THE GIFT OF ISLAM

The two most important contributions of Islam in this connection were, firstly, to remove any mental block which could be an obstacle to progress, and secondly, to launch the new age of progress on a practical basis.

Removing the mental block meant displacing things from their pedestals of holiness. This task—undoubtedly the most difficult—was successfully performed during the period of the Prophet and the pious Caliphs who succeeded him.

Although a practical beginning had been made in the first phase of Islam, its systematic development took place during the Abbasid era with the establishment of the Bayt-al-Hikmah in 832. This work gained great momentum during the Arab rule in Spain and Sicily. Finally, it reached Europe, where it gave the first impetus to the industrial revolution.

It is generally accepted that modern progress and its ramifications are related to industrial revolution. In fact, it could be said that all progress has come in its wake. Industrial revolution itself is another name for the exploitation of the hidden resources of the earth. For example, man mined coal and then converted it into energy. He harnessed the power of flowing water and converted that into electricity. He extracted minerals from beneath the earth’s surface and transformed them into machines. And this is how the industrial revolution came into existence.

Now, why was it, that when all these resources had been available on the earth since time immemorial, man had not been able to utilize them in order to find a developed civilization prior to the advent of Islam? There is only one answer: polytheism had placed an insurmountable barrier in his path.

What is polytheism? It is the worship of the phenomena of nature. Before the time of the Prophet of Islam, in every period recorded in history, man had worshipped natural phenomena, holding them to be imbued with divinity. All ancient civilizations—Greek, Egyptian, Roman and Persian—all were polytheistic in their persuasions. All the outstanding things of this world—earth, rivers, mountains, sun, moon or stars—all were objects of worship for man. Only Islam was able to displace them from the pedestal of worship. Only then could that new intellectual departure be made which is now known as the scientific revolution.