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.
