The Example of
the Crusades
The Crusades which started from 1095 AD and continued intermittently till 1291 AD, were military assaults launched by the western countries against Islam. During this time, the land of Baitul Maqdis was under Muslim rule. This land was called the holy land by the Christians. It had earlier been under the Roman Empire but became a part of the Muslim empire during the rule of Hazrat Umar, the Second Caliph.
During the Crusades almost the whole of Christian Europe unitedly attacked the Muslim world to regain this holy land. But, despite their united efforts they met with total defeat on this front. This event has been called “a humiliating defeat” by the historian Gibbon.
But it was a unique event in history that, after their defeat in the Crusades, the Christian nations did not develop a defeatist outlook. Rather a new positive spirit awakened within them. After their defeat in the Crusades, they only changed their sphere of work and took up peaceful research instead of settling matters on the field of battle. One commentator has called this phenomenon ‘spiritual crusade’.
The result of this peaceful crusade was that the Christian scholars of the West succeeded in bringing about a new age in human history, that is, the scientific age. They focused their entire energy on the research of nature. As a result, for the first time, the latent hidden technology within nature came within man’s understanding.
Islam for its part declared that nature was not a subject of worship but rather was a subject for investigation and research (The Quran, 45:12-13). In this way, Islam had theoretically delinked nature and worship from one another. The second development in this connection was thanks to the Christian nations of the west having carried out a great deal of research on nature. Finally, that age of science was produced which has resulted in modern civilization.
This initiative by Christian Europe is an example of re-planning. Christian Europe had first planned to capture the Holy land by the power of war. When this plan failed even after fighting on the battlefield for 200 years, their thinking changed. They engaged in re-planning in order to expend their energy in a peaceful field rather than on the battlefield.
This re-planning succeeded; within a few hundred years, a new political age had come into existence. By employing the latest resources Christian Europe regained on a much larger scale, the domination it had lost because of their defeat in the political field.
The Muslim leaders of this land could not do re-planning in this matter at the point when the division of Palestine was carried out in 1947 and the Arabs received half of Palestine. This was a time for re-planning for Arab leaders. They should have engaged in rethinking and the re-planning of their action according to the new circumstances, by doing away with the past political mindset. Had they done so, a powerful government would certainly have been established in Palestine. The area of Palestine given to the Arabs was the most important area of Palestine. Furthermore, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt were already in their possession.
This whole area is a historical area, having great attraction for world tourism. Had peace prevailed in this area, the tourist industry would have greatly flourished here. The Arabs would not only have received extraordinary economic benefits but because of the high tourist traffic in this area, dawah mission could have been performed on a large scale. It was because of their total unawareness of the importance of re-planning, this great opportunity could not be availed of. Hassan al Banna and other Arab Muslim leaders organized a huge gathering in Cairo on December 15, 1947. Addressing this gathering, Hassan Al-Banna said ‘Labaik Palestine’ (O Palestine we are present). Had they been wiser they would have given this slogan ‘Labaik Ayyuhan Nas’— “O people, we are present.” Then they would have built a new future for Islam and Muslims. But unfortunately, this great opportunity could not be availed of.
