The Light of Learning.
MOMIN COMMUNITY CENTER | And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well.
بِسۡمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ (Recite in the name of your Lord who created –)
خَلَقَ ٱلۡإِنسَٰنَ مِنۡ عَلَقٍ (Created man from a clinging substance.)
ٱقۡرَأۡ وَرَبُّكَ ٱلۡأَكۡرَمُ (Recite, and your Lord is the most Generous –)
ٱلَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِٱلۡقَلَمِ (Who taught by the pen –)
عَلَّمَ ٱلۡإِنسَٰنَ مَا لَمۡ يَعۡلَمۡ (Taught man that which he knew not.)
The first word was "Read."
This divine instruction would echo through centuries of Islamic civilization. Muslim scholars translated ancient Greek texts in Baghdad's House of Wisdom while others charted the stars. Their work became the foundation of the flourishing Islamic civilization. It all started with quest for knowledge, a vision of future, a leader who provided the resources and patronage, scholars and teachers who contributed and taught others.
Under the patronage of Caliph Al-Ma'mun in the ninth century, Arab scholars often worked from Greek originals and Syriac intermediate translations—works that later fueled the European Renaissance. Hunayn ibn Ishaq, perhaps the most celebrated among them, rendered nearly all of Galen's medical corpus into Arabic, alongside key works of Plato and Aristotle. Working alongside him, Thabit ibn Qurra brought Archimedes and Ptolemy's mathematical genius to Arabic readers, while Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar produced the first complete Arabic translation of Euclid's Elements. The scholarly atmosphere buzzed with the precise work of Yahya/Yuhanna ibn al-Batriq, who focused on Aristotle's writings on the soul and natural world. Their meticulous work transformed Baghdad into an intellectual powerhouse where Greek philosophical reasoning merged seamlessly with Islamic thought, creating a unique synthesis that would influence future centuries of scholarship. Other centers at the time contributed too.
In Cairo's Al-Azhar, students memorized poetry and debated philosophy. In Cordoba's libraries, mathematicians developed algebra while physicians pioneered surgical techniques. The quest for knowledge was not separate from faith—it was faith in action. The modern mosque still carries this legacy in its bones. Beyond the prayer hall lies the classroom, the study circle, and the evening lecture. But something has changed. Once the cradle of astronomy and medicine, the Islamic world now produces fewer scientific papers than Harvard University alone. Our universities, which once drew scholars from Venice to Beijing, struggle in global rankings. The hunger for knowledge remains, but the academic and scientifc contributions from Muslim Countries have grown sparse.
Something promising is stirring here, on a quiet street in Jacksonville, Florida. A new community center rises from the ground—not just a place of worship but a place of learning. This is not just another construction project. It is an attempt to rekindle an old light—the light that first shone in a cave near Mecca launching a civilization that would preserve and advance human knowledge for a thousand years. Now, in Florida that command echoes again: Read. Learn. Understand. The journey begins anew.
A terrible tragedy prompted Momin’s family to establish the Momin Community Center.
Then, surely with hardship comes ease | Surely, with hardship comes ease
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time….And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.”
Little Gidding | TS Eliot
