Why Did They Become Muslims

Shûrâ Sûra of the Qur’ân al-kerîm, “To any that desires the tilth
of the Hereafter, We give increase in his tilth; and to any that
desires the tilth of this world, We grant somewhat thereof, but he
has no share or lot in the Hereafter.” (42-20) Desires are not
obtained with mere words. It is necessary to hold fast to the
causes, i.e. to work. Allâhu ta’âlâ promises to give the wishes of
those who exert themselves to obtain the blessings of this world
and the next. He declares that He will give anyone who works,
Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Europeans, Americans, and
Communists attain worldly blessings because they work for them.
Muslims of the Middle Ages were the guides of civilization
because they worked as required. The subversive activities
carried on by the enemies who had begun to undermine the
Abbasids and the Ottomans from within as well as from without
prevented them from learning and teaching science and from
doing any work in science and arts. Consequently, the great
empires collapsed. The religious knowledge consists of îmân
(belief), worship, and moral behaviour. Absence of any one of
these three components means that the religious knowledge is
incomplete. And something incomplete, in its turn, is useless. The
ancient Romans and Greeks and all the European and Asian
states had scientific knowledge. Yet their religious knowledge
was incomplete. For this reason, they misused the blessings that
they had attained in science and technology. They used some
works of art in indecencies, while some of them used their
technological inventions in tormenting and persecuting other
people. Let alone attaining civilization, they broke to pieces,
collapsed, and perished.
By the same token, despite the present dazzling and flourishing
state of advancement that some non-Muslim but theoretically
Islamic socialist states have attained in science and technology,
they are deprived of all the three components of the religious
knowledge. They are committing the most vicious sorts of atrocity
which wildest people, let alone civilized ones, would be disgusted
to do. States of this sort, entirely devoid of Islamic knowledge, are
doomed to extinction. History consists of repetitions. Countries
like Saudi Arabia should learn lessons from history and correct
their belief and morals instead of only working for worldly
blessings. Mere scientific progress will not guide them to
civilization or save them from perdition.
The Turks, working like their ancestors, have become the
– 303 –