The following is transcript of a
useful talk given by a brother in 1999.
Out of about 6 billion people inhabiting the Earth around 1.6
billion of these people are Muslims mostly concentrated in the Middleast, from
the west to east Africa, Indian sub-continent, southern states of the former
soviet union stretching from the black sea to the west of China. These people
are of different ethnic, lingual and race backgrounds. Despite all of these
factors they hold one thing in common the creed of Islam. Islam the deen which
was described by one of the western writers as the thunder coming out of
Arabia, has managed to bring many different nations and people under its fold.
From having a few tribes in the heart of Arabia who counted a few thousands to
today’s 1.6 billion. This is achievement was done under the Islamic state which
the Prophet (PBUH) established in Madina. Today questions are asked regarding
the ability of Islam to mould different people of different backgrounds
together. How could such a deen be able to do that? Under the Khilafah Rashidah
the Muslims opened the lands of Iraq where there was a mixture of Christians
Arabs and Persians, in Persia there was some Jews and Romans. They opened
Al-Sham and it used to be a Roman province following Christianity where
Syrians, Jews, Armenians and some Romans and Arabs lived. They opened Egypt and
north Africa where Barber tribes lived under the Romans. After the Khilafah
Rashida came the Umayyad Khilafah who opened Al-Sind, Khawarizm, and Samarkand
all becoming Islamic lands. Also Al-Andalus (modern Spain and Portugal ) was
opened during their time. After the Umayyds came the Othmani Khilafah which
expanded the lands ruled by Islam by including modern Turkey, and all the
Balkans including Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, upto the Vienna.
All these opened lands were of different nationalities,
languages, religions, customs, traditions, laws, and cultures. To transform and
mould this mixture into a unified ummah with a unified deen, language, culture,
and laws is a very difficult job. This did not happen except for Islam, and was
achieved only by the Islamic state. When all these people lived under the
banner of Islam, and were ruled by the Islamic state then they were molded into
one ummah. At this point a question starts to rise in the minds of people: what
made it possible? The answer to such question can be found by studying Islam,
and these lands that came under Islam. We can narrow down the reasons to four:
1.
The Teachings of Islam:
Allah(SWT) has sent the Prophet(PBUH) as mercy to all
mankind. So the message of Islam was destined to spread all over the Earth to
reach all people. So when armies of Jihad stormed out of Arabia, and was
described as the thunder coming out of Arabia, that thunder was the result of
the Muslims realizing their duty to carry Islam to all mankind by Jihad. By
doing so they made it possible for people to understand Islam, and know its
rules.
For example, at the time of Omar Bin Al-Khattab Egypt was
opened by Amro Bin Al-‘As. Hasan Ibraheem Hasan in his book ‘History of Islam’
(P.196):
“The Arabs did not treat the Coptics harshly or unjustly.
They were very gentle with them. They gave them the choice of accepting Islam
and if they did they have the rights and duties obliged by Islam. But if they
refused they pay a small tax (Jizya) which amounts to 2 dinars, exempting the
women, the old, and the children. In addition to that they removed the
oppression they lived under..”
In this example we saw how the teachings of Islam regarding
the non-Muslims under the Islamic state are treated.
Regarding the system of government, for example, in those
lands that was opened by armies of Jihad it used to rely heavily on bribes,
knowing the right people, and which family/tribe your from. Under Islam this
was uprooted, and replaced by merit. The one who possesses right
skills/knowledge for whatever job to be done is selected. Justin McCarth in his
book ‘The Ottoman Turks’ regarding the issue of merit (P.126)
“ At its height, the Ottoman administrative system was based
on merit. It rivaled the traditional Chinese civil service system in that
regard. Functioning as required, the devsirme system was a model of
meritocracy. The way to the top in the devsirme system was by proving oneself
physically and mentally. Önly the most qualified were sent on to schools where
they were trained to become officials and generals”
He also observes how the Othmani Khilafah appointed Qadi
Hisba in the market place to keep in check those who try to cheat the public.
2)
The mixing of the Muslim armies in their daily lives and their work with the
indigenous peoples
Modern imperialism represented by Britain, France, and
America created ghettos in the lands they occupied. These ghettos are the form
of small compounds within the cities/villages where you find only foreigners
live their. This can be seen today in Muslim countries. This reinforced the
segragation mentality between occupier and the natives. This can clearly be
sensed by the emotions that third world countries including the Muslims hold
toward America, France, and Britain. On the contrary to this, when Islamic
state sent its armies to open new lands the army was involved in inviting
people to Islam. Some even settled in the new opened lands. If we look at Spain
we find the resmeblence of early the Arabs who opened it during the Umayyd
Khilafah. If we look at the east coast of Africa, Zenzibar and Kenya we find a
lot of Omanis. If we look at Egypt we find families of Arab and Turkish descent
populating the area from north and east of Sudan upto the Mediterranean sea who
worked in farming and trade. Also new villages/towns started to emerge as a
result of the arrival of the armies of Jihad. Example to that is the city of
Cairo built by Jaoher Al-Seqily in 358H. The city of Marakish in Morocco. There
is a quote by the Seljuk Sultan Alab Arsalan, who loved buildings and
architecture:
“ Our remains are the evidence of our high esteem, and
plentiful of our given gifts”
3)
The quick embracing of Islam by the people of the conquered countries
The Spanish historian (Aghnisio Aulaghi) writes in his book,
The Islamic Revolution in the West; Pershalona 1974,
“In reality, no military campaign can go on indefinitely
because the more the campaign conquers and advances the weaker it becomes.
Also, when the conqueror advances and his initial bases become unable to
support him, then he must establish alternative bases. Such a matter would take
substantial amount of time in the 7th century. The Arabs however, neglected
this basic strategic principle at that point in time, according to traditional
history. As soon as they would conquer a land, they rushed to conquer another:
They reached Tunis, then immediately turned to morocco; once they reached the
Atlantic, they sailed to Europe. Three years later, they crossed the Tibeerini
mountains and conquered the Akitania province in France. “The Arabs did not
accurately know these military targets. Nor did they have maps, nor did they
know why they came or what they were going to do in Iberia.
Such statement is built on the notion that like the Romans
who conquered north Africa and Al-Sham before the rise of Islam, the natives
will be forced to convert into the belief of their new conquers. With the likes
of the Spanish inquisitions we cam see why he uses this notion. The result of
forced conversion is either people will revolt or they will pretend until they
get the chance to proclaim their original belief. The recent demise of the
Soviet Union resulted in the resurrection of Islam in the Muslim-dominated
republics, and the Orthodox church in the other republics. When the Islamic
state (the Khilafa) whether the Rashidah or Ummayd, or Abbasid or Othmani
demised did the people revert back to their old beliefs? No, Islam is a great
intellectual power that gives a tremendous energy to those who believe in it,
for it is the Deen from the Creator Allah (swt) sent Mohammad (PBUH with the
message of Islam to elevate people from the darkness of Jahiliyah to the light
of Islam, from worshipping the created to the worship of the creator alone,
from the injustices of the man made laws to the justice of Allah’s laws. It
gave the way to understand the existing problems, and gave us the way to solve
them and implement them. Indeed, Islam is the Deen from the Supreme given to
mankind to organize the relationship between man and His Creator, with himself,
and with others, leading to the happiness of mankind.
Islam is what enabled the Arabs to save themselves and
others. Let us take the example of Omar bin Al-Khattab. Before becoming a
Muslim, he was a great enemy of Islam. Such animosity led one of the Sahabah to
say, “If the donkey of Aal Al-Khattab becomes a Muslim, still Omar will not.”
however, when Omar heard the verses of Quran read, understood their meanings,
and realized their miracle, he became a Muslim. He started learning its
beliefs, rules and act accordingly. He became a different man. he used to be a
harsh man killing girls at birth, he became a great and merciful leader. He
heard the honorable Quran say, “When the female (infant), buried alive, is
questioned: for what crime did she commit.” (81:8) and realized the truth and
stopped that ugly act. he heard the Messenger of Allah say, “The Imam is a
caretaker, and he is questioned for his subjects.” He realized that leadership
is not an honor but a responsibility. Thus he said, “If a goat tripped in the
road, I would be afraid that Allah would ask me why didn’t you pave the road
for her O Omar.” Looking at this we find the secret of Islam and its ability to
create a coup de’tate a someone’s personality. It is this characteristic which
brought people living in the newly lands opened by the Muslim armies into Islam.
At the time of the Prophet(PBUH) and the Khilafah Rashidah
the armies were from Arab tribes. After opening north of Africa, the Barber and
Moroccans started to make up part of the Muslim army. During the Umayyad
Khilafah the Persian race started to appear in the Muslim army after opening
Persia as evidence of them embracing Islam. During the Abbasid Khilafah the
Turkish race started to appear in the Muslim army reflecting the opening of
Samarkand, Khawarizm and Bukhara. The Abbasid Kahleef Al-Mu’atasim who
demolished a the city of Amoriyah because a woman called for his help, his
mother is Turkish. Then the Othmani Khilafah took upon itself to unify Anatolia
and open the Balkans. So what the Spanish historian did not observe is the fact
that as Muslim armies opened new lands, the inhabitants of these new lands
embraced Islam in large numbers. These large numbers in turn became the new
blood injected into the Muslim army giving it a new lease of life and energy
maintaing its momentum throughout.
The Othmani Khilafah was given its share of accusations that
it only used Turks in government, and its armies. Obviously this is in clear
contradiction to the teachings of Islam. This allegation in itself was false.
This can easily be seen from the quote by Justin McCarth (P.124):
“ A number of military functions were performed by freeborn
troopsÖwhole villages often served as derbend guards. Their purpose was to
protect major roads, mountain passes, trade depotsÖChristians as well as
Muslims served as derbend guards”
Also the writer Mufaq Bin Al-Margah in his book ‘the
awakening of the sick man’ said (P.32): “what we sensed is that Abdul Hameed
the Turkish, took Arabs as his entourage, the Kurds as his supporters, and the
Chechnyans as his guards a lot of historians counted hundreds of Arabs in the
Othmani army ”
4)
The radical change in the way of those who embraced Islam and their
transformation from a situation to a better one
Before Islam in Arabia people used to worship the idols which
were made of wood of stone. Even some of them were made out of dates, and they
used to worship them during the day and eat them in the night when they get
hungry. They used to bury their daughters alive. In the public places and the
markets there was tents with red flags indicating prostitution. When a woman
gets pregnant she lines up the men she slept with and selects one of them to be
the father of her child. In Persia they worshipped the fire. In Iraq, Syria,
Palestine, and Egypt there was the Christians believing in the trinity, and the
atheists. There was also the atheists of the sub-Sahara in Africa. In the
Indian-subcontinent people worshipped cows and believed in incarnation.
The Arab tribes used to raid each other for the sake of
booty, show of strength, or because they lost a camel race. In other situations
they were content to serve other great nations of their time like the Roman and
Persian empires. The nomad tribes of north Africa, Anatolia, Kurdestan, and
others were following the rain season with their cattle.
This was the state of the people prior to the revelation of
the new deen to humanity. It was bleak and dark picture. Humanity was in
desperate need for a new way of life. After the revelation of the new deen to
the Prophet(PBUH), and the establishment of the Islamic state in Madina to
implement the teachings, and laws of Islam, radical changes were sensed in the
people who embraced Islam. One example was during the time of the Khaleef Oman
Bin Al-Khattab when he sent Amro Bin AL-‘As to open Egypt. In 20H he besieged
the fortress of Napoleon for 7 months, after that the King of Egypt,
Al-Muqawqas, sent an envoy to them. When the envoy came back he described them
as:
“We have seen people death is dearer to them than life,
humbleness is dearer to them than self-glorifying. No one of them has a desire
in this life that concerns him. They sit on the ground, their leader is like
them, you cannot distinguish their noble from their layman, and the master from
the slave. If the time of the prayer comes no one stays behind, they wash their
limps with water, and they are submissive in their prayer”
This is a clear contrast to what these people used to behave
before embracing Islam. Islam has pushed the people to think about the one who
created them, and what is their purpose in life. After coming to the inevitable
conclusion that their purpose in life is to worship Allah(SWT), and this is
what makes them happy and tranquil, not accumulation of the material wealth, or
the pleasure of the flesh. The previous example reflects how Islam has managed
to radically change the perspective which these people viewed their lives. It
gave them a specific objective in life, seeking the pleasure of Allah(SWT).
Showed them that this life is just a test and a rout to the next life where the
one who succeeds in pleasing Allah(SWT) by abiding by the halal and haram will
go to the Jannah, and the one who fails will go the hellfire. Humbleness is
virtue that Islam requested. There is no difference between people except by
taqwah, the fear of Allah(SWT).
Islam has managed to unleash untapped energies in the
Muslims. They understood their responsibility to propagate the message of
Islam, but they cannot do that without having the knowledge. Hence, educating
the Muslims was a responsibility undertaken by the Islamic state starting by
the Prophet(PBUH) himself, and the Kahleefs after him following his foot steps.
As a result of this many cities in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and north Africa, Spain,
Balkans, Indian-subcontinent, and former Soviet republics became known for
reputation as world class learning centers. For example, the Abbasid Khilafah
embarked on translating the medical books to extract its technology and propagate
it. They built hospitals, medical colleges, clinics to teach and train doctors
and dentists. They even encouraged medical conferences where members of the
medical profession used to gather from all parts of the Khilafah in the hajj
season to exchange results of their research. As a result Baghdad in the east
and Qurduba in the west became the two main medical centers of the Islamic
state. Obviously such knowledge is valuable for the citizens of the state, but
also more valuable when the Khilafah was engaged in Jihad campaigns were
medical attention was critically needed for the injured. Such practice was
applied to ther areas of knoweldge whether technology, engineering,
mathematics, physics or those related to Islamic studies like Islamic
jurisprudence, tafseer, liguistics where the madrasa was the basic unit of the
education system since the early days of the Khilafah up to the Uthmani
Khilafah, and even today there still remains a few of them scattered over the
Muslim countries.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, there is definite proof that Islam through the
Islamic state has managed to mould people into one ummah. The history of the
Ummah of Muhammad (PBUH) is filled with countless examples that illustrate that
Islam has achieved what Allah(SWT) has sent it for as mercy to mankind. Even
the Kafir Orientalists were astonished to the level has achieved that. So it is
long due for the Muslims to study their history carefully and objectively.
