Egyptian Professor Ragheb El-Sergany: Europe Owes Its Science, Moral Values, and Hygiene to the Muslims

Egyptian researcher Ragheb El-Sergany said that Europe became acquainted with science and with moral values only through the Muslims. According to El-Sergany, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine of Cairo University, it was the Muslims who brought the notion of cleanliness to Europe, where people used to wash themselves only twice a year, he said, adding that the bidet is evidence of this. The interview with El-Segany was broadcast on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV on November 24.

Interviewer: The appearance of Islam marked a new beginning for the entire world, in terms of progress, development, and prosperity. Islam snatched the Arabian Peninsula and the world in general from the claws of darkness and ignorance, ushering them from darkness into light. How did Islam manage to do this? What springs nurtured Islam, enabling it to spread its civilization and its light all over?"

Ragheb Sergany: "In the name of Allah, prayers upon His Messenger. Whoever follows the path of the Islamic nation and the rise of its civilization cannot but take pause and be amazed, asking how this could have happened. It is, indeed, an astounding thing that the Islamic nation should have developed this way in the space of so few years. This has raised questions in the minds of all commentators. Any non-Muslim, whether from the West or the East, who studies the Islamic civilization cannot but be amazed. They have all said that this was an amazing, unnatural phenomenon.

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"Europe became acquainted with science only through the Muslims. It became acquainted with moral values only through the Muslims. Even its acquaintance with hygiene was through the Muslims. Just imagine – in Europe, people used to wash themselves only twice a year."

Interviewer: Twice a year..."

Ragheb Sergany: "They had two holidays a year, when they would wash themselves. Moreover, they believed that the dirt on their bodies was a blessing, and that it would keep Satan at bay."

Interviewer: "There was such a belief?"

Ragheb Sergany: "Yes. Look at the baseness in terms of what is naturally human. This was prevalent in Europe, and it was the Muslims who brought the notion of cleanliness to Europe. When the Europeans came into contact with the Muslims in Andalus, they noticed that the Muslims perform the ablution five times a day, and that they have different types of washing.

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Even clean streets and clean clothes were things central to Islam, and the Europeans learned this. Today, when you travel to Europe, in the regions that were inhabited by Muslims - southern Spain, southern France, and Sicily... They care about cleanliness there more than elsewhere in Europe. In hotels and homes in these regions, there is a bidet next to the toilet, in order to clean yourself with water. In the rest of Europe, you clean yourself with paper after going to the bathroom. They don't use water. In places where Muslims used to live, even though they are purely European now, they still use water, because they realized it's cleaner this way. They took this from the Muslims. This spirit, which has spread throughout the world... They took the sciences from the Muslims, as well as moral conduct, family values, social values, and dealings with non-Muslims. This moral code, which prevailed in the Islamic nation, later spread throughout the world. Therefore, the claim made by Gustave Le Bon that Europe owes its civilization to the Muslims comes as no surprise. The same could be said for the entire world."