"Read: in the name of your Lord Who created, created man from a clot of blood.
Read: your Lord is the Most Bounteous, Who has taught by the use of the pen, has taught man that which he knew not."

Islam, by making self-improvement of the individual and the betterment of society part of religious duty, inspired individuals in a multitude of ways, above all in the search for knowledge. Throughout the Muslim World, the search for knowledge and science was undertaken in an effort to improve society as a form of worship. The development of medicine, the construction and provision of hospitals, the building of hundreds of libraries and schools, the planting of beautiful gardens and green parks, and so much else, made the Muslim World an oasis of light in a dark surrounding. Islam's stress on excellence and its search for perfection was crucial to the progress of its civilisation. This explains the advanced levels of knowledge that the Muslims reached in astronomy, surgery, ophthalmology, and map making. It explains why the Muslims developed the empirical method, mathematics and physics, and extremely accurate instruments. This is also why Muslim gardens, libraries and hospitals were run to standards unequalled today in most of the Muslim world. And this is why the Muslims wrote scientific and scholarly works of the greatest detail, precision, and excellence.

Thus, the same fervour and faith that propelled Muslims to spread Islam across the world, was also found in learning and education. And, of course, when so many individuals - a whole society - are motivated for betterment, and are animated by such faith and fervour to learn, invent and create, it is no surprise that a great civilization, characterized by science, art, and scholarship rapidly came into being in a huge and unequalled explosion.

Discover that golden civilisation using the subject headings on the right.