RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS
GREAT RELIGIONS of the world had spread the light of faith, morals, and learning in the ages past, but every one of these had been rendered a disgrace to its name by the sixth century of the Christian era. Crafty innovators, unscrupulous deceivers, and impious priests and preachers had, over time, so completely distorted the scriptures and disfigured the teachings and commandments of their own religions that it was almost impossible to recall the original shape and content of these religions. Had the founder or the prophet of any one of them returned to earth, he would unquestionably have refused his own religion and denounced its followers as apostates and idolaters. [Source 1]
Judaism
Judaism had, by then, been reduced to an amalgam of dead rituals and sacraments without any spark of life left in it. Also, being a religion that upholds racial superiority, it has never had any message for other nations or for the good of humanity in general.
It had not even remained firmly wedded to its belief in the unity of God (which had once been its distinguishing feature and had raised its adherents to a level higher than that of the followers of ancient polytheistic cults), as commenced by the Prophet Abraham (Peace be upon him) to his sons and grandson Jacob (Peace be upon him). The Jews had, under the influence of their powerful neighbors and conquerors, adopted numerous idolatrous beliefs and practices as acknowledged by modern Jewish authorities:
The thunderings of the prophets against idolatry show, however, that deity cults were deeply rooted in the hearts of the Israelites, and it does not appear to have been thoroughly suppressed until after their return from exile in Babylon. Through mysticism and magic, many polytheistic ideas and customs again found their way among the people, and the Talmud confirms the seduction of idolatrous worship. [2]
The Babylonian Gemara [3] (popular during the sixth century and often even preferred to Torah by the orthodox Jewry) typically illustrates the crudeness of intellectual and religious understanding among sixth century Jews, with its jocular and imprudent remarks about God and many an absurd and outrageous belief and idea; beliefs and ideas which lack not only sensibility but are also inconsistent with the Jewish faith in monotheism.[4]
Christianity
Christianity had fallen prey, in its very infancy, to the misguided fervor of its overzealous evangelists; unwarranted interpretation of its tenets by ignorant church fathers, and iconolatry of its gentile converts to Christianity. The manner in which Trinitarian doctrine came to have the first claim to the Christian dogma by the close of the fourth century has been thus described in the New Catholic Encyclopedia:
It is difficult, in the second half of the 20th century, to offer a clear, objective, and straightforward account of the revelation, doctrinal evolution, and theological elaboration of the mystery of the Trinity. Trinitarian discussion, Roman Catholic as well as others, presents a somewhat unsteady silhouette. Two things have happened. There is a growing recognition among exegetes and biblical theologians, including an increasing number of Roman Catholics, that one should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification. There is also the closely parallel recognition on the part of historians of dogma and systematic theologians that when one does speak of an unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quarter of the 4th century. It was only then that what might be called the definitive Trinitarian dogma ‘one God in three persons’ became thoroughly assimilated into Christian life and thought. [5]
Tracing the origin of pagan customs, rites, festivals, and religious services of the pagans in Christianity, another historian of the Christian church gives a graphic account of the persistent endeavor of early Christians to subsume the idolatrous nations. Rev. James Houston Baxter, Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of St. Andrews, writes in The History of Christianity in the Light of Modern Knowledge:
If paganism had been destroyed, it was less through annihilation than through absorption. Almost all that was pagan was carried over to survive under a Christian name. Deprived of demi-gods and heroes, men easily and half consciously invested a local martyr with their attributes, labeled the local statue with his name, transferring to him the cult and mythology associated with the pagan deity. Before the century was over, the martyr-cult was universal, and a beginning had been made of that imposition of a deified human being between God and man which, on the one hand, had been the consequence of Arianism, and was, on the other, the origin of so much that is typical of medieval piety and practice. Pagan festivals were adopted and renamed by the 4th century CE. Christmas Day, the ancient festival of the sun, was transformed into the birthday of Jesus. [6]
By the sixth century, the antagonism between Christians of Syria, Iraq, and Egypt on the question of the human and divine natures of Christ had set them at one another’s throats. The conflict had virtually turned every Christian seminary, church, and home into a hostile camp, each anathematizing the other and thirsting after its adversary’s blood. ‘Men debated with fury upon shadows or shades of belief and staked their lives on the most immaterial issues’, [7] as if these differences meant a confrontation between two antagonistic religions or nations. The Christians were, thus, neither inclined nor had time to set their own house in order and smother the ever-increasing viciousness in the world for the salvation of humanity.
Zoroastrianism in Iran
In Iran, from the earliest times, the Magi (ancient Persian priests) worshipped four elements [8] (of which fire was the chief object of devotion) in the oratories or fire-temples for which they had evolved a whole mass of intricate rituals and commandments. In actual practice, the popular religion consisted solely of the worship of fire and adorations to Hvare-khshaeta, or the Shining Sun. Certain rituals performed in a place of worship were all that their religion demanded, for, after performing these rites, they were free to live as they desired. There was nothing to distinguish a Magi from an unconscientious, perfidious fellow. [9]
Arthur Christensen writes in L’Iran sous les Sassanides:
It was incumbent on civil servants to offer prayers four times a day to the sun, in addition to fire and water. Separate hymns were prescribed for rising and going to sleep, taking a bath, putting on the sacred cord, eating and drinking, sniffing, hair-dressing, cutting of the nails, excretion, and lighting the candle, which were to be recited on each occasion with the greatest care. It was the duty of the priests to compound, purify, and tend the sacred fire, which was never to be extinguished, nor was water ever allowed to touch fire. No metal was allowed to rust, for metals, too, were hallowed by their religions. [10]
All prayers were performed facing the sacred fire. The last Iranian Emperor, Yazdagird III, once took an oath, saying: ‘I swear by the sun, which is the greatest of all gods’. He had ordered that those who had abjured Christianity to re-enter their original faith should publicly worship the sun in order to prove their sincerity. [11] The principle of dualism, with its two rival spirits of good and evil, had been upheld by the Iranians for so long that it had become a hallmark and symbol of their national creed. They believed that Ormuzd creates everything good, and Ahriman creates all that is bad; these two are perpetually at war, and one or the other gains the upper hand alternately. [12] The Zoroastrian legends described by the historians of religion bear a remarkable resemblance to the hierarchy of gods and goddesses and the fables of Hindu and Greek mythology. [13]
Buddhism and Hinduism
Buddhism, extending from India to Central Asia, had been converted into an idolatrous faith. Whenever the Buddhists traveled, they took the idols of the Buddha with them and installed them in the new location. [14]
Although the entire religious and cultural life of the Buddhists is overshadowed by idolatry, the students of religion have grave doubts whether the Buddha was a nihilist or believed in the existence of God. They are surprised how this religion could at all sustain itself in the absence of any faith or conviction in the Primal Being.
In the sixth century AD, Hinduism had surpassed every other religion in the number of gods and goddesses. During this period, the Hindus worshipped 33 million gods. The tendency to regard everything which could do harm or good as an object of personal devotion was at its height and this was the impetus to stone sculpture with novel motifs of decorative ornamentation. [15]
Describing the religious condition of India during the reign of Harsha (606-648), a little before the time when Islam made its first appearance in Arabia, a Hindu historian, C.V. Vaidya, writes in his History of Medieval Hindu India:
Both Hinduism and Buddhism were equally idolatrous at this time. If anything, Buddhism perhaps beat the former in its intense idolatry. That religion started, indeed, with the denial of God, but ended by making Buddha himself the Supreme God. Later developments of Buddhism introduced additional deities, such as the Bodhisattvas, and the idolatry of Buddhism, particularly in the Mahayana school, was firmly established. Idolatry reached its peak in India until the word ‘Buddha’ became synonymous with the word ‘idol’ in some Eastern languages. [16]
C.V. Vaidya further says:
No doubt idolatry was at this time rampant all over the world. From the Atlantic to the Pacific the world was immersed in idolatry; Christianity, Semitism, Hinduism and Buddhism vying, so to speak, with one another in their adoration of idols.[17]
Another historian of Hinduism expresses the same opinion about the great passion for multiplicity of deities among the Hindus in the sixth century. He writes:
The process of deification did not stop here. Lesser gods and goddesses were added in ever-growing numbers until there was a crowd of deities, many of whom were adopted from the more primitive peoples who were admitted to Hinduism, along with the gods they worshipped. The total number of deities is said to be 33 crores, i.e., 330 million, which, like the phrase “Thy name is legion”, merely implies an innumerable host. [18]
Polytheism in Arabia
The Arabs had been the followers of the Abrahamic religion in the olden times and had the distinction of having the first House of God in their land, but the long stretch of time from the great patriarchs and prophets of yore (Peace be upon them) and their isolation in the arid deserts of the peninsula had given rise to an abominable idolatry closely approximating the Hindu zeal for idol worship in the sixth century AD. They became progressively more idolatrous and made gods beside God, believing them to have a partnership in the governance of the Universe. They believed that their deities possessed the power to do them good or harm, to give them life or death. The people sank into the worst form of idolatry, with each region and every clan, or rather every house, having a separate deity of its own. [19] Three hundred and sixty idols had been installed within the Ka’bah and its courtyard-the house built by Abraham for the worship of the One and only God. The Arabs actually paid divine honors not merely to sculptured idols, but venerated all types of stones and fetishes; angels, jinn, and stars were all considered their deities. They believed that the angels were daughters of God and the jinn His partners in divinity, [20] and thus both enjoyed supernatural powers whose mollification was essential for their well-being.
SOCIAL AND MORAL CONDITIONS
This was the plight of great religions sent by God, from time to time, for the guidance of humanity. In civilized countries, there were powerful governments and great centers of art, culture, and learning, but their religions had become so garbled that nothing of their original spirit and content remained in them.
Nor were there any reformers or heavenly-minded guides of humanity to be found anywhere.
BYZANTINE EMPIRE
Crushed under vexatious and burdensome taxes levied by the Byzantine Empire, [21] the allegiance to any alien ruler was considered by the populace as less oppressive than the rule of Byzantium. Insurrections had become such a common feature that, in 532 AD, public discontent erupted in Constantinople in the Nika (win or conquer) revolt, which cost 30,000 lives. [22] The pastime of the chiefs and nobles was to squeeze wealth, under various pretexts, from the harassed peasantry, and squander it on their pleasure and amusement. Their craze for merriment and revelry very often sank to the depths of hideous savagery.
The authors of Civilization, Past and Present have painted a vivid picture of the contradictory passions of Byzantine society for religious experience, as well as its love of sports and recreation, marked by moral corruption.
Byzantine social life was marked by tremendous contrasts. The religious attitude was deeply ingrained in the popular mind. Asceticism and monasticism were widespread throughout the empire, and to an extraordinary degree, even the most ordinary individual seemed to take a keen interest in the most profound theological discussions, while all people were greatly influenced by a religious mysticism in their daily lives. But, in contrast, the same people were exceptionally fond of all types of amusements. The great Hippodrome, seating 80,000 wide-eyed spectators, was the scene of hotly disputed chariot races which split the entire populace into rival factions of ‘Blue’ and ‘Green’. . . The Byzantines possessed both a love of beauty and a streak of violence and viciousness. Their sports were often bloody and sadistic, their tortures were horrible, and the lives of their aristocracy were a mixture of luxury, intrigue, and studied vice. [23]
Egypt had vast resources of corn, on which Constantinople largely depended for its prosperity, but the entire machinery of the imperial government in that province was directed at wringing profits out of the ruled for the rulers. In religious matters, too, the policy of suppressing the Jacobite heresy was pursued relentlessly. [24]
In short, Egypt was like a milch cow whose masters were interested only in milking her without providing her with any fodder.
Syria, another fair dominion of the Byzantine Empire, was always treated as a hunting ground for the domineering and expansionist policy of the imperial government. Syrians were treated as slaves at the mercy of their masters, for they could never pretend to have any claim to kind or considerate behavior from their rulers. The taxes levied were so excessive in amount and so unjust in incidence that the Syrians very often had to sell their children to clear the government dues. Unwarranted persecution, confiscation of property, enslavement, and impressed labor were some of the common features of Byzantine rule. [25]
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
Zoroastrianism is the oldest religion of Iran. Zarathustra, the founder of Zoroastrianism, lived probably about 600-650 BC. After it had shaken off the Hellenistic influence, the Persian Empire was larger in size and greater in wealth and splendor than the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. Ardashir I, the architect of the Sasanid dynasty, laid the foundation of his kingdom by defeating Artabanus V in 224 AD. In its prime, the Sasanid Empire extended over Assyria, Khuzestan, Media, Fars (Persis), Azerbaijan, Tabaristan (Mazandaran), Saraksh, Marjan, Marv, Balkh (Bactria), Saghd (Sagdonia), Sijistan (Saeastene), Herat, Khurasan, Khwarizm (Khiva), Iraq and Yemen, and, for a time, had under its control the areas lying near the delta of the river Sind; Kachh, Kathiawar, Malwa and few other districts.
Ctesiphon (Mada’in), the capital of the Sasanids, combined a number of cities on both banks of the Tigris. During the fifth century and thereafter, the Sasanid empire was known for its magnificence and splendor, cultural refinement, and the life of ease and pleasure enjoyed by its nobility.
Zoroastrianism was founded, from the earliest times, on the concept of a universal struggle between the Ahuras and the Daevas, the forces of good and evil. In the third century, Mani emerged as a reformer of Zoroastrianism. Sapor I (240-271) initially embraced the precepts uttered by the innovator, remaining faithful to them for ten years before returning to Mazdaism. Manichaeism was based on a most thoroughgoing dualism of the two conflicting souls in man, one good and the other bad. In order, therefore, to get rid of the latter, preached Mani, one should practice strict asceticism and abstain from women. Mani spent a number of years in exile and returned to Iran after the accession of Bahram I to the throne, but was arrested, convicted of heresy, and beheaded. His converts must have remained faithful to his teachings, for we know that Manichaeism continued to influence Iranian thought and society for a long time even after the death of Mani. [26]
Mazdak, the son of Baudad, was born at Nishapur in the fifth century. He also believed in the twin principles of light and darkness, but in order to put down the vileness emanating from darkness, he preached community of women and goods, which all men should share equally, as they do water, fire, and wind. Mazdakites soon gained enough influence, thanks to the support of Emperor Kavadh, to cause a communistic upheaval in the country. People would enter the house of another person, occupy his house and property, and he could not defend it.
In an ancient manuscript known as Namah Tinsar, the ravages done to Iranian society by the application of the communistic version of Mazdaism have been graphically depicted thus:
Chastity and manners were cast to the dogs. They came to the fore who had neither nobility nor character, nor acted uprightly, nor had any ancestral property; utterly indifferent to their families and the nation, they had no trade or calling; and being completely heartless they were ever willing to get into mischief, to mince the truth, vilify and malign others; for this was the only profession they knew for achieving wealth and fame. [27]
Arthur Christensen concludes:
The result was that the peasants rose in revolt in many places, and bandits started breaking into the houses of nobles to prey upon their property and to abduct their womenfolk. Gangsters took over the possession of landed estates and gradually the agricultural holdings became depopulated since the new owners knew nothing about the cultivation of land. [28]
Ancient Iran had always had a strange proclivity to subscribe to the extremist calls and radical movements, since it had always been under the influence of irreconcilable political and religious concepts. It has often been swinging, as if by action and reaction, between Epicureanism and strict celibacy; and, at other times, either yielded passively to despotic feudalism and kingship and preposterous priesthood, or drifted to the other extreme of unruly and licentious communism; but has always missed that moderate poise and even temper which is so vital for a healthy and decent society.
Towards the end of the Sasanid Empire, during the sixth century, all civil and military power was concentrated in the hands of the Emperors, who were alienated from the people by an impassable barrier. They regarded themselves as the descendants of celestial gods; Khosrau Parwiz or Chosroes II had lavished upon himself this grandiose title: ‘The immortal soul among the gods and peerless god among human beings; glorious is whose name; dawning with the sunrise and light of the dark-eyed night.’ [29]
The entire wealth of the country and its resources belonged to the Emperor. The kings, grandees, and nobles were obsessed with amassing wealth and treasure, as well as costly gems and curiosities. They were interested only in raising their own standard of living and luxuriating in mirth and merriment to an extent that it is difficult to imagine their craze for amusement and festivity. He can alone visualise their dizzy rounds of riotous living who has studied the history, literature and poetry of ancient Iran and is also well informed about the splendour of Ctesip2 hon, Iwan-i-Kisr [30] and Bahar-i-Kisra, [31] the tiara of the emperors, the awe-striking court ceremonials, the number of queens and concubines, slaves, cooks and bearers, pet birds and beasts owned by the emperors and their trainers and all. [32] The life of ease and comfort led by the kings and nobles of Persia can be judged from the way Yazdagird III fled from Ctesiphon after its capture by the Arabs; he had with him, during his flight, one thousand cooks, one thousand singers and musicians, and one thousand trainers of leopards and a thousand attendants of eagles besides innumerable leeches and hangers-on, but the Emperor still felt miserable for not having enough of them to enliven his drooping spirits. [33]
The common people were, on the other hand, extremely poor and in great distress. The uncertainty of the tariff on which each man had to pay various taxes gave a pretext to the collectors of taxes for exorbitant exactions. Impressed labor, burdensome levies, and conscription in the army as footmen, without the inducement of pay or any other reward, had compelled a large number of peasants to give up their fields and take refuge in the service of temples or monasteries. [34] In their bloody wars with the Byzantines, which seemed to have no end and offered no interest or profit to the common man, the Persian kings had been using their subjects as cannon fodder. [35]
INDIA
The remarkable achievements of ancient India in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and philosophy had earned her lasting fame, but historians agree that the era of her social, moral, and religious degradation commenced from the opening decades of the sixth century.[36] For shameless and revolting acts of sexual wantonness were consecrated by religion, even the temples had degenerated into cesspools of corruption. The woman had lost her honor and respect in society, and so had the values attached to her chastity. It was not rare for a man losing in a game of chance to wager his wife. [37]
The honor of the family, especially in higher classes claiming a noble descent, demanded that the widow should burn herself alive on the funeral pyre of her dead husband.
The custom, upheld by society as the supreme act of fealty on the part of a widow to her late husband, [38] was so deep-rooted that it could only be suppressed entirely after the establishment of British rule in India.
India left behind her neighbors, or, rather, every other country of the world, in evolving an inflexible and callously inhuman stratification of its society based on social inequality. This system, which excluded the original inhabitants of the country as outsiders or outcasts, was formulated to ensure the superiority of the conquering Aryans and was invested with an aura of divine origin by the Brahmins. It canalized every aspect of people’s daily life according to heredity and the occupation of different classes, and was backed by religious and social laws set forth by religious teachers and legislators. Its comprehensive code of life applied to the entire society, dividing it into four distinct classes:
- The Brahmins, or priests, enjoy a monopoly on performing religious rites.
- The Kshatriyas, or nobles and warriors, are supposed to govern the country;
- The Vaisyas or merchants, peasants, and artisans were responsible for the economic activities, and
- The Sudras or the non-Aryan serfs were meant to serve the first three castes.
The Sudras or the dasas, meaning slaves (forming a majority in the population), believed to have been born from the feet of Brahma, formed the most degraded class, which had sunk socially to the lowest level. Nothing was more honorable for a Sudra, according to the Manu Shasira, than to serve the Brahmins and other higher castes.
The social laws accorded the Brahmin class distinctive privileges and an honored place in society. ‘A Brahmin who remembers the Rig Veda, ‘ says the Manu Shastra, ‘is absolutely sinless, even if he debases all the three worlds.’ No tax could be imposed on a Brahmin, nor could he be executed for any crime. The Sudras, on the contrary, could never acquire any property, nor retain any assets. Prohibited from sitting near a Brahmin or touching him, the Sudras were not permitted to read the sacred scriptures. [39]
India was drying up and losing her vitality. Divided into numerous petty states, struggling for supremacy amongst them, the whole country had been given over to lawlessness, maladministration, and tyranny. The country had, furthermore, severed itself from the rest of the world and retired into her shell. Her fixed beliefs and the growing rigidity of her iniquitous social structure, norms, rites, and customs had made her mind rigid and static. Her parochial outlook and prejudices of blood, race, and color carried within it the seeds of destruction. Vidya Dhar Mahajan, former professor of history in the Punjab University College, writes about the state of affairs in India on the eve of the Muslim conquest:
The people of India were living in isolation from the rest of the world. They were so contented with themselves that they did not bother about what was happening outside their frontiers. Their ignorance of the developments outside their country put them in a very weak position. It also created a sense of stagnation among them. There was decay on all sides. There was not much life in the literature of the period. Architecture, painting, and fine arts were also adversely affected. Indian society had become static, and the caste system had become very rigid. There was no remarriage of widows, and restrictions with regard to food and drink became very inflexible. The untouchables were forced to live outside the towns. [40]
ARABIA
The ideas of virtue and morals were unknown to the ancient Bedouin. Extremely fond of wine and gambling, he was hardhearted enough to bury alive his own daughter. Pillage of caravans and cold-blooded murder for paltry gains were the typical methods to still the demands of the nomad. Bedouin women enjoyed no social status and could be bartered away like other exchangeable goods or cattle, or be inherited by the deceased’s heir. Certain foods were reserved for men, which women were not allowed to consume. A man could have as many wives as he liked and could dispose of his children if he did not have enough means to provide for their sustenance. [41]
The Bedouin was bound by unbreakable bonds of fidelity to family, blood relations, and, finally, to the tribe. Fights and forays were his sport, and murder a trifling affair. A minor incident sometimes gave rise to a sanguine and long-drawn war between two powerful tribes. Oftentimes, these wars were prolonged to as many as forty years, in which thousands of tribesmen came to a violent end. [42]
EUROPE
At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the torch of knowledge flickered dimly, and all the literary and artistic achievements of the classical past seemed destined to be lost forever under the young and vigorous Germanic races which had risen to political power in the northern and western parts of Europe. [43] The new rulers found neither pleasure nor honor in the philosophy, literature, and arts of the nations outside their frontiers and appeared to be as filthy as their minds were filled with superstition. Their monks and clergymen, passing their lives in a long routine of futile and atrocious self-torture, and quailing before the ghastly phantoms of their delirious brains, [44] were abhorrent to the company of human beings. They still debated whether a woman had the soul of a human being or a beast, or whether she was blessed with a finite or infinite spirit. She could neither acquire nor inherit any property, nor did she have the right to sell or transfer it.
Robert Briffault writes in The Making of Humanity:
From the fifth to the tenth century Europe lay sunk in a night of barbarism which grew darker and darker. It was a barbarism far more awful and horrible than that of the primitive savage, for it was the decomposing body of what had once been a great civilisation. The features and impress of the civilisation were all but completely effaced. Where its development had been fullest, e.g. in Italy and Gaul, all was ruin, squalor and dissolution. [45]
THE ERA OF DARKNESS AND DEPRESSION
The sixth century in which the Prophet of Islam (Peace be upon him) was born was, to be brief, the darkest era of history. It was the most depressing period in which crestfallen humanity had abandoned all hopes of its revival and renaissance. This is the conclusion drawn by noted historian, H.G. Wells, who recapitulates the condition of the world at the time when the Sasanid and Byzantine Empires had worn themselves out to a death-like weariness:
Science and Political Philosophy seemed dead now in both these warring and decaying Empires. The last philosophers of Athens, until their suppression, preserved the texts of the great literature of the past with an infinite reverence and want of understanding. But there remained no class of men in the world, no free gentlemen with bold and independent habits of thought, to carry on the tradition of frank statement and inquiry embodied in these writings. The social and political chaos accounts largely for the disappearance of this class, but there was also another reason why human intelligence was sterile and feverish during this age. In both Persia and Byzantium, it was an age of intolerance. Both Empires were religious empires in a new way, one that greatly hampered the free activities of the human mind. [46]
The same writer, after describing the events leading to the onslaught of the Sasanids on Byzantium and the eventual victory of the latter, throws light on the depth of social and moral degradation to which both these great nations had fallen, in these words:
A Prophetic amateur of history surveying the world in the opening of the seventh century might have concluded very reasonably that it was only a question of a few centuries before the whole of Europe and Asia fell under Mongolian domination. There were no signs of order or union in Western Europe, and the Byzantine and Persian Empires were manifestly bent upon a mutual destruction. India was also divided and wasted. [47]
WORLDWIDE CHAOS
To be brief, the entire human race seemed to have taken the steepest and shortest route to self-destruction. Man had forgotten his Master and had thus become oblivious of his own self, his future, and his destiny. He had lost the sense of distinction between vice and virtue, good and bad. It was as though something had slipped his mind and heart, but he did not know what it was. He had neither any interest nor time to apply his mind to the questions of life, faith, and the hereafter. He had his hands too full to spare even a moment for what constituted the nourishment of his inner self and the spirit, ultimate redemption or deliverance from sin, service to humanity, and restoration of his own moral health. This was the time when not a single man could be found in a whole country who seemed to be anxious about his faith, who worshipped the One and only Lord of the world without associating partners with Him, or who appeared to be sincerely worried about the darkening future of humanity. This was the prevailing situation of the world, so graphically depicted by God in the Qur’an:
Corruption does appear on land and sea because of the evil which men’s hands have earned, that He may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return. [48]
***
[1] The manner in which the scriptures of all the great religions had been deformed and mutilated, and, in most cases, given an entirely false coloring, has been treated in some detail, questioning the authorities belonging to each of them, under the heading ‘Qur’an and the Earlier Scriptures (pp.171-183) in my earlier work entitled Islamic Concept of Prophethood
[2] Ludwig Blan, Ph.D., Prof of Jewish Theological Seminary, Budapest, Hungary, in the article on ‘Worship’ in Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, pp.568-69.
[3] The Talmud is the body of Jewish law and legend comprising the Mishnah (precepts of the elders codified c. 200 CE) and the Gemara, a commentary on the Mishnah (in recessions, at Jerusalem c. 400 and at Babylon c. 500).
[4] For details, see Dr. Ruhling’s Jews in the Light of Talmud-Arabic version Al-Kanz al-Marfud fi Qawa’id at-Talmud by Dr. Yusuf Hins.
[5] The New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967) art.. “The Holy Trinity”, vol. 14, p. 295.
[6] The History of Christianity in the Light of Modern Knowledge, Glasgow, 1929, Chap. Church, 312-800 AD, p. 407.
[7] Alfred J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion, Oxford (1902) pp. 44-45.
[8] These elements were light, water, earth, and wind.
[9] Arthur Christensen, L’ilran Sous Les Sassanides, Paris, 1936, (Urdu translation by Prof. Muhammad Iqbal, Iran ba-‘Ahd Sasaniyan) p. 155.
[10] Ibid., pp. 186-7.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid., pp. 183-233.
[13] Ibid., pp. 204, 209.
[14] Ishwar Topa, Hindustani Tamaddum, Hyderabad (N.D.), p. 209, and Jawahar Lal Nehru, Discovery of India, pp. 201-2.
[15] See R.C. Dutta, Ancient India, vol. III, p. 276.
[16] Like the Persian language and those languages that have borrowed words from it, they use the word ‘but’ to mean idol. This expression is common in poetry, literature, and in people’s speech in Iran and India. The word ‘but’ is very close in Indian pronunciation to the word ‘Buddha’.
[17] C.V. Vaidya, History of Medieval Hindu India, vol. I, Poona (1924).
[18] L.S.S. O’Malley, Popular Hinduism: The Religion of the Masses (Cambridge,1935) PP 6-7.
[19] Kitab al-Asnam by Ibn al-Kalabi, p. 33.
[20] Bukhari; “Kitab al-Maghazi”.
[21] The Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, known to the Arabs as Rum, with its capital at Constantinople, comprised Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, all the islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, and the coastlands of North Africa during this period. It came into existence in 395 AD and ended with the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453.
[22] Historian’s History of the World, vol. VII, p. 73
[23] T. Walter Wallbank and Alastair M. Taylor, Civilization, Past and Present (Scott, Foresman & Co,1954) PP 261-62.
[24] The Arab conquest of Egypt, pp. 32,42, and 46.
[25] Kurd ‘All, Khutat al-Sham, vol. 1, p. 101.
[26] Iran fi ‘Ahd Sasaniyan, pp. 233-269.
[27] Namah Tinsar, Tab’e Maynwi, p. 13 (Quoted from Iranfi ‘Ahd Sasaniydn, p. 477).
[28] Iran fi ‘Ahd-Sdsdniyan, p. 477
[29] Ibid., p. 604.
[30] White palace of Chosroes. For details, see Iran fi’Ahd Sasaniyan.
[31] Carpet of Silk, sixty cubits in length and as many in breadth; a paradise or garden was depicted on it, the flowers, fruits, and shrubs were imitated by the figures of golden embroidery and the colors of the precious stones; and the ample square was enriched by a variegated and verdant border.
[32] Shahin Mikarios, Tarikh Iran, (1898), p. 98.
[33] Iran fi’Ahd Sasaniyan, pp. 681 and 685.
[34] Shahin Mikario, Tarikh Iran, p. 98.
[35] Iran fi’Ahd Sasaniyan.
[36] R.C. Dutt, Ancient India, vol. III.
[37] Dayanand Sarswati, Saiyarth Prakash, p. 344- Read the beginning of the story of the Mahabharata….
[38] Bernier, F. Travels, edited by Constable, two vols. 1914.
[39] For details, see the Manu Shastra, chapters 1, 2, 8, and 11
[40] Vidya Dhar Mahajan: Muslim Rule in India, Delhi, 1970. p. 33.
[41] Refer to the Qur’an, the books of hadith, and the poetic collections on Ash’ar, such as the Hamasah and Sab’ah Mu’allaqat.
[42] Details can be seen in the poetical collections of the pre-Islamic era and the books on Akhbar-e-‘Arab.
[43] Frank Thilly, History of Philosophy, New York, 1945, PP. 155-58.
[44] Leckey, W.E.H., History of European Morals, (London,1930), part II, p. 46.
[45] Robert Briffault, The Making of Humanity, p. 164.
[46] H.G. Wells, A Short History of the World (London, 1924), p. 140.
[47] H.G. Wells, A Short History of the World (London, 1924), p. 144.
[48] Qur’an 30:41.
← Previous: Author’s Introduction
Contents
Selection of ArabiaFor the Advent of Prophet Muhammad →