[GarryPaterson]

Decline of Muslims: Nothing to do with ‘neglect’ of Science and Technology
Submitted by admin6 on 2 November 2011 - 5:41pm

Articles
Indian Muslim

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net,

Over 150 years after the First War of Independence in 1857, almost 90 years after the fall of Khilafat in Turkey, about 65 years after the partition of the Indian sub-continent and two decades after the collapse of another great power-the Communist Soviet Union-should the Muslims interpret history in the same old way today in 2011, as they had been doing in the past?

Unfortunately, many Muslim intellectuals the world over, are doing the same. Be it during the time of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan or the era of Saiyid Hamid, the community leaders had been blaming the neglect of science and technology as the factor responsible for their decline. The recent book Muslim Societies: Rise and Fall by Dr. Mohammad Iqtedar Husain Farooqi provides another opportunity to re-visit history.

TwoCircles.net recently published one of the chapters of that book in which the author tried to explain that the utter disregard shown to science and technology led to the decline of Muslims. To substantiate his point, he quoted several Muslim scholars, reformers, educationists and leaders.

The truth is that the fall of any great power has little, or one can go on to the extent of saying, nothing, to do with the neglect of science and technology. This assertion may sound somewhat blasphemous, nevertheless it is a historical fact which Muslims keep denying.

If in the last 150 to 200 years, various Muslim scholars have been blaming the negligence of science and technology as the factor behind the decline of the community because they witnessed the rout of Mughals at the hands of British; the collapse of Ottoman Khilafat in Turkey–obviously under the huge western impact. As if that was not enough, came the traumatic partition of India for which the community leaders, are no less responsible than others.

But the matter of concern is that Muslim intelligentsia of 21st century are parroting the same old view, when there is absolutely no scope for it now. They need to be asked one very simple question: Why the Great Communist Empire of Soviet Union collapsed in matter of months in 1989-90, when it was scientifically, technologically, educationally and even militarily the most advance country in the world–perhaps only second to the United States. The school enrollment was among highest in the world, in science it was almost on par with the United States and in the space science it had an initial edge over Uncle Sam, the country was a Super Power whose influence ran large over the world.

Not only the Soviet Union got dismembered, all those countries which followed the Russian-brand Communist ideology withered away. Several of them now do not even exist. Herein lies the crux of the problem. The fall of Mughals and Ottomans had demoralized the leading lights of the Muslims so much that their community leaders lost the very understanding of history. It was out of sheer frustration, hopelessness and despondency that they started blaming the negligence of science and technology from 15th century–or some say 16th century–as the factor responsible for their fall from grace.

Muslim leaders are not aware that in 18th century Tipu’s army fired rockets and in 1857 Akbar Khan of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s army even attempted to fire projectiles to counter the British in Delhi. They are not aware that till early 19th century, the first thing many allopath doctors from Europe would do after reaching India, was to abandon their pathy and switch over to much advanced Unani medicine practiced mostly by Muslims.

The problem with history is that it is written and interpreted in many ways. The historic interpretation made of an event by a victorious nation would be entirely different from those of defeated one. And then there is official history. Finally there is objective history often written much later keeping in mind all the aspects into mind.

The objective truth, which can be ascertained from any real historical research–not the stories and fables on which many of our intellectuals make our argument–is that till 18th century Mughal India and Ottoman Turks were scientifically and technologically superior to their European counterparts. It was not with lathis and swords, that the Turks reached Vienna in the heart of Europe by 1683. And it was not with spears and bows and arrows that the same Ottomans in the First World War (1915-16) single-handedly defeated Admiral Winston Churchill-led mammoth combined army of Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada at Gallipoli leaving over one lakh Allied soldiers dead.

The British took the help of huge amount of armed personnel from British India too. Coming back to Indian context one needs to understand that Mughal India was a great manufacturing as well as agricultural country, and the products of the Indian loom supplied the markets of Asia and Europe. This happened till 19th century. To say that Mughals or Ottomans simply collapsed because they neglected science and technology is travesty of history.

The truth is that great powers often collapse after reaching the pinnacle of their glory. It takes much time and labor to reach at the top of a mountain, but no time to fall down. In fact Mughals and Ottomans took much longer time than Soviet Union, which collapsed like a house of cards. A huge majority of those born after 1990 are not even aware that till 20 years back it was a great power. Hardly anyone now knows the name of, for example, Nobel Laureate Andrei Sakharov, the greatest Physicist of his time and the Father of Russian Hydrogen Bomb, who died only in 1989.

If the contributions of the entire Russian science can be forgotten and buried deep into the history in no time, how can one expect demoralized Muslims of post-1857 era to know their own scientific achievements of early 19th century? It was in the interest of the official British or European historians to propagate to the world that the Muslims collapsed because they ignored science and technology. It is only objective historians of that time and even today, who highlighted that Muslims were intellectually still in much advanced state even as late as mid-19th century.

If Soviet Union collapsed, it was because the commitment to the Communist ideology and the post-World War-II Russian nationalism got weakened. The machinery, including the institution of Army became corrupt. As a political ideology Communism failed to attract people.

Similarly, if the Mughals or Ottomans failed it was not just because the rulers got weakened but because the entire ruling elite became corrupt, dishonest, pleasure-loving and even licentious. The society, notwithstanding some great qualities, became stagnant. The ruling clique––or even for that matter the Muslims in general––had nothing good or positive to offer to the humanity in general. There was no motivating factor to keep the people united for any cause.

The concept of equality, justice and peace taught in Islam was seldom found among Muslims. Instead of teaching the world the moral values, they indulged in all sorts of social crimes. The ruling class, all over the country, was completely divided paving the way for the British to just make an inroad, without fighting any real big battle.

If the United States would cease to remain the world power in future–as is being predicted by many western writers themselves–it would not be because it is ignoring science and technology. In fact it would collapse because of too much development in science and technology. The Information Technology Revolution is proving a boon as well as bane for it as millions of jobs have been outsourced to people outside rendering huge army of jobless in the country.

The truth is that be it the Mughals or Ottomans–or any other powers–they lost because they failed to understand history, the changing politics, economics and sociology of the world rather than ignoring science and technology. Between 1707, that is after the death of Aurangzeb till 1757, that is Battle of Plassey, India was literally without any central power. The British literally lost the 1757 Battle but then they took the help of treachery to get rid of Siraj-ud-daulah. After that they just got a cakewalk in North and East India as they took full advantage of the growing disunity in the rank and file of the ruling elite here. It was after the conquest of parts of India that the British started growing rich and subsequently became a big scientific, technological and industrial power in 19th century.

It is after 1857 that the defeated Muslim community got divided–one took to pure religious education while the other started talking about modern scientific education. Before the mid-19th century Muslims, in general, would not make such distinction. Muslims intellectuals who love to write the same old platitudes on the fall of community should at least read Colonel William Sleeman’s work written not now, but just before 1857. He wrote that the Muslims of India were intellectually the most well-read community of the world. They would not make any distinction in imparting education to anyone, rich or poor.

William Dalrymple in The Last Mughal (2006) quoted him extensively: “Even Colonel William Sleeman, famous for his suppression of thugs and leading critic of the administration of Indian courts had to admit that the madarsa education given in Delhi was something quite remarkable: ‘Perhaps there are a few communities in the world among whom education is more generally diffused than among Mohammadans in India,’ he wrote on a visit to Mughal capital.”

Sleeman writes further about Muslims zeal for education––modern as well as religious. Regarding average Muslim he writes: “He holds an office worth twenty rupees a month, commonly gives his sons; an education equal to that of a Prime Minister. They learn through the medium of Arabic and Persian languages. What young men in our colleges learn through those of Greek plus Latin––that is, grammar, rhetoric and logic. After his seven years of study the young Mohammadans binds his turban upon a head almost as well filled with things which appertain to these branches of knowledge. As the young man raw from Oxford––he will talk as fluently about Socrates and Aristotle, Plato and Hippocrates, Galen and Avicena; and what is much to his advantage in India the languages in which he has learnt what he knows are those which he most requires through life.”

Mind it this was the time in mid-19th century when Italian and German Unifications were going on. Some nationalists tried to unite Italy into one. They gave the country the name Italia. But the people were so ignorant and illiterate that they thought that Italia was the name of some Princess or Queen. A couple of decades later these two countries emerged as colonial powers. Similarly, the French society was so illiterate at the time of 1789 Revolution that the revolutionaries had to take help of photos and symbols instead of written posters as the people in general were not able to read and write.

That was the time when Tipu Sultan got developed rocket technology. But his army failed to defeat the British because this brave man was betrayed. Similarly, the Mughals lost in 1857 because their army had not fought any real battle for last one century. Not only the rulers but the entire machinery had become soft and immoral.

If Muslims really want to understand the root of their defeat they must abandon the old interpretation and re-visit history. Great powers often collapse to scientifically and militarily inferior but emerging powers. The victors often have other good qualities, such as, they are far more motivated, and have sense of purpose and certain goal to achieve. They become scientific, technological and military power much later. The vanquished, be it the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, the Chinese, or even the Muslims, all sank into oblivion because of common inherent deficiencies.

The social awakening in Europe in 17th, 18th and 19th centuries helped overthrew the corrupt and weak ancient regimes of the respective countries. That did not happen in Turkey or Mughal India where the old order got eroded and collapsed on its own thus paving the way for the entry of bystanders.

The need of the hour for Muslims is to understand history–not just read it as story book. After all when the same ignorant Arabs got motivated by the Universal message of Islam they became world power in no time. Years later the same Arabs became scientists, navigators, geographers, philosophers, sociologists, physicians, physicists, chemists, mathematicians and what not.

http://twocircles.net/2011nov02/decl...echnology.html

[ClapekDodki]

The examples of decline mentioned here is more related to the decline of TAQWA rather than 'technology'. With Taqwa Allah Ta'ala will bless the Mumineen with all sorts of Barakah that includes technology. We shouldn't be Materialistic like the kuffar and attribute 'wins' and 'lose' to technology. If a person is in the right path then Allah will provide him with intellect of technology and similar things.

P.s. This is not against technology. Yes we need to concentrate on developing technology also. But to attribute the decline of Muslims solely to lack of scientific skills is idiotic and delusional because victory comes from ALLAH alone, so if Allah is on our side, everything else will fall into place with the permission of Allah.

[ClapekDodki]

Rasoolullah prophesized the decline of Muslims, can you please specify the reasons our beloved Prophet mentioned. Was technology one of them?

[rolex-buy]

Rasoolullah prophesized the decline of Muslims, can you please specify the reasons our beloved Prophet mentioned. Was technology one of them?

aoa,
thumbs up.

[wpFWNoIt]

History moves in cycles so Muslim history always had periods of decline and periods of renewal. It is the first time however that millions of Muslims globally live without a leader. The decline had many factors usually it is the death of the heart...spiritually Muslims had become complacent and comfortable...and when the Europeans brought their new techniques of organization and technology the Muslims became wonder struck by it...If Muslims want to regain power they need to implement the deen:

1) Ibaadat (salaat, zakat, haj etc.)
2) Muamalat (Islamic trade, contracts, currency and leadership etc.)