Islam
Background
As early as the 15th century, Islamic societies were well-placed economically, politically as well as culturally. They were both affluent and advanced philosophically, technologically, scientifically, and administratively. Mighty military forces together with well-established networks were abound spreading the Islamic culture hegemony from the Atlantic coast via the southern Mediterranean and North Africa to as far as the Middle East, South East Asia and even parts of China. The decline of the Islamic hegemony was marked by the decline of the Ottoman empire with the rise of the Western capitalism (Gettleman 20).
Perspective of Hassan Al-Bannan
According Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of The Muslim Brethren in Egypt, the decline of the Islamic State was brought about by the undesired infiltration of the Western culture into the Muslim world. He argues that western strength and extensive dominion was imposed on the Islamic states which served to disintegrate the fiber of the Qur’anic ummah. As such the grave, widespread and powerful foreign forces tore the Islamic fabric apart bringing the great Islamic states to its knees. This gave rise to more disunited nations and small states in the Islamic world that struggled to maintain unity besides striving to resurface. Hassan Al-Bannan categorized the factors leading to extinction of the Islamic State as political, religious, social, and economic (Commins 35).
a) Political differences, partisanship, together with the struggle for supremacy and prestige. Al-Bannan reckons that this happened regardless of the fact that Islam had condemned the encouraging of indifference as relates to positions of power and nations and the destruction of peoples and states.
b) differences in religion as well as schools of thought. Furthermore, Al-Bannan accuses the people of turning away Allah’s religion in terms of both beliefs and actions which contributed to dead works bearing no spirit or life. There was also ignorance of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Apostle resulting in stagnation, fanaticism in both word and thought coupled with love for disputation, controversy, and wrangling. Hassan Al-Banaan underscored that this were things that Islam religion had cautioned about and thus forbidden them in totality. The Muslims therefore fell into error because they resorted to dispute even after receiving guidance to that effect.
c) A third reason at attributed to the decline of the Islamic State by Hassan Al-Bannan is that the people indulged in luxuries and comforts of life in contrary to humble living taught by Islam religion. There was so much craving for pleasure along with sensual joys that anything that had been recorded of Muslim leaders initially was superseded by their then irresponsible lavish lifestyles. As the Almighty God destroyed the State through the wealth men who transgressed upon His word.
d) Furthermore, Al-Bannan alludes to the aspect of transferring authority to non-Arabs as a key contributor to the demise of the Islamic State. He condemns the handing over of power to those who had not genuinely absorbed Islam such as the Daylamites, Mamluks, Turks among others. These new rulers are said to never have been illuminated with the true light of the Holy Qur’an because of their inability to understand the contents of the Book (Gettleman 65). To this effect, the Qur’an had warned against the Arabs taking confidants in those who were not of their like. The strangers, as warned, would cast disorder among the Arab people because while their mouths had uttered the much hatred for the Arabs, it was what their hearts concealed that was more deadly.
e) Al-Bannan went on to note that the decline came about due to the indifference to the applied sciences and natural science. He reckons that there was incredible waste of time along with loss of energy on abstruse, speculative philosophies not to assume the unhealthy, phantasmagorical pseudo-sciences (Commins 45). This was contrary to the call of Islam to consider the universe, conduct exploration of the secrets of creation, and adventure the Earth which orders them to contemplated the Kingdom of God (Musawi 64).
f) The author Al-Bannan further points to the supposed Arab leaders’ infatuation with authority, self-deception pertaining to their power coupled with the failure to look into the social evolution of the nations outside their geographical zone. As such those outside their fold got ahead of the Arabs in terms of preparedness and equipment leading the ambushing of the Islamic State. This is despite a clear direction in Qur’an for the Arabs to be always alert and not be heedlessness. In addition, the undoing of the Islamic State people was in the form of self-deception through the intrigues of their hostile flatterers plus the admiration of the foreigner’s works and way of life leading to unthinking imitation of them. The Arab people went against the direction to remain unchanged and uphold the conventional elements of the Islamic ummah (Musawi 46). They also overlooked the warning afforded to them regarding the consequences of mimicking as in believing in those who do not believe will result in be overthrown and in effect turned into losers.
References:
Commins, David, ‘Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949),’ in Pioneers of Islamic Revival. London: Zed Press, 1994.
Musawi, Jasmin, Muhsin. Islam on the Street: Religion in Modern Arabic Literature. Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.
Gettleman, E. Marvin. The Middle East and Islamic World. New York
