ISLAM AND THE WORLD SUMMARY
CHAPTER 1: THE WORLD BEFORE THE ADVENT OF ISLAM
Key points from this chapter:
The world was in a state of moral depravity before Islam
Poverty was very high amongst the general population due to exploitative economic systems
Leaders lacked wisdom and only sought a life of ease and luxury whilst ignoring those they ruled over
Map of the 5th century Pre-Islamic World – Princeton University
In the first chapter, the author highlights the bleak state of the world in the centuries leading up to the advent of Islam. The summary of the first chapter will be broken into three parts; the first will discuss the moral depravity of the Pre-Islamic World, the second will discuss the effect of exploitative economic systems on society, and the third will discuss the lack of wise leadership. All these issues highlight how the advent of Islam was a source of hope for the 7th-century world as it reformed the pre-modern world’s socio-political landscape.
The world in the Pre-Islamic Era lost its morality and slowly began shifting away from the moral principles that existed in earlier centuries. This view of the author is supported by the fact that after the councils of Nicaea, Chalcedon and Constantinople had codified the trinity, the empire’s focus shifted away from religion, and materialism took over. Edward Gibbon says, “Rome, around the close of the 6th century, had reached the lowest period of her depression” and the “lofty tree under whose shade the nations of the world had reposed was deprived of its trees and branches and the sapless trunk was left to wither on the ground.1 The Empire had lost its morality, with practices such as fornication, adultery and many other immoral actions becoming very common. However, this was not limited to the Byzantine Empire but also their Persian Counterparts in the East. The author correctly notes that the Sassanid Persians were even lower in their immorality with things like ‘conjugal arrangements, which were considered unlawful or undesirable in other parts of the world, “were not considered undesirable and unlawful in Persia”2. To further highlight Persia’s immorality, Professor Arthur Christensen says, “the Iranians found nothing repugnant in incestuous connections”3 Indeed, in other parts of the world, these immoral acts were not done as publicly as in Persia, so it is fair to say that Persia was the worst in its immorality. Their worship of fire catalysed these practices as this religion offered no ethical maxims by which a person should live. The author then mentions India, which was similar to Persia and Byzantium in its moral decadence. They deified naked women, and priests abused their power to fulfil their lustful desires. They also defied anything they could not understand, leading to the existence of 330 million gods in India. This, similar to Sassanid Persia, meant that there were no ethical or moral guidelines. The Arabs were also a people who had lost their former sense of morality in recent centuries. Like the aforementioned regions, adultery was common, with great importance given to maintaining brothels in the Arabian Peninsula. Other practices, such as drinking, gambling and burying their daughters alive, sunk the Arabs into further moral depravity. The Jews were one group which had retained some of their former spirituality but were not in any position to influence others as they were wanderers who were persecuted in many parts of the world. Therefore, this shows that all four corners of the world were clouded with a great deal of immorality, and only the birth of a new religion like Islam could give hope to a dying world.
The world’s failing economic systems hugely impacted society, with the poor suffering the most. In Byzantium, the lower classes lived in extreme poverty. Byzantine rule in places like Egypt and Syria did nothing to improve the lives of the citizens; their only aim was to exploit the working class to benefit the aristocrats. He uses the writings of Briffault to support his ideas. Briffault says, “the Roman Empire was, as we have seen, a device for the enrichment of a small class of people by the exploitation of mankind.”4 Dr Alfred Butler also speaks about Roman Rule in Egypt only benefitting the rulers and that there were no efforts to improve the lives of the governed. The people of Syria had to pay 1/10th of their income or produce in tax. This was separate from other taxes, such as the principal and capitation taxes. A similar situation existed in Persia, where taxes were extremely high. War campaigns were funded by levying higher taxes on the poor. The lower classes could not find jobs and were never recruited into the government by the Sassanids. This bred severe inequality in Persia. Professor Arthur Christensen says that “there was an unbridgeable gap between the classes of society. Common people were prohibited by law from purchasing the property of the privileged classes. It was a standing feature of Sassanid rule that no one should aspire for a rank higher than what he was entitled to by birth. No one could adopt a profession in which he had not been born…Social distinctions were rigidly enforced. Everyone had a fixed place in society.” 5 This shows that the economic system in Persia too was implemented to benefit the rulers at the expense of the ruled. In India, there was severe inequality, with the population being split into four classes. The highest (Brahmans) had the highest authority, and no one could compare with them in the slightest. They were allowed to acquire the property of the lower class forcefully. The lowest class (Sudras) were seen as worse than animals. Therefore, this again shows that the economic systems of all four corners of the world were highly exploitative. These economic systems contributed towards a greater global shift towards materialism as the wealthy only sought to amass more wealth, and the poor sought to look for any means to survive. To summarise, there was no opportunity for those of lower classes to climb up in society. It was only when Islam came about that this system was challenged, which again shows that Islam was a source of hope for the world and rescued it from what seemed like a terminal decline.
Another problem in the Pre-Islamic World was the lack of wise leadership which was very much tied to the aforementioned two problems. The Pre-Islamic World was full of self-centric rulers who did not try to implement any systems that significantly improved the world. Although some are remembered for certain things, such as their military feats, little to none are remembered as great statesmen. The world was in an age where expansion was promoted so this was a significant focus of rulers as was their focus on securing their rule by eliminating threats. However, the leaders did not seek to improve the lives of those they governed over. The further lack of strong leadership is seen by the fact that they tried to amass as much wealth as possible. Although the author gives a greater focus on Sassanid rulers in this regard, it is helpful to note the extravagance of Byzantine rulers to help understand the state of the entire world. The rulers in Byzantium were more concerned with how they looked in public and strived not to be outshone by anyone. In Persia, the rulers believed that accumulating vast amounts of wealth was their duty. This is illustrated by the fact that Khusrau II had 800 million Mithqal of gold by the end of his reign, and his crown was made of 120lb of solid gold. The author takes from Shah Waliyyullah Dehlawi, who says, “luxuries had enlarged themselves into necessities of life.”6 This lack of wise leadership led to exploitative economic systems in which the rulers exploited the ruled to their own benefit. Another example of this is the fact that the produce of the Armenian Gold Mines was directly given to the Persian Emperor. Instead of using this extraordinary wealth to fund a welfare state and improve the lives of the governed as done by leaders such as Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (May Allah The Almighty be pleased with him), they sought to improve their own lives which again shows the bleak state of the Pre-Islamic World. This once again illustrates the idea that Islam and the wise leaders it brought forth, who challenged all of these systems, was indeed a source of hope for the world.
To conclude, the first chapter makes it clear that the world was going through a very dark phase. The advent of Islam was necessary to rescue the world from its seemingly terminal decline, and without Islam, the world as we know it today would not have been possible.