The
Transfer of Information
As
Islam grew in the land, Muslims soon took on the existing
knowledge and further developed it in fulfillment of
the teachings of their own Faith.
This
wealth of knowledge was soon shared with other people
in the conquest and non-conquest land. This action of
sharing goodness with others is also in fulfillment
of the Muslim's own Faith. The Holy Qur'an teaches:
"And
never would God make your faith of no effect, for God
is to all people most surely full of Kindness, Most Merciful"
Qur'an, 2:143.
The
Prophet also said that God said: "I
created people to benefit from Me, not so that I benefit
from them."
Other
Prophetic Traditions say: "A
true believer loves for his fellow believer that which
he loves for himself." "He who does not thank
people does not thank God." "The best among
you are the best in character."
Dr. A.Hakim Murad, a British authority on the history
of the Middle Ages claims that: "The
transfer of knowledge and information from the Muslim
Empire, during the Middle Ages, is the most important
episode of cultural transmission in the world's intellectual
history."
He
continued to say: "The first
and most effective vehicle of such an osmosis was in fact
the vehicle of trade. The Muslims found trading business
quite easy to achieve because they had its roots in their
community."
Furthermore,
the Holy Qur'an praises actions of revival and development.
The
Prophet himself was an honest trader, and Mecca was, in
effect, a commercial center for the Arabian Peninsula,
which sent caravans and traders across the desert north
to Syria and south to Yemen.
The
Muslims inspired by the Qur'an to uplift their economy
and status of living created a unitive state, which extended
from Southern France in the West all the way to Southern
China in the East, and thus removing of the "old
iron curtain" that had separated the Mediterranean
culture in the West from the Indian and Persian cultures
in the East.
"The
removal of this divider and the geographic centrality
of the Middle East was the base for this great mercantile
civilization. The domination of the world of economy in
the culture of Islam continued well into the 17th century,"
Dr. A. Hakim Murad added.
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