Ra9m"n al-MiNr:, J"bir alluded to the radioactivity present in bodies. He also discovered new chemical elements unknown to the ancients. He would say: ‘I know from my experiments that there are other elements present in earth. However, I do not have the means at present to extract them.’ Historians say that J"bir pioneered the telephone and telegraph. He had a kind of small box connected to another box with wires with which he communicated with other people at long distances.

He also invented a small aeroplane in which Kh"lid al-Barmak: used to sit and fly in the air. This aircraft could remain in flight for extended periods of time and was perhaps was of the helicopter type. He also invented a robotic doorkeeper made of iron for the abode of a certain minister.