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Conclusion      

Since the history of the Muslim Umma started with an Arabic imperative Iqra' (Read), the community emerged as an Iqra-community with a passion for acquisition and dispersion of knowledge in sciences and humanities. In the field of medicine a similar zeal continued. The Arabs assimilated and Islamised all traditions, which they received from the pre-Islamic sources. The world view

of Islamic beliefs was never ignored. Their original works as well as the Greek works were translated and transmitted to Europe through Syria, Spain and Sicily, which dominated the medieval European thought. Had the researches of Galen, Aristotle and Ptolemy been lost to posterity, the world would have been deprived of those works as if they had never been produced.

The Orientalists unfortunately, willingly or unwillingly, failed to draw a line of demarcation between the original and the translated works and regarded the original contributors as merely translators.

The Arabs, being inspired by the Qur'an and the Sunna to seek ever more knowledge, and to conquer the forces of nature for the benefit of man, did not hesitate to gather knowledge from any quarter. The Holy Prophet set the minds of the believers towards medical research by saying 'For every disease there is a medicine' (Li-Kulli Dain Dawaun). The following Ahadith, among many others, urged the believers to strive for knowledge ('Ulum).

1. 'He who desires knowledge adores God'.
2. 'The study of a science has the value of a fast, the teaching of it has the value of a prayer'.
3. 'Science lights the door to paradise'.
4. 'Wisdom is the goal of all believers, acquire it from anyone'.
5. 'Take the knowledge even from the lips of an infidel'.
6. 'The ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr'.
7. 'Whoever is asked about a piece of knowledge and he hides it, shall be bridled with the bridle of fire'.
8. 'Whoever wishes to have the benefit of this immediate world let him acquire knowledge. Whoever wishes to have the benefits of the world hereafter, let him acquire knowledge'. And finally:
9. 'An hour of meditation is better than sixty years of worship'.

All these clearly reveal the Islamic attitude towards knowledge. It was due to the Qur'anic and the Prophetic injunctions that Muslims respected the knowledge of other nations and did not destroy or burn the Greek works. The Orientalists spent the last ounce of their energies to prove that the Library of Alexandria was burnt by the orders of Hadrat 'Umar, the second Caliph of Islam. But the historical records, as cited above, show how the library was burnt and how the academies or research centres were closed. On the contrary the Crusaders and the Mongols destroyed and burnt the library of Baghdad and used the remains of the great library, after it was burnt, as materials to build a bridge over the Tigris. After the capture of Southern Spain in 1236 by Ferdinand of Castile, no less than one million Arabic volumes were burnt or destroyed by the Holy Office. Cardinal Ximines cast 5000 copies of the Holy Qur'an into flames. Paracelsus (d.1541), burnt the Canon' of Avicenna publicly before inaugurating his course of medical lectures. Korona Kasmans collected Arabic Manuscripts in large heaps from and around Granada in 1511, which were the results of research of the Muslim scientists and scholars of centuries and set them on fire. The Government held it illegal to possess any book written by a Muslim scholar and all such books were confiscated. The destruction of books, libraries and manuscripts continued in Spain for more than 50 years. Phillip, the ruler of Spain, issued an order in 1526 that nobody should utter Arabic words and those who had Arabic style names should either change their names or leave the country. Thus millions of Arab Muslims were exiled. All this happened in the centre of knowledge (Spain).

No Arab scholar showed dishonesty by claiming the Greek works as his own, like Constantine Africanus, who according to Cunston 'wrote nothing original and that all his books are plagiarisms or skillfully disguised translations. He took special pains to eliminate in his translations anything that might identify the original books. He eliminated all proper names which were too oriental and substituted his own name in order to prevent any other writer from stealing the fruits of 'his' works'. The Arabic words were latinized in order to change the oriental origin. Despite such evidential records the Orientalists have not ceased from character assassination of the Muslim scholars and from brainwashing the Muslim youth who have been taught that the Muslims have borrowed everything either from the Greeks or from modern Europe and they have nothing of their own.

                                                    (ii)
Since the medical philosophy in Islam remained faithful to the Islamic belief system, it never separated the body from the soul. Man, being related to the total cosmic environment, was a single entity, in whom body and soul are united. The Islamic ideals still dominate the daily life of a Muslim in dietetics, health, cleanliness, etc. Man, being a vicegerent of God, is responsible for the stewardship of nature, including human body and soul, and their health. This Islamic ethic dominated the scene of medical knowledge. Medical ethics were never ignored either by ar-Razi, Ibn-Sina or Ibn-Rushd. Al-Ghazali's writings were entirely based on ethical problems of Muslim society.

The dramatic medical progress made in Europe during the last half century has created enormous ethical dilemmas for Muslim doctors as well as for Islamic Medical Associations, who want to draw upon the inspiration of the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunna, in such a way as to find answers and solutions to the present problems raised by modern medicine. Problems such as abortions for convenience, organ transplantation, sterilization, amniocentesis (a diagnostic method for    determining whether the unborn child has some physical or mental    abnormality genetically caused - is abortion justifiable in such cases   in order to prevent further suffering) etc., are only a few among many.

The question 'on what basis would a Muslim believer make such decisions' is the greatest ethical dilemma. Does abortion for   convenience or as a method of population control not amount to   infanticide according to the following verse? 

Another great dilemma created for the Muslim doctors is in respect of the fair distribution of scarce medical resources among the rich and the poor. Medical treatment, getting more and more expensive, is now almost beyond the access of the poor, suffering from terminal illnesses. It is unfortunate to note that Muslim doctors all over the world are oblivious of Islamic medical ethics. Often the intention in pursuing medical studies is not genuinely inspired. Many of us embark on medical studies merely to earn fortunes. Thus the sense of sacred duty for serving mankind - the Qur'anic ethics has been disappearing.  The Islamic medical ethics commands the vicegerents of God to take care of the needy, the helpless, the weakened, the resourceless and save the life of man, which is the greatest gift of God given to man on earth.

As modern science gets more and more technical and scientifically complex, it has no solution to these problems. Neither has the situation ethics nor the code ethics. Thus modern medical ethics has created many dimensions to the decision-making process and has added an  aura of crisis. Such crucial problems in Islamic medical philosophy call for the highest level of human and spiritual response by the vicegerents of God. The Islamic Medical Associations all over the world has to find proper answers to such questions and solve the problems as soon as possible. It is their duty to evolve the dynamic methodology in Islamic medical ethics and method of diagnostic thinking (how and why). Since jand brotherhood, care and cure of the sick are espoused in Islamic medical philosophy, they can not be ignored any longer.

And above all it is the duty of Islamic Medical Associations all over the world to re-establish historical justice in favour of Muslim medical scientists of the past, so signally denied by the Orientalists. Mere verbal sympathies or glorification of the past can not do any good either to the scholars of the past or of the present. Serious researches are to be undertaken by dynamic, young medical doctors in order to compile, edit, and publish the works of scholars of the past in contemporary medical language so that medical knowledge of the past is accessible to our youth. The blending of the old, that is, gold, with the new and the fusion of the past with the present can alone stimulate the renaissance of Islamic medical sciences. It is futile to expect any justice from the Orientalists in favour of the Muslim medical scientists of the past, who are regarded by them, with few exceptions, as magicians.