islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Islamic Jihad1. Did Arabs and their culture, within which Islam had its foundation, had anything to do withthese contributions?2. Were those Arab innovations?3. Was the Arab society at Prophet Muhammad’s time so rich in all these spheres of sociocultural,intellectual and material development?The underdeveloped society of the ArabsHistorical records of the Arab society and culture belonging to the prophetic era suggest that such was not thecase. Both pre-Islamic and early Islamic literatures show that the Arabian Peninsula at Prophet Muhammad’stime was inhabited by an unsophisticated people, having a nominal or rudimentary culture and civilization tospeak of. Their social, political and civilizational developments were embryonic as compared to welldevelopedcontemporaneous civilizations of India, Persia, Egypt, and Syria (the Levant). The city of Mecca,situated in the midst of barren deserts, had little agriculture as attested even by Allah: ‘I have settled some ofmy posterity in an uncultivable valley near unto Thy holy House (Ka’ba)…’ [Quran 14:37]. As a result, thepeople of Mecca had very little daily work. They used to survive on occasional trade and revenues obtainedfrom pilgrims to the Ka’ba and taxing the caravans traveling along the important trade-routes passing throughMecca. The more belligerent and adventurous ones amongst them engaged in raids and plunder for making aliving. The nomadic Arab tribes, a substantial part of the population, were wont to scouring the desert to ekeout a living; this tradition continued well into the twentieth century prior to the discovery of oil.The people of Prophet Muhammad’s ancestral city, Mecca, lived a relatively idle life. For a living,they seized whatever they could as occasional opportunities presented. With a plenty of time at hand,engaging in sexual activities seemed to have been one of their favorite pastime. Maxime Rodinson, aprominent Islamic historian, quotes Rabbi Wathan about the then Arab society:‘Nowhere in the world was there such a propensity toward fornication as among the Arabs, justas nowhere was there any power like that of Persia, or wealth like that of Rome, or magic likethat of Egypt. If all the sexual licenses in the world were divided into ten parts, nine of thesewould be distributed among the Arabs and the tenth would be enough for all the other races.’ 387Similarly, Ronald Bodley notes of the cultural traits of the Arabs of Mecca that,There was Amr Ibn al-As, the son of a beautiful Meccan prostitute. All the better Meccans wereher friends, so that anyone, from Abu Sufian down, might have been Amr’s father. As far asanyone could be sure, he might have called himself Amr Ibn Abu Lahab, or Ibn al-Abbas or "Ibnanyone else" among the Koreishite upper ten. According to Meccan standards of that time, it didnot matter who had sired him. 388Some readers might think that this was probably the universal norm of the time, but such was not the case. Infact, many of the victims of Islam—the Persians, for example—despite having to accept Islam underwhatsoever circumstances, continued to despise the rather indolent and uncultured Arabs. The Persians(Iranians), even to this day, celebrate with great fanfare the death of despised second Caliph Omar, whobrought the great Persian civilization down to the feet of Bedouin Arabs. Despite being forced into Islam, thesocial elites of the many advanced civilizations that were conquered by Islamic invaders had low regards fortheir Arab masters. They used to ridicule many Islamic rituals and decry their insignificant achievements.They used to glorify their own national achievements and contributions. They took great pride in their own387. Rodinson M (1976) Muhammad, trs. Anne Carter, Penguin, Harmondsworth, p. 54388. Bodley RVC (1970) The Messenger: The Life of Muhammad, Greenwood Press Reprint, p. 73131