468)Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta; IMAX Film at Ontario Science Center Feb 7-May 10 2009; Quotes of Aga Khan IV.

"The truth, as the famous Islamic scholars repeatedly told their students, is that the spirit of disciplined, objective enquiry is the property of no single culture, but of all humanity. To quote the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Sina: "MY PROFESSION IS TO BE FOREVER JOURNEYING, TO TRAVEL ABOUT THE UNIVERSE SO THAT I MAY KNOW ALL ITS CONDITIONS"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)

"First, the globalisation of the knowledge of the cultures of the Umma is critical. We have to make known the cultural inheritance of the Muslims to the non-Muslim as well as the Muslim parts of the world because we will never succeed in building the respect and recognition that the Umma deserves unless we present the Umma as a remarkable carrier of civilisation.The misconceptions about Islam and Muslims in the West exist because we are, even today, absent from the global civilisation. We should encourage the Western education system to bring in knowledge of the civilisation of Islam into the secondary education system.I am thrilled with the initiative that Dubai and other states in the Gulf are taking by creating museums. Retracing our historical legacies and bringing them back in the modern world is extremely important."(Aga Khan IV, Interview with Gulf News, Dubai, UAE, April 2008)

"That quest for a better life, among Muslims and non-Muslims alike, must lead inevitably to the Knowledge Society which is developing in our time. The great and central question facing the Ummah of today is how it will relate to the Knowledge Society of tomorrow.The fundamental reason for the pre-eminence of Islamic civilizations lay neither in accidents of history nor in acts of war, but rather in their ability to discover new knowledge, to make it their own, and to build constructively upon it. They became the Knowledge Societies of their time."(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 2nd December 2006, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)

"For century after century, the Arabs, the Persians, the Turks and many other Islamic societies achieved powerful leadership roles in the world—not only politically and economically but also intellectually. Some ill-informed historians and biased commentators have tried to argue that these successes were essentially produced by military power, but this view is profoundly incorrect"(Aga Khan IV, 2nd December 2006, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)

"From the seventh century to the thirteenth century, the Muslim civilizations dominated world culture, accepting, adopting, using and preserving all preceding study of mathematics, philosophy, medicine and astronomy, among other areas of learning. The Islamic field of thought and knowledge included and added to much of the information on which all civilisations are founded. And yet this fact is seldom acknowledged today, be it in the West or in the Muslim world, and this amnesia has left a six hundred year gap in the history of human thought"(Aga Khan IV, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, 1996)


The above are 5 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of about 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Education, Science and Religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html





Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta ~ New IMAX Film
Opens February 7 2009, Ends May 10 2009

Journey to Mecca tells the story of a young scholar, who leaves Tangier in 1325 on an epic and perilous journey, travelling alone from his home in Morocco to reach Mecca, some 3,000 miles to the east.

lbn Battuta is besieged by countless obstacles as he makes his way across the North African desert to Mecca. Along the route he meets an unlikely stranger, a highwayman, who becomes his paid protector and eventual friend.

During his travels he is attacked by bandits, dehydrated by thirst, rescued by Bedouins and forced to retrace his route by a war-locked Red Sea. lbn Battuta finally joins the legendary Damascus Caravan with thousands of pilgrims bound for Mecca for the final leg of what would become his 5,000 mile, 18 month long journey to Mecca.

When he arrives in Mecca, he is a man transformed. We then experience the Hajj as he did over 700 years ago and, in recognition of its timelessness, we dissolve to the Hajj as it is still performed today by millions of pilgrims in some of the most extraordinary and moving IMAX® footage ever presented.

lbn Battuta would not return home for almost 30 years, reaching over 40 countries and revisiting Mecca five more times to perform the Hajj. He would travel three times farther than Marco Polo.

His legacy is one of the greatest travel journals ever recorded. A crater on the moon is named in his honour.

An SK Films Release in association with National Geographic of a Cosmic Picture Film.

http://ontariosciencecentre.ca/imax/default.asp?filmdetail=Journey+to+Mecca


English Trailer youtube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJSmn6ITBMs


http://www.journeytomeccagiantscreen.com/


Related: This one also ends on May 10 2009
Ontario Science Center, Toronto, Canada, Exhibit opening Feb 5 2009; Sultans of Science:1000 Years of Knowledge Rediscovered; Quotes of Aga Khan IV
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/01/439ontario-science-center-toronto.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)