ISLAM, SCIENCE & RENAISSANCE

Islam - the Holy Prophet and the Muslim World. A clarion call reverberated in a densely populated ancient city named URR of the renowned Babylonia, adjacent to the western shores of the river Ferat, (Euphrates),governed by Nimrod; and that was a call of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham).The call was complete in harmony with the Semitic tradition asking the people: “Bow your heads before the only God and do not associate any lifeless deity with Him.” That call of the Prophet reverberated constantly asking the inhabitants to abhor polytheism and worship the only God, the Creator of the Universe, Who is all Powerful, Omnipresent and Omniscient. His call just merged into the wilderness. He started destructing their deities. He was caught, charged and brought before Nimrod, the ruler, for punishment. Nimrod questioned him as to why he had destroyed the deities. The Prophet countered “Why should you worship such helpless deities who could not protect themselves.” Enraged with this arrogant reply, Nimrod ordered him to be thrown onto the burning fires. He bravely resigned to the Will of God, seeking His mercy from this horrible chastisement of the fire. His prayer was granted. When he was thrown into the burning flames, the fire became cool. Fire did not hurt him and he was safe and alive. Even this miracle did not change the mind of Nimrod, leave aside his subjects. Prophet Ibrahim, the only monotheist among the multitude, became disgusted and decided to migrate towards the West in the year 1890 B.C., some four thousand years ago and first settled down in Canaan, near present Palestine, then settled down on the Command of God on the scorching sands of the deep desert of the Arabian peninsula, along with his wife, Hajeran (Hager) and a new born son Ismail. After a while, Abraham left them with a meager supply of foodstuff and water at that barren place. When his wife asked him why he was leaving them at such an in habitual and a barren place? He told her that “On Commands of God”. She became satisfied that when God’s Command was there, God alone could provide security and sustenance and she kept quiet. How long the foodstuff and water could suffice to them? It was finished very soon. They became hungry and thirsty. Particularly the baby started crying. Without food how long the mother could provide milk to her son? The mother started running frantically in between Safa and Marwah, the two hillocks, in search of water, for about seven times in a frustrating manner. But behold the miracle! The baby being very much thirsty started digging the grounds with his tiny heels, and suddenly a spring of water became visible. She rushed back to that spring and fearing that the water should not absorb in the sands, started mumbling “Zam Zam” stop: stop: asking the water to stop. Miraculously it did stop. She made a small pool for containing the water by her hands, and started quenching their thirst. Luckily, a Bedouin tribe was passing from that vicinity; that saw birds flying at a certain spot probably a water spot. They rushed to it and found that a lady along with a minor son, the only inhabitants, were living at the water spot. They took permission from the lady and settled down there and became the source of their livelihood. That is how God protected them. After a long time, Prophet Ibrahim again visited the place and found his family was thriving well. In a certain night, the Prophet saw a dream that he was slaughtering his own twelve year old son Ismail at a hillock. He became perturbed and very much shocked. However he had to tell to his son about the dream. The brave son responded positively by saying that if the Will of God was such, then, he should not hesitate to slaughter him. To hide the action of slaughtering the son from the mother’s sight, Prophet Ibrahim took his son to a distant place, Mina, and started slaughtering his own son, blindfolded. God was just testing him whether Prophet Ibrahim would sacrifice his dearest son or not? When God saw the act of slaughtering, in obedience to His Commands, He ordered Angel Gabriel to place a lamb in place of Ismail. When the lamb was put in place of Ismail, Prophet Ibrahim thinking that he had performed what God had intended for took away his blindfold and found to his astonishment that actually a ram, instead of Ismail, was slaughtered by him and not his son, who was standing before him alive. They offered their humble prayers to the Almighty God for saving the life and came back to the place of residence.