Series of talk held at Al Muntada Al-islami as part of the series, Travel literature – Discovery, Value and utilization, from April 23 2011 to April 28 2011

Introduction to history
Dr. Farouk Hamada
Religious consultant, Abu Dhabi Crown prince Court

Notes prepared by Jaihoon

I am glad that Learning from professors is yet relevant despite the availability of web.

Travel provides new areas of thinking.

Last 20 years reading of travel has been very poor across Arab world.

There are many Arab travelers who have escaped our attention.

Islam came with a scientific spirit. They left their homes and it influenced other parts of the world.

Islam brought around an educational revolution

Reasoning and critical thinking were the basics of education in those days.

The spiritual and moral sense of Islam helped the victories across the world.

The order of priorities today does not fit the people of land in Arab world.

Quran implanted the love of knowledge.

Umar (ra) used to give scholarships for boys to learn knowledge.

In those days, there were homes specially built for receiving the travelers in pursuit of knowledge.

Companions who left after Madina after Prophet’s death set up schools throughout Makka, Egypt, Iraq and Syria.

Even small kids traveled for learning sake.

It became a norm for any scholar who did not travel for knowledge was not recognized for their scholarship

Scholars of Hadith traveled from one center to another. There was a knowledge market.

The map of Imam Bukhari travels would be an interesting observation. Scholars like him knew the minute details of Sunnah

Ibn Hibban was a student of 2000 sheikhs.

Imam Bukhari and Ahmed bin Hambal traveled more than Ibn Batuta.

Journeys made the tradition of preserving Sunna authentic. The approach in Andalus was same as in Makka and Madina. They were mutual collaboration between different schools.

Imam Bukhari wrote forty thousand biographies.

The intellectual Islamic debates started in the end of first Hijri century and reached its peak in end of third century.

Travelers lay bare the conspiracies and plots against the spirit of Islam.

Prophetic Sunnah should be linked to our daily life.

Scholars traveled far and wide even for a single new piece of information for the sake of its authenticity.

Travel preserved the true heritage of Islamic culture and learning.

posted : April 24 2011