The Wonders We Seek: Thirty Incredible Muslims Who Helped Shape the World by Saadia Faruqi and Aneesa Mumtaz is an informative book that does exactly what it says in the title.

Thirty Muslims from the past and the modern day are highlighted here under the three-pronged criteria of 1) Must claim to be Muslim, 2) Broken a barrier as the first or the best and 3) made a major postive contribution worldwide so some famous ones like al-Khwarizimi (invented the foundations of alegebra used everywhere) were left out because of lack of information on his personal life and so forth.

But the ones they do include are fascinating. As the authors remind readers in the intro, the Muslim faith isn’t as backwards or extreme as terrorists try to co-opt it to be. In fact they were the leaders in science, medicine, art, literature and more in the ancient ages of the 10th and 11th century’s-their Golden Age. This is because seeking knowledge is a core part of their faith in order to find God everywhere so education and learning was of utmost important.

Such figures then include Al-Zahrawi who created a thirty volume encyclopedia on medicine from surgery to dentistry to plastic surgery and invented such devices as tools to drill into the skull, tooth extractors and surgical instruments.

There’s also the famous poet Rumi which you can see his quotes in every meaningful quote story and google but also led a fascinating life that developed into its own branch of Muslim faith, Sufi Islam.

But it’s not all men who shaped the ancient world, Nana Asma’u was a West African woman who brought an organized mobile education for females whose networks still exist today.

There’s also such modern Muslims that everyone knows like Malala and Malcom X, but there’s also Rebiya Kadeer who is an activist and a dangerous terrorist according to the Chinese government for her eforts to fight for the Uyghurs minority group. There’s also Farouk El-Baz whose name you might recognize as the space ship on Star Trek but whose life on the ground include being mission control for every moon landing since Neil Armstrong and founder of the Center for Remote Sensing so all desert areas can have access to water. Plus many more that should be well-known.

The authors’ diverse profiles highlight that one isn’t necessarily Middle Eastern to be Muslim. Muslims are all over the world from North Africa to China and the religion played a big part in the US civil rights movement as well.

So go read this book and expand your knowledge as Rana Dajani is trying to do with her We Love Reading program whose research reveals that those who read show more resilience, show more empathy, want to study more and become better thinkers and decision makers. So go read and learn.