Are Muslims living in the past?

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, seeking God’s help and mercy.

I can still remember trudging down the wooden staircase inside a lecture theatre to the front to meet the lecturer on anaesthetics. In a brief slide on the history of anaesthesia had begun in Rome and then skipping over the Islamic bit in between he had arrived somewhere in the late 1700s or early 1800s to continue the story of anaesthesia. Those were not the days of Wikipedia which now acknowledges the role of Muslim scientists in its article on anaethesia but I had a pretty good idea that this was not quite an accurate rendition of history. I confronted the lecturer and asked him whether he was aware or not that Muslim scientists in the so called dark middle-ages were performing surgery with anaesthetic equivalents? He was genuinely surprised to hear this and confessed his ignorance. This sufficed as a small yet significant victory and time has rolled on since.

This momentum to set history correct has taken a more concrete shape in the public arena where websites looking at 1001 Muslim inventions in the past have generated Western media articles supportive of recognising the importance of the Muslim heritage to the worlds scientific achievements and progress in the current day. Yet there is a sense that these represent a pyrrhic victory, Muslims now with their past acknowledged are content. They are content to be an object of high value in the distant past, suitably remembered and displayed in the museums of the world. But the emphasis has the potential to lock them into the past. Stuck in a psyche of reminiscence and reliving past glories rather than looking forward to new ones.

What I would like to see is a website talking about Muslim scientists or inventors today, perhaps even called  www.MuslimScientistsToday.com (warning do not click on the link it does not exist). While it is important to point out the historical perspective and the heritage of the world, the Muslim world needs inspiration today to achieve tomorrow. The young can be inspired by history but even more so by the present. Perhaps this will strike a chord with someone out there and start this ball rolling.

O God let this idea bear fruit if it attracts Your pleasure.

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