Islam Creator of the Modern Age
3. Muslim Contribution to Science
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do with reality. Whenever it comes to be supposed
of a language that it is the language of the gods, it
becomes an object of reverence in people’s eyes
with the status of a sacred language. It can no
longer remain an object of investigation. After this
stage, making a critical analysis of it, or advocating
a new method to develop it, or any other such
progressive attitude towards it, are looked upon as
heretical, and akin to being sacrilegious. All such
efforts are seen by the people as presumptuousness,
rather than as a sincere attempt to develop the
language. This state of arrested development was
typical not only of the ancient languages, but of all
other departments of thought, innumerable kinds of
superstitious beliefs having stemmed the tide of
intellectual progress. It was the revolution based on
monotheism, which broke down this barrier for the
first time in history. This revolution originated in
Arabia, and finally came to exert its influence all
over the world. Human history then entered the age
of realism, leaving behind the age of superstition.
The very moment when the Qur’an announced that
there was no god but the one God, the scientific
way of thinking was set in motion. People began
