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

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the heart of the Islamic world presented a picture similar to the one which had induced the Prophet Uzair (AS), also known as Ezira or Esdras, to utter these words involuntarily on seeing Jerusalem in ruins after the Captivity:

 “How shall Allah bring it (ever) to life after its death?” 

(Al-Qur’an 2 : 259)

Then Allah’s grace was shown to the Muslim Ummah as it was to the Jews. Allah (SWT) says in the Holy Qur’an:

 “Then We established you once again against them, and We aided you with wealth and children, and We multiplied you in manpower”.

(Al-Qur’an 17 : 6)

There is, however, a difference here. The previous Muslim Ummah, that is the Jews, involved only one race. Hence their renaissance was obliviously restricted to that race. But there was no such restriction in the case of the Ummah of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Here the task of renewal and renaissance was not performed by the original Arabs, but by other people of the Islamic world. Most of the descendants of those Tartars who were the cause of dreadful destruction of the Islamic world, had converted to Islam. Two other barbaric tribes like them were also fortunate enough to accept the Islamic faith. One of these tribes, the Taimuri Turks, laid the foundations of a splendid Muslim rule in India, and thereby enlarged the right wing of Islamic world. A second tribe, the Usmanian Turks, at first established themselves firmly in Asia Minor, then gradually raised the magnificent edifice of the Muslim Empire which extended far to the north-west. It established its supremacy over all Eastern Europe until it reached the borders of Vienna. On the other side, it took upon itself, the responsibility of leadership and security of the entire Islamic world, including Northern Africa. It also revived the Caliphate, and in this way the lost splendour and grandeur of the Islamic world was once again restored. The important point to note here is that this task was performed by the Turks and not by the Arabs.

Strange are the ways of Providence! The consolidation of the Usmanian Caliphate produced a Muslim renaissance in the heart of Islamic world, but at the same time the deluge of the European colonialism began, and it was soon to become the second and extremely long period of Divine chastisement of the Muslim Ummah. It eventually conquered the right and left wings of the Islamic world.

It is unquestionably true that the enlightenment of Europe after the dark ages was the result of Islamic progress. The Muslims introduced oriental and occidental arts and sciences to Europe. But when Europe awakened, and its power accumulated, it inflicted a disaster upon the Muslims. They held both the Eastern and Western extremes of Europe. In Eastern Europe, after the period of the first chastisement had ended, process of renaissance had begun. The great Usmanian Empire served as a security guard over the central part of the Islamic territory. But in the West, the Kingdom of Spain was presenting the picture of a dying nation. According to an Urdu poetic line ‘Feebleness is a crime which brings the punishment of death’4. Feeble Spain proved the first prey of European colonialism, and in the fifteenth century this magnificent empire was brought to a sudden and complete end. In 1492 A.D., after the downfall of Granada, similar conditions prevailed in Spain which are described in the Qur’anic verses in connection with previous nations which had been the target of Divine retribution. What had been once the lands of Muslims became ‘as though they had not dwelt there’ (Al-Qur’an 11:68). And presented the scene of ‘nothing was to be seen but the (ruins) of their houses’ (Al- Qur’an 46:25).

[*4 Urdu]

In 1498 Vasco de Gama discovered a new sea route to India. Soon after this the falcon of European colonialism swooped down upon the Eastern sectors of the Islamic world, and soon Indonesia, Malaysia and India were gripped in the tyrannical clutches of European nations. This process of colonization which started in the sixteenth century reached its zenith in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

During this period the Usmanian Caliphate had also passed its peak and had become the ‘sick man’ of Europe. In other words, eight centuries after the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate the same power vacuum appeared once again in the heart of the Islamic world. Due to Muslims’ weakness the tide of Western colonialism headed towards it, and the time for the fulfilment of the second threat of retribution had come.

This second phase of retribution inflicted by Allah (SWT) on the Muslim Ummah commenced at the beginning of the twentieth century. The sovereignty of the Usmanian Caliphate after the World War I, was curtailed within the limits of Asia Minor. The entire Arab world including North Africa, after being fragmented into small nation states, came directly under the sway of European nations or was indirectly governed by them. Thus the condition prevailed which the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had predicted in these words:

 “There will come a time in which the nations of the world will invite one another to invade you in the same manner in which a person who arranges a feast calls upon his guests to partake of the victuals”.

In this way the second period of Allah’s retribution upon the Muslim Ummah was completed. In the first quarter of the present century almost all Islamic territories were in the unholy grip of Western colonialism. In 1967, Allah (SWT), by means of one of His cursed and condemned nations, inflicted upon the Arabs a degrading and shameful defeat. This represented the completion upon them, the ‘ummiyeen’, of the second threat given in the Qur’an:

 “…So when the second of the warnings came to pass (We permitted your enemies) to disfigure your faces, and to enter your temple, as they had entered before, and to visit with destruction all that fell in their power” 5  

(Al-Qur’an 17 : 7)

[*5 It is a strange historical fact that out of two ‘Qiblas’ on this earth, the blow of defilement and destruction was dealt on all four occasions to the Al-Aqsa Mosque which is wrongly called the first Qibla. It should be clearly understood that the first Qibla is the Ka’bah, the ‘house of Allah’ as the Qur’an asserts, ‘Verily the first sanctuary appointed for mankind was that of Bakka’ (3:96). The special favour Allah (SWT) has bestowed over it is evident from the ‘Incident of the Elephant’. Through God’s providence the political centre of Islam was gradually transferred farther and farther from the first Qibla, so that whenever this Ummah would have to face divine retribution, the sanctity of the Ka’bah would not be violated. This was why as early as the rule of the caliph Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) the political capital of the Islamic world was transferred from Madina to Kufa. From there it shifted to Damascus and then to Baghdad, and finally to Constantinople in the extreme North. In this way, the Ka’bah – the House of Allah – always remained safe from the invasions of the enemies of Islam. But its true that its sanctity was to some extent violated once or twice by those who were nominally Muslims.]

During the time of Arab trusteeship once again the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque was trampled, lost and taken by the Jews. And now only Allah (SWT) knows how long it will remain in their possession.

The most regrettable aspect of this story is that Western colonialism completely smashed the unity of the Muslim Ummah. In the beginning of this century it planted such seeds of racial and regional prejudices as are still yielding bitter fruits. At first they instigated the Arabs against the Turks. As a result of this, the central region of the Islamic word was split into two portions and the essential as well as symbolic institution of Islamic unity, the Caliphate, was destroyed. Then they fragmented the Arab world to the extent that, inspite of linguistic unity, the integration and consolidation of the Arab nations is well nigh impossible.

As a direct consequence of racial and regional prejudices that existed within the Muslim Ummah, the Ummah had to suffer the severe retribution described by Almighty Allah (SWT) in the words: ‘He will fragment you and make you to taste each other’s violence’(Al-Qur’an 6 : 65). They were divided into groups and factions and warred bitterly against each other. In World War I, Arabs massacred the Turks. In 1971 the Bengali Muslims freely shed the blood of non-Bengali Muslims and their property, life and honour all were trampled upon. ‘So learn a lesson, O ye who have eyes’ (Al Qur’an 59 : 2)

In our view, the disgrace of the Arabs in 1967 at the hands of the Jews, and the degradation in 1971 of an important segment of non-Arab Muslims, can be regarded as the final limit of the deterioration and degeneration of the Muslim Ummah6.  

[*6 The degeneration and deterioration of the Ummah continues in the wake of recent events of Bosnia, Chechenya, Kosova, Gulf War, Palestine, Kashmir, Indian Gujurat, East Timor, annihilation of Taliban and Afghanistan and the pending attack on Iraq. (November 2002)]

Although Allah’s warning ‘If ye reverted (to your sin), We shall revert to our punishment‘ (Al-Qur’an 17 : 8) is always before us, His forgiveness may also be manifest--- ‘It may be that your Lord will have mercy upon you’ (Al-Qur’an 17:8).  

We hope and pray that no other scar of dishonour would disfigure the face of the Ummah of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). A lot depends upon the Ummah and its wish and determination to sincerely reform and revitalize itself.

Source: Rise and Decline of Muslim Ummah

To Be Continued....

 

Rise and Decline of Muslim Ummah