From Islam’s Golden Age to Colonial Decline: How Clinging to a Narrow Knowledge Base Led to Civilizational Stagnation in Islam

By Muhammad Yunus, New Age Islam (Co-author (Jointly with Ashfaque Ullah Syed), Essential Message of Islam, Amana Publications, USA, 2009) 1 April 2025 As education is the backbone of any civilization, a retrogressive nature of education inevitably leads to a shift or decline of a civilization. Quality education broadens the base of functional knowledge, reasoning power and world view of the student. While madrassas were once centers of knowledge that nurtured great minds, their resistance to integrating modern sciences, critical thinking, and contemporary knowledge has isolated them in global progress – more so in the context of India where the mainstream population – predominantly Hindus have popularized modern education and have emerged as a progressive community while the Muslim are faced with intellectual and economic marginalization. This is creating a divide between the progressive and the marginalized segments – the Hindus and Muslim. With time this divide is morphing into an existential issue for the Indian Muslims. Something must therefore be done about it to avoid frustrations among the Muslims and for better social harmony and inter-faith integration. This article attempts to capture the transformation of Islam’s civilizational landscape from its Golden Era (8th-13th century) to the colonial era (early 20th century) as illustrated through the contrasting perspectives of two notable scholars– one from the Muslim world (Altaf Hussain Hali) and other, from the Christian West (Jonathan Bloom). These historical imageries – even if romanticized or emotionally surcharged underscore the urgency of reform, a theme I have explored extensively in my writings, including my latest article dated March 18 referenced below: UPGRADING THE SCOPE OF HADITH TO HELP RECAPTURE THEIR ROLE IN THE EARLY CENTURIES OF ISLAM THROUGH ITS GOLDEN AGE: https://www.newageislam.com/ijtihad-rethinking-islam/upgrading-scope-of-hadith-in-islam/d/134910 The two scholars referred to above and their historical portrayals are quoted below: Jonathan Bloom and his wife, Sheila Blaire are the Norma Jean Calder University Professors. In their book, ‘Islam A thousand years of faith and power, published in 2000’, they examine the rise of Islam, the life of Muhammad and the Islamic principles of faith. Following extract from the Introduction of this book speaks of the glory of Islam’s Golden Age “It is not too much of an overstatement to say that at a time when unwashed Europeans in northern forests wore leather jerkins and ate roast games and gruel when they were not beating each other over the head with clubs to solve disputes, bathed and perfumed Muslims dressed in silken robes inhabited splendid palaces with running water and sanitation systems and ate haute cuisine off fine porcelain while sitting on plush carpets, discussing the subtleties of Greek philosophy.” (page 12). Altaf Hussain Hali (1837–1914) an outspoken critic and social reformer who was deeply concerned about the socio-political decline of Muslims in India following the 1857 revolt and the subsequent need for cultural and educational revival. He was a protégée of Sir Syed Ahmed and penned an epic lyrical poem (‘maddu jazare Islam)’ about the miserable condition of Indian Muslims. His biting observation in beautiful poetic imagery appearing in the opening stanzas of his referenced epic poem published in 1880 paraphrased in prose is as follows: “When someone asked Plato ‘Which diseases you reckon are the most deadly?” “He said, ‘There is no disease on earth that has no remedy; except for one whose sufferer takes his ailment easy, and regards his physician crazy. When the causes and symptoms are told, he finds numerous faults in diagnosis and keeps away from medication and precaution, and grows his illness through shear complacence. He has no affection for the physician, until his case is beyond recovery and he loses all hopes of life. “Such is the plight of that community, whose ship has drifted to a swirling eddy. The coast is afar and a storm is raging and there is no hope for any turnabout. But they do not as much as shift their side. For they are asleep - oblivion to the mortal danger of their journey.” Fast forward to this era– more than 2 centuries posthumously to the preceding SOS If Altaf Hussain were alive today, he would have written another epic poem on the unspeakable decline of the Muslims in the track of civilization that this writer and numerous others have voiced from time to time. But their repeated exhortations failed to make any significant impact. A Clarion call for reform. Over the past 14 years, I have authored six articles on this pressing issue. Their key arguments and proposals are summarized in my referenced article of March 23. The time for discourse has passed; action is now imperative. Madrassa boards and Muslim elites must step forward to implement educational reforms. However, after having discussions with a local representative of madrassa board in Calcutta and the head Moulwis of a number of madrassas who collect Zakat donations from me, and several Mowlanas over the past years and exchanging views with two of the most learned and dedicated commentators on NAI portal (Ghulam Mohiuddin and Naseer Ahmed) I have realized that the vision of integrating civil education and English language in the madrassa curriculum is more utopian than practical. Madrassas run on private donations from affluent Muslims who take their donations as Zakat – a mandatory religious obligation. The Muslims who donate the Zakat into the madrassa funds will not accept any proposal to bring secular subjects in its purview as they fear that their donation will cease to come under Zakat umbrella if the madrassas incorporated modern secular subjects in their curriculum. Madrassa are normally affiliated with mosques and are governed by mosque committee whose members and financiers are deeply traditional. They find the idea of bringing modern subjects in its purview alienating – and so they have resisted it. This brings us to the metaphor of a dog trying to catch its tail and for the time brings us to a dead end. ... Muhammad Yunus, a Chemical Engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, and a retired corporate executive has been engaged in an in-depth study of the Qur’an since early 90’s, focusing on its core message. He has co-authored the referred exegetic work, which received the approval of al-Azhar al-Sharif, Cairo in 2002, and following restructuring and refinement was endorsed and authenticated by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl of UCLA, and published by Amana Publications, Maryland, USA, 2009 URL: https://www.newageislam.com/ijtihad-rethinking-islam/islam-golden-age-colonial-decline/d/135023 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism