Philosophy of ICT and Islam

Lecture 2: Qalam & Computer, Computer Main

Building Blocks, GIGO

Learning Outcomes

• Understand how Islam puts great emphasis on acquiring and disseminating knowledge.

• Appreciate how the Qalam (Pen) as a symbol of knowledge is gradually replaced by computer systems.

• Being able to discuss the main building blocks of a computer.

• Appreciate that computers would produce invalid output if they are fed with invalid input

Terminology

• GIGO Garbage In Garbage Out: inputting the wrong data to the computer system will result in invalid output.

The Qalam and the Computer

• Acquiring and seeking knowledge is greatly emphasized in Islam

• The first revealed verse in the Holy Quran starts with the word Read

“Read in the name of your Lord who created.” (Al-A'la,96:1).

The Qalam and the Computer (Cont.)

• In another verse, “Nuun. “By oath of the pen and by oath of what is written by it”

• These two verses emphasize the importance of knowledge in Islam.

• Allah (SWT) swears by the pen (the Qalam) which is the symbol of knowledge.

The Qalam and the Computer (Cont.)

• Qalam is a tool through which knowledge is distributed and acquired

• The importance of acquiring knowledge, and the high status of scholars and scientists are emphasized in many other verses including

• My Lord, bestow me more knowledge

The Qalam and the Computer (Cont.)

• "Are the knowledgeable and the ignorant equal?“

• My Lord, bestow me more knowledge

The Qalam and the Computer (Cont.)

• Computers and their applications can be considered as a contemporary form of spreading and acquiring knowledge

• It can be argued that computer systems are the Qalams of the 21st century

• Computers are becoming a very effective educational tool mimicking the “book” and the “Qalam”.

The Qalam and the Computer (Cont.)

• The widespread use of the Internet, the World Wide Web and their applications have made the distribution of knowledge never easier

• Muslims are encouraged to use computers to publish and acquire knowledge in the same way Muslim scholars used the Qalam to spread knowledge during the period from the 8th to 14th century

Computer Input, Process and Output

GIGO

• Inputting the wrong data to the computer system will result in invalid output.

• It was devised by G. Fuechsel, an early IBM programmer who used the term GIGO.

• Data will be processed and wrong output will be given if the input is wrong.

• Given the GIGO axiom, computing systems must be used wisely with great consideration on the data content that is fed and distributed over computational systems and networks.

Summary

• In this lesson, the following topics were discussed:

• The Qalam and the Computer.• Computer Input, Process and Output.• GIGO.•

Exercises

• Provide a definition for the computer science discipline. (Answer: See Lecture 1, Section 1.2).

• What is a computer algorithm. (Answer: See Lecture 1, Section 1.2).

• Explain the importance of computing from an Islamic perspective. (Answer: See Section 2.1).

• Explain the GIGO axiom. (see Section 2.3).•

Self-assessment

• Write a 1000 words on essay to answer the question “Do computers think?