Muslimah in the 21st Century

The World's First Pilot

Asalaamualaikum peace be upon you all in shaa Allah :p Hope you're all in the best of health (if not then remember after every hardship comes ease and you can always hit me up if you need anything) 

Ok moving on.... Who is the world's first pilot? Many of us will automatically assume The Wright Brothers, and i don't blame you. That would naturally be our first thought since it's what we're taught in school. But i would really like to correct this misconception because the World's first pilot would be a Muslim! Shocking right?? 

Yes. A muslim.

I feel as if Islam has been portrayed so negatively and we(muslims) have been so busy in our worldly lives that we have forgotten how great our history and its people have been. 

Ok I do acknowledge that many of us may have heard that Abbas Ibn Firnas, the first pilot, was a muslim but i feel like we have been taught and it was drilled in our heads that he died when he tried. However that is not true, again. 

Here's the story>>>

Abbas Ibn Firnas was born in Izn-Rand Onda Al-Andalus (today Ronda Spain) but lived in the Emirate of Cordoba which was one of the major centers of learning in the Muslim world. aThis young boy loved to learn, invent, and experience new things. As he became a young man he became a polymath: an inventor, engineer, aviator, physician, Arabic poet, and Andalusian musician. 

One day Ibn Firnas experienced something that would change the direction of his life forever. As Ibn Firnas was walking one day he saw a crowd gathering at the grand mosque of Qurtuba. As he realized why the people were crowded Ibn Firnas felt a rush if excitement rush through him as he noticed that it was one of Firman's stunts again. Armen Firman was a person who made a living by pulling stunts. He was no scientist but by observing the nature around him and based on a rudimentary understanding of the mechanics of flight, he constructed a suit of silk with wood reinforced rods. 

Armen was standing at the top of a minaret of the grand mosque in Qurtuba and then he jumped. He did not fly, he plummeted but fortunately his flying contraption inflated just enough to slow his descent so he did not fall at full speed. Hitting the ground he was mildly hurt but he was not dead or crippled. This was probably the world's first parachute jump.

Witnessing this Ibn Fernas made it his life goal to invent a machine that could fly. And years later, about 23 years after Armen Firman, the 70 year old Ibn Firnas constructed his flying machine after spending the intervening years studying the nature of flight in between his other studies. He constructed a pair of wings out of silk and wood and had sewn actual feathers.

And finally, it was the big day! He was going to test his machine. He heads to the hills of Jabal Al-'Arus and he then jumps off a cliff. He would glide for a considerable period of time. Many witnesses said it felt like 10 minutes.

However as fun as it was Ibn Ferns realizes that the machine he built had no way for him to land. He has been too focused on making himself fly he didn't think about the landing... As he descended back to earth, unable to control his speed, he came down at a very high speed. When he hit the ground, he hit it hard and seriously injured himself. But but but he DIDN'T die!!!

He was able to live another 12 years after this incident but he didn't attempt to fly again. Probably due to his old age. In these final years he would reflect on what went wrong on that faithful day and he reached the conclusion that his design did not include a mechanism to slow his descent. A bird uses its tail and wings in unison to slow its speed and stall just above the ground before touching down. Ibn Firnas realized that he forgot to design a tail!

His flying attempt influenced many people after him and wasn't even tried in England until 1000 years after him. 

Other accomplishments done by Abbas Ibn Firnas:

He was an astronomer who built a mechanized planetarium with revolving planets. He studied mechanical devices and timepieces. His interest in crystals, quartz and sand would lead him to melt sand into glass allowing him to create Andalusian drinking glasses. He experimented with lenses and their magnifying qualities and anything else that came from glass.

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