Muslims, Then & Now




Islam, in the early 7th century, emerged in Makkah (Holy city for Muslims) and rapidly spread under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.), the last messenger of ALLAH. Under his supervision and guidance, many people in Arab came under the light of Islam. After His (S.A.W.) death in 632 A.D., Islam started spreading out of the Arabic peninsula under the rule of Khulfa-e-Rashideen and gradually covered parts of Northern Africa, Central Asia, and Europe. By the 8th century, the Umayyad Caliphate extended from Iberia in the West to the Indus River in the east. Polities such as those ruled by the Umayyads and Abbasid Caliphate (in the Middle East and later in Spain and Southern Italy), Fatimids, Seljuks, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, and Mughals were among the most influential powers in the world. The Islamic Golden Age gave rise to many centers of culture and science and produced notable polymaths, astronomers, mathematicians, physicians, and philosophers during the Middle Ages. Muslims ruled the world with pride for centuries. Unfortunately, these dynasties started collapsing in the 17th century, and Muslim’s power finally ended prior First World War. Today, approximately 1.8 Billion Muslims, making up around 24.1% of the world population is in a state of crisis. As a nation, they are unable to highlight Palestine, Kashmir, Xinjiang, and Myanmar issues, to name some, on international forums, and find a permanent solution to these problems.

Islam which was once considered as “Peaceful and Progressive Religion,” is considered synonymous with “Terrorism.” Around the world, Muslims are fighting with each other due to conflicts of sects, resources, and power. As a religion, it always commanded to respect other religions. According to Maria Rosa at Yale University said: “Tolerance was an inherent aspect of Andularian society.” Jews regarded Muslim’s Spanish rule as the “Golden era of their Diaspora.” Spain and Baghdad were considered the epicenter for education in the Golden Era of Muslim rule; this period is regarded as Dark Age in modern English literature, which admittedly was not darker than the Medieval Age (pun intended). People belonging to different religions and ethnic groups traveled here to learn modern education. Translation of Arabic books to Spanish and Latin gave Christians new opportunities for learning science, literature, and other modern subjects of that age. Even though many of these books were destroyed and burnt by some Muslim rulers and Mongol Conquerors, therefore Muslim’s legacy is very much lost in the recorded history. Even Hindus of India were never threatened under the Mughal Rule and enjoyed religious freedom for around 180 years. All these epitomes show how peace-loving and liberal Muslims were in history. However, today their new generation is considered “Terrorist,” and the whole world is afraid of the concept of “Islamophobia,” which is rapidly spreading, especially in the West.

Algebra, Medicine, Music, Literature, and Philosophy are some of the subjects which reached new heights, and new horizons were discovered by Muslims scientist, researchers, and philosophers. Most of the modern devices work on the principles which were invented by Muslim scientists. Opium, discovered by Al-Razi, saved a large number of lives during surgery and is still a key part of modern surgery. Ibn al-Haitham revolutionized optics, taking the subject from one being discussed philosophically to an actual science-based on experiments. He rejected the Greek idea that an invisible light emitted from the eye caused sight, and instead rightly stated that vision was caused by light reflecting off an object and entering the eye. Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person to make a real attempt to construct a flying machine and fly. In the 9th century, he designed a winged apparatus that roughly resembled a bird costume. In his most famous trial, near Cordoba in Spain, Firnas flew upward for a few moments, before plummeting to the ground and partially breaking his back. His designs would have undoubtedly been an inspiration for the famous Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci some six hundred years later.

Similarly, the bug of traveling had bitten the 7th century Muslims and they soon began to leave their homes for trade and religious reasons, to explore the world they lived in. They walked routes, sometimes merely gathering knowledge about new places, and when they returned, they gave accounts of the ways they had trodden and the people and sights they had encountered. First, this was by word of mouth, but with the introduction of paper in Baghdad in the 8th century, the first maps and travel guides could be produced. These traders even helped to spread Islam to faraway places like Indonesia. Al-Kindi used musical notation: the system of writing down music. They also named the notes of a musical scale with syllables instead of letters, called solmization. These syllables make up the necessary scale in music today, and we are all familiar with doh, ray, me, far, so, la, tee. The Arabic alphabet for these notes is Dal, Ra, Mim, Fa, Sad, Lam, Sin. The phonetic similarity between today’s scale and the Arabic alphabet used in the 9th century is astonishing.

On top of that, Muslims were also developing musical instruments. These are some notable inventions/discoveries of Muslims of the past. However, these legacies are now just a part of history, and modern Muslims are walking far away from this glorious path. Today not a single university from Muslim country is ranked in the list of Top 100 universities. Only three Muslim scientists are able to win prestigious Nobel Prize, Ahmed Zewail in 1999, and Aziz Sancar in 2015 for contribution in Chemistry and Dr. Muhammad Abdus Salam, also regarded as “First Muslim Nobel Laureate,” in 1979 for contribution in the field of physics. This shows the seriousness of Muslims towards education and primarily scientific education.

Once Muslims were considered as “Muslim Ummah” (Ummah means community in Arabic), but in present days Muslims are divided into different sects and fighting for different identities. The entire Muslim world is collapsed and fighting with either each other or for fundamental rights. Iran-Iraq war, Palestine-Israel war, Syria war, Yemen cold war, and Saudi-Iran proxy war are few of many conflicts. Some other significant conflicts like Kashmir Issue, Palestine never supported Pakistan on this issue in U.N. even though Pakistan has always backed Palestine. This shows differences and dissonance between fellow Muslim states. Organization of Islamic Cooperation (O.I.C.), previously known as the Organization of Islamic Conference founded in Sept’ 1969, has also failed to create harmony and unity between Muslims and to address their hardships to other international forums. This creates a significant gap in the representation of Muslim countries in front of other countries, and this leads to unsolved conflicts and more significant crises. One big role in these conflicts is the leadership of the Muslim world, particularly of the Arab world. The Arab world has failed to produce wise and progressive leaders in the last century. No Muslim leader, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire comes in mind when we talk about leadership or think of someone as a role model. Early 20th-century Muslim countries were mostly ruled by monarchs and following that by dictators who were somehow inspired by monarchs. These forms of government lack freedom of people, and this was a big reason to ignite the fire of “Arab Spring,” which started in the early 2010s from Tunisia and gradually spread throughout the Arab world. Arab spring was a sign that The Muslim population was never happy under their leaders because revolutions do not come in days, they need years to spread across the countries and wanted a democratic government (Government of the people, by the people, for the people).

Analyzing all these issues, one can easily conclude that Muslims are surely in a terrible situation. Nevertheless, the irony is that no one wants to change these conditions and want to live in the dreams of a glorious past or blaming others for the downfall of Muslims. Looking in the last 100 years or even 200 years, Muslims have not contributed to the prosperity of humans. We always look towards the West for medicines or technology to help us in diseases or fight disasters. We travel to the West for better education, work opportunities, or sometimes better lives. We should start focusing more on education and should produce better scientists, engineers, and doctors. Today countries are not respected on their power show but the quality of education in their country. Germany and England set a great example of this during World War II when both countries mutually agreed not to attack each other’s universities, and in the post 2nd world war period, they again raised as strong nations, only due to their education. We should learn a lesson from this. Similarly, Muslims should try to elect better leaders who can lead them to a peaceful future and can also maintain good diplomatic relationships with other Muslim and even non-Muslim countries. Now is the best time to think and take serious steps to create a better future for our upcoming generations in which they are not labeled as “Terrorist” but as an example for others also.


Written By: Syyed Roshaan
Edited By: The Sibling Bloggers

 P.S: This article is the Masterpiece of Syed Roshaan Ur-Rehman and not by The Sibling Bloggers. This is pure Collaborative work.

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