Does Islamic History Mean Islam?

Osoul Global Center

The rise of a major civilization, such as that of the United States, around 50 million peaceful individuals, at the most conservative estimates, met ghastly death. 

By contrast, the rise of Islamic civilization involved battles that resulted in the deaths of around 3,000 people, at the highest estimates, and all of them were military personnel

When civilizations are compared, we find people often compare the United States with the former Soviet Union, or China with Japan, or the Old Persian Empire with the Byzantine Empire. But what do they compare Islam with? They simply compare it to a perceived Utopia that has no presence except in their own imagination.

Two points need to be borne in mind when we consider the relationship between Islam as a faith and Islamic history as the product of human action. 

The first is that when we compare Islamic history with the history of other civilizations, we are bound to conclude that the history of Islam shows to be in the lead of human progress and the least aggressive towards other nations and communities. 

Here is a link to a study prepared by Naveed S. Sheikh of the University of Louisville in the United States: 


http://docslide.us/documents/b...


https://goo.gl/QJNL5N 

The study asks: which religions and civilizations caused the killing of the largest number of human beings? It then gives the following answer

Christians: 177,941,750 30.73%

Atheists: 125,287,500 21.64%

Chinese: 107,923,750 18.64%

Buddhists: 87,946,750 15.19%

Primitive societies 45,561,000 7.87%

Muslims: 31,943,500 5.52%

Hindus: 2,389,250 0.41%.

Secondly, Islam is a well preserved religion that lays down clear principles which, when followed, bring happiness to individuals and communities. When these are abandoned, all will suffer. Islamic history represents this truism in both parts, not only the first.

Deviation in various forms occurred in different stages of the history of the Muslim community, but Islam is the first to denounce such deviation in all forms. In this we find Islam at variance with distorted religions and man-made creeds that condone ill behaviour by their followers, and are always ready to bless it with false justification.

To cite deviations that occurred in different periods of Islamic history as evidence of the non-workability of the Islamic system is the same as claiming that all rules of architecture are false on the basis of the collapse of a building constructed by an unqualified architect.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) addressed his army as it prepared to march, saying: ‘People, I urge you to observe ten rules and keep them in mind: Do not commit any treason; do not take what does not belong to you; do not cheat. You must not disfigure anyone’s body, or kill a child, a woman or an elderly person. You must not destroy or burn any date tree, or cut any fruit tree. Do not slaughter a sheep or a camel except for food. You shall pass by people who live in hermitages where they concentrate on worship. Leave them alone’. 

Bearing these clear rules in mind, suppose that a Muslim soldier kills a child or a woman during a battle, can we blame the one who issued these orders simply because they were unheeded?

We note that there is a continuous effort that seeks to pick up individual cases from the history of the Islamic civilization during its period of strength and try to distort its image, yet it remains the purest major civilization the world has known. I wonder: is this an attempt to justify today’s atrocities against Muslims at their time of weakness?

I leave the answer to you.