SPAIN - Did you know???!!!
Many of the roots of European culture can be traced back to a wonderful time of art, science, trade, and architecture.
But did you know that long before Great Britain existed and the rest of Europe had started to develop, there was a place of great beauty in Muslim Spain? Not only was it artistic, scientific, and commercial, but it was also a place that had amazing tolerance, imagination, and poetry.
The Moors, as the Spanish call the Muslims, populated Spain for nearly 700 years. As you will see, it was their society that gave Europe hope and brought it out of the dark ages to guide them to what we see today. Many of the things they did we can still see today!
Within two-hundred years, the Muslims had turned Al-Andalus (a part of Spain) into a place of culture, trade, and beauty. The Muslims had turned the land of Spain, which was dry and unable to grow much food, into a place where all types of fruits and vegetables could grow. Olives and wheat had always grown there, but the Muslims added pomegranates, oranges, lemons, aubergines, artichokes, cumin, coriander, bananas, almonds, henna, madder, saffron, sugar-cane, cotton, rice, figs, grapes, peaches, apricots, and rice.
By the beginning of the ninth century, Muslim Spain was the prize of Europe with its capital city, Cordova. With the establishment of a King called Abdur Rahman the 3rd a golden age began.
Cordova, in southern Spain, became the place where all scientists came and students wanted to learn. Spain was the center and most important country in the whole of Europe.
At the time when London was a tiny mud-hut village that did not have a single streetlamp; in Cordova, the capital of Muslim Spain, there were half a million people living there, living in 113,000 houses. There were 700 mosques and 300 public baths spread throughout the city and its twenty-one suburbs. The streets were paved and lit by street lights.
The houses had marble balconies for summer and under the patterned floors, they built heaters for the winter when it was cold outside. The gardens were decorated with fountains and trees, flowers and bushes. Also paper, a material still unknown to the West, was everywhere. There were bookshops and more than seventy libraries.
Muslims in Spain were very understanding towards other faiths. Tolerance was unheard of in the rest of Europe. But, under Muslim Spain, thousands of Jews and Christians lived in peace and harmony with the Muslim people.
Spain was also the richest country in Europe. The leaders wanted the people to buy and own their own homes and land, and encouraged them all in banking.
The society had become very modern and understanding. Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived side by side, and they didnt fight each other. Everybody lived in Peace.
http://www.islamic-relief.com/hilal/calendar2005/
Salaam (Peace be upon you), Andrea (Saleema)
"To God belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Whether you show what is in your own selves or conceal it, God will call you to account for it. Then He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills, for God is Able to do all things." (Qur'an 2:284).
***************************************************************************
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise.
If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest".
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "islamcity" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
