Did you know that the Persian scholar of medicine, Ibn Sina (980-1037) suspected that some disease were spread by microorganisms? To prevent human-to-human contamination, he came up with the method of isolating people for 40 days. He called this method al-Arba’iniya (“the forth”).
Traders from Venice heard of his successful method and took this knowledge back to contemporary Italy. This is where the word “quarantena” (“the forty” in Italian). This is where the word “quarantine” comes from. The origin of the methods currently being used in much of the world to fight pandemics have their origins in the Islamic world.
Allah says in the Quran: “Who saves one human life, it is as if he has saved all mankind” (5:32). Even today Ibn Sina’s method saves thousands, perhaps millions of lives. MashaAllah, that is another legacy filled with barakah!
Note: Ibn Sina’s full name was Abu Ali Al-Hussein Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sina. In the west he is also known by the Latin version of his name: Avicenna.
Original Post by: Bastiaan Wilderman
