Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

The Mosque, the Laboratory, and the Market • 107tenth century, when modern-day instruments were not available todetect hydrogen bonding.Al-Biruni’s unique contribution to cosmology lies in the way hisentire system is interlinked. He provides a detailed description of thesublunary world, gives geographical details of the various regions ofthe earth, describes the formation of mountains, clouds, dry and wetlands, the seven climes, and numerous minerals, plants, and animals.In his writings on the animal and plant kingdom, his ideas aredirectly inspired by the QurāĀn, just as his overall scheme of humanexistence and the human relationship with the world. For example,in his description of the senses of hearing and sight in humanbeings, al-Biruni states: “Sight was made the medium so that [man]traces among the living things the signs and wisdom, and turns fromthe created things to the Creator” (al-Biruni, tr. 1989, 5). Then hecites the verse We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and withinthemselves until it will be manifest unto them that it is the truth (Q. 41:53).Islamic cosmological schemes continued to explore various aspectsof the discipline after the death of al-Biruni and Ibn Sina, thoughthe groundbreaking works of the tenth and the eleventh centuriesremained dominant. A special genre of interest is the “Wonders ofCreation” tradition, which sought to describe the entire universe. Thetwelfth and the thirteenth centuries were particularly rich in theseencyclopedic writings.God, Creation, and the Concept of Eternity of the WorldIn contrast to our own era, the existence of God was not a widespreadissue during the Middle Ages (at least in the geographical areaunder consideration). Atheism and agnosticism did not exist in thepublic sphere. Muslim, Christian, and Jewish philosophers of thattime constructed their metaphysics, physics, and cosmology on theunderstanding that God exists. What was sometimes disputed wasthe provability of God’s existence, for some philosophers believedthat such a proof could be offered rationally while others demurred.Those who attempted to provide proofs for the existence of God canbe divided into two broad categories: those who demonstrated theexistence of God from the premise of the world’s eternity and those