Muslims’ Contribution to Human Welfare

MUSLIMS’ CONTRIBUTION TO HUMAN WELFARE Al-Idrisi was the first cartographer to propose the idea that the earth was not flat, rather, it was round, like a pear, with land masses on both ends. M uslims often take pride in their history but deriving such satisfaction from the past can never bring us back to that era. Unless we strive in the manner that Muslims of the earlier period did, we will never be able to perform the exemplary role in the advancement of civilization that our forebears were able to. I will illustrate this point with an example. It is related to the Italian explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus (d. 1506 AD), who is credited with the discovery of the new world, now called America. Historians acknowledge that the Muslim geographer Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi (d. 1165 AD) made a vital contribution in this discovery. During al-Idrisi’s time, the general perception was that the earth is flat. Nobody ever