Islamic
Concept of History
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
According to the Quran,
God has created the universe with a certain
purpose. All the parts of
the universe are strictly under the control
of God. All these parts
are carrying out this divine scheme without the
slightest deviation.
Similarly man too has been created with a certain
purpose. Yet man, on the
contrary, is totally free. He can do what he
wants by his own decision.
However, in spite of this freedom he is
being watched constantly
by God. He does not allow human history for
long to take a course (by
deviation), which is akin to nullifying the
very creation plan of God.
Creation Plan of God
The Universe made by God
was so vast that despite gigantic progress
made by human beings to
fathom the universe, the vastness of the great
universe still remains
unknown. In this extremely great universe God
made a planet like the
earth, which was a unique exception in the
entire known universe. On
this planet and in its atmosphere all those
factors were brought about
that are essential to make the earth
habitable for a creature
like man.
After bringing into
existence a favorable world in the form of the
earth God created the
first man Adam and his pair, Eve. Although the
precise date of this event
is unknown, it is a fact that the first pair
to set foot on earth was
this very pair of Adam and Eve.
Adam was the first man as
well as the first Prophet. The way of God is
to select a man as His
messenger from amongst human beings themselves
in order to send His
revelations to him. Therefore, God revealed to
Adam through the angel as
to the purpose of inhabiting man on earth.
According to this plan,
God created a creature in the form of man,
endowing them with
freedom. The rest of the universe had no choice but
to submit to the will of
God. Whereas it is desirable from man to opt
for this divine plan of
his own free choice.
This plan of divine will
is based on two basic principles-Monotheism
and justice Monotheism is
for man to worship one God alone, that he
should not associate
anyone or anything in this worship. Justice is to
adhere completely to the
ethical principles in dealing with other human
beings; that he should
refrain from all kinds of injustice and
oppression.
Along with it God told man
that although he appeared to be free he was
fully accountable to God.
God had complete record of man's actions.
In the eternal life after
death God will judge everyone according to
this record. One who
may have exercised his freedom wrongly will be
thrown into this eternal
hellfire.
Adam prepared tablets of
clay on which he engraved the basic divine
teachings, then heated it
in fire, thus preserved this divine guidance
for the coming
generations. It is believed that these divine teachings
were written by Adam in
Syriac language.
Adam died at a ripe age.
For a long period of time his people
continued to adhere to
these divine guidance faithfully. Afterwards rot
began to set in the
people. Idolatry replaced monotheism. People began
to adopt ways of injustice
and oppression instead of justice and
rectitude. After about one
thousand years the perversion became so all
pervading that they were
completely distanced from the path of Shariah
shown by Adam.
The Age of Perversion
Afterwards God sent Noah
as His messenger. He was granted, unusually /
exceptionally, a very long
age of nine hundred and fifty years. During
this long period he
continued to show people the right path, generation
after generation. But only
a few people heeded his words. The rest
persisted in their sinful
ways. Then in accordance with the ways of God
a huge flood came by way
of punishment. Noah and his small band of
followers were saved in a
boat, while all the rest were engulfed in
this flood.
Human population was then
probably concentrated only in the region of
Asia known as Mesopotamia.
The men and women saved in the wake of this
flood settled afterwards
in other parts of the world. Their race
multiplied until it spread
over the three continents of Asia, Africa
and Europe.
After the death of Noah
his people continued for considerable time to
adhere to the divine path
shown by Noah. Again rot set in later
generations and they again
deviated from the path of monotheism as well
as of justice. Afterwards
God's messengers continued to come for
several thousand years.
The Quran has mentioned twenty-six messengers
by name. The hadith
tell us that about one hundred thousands
messengers came to the
world. In this way a long period elapsed
between Adam and Messiah
when God's messengers continued to come to the
world in almost every
generation. But each time only a few individuals
believed in them.
The majority rejected these prophets in every age.
The Reasons for Perversion
What were the reasons for
this continued transgression? There were two
main reasons; one,
political absolutism; another, ignorance about the
world of nature.
In ancient times system of
monarchy prevailed everywhere. These kings
had adopted an easy
strategy for the consolidation of their empire, and
that was to apply complete
curb on intellectual freedom. As a result
of this intellectual curb
science could not make any progress in
ancient time.
The same was the case of
religion. The policy adopted by these kings in
the matter of religion was
not to allow there subject to follow a
religion other than that
of the king.
Superstitious religion
served their purpose too well. Therefore not
only they themselves
followed superstitious religion but they also
compelled their subjects
to follow the same. People had no right to
think freely in the matter
of religion, and opt for any religion other
than the official
religion. This policy of the kings produced the evil
of religious persecution.
The history shows that religious persecution
has continued since olden
societies in one form or another.
The next thing in this
connection was ignorance. In ancient times man
knew too little about the
world and its phenomenon. Political
absolutism had placed
almost total ban/ obstacle to scientific
research. Therefore all
kinds of superstitions regarding natural
phenomena made inroads
unchecked. It was generally held that the sun,
the moon and the stars
etc. possessed supernatural power. Similarly
they believed that the
sea, the mountains and other such natural
phenomena were endowed
with some extraordinary mysterious power and
exercised decisive control
over human destiny.
Problem of Evil
Those who want to
interpret human history in the light of predetermined
law as is done in the
physical world, meet with utter failure. It is
because the physical world
fully accepts the interpretation of
predeterminism, while the
events concerning the human world are not
explainable under the law
of predeterminsm.
The other group wants to
interpret the events of the human world under
the principle of freedom.
But they too are not satisfied with their
interpretation. It is
because in the case of human freedom the
suffering experienced in
this world has no valid understandable
explanation.
The failure of both these
interpretation is due to the fact that they
attempt at interpretation
of a whole in the light of a part, which is not
at all possible.
The truth is that the
proper/ right principle to interpret human
history lies neither in
predeterminism nor in freedom. There is only
one correct principle
according to Islam and that is the principle of
test. That man has
been placed in the present world for the purpose of
test. On this test will
depend the eternal future of everyone?
Favorable circumstances
were the sinequa non-for this test in the
world. These circumstances
involved predeterminism to a certain extent,
which would be a guarantee
against any obstacle coming in the way of
carrying out this test. On
the other hand, the element of freedom was
also essential in order
that one's intentions and actions could be
properly judged. For man
can be granted the credit for a good deed only
on the condition that
despite having the opportunity of indulging in
bad deeds he chooses of
his own free will to do good deeds.
If in this world
everything would have been totally predetermined then
it would have missed the
test environment. However the granting of
freedom did involve the
risk of some people misusing their freedom.
This misuse gave rise to
the human suffering called the problem of evil
yet this suffering or evil
is a very small price for a very precious
thing. According to Islam
that person is most precious who leads his
life in this world in a
manner that despite facing all sorts of
temptation he succeeded in
overcoming them. Despite having
ability/power to misuse
his freedom he refrains from doing so. Despite
the possibility of leading
an unprincipled life he chose of his own
free will to be a man of
principle. For the selection of such
individuals it was
essential that the atmosphere of freedom prevail in
the world. The selection
of such individuals is not possible under any
other system.
A part of the fruit has to
be willing to become waste to enable the
squeezing of juice from
it. Similarly the selection of such precious
individuals as chose to be
men of character and of principle of their
own free will, will
happen, of necessity, if when some people face the
fate of peel and roughage
(of a fruit) during this process. This scheme
of the selection of
precious individuals required the same price that
the chalf of the fruit has
to pay for its juice.