Mohammad Ibn Musa al-Khawarizmi
Abu Abdullah Mohammad Ibn Musa al-Khawarizmi, known as Father of Algebra, was born at Khawarizm (Kheva), south of Aral Sea. Very little is known about his early life.
His family had migrated to a place south of Baghdad. The exact dates of his birth and death are also not known, but it is established that he flourished under Al- Ma'amoun at Baghdad through 813-833 and probably died around 840 C.E.
Al Khawarizmi was a great Muslim mathematician, astronomer and geographer. He is one of the most prominent mathematicians who ever lived. Moreover he was the founder of several branches and basic concepts of mathematics. In the words of Phillip Hitti, Al Khawarizmi's contribution to mathematics influenced mathematical thought to a greater extent. His work on algebra was outstanding, as he not only initiated the subject in a systematic form but he also developed it to the extent of giving analytical solutions of linear and quadratic equations, which established him as the founder of Algebra. The very name Algebra has been derived from his famous book Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah.
His arithmetic synthesized Greek and Hindu knowledge and also contained his own contribution of fundamental importance to mathematics and science. Thus, he explained the use of zero, a numeral of fundamental importance developed by the Arabs. Similarly, he developed the decimal system so that the overall system of numerals, 'algorithm' or 'algorizm' is named after him.
In addition to introducing the Indian system of numerals (now generally known as Arabic numerals), he developed at length several arithmetical procedures, including operations on fractions. It was through his work that the system of numerals was first introduced to Arabs and later to Europe, through its translations in European languages. He developed in detail trigonometric tables containing the sine functions, which were probably extrapolated to tangent functions by Maslama. He also perfected the geometric representation of conic sections and developed the calculus of two errors, which practically led him to the concept of differentiation. Al Khawarizmi is also well known for his collaboration in the degree measurements ordered by Ma'amoun al-Rashid that was aimed at measuring of volume and circumference of the earth.
His development of astronomical tables was a significant contribution to the field of astronomy, on which he also wrote a book. The contribution of Khawarizmi to geography is also worth mentioning, in that not only did he revise Ptolemy's views on geography, but also corrected them in detail as well as his map of the world. Other contributions include original work related to clocks, sundials and astrolabes.
Most of Al Khawarizmi's books were translated into Latin in the early 12th century. In fact, his book on arithmetic, Kitab al-Jam'a wal- Tafreeq bil Hisab al-Hindi, was lost in Arabic but survived in a Latin translation. His book on algebra, Al-Maqala fi Hisab-al Jabr wa-al- Muqabilah, was also translated into Latin in the 12th century. Translating his books into Latin introduced this new science to the West "completely unknown till then". His astronomical tables were also translated into European languages and, later, into Chinese. His geography captioned Kitab Surat-al-Ard, together with its maps, was also translated. Also he wrote a book on the Jewish calendar Istikhraj Tarikh al-Yahud, and two other books on the astrolabe. He also wrote Kitab al-Tarikh and his book on sun-dials was captioned Kitab al-Rukhmat, but both of them have been lost.
The influence of Khawarizmi on the development of science, in general, and mathematics, astronomy and geography in particular, is well established in history. Several of his books were readily translated into a number of other languages, and, in fact, constituted the university textbooks till the 16th century. Al Khawarizmi's approach was systematic and logical, and not only did he bring together the then prevailing knowledge on various branches of science, particularly mathematics, he also enriched it through his original contribution. No doubt AL Khawarizmi has been held in high repute throughout the centuries since then.
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Maulana Maududi’s Two-Nation Theory And The Struggle for Pakistan
The earlier part of the twentieth century has witnessed a turmoil in the Islamic world. The Ottoman Empire was disintegrating. Most of the Muslim countries were under colonial rule. The intellectual and political dominance of the West nearly destroyed the vitality of a Muslim mind and turned it against its own religious, cultural, and historical heritage. Many persons in the different parts of the Muslim world confronted the challenge, and fought to unshackle the Muslim body and mind from Western slavery. In the Indian Subcontinent, a few rose to revive the vitality and confidence of the Muslim people.
Among them Maulana Shibli Numani, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Allama Mohammad Iqbal, and Maulana Abul Ala Maududi were the most prominent. They came forward with constructive thought and vision to renew Muslim’s sense of identification with their religion, culture and historical heritage. These vanguards of Muslim India believed that the revival of Islam is the only way to save Muslims from sliding into abyss of the world of self destruction, and to that end they made contributions that left indelible impressions on the people and politics of the region. The forces, moral and intellectual, organized over a period of time by these men, by gradual process of growth, culminated into a movement—Pakistan Movement. Pakistan Movement was based on the theory that Muslims are entirely separate people from Hindus in every respect. They form an ideological community with divine guidance for every field of human life, and it is a dictate of their faith to establish a state where they can rule according to the law revealed by the Almighty. This theory is popularly known as two-nation theory. Under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the movement, in less than a decade gave birth to Pakistan The man who is most credited as an intellectual force behind the two-nation theory and a front against united Indian nationalism is Maulana Abul Ala Maududi. In the following lines, we intend to examine his contributions, as political thinker, in the face of the opposition launched by the nationalists against the two nation theory, Maulana Maududi was one of the most vigor crusaders for the cause of Islam the Muslim world has seen in the recent history. Few men have worked as relentlessly to give the practical shape to the guidance embodied in the Quran and the Sunnah as Maulana has done. He was scholar, reformer, revolutionary leader, and an Islamic thinker. His belief that preaching, printed literature, and even Islamic education is of little avail unless Islam can be implemented practically in a full blooded Islamic state was behind the fervor with which he argued for the two-nation theory. Maulana Maududi’s greatest contribution of the time was that he made Muslims cognizant of their identity and raised in them a fervor to organize their polity on the principles of Islam. While Quaid-i-Azm Mohammad Ali Jinnah was mustering the forces to fight the Hindus and the British for a Muslim homeland, a group of nationalist Muslims were undermining his efforts by pedling the congress’ theme of one country, one nation. Unfortunately, among the nationalist Muslims, there were many ulema. A few of them had selfish reasons, but many were misled by their inability to look at the Hindu-Muslim problem in a thorough and comprehensive way. These ulema came to be known as Congressite ulema. They preached Indian nationalism in their speeches and writings as a gospel of truth. Muslim League, against the outpouring of the “learned and pious”, found itself in the corner with little argument to defend its two-nation theory. Maulana Maududi came to their rescue. Maulana, through his extremely prolific writings, built a conceptual framework for Muslims to analyze the claim of Indian nationalists, He showed that the independence of India will not be the independence of Muslims people. For Muslims, being in minority, independence would only mean a change in masters, British will be replaced by the Hindus and that would be no independence for Muslims. Maulana’s writings had aroused Muslim’s feelings that they were a nation by themselves and cannot be integrated with Hindus. Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, a noted historian, writes: “Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi’s careful analysis of the policies of the Indian National Congress opened many eyes. It did not win him too many adherents and followers, but it did serve the purpose of turning sincere and intelligent Muslims away from the Congress who mostly swelled the ranks of the Muslim League as followers of Quaid-i-Azam.” (Ulema in Politics, Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, Ma’reef limited, Karachi, 1974, p. 3391.) Here, it would not be inappropriate to briefly outline the background and psychology behind congressite ulema’s wanting in acumen and lack of insight into contemporary affairs which led them to swallow the hook, line and sinker thrown at them by Hindu Congress. They lived in ivory towers, and were oblivious to the changes that were taking place just outside of their Khanqahs secluded life of religious seminaries and an age long observed custom of taqlid (following a certain school of thought) deprived them of dynamism and turned their minds and hearts prisoners of their own doctrines. Religious knowledge and social sciences were separated which led to bifurcation of religious and profane world. As result, the graduates of religious seminaries were impoverished in the knowledge of politics, social sciences, economics, and international relations, which greatly restricted the insight into contemporary affairs. More sadly, mainly due to the shackles of age long traditional thinking, their capacity to apply the Quran and Sunnah to arrive to a solution to a modern problem (ijtihad) became stagnant. However, there were ulema, such as Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, and Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanavi among others, who were urbane, knowledgeable, and with insight in the national and international affairs, but they were few and far apart. The task of Maulana Maududi and others who were fighting the ideological war against Congress’ one-nation theory became massive and complex when the “leading lights” of religious seminaries swallowed the sugar-coated doctrine of Indian nationalism and wrote books and gave zealous speeches to convince Muslims to throw their lot with the Indian National Congress and give up their struggle for an independent Muslim state. Maulana Husain Ahmad Madni, a great religious scholar of Deoband, was the leader of the Deoband Congressite ulema. He, in support of Indian nationalism wrote a book, “Mutahhedah qoomiyat aur Islam” (united nationalism and Islam). The burden of the preaching of Maulana Madni’s book was that the Muslims living in India were part of the monolithic Indian nation. He juxtaposed Muslims and Hindus into one nation, which brought strong condemnation from Allama Iqbal. He expressed his anger in a couplet in these words: “Deoband produced Husain Ahmad, what monstrosity is this? He chanted from the pulpit that nations are created by countries. What an ignoramus regarding the position of Muhammad.” Maulana Madni indulged in “willful distortion” of Quranic verses, prophets traditions, and history to propound his theory of united nationalism. His book proved a boon for Congress to counter Muslim League’s claim to a separate nationhood. Maulana Maududi, an ardent proponent of two-nation theory, wrote a series of article to expose the fallacy of Maulana Madni’s position on “united nationalism”. He exhorted that Muslims were a distinct community and could not be submerged with Hindus without compromising the foundation of their faith. He pointed out that the united nationalism is a trap of deception which would lead to an utter destruction of the collective identity of Muslims. Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, impressed by Maulana Maududi’s full dress rebuttal, writes: “In fact Mawlana Mawdudi’s rejoinder was so logical, authoritative, polite, and devastating that it was beyond the capacity of supporter of a united nationhood to counter. Mawlana Mawdudi’s superior scholarship, his telling arguments, his logic and his knowledge of modern concepts in political science and law made it impassible for the Jamiat group to answer his contentions. In fact Mufti Kifayat ul-llah who was a faqih (a jurist) “and, of the demand of logic and academic debate and, therefore more cognizant advised his colleagues against any attempt to continue the discussion, because he opined that Mawlana Mawdudi was in right and there was no point in attempting to defend the indefensible.” (see Ulema in Politics, page 351, 352) Muslim League had an attractive slogan of two-nation theory, but had no literature to convince the nationalist Muslims/Congressite ulema, the Hindus, and the British of the validity of its theory. Between 1937-39 Maulana Maududi wrote two remarkable books, “masla-i-quwmiyat” (The problem of nationalism), and “Musalman awr mawjudah siyasi kashmakash” (Muslims and the present political crisis). These two books provided Muslim League with the much needed intellectual ammunition to fight the nationalist movement. Study of these books were once considered a must for the leaders of Muslim League. It can be said with confidence that Maulana’s articles and books were landmarks in the path of struggle for Pakistan.
Courtesy : ((http://www.pakistanlink.com/community/8-16-96-07.html)) (November,1997
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Maulana Syed Abul Hasan 'Ali Nadwi
Maulana Syed Abul Hasan 'Ali Nadwi, one of the most prolific writers and original thinkers of our time, author of well over fifty books in various languages, and an undisputed and scholar of rare distinction, passed into the mercy of Allah in Ramadan 23rd, 1420/31st December 1999. Perhaps the demise of such an illustrious sun of Islam on the eve of the new western millennium spells a message to the Muslim world that they will have to plough through the coming century without the guidance of such erudite leaders who were regarded as authorities in the past. This is enough to shake us from our slumber. Indeed, as the hour approaches, the men of eminence will dwindle into extinction. As the poet, rejoicing in his past heritage, says: "These were our predecessors, so O Jarir, produce their likes when you gather."
Early life and education
Maulana Nadwi was born on the 5th December 1913 in a family which had a long tradition of selfless service to Islam like Syed Ahmad Shahid. His father, Shaikh Hakim Abdul Hai, was also such a scholar, who amongst other writings, produced an eight volume encyclopedic biographical work entitled Nuzhatul Khawatir, containing biographical notices of some 5000 scholars, theologians, and jurists of India. Maulana Nadwi received his early education at home, and later joined the Nadwatul 'Ulama where he qualified with distinction. He specialized in Hadith under the tutelage of Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani and Tafsir under Maulana Ahmad 'Ali Lahori. The renowned Indian Sufi, Shaikh 'Abdul Qadir Raipur, honored him with the mantle of Khilafat.
Maulana Nadwi started his academic career as a teacher of Arabic literature and Qur'anic exegesis, but later expanded to include history, Hadith, and other disciplines too.
Works and thought
It is said that the worth of a person is sometimes only realized after the vacuum he leaves is perceived after his demise. Whilst this may be not the case with the older generation of Muslim scholars, the upcoming generation will surely realize the worth of Maulana's works and thinking and use it as a bastion and revolving point of their thoughts. In his lifetime, Maulana, who was fondly known as 'Ali Mia, won the acclaim of not only the Indian race, but the Arabs took a special appeal to his writings. This was mainly because he selected Arabic more than Urdu, his vernacular, as his main vehicle of disseminating his thought, writing, and lectures. He ranked from the foremost of scholars in the Islamic world, and rightly deserved the position.
Maulana was invited to deliver various topics in the Hijaz in various Islamic disciplines. His book: "Islamic Concept of Prophethood,” derives from such a lecture tour in 1963. The intellectual elite of the time attended these lectures. Every lecture was introduced by the then Dean of the faculty of Education - 'Atiya Muhammad Salim, and concluded by an applaud and comment by the now late Shaikh 'Abdul 'Aziz bin Baz. In this book, Maulana, avoiding the usual scholastic euphemism and doctrinal subtleties, proved that the material and spiritual prosperity of any order hinged upon their concept of following divine guidance; and amongst other things, through text and rational evidence, the finality of Prophethood. Incidentally, a few years thereafter, the Pakistani government was confronted with the idea of pronouncing the Ahmadi minority population as infidels. At this stage, Maulana provided vital motivation in explaining as to why a sect who claim to believe in Allah and other requisites of Islam, be expelled from it's pale by rejecting the finality of the Prophet of Muhammad (Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wa Sallam). In another brief but incisive exposition called: 'Religion and Civilisation,' Maulana, after explaining the various basis of civilisation - materialistic, intellectual, philosophical, and mystic - proved how these were inadequate to meet the needs of mankind. A further more charismatic basis is needed, and this is prophethood.
Maulana's appreciation was only limited to his country. The English-speaking and French-speaking world also realized his worth. This prompted Maulana to undertake many journeys in Western countries in order to assess the situation whence he delivered many learned speeches to the lay class and academic class alike. Fortunately, some of his speeches have been preserved in publications like 'Speaking Plainly to the West,' and 'Western Civilization: Islam and Muslims,' the latter which brings the reader to grips with a fresh all-engulfing civilization along with the conflicts of the spiritual East and the materialistic West. As a word of advice on page 13 of this book, Maulana said: "Whenever an Islamic country has tried to seek protection from the onslaught of modern civilization by keeping itself to itself and shunning even the really valuable advantages offered by the West, as for instance, in the field of modern sciences and technological inventions, it has invariably proved to be of no avail." Discussing the various issues in his usual inimitable and thought-provoking style, Maulana would introduce fresh themes and interesting research which made his discussions more informative and dynamic, besides merely presenting a clear-cut view on any issue. His eloquent exposition of intricate concepts made the comprehension of Islam intelligible to western-educated people who, not unoften, find it difficult to follow the metaphysical issues explained in a religious frame of reference.
Of the book, 'Islam and the World,' Sayyid Qutb rightly remarked: "If by reading this book, the Muslim is filled with shame and contrition for his criminal neglect and carelessness, he also becomes acutely aware of the tremendous potentialities that have been given to him, and begins to feel an overpowering desire to regain the world leadership he lost through his own neglect and lack of appreciation of it's quality." Whilst commenting on Maulana's methodology, Qutb further commented that although Maulana spoke of the general depravity of the Muslims (which came about as a lack of leadership), he always attributed it to the prevalence of ignorance and lack of a clear understanding of Islam. In materiality terms, this is unacceptable; but in Islamic terms, the world today endures the ignorance that is found in every phase of history, and unless one adopts the conviction that Islam alone can save humanity from degradation, all is lost. The book had been written with no pre-conditions or influence of ideology and environment, philosophy or religions prejudices - a trait which western historians tend to adhere to, thus shedding their accounts of human value and rendering it prone to many travesties and aberrations.
Although Maulana was well versed in many fields of Islam, his greatest contribution was to the history and cultural studies of Islam. It pained him to note that at a time when the western revolutionaries were adulated in academic circles, claims were being made that Islam never produced, besides it's Prophet, men who revived Islam on a global scale. In order to fill this void, he compiled his 'Saviours of Islamic Spirit' (trans. Mohiuddin Ahmad) in four volumes which seemingly deals with separate individuals, but every one of them was portrayed as a reviver and restorer of Islam on a global scale in a particular aspect. Maryam Jameelah reported that this was his magnum opus, whilst Impact International commented then that this book dispelled the misconceived notion that the attempt for the renovation and rejuvenation of the Islamic faith lacked in coherence and continuity.
Institutional positions and affiliations
Maulana was a founder member of the Muslim World League (Rabita), a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), a member of the World Supreme Council of Mosques, and a member of the Fiqh Council of Rabita. He was also a member of Advisory Council of the Islamic University of Madinah al-Munawwarah, a member of its Supreme Council, and a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters of Damascus, Syria. He was also a founder member of the League of the Islamic Literature in India.
This was in addition to his participation in many other activities through Islamic organizations and institutions such as the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). In India, he was the founder member and first rector of Nadwatul Ulama, and president of the Academy of Islamic Research and Publications. He was highly respected by 'Ulama and political leaders alike, and in 1980, he was awarded the prestigious King Faizel Award for serving Islam. He was also awarded the Sultan Hassan Bolkhaih International Prize and an 'Islamic Scholarship' plaque by Oxford university in 1999.
May Allah rest his soul in eternal peace - Ameen.
quoted from: Khalid Dhorat, 19/01/2007
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Umar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam's full name was Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami. Khayyam studied philosophy at Naishapur. He lived in a time that did not make life easy for learned men unless they had the support of a ruler at one of the many courts. However Khayyam was an outstanding mathematician and astronomer and he did write several works including Problems of Arithmetic, a book on music, and one on algebra before he was 25 years old.
In the latter, Khayyam considered the problem of finding a right triangle having the property that the hypotenuse equals the sum of one leg plus the altitude on the hypotenuse. This problem led Khayyam to solve the cubic equation x3 + 200x = 20x2 + 2000 and he found a positive root of this cubic by considering the intersection of a rectangular hyperbola and a circle. An approximate numerical solution was then found by interpolation in trigonometric tables. Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that Khayyam states that the solution of this cubic requires the use of conic sections and that it cannot be solved by ruler and compass methods, a result which would not be proved for another 750 years.
In 1070 he moved to Samarkand in Uzbekistan, one of the oldest cities of Central Asia. There Khayyam was supported by a prominent jurist of Samarkand, and this allowed him to write his most famous algebra work, Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra. This contained a complete classification of cubic equations with geometric solutions found by means of intersecting conic sections. In fact, Khayyam gives an interesting historical account in which he claims the contributions by earlier writers such as Al-Mahani and Al-Khazin were to translate geometric problems of the Greeks into algebraic equations, something which was essentially impossible before the work of Al-Khwarizmi. However, Khayyam himself seems to have been the first to conceive a general theory of cubic equations. Another achievement in the algebra text is Khayyam's realisation that a cubic equation can have more than one solution. He demonstrated the existence of equations having two solutions, but unfortunately he does not appear to have found that a cubic can have three solutions.
Also in his algebra book, Khayyam refers to another work of his which is now lost. In the lost work, Khayyam discusses the Pascal triangle but he was not the first to do so since al-Karaji discussed the Pascal triangle before this date. In fact we can be fairly sure that Khayyam used a method of finding nth roots based on the binomial expansion, and therefore on the binomial coefficients.
In another book, Khayyam made a contribution to non-euclidean geometry, although this was not his intention. In trying to prove the parallels postulate he accidentally proved properties of figures in non-euclidean geometries. Khayyam also gave important results on ratios in this book, extending Euclid's work to include the multiplication of ratios.
A powerful sultan then invited Khayyam to go to Esfahan to set up an Observatory there. Other leading astronomers were also brought to the Observatory in Esfahan and for 18 years Khayyam led the scientists and produced work of outstanding quality. It was a period of peace during which the political situation allowed Khayyam the opportunity to devote himself entirely to his scholarly work. During this time, Khayyam led work on compiling astronomical tables and he also contributed to calendar reform in 1079. Khayyam measured the length of the year as 365.24219858156 days. This shows an incredible confidence to attempt to give the result to this degree of accuracy, and it is amazingly accurate. We know now that the length of the year is changing in the sixth decimal place over a person's lifetime. The length of the year in 1900 was 365.242196 days, while in 2000 it was 365.242190 days.
In 1092 political events ended Khayyam's period of peaceful existence. Funding to run the Observatory ceased and Khayyam's calendar reform was put on hold. Khayyam also came under attack from the orthodox Muslims who felt that Khayyam's questioning mind did not conform to the faith. Despite being out of favour on all sides, Khayyam remained at the Court and tried to regain favour. He wrote a work in which he described former rulers in Iran as men of great honour who had supported public works, science and scholarship. Another empire rose in 1118, this time with Merv, Turkmenistan as its capital. The shah created a great center of Islamic learning in Merv where Khayyam wrote further works on mathematics.
Outside the world of mathematics, Khayyam is best known as a result of Edward Fitzgerald's popular translation in 1859 of nearly 600 short four line poems the Rubaiyat. Khayyam's fame as a poet has caused some to forget his scientific achievements which were much more substantial. Of all the verses that can be attributed to him with certainty, the best known is the following:
The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
quoted by: Ikhsan Albanjari from public resources.
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