The Light 2018 08 August

August 2018 The
Light 10
Engraved with Islamic inscriptions,
the headstones of 576 Muslim soldiers
stand in ranks facing Mecca at
Notre Dame de Lorette, the biggest
of France’s many war cemeteries.
Each one is also inscribed with
the words “Mort Pour La France”
– died for France
conduct research. Such freedom was encouraged
right from the beginning, as is illustrated
by an incident which took place after the
Prophet had migrated from Makkah to Madinah.
There he saw some people atop the date
palms pollinating them. Since dates were not
grown in Makkah the Prophet had to ask what
these people were doing to the trees. He thereupon
forbade them to do this, and the following
year date crop was very poor as compared to
previous year. When the Prophet asked the reason,
he was told that the yield depended on pollination.
He then told the date-growers to resume
this practice, admitting that they knew
more about “worldly matters” than he did.
In this way, the Prophet separated practical
matters from religion, thus paving the way for
the free conduct of research throughout the
world of nature and the adoption of conclusions
based thereon. This great emphasis placed on
exact knowledge resulted in the awakening of a
great desire for learning among the Muslims of
the first phase. This process began in Makkah,
then reached Madinah and Damascus, later centring
on Baghdad. Ultimately it entered Spain.
Spain flourished, with extraordinary progress
made in various academic and scientific disciplines.
This flood of scientific progress then entered
Europe, ultimately ushering in the modern,
scientific age.
The golden age of science, also known as the
golden age of Islam, from the 9 th century up until
the 14 th century, was dominated by fantastic
Islamic scholars who discovered and first applied
the principles of mathematics to science.
A famous scholar being Muhammad Al-
Khwarizmi, who was the pioneer of algebra,
I Shall Love All Mankind.
made it possible for us to achieve great scientific
advancements like travelling to space.
Without his work we may not have been able to
fly to the moon or send satellites to space which
now control everything we do.
So, not only should we seek knowledge, but
when we learn it, it becomes obligatory on us to
practice it. We should apply the knowledge that
we have discovered and been exposed to our
day-to-day tasks and see how such knowledge
can prevent us from making future mistakes or
in turn help us through difficult times.
In not only the month of Ramadan should
we further our education spiritually and
worldly but throughout our life which will allow
us to grow our minds to the full potential Allah
intended for us.
(Return_to content)
The forgotten Muslim heroes
of WWI
How Muslim soldiers helped save the
allies from defeat in the First World
From: The National
War
By David Crossland
Engraved with Islamic inscriptions, the
headstones of 576 Muslim soldiers stand in
ranks facing Mecca at Notre Dame de Lorette,
the biggest of France’s many war cemeteries.
Each one is also inscribed with the words
“Mort Pour La France” – died for France – like
the massed crosses of their Christian comrades
in this 62-acre memorial containing the remains
of over 40,000 soldiers. Today it is a
lonely place of birdsong and rustling trees overlooking
the slag heaps of the Artois mining region
but it was once one of the bloodiest battlefields
of the First World War.
The Muslim graves have lain mostly forgotten
for almost a century, save on three occasions
in the last decades when their graves were desecrated
with anti-Muslim graffiti. The sacrifices