LEARNING AND ISLAM

~ 58 ~ “Science and philosophy in Arabic came into existence through the stimtilus of translations from Greek.”21 This statement that Greek science provided the stimulus to Arabs, so far as scientific ideas are concerned, is simply not true. It is not true to say that the Arabs read Greek translations, which resulted in their beginning to think scientifically. The truth is that scientific thinking came to them through the Qur’an and the concept of monotheism. Later, they began studying translations of books from Greek and other languages, from which point they went on to the study of science and philosophy by carrying out their own research. Historians have said that there is, of course, no denying the fact that the Arabs were the pupils of the Greeks in science and philosophy, but it is also true that once they had assimilated what was to be learnt from the Greeks, they went on to make important advances.22 Medicine was probably the first Greek science to attract the Arabs because of its obvious practical importance. Then they developed it to the extent of