THE ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

The Islamic Civilization, “Thus we have appointed you a mid-most nation, that you may be witnesses upon mankind.” (Quran, 11:43)

ISLAM WAS DESTINED to be a world religion and a civilization, stretched from one end of the globe to the other. The early Muslim caliphates (empires), first the Arabs, then the Persians, and later the Turks set about to create classical Islamic civilization.

In the 13th century, both Africa and India became great centers of Islamic civilization.

Soon after, Muslim kingdoms were established in the Malay-Indonesian world, while Muslims flourished equally in China. Islamic civilization is committed to two basic principles: the oneness of God and the oneness of humanity.

Islam does not allow any racial, linguistic, or ethnic discrimination; it stands for universal humanism. Besides Islam has some peculiar features that distinguish it from other contemporary civilizations.

A SUPERIOR CIVILISATION, once served as a magnet, attracting gifted individuals to its focus of opportunity.

Beginning with the eighth century, it was the Muslim culture that became the focal center of world progress, attracting Jews, Persians, Christians, and even Turks to its fold. As Christian civilization began its ascent, the same gravitational attraction was exerted by Rome, Florence, Paris, and Oxford.

 The greatest example of this gravitational pull is of course present America, ‘the land of opportunity, whose progress has been assured

by the combined contributions of the most ambitious and enterprising peoples of many national origins. It is more difficult to establish the causes of the decline of civilizations than to trace the reasons for their rise.

 To sum up, let us envision this classic civilization had come to a standstill.

It now lacked vigor, enterprise, and spirit. When there was no scientific activity in the world, Muslims picked up the threads of ancient science and technology, where and whenever, available, working into a definite pattern of progress.

They salvaged the science of the classic world and developed it for centuries.

They enlarged the boundaries of all the technologies then known.

But they were more than mere encyclopedists. They made practical application of this knowledge to the needs of the times.

It was no accident that Muslims attained such widespread prosperity and felicity.

In pursuit of these progressive goals, the Muslim scientists attained experimental objectivity that the Greeks had disdained.