Why did we fall?

The topic of mass discussion between Muslims today is why did we fall and how can we rise? How can we as a nation get the dime rolling again and pick ourselves up from the deep ditch we dug ourselves into. I will try in this article to mention some of the reasons why we fell, in hope that I will later discuss how we can rise.

A strong feature of Muslims today is pointing fingers and over-pitching conspiracy theories into a very high and somewhat unbearable tone. In reality, before we start blaming others we should look upon the reasons that led us to such a weak state that we became easy prey for others. Malek Bennabi (a prominent Algerian philosopher who died in 1973) introduced an interesting theory called the theory of "colonizability". The theory basically concludes that the current malaise of the Muslim world is not a result of being colonized, but is in a fact a result of a previous stage that made us ripe for colonization. So the real question is; what made us ripe for this decline?

The main reason for our weakness and our prior decline is our weakness in faith and in upholding its doctrine. Islam is our legacy, thus it should be entrenched in every vein in our body and every breath in our lungs. For Muslims, theologically and theoretically speaking there is no separate compartment in life for religion. Bernard Lewis commented about this in his book "the political language of Islam" (page 2) by saying:

"(This) was never so in the past, and the attempt in modern times to make it so may perhaps be seen, in the longer perspective of history as an unnatural aberration"

Moreover, the word for secular was not even known in Turkish and Arabic until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and that was under the influence of western ideas and institutions. Hence by distancing ourselves from Islam as an Ummah we have strayed from our legacy and source of inspiration. Distancing ourselves entails side putting religion in all aspects of life; especially politically and economically where Muslims today have strayed by far.

In other words, the problem did not simply lie in Muslims straying from their Islamic doctrine; their existed another self-imposed dilemma which is the blind imitation of the West in aim to restore lost pride. This, therefore, led to Muslims being almost entirely reliant and dependent on the West for social, economic, educational and technological advance leaving Muslims stranded between mimicking a civilization they can never become and weeping a civilization that adorned them in what seems to be like a distant past. It is almost a universal law that no civilization can prevail on the ideals of another; so what Muslims did by mimicking the West, in reality, was a hopeless manifestation of their weakness. Mohamed Asad said in his book "Islam at the crossroads" (page 75):

"The imitation – individually and socially – of the Western mode of life by Muslims is undoubtedly the greatest danger for the existence – or rather the revival – of Islamic civilization"

   The effects of this as is conceived by all was devastating. Muslims have lost their uniqueness and resolve due to their straying from Islam and falling into the ultimate error of perusing enlightenment by mimicking other civilizations, and above all they have lost their support from Allah. Allah said in the Quran:

47:7: "O ye who believe! If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly." (Yusuf Ali's translation)

Allah also said:

22: 40: " … Allah will certainly aid those who aid his (cause); - for verily Allah is full of Strength … " (Yusuf Ali's translation)

It is important to note that by bashing the selfless mimicking Muslims have undertaken, I do not in any way or form condemn learning from other civilizations. The prophet Peace Be upon Him himself acquired military knowledge from Salman Alfaresi (a Persian companion of the prophet PBUH) where Muslims learnt the art of using rock-propellers in order to conquer forts; that was in essence a Persian means of warfare. Prior to that, Salman even taught Muslims another alien means of defense which was trench digging. This and many other examples obviously state that it is not at all looked down upon to learn from others; in fact, it is actively encouraged by Islam in the form of the saying of the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him: "Seek knowledge even if it were in China" (please note that this is a week hadeeth, however it is very popular within Muslims). This point is further iterated by the fact that early Muslim scholars and knowledge-seekers were infamous for their long travels in seeking knowledge. However, this should not lead for us to loose our identity or our legacy; it should ideally serve as a means of curing our shortcomings in hope of strengthening our own mandate and improving our innate human resources.

This leads to another problem that lead to the temporary demise of our civilization; Political travesty, there is no other way of putting it. Islam in essence transformed its followers' allegiances from tribal and ethnic allegiances to a soul affiliation which was Islam. This political alignment led to various cultures and ethnic groups to recuperate under the binding umbrella of Islam. Islam was the category of race Muslims fell under. However, as time went on the Islamic empire fragmented and many different nations formed; this is still happening today. As expected, this led to Muslims beginning to get more racially and ethnically affiliated; even worse, racism crept in between Muslims themselves. This political and social fragmentation and disenfranchisement of Muslims made them easy prey for imperialism. Furthermore, it weakened Muslims economically and educationally as resources could not be joined and combined as it had been before. To better understand my point, look at the example of the United States of America. The US is strong in its unity, being so whilst maintaining their federal system that allows for a degree of self determination of the different US states. Islam was somewhat similar to that. Richard Chord (an advisor to the American secretary of state) in his book "the summary of the American political system" (I may have been mistaken with the name of the book, but it is not too far off) concludes that the American political system holds many similarities to the Islamic political system; hence I have noted the US example. If the US suddenly splits up into different states, with each state being a sovereign and fully self governing country, the result will be a weaker grouping of states as a whole in comparison with the current status quo of all these states being under one sovereign country. This is, in essence, what happened to Islam; nevertheless, being in a much bigger scale.

One of the main reasons that led to the downhill spiral of the Muslim civilization was the weakness in education it fell into before its demise. Sardar and Malik say in their joint book 'Introducing Islam'(p 78):

 "This urge 'to know' transformed Islam from its desert origins into a world civilization"

This led to Muslims leading the world in many fields of academia such as science, architecture, mathematics, medicine, astrology and many other fields. Muslim scholars made groundbreaking discoveries such as the zero, Arabic numerals, algebra, trigonometry, laboratory tools, hospitals, optics, hydrology and many other discoveries and theories (Introducing Islam p. 124). Muslims were major contributors to the advancement of the world in knowledge and academia. However, eventually Muslims began to emphasize less on knowledge, especially after the Mongol devastation of 1258. The Mongols, the Spaniards and crusaders in between them managed to destroy most of Islam's cultural and academic heritage, despite of the vast amount that still exists today. Mundy mentioned in his account of history that when the Spaniards took Cordoba they burnt 1.5 million books; that was only in Cordoba alone. Baghdad had around 36 libraries before the destruction of the Mongols in 1258, were they threw so many books in the rivers of Baghdad that it turned blue with ink. Almurgani in his book "the death of our predecessors" (p. 325):

"Generally speaking, what remains of the heritage of the scholars of Islam is rare and extremely little"

What is more striking though was the reluctance of Muslims to recognize their lacking and try to cure their shortcomings. Instead of trying to learn, their came a period were it seems that Muslims rejected to learn, widening the gap even further between Islam and the growing Western civilization at the time. Bernard Lewis said in his book "What Went Wrong?" (p.87):

"The reluctance of the Islamic Middle East to accept European science is the more remarkable if one considers the immense contribution of the Islamic civilization of the Middle Ages to the rise of modern science."

Eventually, Muslim countries and governments strived to send their young citizens on scholarships to Western academic institutions. This in essence was a positive stance. However, what happened was that most of these students were young and relatively ill-educated in the matters of their religion. In turn, this created another problem that chained the Muslim civilization back into its pit; this problem was and remains the problem of our "Westernized intelligentsia". Mohamed Asad commented at around that period about this (Islam at the Crossroads p. 63) by saying;

"There can be no doubt whatever that religious belief is rapidly losing ground among our "intelligentsia" who have absorbed Western values."

This created further problems and setbacks for Muslims, as not only did our "Westernized intelligentsia" loose some faith, but they also started propagating western political and social values that strictly collided with Islam; for instance "Secularism". This created many drawbacks, quarrels and more importantly Muslims benefited very little from the "Westernized intelligentsia" in terms of academic and scientific advancement. Furthermore, these scholarships did not really cater for the essential needs of Muslims, nor did it cater for aspirers of revival and technological advancement as the fields of study pursued were not the ones required in order to regain our stance as a leading civilization within world civilizations. 

In conclusion, we fell for three main reasons; straying from our "Islamic legacy", "political travesty" and "weak education". The time has come to put a lid on our crying and weeping over our past and open our eyes fully to our future. Saladin (a great Muslim leader and warrior in the past who re-captured Jerusalem for Muslims) will not return again; I assure you that he is dead; I even went to see his grave for myself in Damascus. We need new warriors and leaders with new faces and new names. The past will not rescue our devastated present, we can only do that! It is our chance and the ball is in our court; we should end our dependence on super- heroes to come to our rescue. Within us, their lies warriors and reformers urging to come out, no one has imprisoned our strength but ourselves. In reading our history I have determined that no one has inflicted more misery upon Muslims but Muslims themselves. Reform comes from within each person; each Muslim must strive to improve himself to his or her utmost; as a whole puzzle can be incoherent if only one piece was missing. Finally, I leave you with a hurtful but honest quote by Mohamed Asad may Allah have mercy on him (Islam at the Crossroads p.98):

"What appears to be the decay of Islam is in reality nothing but the death and emptiness in our hearts, which are too idle and too insensitive to hear the eternal voice. No sign is visible that mankind, in its present stature, has outgrown Islam. It has not been able to produce a better system of ethics than that expressed in Islam; it has not been able to put the idea of human brotherhood on a practical footing, as Islam does in its supra-national concept of the Ummah; it has not been able to create a social structure in which conflicts and frictions between its members are as efficiently reduced to a minimum as in the social plan of Islam; it has not been able to enhance the dignity of man, his feeling of security, his spiritual hope- and last, but surely not least, his happiness."

Written by

Hamid M. Harasani

7-3-2007