Humanity in a New Age
The intellectual revolution Islam ushered in, based on Tawheed, the unity of God, broke the mental block to open the doors to the investigation of nature, leading to scientific progress.
In the ancient past, human beings in large parts of the world worshipped various manifestations of Nature. This acted as a significant hurdle in the emergence of science or the study of Nature. For modern science to emerge, scholars needed to study Nature free of the belief that nature was something to be worshipped. However, because Nature had become an object of worship in most parts of the world for centuries, it was an insurmountable barrier. However, things changed with the advent of Islam. The intellectual revolution that Islam ushered in, based on Tawheed, the unity of God, opened the doors to the investigation of nature, leading to scientific progress.
There were three distinct periods in the progress of modern science or the study of Nature. Firstly, the breaking of the mental block that I have just referred to. This began with the advent of Islam in Makkah and continued after that, up to the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad in the mid-13th century. The second stage involved opening the doors of practical research and experimentation about Nature based on new ways of thinking. This stage extended over much of the period of Muslim rule in Spain till the 15th century. The third stage, centred in Western Europe and extending from the 16th century to the 19th century, saw the completion of this process which had its beginning in the Muslim world.
In this context, the question arises as to how and why the process had its origins in the Muslim world witnessed its culmination in Europe. One psychological reason for this is that there was keen rivalry between the Muslim Sultanates of Baghdad and Spain from the very beginning. That is why Baghdad never thought of seriously understanding the developments made in Spain. Moreover, it is perhaps because of this enmity that no well-known figures in Muslim-ruled India or other Muslim lands considered it essential to study Muslim Spain’s achievements and carry them even further.
If this reality had been made clear to the contemporary Muslim rulers and had they taken positive steps in this sphere, the Muslim scholars who fled Spain in the wake of the collapse of Muslim rule and taken shelter in other parts of Western Europe would have instead sought refuge in the Muslim world. And then, the intellectual revolution that Islam had ushered in would have witnessed its continuation in the Muslim world instead of in Europe. And then, just as the credit for the beginning of the modern scientific age goes to Islam, the credit for the culmination of that age would have accrued to Islam as well. Needless to say, if that had happened, human history would have taken a course very different from what it did.
