Request To Get Books
  • home
  • Islam for Muslims

Islam for Muslims

The key to progress and prosperity of muslims

49:  THE KEY TO PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY OF MUSLIMS

Introduction: The Muslims, being the followers of pure brand monotheism, earned recognition as the nation most favorite with God. Accordingly, they are named as the "party of God" (58:22) and "the best of people" (3:110).

Golden Chapters of Islam:  In the early stage of Islam, the Muslims were proud recipients of divine blessings.  Under stewardship of the Prophet, Islam spread over such a large area in such a short period of time that caught many historians by surprise.  The four Caliphs who succeeded him and reigned during 632 to 661 A.D. successfully contributed to the glories of Islam and earned fame for its welfare-oriented governance. The momentum for territorial expansion continued for long under subsequent Muslim rulers until Islam expanded its network across 3 continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.  

The Muslims who ruled these vast areas added a golden chapter to the history of mankind. Particularly remarkable were the following periods of Islamic history. The Abbaside dynasty (750-1258 A.D.) is highly distinguished as the Golden Age for its glorious contributions to the landmark scientific inventions and discoveries. The Umayyads (761-750 A.D.) are notable for pushing up the geographic frontiers of prosperous Islam up to Spanish Europe where they left behind remarkable footprints of their civilizations including magnificent palace of Alhambra and the strait of Gibraltar named after the Muslim conqueror Tariq (Gibraltar word comes from Arabic words ‘Jabalut Tariq’ or Mount of Tariq) . The great Emperor Shahjahan of Mughal dynasty in India built the Taj Mahal as one of the Seven Wonders of the medieval World. Kashgar in Muslim Uyghur neighborhood of China was a major trading center for 2000 years along 7,000-mile long Silk Road.

The Turkish Muslims named Ottomans left indelible mark on the European history during their 5 centuries of rule that they founded by defeating the 1000-year old (historically the longest lasting) Byzantine empire. The West African Muslim kingdom of Mali drew worldwide attention when its 14th century ruler Mansa Musa gave out an unprecedented amount of gold to the poor on his way to historic pilgrimage to Mecca. The Christians fought the Muslims for about 200 years (1095-1291 A.D.) in the name of Crusades and their repeated attempts failed to permanently gain Jerusalem (common holy place for both). Historians mockingly named the Crusades as “the history’s most successful failure” for the Christians. All these show that the power, prosperity and intellectual achievements of the past Muslims seemed to tower over most civilizations.

Decline: This trend of political supremacy and economic prosperity of the Muslims in the Middle Ages came to an end.  The Muslims are now passing through their days of political and economic misfortunes.  With their political leadership lost in the world, they are now suffering from subordinated status in political and military might.  The situation is further worsened by the loss of their energies in occasional fratricidal wars due to disunity among themselves.  On economic front, saving a few oil-rich nations, most of them are struggling with their own economic problems, with heavy reliance upon foreign aid mostly from the West.  The root causes of their political and economic downfall and their possible remedies are available within the framework of the Quran, as shown below. 

Political Misfortunes:  The general causes of sufferings for a nation may be traced in its sinful past.  "Mischief has appeared on land and sea because of what the hands of people have earned, that (God) may give them a taste of some of their deeds in order they may turn back" (30:41). The Muslims are no exception to this divine policy. They now suffer from the loss of world leadership and weaker political status mainly due to their past or present wrongdoings at the levels of both the ruler and the ruled. 

(1) Leaders/Rulers: God revealed of “having made you heirs in the land after them in order to see how you would behave” and testing you “by your deeds" (10:14; 7:129).  It is therefore understandable that in the past God bestowed world leadership upon the Muslims by way of testing their performance.  But unfortunately their performance did not measure up to divine standard.  The leaders neither properly followed Islam in personal life nor did they govern according to benevolent political principles of Islam.  Rather they abused their political powers through repression, injustice and extravagance among other sinful acts. What is more, the leaders violated God’s priority by not showing enough unity and cooperation with their fellow Muslims nations and not doing enough to promote education (ilm) among their people. As a result of all of the above, God punished them by taking off the blessings of their global leadership. 

(2) People/Subjects: In the above context, the roles of the Muslims in general were also not less responsible either.  The Prophet asserted that "when crimes and sins are widespread in the society without facing any opposition from any people, then God inflicts upon them punishment by the hands of oppressive rulers".  Under this formula, the distasteful experiences of the Muslims under colonial regimes (of the British, the French, the Spanish etc.) may be partially attributable to their moral lapses.  This underlying cause of their political subordination to other nations is further reinforced by their internal disunity and conflicts which also resulted from their poor performance record.  God "has the power to send calamities” like “confusion in party strife” or “mutual revenge” etc. for both commission and tolerance of your sinful actions (6:65).  By contrast, if you follow “right guidance, no hurt can come to you from those who astray" (5:105).

Thus, obviously, the basic reason behind political misfortunes of the Muslims is their deviation from the true Islamic path.  If they correct themselves by distancing from vices and cultivating virtues at both personal and social levels, they are likely to regain their lost leadership, as promised by God: "My righteous servants shall inherit the earth" (21:105). Accordingly, if you improve your “faith and deeds, (God) will surely grant (you) inheritance (of power) in the land as He did to those before them, (and also) will establish (your) religion in authority” (24:55).  Performance aspect aside, what else is important for gaining and maintaining their political supremacy is the unity among them, as God alarmed them about the potential cost of internal disputes in terms of “losing heart and slipping from power" (8:46).

Economic Problems:   Economic hardships of the present day Muslims, like their political misfortunes, also have direct links with their deficient performance standard.  If people had “remained on the (Right) way”, God would certainly have “bestowed on them abundant rain” for solving their economic problems (72:16). There is, however, one human factor that also has something to do with this.  The remarkable success attained by the Muslims in the Middle Ages in their quest for scientific knowledge under influence of Quran became a matter of past within centuries.  With the fall of Abbaside dynasty in 1258 A.D., patronization of science through their House of Wisdom was also gone. The Mongols who brought this dynasty down during their invasion of Baghdad, burned to ashes the rich library ‘House of Wisdom’ teeming with Muslim intellectual works.

The fall of Baghdad the above way became a turning point for scientific culture of the Muslim world. Thereafter their organized scientific effort took a back seat to their passive self-centered spiritual movement. On the other hand, the Western world working largely upon the research results of medieval Islam as well as ancient Greece brought about the Renaissance (14th-15th centuries), the Scientific Revolution (16th-17th centuries) and the Industrial Revolution (18th-19th centuries) in West Europe.  The results were an unprecedented growth in their production and heavy concentration of global resources in their hands.  Marketing needs for their surplus output tempted these industrial nations to colonize a part of the Muslim world among other nations, subjecting them to economic exploitation through their Mercantilist policy. If, however, Muslim nations would have maintained their previous pace of scientific efforts, the history of the world economy would probably have been written in a different way. 

    If the Muslims are truly inspired by the Quranic teaching that "God will never change the condition of a people until they themselves change it" (13:11), they can make their best possible efforts to advance their economic condition.  Such an effort to build up their fortunes in this life would be far from being illegal since God Himself teaches us to pray for the “wellbeing of both this world and the Hereafter" (2:201). God also advised you to seek the “Home (Paradise) of the Hereafter” by donating His gifted wealth while “not forgetting your portion in this world” as well (28:77). 

    In an attempt to be industrially developed, the Muslim nations can borrow without any prejudice the technical know-how of the Western world (who also previously borrowed from Islamic cultures) and can make the best use of their own abundant supply of petro-dollars of the Middle East.  Central to this objective is the necessary cooperation among the Muslim nations in various ways and areas.  In this way they can become industrially developed and economically viable.  Then they can hope to get back their days of past glories under divine cyclic order (94:5) as “there is relief with every difficulty” and vice versa. This better future for them that will “certainly be granted in the form of inheritance (of power) in the land” (24:55) is lying in wait for the believing Muslims if and when they “believe and perform righteous deeds” side by side keeping their ground efforts up for worldly success as exampled above.

Conclusion: It is obvious from above that the Muslims are themselves mainly responsible for their current political and economic woes and Inshallah they can turn their condition around by improving their faith and deeds.