Revolutionary
Role of Islam
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
As a result of the
ignorance the evil known as phenomenal worship was
born in human society. Man
assumed divine attributes in the creatures.
He began to worship all
the things in the world holding them to be gods.
Owing to this intellectual
aberration (going astray) idolatry became an
inseparable part of human
civilization. Not even the coming of thousands
of Prophets and reformers
could bring about any change in this state of
affairs, in the practical
sense. The refusal of the Prophets brought on
the deniers the
chastisement of God but "shirk" could never be wiped out
from society. The God
decreed to take this responsibility upon himself.
We can call it divine
intervention. The emergence of Prophet Muhammad
was in one respect divine
intervention in human history, an intervention
that changed the course of
human history. An American encyclopedia has
very appropriately
described this event in these words:
Its advent changed the course of human history.
French historian, Henri
Pirenne, has expressed it in these words:
"Islam changed the face of the globe. The traditional
order of history was overthrown."
The Quran speaks of this
'divine interferences in these words:
"It is He that has sent forth His Prophet with guidance
and the true Faith, so that he may exalt it above all
religions God is the All-sufficient witness." (48:28)
This has found expression
in a hadith recorded in Sahi Bukhari in these
words:
"He will not depart from this world as God has decreed,
unless and until these people are brought to the straight
path." (449-8 Fathul Bari)
This Shows that for the
prophets of the past communication alone was
required, whereas for the
Prophet of Islam communication as well as
implementation was also
required.
The task of the earlier
prophets was completed with the full
communication of the
message to the people. Instead of his message
remaining at the
theoretical stage the divine plan in sending the
Prophet of Islam to the
world was to bring about a practical revolution.
It is beyond human
capacity to make the end result a certainty. Then how
this theory in the case of
the Prophet of Islam could be translated into
reality. It all became
possible due to the special divine succor
extended to the Prophet by
God. We have termed this special divine
succor as divine
interventions in human history. This divine plan had
two basic aspects to it.
One, to provide the Prophet with powerful and
trustworthy team, and the
other to weaken the enemies of monotheism
considerably, by means of
a special strategy, so that the supremacy of
the Prophet and his
companions over these peoples could be facilitated.
The first part of this
divine plan was brought to completion in the form
of the settlement of
Ismail, son of Ibrahim, in the unpopulated desert
of Arabia two thousand and
five hundred years ago. At that time it was a
totally isolated place
situated far from the centers of civilization. At
this isolated place a
community was raised by Ismail ibn Ibrahim,
trained in the desert
atmosphere where there was nothing save nature.
As a natural result of
this unadulterated atmosphere, (free from all man
made pollution,) the human
qualities of the inhabitants of the desert
were fully preserved. It
was as if a vast natural training camp. It took
more than two thousand
years to prepare a nation of high caliber called
a nation of heroes' by a
western scholar. In the history of Arabs this
nation is known Ismailites.
Although religious perversion had set in,
but owing to their
particular training they were so distinguished in
human values that such
people have neither existed before nor after
them.
The prophet of Islam was
one of the distinguished members of Banu Ismail
The Prophet struggled for
about thirteen years in Makkah and ten years
in Madina. Consequently
about more than one hundred thousand people
believed in him and joined
his mission. Each and every one of his
companions possessed a
strong character, which may be termed predictable
character. In this way the
Prophet of Islam, in an exceptional way,
secured a team by which he
could bring the message of the prophets to
fruition -taking the
Prophetic mission from the stage of ideology
(theoretical) to the stage
of practical revolution.
The next part of this
divine plan consisted of weakening these anti
monotheism forces so
considerably that the last Prophet may subjugate
them and usher in the
desired revolution in the very first generation
itself. To achieve this
end on the one hand the Arabian tribes remained
engaged among themselves
in bloody warfare for a long period of time.
Consequently, when the
Prophet of Islam was sent to the world the
idolatrous tribes of
Arabia, having weakened themselves considerably,
could not continue their
resistance for long. This enabled the Prophet
of Islam to overcome
Arabia and root out idolatry completely within a
short period of time.
In those days there were
two great empires outside of Arabia. These
empires kept the major
parts of Asia and Africa in their full control.
Their power was so great
that the Arabs could not even have dreamt of
overcoming that mighty
empire. Despite this extremely out of proportion
difference, how it became
possible for the Arabs of the very first
generation, to conquer
both these empires - Sassanid and Roman - in such
a decisive way as to crush
them absolutely, resulting in the dominance
of monotheism over
idolatry throughout this region. This miracle became
possible owing to a
special divine strategy as pointed out in a verse of
the Quran in these words:
"The Romans have been defeated in a neighboring land.
But after their defeat they shall themselves gain
victory within a few years." (30:1-3)
History shows that from
602 A.D to 628 A.D, extremely extraordinary
events took place between
these two great empires.
First, the royal families
in the respective countries came into clash
and confrontation with one
another; consequently many individuals of
great political worth were
killed. These feuds gave a deathblow to these
empires, shaking the very
roots of the empires. Afterward some factors
led to the destructive
collision of these empires with one another.
First the armies of the
Sassanid empires entered the border of the Roman
empires to attack it. The
circumstances proved favorable to them and
they succeeded to the
extent that the Roman emperor Hercules decided to
flee from his Palace in
Constantinople. But again the events took a new
turn. Hercules regained
his lost confidence and with full preparation
attacked the Sassanid
empire, destroyed their armed forces and entered
right into the heart of
Jerusalem.
These civil wars lasting
for about twenty-five years weakened both these
empires considerably
therefore, during the pious caliphate when the Arab
forces entered Roman and
Sassanid Empire they managed to advance with
great speed.
HISTORICAL REVOLUTION
This event of the Islamic
empire was not simply a political event. Its
aim was, in fact, to set
in a revolutionary process in history. This
Process had been initiated
in Makkah itself, and then it traveled from
Makkah to Madinah, to
Damascus and Baghdad from where it entered Spain
and thereafter it spread
all over Europe and the entire world. We would
probably be right in
saying that the 20th century is the culmination of
this process.
There are two basic
aspects to this process. One aspect is that which
may be called the end of
religious persecution. This kind of persecution
has been mentioned in the
Quran as 'fitna' (8:39).
This process began with
the end of idolatry; this aspect of the process
had been completed during
the life of the Prophet himself. Afterwards
during the pious caliphate
with the disintegration of the two great
empires-Sassanid and
Byzantine- the two greatest pillars of religious
persecution had been
uprooted, setting off the age of religious freedom.
However no great
revolution materializes all of a sudden. It reaches to
fruition over a long
historical process. The same therefore happened in
this matter as well. The
process of human freedom set off by Islam
continued to advance
through individual and collective efforts taking
various forms, the second
Caliph, Umar Faruq (d.644) addressing one of
his governors and his son
in a well-known caste had said:
"Since when you have enslaved people while their mothers
had Given birth to theM in freedom." (Al-Abqariat Al-Islamia)
This voice was echoed
(reverberation) eleven hundred years later by the
well-known French reformer
Roussou (d 1778).His book titled 'Social
Contract' began with this
famous sentence,
"Man was born free, but I find him in chains,"
This concept of
intellectual and religious freedom reached its
completion by the end of
the 20th century, With the establishment of the
United Nations all the
Nation of the world signed its charter of Human
Rights and proclaimed that
the intellectual and religious freedom is an
irrevocable right of every
human being and that under no excuse or
pretext it can be
abrogated.
FREEDOM OF CHOICE
Through a long process
that age has finally come when man has secured
absolute right to adopt
the religion of his choice and propagate that
religion with the only
condition that he will not use violent means in
exercising his religious
freedom. This change brought about in the world
has thrown open all the
locked doors of communication of the message of
monotheism; doors that had
been locked by the ancient absolutist
regimes.
The creation plan of God
regarding human beings has been mentioned in
the Quran in these words:
"He who created Death and life, that He may try which of
you is best in deed" (67:2)
For achieving this end, it
is essential that the atmosphere of freedom
prevail in this world,
that everyone without any obstacle may play his
role. Without freedom
neither reward nor punishment can be awarded to
anyone. In an atmosphere
where there is no intellectual freedom amounts
to nullifying the very
scheme of God - the scheme plan under which man
has been created and
placed in this world. That is the reason why these
regimes based on
absolutism were abolished/overthrown, which had taken
root for centuries.
In recent times the
communist revolution of (1917) again attempted to
establish a vast empire
based on the coercive system of the ancient
type. But since this ran
counter to the divine plan, God produced such
factors as abolished the
Soviet Union in 1991. Man again was granted the
same freedom as was
available in the rest of the world.
THE END OF SUPERSTITIOUS
ERA
Another basic change
wrought about by Islamic revolution was the same as
has been termed scientific
revolution in modern times. That is the
rooting out of
superstitious thinking on scientific ground and the
general prevalence of
thinking based on facts.
As mentioned above the
continuity of idolatrous way of life/thinking in
ancient times was due to
the ignorance of human beings regarding nature.
The ancient man used to
see natural phenomenon by their appearance.
Holding them sacred he
began to worship them. In known history, Islam
succeeded for the first
time in human history to convince men that these
phenomenons of nature were
not creators but that these were creatures.
They were entirely
helpless being, only slaves and not the masters of
man.
In the wake of this
revolution the ideological base of idolatry was
wiped out altogether. All
those things held sacred have been relegated
to the status of mere
creatures. They are there for man to be harnessed
and not for man to be
enslaved by them. The sun was held to be a god and
worshipped in ancient
times; the man of today is converting the sun into
solar energy. The ancient
man held the moon sacred; the modern man has
set his foot on it. The
ancient man had deified the river; the modern
man has converted these
rivers into steam power etc.
In this way, it has
happened for the first time in human history that
the phenomenon of nature
looked upon by ancient man with reverence, have
how become the object of
investigation. In other words, Islam set off
the process, which, in
scientific jargon, is called exploration. The
Quran repeatedly enjoins
to reflect on the objects of the universe. This
is no simple matter. The
act of pondering over the phenomenon of the
universe in its nature is
a kind of worship has been accorded the status
of worship in Islam. As a
result of this thinking for the first time in
known history the
phenomenon of the universe were subjected to research
and investigation.
This revolutionary concept
of the phenomenon of nature was introduced in
human history initially in
the form of a process. It continued to grow,
spreading from one country
to another until it reached the west where it
saw its culmination; the
scientific way of thinking produced in the
modern age had been
initiated in the early period of Islam, which has
seen its culmination in
modern times in the western world. In respect of
its reality this
scientific thinking is a revolution desirable by Islam
Itself.
After this revolution it
has happened for the first time in human
history that idolatrous
way of thinking has been totally deprived of its
ideological base. The
concept of sacredness regarding the phenomenon of
nature is now a
superstition. Modern scientific investigation has
rendered belief of this
kind baseless.
All that happened was
exactly in accordance with the divine plan. The
Prophet and his companions
were asked to carry out this divine scheme in
these words:
"Fight then until there be no persecution and religion
by wholly God's" (8:39)
This means that there is
no barrier in the way of God for man to make a
choice.
This was the final goal of
the revolution brought about by the Prophet
of Islam and his
companions. Its actual goal was to end that absolutist
system of coercion, which
places barriers in taking a decision about
one's religion. Another
objective was to remove the veil of obstacles in
ideological terms, which
confuse and mislead him, as a result of which
he begins to worship the
creature supposing it to be creator. (For
detail see the author's
book 'Islam the creator of Modern Age')
The Quran tells us that
there is no compulsion in the matter of
religion. But along with
it He desires that guidance and transgression /
deviation should be
thoroughly separated from one another (2:256)
Just as in the morning
light and darkness are clearly separated from
each other so that one who
is desirous of knowing the reality with open
mind may learn it beyond a
shadow of doubt so that one who is ready to
think with open mind may
not be left to grapple in the dark; that he
reaches God in a state
that he has no pleas to make for his rejection of
the truth.
TRUTH UNVEILED
Towards this particular
end God brought about the revolutions in human
history, as mentioned
above. Now the truth and untruth have been so
clearly distinct from one
another that there is no thick or thin veil in
between. Now this job has
been performed so completely that the man of
today has complete freedom
of choice. Now man has neither ideological
excuse nor practical
barrier in his path.