Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE AND
CIVILISATION:
“It is to Mussulman science, to Mussulman art, and to
Mussulman literature that Europe has been in a great measure indebted for its
extrication from the darkness of the Middle Ages.”[1]
“Europe was darkened at sunset, Cordova shone with public lamps: Europe was dirty, Cordova built a thousand baths: Europe was covered with vermin, Cordova changed its undergarments daily: Europe lay in mud, Cordova’s streets were paved; Europe’s palaces had smoke-holes in the ceiling, Cordova’s arabesques were exquisite; Europe’s nobility could not sign its name, Cordova’s children went to school; Europe’s monks could not read the baptismal service, Cordova’s teachers created a library of Alexandrian dimensions.”[2]
“Our use of the phrase ‘the Dark Ages’ to cover the period from 699 to 1,000
marks our undue concentration on Western Europe … From India to Spain, the
brilliant civilization of Islam flourised. What was lost to Christendom at this
time was not lost to civilization, but quite the contrary … To us it seems that
West-European civilization is civilization; but this is a narrow view.”[3]
“… From a new angle and with a fresh vigour it (the Arab
mind) took up that systematic development of positive knowledge which the
Greeks had begun and relinquished … Through the Arabs it was and not by the
Latin route that the modern world received that gift of light and power.”[4]
PEACEFUL PROSELYTISATION:
“History makes it clear, however, that the legend of
fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the
sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that
historians have ever repeated.”[5]
“In their wars of conquest, however,
the Muslims exhibited a degree of toleration which puts many Christian nations
to shame.”[6]
THE RISE OF ISLAM:
“The rise of Islam is perhaps the most amazing event in human
history. Springing from a land and a people alike previously negligible, Islam
spread within a century over half the earth, shattering great empires,
overthrowing long-established religions, remoulding the souls of races, and
building up a whole new world—the world of Islam.
“The closer we examine this development the more
extraordinary does it appear. The other great religions won their way slowly,
by painful struggle, and finally triumphed with the aid of powerful monarchs
converted to the new faith. Christianity had its Constantine, Buddhism its
Asoka, and Zoroastrianism its Cyrus, each lending to his chosen cult the mighty
force of secular authority. Not so Islam. Arising in a desert land sparsely
inhabited by a nomad race previously undistinguished in human annals, Islam
sallied forth on its great adventure with the slenderest human backing and
against the heaviest material odds. Yet Islam triumphed with seemingly miraculous
ease, and a couple of generations saw the Fiery Crescent borne victorious from
the Pyrenees to the Himalayas and from the deserts of Central Asia to the
deserts of Central Africa … Preaching a simple, austere monotheism, free from
priestcraft or elaborate doctrinal trappings, he tapped the well-springs of
religious zeal always present in the Semitic heart. Forgetting the chronic
rivalries and blood feuds which had consumed their energies in internecine
strife, and welded into a glowing unity by the fire of their new-found faith,
the Arabs poured forth from their deserts to conquer the earth for Allah, the
one true God …
“They (Arabs) were no blood thirsty savages, bent solely on
loot and destruction. On the contrary, they were an innately gifted race, eager
to learn and appreciative of the cultural gifts which older civilizations had
to bestow. Intermarrying freely and professing a common belief, conquerors and
conquered rapidly fused, and from this fusion arose a new civilization—the
Saracenic civilization, in which the ancient cultures of Greece, Rome and
Persia were revitalized by the Arab genius and the Islamic spirit. For the
first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D. 650-1000) the realm of Islam
was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with
splendid cities, gracious masjids, and quiet universities where the wisdom of
the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a
striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark
Ages.”[7]
[1] Marquis of Dufferin and Ava: Speeches Delivered in India. London
1890. p. 24.
[2] Victor Robinson: The Story of Medicine, p. 164.
[3] Bertrand Russell: History of Western Philosophy, London 1948, p.
419.
[4] H.G. Wells: The Outline of History. p. 327.
[5] De Lacy O’Leary: Islam at the Crossroads, London 1923, P. 8.
[6] E. Alexander Powell: The Struggle for Power in Moslem Asia, New
York 1923, P. 48.
[7] A M. Lothrop Stoddard: The New World of Islam, London 1932, pp. 1-3
to be continued . . . . .
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