GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION
"Thus We have appointed you
as a middle nation, that you may be witnesses upon mankind."
{Holy Qur'an, 11:43}
Islam was destined to become a world religion and to create a civilization whiched streched from one end of the globe to the other. Already during the early Muslim caliphates (Khalif), first the Arabs, then the persians and later the Turks set about to create classical Islamic civilization and soon thereafterMuslim kingdoms were established in the Maylay Indonesian world while Chinese Muslims flurished throughout China.
Islam is a religion for all people from whatever race
or background they might be.
That is why Islamic civilization is based on a unity
which stands completely againts any racial or ethnic discrimination. Such
major racial and ethnic groups as the Arabs, then the Persians, Turks,
Africans, Indians, Chinese and Maylays in addition to numerous smaller
units embraced Islam and contributed to the building of Islamic civilization.
Moreover, Islam was not apposed to learning from the earliercivilizations
and incorporating their science, learning, and culture into its own world
view, as long as they did not oppose the principles of Islam. Each ethnic
and racial group which embracedIslam made its contribution to the one Islamic
civilization to which everyone belonged. The sense of brotherhood and sisterhood
was so much emphasized that it overcame all local attachments to a particular
tribe, race, or language-all of which became subservient to the universal
brotherhood and sisterhood of Islam.
The global civilization thus created by Islam permitted people of diverse ethnic backgrounds to work together in cultivation various arts and sciences. Although the civilization was profoundly Islamic, even non-Muslim "people of the book" participated in the intellectual activity whose fruits belonged to everyone. The scientific climate was remeniscent of the present situation in America where scientists and men and women of learning from all over the world are active in the advancement of knowledge which belongs to everyone.
The global civilization created by Islam also succeeded in activating the mind and thought of the people who entered its fold. As a result of Islam, the nomadic Arabs became torch-bearers of science and learning. The Persians who had created a great civilization before the rise of Islam nevertheless produced much more science and learning in the Islamic period than before. The same can be said of the Turks and other peoples who embraced Islam. The religion of Islam was itself responsible not only for the creation of a world civilization in which people of many different ethnic backgrounds participated, but it played a central role in developing intellectual and cultural life on a scale not seen before. For some 800 years Arabic remained the major intellectual and scientific language of the world. During the centuries following the rise of Islam, Muslim Dynasties ruling in various parts of the Islamic world bore witness to the flowering of Islamic culture and thought. In fact this tradition of intellectual activity was eclipsed only at the beginning of modern times as a result of the weakening of faith among Muslims combined with external domination. And today this activity has begun anew in many parts of the Islamic world now that the Muslims have regained their political independence.
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