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Uthman
04-06-2007, 02:05 PM
It is often alleged that Islam is religion of violence and jihad and is believed to have spread through sword. It is then compared with other religions like Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. Such argument is hardly flawless. One basic flaw in such argument is that history of Islam is compared with religious teachings of Christianity, Buddhism etc. and not with religious teachings of Islam. Such comparison between religious teachings on one hand, and, history of another religion (Islam) is unfair comparison. Religious teachings should be compared with religious teachings and religion in history should be compared with religion in history.

History of almost all religions is far from conforming to the teachings of that religion. Religion belongs to basically spiritual and moral sphere and history is product of interplay of several factors human ambitions, personal interests, wars involving followers of one and followers of another religion and so on. Wars are often fought for reasons different from spreading of religion. The two should not be mixed. Religion can never be spread through might of sword. It is a sheer myth. Religion can spread through conversion of hearts and minds. Religion has its appeal to conscience. One can convert if a religion appeals to ones conscience or if one sees in it an opportunity to promote ones own interest by converting to that religion. But there are very few instances of conversion by inducing fear. Such forcible conversions cannot last long.

Also, be it Islam or Buddhism or Christianity, there are great similarities in their moral and spiritual teachings though there may be significant differences in rituals, concepts, theological statements and laws. Both similarities and differences should be properly understood. However, moral and spiritual truths cannot differ in any significant manner. It is on this ground that the Qur'an pronounces doctrine of wahdat-e-Deen (unity of religions) which has been developed with great clarity by Indian theologians like Shah Waliullah and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

We, in this paper, propose to examine causes of differences between Islamic teachings and Islamic history so that we can dispel many myths about Islam and Islamic history. Misunderstandings about Islam cannot be removed by merely quoting certain Qur'anic verses which represent ideals of Islam; Much less one can do so by glorifying history of Islam. One also has to examine objectively and dispassionately history of Islam in the light of complex factors which mould the history.

ISLAMIC TEACHINGS

Islam is one of the great religions of the world which appeared in Arabia and transformed it from a backward tribal society into a great moral society of highest standards. The Arab society before Islam was immersed into superstitions, divided into often mutually antagonistic tribes causing bloodshed and fratricidal warfare, without any moral code and higher spiritual practices. Certain tribes were dominating the socio-economic fabric of society and unscrupulously exploiting weaker sections of society. The poor, the needy and women were reduced to a helpless lot. There was no political authority to enforce any moral and legal obligations. Certain oral traditions held sway as very few people could read and write. Even cadence of Arab poetry was never reduced in writing. They possessed no scripture to provide moral guidance to them.

It was in this vacuum that Islam appeared as a source of moral and spiritual guidance, which was welcomed by weaker sections of Arab society, on one hand, and by those sections of society who were unsatisfied by superstitious practices totally lacking spiritual and moral power. Islam greatly attracted all these sections of society. However, it was vehemently opposed by powerful vested interests who feared loss of their leadership to the Prophet of Islam and sensed great danger to accumulation of their wealth.

The early Qur'anic verses in Mecca greatly emphasised social and economic justice and powerfully attacked accumulation of wealth and all exploitative practices. Right from Meccan to Medinese period justice ('adl and qist) remained central to Islamic teachings. Qur'an also exhorted people of Mecca to be sensitive to sufferings of weaker sections of society. Allah is repeatedly described as Rahim and Rahman (i.e. Merciful and Compassionate attributes not much appreciated by the powerful and rich of Mecca.

The rich of Mecca had hardly any objection to concept of one God; they would have gladly accepted it had the Qur'an not attacked accumulation of wealth and neglect of poor and needy. The Qur'anic verses of Meccan period attacked, in a way the whole social system in Mecca and wanted it replaced by a just and sensitive system catering to all the needy and poor, besides widows and orphans. This was not simply acceptable to the Meccan tribal leaders who, besides their tribal supremacy, preferred ostentatious living and exploiting the weaker sections to increase their wealth.

Islam advocated equality and dignity of all human beings attacking any sense of superiority of one tribe over the other and of Arabs over non-Arabs. This was nothing sort of revolution and the ruling tribe of Quraysh to which the Prophet (PBUH) himself belonged, was not prepared to accept at any rate. The Quraysh of Mecca and its ruling strata were determined to maintain its supremacy. It could contemplate no compromise with such revolutionary teachings of Islam and tried to smash this movement in its infancy.

They persecuted followers of the Prophet and even attempted to assassinate him through well-planned conspiracy but failed. The Prophet (PBUH) succeeded in escaping to Madina. He was welcomed with open arms to this city as the Prophet of Islam had successfully acted as peace -maker between the feuding tribes of Aus and Khazraj. Islam firmly stands for justice and peace. One of Allah's names is Salam (peace) and even paradise (jannah) is described in the Qur'an as a place of peace and security. We see wars in history of Islam, not in teachings of Islam (Qur'an). I am making this point after careful study of the Qur'an. There are certain pronouncements inducing Muslims to fight kuffar of Mecca but it is purely in defence, not at all as aggressors. They are exhorted to fight only when attacked and not to be aggressors. In fact, Qur'an wants Muslims to be harbingers of justice and peace.

The Qur'an emphasises justice to the extent of practicing it even when it goes against one self, ones parents and one's own tribe or community. Peace is possible only when justice is practiced with such rigour. A mu'min, a true believer in Islam, has to rigorously believe in these values. In fact a 'mu'min was nothing but a new human person, a perfect human being (Sufis term it as insane-e-kaamil). And a mu'min as described by the Qur'an, has to dedicate himself to truth and patience, justice and peace, a dedicated actor to transform this society into a society free of all evils specially from injustices and oppression and exploitation.

Only such a society can be described as a truly Islamic society. Also, justice is a very comprehensive term in Qur'an. It is by no means limited to Muslims; all who live in Islamic society, Muslims or not, should avail of it and oppression and exploitation will not be permitted even for a kafir. Qur'anic verses are very clear on this. Often some verses are taken out of the context to prove otherwise.

There will be no compulsion of any kind for anyone to follow this or that religion. There would be complete freedom of conscience and even a non-Muslim poor and needy will be entitled to all the benefits, even from zakat and bait al-mal (state treasury) if it happens to be an Islamic country.

A mu'min can never be unjust and oppressor and he is always active and vibrantly working for promoting justice and peace. He/she will courageously speak truth in the face of a tyrant ruler and this has been described by the Prophet (PBUH) as real and most meritorious jihad. If one becomes truthful and constantly struggles for justice, there will hardly be any need for war with sword. War with sword is needed only to fulfil ones greed and Qur'an attacks greedy behaviour.

A mu'min will always stand for weaker sections (described by the Qur'an as mustad'ifin) and fight for them against arrogant and powerful rulers (described as mustakbirin). Prophet Ibrahim fought against Nimrod, a great oppressor and arrogant ruler and hence Qur'an accepts him as Hanif one who stands for truth and even throws himself into fire lit by Nimrod for the sake of truthfulness.

Moses fought for liberation of Israelis from the oppression and tyrannies of Pharaoh and fought against Pharaoh's arrogance (istikbar) and Allah rewarded Moses and punished Pharaoh. Arrogance of power and using ones power for oppressing others is greatest kufr and is strongly denounced by the Qur'an. One can be real mu'min if one practices this morality and if one simply accepts Islam without rigorously assimilating this morality one can be Muslim but not mu'min, Qur'an points out.

One can make this world worth living in peace and tranquillity of spirit only when one is equipped with this morality. Only such a mu'min can transform this world into a just world free of all conflicts and bloodshed.

Islam in History

It is well known that ideals and religious teachings make history not. The historical dynamics is very complex process and at best, is partly determined by religious teachings and ideals. The main factors determining history are motives of historical actors, their interests, culture and social vision, besides religious ideals. Also, no society rises to ethical and moral standards prescribed by religion but drags those standards to its own level.

For example, neither Buddhism could raise society to the level of teachings of Buddha, nor could Christianity to those of Christ. Various interests soon hijack religious establishment to serve their own interests. Islam met similar fate. The Arabs too dragged Islam to their own level instead of Arabs rising to the level of Islam. In fact many pre-Islamic Arab practices came back and even became party of Shari'a in the guise of 'adaat. And during Umayyad period there was systematic revival of Jahiliyya culture.

The Jahiliyya poetry, Jahiliyya music and Jahiliyya social customs and traditions reasserted themselves and gradually became part of Islamic culture. Many of these practices could be frowned upon by any pious Muslim. However, with the conquests and resultant wealth and luxury swept aside pure ideals. The Qur'an had stressed need-based living (2:219) and the Prophet of Islam had provided an exemplary model of it. However, with some exceptions many of his companions started living in style and collected huge amounts of wealth.

Wearing of silk and gold was prohibited for men to usher in simple living but after flow of wealth from conquered countries Arabs began to wear costly brocaded attire and gold and silver ornaments. It was for this reason that honest companions like Abu Dharr strongly criticised fellow companions for violating Islamic norms and recited the Qur'anic verse 9:34 which talks of painful tidings for those hoarding gold and silver and not spending them in the way of Allah. Since Abu Dharr wanted to see strict Islamic norms enforced he came to be disliked by most of the Prophet's companions who had taken to easy life and he ended up in the desert where he died and his wife had no means even to provide him with shroud and was buried in his clothes.

Also once Arabs emerged as conquerors the whole dynamics of Arab society changed. Islam then spread to non-Arab areas and now was testing time for the Islamic ideal of equality of all people irrespective of tribal affiliations, nationality, race and colour or language. However, this was not to be in practice. The Arab racial arrogance began to assert soon and non-Arabs came to be discriminated.

Whatever religious ideal, the conquerors always behave as conquerors. Islam being religion of justice and equality, attracted large number of people belonging to weaker sections of society and they primarily embraced Islam in the hope of justice and equality. These weaker sections had suffered intensely at the hands of their earlier masters and came to hate them. They helped Arabs to conquer those territories as they saw Arabs as their liberators which initially indeed they were.

However, it did not take long for the Arabs to behave as other conquerors and began to discriminate against non-Arabs. Arabs had always considered themselves as superior to the Ajam i.e. non-Arab people. The Prophet (PBUH) was well aware of this and hence he exhorted Arabs repeatedly to shed their sense of superiority and treat all people equally and the Qur'an also had asserted that all are equal in dignity (17:70) and that all are created equal and their tribal or national differences were only for being recognised (4(:13).

But soon this ideal was lost and Arabs began to display their arrogance of being conquering race and non-Arabs began mawalis (plural of mawla)clients, not enjoying equality with the masters. Kufa in Iraq as emerged as a military camp and Arabs and non-Arabs, mainly mawalis began to live in separate quarters. Umayyad rule was primarily an Arab rule and it deviated farthest from all Islamic ideals. As already pointed out it was during the Umayyad period that the pre-Islamic (Jahilliya)culture was revived and Islamic ideals were slowly discarded.

The Umayyads ruled by sheer force of weapons and even did not hesitate to martyr Imam Husain and his 71 relatives and friends who stood by him demanding revival of Islamic ideals and Islamic way of rule. Husain (A.S.) was martyred in Karbala, near Kufa in Iraq which had emerged as the great centre of military power. The Umayyad seat of power was in Damascus but Iraq was an important military centre.

Now all Islamic ideals were violated with impunity there was no justice, no equality and no compassion. There was nothing but oppression and exploitation. Kufa emerged as centre of various rebellions as it was centre of non-Arab clients. About 60 per cent of its population was non-Arab. Mukhtar, who rebelled against Umayyads and made Kufa centre of his power, was mainly supported by non-Arab Muslims.

Again it was Hajjaj, the governor of Kufa on behalf of Umayyads, who went down as most ruthless ruler and who slaughtered more than hundred thousand men and put equal numbers in jail. He was most hated by the people and was a terror. What a contrast to the Prophet (PBUH) who did not shed a drop of blood when he entered Mecca after conquering it and pardoned all his enemies.

The Umayyad rule turned out to be most tyrannical as it had usurped power and Umayyads were motivated by their selfish interests and revived Arab culture to assert their superiority. Thus our hypothesis that religion as an ideal is distinctly different from its history whose dynamics is drawn from self-interests of the historical actors. Of course the Islamic discourse continued but actions never conformed to the ideals of the faith.

The Abbasid period which followed the Umayyad period was no different in its dynamics. Its founder came to be known as saffah (i.e. one who sheds too much blood) because he carried out slaughter of Umayyad rulers and wiped out its entire dynasty. Even infants were not spared and graves were dug up wherein Umayyads were buried. Only one member of the Umayyads Abdur Rehman could escape somehow who founded his rule in Spain.

Since the Umayyads had ruled over non-Arabs ruthlessly, the Abbasid revolution was supported mostly by non-Arab people of Iran and Iranians took their own revenge by slaughtering Arabs settled in part of Iran. Historians have recorded that the Iranian wives killed their Arab husbands. So much intense was hatred of Iranians against Arabs.

However, the Abbasids were hardly any different from the Umayyads. Though they captured power by projecting themselves as children of uncle of the Prophet, they turned out to be no less tyrant and great persecutors of members of household of the Prophet (ahl al-bayt). They saw members of household of the prophet as competitors for power and spread net of spies to trace them and kill them. After all power has its own dynamics.

However, it must be said that the Abbasid period turned out to be a period of enlightenment as the Abbasid rulers took great interest in transferring Greek knowledge and Greek philosophy and Indian knowledge and Indian philosophy into Arabic. This was main contrast between the Umayyads and Abbasids. Umayyads power base was entirely Arab and Umayyad rulers were interested only in reviving the pre-Islamic Arab culture and took no interest in non-Arab knowledge.

The Abbasid power base was mainly non-Arab and mainly Persian who had long tradition of learning and culture and hence they helped Abbasid rulers to find house of wisdom (Dar al-Hikmah) wherein great treasures of Greek and Indian knowledge and philosophy were translated and disseminated. Also, it was mainly during the Abbasid period that various schools of Shari'ah law came to be compiled.

It was for these achievements that the noted British historian Toynbee described Abbasid state as the universal state of Islam. But that apart, the Abbasid rule was no less tyrannical and ruthless in crushing their political opponents. It faced several rebellions especially the Zanj rebellion which last for over nine years and shook the Abbasid empire. The Zanj were African slaves and mostly worked in salt mines. When exploitation became intolerable they revolted. Similarly the Qaramita revolt took place during this period and Qaramita revolt was more of a peasant revolt communistic in ideal.

Thus these various events in history have nothing to do with Islam and teachings of Islam. Islam is a religion of justice, peace, equality, compassion and freedom of conscience. But these ideals are not reflected in its history as ideals of any religion are not reflected in the history of those religions. Thus teachings of one religion should be compared with teachings of another religion and history of one religion should be compared with history of another religion. But often history of Islam is compared with teachings of Christianity or Buddhism or Hinduism, which is unfair.

http://www.just-international.org/ar...ewsid=20002076
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NoName55
04-07-2007, 09:52 PM
:sl:

(why is India still majority Hindu country despite having been ruled by Muslims for centuries?)

Many non-Muslims, when they think about Islam, picture religious fanatics on camels with a sword in one hand and a Qur’an in the other.

This myth, which was made popular in Europe during the Crusades, is totally baseless.

First of all, the Holy Qur’an clearly says "Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trust worthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things." The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 2, Verse 256.

In addition to this, Islam teaches that a person’s faith must be pure and sincere, so it is certainly not something that can be forced on someone. In debunking the myth that Islam was “spread by the sword”, the (non-Muslim) historian De Lacy O’ Leary wrote: “History makes it clear, however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islaam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever accepted.” (Islam at the Crossroads, London, 1923, p. 8.).

Mark Glenn a Christian Activist says Christians and Muslims were not “converted by the sword” as is commonly taught and believed. Christians and Jews were allowed to keep and practice their religion within those areas where the Muslims had gained hegemony.

It should also be known that Muslims ruled Spain for roughly 800 years. During this time, and up to when they were finally forced out, the non-Muslims there were alive and flourishing. Additionally, Christian and Jewish minorities have survived in the Muslim lands of the Middle East for centuries. Countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan all have Christian and/or Jewish populations. If Islam taught that all people are supposed to be killed or forced to become Muslims, how did all of these non-Muslims survive for so long in the middle of the Islamic Empire?

Additionally, if one considers the small number of Muslims who initially spread Islam from Spain and Morocco in the West to India and China in the East, one would realise that they were far too few to force people to become converts of a religion against their will. Additionally, the great empire and civilisation established by the Muslims had great staying power, its citizens were proud to be part of it.

The spread of Islam stands in contrast to the actions of the followers of Christianity, who since the time of the Emperor Constantine have made liberal use of the sword - often basing their conduct on Biblical verses. This was especially true of the colonisation of South America and Africa, where native peoples were systematically wiped-out or forced to convert. It is also interesting to note that when the Mongols invaded and conquered large portions of the Islamic Empire, instead of destroying the religion, they adopted it. This is a unique occurrence in history - the conquerors adopting the religion of the conquered! Since they were the victors, they certainly could not have been forced to become Muslims! Ask any of the over one billion Muslims alive in the world today whether they were forced! The largest Muslim country in the world today is Indonesia — and there were never any battles fought there! So where was the sword? How could someone be forced to adhere to a spiritually rewarding and demanding religion like Islam?
:w:
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