peoples – Fountain Magazine

The Horizon Of Hope: Spiritual Or Metaphysical Thought

Louima Cunningham — Tue, 01 Jul 1997 00:00:00 +0000

The modern Western world-view is said to be founded almost entirely on materialistic notions excluding, even denying, the spiritual or metaphysical dimension of existence. This is a controversial point but many so-called intellectuals in the Muslim world who do no more than blindly imitate what they see as Western and import it, despise and reject whatever constituted the traditional modes of thinking and living in their societies. This is largely because they have lost all awareness of the spiritual dimension of man’s existence and life. Indeed, it is all but impossible for those who reduce existence to matter and think only in physical terms, to perceive and understand what is metaphysical and spiritual. Moreover, since those whose only skills consist in imitating are more radical in the attitudes they appropriate than even those from whom they appropriated them, and since imitation is often an obstacle to seeing the reality, those so-called intellectuals in the Muslim world, besides being more radical in rejecting what is spiritual and metaphysical, lack adequate knowledge about matter and what is material. Since the spiritual, metaphysical dimension of existence requires us to go beyond our sensations and instincts into deep and vast horizons, it is certain that materialists cannot understand it and do not like it. That is, in order to excuse their narrow horizon of thinking, those who are unable to perceive and experience spiritual and metaphysical realities tend to restrict the area of thinking. When they deceive themselves and others into believing that existence consists in only its material dimension without another dimension beyond it, they can present themselves as real intellectuals. Despite their claims and the assertions of their counterparts in the West, it is difficult to accept that scientific thought in the West, although primarily founded on materialism, has always been completely alienated from spirituality and metaphysics. As is widely accepted, modern Western civilization is based on the modern ‘trinity’ of Greek thought, Roman Law and Christianity which, at least in ‘theory,’ contributes a spiritual dimension. The West never completely discarded Platonistic thinking, although it failed to reconcile it with positivistic and rationalistic philosophy, nor has the West pretended that thinkers such as Pascal and J. Jeans and others never existed, nor has it excluded the intuitivism of Bergson. The part of those such as Bergson, Eddington, J. Jeans, Pascal, Bernhard Bavink and Heisenberg in the constitution of Western thinking is by no means less than that of Comte, Darwin, Molescholt, Czolba, Lamarck and others. Indeed, it may even be said that it would be difficult to find in the West an atheist scientist and philosopher before the mid-nineteenth century. By contrast, metaphysical thought and spirituality have been almost entirely discarded by many intellectuals in the Muslim world. In the name of certain notions reduced to simplistic slogans such as enlightenment, Westernization, civilization, modernity and progress, which have been used to batter traditional Islamic values, metaphysical thought and the spiritual life have been denigrated and degraded.

We mean by ‘the horizon of hope’: travelling beyond the visible dimension of existence and considering existence as a whole, all parts of which are inherently interrelated, without which it is impossible either to perceive things and events as they really are or to grasp the essence of existence and its relation with the Creator and the relation between Him and ourselves.Scientific investigations in which each discipline conducts its own discourse in almost complete separation from others, and the dominant materialistic conception of science which has so extensively compartmentalized existence and life, are far from discovering the reality of things, existence and life. When the present specialization and compartmentalization is observed in, say, the field of medicine which deals with man as if he were made up of many discrete mechanisms, it becomes to see easy how dire are the consequences of the approach of modern materialistic thinking to man, life and existence. This approach strips existence of its meaning and connectedness and presents it as discrete elements consisting only of matter.

However, the only way to comprehend and value life and existence in all its interrelated dimensions is to experience existence through the prism of spirit and metaphysical thinking. Neglect of this way means forcing reason to comment on things beyond its reach and imprisoning intellectual effort within the confines of sense-impressions only. Whereas when we heed the sound of our conscience or inner world, we will perceive that the mind is never content and satisfied with mere sense-impressions. In history, all the great, long-lived and inclusive modes of thinking have been developed upon the foundations of metaphysics and spirituality. The whole of the ancient world, from Hebrews to Arameans, from Hindus in India to the Muslim peoples of Arabian and Turkish lands, was founded and shaped under the influence of Sacred Texts such as the Qur’an, the Bible, the Vedas and Upanishads, Denial or forgetting of anti-materialistic Western thinkers, scientists and philosophers such as Kant, Descartes, Pascal, Hegel and Leibnitz means ignoring one of the essential strands in Western thinking. We can only imagine a new, better world based on knowledge or sciences, if we look at the concept of science through the prism of metaphysics. Muslim peoples have so far not been able to develop a concept of science in its true meaning, namely one derived from the Qur’an and centuries-old Islamic traditions moulded mainly by the Qur’an and the practice of the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings. The application of science or technology by an irresponsible, selfish minority has brought to mankind more disasters than benefits. Muslim peoples, if they want to be saved from centuries-old humiliation and contribute to the foundation of a new, happy world at least on a par with the West, should give up repeating old-fashioned positivistic and materialistic theories and put forward the products of their own thoughts and inspirations. This, of a certainty, requires awareness of the pains and troubles they have been subject to for centuries and it requires exerting great efforts to define them and produce cures and solutions for them. A true concept of science is one that will provide us, in the light of spirituality and metaphysics, with a comprehensive, inclusive view which affirms the intrinsic and unbreakable relation between any particular scientific discipline and existence as a whole. This is so because only a concept which can embrace the whole in its wholeness is truly worthy of being called scientific, Seeing existence as discrete elements and trying to reach the whole from those disjunct elements will only end in drowning amid the multiplicity of things. By contrast, embracing the whole and then studying the parts in the light of the whole will enable us to reach sound conclusions concerning the reality of existence.

Spirituality and metaphysics also provide the range of art with their widest dimensions. It may even be said that art can only attain its real identity through spirituality and metaphysics. For what an artist does is to discover man’s inner world with all its feelings, excitements, expectations, frustrations and ambitions, and its relations with the outer dimension of existence, and then present them in certain forms according to the medium being used, Art is the expression of man’s inner essence being in continuous movement to return to its source. In other words, an artist is one who, uniting the inspirations flowing into his spirit from things and events, from all corners of existence, and bringing together all ‘noumena’ and ‘phenomena,’ can present things to us in their wholeness.

We should recall once again that the most important source of science, thinking and art, and even virtues and morality, is metaphysics. With a sound mode of thinking based on pure metaphysics, the entirety of existence can be perceived and it becomes possible to view existence from the top downward as a whole and to travel through its deeper dimensions. Without spirituality and metaphysics, it is impossible to build a community on sound foundations. A community devoid of sound foundations cannot be saved from begging from others and continuous shaking from a kind of ‘heart disease.’ Communities that have not been able to build their identity on sound metaphysical concepts are subject to identity crises. To build a new, happy world where human virtues and values are given due prominence and are effective in shaping policies and aspirations, the world’s peoples, Muslims most certainly included, need urgently to rediscover and re-affirm the spirituality and metaphysics taught in the God-revealed religions.

Light to be Seen in Chaos

Louima Cunningham — Tue, 01 Apr 1997 00:00:00 +0000

The modern age in which we live, despite its many beauties and its promises to mankind, has been an age of suffering and despair for the oppressed peoples of the world. Those peoples, who did not have enough intellectual, cultural, economic and psychological preparation to cope with that age, have, like a desperate lover who has not been able to attain his goal, suffered much from seeing their hopes and expectations frustrated. Muslim peoples particularly have not been able to find a way to free themselves from their pitiful condition.

Muslim peoples, who had for centuries been accustomed to having the upper hand in their relations with the other parts of the world, have felt the bitter taste of defeat in all fields of life. Shocked by successive waves of defeat and humiliation, like a gambler who, having lost the game all the time, continues to try his luck in despair, they have lost all that they had in desperate attempts to catch up with the victors. Continuing to lose, they have continued the game with new, desperate attempts to win, but to no avail.

Those whose eyes were once fixed on what would come from beyond the world, those whose hands were opened up only towards heaven, who believed that they had been created only to beg from the Creator, have all been beggars at the door of others. Mosques, which once served as platforms from which to rise to eternity, have lost their true, spiritual identity and served as places visited by ‘moving corpses’-people dead in spirit-who occasionally call in to observe ceremonies in the name of worshipping God. The institutions of education, which once served as laboratories where existence was profoundly studied like a book, and admiringly observed like an exhibition, have been reduced to places where superstitious dogmas and myths are taught. Nature, no longer able to attract their attention, has therefore been subjected to misinterpretation by others. The ecological balance has been destroyed and the natural world changed into a suffering, potentially uninhabitable, ‘hell’. Getting nothing from the mosque by way of spiritual satisfaction, or from the school by way of intellectual enlightenment, and unable to study nature-in short, with nothing to give them hope-the young have sought consolation in outlandish ventures and hysterical crazes and destructiveness. Deprived of any sublime ideals and aspirations to eternity, they have felt suffocated within the dark confines of the present time, disconnected from the past and with no promise of better in the future.

It was mere wishfulness to expect the young to be otherwise, seeing that they are offered as objectives for their energy only money, fame, show, attachment to life and egoism, in the context of the modern, artificial, dull and spiritless environments which have replaced our intimate old city quarters and traditional old homes. Spiritually and intellectually dissatisfied, the young have viewed life as consisting of only the satisfaction of bodily desires and material values, and dedicated their energies accordingly.

Some of those who, though lacking in idealism, zeal and energy, have offered themselves to the public as representatives of Islamic values, have in fact sought material rewards in return for whatever they appeared to do in the name of religion. Their attitudes have polluted the purity of Islam and led the bewildered masses to find other sources to satisfy their sincere expectations and spiritual needs. Furthermore, those who fantasize about implanting belief in hearts with ‘swords drawn’ and ‘daggers pointed’, have dragged religion down into a worldly-minded politics and distorted the meaning and content of this way leading to God and Paradise.

Despite their claims to be striving to revive the Islamic civilization on the basis of reason and scientific knowledge and Divine Revelation, those politically-oriented ones have not refrained from vengeance, hatred, violence and hostility, even going so far as to present such vicious attitudes as a requirement or condition of religious struggle. It is extremely difficult to regard them as soldiers of religion. They can only be the soldiers of their own caprices and their carnal selves. What is revealed of their intentions through their public speeches and their actions brings to our mind the image of gallows set up on the streets. Nothing else can be expected from such people as those who cherish no love, faithfulness, and respect for others in their hearts. It is vain to expect them to inspire confidence and assurance or to show respect for truth and acknowledge freedom of thought, freedom of action, for others.

Another barrier before the young has been the mass media. Either through voicing the interests of holding companies and cartels which own them, or through brain-washing in the name of certain centres of power, the mass media are largely responsible for the intellectual misguidance and moral per- versions of the young. Almost everyone, whether young or old, male or female, lettered or unlettered, is under the influence of the mass media. The mass media are capable of distorting realities and truths, presenting what is beautiful as ugly and vice-versa, and making immoralities and the satisfaction of bodily desires preferable to moral purity and lofty ideals. They also encourage backbiting, slander and gossip.

Most of the intelligentsia in the Muslim world have long given their minds and spirits over to blind imitation of the West. Putting on airs, as in the past medals were worn by the lords of the old aristocracies and monarchies, they show themselves in the forums where national or public issues are discussed and, unaware of their lack in necessary knowledge and sound judgement, behave like sycophants of foreign values and ideals. Being indifferent or even averse to their old, traditional values and with nothing of their own to offer for the well-being of the people and the future of their countries, and given that their interest in public affairs and the problems of the people is directly related to their own private interests, this class of intellectuals have nothing positive to offer that can solve the problems of the young.

But we are not hopeless, nor have we been so. It would be a disregarding of the truth not to notice and mention the growing portion of the young who, with their hope, belief, resolution, fervour and love of truth, have been doing their utmost to restore to human life its real value and dignity, to inject vigour and spirituality into mere existence, and to hold out to everyone a ‘feather’ from the ‘wings’ of angels. Unlike the masses drowned in despair and unlike those who seek to deceive people in the name of religion or of modern life and values, these noble-minded ones materialize their spirit on earth. With the colour of saints, pure scholars and Prophets on their faces, and a passionate yearning for eternity straining in their spirits, they carry the love, mercy and promise of the Prophets wherever they go and try to found a new world on the eternal values of the past, the enlightenment of true science and pure expectations from the future. Following the Prophetic Message and Divine wisdom, they are trying to tear apart the thick veils of ignorance, heedlessness, indifference to perennial values and obstinacy, striving to open the way at the end of which truth and mercy come together.

I hope that so long as they remain faithful to the One with infinite mercy ardently and with firm belief, Divine help will never leave them to manage on their own, but will open for them the way to realizing their goals. The point where aspirations are unified with lofty feelings and lofty feelings are based on Divine Revelation and sound judgement, is the point where human will is completely oriented by Divine universal Will. When its time is due, everyone will feel this orientation and come to understand that whatever was (or remains yet to be) suffered for such a result was really worth it.

Racism : The destruction of humanity

Louima Cunningham — Fri, 01 Oct 1993 00:00:00 +0000

In the April 1992 issue of Scientific American, Allan C. Wilson and Rebecca L. Cann published a study of DNA samples taken from people around the world. They write: ‘Our genetic comparisons convince us that all humans today can be traced along maternal lines of descent to a woman who lived about 200,000 years ago, probably in Africa. Modern humans arose in one place and spread elsewhere.’ It is easier to trace the DNA through the female than the male because the DNA ‘is transmitted to successive generations only by mothers’. They strengthen this evidence with the observation that ‘A genome or full set of genes, is complete because it holds all the inherited biological information of an individual’. This certainly affirms that all humans have the same mother as well as sharing the same lineage, that a single pair of parents, Adam and Eve, as taught in the three revealed religions, did exist. These scientists believe Eve may have come from Africa. Many Muslims believe that Adam and Eve first inhabited what is now Saudi Arabia. Either way we may suppose their skin colour to have been dark. Only as mankind spread out, did they evolve into diverse racial and linguistic groups. That being so, as affirmed by genetic studies, why do white supremacists hate dark-skinned people? It can only be that they hate a part of themselves.

Western culture throughout the centuries has taught fear and contempt of racially and culturally ‘different’ people and in its languages has retained derogatory terms for these ‘others’. By contrast, the history of the Islamic civilization shows little evidence of racism. However, in recent times, some Muslims, under the impress of the Western example, have begun to develop feelings of racial prejudice. Following the retreat of Western imperial powers, Muslims have the opportunity to develop away from Western attitudes and ideologies. God willing, more Muslims will rediscover their Islamic heritage, and racist feelings will be removed from their hearts.

We must remember that in the days before Islam racism and slavery existed, but Islam effectively abolished the inferiority associated with slavery and integrated people of various ethnic origins into a single civilization. Muslims are one ummah and Islam is their culture and allegiance. God says in the Qur’an: Verily this brotherhood of yours is a single brotherhood (21.92). God has created us different so that we may know and distinguish one another: worth lies not in belonging to this or that nation but in belonging to God, in taqwa or consciousness of Him. Getting on with the differences in creation is a part of the trials of this life, a test of our kindliness and humanity towards those who are ‘other’.

Do you not see that God sends down rain from the sky? With it We then bring out produce of various colours. And in the mountains are tracts white and red, of various shades of colour, and intense black in hue. Similarly, among men, and crawling creatures, and cattle, they are of various colours (35.27-8).

We should rejoice in the variety of mankind and try to learn about the cultures and languages of others. We enjoy fruits of diverse kinds, and take pleasure in the differences in nature, so why not also take pleasure in the differences between peoples?

The Muslim world has never been afflicted with the intense problems which still affect the Western world. There still exist in the US groups of white supremacists who want to bring back racial apartheid and even slavery. Then, besides the problems of race, there are also problems arising from the discrimination of the rich against the poor. However, God does not judge human beings on the basis of their race or nationality or social class, but on the basis of their quality of worship and their actions.

In the first days of Islam, the pagan Arabs practised slavery. Many slaves liked the message of equality and, attracted to the truth of Islam, converted. The behaviour of the first Muslims tells us that they did not uphold racist attitudes. For instance, Abu Bakr rescued Bilal from torture by buying and then freeing him. Bilal was then honoured with the dignity of being appointed to make the call to prayer: he was the first muezzin. God commands in the Qur’an that to express remorse for certain sins a Muslim should emancipate a slave if financially able to do so. If a slave woman bore a child she was immediately considered free. Also, Islamic law provided legal means to enable slaves to purchase their freedom. Islam was thus the first civilization to gradually abolish slavery and, much more important, the attitudes of racial and cultural superiority which, in non-Muslim societies, have kept the descendants of slaves-even after a hundred years of emancipation-in positions of inferiority. In Islamic societies, slaves were considered a part of the household and fully integrated into the community, many attaining positions of great eminence- Harun al-Rashid was the son of a slave.

It is of the highest importance that Muslims should avoid becoming infected by Western ideologies. The Western nations have nowhere created a successful, stable plural society. Even between nations there is not so much peaceful co-existence as a cynical balance of power. Only Islam has ever succeeded in establishing and sustaining a feeling of common humanity among different peoples and cultures. Many verses of the Qur’an and the ahadith of the Prophet, upon him be peace, reiterate that all people are equal. A hadith qudsi related by Abu Dharr al-Ghifari records the words: ‘0 my servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another’ (Muslim). In another hadith in the Sahih of Muslim, Abu Huraira related that the Prophet said:

Do not envy one another; do not inflate prices one to another; do not hate one another; do not turn away from one another; and do not undercut one another; but be you, 0 servants of God, brothers. A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he neither oppresses him nor does he fail him, he neither lies to him nor does he hold him in contempt. Piety is right here-and he pointed to his breast three times. It is evil enough for a man to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. The whole of a Muslim for another Muslim is inviolable: his blood, his property, and his honour.’

As long as Muslims hold to the Qur’an and Sunna and make these sources a part of their lives, they shall be spared the social evil of this age. But, having practised what they have heard preached, Muslims must have the conviction to commend (by example as well as by word) Islam to others. Unless the Western peoples come to respect Islam and learn from it, they will end up destroying themselves because of their national and cultural separatism. Muslims need to work at getting rid of the racism in the world and promoting brotherhood and peace instead.

The Main Factors in the Spread of Islam

Louima Cunningham — Fri, 01 Oct 1993 00:00:00 +0000

Islam, in the tenth century, was the main religion, or at least, the religion of the majority of peoples in an area covering more than half of the civilized world stretching over three continents from the Pyrenees and Siberia in West and North Europe to the farthest end of Asia, up to China and New Guinea in the East; from Morocco in North Africa to the southern tip of Africa, covering two-thirds of the African continent. It is one of the most striking facts of human history that the spread of Islam over such a vast area took place within three centuries. Most striking of all, within half a century after the Hijra, Islam had already conquered the whole of North Africa from Egypt to Morocco, all the Middle Eastern lands from Yemen to Caucasia and from Egypt to the lands beyond Transoxiana. It was during the reign of the third Caliph Uthman, that the Muslim envoys reached the Chinese Palace where they were welcomed enthusiastically, an important event marking, according to the historians, the beginning of Islam’s entry into this country. There are many reasons why peoples have been, from past to the present, so ready to embrace Islam, those pointed out by Muhammad Asad, a Jewish convert to Islam, probably being the foremost:

‘Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its arts are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other, nothing lacking, with the result of an absolute balance and solid composure. Everything in the teaching and, postulates of Islam is in its proper place.’( Islam at the Crossroads, p.5)

Most Western writers, especially under the influence of the Church, have never failed to accuse Islam of spreading by force of the sword. The causes of this prejudice lie mainly in the fact that the spread of Islam has often occurred at the expense of Christianity. While Islam has for centuries obtained numerous conversions from Christianity without much effort or organized missionary activities, Christianity has almost never been able to achieve conversions from Islam in spite of sophisticated means and wellorganized missionary activities, and it has always been at a disadvantage in its competition with Islam for fourteen centuries. The defeat of Christianity in the face of Islam has caused its missionaries and most of the Orientalists to develop an inferiority complex within themselves by depicting Islam and introducing it as a regressive, vulgar religion of savage peoples. (John Cogley, Religion of Secular Age; Muhammad Asad, The Road to Mecca). The same attitude has unfortunately been maintained toward the Holy Prophet of Islam. This is clear in the confessions of some unbiased writers of the West: According to P. Bayle:

‘Muslims, according to the principles of their faith, are under an obligation to use force for the purpose of bringing other religions to ruin [probably he means Jihad which is not for the purpose he suggests.]; yet, in spite of that, they have been tolerating other religions for some centuries past. The Christians have not been given orders to do anything but preach and instruct, yet, despite this, from time immemorial they have been exterminating by fire and sword all those who are not of their religion. We may feel certain that if Western Christians, instead of the Saracens and the Turks, had won the dominion over Asia, there would be today not a trace left of the Greek Church, and that they would have never have tolerated Muhammadanism as the ‘infidels’ have tolerated Christianity there. We (Christians) enjoy the fine advantage of being far better versed than others in the art of killing, bombarding and exterminating the Human Race. ‘(Bayle P., Dictionary, article Mahomed, 1850)

Islam is indebted for its unequalled spread to its religious content and values, which is admitted by all objective Western intellectuals:

‘Many have sought to answer the questions of why the triumph of Islam was so speedy and complete? Why have so many millions embraced the religion of Islam and scarcely a hundred ever recanted? Why do a thousand Christians become Muslims to one Muslim who adopts Christianity? Some have attempted to explain the first overwhelming success of Islam by the argument of the sword. They forget Carlyle’s laconic reply. First get your sword. You must win men’s hearts before you can induce them to imperil their lives for you; and the first conquerors of Islam must have been made Muslims before they were made fighters on the Path of God. Others allege the low morality of the religion and the sensual paradises it promises as a sufficient cause for the zeal of its followers: but even were these admitted to the full, no religion has ever gained a lasting hold upon the souls of men by the force of its sensual permissions and fleshy promises…

‘In all these explanations the religion itself is left out of the question. Decidedly, Islam itself was the main cause for its triumph. Islam not only was at once accepted (by many peoples and races) by Arabia, Syria, Persia, Egypt, Northern Africa and Spain, at its first outburst; but, with the exception of Spain, it has never lost its vantage ground; it has been spreading ever since it came into being. Admitting the mixed causes that contributed to the rapidity of the first swift spread of Islam, they do not account for the duration of Islam. There must be something in the religion itself to explain its persistence and spread, and to account for its present hold over so large of a proportion of the dwellers on the earth… Islam has stirred an enthusiasm that has never been surpassed. Islam has had its martyrs, its self-tormentors, its recluses, who have renounced all that life offered and have accepted death with a smile for the sake of the faith that was in them.’ (Stanley Lane-Poole, Study In a Mosque, pp. 86-9).

A. J. Arberry has also pointed out that the reason for the spread of Islam is Islam itself and its religious values. (Aspects of Islamic Civilization, p.12)

He writes:

‘The rapidity of the spread of Islam, noticeably through extensive provinces which had long been Christian, is a crucial fact of history. The sublime rhetoric of the Qur’an, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy…and the urgency of the simple message carried, holds the key to the mystery of one of the greatest catalysms in the history of religion. When all military, political and economic factors have been exhausted, the religious impulse must still be recognized as the most vital and enduring.’

Brockelman, who is usually very unsympathetic and partial, also recognizes the religious values of Islam as the main factor for the spread of Islam (History of the Islamic Peoples, p.37). Rosenthal makes his point as follows: ‘The more important factor for the spread of Islam is the religious Law of Islam (Shari‘a, which is an inclusive, all-embracing, all-comprehensive way of thinking and living) which was designed to cover all manifestations of life.’ (Political Thought in Medieval Islam, p.21).

Besides many other reasons which are responsible for the spread of Islam, it is the exemplary life-style and unceasing efforts of individual Muslims to transmit the message of Islam throughout the world which lie at the root of the conquest of hearts by Islam. Islamic universalism is closely associated with the principle of ‘amr bi’l-ma’ruf (enjoining the good) for Islam is to be spread by Muslims by means of ‘amr bi’l-ma’ruf. This principle seeks to convey the message of Islam to all human beings in the world and to establish a model Islamic community on a worldwide basis. The Islamic community is introduced by the Qur’an as a model community: We have made of you an Ummah justly balanced, that you might be witnesses (models) for the peoples, and the Messenger has been a witness for you (2.143). A Muslim or the Muslim community as a whole thus has a goal to achieve. This is the spread of Islam, conveying the truth to the remotest corner of the world, the eradication of oppression and tyranny and the establishment of justice all over the world. This requires the Muslim to live an exemplary life, and thus the moral and the ethical values of Islam have usually played an important part in the spread of Islam. Here follow the impressions of the influence of Islamic ethics on black Africans of a Western writer of the nineteenth century:

‘As to the effects of Islam when first embraced by a Negro tribe, can there, when viewed as a whole, be any reasonable doubt? Polytheism disappears almost instantaneously; sorcery, with its attendant evils, gradually dies away; human sacrifice becomes a thing of the past. The general moral elevation is most marked; the natives begin for the first time in their history to dress, and that neatly. Squalid filth is replaced by some approach to personal cleanliness; hospitality becomes a religious duty; drunkenness, instead of the rule becomes a comparatively rare exception chastity is looked upon as one of the highest, and becomes, in fact, one of the commoner virtues. It is idleness that henceforward degrades, and industry that elevates, instead of the reverse. Offences are henceforward measured by a written code instead of the arbitrary caprice of a chieftain–a step, as everyone will admit, of vast importance in the progress of a tribe. The Mosque gives an idea of architecture at all events higher than any the Negro has yet had. A thirst for literature is created and that for works of science and philosophy as well as for the commentaries on the Qur’an.’ (Quoted from Waitz by B. Smith, Muhammad and Muhammadanism, pp.42-43)

The tolerance of Islam is another factor in the spread of Islam. Toynbee praises this tolerance towards the People of the Book after comparing it with the attitude of the Christians towards Muslims and Jews in their lands. (A Historian’s Approach to Religion, p.246). T. Link attributes the spread of Islam to the credibility of its principles together with its tolerance, persuasion and other kinds of attractions (A History of Religion). Makarios, Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch in the seventeenth century, compared the harsh treatment received by the Russians of the Orthodox Church at the hands of the Roman Catholic Poles with the tolerant attitude towards Orthodox Christians shown by the Ottoman Government and prayed for the Sultans (T. Link, A History of Religion).

This is not the only example of preference by the followers of the religions for Muslim rule over that of their own co-religionist. The Orthodox Christians of Byzantium openly expressed their preference for the Ottoman turban in Istanbul to the hats of the Catholic cardinals. Elisee Reclus, the French traveller of the nineteenth century, wrote that the Muslim Turk allowed all the followers of different religions to perform their religious duties and rituals, and that the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Sultan were more free to live their own lives than the Christians who lived in the lands under the rule of any rival Christian sect (Nouvelle Geographie Universelle, vol. 9). Popescu Ciocanel pays tribute to the Muslim Turks by stating that it was luck for the Romanian people that they lived under the government of the Turks rather than the domination of the Russians and Austrians. Otherwise, he points out, ‘no trace of the Romanian nation would have remained,’ (La Crise de l’Orient).

The Muslims’ attitude towards the people they conquered is quite clear in the instructions given by the rightly-guided Caliphs: ‘Always keep fear of God in your mind; remember that you cannot afford to do anything without His grace. Do not forget that Islam is a mission of peace and love. Keep the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) before you as a model of bravery and piety. Do not destroy fruit-trees nor fertile fields in your paths. Be just, and spare the feelings of the vanquished. Respect all religious persons who live in hermitages or convents and spare their edifices. Do not kill civilians. Do not outrage the chastity of women and the honour of the conquered. Do not harm old people and children. Do not accept any gifts from the civil population of any place. Do not billet your soldiers or officers in the houses of civilians. Do not forget to perform your daily prayers. Fear God. Remember that death will inevitably come to every one of you some time or other, even if you are thousands of miles away from a battlefield; therefore be always ready to face death.’ (Andrew Miller, Church History; Ali lbn Abi Talib, Nahj al-Balagha)

A historical episode which Balazouri, a famous Muslim historian, relates, tells about how pleased the native peoples were with their Muslim conquerors is of great significance:

When Heraclius massed his troops against the Muslims, and the Muslims heard that they were coming to meet them, they refunded the inhabitants of Hims the tribute they had taken from them, saying: ‘We are too busy to support and protect you. Take care of yourselves.’ But the people of Hims replied: ‘We like your rule and justice far better than the state of oppression and tyranny in which we were. The army of Heraclius we shall indeed, with your help, repulse from the city.’ The Jews rose and said: ‘We swear by the Torah, no governor of Heraclius shall enter the city of Hims unless we are first vanquished and exhausted.’ Saying this, they closed the gates of the city and guarded them. The inhabitants of other cities–Christians and Jews–that had capitulated did the same. When by God’s help the unbelievers were defeated and Muslims won, they opened the gates of their cities, went out with singers and players of music, and paid the tribute (Futuh al-Buldan).

To sum up, although most Western writers, under the instigation of biased Orientalists of the Church, have alleged that Islam spread by the force of the sword, the spread of Islam was because of its religious content and values, and ‘its power of appeal and ability to meet the spiritual and material needs of people adhering to cultures totally alien to their Muslim conquerors’, together with some other factors. Some of these factors are the tolerance which Islam showed to people of other religions, the absence of ecclesiastic orders and hierarchy in Islam, mental freedom and absolute justice which Islam envisages and has exercised throughout the centuries, the ethical values it propagates, and Islamic humanitarianism, universalism and brotherhood, and its inclusiveness. Sufi activities, the moral superiority of Muslim tradesmen, the principle of ‘enjoining the good’, and Islamic dynamism and the magnificence of the Islamic civilization contributed of their own to the spread of Islam.

The main religious qualities which attracted people to Islam were:

(i) the simplicity of the theological doctrines of Islam based on the Divine Unity;

(ii) rationalism of the Islamic teachings;

(iii) the complete harmony of the Islamic ideals and values with human conscience;

(iv) the inclusiveness and comprehensives of Islam, covering all aspects of physical, mental, and spiritual life of individuals and societies, hence the harmony of religion and life which it established;

(v) the lack of formalism and mediation;

(vi) the vividness, dynamism and resilience of the Islamic theology, and its creativity and universalism, and its compatibility with established scientific facts;

(vii) the cohesion and harmony of the Islamic principles, and

(viii) the shortcomings of other theological systems.

peoples – Fountain Magazine

The Horizon Of Hope: Spiritual Or Metaphysical Thought

Light to be Seen in Chaos

Racism : The destruction of humanity

The Main Factors in the Spread of Islam

Further Reading