Rise, Fall and Future of the Muslim Civilization

Our project on defining the future Muslim civilization has completed the first milestone with a draft manuscript in Arabic written by Dr. Tareq Al-Suwaidan. The following article is are-write in English on one of the key sub-sections of the book.

Trend of Civilizations
Civilizations follow a definite trend, in which they rise and decline. Some rise again and some decline to obsolescence. The Islamic civilization also followed a similar trend throughout its very long history. The first stage of incorporation and development within the Arab peninsula, was followed by various stages of development and expansion as the Muslims extended their geographical influence through the various sultanates and dynasties. There were periods of decline and major setbacks in some parts of the Muslim world while it expanded in other parts. But the decline of the the Ottoman caliphate, in general, marked the decline of the Muslims in the other parts of the world. The decline led to large parts of the Muslim world being occupied and colonized until it reached its low ebb, the lost one of its religious icons, Palestine. But, God willing, it will rise again. This will be achieved only by an overall revival of the influence of Islam in the life of Muslim individuals and societies. As Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) said, “the first of generation of this nation did not become good except through religion and its application”.

History shows that no armies were invincible ~ Joseph Stalin

In the following table, we will highlight the major events that happened throughout the Muslim history. We then present a rough curve showing the rise and decline trends of the Muslim civilization.

622 - Hijrah (Migration from Mecca to Yathrib, which took upon a new name, Madinah)
The Muslims did not have a state before the migration, and the focus of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in Mecca was on the construction of the belief and morals, correcting concepts and misconceptions.
Because it is a foundation stage that lasted 13 years, we will consider that the beginning of Islamic civilization was the year 622.
With the Hijrah, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) became a Prophet and the leader of a distinct state. Islam added to the belief and morals, social, family, economic and political laws and guidelines. The early Muslims began to form an Islamic state, which will bring all those who believe in the new religion (Islam), and will administer their affairs.
The Hijrah became a dividing line in the life of the Prophet and in the history of Islam. It is the official start of Islam as a religion and a state together.

656 - Conflict between the Companions during the Caliphate of Ali (RA)
The great sedition between the Companions, may Allah's mercy be upon them all, due to the differences after the killing of the third Caliph Utman (RA).
Because of the Muslims preoccupation with this sedition and their diligence to address them, it froze the movement of the Islamic tide, and stopped the cultural expansion of the State of Islam,
The stalemate lasted close to 5 years.
Caliph Ali was murdered by the Khawarij group.

661 - Leadership conflict resolved; Start of the Umayyad dynasty
There was a breakthrough in the division of the Ummah and the year was called the year of unity.
The Ummah recovered something of its health, and collected its divided ranks. This would not have happened but for the virtue of God when Hassan Bin Ali, whom many regions of the Ummah supported him as the successor to Caliph Ali, voluntarily stepped down to allow Muawiya bin Abi Sufyan to be the sole leader of the Muslim Ummah. All the regions then gave their allegiance to Muawiya and the Ummah was united again.
Hassan (RA) realized the prophecy of the Prophet (SAW) when he (SAW) said that Hassan (RA) is a master through whom Allah (SWT) will bring good among two great factions (Tirmidhi).
May Allah (SWT) forgive all the Companions and their followers for the trials and tribulations they all went through during that difficult part of the early Muslim history. They were part of the great generation of Muslims and sacrificed much for Islam. We must look up to them and love them.

750 - End of the Umayyad dynasty; Start of the Abbasid dynasty
The Umayyad state collapsed and was replaced by the Abbasid state, which continued its cultural production, growth of Islam, close attention to knowledge and scholars.
New science, knowledge and discoveries flourished during the Abbasid rule which reached its peak during the era of Harun al-Rashid.
The pious scholar Al-Fudhail ibn ‘Iyadh said that no death touched him more severely than the death of the Amirul Mukminin Harun, and he wished that Allah took from his age and added to the age of Harun al-Rashid.

785 - Start of the Umayyad dynasty in Andalusia
In the same Abbasid period, a strong civilization of Muslims began to arise in Andalusia, led by the Umayyads.
It reached its peak during the reign of Abd al-Rahman (III) al-Nasir (May Allah (SWT) have mercy on him), who made Cordoba the center of world civilization, for Muslims and non-Muslims.
The rule of Abd al-Rahman al-Nasir lasted for fifty years, and it can be fairly stated that he was among the greatest rulers of the Islamic civilization.

929 - Seljuk Sultanate
The Seljuk Sultanate was started by the Seljuk Turks, who came from the Turkmen tribe of Qanq which is roughly the region of Turkmenistan today.
During their rule, the Islamic civilization did not decline but continued to ascend. Islamic arts, science, knowledge and development continued to spread in different countries. This was evident in the movement of urbanization and the magnificent buildings they built.
The Seljuk rule continued until they were defeated by the Mongols in the middle 13th century.

1037 - Jerusalem occupied by the Crusaders
The first major retreat and fracture in the growth of the Islamic civilization was the attack by the Crusaders.
It reached its intensity when the city of Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Crusaders, who shed the blood of more than 100,000 of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The Muslims and Jews were massacred, including the Arab Christians who stood by the Muslims.

1187 - Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi liberates Jerusalem
Allah (SWT) raises from among the Muslim Ummah someone to revive its glory and remove its weakness. Among these men, was Nasser Salah al-Din.
He mastered the arts of war, united the Muslims and drew their eyes towards Jerusalem, so he realized his ambition.
He took Jerusalem back and liberated it from the clutches of the Crusaders in the Battle of Hittin, one of the significant victories that made a difference in the Islamic history.

1258 - Fall of Baghdad
The Ummah fell back and broke again, this time from the Mongols who rolled over the Muslim lands from the east.
It culminated with the fall of Baghdad, the capital of the Islamic caliphate at that time.
All the libraries and schools and hospitals, all of the city's archives and records, all the artifacts of civilization, all the evidences of the Islamic civilization in its golden age, were completely destroyed.
The Mongols destroyed a major part of the Islamic civilization, the most valuable and unrecoverable were the hundreds of thousands of handwritten volumes of books.

1260 - Battle of Ain Jalut
Just two years after the fall of Baghdad, the Mongols were defeated.
The Mamluk leader, Saifuddin Qutz, defeated and humiliated them in the battle of Ain Jalut, which stopped the Mongol tide not only against the land of Islam, but against the whole world. If not for the battle of Ain Jalut, the Mongols could have reached the heart of Europe.
Ain Jalut was a decisive battle in the history of the whole world.
Egypt was the only one power that managed to defeat the Mongols. No one else ever dealt the Mongols a straight-up military defeat, not anywhere.

1453 - Establishment of the Ottoman Caliphate
The Ottomans started to become prominent during this period of time. Their origins date back to the Turkmen tribe at the beginning of the thirteenth century. They lived in Kurdistan and practiced grazing.
One of the positive effects of the Ottoman Caliphate was the opening of the city of Constantinople (Istanbul), the capital of the Byzantines. This happened during the rule of the young believer Sultan Mohammed Al-Fateh, who did not exceed the age of twenty-one years when he conquered Constantinople.
The Ottoman Caliphate reached its peak during the reign of Sultan Sulayman al-Qanuni, the tenth sultan of the Ottoman Caliphate. The Islamic state reached the outskirts of Europe, and vast areas of North Africa. He cared much for culture and science, spoke four languages, and died in 1566.

1529 - Third Siege of Vienna
This event marked the end of the growth of the Islamic civilization, after which it began to recede and descend. Those who follow the movement of the Islamic civilization will see its declining trend after the failure of the siege of Vienna.
The main reason behind the failure is the prevailing weather at that time of heavy snowfall and severe flooding, which hampered movement and forced them to withdraw, but the biggest problem was that the Ottomans focused on the military conquest and forgot the conquest by da’wah and intellectual advocacy, which are more important.

1571 - Naval Battle of Lepanto
It was even worse when the Ottoman navy was defeated by a coalition of European navies in the Battle of Lepanto.

1574 - Defeat by the Russians
The Ottoman army lost a major battle against the Russians in the Black Sea region.
This led to the Russians expanding at the expense of the territories of the Islamic state which was ruled by the Ottomans.

1798 - Napoleon Bonaparte occupies Egypt
The French General Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Egypt, entered Palestine but stopped his campaign when he could not penetrate the walls of Acre.

1895 - Western laws being adopted
For the first time, Western laws are adopted in the Ottoman state in the provisions of personal status relating to marriage, divorce and inheritance.

1909 - Deposition of the Ottoman Sultan
The deposition of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the last Caliph (effectively) to the Muslims.
He has long stood as a barrier against the greed of the Jews in Palestine.

1924 - End of the Ottoman Caliphate
The overthrow of the Ottoman Caliphate, the last caliphate in the Islamic civilization, and the emergence of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as head of a secular state in Turkey.
He abolished the Ottoman Caliphate, and expelled the last Caliph and his family from the country, and abolished the ministries of Awqaf and Islamic courts.
He changed religious schools to national schools, changed the use of Arabic letters to Latin letters for the Turkish language and the Adhaan from Arabic to Turkish
He announced Turkey as a secular state.

1967 - Fall of Jerusalem
Although the fall of the Ottoman caliphate was very hard on the soul, it was not the "bottom" for the Muslims. It was not the end of the decline and downfall of civilization for Muslims.
The “bottom” for us was in (1967) when the city of Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Zionists, and the official Arab regimes did not rise to respond, and the Muslims too did not seriously protest the loss of Jerusalem.
The establishment of Israel through an illegal occupation of Palestinian lands in 1948 followed the downward trend that led to this "bottom".

1973 - October War
After the fall of Jerusalem in the hands of the Jews, the Muslims began to be restless and began to notice the danger to them.
The Muslim Ummah especially in the Arab world experienced an awakening in the form of stronger rallies for resistance against Israel especially from the Islamic movements.
The climax of this phase was (October 16, 1973), during which the Egyptian army fought the "Ramadhan" war
It restored to the Ummah something of its dignity and prestige.

2011 - Arab Spring
The Arab Spring is a huge jump, and the big step that will contribute in building the civilization of Islam again.
It is a major step that will help to make the enable reform and change in many parts of the Ummah.
Despite the setbacks and some disappointments following the Arab Spring, those who have tasted the freedom will not give up, and that the Ummah is destined to progress, reform and closer to glory than many people imagine.

The curve below shows the rise and fall of the Muslim Mmmah based on the major milestones we presented above. We believe we have reached the bottom in the fall and decline. Now there is only one way for the Ummah, an upward and rising trend. It has started with the many Muslim countries gaining independence from the colonial powers. Although many of the new leaders that replaced the colonials were dictators and oppressive, the education of the masses improved and they now have higher ideals and aspirations. This led to the Arab Spring in 2011. As can be seen, the Muslim civilization is Insha Allah on the rise again. There will be hiccups and disappointments along the way, but Insha Allah, there is no mistake that we are on the rise.