5. FACTORS LEADING TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE ISLAMIC STATE.
For all the immense strength and extensive empire, the factors of disintegration began to infiltrate the very fibre of this Qur’anic nation Gradually becoming more serious, widespread and powerful, until they rent this fabric apart and brought the centralised Islamic state to an end in the sixth century after the Hijrah (the thirteenth century AD.) at the hands of the Tartars. In the fourteenth century after Hijrah (the twentieth century AD.) they did this a second time, leaving in their wake on both occasions disunited nations and small states aspiring toward unity and striving for resurgence. The most significant of these (disintegrating) factors were the following
a) Political differences, partisanship, and struggle for supremacy and prestige, despite the strict prohibition against this in Islam, which calls for indifference with respect to positions of power and being attracted to it, which is like a cancer within nations and the death blow for it’s people:
‘And contend not with one another, so that you become weak and your strength depart, and persevere, for Allah is with those who persevere.’
(Surat-al-Anfaal (8), ayah 46)
and despite the profound exhortations to remain faithful to Allah alone in speech and act, and to flee love of fame and praise.
b) Differences in religion and schools of thought, and turning away from religion in both beliefs and actions leading to dead works endowed with no spirit or life, accompanied by negligence towards Allah’s Book and the Sunnah of the Apostle (PBUH) Leading to stagnation, fanaticism in thought and word, and a passion for disputation, controversy, and wrangling, All these were among the things Islam had warned against and forbidden most rigorously, so that the Apostle (PBUH) said:
‘No people have ever fallen into error after receiving guidance except by falling into disputes.’
c) Self indulgence in luxuries and comforts, and craving for pleasure and sensual joys to the point that what has been recorded of Muslim rulers in many periods goes beyond anything recorded of others, and this despite what they read in of the Words of Allah (PBUH):
‘And when We wish to destroy a city, We issue a command to its men of wealth, and they transgress therein, and so the Word against them is justified, and We destroy it utterly.’
(Surat-al-Israa’ (17), ayah 16)
d) The transfer of authority to non Arabs; Persians at one time, at another, the Mamluks, Turks, and others who had never had a taste of genuine Islam, and whose hearts had never been illuminated with the light of the Qur’an because of the difficulty they encountered in trying to grasp its concepts, even though they read the Words of Allah (SWT):
‘O ye who believe! Do not take as confidants those who are not of you; they will not fail to cast disorder among you; they are pleased by what troubles you. Hatred has been revealed out of their mouths; what their hearts conceal is yet greater. We have made the signs clear to you, if you would but understand.’
(Surat-aal-Imran (3), ayah 118)
e) Indifference to the applied and natural sciences, all the while wasting time and loosing energy on abstruse, speculative philosophies and unhealthy, imaginary pseudo sciences, despite Islam’s urging them to consider the universe, to explore the secrets of creation, and to travel about in the earth, for it commands them to contemplate the Kingdom of Allah:
‘Say: “Behold what is in the heavens and the earth.”’
(Surat-Yunus (10), ayah 102)
f) Arrogance of the government regarding it’s authority, self deception as to it’s power, and a failure to look into the social evolution of the nations outside it’s fold, until such nations took the lead in preparation and equipment, eventually taking the Islamic state by surprise. But the Qur’an had commanded them to be alert, and had warned them about the consequences of negligence, regarding the negligent as cattle, nay, even more deluded:
‘For We have surely created for Jahannam many jinn and men, having hearts with which they discern not, having eyes with which they see not, having ears with which they hear not these are like cattle, nay, even more deluded; these are the heedless.’
(Surat-al-A’raaf (7), ayah 179)
g) Self deception through the charms of hostile flatterers, admiration for their actions and their apparent lifestyles, and blind imitation of them in what is harmful rather than beneficial, even though resembling them has been strictly prohibited while remaining different to them, preserving the basic elements of the Islamic Ummah, and warning about the consequences of this imitation are clear cut commands, to which effect the Noble Qur’an says:
‘O ye who believe! If you obey those who disbelieve, they will throw you back upon your heels, and you will be turned into losers.’
(Surat-aal-Imran (3), ayah 149)
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