Chapter Twenty Three

How Muslims Should Approach History

History is one of the most important fields, not only to be studied for academic purposes, but
also in life as a whole. Without history people will be able neither to diagnose their present
condition nor to dictate their future course. Their efforts are destined to become a footnote in
the dynamic civilization-making processes, for properly dealing with history, both as a
concept and existential reality, is nothing but a mould in which civilizations are cast.
Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) thus observed at the outset of his “Muqaddimah” that history is
information about human social organization, which itself is identical with world civilization.
It deals with a variety of conditions affecting the nature of civilization.
Inasmuch as Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was the
last messenger of Almighty God to mankind, who was sent as the ultimate guide and a mercy
to all worlds, his task was twofold: to correct the critical phases of history, which had been
fraught with myriads of inaccuracies and outright falsehoods, and to set the stage for the
emergence of a new history paradigm rooted in truth and its universal outlook.
It follows that Muslims have been entrusted as much with the preservation of history as with
history-making. Without exaggeration, it could be said that such signified Muslims’ raison
d’etre. Standing at the forefront of inscribing the pages of history denotes that Muslims have
been true to themselves and have lived up to the provisos of the heavenly task placed on
them, whereas the opposite would stand for a testimony to otherwise. That is why it is often
stated that in addition to the primary and secondary sources of history Muslims possess an
ultimate source of history in the form of the Holy Qur’an as well, and in addition to relying
on a number of historical authorities Muslims are likewise blessed with the ultimate criterion
of history and its knowledge in the shape of Prophet Muhammad.
Since the inception of Islamic civilization this reality induced Muslims to be turned into the
trailblazing historians and history to become one of the most important subjects in Islamic
scholarship. Such names as al-Tabari (d. 923) and Ibn Khaldun - just to name two -
developed into household names. Their contributions were ground-breaking, so much so that
while the latter is generally regarded as the father of the science of history (historiography),
the former was its precursor.
On a personal note - in passing - I was astonished to discover the intricacy and directness of
al-Tabari’s discourse about the relativity (created-ness) of time as part of his methodological
framework for the study of the universal history. Al-Tabari presented his “theorising”
concerning the notion of time at the beginning of his magnum opus “History of Prophets and
Kings”, saying, for example: “First, however, I shall begin with what for us comes properly
and logically first, namely, the explanation of: What is time? How long is its total extent? Its
first beginning and final end. Whether before God's creation of (time) there was anything
else. Whether it will suffer annihilation and whether after its annihilation there will be
something other than the face of the Highly praised, the Exalted Creator. What was it that
was before God's creation of time and what will be after its final annihilation? How did God's
creation of it begin and how will its annihilation take place?”
These ideas were put forward for the sake of knowledge development as early as towards the
end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th centuries. In an amazement one should wonder
what could have happened if the avant-garde empirical theories of time produced centuries
later by Isaac Newton (d. 1727) and Albert Einstein (d. 1955) were fused with the
philosophical-cum-religious “theory” of time by al-Tabari and some other Muslim scholars.
The sky would have been the limit. The state of the world, surely, would not have been the
same.
In a nutshell, Muslims purified and preserved history. They developed and refined its
methods as well as terminology, in the process markedly enriching its sources too. All this
while persisting for centuries as history’s decisive protagonists.
The aftermath of Islamic civilization’s decline
However, following the decline of Islamic civilization for which Muslims and nobody else
are to be blamed - coupled with the impact of several external factors such as the emergence
of the over-assertive Western civilization and its unholy colonisation drive - Muslims’
productive association with history dramatically deteriorated. It virtually came to an end. Not
only did Muslims, as a consequence, neglect the spheres of creating, together with
safeguarding , history, but also did they start to abandon the Islamic history paradigm
altogether.
So painful was the predicament that fighting for the mere religious and biological survivals
was the mother of all struggles. Treating history as a source of inspiration and guidance was
increasingly coming into view as a superfluity, whereas the matters of the future were
appearing as though ever more far-flung and obscure. Those were established as sumptuous
and controlled-by-others items. They seemed prohibitive for the existing state of the Muslim
mind.
A painful corollary was the fact that under the circumstances many segments of the Muslim
community or ummah gradually abandoned their own history and civilization, and started, in
turn, to glorify the histories and civilizations of others. The trend at first was imposed, often
by force, but later became a voluntary act. Being somebody else - that is, following the
ideological, plus cultural, preferences of the conquerors and puppet rulers - was becoming a
sign of cultural refinement. It likewise in the end morphed into a benchmark of scholarly
uprightness and sophistication. It became life’s Holy Grail. Other alternatives, especially
such as were affiliated with Islam and its heritage, were deemed defunct. They were relegated
to the level of anachronisms.
Thus, a generation or two later, most Muslims, despite laying claims to modernisation and
progress grounded in erudition, became separated from and ignorant about their history and
the ideals of their civilizational mandate. It is indeed heart-breaking to realise that, in general
terms, most Muslims have never read the Qur’an from cover to cover in order to understand
and try to live according to it, and that, in particular, the Muslim students of history do not
even perceive the Qur’an as the ultimate source of history, never mind to treat it as such in
their studies or research. As it is disturbing that most Muslims have never read a complete
biography of Prophet Muhammad with the aim of understanding it and trying to live
according to such a divinely prescribed pattern, and that, more specifically, the Muslim
history students and scholars do not see any importance whatsoever in doing so as far as the
science of history is concerned. The same attitude unfortunately applies to the rest of the
philosophical and scientific aspects of Islamic history.
If a person therefore is entitled to ask what type of followers of Islam and Prophet
Muhammad the Muslims of today are, one can also ask what type of historians Muslim
students and academics are, and which history - or histories - they as a matter of fact espouse.
Which Islam do they follow, given that the Qur’an and the Prophet’s exemplary model are
what the true Islam is all about?
As harsh as it may sound, the most that the modernisation and progress, which have been
served in the name of Western civilization, have brought to the Muslim world - and the
Muslim mind - was de-culturalization of society and de-sacralization of beliefs as well as
values. The problem of the history science is an excellent case in point. The ostensible
benefits procured thereby were anything but an assured quality. They were no more than a
poisoned chalice.
Those Muslims, at the same time, keep priding themselves on being well versed in the
intellectual and also ideological foundations of Western history and civilization, having been
educated in Western or westernised establishments at home or abroad, and having extensively
read the works of Western civilizational icons, be they from the field of history or from any
other relevant field. However, little do those Muslims know that there would be no Western
civilization as its legacy is known today were it not for the global centuries-old dominant
presence of Islamic civilization and for the ground-breaking contributions of its giants, and
that the Western, yet the whole world’s, historiography would be significantly impoverished
if the contributions of Muslims and Muslim historians were to be set aside.
All things considered, both Western civilization and Western historiography pale in
comparison with the Islamic counterparts in the matters of their respective legacies’ impact
and goodness. Nevertheless, this in no way implies the harbouring of a grudge against
someone or something. Rather, it implies calling for honesty, for putting things into
perspective, and for giving credit where credit is due, in that such constitutes the essence of
intellectual - and civilizational by and large - integrity.
This historical ignorance gradually incapacitated Muslims, causing them to confuse their
compass. Some of the biggest issues are thus constantly misconstrued and mishandled, never
mind solved, like the Palestinian issue, the issue of Muslim minorities worldwide, the
modernity-versus-tradition dialectics, Sunni-Shi’ah relations, and various calls for pan-
Islamism, restoring caliphate, shari’ah, jihad, etc. These are all current and future-oriented
issues, but owing to the verity that Muslims are poorly versed in (their) history, where the
roots of all issues are, no solutions seem to be forthcoming. Detached from their history - and
themselves - Muslims remain suspended between East and West, and between heaven and
earth. They are neither here nor there. They simply do not have what it takes to face the
challenges head-on and on their terms. Doubtless, the keys to all answers lie in the neglected
chapters of history.
Towards a new approach
At any rate, there are signs on the horizon that a Muslim renaissance is in the offing. This is
because all other civilizational alternatives, apart from being inadequate and fragmentary,
quickly proved unsustainable. Their being based on and nourished by the diverse forms of
falsehood did not permit them to be different. In its function as the graveyard of defective
civilizations and empires, history beckons over. The genuine longevity of a civilization can
be predicated solely on the presence and adoption of the truth. Civilization and the lack of
truth are incompatible. And that is where the prospect of reviving Islamic civilization, as the
only civilization of the truth, comes in.
Accordingly, in fact, Islamic civilization never died, nor became outdated or obsolete. It was
but forced into hiatus by the incompetence of its custodians: Muslims. It will remain there
until the conditions are rendered conducive for its resurgence by the reawakening of
Muslims. Positively, just as the truth abides - as a fundamental ontological law - the
civilization of the truth abides too. As per the formula of the Qur’anic message, the condition
of a civilization will not change (a result and part of God’s changing of a nation’s overall
condition) unless people change what is in themselves (their inner selves) (al-Ra’d, 11).
Central to this expected trend reversal should be the way Muslims approach and study
history. Instead of being Western civilization-centric, those studies should focus on Muslims
and their own civilizational trajectory. They are to be remodelled as Muslims-centric.
Moreover, instead of being purely outward-looking, and rarely yet still partially inward-
looking, those studies should be inward-looking first and foremost, dealing primarily with the
affairs of Muslims. Only on the basis of the outcomes resulting therefrom should those
studies turn to the outside world beyond the concerns of the Muslim consciousness.
The findings of studying the Muslim concerns are then expected to form a foundation upon
which the studying of “others” and of the Muslim perpetual interactions with them, will be
based. That is to say, if heretofore the Muslim historical education played second fiddle to the
interests and concerns of especially the Western world, it now should be the case of placing
the Muslim interests ahead of anything and anybody else. The process should be reversed: the
epistemological direction should originate from Muslims and move towards others, in
preference to the prospect of that direction originating from others and moving towards
Muslims. It is high time indeed that the pure Islamic and Muslim matters be placed on the
pedestal of history.
This means, to illustrate, that the rise, continuity and decline of Islamic civilization, the rise
of the West, the age of colonisation, modernisation, World War I, World War II and Cold
War, ought to be studied from the uniquely Muslim perspectives. As part of doing so, the
roles of the rest of the world will naturally come to the fore and will be treated against the
backdrop of analysing Muslim affairs. The Muslim civilizational presence was always a
global spectacle. To bring it to the forefront of history and its vast scientific pursuits will be
nothing new. The earlier referred to Muslim historians were developing the science of history
and historiography exactly along those lines. They were at once Muslim and universal
historians, and their historiographies likewise, but their being Muslims and their works
Islamic took precedence over everything else.
The current situation is such that while Muslims stood at the core of many of the above
mentioned geopolitical developments, they by no means were equal partners in relation to
generating the official adjudications and to the historicity of events. More often than not,
Muslims were hard done by, in full conformity with the maxims that “the victor writes
history” and that - allegedly uttered by Napoleon (d. 1821) - “history is a set of lies (a
community has) agreed upon”. Thus distorted history is served to Muslims and their
intellectual wants, in their capacity as a civilizationally vanquished force.
As a systematic mode of indoctrination, Muslims are generally depicted in history books as
losers, villains and the serious impediments to modernity and progress. Their inconsequential
history merely calls for an inferior present and a downbeat future. They should settle for
second best. Colonisation is portrayed as a boon and Muslims as beneficiaries. Western
civilization, standing on the shoulders of some of its ancient predecessors like Greeks and
Romans, is an ultimate blessing for the world (the end of history) which must be conveyed to
the rest. Muslims nonetheless needed to be proselytised - i.e. enlightened - the most, hence
the idea of “mission to civilize” was created. Whereas the World Wars, though being global
occurrences, are depicted in such a way that Muslims are either featured unfairly or are not
featured at all. When delving into the subject of those wars based on the mainstream
narratives, an inquisitive Muslim is bound to ask where Muslims were at that point of time
and whether they were there at all.
These injustices can be rectified only if Muslims take history and their civilizational destiny
into their own hands. They have to do so for the sake of championing the truth, consistent
with the earthly mission of theirs, and for the sake of a historical self-defence. It is
unacceptable that a great many Muslims know more about the history of the West than about
their own, that they extol Western heroes more than their own, and that they feel more
inclined to Western civilization than to the civilization of Islam.
Without this step on-board, the other Muslim renaissance steps are destined either to fail or
be seriously hindered. Regardless of how much some things may seem politically incorrect
but the future Muslim generations must be taught the pressing realities both of history and the
present. That is their right and we, the current generation, owe it to them. Undeniably, the
truth sometimes hurts, but then, falsehoods and deceits hurt yet more.
Some of the realities that need to be urgently addressed are as follows: Islamic civilization is
permanent and did not fall in the sense of the fates of other dead civilizations, but rather
experienced a break in continuity and vitality and waits for the right people (right Muslim
generations) and the right circumstances for its rebirth; Western civilization is an alien
entity and should be seen as an imposed trial whose few positives can be embraced but
numerous negatives should be either resolutely rejected and replaced or if possible Islamised;
colonisation was an evil phenomenon during which endless unspeakable crimes against
Muslims were committed; modernisation, in the main, spelled alienation and westernisation;
the originally innocent and constructive orb of science has mutated into the monster of
scientism that threatens the very idea of existence; the World Wars affected Muslims in more
ways than one, mostly in unfavourable terms, so the new Muslims-centric and inward-
looking approaches to the historical education should embark on efforts to reveal the totality
of the distorted and forgotten historical truths. The epistemological order ought to be restored
sooner rather than later.
I am not sure how seemly is to say this but nevertheless according to a quote in the movie
“Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron”, “they say that the history of the West was written from the
saddle of a horse, but it's never been told from the heart of one.” Correspondingly, in a
roundabout way, the history of Muslims cannot be based on the narratives of their colonisers,
adversaries and those who could not and did not want to understand them. That would be
wrong both academically and morally. Instead, Muslim history needs the clear mind and pure
heart of Muslims themselves. The roles of others, though being welcome and appreciated, can
only be supplementary.
Finally, as another personal thing, whenever in the past I read or heard about the World War
I, it seemed to me too distant and unrelated, yet exotic, an episode in human history.
However, it was only recently that I found out that my great-grandfather, Muho Spahic, while
actively participating in the war on the side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (as one of
Central Powers) was taken a prisoner of war and had to spend six years in captivity in Russia
(as one of Allied Powers). My great-grandmother thought that she had become a widow and
her first-born, my grandfather Sulejman Spahic, an orphan. Hence, all of a sudden the World
War I became more real, more consequential and even more intimate to me than ever before.
Without realising it, the lives of many of my family members have been affected by it.
In the same vein, Muslims should work on renewing their approaches to history, so that they
could find their true selves in it and could decipher their true cultural and civilizational
identities hidden in history’s multi-tiered but largely deformed universe. Certainly, history is
of those realms where ignorance is not bliss.