THE intellectual journey of the Muslims continued till the end of the Abbasids. Many notable thinkers were produced during these times, and scholars from different parts of the world used to visit Baghdad to seek and share knowledge.

In a parallel universe, Europe was passing through the Dark Age from which it started emerging only through Renaissance and Enlightenment.

Syed Muhammed Zafar in his book Democracy and Islam in History has mentioned that Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a famous Western political thinker, was so impressed by egalitarian rules of Hispanic Muslims that he incorporated the term of equality in his famous theory of social contract.

By and large, the Muslims at the time were considered the epitome of excellence in knowledge, science, medicine and philosophy in that phase of ascendency. Unfortunately, they started losing their worth in knowledge soon afterwards, and found themselves in the ditch of ignorance.

After the Abbasid era, subsequent Muslim empires found it convenient to encourage state narratives and rigid attitudes that only led to the rise of extremism and sectarianism. In contrast, the West started benefitting from the consequences of Enlightenment, and this was followed in due course by the wave of industrialisation.

Muslims lost their glory by forgetting their past, but the West gained it by innovation and having a craving for knowledge. Will we ever see the glory days of the Muslim world again, or will we remain under the Western hegemony?

Hasnain Ahmad Thaheem
Lahore

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2024