485)A Magnificently Detailed Interview With Ismaili Astrophysicist Professor Arif Babul By Blogger Simerg; Quotes Of Aga Khans And Others.

Excerpts of this 4-part interview(with links to the full interview) conducted by Blogger SIMERG are currently being published one part at a time by the much-visited and wildly popular ISMAILI MAIL website, home to over 2.3 million hits. PROFESSOR ARIF BABUL, Canadian Astrophysicist and Scientist, is not only a renowned researcher and one of our own Shia Ismaili Muslim brethern but also a beloved teacher to all his students and a very good one at that. Owing to the vagaries associated with a fast-moving site like Ismaili Mail, this magnificent and well-researched series got caught in the downdraft of the remarkable sequences of news coming out of Ottawa and Edmonton, Canada on June 9th 2009 and Cambridge, United Kingdom on June 12th 2009. As of today 2 of the 4 parts have been published on ISMAILI MAIL and I'd like to highlight the links to all 4 parts on my Blog as they become available on SIMERG'S blogsite:

http://simerg.com/


PROFESSOR ARIF BABUL, brilliant Astrophysicist, in conversation with SIMERG; a born scientist, he pursues galaxies, unfolds the unknown and advances scientific understanding in communities.

PART 1:
AFRICA, THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION, AND THE AGE OF THE UNIVERSE

http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/astrophysicist-scientist-dr-arif-babul-in-conversation-with-simerg/

http://simerg.com/about/voices-brilliant-astrophysicist-arif-babul-in-conversation-with-simerg/



PART 2:
ARIF BABUL ON THE BOOTES VOID, GALAXIES, BENEFITS OF STUDYING SCIENCE, CREATION, GOD AND INTELLECT

http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/part-2-of-interview-with-astrophysicist-scientist-dr-arif-babul/

http://simerg.com/about/voices-babul-on-the-bootes-void-galaxies-benefits-of-studying-science-creation-god-and-intellect/



PART 3:
BABUL ON SCIENCE FUNDING, MUSLIM SCIENTISTS, INTELLIGENT DESIGN AND NEUROSCIENCES

http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/astrophysicist-scientist-dr-arif-babul-in-conversation-with-simerg/

http://simerg.com/about/voices-babul-on-science-funding-muslim-scientists-intelligent-design-and-neurosciences/



PART 4:
BABUL TALKS ABOUT IDENTITY, ASPIRATIONS FOR THE FAMILY AND THE JAMAT, "AN ISMAILI ACADEMY", FAMILY PURSUITS, FRONTIERLESS BROTHERHOOD, AND ALLAH'S BLESSING

http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/astrophysicist-scientist-dr-arif-babul-in-conversation-with-simerg-parts-ii-iii-and-iv/

http://simerg.com/about/voices-babul-aspirations-for-the-family-and-the-jamat-an-ismaili-academy-family-pursuits-the-frontierless-brotherhood-and-allahs-blessing/





Earlier at Ismaili Mail:

DR. ARIF BABUL-ASTROPHYSICIST, AWARDED UVICS HIGHEST ACADEMIC HONOUR
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/dr-arif-babul-astrophysicist-awarded-uvic’s-highest-academic-honour/


Other related:

'On Astrophysics And The Age Of The Universe': Professor Arif Babul In Conversation With Blogger Simerg; Quotes of Aga Khans And Others
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/06/487on-astrophysics-and-age-of-universe.html

Professor Arif Babul In Conversation With Blogger Simerg:The Bootes Void And The Difference Between Astronomy and Astrophysics;Quotes of Aga Khans
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/07/493professor-arif-babul-in-conversation.html

Professor Arif Babul In Conversation With Blogger Simerg:On Science Funding, Muslim Scientists, An Ismaili Academy;Quotes of Aga Khans And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/07/497professor-arif-babul-in-conversation.html

One mega-post, encompassing five regular posts, on the pioneering 9th century Muslim scientist Ibn al-Haytham or Alhazen(965CE to 1039CE).
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/296one-mega-post-encompassing-four.html

A Collection of Posts on this Blog about Great Scientists; Quote of Aga Khan IV.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/437a-collection-of-blogposts-on-great.html



Quotes of Aga Khan IV and Others:

"As the Holy Quran so powerfully affirms, “Allah is the Creator and the Master of the heavens and the earth.” And then it continues: “Everything in the heavens and on earth, and everything between them, and everything beneath the soil, belongs to Him”......
.....And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives – the more our imagination staggers. Just think for example what might lie below the surfaces of celestial bodies all across the far flung reaches of our universe. What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration(Aga Khan IV, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)

"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)

"The second great historical lesson to be learnt is that the Muslim world has always been wide open to every aspect of human existence. The sciences, society, art, the oceans, the environment and the cosmos have all contributed to the great moments in the history of Muslim civilisations. The Qur’an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God’s creation"(Closing Address by His Highness Aga Khan IV at the "Musée-Musées" Round Table Louvre Museum, Paris, France, October 17th 2007)

"......The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation - in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters...."(Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007)

"Astronomy, the so-called “Science of the Universe” was a field of particular distinction in Islamic civilization-–in sharp contrast to the weakness of Islamic countries in the field of Space research today. In this field, as in others, intellectual leadership is never a static condition, but something which is always shifting and always dynamic"(Aga Khan IV, Convocation, American University of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, June 15th 2006)

"In this context, would it not also be relevant to consider how, above all, it has been the Qur'anic notion of the universe as an expression of Allah's will and creation that has inspired, in diverse Muslim communities, generations of artists, scientists and philosophers? Scientific pursuits, philosophic inquiry and artistic endeavour are all seen as the response of the faithful to the recurring call of the Qur'an to ponder the creation as a way to understand Allah's benevolent majesty. As Sura al-Baqara proclaims: 'Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah'.The famous verse of 'light' in the Qur'an, the Ayat al-Nur, whose first line is rendered here in the mural behind me, inspires among Muslims a reflection on the sacred, the transcendent. It hints at a cosmos full of signs and symbols that evoke the perfection of Allah's creation and mercy"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, Institute of Ismaili Studies, October 2003, London, U.K.)

"The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims. Exchanges of knowledge between institutions and nations and the widening of man's intellectual horizons are essentially Islamic concepts. The Faith urges freedom of intellectual enquiry and this freedom does not mean that knowledge will lose its spiritual dimension. That dimension is indeed itself a field for intellectual enquiry. I can not illustrate this interdependence of spiritual inspiration and learning better than by recounting a dialogue between Ibn Sina, the philosopher, and Abu Said Abu -Khyar, the Sufi mystic. Ibn Sina remarked, "Whatever I know, he sees". To which Abu Said replied," Whatever I see, he knows"."(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985)

"The tapestry of Islamic history is studded with jewels of civilization; these jewels poured forththeir light and beauty; great statesmen, great philosophers, great doctors, great astronomers; but these individuals, these precious stones were worked into a tapestry, whose dominant theme was Islam, and this theme remained dominant regardless of the swallowing up of foreign lands, foreign cultures, foreign languages and foreign people"(Aga Khan IV, 30 Jan 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)

"God has given us the miracle of life with all its attributes: the extraordinary manifestations of sunrise and sunset, of sickness and recovery, of birth and death, but surely if He has given us the means with which to remove ourselves from this world so as to go to other parts of the Universe, we can but accept as further manifestations the creation and destructions of stars, the birth and death of atomic particles, the flighting new sound and light waves. I am afraid that the torch of intellectual discovery, the attraction of the unknown, the desire for intellectual self-perfection have left us"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, 1963, Mindanao, Phillipines)

"The creation according to Islam is not a unique act in a given time but a perpetual and constant event; and God supports and sustains all existence at every moment by His will and His thought. Outside His will, outside His thought, all is nothing, even the things which seem to us absolutely self-evident such as space and time. Allah alone wishes: the Universe exists; and all manifestations are as a witness of the Divine Will"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)

"Thus Islam's basic principle can only be defined as mono-realism and not as monotheism. Consider, for example, the opening declaration of every Islamic prayer: "Allah-o-Akbar". What does that mean? There can be no doubt that the second word of the declaration likens the character of Allah to a matrix which contains all and gives existence to the infinite, to space, to time, to the Universe, to all active and passive forces imaginable, to life and to the soul. Imam Hassan has explained the Islamic doctrine of God and the Universe by analogy with the sun and its reflection in the pool of a fountain; there is certainly a reflection or image of the sun, but with what poverty and with what little reality; how small and pale is the likeness between this impalpable image and the immense, blazing, white-hot glory of the celestial sphere itself. Allah is the sun; and the Universe, as we know it in all its magnitude, and time, with its power, are nothing more than the reflection of the Absolute in the mirror of the fountain"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)

"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth. During the great period of Islam, Muslims did not forget these principles of their religion(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952)

"Every particle of the Creation has a share of the Command of God, because every creature shares a part of the Command of God through which it has come to be there and by virtue of which it remains in being and the light of the Command ofGod shines in it. Understand this!"(Abu Yakub Al Sijistani, 10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971, Kashf al-Mahjub("Unveiling of the Hidden"))

Chapter 30, Verse 27: He originates creation; then refashions it - for Him an easy task. His is the most Sublime Symbol in the heavens and the earth(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)

Chapter 21, Verse 30: Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together before We clove them asunder, and of water fashioned every thing? Will they not then believe?(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)

Chapter 51, verse 47: We built the heavens with might, and We expand it wide(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)

Chapter79, verse 30: And then he gave the earth an oval form(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)

Chapter 86, verse 11: I swear by the reciprocating heaven.....(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)

The above are 18 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of around 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Science and Religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html



Easy Nash

The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)