Mystery of History

The study of history has been a subject of interest for the humans since ages, along with its manifest attraction that presumes a course of valid intellectual reasons. Serious minds passionately excavate the past events for personal intellectual interest, understanding the changes occurred in specific civilization as well as decision-making regarding the current social, economic and political strategies in the light of the past’s knowledge. The study may focus on ancient political history, social history, art history, education history, military history, or the achievements of any religious groups, like Muslim history. Knowing the direction of the life then and now, we become well equipped with the framework of knowledge that we need now to build our entire intellectual, ideological and physical lives. It takes us closer to happenings and events in the past we can know about and learn how things have changed ever since, and who were the figures and personalities that triggered the change.

Scope of History

History deals with social organizations, patterns of relationships between and among individuals and social groups, such as sexual composition, leadership, infrastructure, division of labor, communication systems, and so on. It studies the conditions that affect the nature of civilization as, for instance, savagery and sociability, group feelings, and the different ways by which one group of human beings achieves superiority over another. It discusses the biography of royal authority, the dynasties and the various ranks that exist within them. It further deals with different kinds of gainful occupations and ways of making a living, with the sciences and crafts that human beings pursue as part of their activities and efforts, and with all the other institutions that originate in civilization through its very nature.

Role of Ancient Civilizations in Human Development

History of ancient major civilizations, is a way of knowing human history on the largest scale, from the cave paintings to the latest innovations in the world. Though the term ‘civilization’ doesn’t connote any distinct entity of cluster of specific ingredients, it is commonly used to describe human societies ‘with a high level of cultural and technological development’. This definition, however, is unclear, subjective, and carries with it assumptions no longer accepted by modern scholarship on how human societies have changed during their long past. Neither it must be restricted to a list of technical or aesthetic achievements, nor should it represent a particular stage of cultural development, instead, in a wide sense, it refers to an intellectual contribution to an overall human development to the ideas, political achievements, economic affluence, social & ethical value structure and architecture. It is often believed that all major human civilizations contributed in a process of developing ideas and man eventually traveled from savagery to the latest stage but this approach glorifies few specific civilizations and sets down the rest treating them as inferior. Modern scholars realize a need to incorporate the other nations’ contributions to this long journey of ‘development’.

Basic Element of a Civilization

According to Will Durant, civilization is social order promoting cultural creation. Four elements constitute it: economic provision, political organization, moral traditions and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. He includes:

1. The Establishment of Civilization.
2. The Conditions of Civilization.
3. The Economic Elements of Civilization.
4. The Political Elements of Civilization.
5. The Moral Elements of Civilization.
6. The Mental Elements of Civilization.
7. The Prehistoric Beginnings of Civilization. ¹

Scholar, Gordon Childe identified a list of ten attributes that distinguish a civilization from other kind of societies; his list was reviewed and rewritten many times. What follows is the version of Charles Redman, an American archaeologist:

Primary characteristics

Urban settlements, full-time specialists not involved in agricultural activities, concentration of surplus production, class structure, state-level organization (government).

Secondary characteristics

Monumental public building, extensive trading networks, standardized monumental artwork,writing, development of exact sciences. ²

Criteria of a Universal Civilization

Irrespective to the accuracy or inaccuracy of this list, we want to draw our reader’s attention to the point that it revolves around the material gains and clearly ignores moral and ideological progress. Are these ingredients of the civilization sufficient to form a universal civilization or they lie fit for the European/western civilization only?

Claim is that the only criteria that constitutes the universal civilizations, is driven from the Divine’s message, through

and the revealed scripts. Since Adam , the message of has been constantly same until the coming of the last Prophet Muhammad and remained the foundational factors for the universal civilization.

The first Prophet, Adam , also regarded as the first human being, is the beginning of the great universal civilization that progressed along with the ideological, moral and social development, based on monotheism. From ontological question of being and purpose of human existence to the social and moral living, the conception of one God has dominated the discourse with confirmation of the Prophets and other elements of the faith. One can pose his concern that this lineage of Prophets and other items of faith merely explain religious mythology with no sufficient material evidence and has contributed nothing or very little in the development of human thought. A huge pile of books on history of civilizations, like the one you are holding, record only phenomenal events and cultural things that correspond to the list of factors for a civilization we have mentioned above, excluding religious signs and criteria to judge the same.

Need of Divine Guidance

There are generally four sources of Human knowledge; intuition, authority, rational induction, and empiricism. Intuition is knowledge that is gained through a feeling or thought that might turn out to be true. ³ Authority is a source of knowledge that you gain from your parents, or a book that tells you that this is the way things are and that’s that. Rational induction is a source of knowledge by reasoning and proofs. ⁴ This type of knowledge comes about by supposing one thing and then giving a proof of it, or any other way you want to do a proof. Empiricism is knowledge gained from sensory experiences ⁵ through careful observation, manipulation of variables through the scientific method, repeating research designs, and taking in data to interpret.

Human knowledge of science and technology is an interpretation of our senses. All the information we have about the world is conveyed to us by our five senses. Thus, the world we know consists of what our eyes see, our hands feel, our nose smells, our tongue tastes, and our ears hear. Everything we perceive as external is only a response formed by electrical signals in our brain. The information one has about the red of an apple, the hardness of wood—moreover, one's mother, father, family, and everything that one owns, one's house, job, and even the pages of this book—is comprised of electrical signals only. In other words, we can never know the true color of the apple in the outside world, nor the true structure of wood there, nor the real appearance of our parents and the ones we love. They all exist in the outside world as God Almighty’s Creations, but we can only have direct experience of the copies in our brains for so long as we live.

To clarify, let's consider the five senses which provide us with all our information about the external world. The act of seeing occurs in a progressive fashion. Light (photons) traveling from the object passes through the lens in front of the eye, where the image is refracted and falls, upside down, onto the retina at the back of the eye. Here, visual stimuli are turned into electrical signals, in turn transmitted by neurons to a tiny spot in the rear of the brain known as the vision center. After a series of processes, these electrical signals in this brain center are perceived as an image. One factor which reveals that everything we see and experience exists in our brain and that we can never know the original of the matter that exists outside is that we do not need an outside world for senses to occur in the brain. Many technological developments such as simulators and also dreams are the most important evidences of this truth. Human sense has a very limited potential and it can only perceive the matter. It is evident from many observations and experiences that our senses can make serious mistakes in perception of reality. Hence, human senses are not an authentic source of knowledge.

Reason can be considered a source of knowledge, either by deducing truths from existing knowledge, or by learning things a priori, discovering necessary truths (such as mathematical truths) through pure reason.

Intuition is knowledge that is gained through a feeling or thought that might turn out to be true. It can be divided into three forms.

1. Psychological Intuition: An Intuition that occurs solely from the person’s mental state.
2. Satanic Intuition: An intuition that occurs due to external dealing with jinn and devils.
3. Heavenly Intuition: An intuition that occurs by an external force either by God or by an angel. The Quran refers the intuition of Prophet Moses’ mother. But intuition of a person cannot be a source of universal guidance because it is limited to the individual experience of a person which cannot be applied to others.

This discussion clearly manifests that all the above-mentioned sources of knowledge have weaknesses and flaws which demand a superior source of knowledge, that’s why Allah guided humans with divine knowledge at every stage of history. Divine knowledge promoted reasoning, intellectual discourse, analytical approach while superstitions and illogical connection between cause and effect resulted in paganism and human’s intellectual and physical slavery by other humans in forms of political and religious classes.

Divine guidance is also needed for molding human civilization on a universal natural pattern but unfortunately humans corrupted previous divine sources of guidance for their desire of wealth, power, status etc. Finally, the Quran as the last revelation of Allah, and Prophet Muhammad responded to all the questions, theoretically and practically (with his Sunnah) which were in human minds from ancient times and were not answered satisfactorily. It also provided a universal pattern for human civilization and a code of conduct for human life.

Theories of Creation

This particular question, creation of the universe, has involved many scholars and researchers into this highly spirited debate with various responses. Yet, no visual evidence supports any of the creation theories, so it is difficult to say what really happened? No one has come up with an absolutely indisputable explanation of how the cosmos came to be, except what Allah and his Prophets have explained. Among many non-religious explanations of this historical phenomena, the Big Bang Theory is the leading one to interpret the beginning of the Universe. At its simplest, it says the universe started with a small singularity, then inflated over the next 13.8 billion years to the cosmos that we know today, while the energy and matter initially present have become less dense as the Universe expanded. ⁶ But the Big Bang model is not uniformly accepted, for, it predicts a smooth universe. That is, the distribution of matter, on a large scale, should be roughly the same wherever you look. No place in the universe should be unduly lumpy.

Creation of first human and the world, has been explicitly illustrated by Allah Almighty in his sacred books, revealed upon his Prophets, more or less 124,000 in numbers, however, the details are slightly different in preserved literature of different revealed religions. The Quran states that Allah created the sun, the moon, and the planets, each with their own individual courses or orbits:

  وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ كُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ ⁷

  It is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all (the celestial bodies) float along, each in its rounded course.

At another place:

  أَوَلَمْ يَرَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَنَّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ كَانَتَا رَتْقًا فَفَتَقْنَاهُمَا وَجَعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمَاءِ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ حَيٍّ أَفَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ 30 ⁸

  Did not the disbelievers observe that the heavens and the earth were together, so We parted them, and we made every living thing from water? So will they not accept faith?

In Al-Jasiya (The Crouched Ones), Allah Almighty states:

  إِنَّ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ لَآيَاتٍ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ 3 وَفِي خَلْقِكُمْ وَمَا يَبُثُّ مِنْ دَابَّةٍ آيَاتٌ لِقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ 4 وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مِنْ رِزْقٍ فَأَحْيَا بِهِ الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا وَتَصْرِيفِ الرِّيَاحِ آيَاتٌ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ 5 ⁹

  Verily in the heavens and the earth are signs for those who believe. And in the creation of yourselves, and the fact that animals are scattered (through the earth), are signs for those of assured faith. And in the alternation of night and day, and that fact that Allah sends down sustenance from the sky, and revives therewith the earth after its death, and in the change of the winds, are signs for those who are wise.

Human being is a unique creature, created by

in a special way, with unique gifts and abilities unlike any other – a soul full of knowledge from a male and a female named Adam and Hawwa (Eve) . As the Holy Quran states:

  يَاأَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ 13 ¹⁰

  O humankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may know each other (not that ye may despise each other).

In the last hundred years or so, the transition from theological cosmology to scientific cosmology seems quite evident and, therefore, leaves little space for making the sense of this universe filled with the specific belief that God is the sole creator and sustainer of the universe. Before coming to excavate the implications and inferences from the change of glance, we would like to highlight the point that rejecting the monotheistic explanation regarding the creation of the Universe, for, being unscientific with no solid evidences, logically speaking, shares the similar status with Big Bang theory that does not provide a complete explanation of this phenomena. It claims that the universe was born with a tendency to expand, which overcame the tendency of matter to collapse. According to relativity theory, space does not like to remain static; for all but the most special cases, it either expands or contracts. But why it initially chose the former is still a mystery. So, if one tends to hesitate in accepting the theological explanation due to its mystery element, must not choose the other one as well. Inductive empirical connection is missing to favor the ontological shift. The Routledge Companion to Theism questions the validity of the relativity theory for the cosmological explanation. It says:

  Big-bang theology overreaches if it says that general relativity and the singularity theorems have settled once and for all that the universe had a beginning in time. In fact, relativistic cosmology predicts its own invalidity for times close to a dynamic singularity, such as the big bang. (For a dissenting opinion, see Misner 1969.) The reason that relativistic cosmology predicts its own invalidity is that in the neighborhood of singularities, gravitational effects are intense, and quantum effects can be expected to play a predominant role. But general relativity does not incorporate quantum effects, and indeed it is untested in such regimes of intense gravitational force. Thus, there is little reason to believe that the singularity theorems make a valid prediction about the structure of a future successor theory of general relativity that includes quantum effects. ¹¹

There have been different responses to the Big Bang theory from religious groups and the atheists both who try to use the scientific theory in their favor, so it is difficult to connect it with any of them essentially, yet, it influences the entire course of academics and intellectual arena altogether. Difference on the eternity of the Universe or finitude, expanding or static, reference to the Lord Almighty for any phenomenal or less significant change or some autonomous movements, signify the treatment of the theory. We must not forget that the Big Bang is an explanation of the beginning of the universe and does not provide any ontological purpose of the phenomena. It does not assume anything about what (or who) made the universe, and it does not assume anything about what (if anything) came before. Yet, the human sciences today serve the purpose for making it acceptable as fact, across the world.

Away from theological cosmology, the modern atheistic material explanation of the theory manages the current mindset to study the academic disciplines under the similar vision and outline the study with certain paradigms. The human evolution from Australopithecus afarensis to the Homo sapiens, based on the scientists’ investigations helps explain the beginning as a non-religious, materialistic and secular.

Monotheism in Ancient Civilizations

Studying the history of ancient civilizations creates an impression that people in the ancient world did not always believe in one God. A researcher, Tim Whitmarsh, Professor of Greek Culture and a fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge, claims that atheism was prominently common in ancient Greece and Rome, also flourished more in other societies. ¹² It obviously casts doubt on the religious belief as a ‘default setting’ for humans and leaves very little space to claim the monotheism of revealed religion as naturally predisposed to believe in God. In his book, Battling the Gods, the disbelief is claimed to be far present in past, ancient Greeks and Romans so as to establish it to be everywhere in the entire world, in each civilization. The age of ancient atheism ended with the defeat of the polytheistic societies, who generally tolerated it, against the monotheistic religions’ forces that demanded an acceptance of one God and re-emerged in post enlightenment era. Here we do not mean to discuss the philosophy of atheism or so but to assert that the books on the history of civilization record the historical facts in specific perspectives. As we have mentioned earlier, in those books, the common features of any major ancient civilizations mark infrastructural, economic, political and military changes while exclude the traces of monotheism that has been prevalent since the beginning of the humans and the world.

Missing Facts from History

Ancient history of the revealed religion or

has largely gone unwritten so it seems very difficult to mark the activities and achievements of all the prophets and features of the societies they constituted. The revealed scriptures in all three revealed religions record the historical events with slightly different details such as the number of prophets, creation of the Universe, age of human life and others. As far as the accounts of 25 prophets mentioned in Quran, conveys through various stories the historical data in its own way, signifying the moral, social, political and economic factors of different epochs, however, not mentioned with partial unnecessary details. Mostly, the interpreters and exegetes of the sacred book did not make extra efforts to collect historical details regarding any prophet’s era but focused on unfolding the marvels of divine message spread through the prophets. According to the Holy Quran, there has never been a nation or any tract of land, remained empty from the divine message or prophets rather sent to all nations, in different places and at different times, as the Holy Quran states:

  إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ بِالْحَقِّ بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا وَإِنْ مِنْ أُمَّةٍ إِلَّا خَلَا فِيهَا نَذِيرٌ 24 ¹³

  And O dear Prophet (Mohammed ), we have indeed sent you with the Truth, giving glad tidings and heralding warnings; and there was a Herald of Warning in every group.

  وَلَقَدْ بَعَثْنَا فِي كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ رَسُولًا أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَاجْتَنِبُوا الطَّاغُوتَ فَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ هَدَى اللَّهُ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ حَقَّتْ عَلَيْهِ الضَّلَالَةُ فَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَانْظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الْمُكَذِّبِينَ 36 ¹⁴

  And indeed, We sent to every nation a Noble Messenger (proclaiming) that “Worship Allah and beware of the devil”; therefore Allah guided some of them, and error proved true upon some of them; therefore travel in the land and see what sort of fate befell the deniers!

Hence it is part of the justice and accountability system of God Almighty that He has decreed that He will not punish anyone whom the call of the prophets and messengers did not reach, as He says:

  ...وَمَا كُنَّا مُعَذِّبِينَ حَتَّى نَبْعَثَ رَسُولًا 15 ¹⁵

  ...And We never punish until We have sent a Messenger (to give warning).

Allah has not told us the stories of all the Prophets sent down to human being except very few, for certain reasons but one thing is clear that the message of Allah approached every nation and piece of land across the world. Middle East and Africa were not the only regions to find the divine blessings but every continent and culture received the message with positive gesture or enmity. Mentioned above the fact that the large portion of prophets’ history is unwritten with chronological records and evidences as presented to describe the features of any ancient civilization so, apart from the contents of Quran (and the Biblical literature), records of their struggle, achievements and other relevant historical events have not been penned down.

Reliability of Historians

Reliability of ancient historians needs to be seriously questioned also. Do the modern tools of studying ancient history have the capacity to see them in a correct manner? Glorification of few monarchs and warriors, like barbaric Julius Caesar, create space to put suspicions on other portions of historical records. Their specific perspectives, biases and criteria to judge the merit of culture and civilization must also be put to consideration before turning the pages of history books. It will be interesting for our readers that the Greek writer, Herodotus, was called ‘the father of history’ by the Roman writer and orator Cicero for his famous work ‘The Histories’, but has also been called ‘The Father of Lies’ by critics who claim these ‘histories’ are little more than tall tales. Gathering research from his travels around Egypt, Africa, and Asia, Herodotus recorded his observations and interviews with locals in a thorough, consistent way. But he exaggerated and fabricated several parts of The Histories, though, it can be hard to separate fact from fiction and truth from bias. ¹⁶ Some of the historical facts that Herodotus got hilariously wrong are: He mentioned Babylon the Behemoth as magnificence greater than all other cities. He claims that 100 bronze gates were erected at the entrance of Babylon, and that Babylon’s walls were 100 meters (328 ft) high, 22 kilometers (14 mi) long, and 50 meters (164 ft) thick. He also says he saw a deep, water-filled trench that surrounded the entire perimeter of the city. Historians even don’t agree on whether Herodotus ever actually visited Babylon; skeptics argue that he probably fabricated the details of his description of the city. Archaeological evidence tells us that Babylon had eight gates, not 100, and was not as grand as Herodotus boldly claimed. So, although he wrote about Babylon as if he himself had been there, he most likely never visited.

Herodotus gives lengthy descriptions of Egypt, discussing the Nile River, mummification, Egyptian gender roles, animals, and holy festivals and other social, cultural and political aspects of society. However, most historians doubt whether Herodotus ever actually visited Egypt. For example, he gives detailed descriptions of the three great pyramids, yet fails to mention the Sphinx, a highly suspect omission. (If he actually saw the pyramids, then he definitely would have seen the Sphinx.) Additionally, Herodotus writes about embalming, describing the three methods ranging from most expensive to least expensive. Herodotus claimed that elite, deceased Egyptians’ organs were removed from the left side of their abdomens, while commoners received cedar oil enemas to quickly remove the stomach and organs from the body.

Misconceptions about Monotheism in Ancient Civilizations

Apart from these errors in primary data, the perspectival articulation of ancient history has also shaped the ways to look at the things in particular ways, ignoring the influences of monotheistic religions. Every collection of ancient history demonstrates the social culture with polytheistic tradition and demi-gods, like Hercules in Ancient Greece, but overlooks the significance of the revealed prophets and the specific eras as if they had never existed on this piece of earth. In Ancient Egypt, for example, the kings—later called pharaohs—practiced divine kingship, claiming to be representatives, or even human incarnations, of gods while they alone could communicate between a society and its God or gods. Is it really true to say that Monotheism, what we term the belief with one God in three revealed religions, never existed in ancient times as depicted in our history books on ancient civilizations? If yes, has it contributed to the development of human ideas or the influence of polytheism was widespread all around?

The word monotheism specifically refers to the God of Judaism, Christianity, and

. The same message has been propagated by the last Prophet, Muhammad as well. As the Holy Quran states:

  قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ 1 اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ 2 لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ 3 وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ 4 ¹⁷

  Proclaim (O dear Prophet Mohammed ), “He is Allah, He is One. Allah is the Un-wanting.” (Perfect, does not require anything.) He has no offspring, nor is He born from anything. And there is none equal to Him.

Disregarding any form of sharing in the power of the God, Islam continues the divine message that runs from the beginning of human being through thousands of prophets till the last one, Muhammad . Propagation of this universal message is quite explicitly mentioned in the book of Holy Quran, has been the sole assignment of the prophets that they performed with responsibility and highest spirit of commitment.

Dr. Clifford Wilson, former director of the Australian Institute of Archaeology, describes the evidence of monotheism found in many ancient cultures in his book titled ‘The Concept of Monotheism in Ancient Times’. The chapter 11 specifically traces the strong proofs for the monotheistic faith in Egyptian and other ancient civilizations that interested readers may find beneficial to study.

Originally the world was monotheist and believed in one true God. Dr. Arthur C. Custance wrote a series called ‘The Doorway Papers’ (Brockville, Ontario, Canada). In Paper 34, he gives evidence to show that this was the case with many such people, contrary to the views of many scholars. At first scholars examining the records of ancient peoples:

  ... found themselves dealing with a tremendous number of Gods and Goddesses and other spiritual powers of a lesser sort which seemed to be always at war with one another and, much of the time, highly destructive. … As earlier and earlier tablets, however, began to be excavated and brought to light, and skill in deciphering them increased, the first picture of gross polytheism began to be replaced by something more nearly approaching a hierarchy of spiritual beings organized into a kind of court with one Supreme Being over all. ¹⁸

Stephen Langdon’s ‘Semitic Mythology’, in 1931, also propounded the view that monotheism preceded polytheism (contrary to then popular/ established belief). He made his point very clearly:

  In my opinion the history of the oldest civilization of man is a rapid decline from monotheism to extreme polytheism and widespread belief in evil spirits. It is in a very true sense the history of the fall of man. ¹⁹

He further states that the history of Sumerian religion, which was the most powerful cultural influence in the ancient world, could be traced by means of photographic inscriptions almost to the earliest religious concepts of man. The evidence points unmistakably to an original monotheism, the inscriptions and literary remains of the oldest Semitic peoples also indicate a primitive monotheism, and the totemistic origin of Hebrew and other Semitic religions is now entirely discredited. ²⁰

Emergence of Ancient Mythology from Monotheism

Max Muller, a German scholar wrote in ‘Lectures on the Science of Language’ published in 1875:

  Mythology, which was the bane of the ancient world, is in truth a disease of language. A myth means a word, but a word which, from being a name or an attribute, has been allowed to assume a more substantial existence. Most of the Greek, the Roman, the Indian, and other heathen Gods are nothing but poetical names, which were gradually allowed to assume divine personality never contemplated by their original inventors. … Eos was the name of dawn before she became a Goddess, the wife of Tithonos, or the dying day. Fatum, or Fate, meant originally what had been spoken; and before Fate became a power, even greater than Jupiter, it meant that which had once been spoken by Jupiter, and could never be changed - not even by Jupiter himself. … Zeus originally meant the bright heaven, in Sanskrit Dyaus; and many of the stories told of him as the supreme God, had a meaning only as told originally of the bright heaven, the Danae of old, kept by her father in the dark prison of winter... ²¹

In another book, ‘History of Sanskrit Literature’, Max Mueller wrote:

  There is a monotheism that precedes the polytheism of the Veda; and even in the invocation of the innumerable Gods the remembrance of a God, one and infinite, breaks through the mist of idolatrous phraseology like the blue sky that is hidden by passing clouds. ²²

Ethical monotheism, the belief of ethical norms along with the worship of one God, has also influenced the man-made ethical systems through the revealed religions. It is not unrealistic exaggeration to claim that every ancient civilization has found roots in revealed religions’ monistic message that prophets have brought to the human beings and culminated to the

Muhammad whereas any shade of polytheism is a reflection of lesser human wisdom, based on his imagination and a corruption to the true faith. Any misrepresentation or concealing facts in the history books on civilization, as they commonly speak, must be studied as half or incomplete truth that deserve to be written with the perfect contribution of revealed message.

So far, we have established the claim that the history of ancient civilization was not atheistic or merely materialistic as the books portray, instead there was a lot from revealed religion that has not been recorded.

Standards to Judge the Status of a Civilization

Now we move towards finding out the criteria to judge the status of any civilization. Knowledge and its articulation in the form of science & technology, architecture, military skills, agriculture and commerce, are the common ingredients that a historian generally examines any ancient civilization with. Nature of knowledge and its basics, ultimately revolve around the material gains or this worldliness, while the conceptions of development and progress (the advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension will continue to result, in an improved human condition) are measured as the outcomes of the specific forms of knowledge. Revealed religions, especially Islam, along with the universal conception of knowledge, build up their huge buildings of civilization outlining the features of knowledge around God and the afterworld. Islamic scholars have composed pile of books on the definition, scope and its application on different spheres of life like Al-Ghazali who sought to discuss different types of knowledge (sciences), good and bad sciences and their implications. Basic substantive guidelines, Ghazali formulates, to distinguish among sciences, along with the excellence of learning from religious sources, based on the learning outcome of concentrating on the hereafter and submission to Almighty. Economic prosperity and affluence never remained the primary objective for any establishment of the states by prophets like Solomon and Joseph , though they were wider in territory and might.

Prophet Solomon , son of Prophet David , was bestowed upon with many God-given gifts, including the ability to speak to animals, unique wisdom and rule over jinn even the wind was made subservient to him. He always remained faithful and thankful to a one and only God throughout his life and reigned justly, was blessed with a level of Kingship which was given to none after and before him. He spread the message of Allah wherever he went. It is mentioned in the Holy Quran that Prophet Solomon sent a letter to the people of Sheba who worshipped the sun. The letter stated: In the name of Allah the Compassionate the Merciful, I warned you to stop worshiping the sun, and accept Allah as the only Lord, with Sulayman (Solomon) as His

. Eventually the Queen came to the Prophet , announcing submission to God. Prophet Solomon fulfilled all of the Divine’s commandments and was promised nearness to God in Paradise at the end of his life. Historians regarded him as one of the greatest rulers around the world.

Another classic example from the history of prophets (kings), is Prophet Joseph who suffered from various hardships through his siblings, king and others. He had to live in prison for many years where he availed the chance of conveying the message of

to his prison-mates. He manifested his ability of interpreting dreams and informed them that this was a special power given to him by Allah before he did so, however, he explained to them how senseless it was to believe in various Gods and explained to them about the Oneness of Allah and the Day of Resurrection. After facing a number of tests, Prophet Joseph became the head of the entire state that brought the people of Egypt under his rule, and experienced the abundance of wealth and agricultural production. However, this doesn’t mean that he ignored the real message of Allah as he would always ask his people to submit to God Almighty with gratitude and perform all prescribed formal prayers.

Citing the above-mentioned examples, we regret that the description of prophets’ land (especially Egypt) is largely unrecorded and it is not easy to find the details of the great civilizations that remained under the fold of Allah’s message. However, few significant traces are fitly mentioned in the sacred Book, Quran that might provide a better idea how a real civilization should be. We have number of examples of other affluent societies, which arrogantly avoided submission to the Lord of everything and claimed autonomy from the real authority like the people of ‘Aad and Thamud. Prophets were sent in order to guide its people back to the righteous path of God. The citizens continued in their idolatrous ways and Allah destroyed their city in a great storm. It is mentioned:

  أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِعَادٍ 6 إِرَمَ ذَاتِ الْعِمَادِ 7 الَّتِي لَمْ يُخْلَقْ مِثْلُهَا فِي الْبِلَادِ 8 وَثَمُودَ الَّذِينَ جَابُوا الصَّخْرَ بِالْوَادِ 9 وَفِرْعَوْنَ ذِي الْأَوْتَادِ 10 الَّذِينَ طَغَوْا فِي الْبِلَادِ 11 فَأَكْثَرُوا فِيهَا الْفَسَادَ 12 فَصَبَّ عَلَيْهِمْ رَبُّكَ سَوْطَ عَذَابٍ 13 ²³

  Did you not see how did your Lord deal with (the tribe of) Aad? (And) the tall giants of Iram? Like whom no one else was born in the cities. And the tribe of Thamud, who hewed rocks in the valley. And with Firaun, who used to crucify. Those who rebelled in the cities, and who then spread a lot of turmoil in them. Therefore, your Lord struck them hard with the means of punishment.

Economic affluence is one of the innumerable divine bounties that must be responded with submission, humility and gratitude to God Almighty, so is with other material strengths. Luxuries and prosperity, tall lofty buildings and technical skills, fertility and agriculture, commerce and trade are the secondary aspects of any mighty civilization, actually based on the conception of knowledge that must bring the man closer to the submission before Almighty, the primary feature of a great civilization. The truest book of all, Quran endorses the fact.

Today’s Western Civilization

Adornment of this world, idea of progress, through being centered on this worldliness misguided the people from the sole purpose of life which was provided by the divinely revealed religions. Currently the most dominant western civilization, in all domains of knowledge and power that mainly founded on Greco-Roman tradition, sees the conception of progress very important since centuries with the five crucial premises, sociologist Robert Nisbet mentions:

1. value of the past
2. nobility of Western civilization
3. worth of economic/technological growth
4. faith in reason and scientific/scholarly knowledge obtained through reason
5. intrinsic importance and worth of life on earth

Western philosophy sees the notion of progress differently. Plato understands the humanity's progress from a state of nature to the higher levels of culture, economy, and polity. ²⁴ During the Renaissance period, the methodology of science shifted from Aristotelian work towards an empirical view. This changed the view about nature in general and scientific advance, which opened the gates for technical and economic advance. Furthermore, the man dreamt to be God-like, paving the way for a view of Man based on unlimited perfection and progress. Enlightenment historian and philosopher Voltaire coupled the idea of progress with rationalism and saw the science and reason as the driving forces behind societal advancement. Kant sees the passage of progress from barbarism through civilization toward enlightened culture, the abolition of war, international commerce and enlightened self-interest.

The western idea of progress changed the glance from the medieval rationality to the secularization of society, and a reworking of ideas from ancient Greece. This vital ideological shift paved the way to the establishment of paradise on earth where man is gradually heading. This unjust shift undermined the social and normative structure of Christianity in the west and the religion in the world whereas the religious intelligentsia struggled to defend their position through apologetic interpretation of religious text. Most importantly, the idea of success and progress stood upside down in reshaping the walls of modern civilization.

Conception of Progress in Islam

Here we present the conception of progress in

that and Sunnah of the Prophet offer. In an authentic hadith, the best people are defined as those who belong to the Prophet’s generation and the status gradually declined among the generations more distant from the ‘Golden age’. The narration says:

  خير الناس قرني، ثم الذين يلونهم، ثم الذين يلونهم، ثم يجيء أقوام تسبق شهادة أحدهم يمينه، ويمينه شهادته. ²⁵

  The Prophet Muhammad said: The best people are those of my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them. Then, there will come people after them whose testimony precedes their oaths and their oaths precede their testimony.

In other words, the best generations in Islam are:

1. The first generation – the
   Prophet
   Muhammad and his Companions.
2. The second generation – those who followed the first generation (known as the Taabi'een).
3. The third generation – those who followed the Taabi'een (known as Taabi' ut-Taabi'een)

The most precious, blessed, significant and ‘golden time’ was the time when Prophet Muhammad was physically present with his companions, followed by second and third generations and the generations after the third one gradually declined in status related to the association with the Prophet . It is evident that the best civilization, society, culture and the people were, living in the most companionship of the Prophet Muhammad . Madinah was the first city where principles of a genuine civilization are manifested and must be followed everywhere. Some of them are as under:

1. Establishing the connection of Muslims with Almighty Allah through formal prayers.
2. Establishing social and moral laws that connected the Muslims in the bonds of Brotherhood.
3. Establishing laws defining relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims.
4. Establishing Sustainable urban infrastructure and ties with neighborhood.
5. Establishing the social and economic facilities (Marketplace, Streets and Roads, Public Utilities...etc.)
6. Establishing the proper army to defend the state.

The basic function of any society is to establish those means and resources that could support men to bow before

with no obstacles or hindrance while all the rest (economy, military, social infrastructure) are maintained to serve this purpose. 7th and 8th centuries witnessed the height of human ideas then, under the fold of faith and love for the Prophet Muhammad , along with political developments. Great centers of religious learning were also centers of knowledge and scientific development. Science developed in Muslim world roughly between 786 A.D. and 1258 A.D. that encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especially astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. Other subjects of scientific inquiry included alchemy and chemistry, botany and agronomy, geography and cartography, ophthalmology, pharmacology, physics, and zoology.

Among the disciplines of human sciences, the study of history held a particular fascination for Muslims imbued with a sense of mission so they recorded not only their own history but also that of others. They also added insight to facts and gave to events, people, and places a philosophical dimension expressed in the universal history written by Al-Tabari of Baghdad (838-923 A.D.). In the introduction to his multi-volume work, he devoted an entire volume to the science of history and its implications. Like Al-Tabari several other Muslim historians including Ibn-e-Khaladun, Ibn-e-Kathir, Ibn-e-Asakir etc. also wrote an authoritative text on the history of prophets and kings which continues to be a most comprehensive record of the period from Abraham to the tenth century. Muslims not only preserved the positive heritage of the ancient world but codified, systematized, explained, criticized, modified, and, finally built on solid foundations.

 

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• ³ Bertrand Russell (2008), The Problems of Philosophy, Arc Manor, Maryland, USA, Pg. 52.
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• ¹⁰ Holy Quran, Al-Hujurat (The Chambers) 49: 13
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• ¹³ Holy Quran, Fatir (The Maker) 35: 24
• ¹⁴ Holy Quran, An-Nahl (The Bee) 16: 36
• ¹⁵ Holy Quran, Bani Israel (The Descendants of Israel) 17: 15
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• ²³ Holy Quran, Al-Fajr (The Dawn) 89: 6-13
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