Islam Creator of the Modern Age
3. Muslim Contribution to Science
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3. MUSLIM CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE
An atmosphere of free investigation is essential to
the progress of science. In former times, however,
such an atmosphere was extremely rare, thanks to
various kinds of man-made beliefs. There were
many cases in those days of an intelligent, scholarly
person discovering a certain truth while pondering
over his subject, only to find people turning against
him and his discovery because they found it
clashing with their superstitious beliefs. That was
why new, innovative thinking could not make any
progress.
One of the most notorious examples of the
suppression of new ideas in antiquity was the
condemnation of the renowned Greek philosopher,
Socrates, to death, by drinking hemlock in 399 B.C.
He was accused of ignoring the gods worshipped
by the Athenians, of making new inventions in
religion and of corrupting the youth of Athens.
Another such example-as late as the seventeenth
century—was that of Galileo (1564-1642), the Italian
