Just gotta Lurve Chemistry baby!

Chemistry, Alchemy and Al-Islam;

The terms alchemy and chemistry in the English language refer today to two distinct concepts but they derive originally from the same single word which entered into Latin from Arabic, the word being al-kimiya.

Alchemy is not only a prechemistry. It was at once a science of the cosmos, a science of the soul and a science of the materials related also to the field of medicine. It made use of minerals and studied them but mostly in the light of the symbolic significance of minerals and their relationship to the inner states of the soul.

The Sufi Imam Ghazali was known as an alchemist precisely because of a book he wrote, kimiya as-sa’adah, The Alchemy of Eternal Bliss.

On a side note, a very good documentary on the manaqib (biography) of Imam Ghazali is now available , the dvd entitled “Al-Ghazali: the Alchemist of Happiness”.

Al-Ghazali: the Alchemist of Happiness

It was from the material aspects of alchemy that chemistry was gradually born. The first great Islamic alchemist lived very early in the history of Islam and this art reached its peak with him. This figure whose name became identified with alchemy was Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān (Latin: Geber), who lived in the second Islamic century, considered by many to be the father of chemistry. He is credited with the invention of many types of now-basic chemical laboratory equipment, and with the discovery and description of many now-commonplace chemical substances and processes – such as the hydrochloric and nitric acids, distillation, and crystallisation – that have become the foundation of today's chemistry and chemical engineering.

Jabir Ibn Hayyan, Geber, artist impression

Jabir also invented the aqua regia, “royal water” although it is a strong acid mixture of HNO3 and HCl that can dissolve gold and platinum. This of course gained much popularity for precisely its ability to dissolve gold thereby extracting it.

Au (s) + 3 NO3- (aq) + 6 H+ (aq) → Au3+ (aq) + 3 NO2 (g) + 3 H2O (l) and
Au3+ (aq) + 4 Cl- (aq) → AuCl4- (aq).

He was a student of the celebrated Imam Ja’afar As-Sadiq, the great grandson of the Holy Prophet saw. Jabir wrote a large number of works dealing with many different sciences but especially alchemy and established this discipline once and for all within the Islamic world, thereby becoming the chief authority in the subject throughout the entire history of Islam.

It was the second major figure in the field of alchemy, Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi, the famous physician and alchemist who lived in the third Islamic century, who on the basis of Jabir’s work gradually created chemistry as distinct from alchemy. Al-Razi formulated a science of substances without the inner, symbolic and spiritual significance which alchemy always emphasized. As a result, gradually, chemistry was born without alchemy ever having died.

Many of the instruments used in chemical laboratories even to this day were developed by Muslim alchemists, some of these instruments such as alembic still bear Arabic names.

Ever wondered where the "al" in alcohol, alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aliphatic all come from???

The West had no alchemy before Arabic texts were translated into Latin in the eleventh century AC and therefore the whole of Western alchemy and chemistry are based upon the Islamic tradition which developed early with Jabir and which continued down the centuries and practically until today.

There are many important later alchemists such as al-‘Iraqi, al-Majriti and al-Jaldaki who are well known but also many later alchemists whose writings have not as yet been fully studied. In any case, Islamic alchemy is an important field for the understanding of both certain aspects of Islamic science and a certain kind of spiritual psychology or science of the soul. Alchemy is a way of relating the world of nature to the divine creative forces that govern nature and operate within it.

By the way, scholars and shaykhs do hold degrees in chemistry, Shaykh Hisyam Kabbani has a bachelor in chemistry from the American University of Beirut.

We must love chemistry, and because of chemistry we love ;)