Friday, 22 December 2017

The Two Periods of the Rise and Decline of the Muslim Ummah (1/2)



In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful”.



The Two Periods of the Rise and Decline of the Muslim Ummah

The Twentieth century of the Christian era, according to our analysis, presents a decisive turning point in the history of the Muslim Ummah (community). At the end of the first quarter of the century the state of the Muslim world had taken a definite turn, and there were some signs of resuscitation in the moribund body of the Muslim Ummah.

If we look at it closely, the middle half of this century presents an astounding picture. On one hand, the process of decline and deterioration reached its lowest ebb in the events of 1967 and 1971. On the other hand, there was also a widespread movement towards revival and the beginning of a process of renewal. It commenced during the years 1920-1925. For the past fifty years these concurrent trends of degeneration and revival continued side by side almost in the manner depicted in the Quran.

He has let free the two bodies of flowing water, meeting together. Between them is a barrier which they do not transgress.

(Al-Quran 55: 19-20)



In order to elaborate this general view, we will first present a chronological sketch of the rise and decline of the Muslim Ummah. In fact, an understanding of our present situation demands that the past glory and grandeur of the Muslim Ummah should be realised by young Muslims. They should know that there was a time when the armies of the Arabs starting from Gibraltar had reached north-east into the heart of France. At another time the Turkish armies, after trampling all of Eastern Europe, were knocking at the gates of Vienna. Perhaps in this way we can recreate in the hearts of our young men a desire to revive the past majesty and glory of the Muslim civilisation.

It should also become clear from this that the decline of this superb culture was due to the justice of Almighty Allah (SWT), which is above all human considerations, as His laws are abiding and immutable. The way He dealt with the previous community of faith in His revelation i.e., the Jews was repeated in His dealings with us. Our history and their history are to a remarkable extent analogous. Two periods of severe chastisement were borne by the Jews, and we have also passed through two periods of chastisement. Although, because of the vastness of the Ummah of Muhammad (SAW) our periods of deterioration and degradation were much longer than those of the Jews. During the period of Jewish control, Jerusalem was devastated twice, and during the period of our control the sanctity of al-Aqsa Mosque was also violated twice.

After this we will have a brief survey of the present general current of revival in order to widen the intellectual horizon of the reader so that he may look at the various efforts of Islamic revival in the right perspective. In addition to that, it would also clarify what kind of humble service we are trying to perform in the midst of this pervasive process of revival and the sector in which we are trying to work, so that according to the Quranic verse:

He who perished might perish having a clear proof, and he who survived might survive having a clear proof”.

(Al-Quran 8 : 42)


He who wishes to co-operate with us should have sufficient ground to do so with full potentialities of his heart and soul and without reservations; and he who wants to criticise us, should fulfill this obligation after complete understanding of our standpoint.

In this connection with the historical sketch of the rise and fall of the Muslim Ummah, it should be understood that the Ummah of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) has two components. The first consists of those among the descendants of Ismail (AS) - referred to in the Quran as ummiyeen i.e., the unlettered people - who had not received a previous revelation from Allah (SWT). These Arabs constitute the nucleus of the Ummah. The other component, akhareen includes all other people, whether Kurds, Turks, Persians, Afghans, Indians, Mughals, Abyssinians, Berbers or any other. They may live as far as Malaysia and Indonesia in the east and as far as Morocco and Mauritania in the West.

Secondly, the Islamic world can be divided in three sections geographically. If we focus our gaze on the Islamic part of the globe, it would look like an eagle that is flying with its two wings completely outstretched. The first geographical section is in the centre, the heart of Muslim territory. The two others form wings on either side. The Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor can be regarded as the main body of the Islamic world, analogous to the body of the eagle. Asia Minor is its head and beak. The southern part of the peninsula is its tail with wings stretched out. Its right wing starts from Iran and Turkey, includes Afghanistan and Indo-Pak sub-continent, and extends up to Malaysia and Indonesia. Its left wing encompasses the whole of Northern Africa and had reached into Spain and France.

Now let us look at the historical sketch. The history of the Muslim Ummah starts from the seventh century of the Christian era as the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was born in 571 A.D. He started his mission in 610 A.D. and the most correct estimates state that, after having brought about a complete Islamic revolution throughout the Arabian peninsula, he returned to his Creator in the year 632 A.D. (May the peace, blessings and grace of Allah (SWT) be showered upon him). During the reign of the first three caliphs, Abu Bakr, Umar and Usman (RAA) who were all immediate disciples of Muhammad (SAW), the unlettered descendants of Ismail (the Arabs) sallied forth like a flood from the Arabian peninsula, with the Quran in one hand and a sword in the other. In less than a quarter of a century they planted the flag of Islam not only in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, but also upon a considerable portion of North Africa.  

During the Caliphate of Ali (RAA) this expansion ceased temporarily, but with the beginning of the Umayyad era it started again. Within a short span of time, new lands were conquered extending in the East through Turkistan and Afghanistan up to Sindh, and in the West extending through the entire area of North Africa and a vast area of Western Europe including Spain. This was the time when Arab armies, advancing from Spain, had reached the heart of France. Muslim political domination was at its zenith in the eighth, nine and tenth centuries of the Christian era. The dynasties of Umayyads and Abbasids - two important descendant clans of ummiyeen Arabs - upheld the banner of the Islamic world2. Their civilization and culture, their religion, their arts and sciences and their supremacy continued to exercise its hold on the greater portion of the civilized world. But the more their worldly power and majesty grew, the more their religious sentiments and enthusiasm for their faith declined. In this way this majestic power structure rotted from inside. The signs of internal weakness took some time to become evident, but by the tenth century it had become quite clear that the Arabs had touched utter decadence and senility. In the eleventh century the decline and deterioration of the unlettered people (the Arabs) had reached to its last limit, and consequently a power vacuum was created in the heart of the Islamic world.
[*2 Of these two, the Umayyad era marked the real glory, power and supremacy of the purely Arab race. From the beginning of the reign of the Abbasid dynasty the Persians had decisively gained an upper hand in the affairs of the kingdom and its government. The influence of the Persians in the Muslim world corroded from within the glory and power of the Arabs. The fervour, dynamism and aggressiveness which were inherent in the Arab blood manifested itself in that branch of Umayyad dynasty which established itself in Spain and continued to flourish for three centuries after the total collapse of Arab power in the heart of the Islamic world. And it ended during the last years of the fifteenth century.]

As a result of this power vacuum, tribes arose from the north-eastern borders of the Muslim world, and penetrated to the centre of the Muslim lands. Fortunately, they had already embraced Islamic faith. These were the Kurds and the Seljuk Turks. In the eleventh century they strengthened their hold in Syria, Palestine and Egypt. In this way, a fresh force was supplied for the safety and protection of the centre of the Islamic world.3
[*3 During this very period Afghan tribes advanced southeast and invaded the Indian sub-continent. These invasions paved the way to the magnificent Muslim rule in India stretching over centuries.]

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the first of the chastisement with which Allah (SWT) had threatened the Jews and which He meted out to them overtook the Muslim Ummah. The following Divine warning was fulfilled exactly:

We sent against you our servants, given to terrible warfare. They entered the very in most parts of your homes and towns.

(Al-Quran 17 : 5)


In this connection, large armies of Crusaders swarmed from the West and in 1099, not only the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque was defiled, there was also a massacre in Jerusalem on such a vast scale that even the Western historians feel guilty while mentioning it in their accounts. Jerusalem remained in the possession of the Crusaders for eighty-eight years. This was so because the Abbasid Caliphate was passing through the Pangs of death, and there was no energy left in the descendants of the originally indomitable Arabs. Finally, the fiery and fresh blood of akhareen i.e., non-Arab Muslim people under the leadership of the great and famous warrior Salahuddin Ayyubi liberated Jerusalem from the occupation of the Crusaders in 1187 A.D. and thus turned the tide of the war between Muslims and the invaders.

Then from the East came the great stormy hordes of Tartars, who first ravaged Afghanistan and Iran, and in 1258 A.D. devastated Baghdad completely. Millions of Muslims were savagely murdered. The streets of Baghdad turned into pools of blood and the famous city of ‘A thousand and one nights’ was literally razed to the ground. This was repetition of exactly the same situation that had occurred two thousand years before on the destruction of Solomon’s Temple by the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar. Consequently with the fall of Malik Mutasim, the Muslim Caliph, the flickering lamp of Abbasid Caliphate was completely extinguished. Thus not only the first threat of Divine chastisement upon the Muslim Ummah was fulfilled but also as far as the Arabs were concerned at least the following warning was also fulfilled:

 “And if ye turn away, He will substitute in your place another people, then they would not be like you.

(Al-Quran 47 : 38)


They were dismissed from the leadership and authority they had held over the Islamic world. Two years later, in 1260 A.D. the advance of the Tartars was checked by the non-Arabs which at least saved the Western wing of the Islamic world from further destruction.




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