Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts

Friday, July 8, 2011

Muslims Contribution to Medicine


This was more or less what was included on the handout of a presentation 3 boys in my Introduction to Islam class put together on the Contributions of Muslims to Medicine. Quite interesting really, that 1200 give or take 100 years ago we could do all this. Yay us!
Hospitals
-Served all peoples regardless of color, religion or background
-Separate wards for men and women
-Separate nurses for men and women
-Provided baths and water supplies
-Qualified physicians only allowed to practice
-Medical schools associated with hospitals

Medical Education
-Training in basic sciences
-Clinical training
-Licensure examination

Bacteriology
-First medical description of smallpox and measles
-Suggested teh communicable nature of tuberculosis
-Use of alcohol as an antiseptic

Anesthesia
-Originated the idea of oral anasthetics
-Use of soporific sponge (basically a spong doused with anesthetics)
-Use of anesthesia caused a rise in surgery levels

Surgery
-Developed many surgical instruments
-First mention of hemophilia
-First ot use sections of animal guts for sutures (used animal guts to close wounds)

Opthalmology
-Foremost in treatment of eye diseases
-Words such as retina and cataract are of Arabic origin
-Developent of extraction of cataract (a cloudiness of the lense of the eye)

Psychotherapy
-Combined psychological methods and physiological explanations
-Recognized "physiological psychology" in treating emotional illnesses
-Developed a system for associating changes in pulse rate with inner feelings.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Islam and Racism

Short answer: We don't do racism. No one is better than anyone else for any reason other than their own hard work in fearing God. 


"All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action." - Prophet Muhammad (SAW)'s last sermon.



O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable of you with Allah is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa [i.e. he is one of the Muttaqun (the pious. See V.2:2)]. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware. (49:13)


Also, God made people of different shapes, colours and genetic makeup as a sign of his creativity, so none of this "I can only marry someone from my country" nonsense. I have yet to meet the offspring of two people who are really far apart, genetically, that isn't beautiful, which is what you'd expect; farther apart, means more DNA combinations since there are fewer duplicates! 




Also, don't call people by hurtful or derogatory names.  


O you who believe! Let not a group scoff at another group, it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor let (some) women scoff at other women, it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor defame one another, nor insult one another by nicknames. How bad is it to insult one's brother after having Faith [i.e. to call your Muslim brother (a faithful believer) as: "O sinner", or "O wicked"]. And whosoever does not repent, then such are indeed Zalimun (wrong-doers, etc.). (49:11)




I know, sometimes people call each other mean names in fun, but we probably shouldn't; you never know, although they may not show it, they may really be hurt!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

My Favourite Islamic Iphone Apps

I don't know whether or not there are versions of these apps for other platforms, so you'll probably have to check.

Salat Times: Guidedways Ipray: Prayer times and Qiblah Compass ($3.99)

This is a very sleek and polished app. It has the salat times for Fajr, Ishraaq, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha, and even Qiyam (which, might I add, was a feature I recommended ;) ) You can see the prayer times up to 5 days ahead, as well as the phase of the moon, Qibla direction (from sun, moon and north), and dates of islamic events (Year start, Ashoora, Ramadan, Lailat-ul-Qadr, Eid ul-Fitr, Hajj days, Arafah, and Eid-ul-Adha). There are plenty of cities built in, and it will even use the Iphone's gps to determine your location. You can adjust the hijra date and even individual prayer times, mail the days or month's prayer times. Plus there are a few nice themes to choose from!

There is a free, lite version available. The only real differences are that it will not use the iPhone's built in compass to show you the Qibla direction (you'll have to get the angle from north, then open the compass app), and if memory serves, it won't let you adjust individual prayer times. And I think the number of notifications the app can send you regarding prayer times is less in the lite version. I recommend buying the full version, it's worth it to have the Qibla direction shown to you within the app, and adjust individual prayer times. 


Quran: Guidedways IQuran Pro (4.99)

This is an excellent Quran reader, you can choose from many languages (multiple english ones too, including Shakir, Mohsin Khan, Yusuf Ali, Pickthal, and Mohd Asad) including a Transliteration! You can also select from a bunch of different reciters for any audio that you've downloaded (Sheikh Husary, Mishary Rahsed Al-Afasy, Saood & Shuraim, Abu Bakr Ash-Shatree, Abdul Basit, and Ghamdi) and you can download all or individual Surats as you like! There's the brilliant option to add notes, and bookmarks, plus you can search through the translation you're reading! Now, I have found some mistransliterations here and there, but I notified the developers and they're fixing it. My only real gripe with this app (apart from it's relatively steep price) is it's transliteration. It's very good, except that you have to guess s's, h's, t's, and th's because they don't differentiate between ث and ظ and ذ, or ت and ط, or ح and ه, or ص and س. The only thing they give you are ع's which are shown as two capital A's next to each other. But perhaps they'll fix this in a future update ;).

Hadith: Adaptive Solution's Daily Hadith (free)

This is a very simple app; every day it will download a new hadith from their website, complete with a little blurb about it. The hadith's get saved to your device for viewing later. You can bookmark your favourite hadith's, as well as email them to friends. 

Honorable mention goes to Thaer Ali's Hadith Al Bukhari, it's the complete collection of Sahih Bukhari in a single app, for only $0.99. You can bookmark hadith's and email them, you can even search. The search however, is VERY slow, but it is digging through a massive book...still, it's irritating in a hurry, especially if it doesn't turn up anything. If anyone knows a better one, please let me know! :D

Dua: Thaer Ali's IDua ($0.99)

This is essentially a digital version of the very popular Fortification of the Muslim through Remembrance and supplication from the Quraan and the Sunnah book compiled and referenced by Sa'eed Ibn Ali Ibn Wahf Al-Qahtaani. Unfortunately, there's no option to search, bookmark, or email. And the back button, will only take you to the previous dua, not the title or last screen (which we're so used to thanks to internet browser layout :P). Still, it's my favourite because of it's coverage. If you want to try before you buy, simply find the paper version! :P

Thikr: Guidedways Isubha ($1.99)

A very sleek looking (like all their apps actually) app, that will give you a list of common Tasbeeh's, then let you push a little counter that will show how many you've made. It will make a noise and vibrate whenever you've done 33, 66, or 100, and it has a very nice little animation or prayer beads that appear every time you count. It includes a session counter, a total tasbeeh counter, as well as session and total timers. You can password protect your statistics so no one can see them, as well as pause and resume sessions. Unfortunately, the tasbeeh's are written in arabic, so you'll need to know a little arabic to read them, but you can add your own ones in english! I don't know how high it will count though, hopefully I'll find out soon! :D

Additional:

Thaer Ali's Hadith Qudsi (free): a collection of hadith in an app similar to his Idua app.

Magnicode's Qwords ($6.99, but there's a free lite version): a good idea, but not perfectly executed, this app will teach you the most common words in the Quran. It will display the english translation, the arabic word and an ayat in which it appears. It will also speak the word for you. Unfortunately, navigation is a little difficult, so try the lite version before dropping some cash for it. 

Aman Akbar's Allah's 99 Names (free): I had a hard time finding a decent app for God's 99 names. All I really wanted was a massive list of the names, with english translation. This one is just that (a random button would have been nice though) It displays the name in a beautiful painting, with transliteration and translation below. 

Know any other good apps? Or better versions of Apps that I have? Let me know in the comments! :D

Friday, February 26, 2010

Weekly Islamic Quizzes and an Arabic Teacher


Weekly Islamic Quizzes

http://fiveonfriday.imaan.net/five.htm

It's a very simple website that asks 5 new questions to test your knowledge of Islam, every friday. 

One of the better websites that teach arabic:

http://www.madinaharabic.com/

They have around 26 lessons covering pretty much everything. I haven't looked into it too deeply, but the stuff they teach is on par with an arabic course book I have so it's pretty good.

Monday, December 28, 2009

The Path Between Hope and Fear

I had two other blogs for a while: The Book of Hope and The Book of Fear, but today it occurred to me that it would be better to just combine them and mix the posts, because I'd rather not have a non-believer end up at the Book of Fear and think "Wow, those Muslims are screwed up! Their God is so mean!". So, I removed those two and made one new website pathofhopeandfear.blogspot.com. And I'll try and post something every monday! :)