ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Your Questions Answered (volume 2) (appendix 'c') Space Travel The Americans' landing on the Moon was welcomed throughout the world as a great leap forward for the mankind. But there is a section in East Africa which is sceptical to it, on the grounds that "it is impossible to go to the heavenly bodies." This declaration brings to mind the retrogress of knowledge amongst the Muslims.

It is really very tragic to see the followers of Islam sinking to the lowest level of ignorance, while it was Islam, which declared that "to seek knowledge is incumbent upon every Muslim man and woman;" and it was Islam which exhorted its followers to learn, to observe and to think, and whose prophet said "I am the City of knowledge and Ali is its Gate." This attitude of mind is not just a result of the low standard of Islamic learning in East Africa where anybody who can speak a few Arabic words claims to be a "sheikh".

In fact, the root of this ignorance goes far deep in the Islamic history. The real cause of this ignorance is that the Muslims left "the Gate of Knowledge" and as a result had to beg from each and every house. This led them to the pagan Greek philosophy. They devoured it and treated as if it were the God-sent revelation.

How deep was their devotion to that pagan thinking can be easily gauged if we take, for example, the subject of astronomy and see what was the view of Islam, and what the Greek view and then see what the Muslims believed to be the untarnished truth.

Without going into details, I will give here the list of the Ptolemic theory about skies : That theory declared that earth was the centre of universe and was static; that there were nine skies around it, all round, transparent and having life and intelligence; that these skies were one upon another like the layers of onion, without any gap in between; that they were eternal and intelligent beings; that they were moving eternally; that the moon, sun, mars, venus, and other stars were fixed in the skies and that there was no gap or opening in the skies nor can they be cut, or opened in any way.

And what did Islam teach? It said that the skies were made of a substance which is like steam or smoke, that they are not solid, that the stars and planets "swim" in them, that there was space between one sky and the next; that the angels of God lived in them, that there were paths and gates in them etc. etc.