Anyone looking at civilization today will notice one fact.
Western civilization is more advanced than others in science, culture, economics and even art.
The world's most impressive cities are in the West.
New developments in science and technology originate mostly in the West.
Some people from other parts of the world envy Westerners,
not just for their culture and civilization but also for their philosophy and faith.
But were they aware of the historical facts, they would not be misled so easily.
If we examine the history of the last 2000 years, the picture looks altogether different.
Islam drove the greatest cultural and scientific advancements in human history.
At the time when the West was lost in darkness,
Islam founded the most sophisticated civilization in the world.
Islam brought light to an otherwise dark world.
Let us watch together.
Fourteen centuries ago, a new religion was born on the Arabian Peninsula.
The religion taught the violent, barbaric and ignorant Arab nation peace, reason and civilization.
Many other nations besides the Arabs were enlightened by this new religion.
culture, philosophy and the arts developed tremendously.
This religion was Islam, God's religion sent as a guide for humankind.
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In the 7th century, Arabia was one of the most troubled areas of the world.
It was home to a diverse range of tribal communities, each worshipping different idols.
They would fight one another for the favor of their idols, shed blood and even kill their
children.
A perverse sense of morality ruled, hate prevailed instead of love and cruelty instead of compassion.
But miraculously, in a matter of decades, this dark and bloody world was to change completely.
This great miracle was the Koran that God sent to humanity as a guide.
God revealed the Koran to the final Prophet, Muhammad.
May God bless him and grant him peace.
God's first revelation came to the Prophet when he was in a cave.
Read in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clinging substance.
Read and your Lord is the most generous.
He who taught by the pen, taught men what he did not know.
With this commandment, the Arabs, caught in a vicious circle of utter ignorance and much
violence, were for the first time invited to read and to think.
This was also to be the beginning of the most remarkable cultural development in the history
of humanity.
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The Prophet Muhammad began to preach Islam in Mecca, the largest city in Arabia.
The inhabitants of Mecca were the guardians of the Kaaba, the mosque built by Ibrahim for the worship of God,
which had degenerated to the point where it had turned into a temple of idolatry.
The hundreds of idols adorning the Kaaba were the symbol of the perverted religion of the local people, as well as their source of income.
They would make offerings to these idols, dance around them and chant, hoping to win their favor by these rituals.
But in reality, they were just being hopelessly irrational, worshipping these carved pieces of stone and wood they had made themselves.
God addressed them in the Koran.
Mankind, an example has been made, so listen to it carefully.
Those whom you call upon besides God are not even able to create a single fly, even if they were to join together to do it.
And if a fly steals something from them, they cannot get it back.
How feeble are both the seeker and the sought.
Mecca's elite turned their backs on this truth and developed an anger and hostility to the Prophet who had brought them this truth.
They conspired first to force him off his path, then to intimidate him, and finally even to murder him.
Many Muslims, believing in the Prophet, became the victims of vicious night-time raids on their homes, and most were martyred.
Then, God showed the Muslim a way to safety.
Thirteen years after the first revelation, at a time when the Muslims were subject to severe oppression,
the leader of Yatrib, a town to the north of Mecca, invited the Muslims in.
The Prophet obliged and migrated to this town.
This town, later named Medina, was to become Islam's new capital.
The Prophet signed an agreement with the Jews, Christians, and those Arabs who were not Muslims,
establishing a just order by which all the different religious communities would live in peace with one another.
In the following five years, three wars were fought between the Muslims of Medina and the idol worshippers of Mecca.
The Pagans of Mecca attacked, intending to kill every single Muslim, hoping thus to erase Islam from the face of the earth.
The Muslims, on the other hand, fought to save themselves and their religion, trusting only in God and seeking his pleasure.
In all these wars, the Muslims took care not to inflict suffering on the innocent.
They never wronged anyone, because God forbids this.
Fight in the way of God against those who fight you, but do not go beyond the limits.
God does not love those who go beyond the limits.
According to Arab tradition, every prisoner of war had to be killed, but the Prophet, following God's commandment and the revelations,
ordered the Muslims to treat them well and to give them to eat from their own food.
The only thing that was asked of them was for the literate prisoners to teach the illiterate among the Muslims.
Probably for the first time in thousands of years, compassion, forgiveness and civilization were seen on Arab soil.
As the years passed, Islam's justice and high moral standards spread in waves around Arabia.
The Muslims' fairness, integrity and determination impressed many Arab tribes and caused them to enter the Islamic faith.
Islam's army became unstoppable and marched on Mecca in 630.
The pagans of Mecca, because of all the cruelty they had inflicted on the Muslims, feared their retribution.
They fled in terror at the site of the Islamic army.
Arab tradition required the men of the defeated army to be put to the sword, and for the women and children to be enslaved.
The pagans of Mecca were certain that this was to be their fate.
But the Prophet's actions reflected God's infinite mercy.
He proclaimed that no revenge would be taken, and that no one would be forced into accepting the Islamic faith.
This great act of forgiveness and tolerance impressed Western historians.
When Muhammad came into Mecca, and not only did not carry out a bloody revenge,
but actually embraced the very Meccans who had fought him for three years and attempted to annihilate him,
it was very shocking to the people in his milieu.
So, within the very founding of a religion,
one finds episodes of great generosity,
often extraordinary acts of kindness and mercy.
The Prophet had not come to punish the people of Mecca,
but to free them from their false beliefs.
The Muslim army, having taken the city, headed straight for the Kaaba.
The Prophet entered the holy site and destroyed all the idols there one by one.
With them, all the cruelty, injustice, barbarism, and violence committed in their name were destroyed too.
With the spread of the values of the Qur'an in Arabia,
all the injustices, oppression, and blood feuds from the times of ignorance disappeared.
An order based on respect, love, compassion, and justice between people was established.
This is why this era was later to be named the Blessed Period.
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Transcription by CastingWords
Islam continued to rise after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
In just a few decades, it spread to all of Mesopotamia and North Africa, and in the East, it reached as far as India.
The Arabs, who only a few decades before had been herdsmen in the deserts of Arabia, became the rulers of a huge empire due to the superior wisdom, culture and awareness they acquired thanks to Islam.
In only a hundred years, their empire spread over an area greater than the Roman Empire,
the Roman Empire.
A diverse range of religious denominations was to be found living within that empire,
especially Jews and Christians.
The Muslims were very tolerant towards the different religious groupings in the lands they conquered.
No one was forced to change their religion, and everyone's faith was respected.
Synagogues and churches were protected at a time when forced change of religion was commonplace.
The Muslims' tolerance was unique.
One of the most remarkable examples of Islamic tolerance was experienced during the conquest of Jerusalem in 638
the Muslims of Islam led by the Caliph Omar.
The patriarch of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre feared that the Muslims would destroy the Church.
Omar made a friendly visit to the Church and told them that they had nothing to fear.
When the time for his prayer came, Omar took leave of the patriarch, left the Church and performed his prayers nearby.
Later on, the El-Aqsa Mosque was to be built on the spot where Omar performed his first prayers in Jerusalem.
The Muslims gave Jerusalem one of the world's most spectacular works of architecture.
The Dome of the Rock was built on the rock from where it is believed that Muhammad ascended to the heavens.
With its unique decorations and gold leaf dome, the Dome of the Rock was illustrative of Islam's sense of art and civilization.
Europe, on the other hand, was ruled at that time by dogma and barbarism.
The Catholic Church oppressed the Jews and even Christians belonging to the other churches.
Forced change of religion, torture and execution in the name of religion were common practice in the West.
The Muslims, on the other hand, always treated the people of the Book, that is, Jews and Christians, with tolerance and compassion as God commanded them in the Koran.
The Church of St. John in Damascus in Syria is an example of this.
The Muslims who conquered the area began to perform their Friday prayers at that church, but it still belonged to the Christians who attended Mass on Sundays.
The members of the two religions shared the same place of worship in peace.
As the number of Muslims increased in the city, the Muslim authorities bought the church with the consent of the Christian community.
They built a mosque beside the church, and the decorations of its courtyard were enriched with Islamic motifs.
Stunning examples of early Islamic art were built on the columns inherited from Byzantine.
The Muslims' tolerance towards Jews and Christians continued throughout the history of Islam.
Jews fleeing the tyranny of the tyranny of the Inquisition in Spain found refuge and tolerance in Ottoman lands.
The source of Islam's tolerance towards Jews and Christians is the morality of the Koran.
God commanded the Muslims to treat the people of the Book well.
Only argue with the people of the Book in the kindest way, except in the case of those of them who do wrong, saying,
We believe in what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to you.
Our God and your God are one, and we submit to Him.
One of the illuminating qualities brought to humanity by Islam was scientific thought.
The pre-Islamic, Arab, and Middle Eastern societies were not concerned with questions about the universe,
how nature came into existence, and how it worked.
They learned to reflect on these questions and to seek their answers from the Koran.
In the Koran, God commands humanity to explore how the heavens and earth came to be.
This mindset powered the rise of science in Islamic civilization.
This was a unique scientific development in the history of the world.
Baghdad became the scientific capital of the Empire of Islam, as well as being its administrative capital.
Scientists, philosophers, and researchers flocked to Baghdad from the four corners of the Islamic world
and met in the famous House of Wisdom there in order to unravel the mysteries of the universe which God had created.
This awareness of Muslim scientists, which derived from the Koran, gave rise to the greatest advancements of science, quite unlike anything seen before.
Another quality taught to Muslims by the Koran is open-mindedness, which enabled them to examine other civilizations' scientific knowledge without prejudice.
Muslim works contained a considerable amount of research, observation, experiments, and calculations.
The decimal system used all over the world today was developed by Muslim mathematicians.
Muslim scientists attached great importance to astronomical observation.
Modern astronomy was to develop from their systems.
Muslim scientists also calculated the moon's orbit around the Earth and recorded mathematical formulae.
Algebra and trigonometry are the inventions of Muslim mathematicians.
The stunning works of architecture in the four corners of the Islamic world were made possible by the scientific infrastructure.
Some of the most striking achievements of the Muslims were in the field of medicine,
at a time when the Europeans considered illnesses to be caused by evil spirits.
Treatment was not a word to be found in the vocabulary of the European mind.
Muslim scientists, on the other hand, concluded after much research that illnesses were caused by creatures which were too small to be seen,
and that patients must be treated in isolation from the healthy population.
Thus, the world's first modern hospitals were founded.
The patients were kept and treated by scientific methods in separate wards,
according to the type of illnesses they suffered from.
Patients suffering from mental illness received music therapy,
at a time when in Europe the mentally ill were considered to be the servants of Satan and burned alive.
Muslim physicians' observation of the human anatomy was so accurate as to lead them to be used as textbooks in European medical schools for over six centuries.
A documentary about the world of Islam, prepared for the BBC by the commentator Terry Jones,
says the following on the high scientific standards of Islam.
One philosopher from the town of Haran, for example, had already correctly calculated the distance from the earth to the moon,
while another had suggested that if you could divide the atom, you would release enough power to destroy a city the size of Baghdad.
In this medical school built here in Damascus in 1154, doctors were already teaching anatomy, preventive medicine, hygiene, surgery,
the circulation of the blood centuries before Harvard.
Muslim physicians took the pulse of their patients when examining them, centuries before the Europeans knew about blood circulation.
Women gave birth under the most hygienic conditions possible at that time.
The era's source books picturing the implements used by Muslim surgeons show just how advanced their medical knowledge was.
Women too were educated in the schools of science in the Islamic world, contributing their share to the advancement of science.
Muslim scientists made some very significant discoveries in the field of optics and light.
The first person to describe the anatomy of the eye in great detail was the optician Ibn El Haitham,
whose acclaimed research on lenses opened up the way for the invention of the camera.
Muslim physicians also discovered the causes of eyesight impairments and carried out successful cataract operations a thousand years before the Europeans.
Europeans.
The scientific heritage of Islam became the source of European enlightenment beginning
in the 15th century.
Christian scientists launched Europe's scientific development with knowledge acquired from their
Muslim counterparts.
Islam's light illuminated them too.
One of the Muslims' distinguishing qualities rooted in Islam is their high sense of arts
and aesthetics.
The paradise pictured in the Koran is a place of the highest quality, finest taste and a
simply stunning grandeur.
Muslims carrying this sense of artistry in their hearts created fantastic works of art,
and the lands they ruled became the most modern and advanced in the world.
As Islam continued to proliferate in all directions from Arabia after the death of the Prophet,
they brought with it development and wealth.
Wherever they went, Muslims took civilization with them.
For instance, in Tunisia they designed the genial water purification system to meet the city's
drinking water needs.
Two great basins linked to one another were built to still the water.
The impurities, either sinking to the bottom or floating on the surface were removed and the water was channeled to the city through pipes.
Muslim engineers built mills in order to carry water to the cities.
The capital city, Baghdad, was the most stunning and modern city in the world.
Its city plan and architecture were outstanding.
One traveler who visited the city wrote of it,
All the avenues of Baghdad are lined with gardens, parks, mansions, squares, impressive shopping arcades and Turkish baths.
This beautiful city stretches out along the river for miles on both sides.
Another important center of Islam was in Spain.
The Muslim nation of Andalusia was the most modern country in Europe.
The capital, Cordoba, was a splendid city with its architecture, orderly and well-lit streets, libraries, hospitals and palaces.
In the same era, the greatest cities in Europe such as London and Paris were squalid, dark and disorderly.
That is why Europeans visiting Cordoba were most impressed by the grandeur, culture and art they enjoyed in the city.
The city of Cordoba in the 9th and 10th centuries was one of the biggest and most exciting in Europe.
We have descriptions of it by people coming and saying, all these flowers everywhere, these open streets, this wonderful light coming down, northern cities were dark.
Cordoba had running water, people lived in big houses, in contrast, in Paris, people lived in shacks by the side of the river.
One of the few remaining splendid works of architecture is the catholic cathedral in the city center.
This used to be a mosque and was later converted into a church.
The interior of the mosque was aesthetically stunning and Christians coming to Cordoba were staggered by its beauty.
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In the 10th century, there was a Saxon nun with the unpronounceable name of Hrozwitha who called medieval Cordoba the ornament of the world.
She was very, very taken with the place, and there you are, she's a Christian nun.
One of the most splendid works of architecture in Andalusia was the Elhambra Palace, a magnificent example of Islam's art and aesthetics.
In the sublime style of the palace, one could feel the high spirits awakened in people by Islam.
The gardens of the Elhambra had sophisticated fountains made by making use of gravitational systems.
The Muslim designers of the Elhambra were inspired by the Koran's descriptions of paradise.
Besides architecture, the Muslims were also the most advanced people on the planet in terms of style and quality of the clothes they wore.
The finest luxurious fabrics, the likes of which the world had never seen before, were woven on the Muslim looms.
The Muslim looms were also the most advanced people in terms of style and quality of the clothes they wore.
The finest luxurious fabrics, the likes of which the world had never seen before, were woven on the Muslim looms.
Fabrics and clothes produced by the Muslims were status symbols among Europe's elite.
And the Muslims dictated fashion to the world.
The Europeans were even to learn to bathe and to use soap from the Muslims.
The high culture, fine taste and deep thought, God taught humanity in the Koran, illuminated the whole world.
In this first film, we have explored some very significant facts.
We saw that Islam, from the very first moment of its revelation to the Prophet, lit the way to truth, reality and beauty.
The Muslims, enlightened by the values of the Koran, took tolerance, reason, science, aesthetics, hygiene and wealth with them wherever they went.
While Europe was floundering in the dark world of fundamentalism and barbarism, the world of Islam was the most advanced and modern civilization on earth.
All the values and knowledge the Europeans had acquired from the Muslims played a very important role in the later development of European civilization.
On the other hand, the subsequent stagnation experienced in the Muslim world was caused by leaving behind the reason, open-mindedness and honesty taught by the Koran.
In the second film, we will continue to follow the light brought to the world by Islam and also to explore the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire and much more.
We must never forget that Muslims were the representatives of a great religion which built one of the greatest civilizations in the world out of nothing.
The source of this religion is the Koran.
is the guiding principle which leads the people from darkness into light.
As God said to His Messenger,
This is a book we have sent down to you so that you can bring mankind from the darkness to the light,
by the permission of their Lord, to the path of the Almighty, the Praiseworthy.
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