Islamic Scientific Schools

In the Name of Allah---the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. The Earth Is Shrinking Cooling, Solidification, Global Contraction, and a Possible Physical Interpretation of Qur'an 21:44 Introduction The Earth is often imagined as a physically permanent sphere whose dimensions have remained essentially unchanged since its formation. Modern geophysics, however, presents a much more dynamic picture. The Earth was formed in an extremely hot state, underwent extensive melting and differentiation, and has been continuously losing internal heat ever since. Its interior remains thermally active, but the planet has nevertheless undergone a long history of cooling, crystallization, solidification, and density changes. This raises a fundamental physical question: If a planet formed from extremely hot and partly molten material gradually cools and solidifies, should its physical dimensions remain exactly constant? The answer is not necessarily. Solidification and cooling can change density and...

In the Name of Allah---the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. The UNO’s New World Map: How a Change in Cartography Could Change the Way We See the World For more than four centuries, one particular image of the world has shaped generations' geographical imagination. It has appeared in classrooms, atlases, newspapers, offices and, in modified forms, on digital maps. Yet the map most people recognize as the “world map” contains a fundamental visual distortion: it makes some parts of the world appear far larger than they actually are. On 4 September 2026, the United Nations General Assembly took an important step toward changing that picture. By a vote of 164 in favour, one against and six abstentions , the Assembly adopted the resolution “Correct the Map: Rebalancing Global Cartographic Representation and Promoting Equitable Representation of the World’s Regions, Particularly Africa.”  Togo led the initiative, with support from the African Union. ( United Nations ) The resolution pr...

In the Name of Allah---the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. The Argument Against Pakistan Reconsidered: Why Partition May Have Strengthened Rather Than Weakened Muslim Political Power The most persistent argument against the creation of Pakistan is that Partition weakened the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent by dividing them geographically . According to this view, Muslims constituted roughly a quarter of the population of undivided India, and if they had remained together, they would have possessed a much larger demographic and political weight. Partition, by creating a Muslim-majority Pakistan, allegedly sacrificed the political influence of Muslims in India in exchange for a geographically divided state. At first sight, this argument appears compelling. But it rests on an important assumption: that a large minority dispersed throughout a Hindu-majority democratic state would necessarily possess greater long-term political power than a smaller population concentrated in a Muslim...