Islam, the Foundation of Great Civilizations

History populates our consciousness with heroes, saints, and martyrs whose examples inspire in everyone touched by them such potential force that they never imagined they have.  History gives the world meaning.  In the legends that has inspired the ideals of every civilizations, history's hand can be seen at work shaping much of the course of civilization. Using the powerful instrument of history, looking from the perspective of the past, we can cast the light on the future.

For those who have eyes to see, there has never been a civilization in the history of the world, no matter how pragmatic, experimentalist and multi-form it may have been, that did not derive its initial boost from some foundational interpretation of religion.  This is a fact that no impartial observer could ignore or deny.

These days, we hear a great deal of the "Four Freedoms":

"Freedom from want and fear",

"Freedom of speech and belief";

But these are not modern inventions... we owe them to Islam.

In 632, Mohammed died after founding a new Arab state. No one in those years would have dreamed that within a century these nomads would conquer half of Byzantine Asia, all Persia and Egypt, most of North Africa, and be on their way to Spain. The explosion of the Arabian peninsula into the conquest and conversion of half the Mediterranean world is the most extraordinary phenomenon in medieval history.

Within a century, Islam created an empire that extended from Central Asia to the waters of Mediterranean, in which Theocratic law was the absolute guideline, and in which the peoples, though different ethnically, racially and in their religious traditions, were united by the bond of the new Faith. Only prejudice denies this facts.

As the Arabs were promised that God will make them "a great nation" in the Bible,(1)  Mohammad was the founder of nationalism.  At a time when the Arabian nomadic tribes were widely separated, living in the deserts under lawless conditions, strife and bloodshed continual among them, no tribe free from the menace of attack and destruction by another, at such a critical time, Muhammad appeared.  He gathered these wild tribes of the desert together, reconciled, united and caused them to agree so that enmity and warfare ceased.  The Arabian nation immediately advanced until its dominion extended Westward to Spain and Andalusia and Eastward to Persia and India.  In this regard, Western scholars seem to be at one that nationalism was Muhammad's real and creative contribution to the world development.  They all have recognized the extraordinary ability displayed by Him in organizing and consolidating the wild tribes of Arabia.(2)  According to Islam, "government is to lead men to prosperity in this world and to salvation in the next", writes Professor de Santillana in his essay, "The Legacy of Islam," and adds that ""the white man is not above the black nor the black above the yellow; all men are equal before their Maker", quoting the Prophet's Hadith (the sayings of Mohammad).

To point out the accomplishments of such a great civilization is not to deny its failings.  The original purpose of Jihad was for defensive purposes.  There is no question that immediately after Mohammad died, Muslims undertook many expeditions in the name of Jihad.  But since the purpose was offensive, for the most part to gain spoils of war,(3)  Jihad started to deviate from its clearly stated tenets right from the start.  Muslims started to deviate from the clearly defined scope and purpose of Jihad that was expressly stated in the Qur'an.  It is also understandable that these people cannot become civilized suddenly after they became Muslims.

Some historians claim that the reason why the Arabs decided to invade other nations was to spread Islam; others, claim their purpose was for spoils of war; and still, others claim it was to spread their conquest, put their kings on the nations, and rule over them by collecting taxes.  It was a mixture of all of the above; but, mainly, it was to collect taxes.  Since they could only collected taxes from non-Muslims, the Arab rulers did not like the people to accept Islam.

Professor Will Durant relates: "Although [Kalif Omar’s] predecessors had discouraged conversions to Islam on the ground that less poll taxes would come to the state, Omar speeded the acceptance of Islam by Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jews; and when his fiscal agents complained that his policy was ruining the treasury, he replied: "Glad would I be, by Allah, to see everybody become Moslem, so that you and I would have to till the soil with our own hands to earn a living."  --(Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Volume  4, The Age of Faith. p.195 )

Outside of Arabia, first, Muhammad introduced himself when he wrote from Medina letters of friendship and proclaiming His Prophethood to six neighboring rulers: to the Emperor of Byzantium, the Emperor of Persia, the King of Abyssinia, the Governor of Egypt, the King of Hira, the Duke of Yemen in Central Arabia, and also to the Emperor of China.

When the Arabs conquered many of the lands and brought the gift of Islam with them, the conquered lands were decadent, that culturally they were spent, and socially they were subjects of other conquerors, such as the Romans or the Persians.  Few years later, all of the conquered states, looking back in their earlier years before the conquest of the Muslims, they saw a great difference in terms of their political, social, and economic institutions.  The cultural achievements that had been exchanged their decadent lifestyles for the comfort and the luxury that was brought by the Islamic civilization were immeasurable.  They even regrettably remember that fighting the Muslims from advancing as a wanton attempt that would have lead them towards wreck rather than to build.(4)  Within 200 years, the Muslims conquered a vast areas of lands driving the Byzantine and Persian conquerors out.  Balyuzi writes, "over a vast area of the world, extending from the heart of Asia and the boundaries of the Pacific to the shores of the Atlantic, the power of Islam raised men to a high level of achievement and ennobled their lives. Only prejudice can ignore these facts."(5)   Furthermore, 'Arab scholars were studying Aristotle," writes Professor Philip Hitti, "when [in Europe] Charlemagne(6) and his lords were learning to write their names. Scientists in Cordova, with their seventeen great libraries, one of which alone included more than 400,000 volumes, enjoyed luxurious baths at a time when washing the body was considered a dangerous custom ...[in] Oxford."

Mohammad, unlike most religious reformers, admired and urged the pursuit of knowledge.  Mohammad has told His followers: "He who leaves his home in search of knowledge walks in the path of God..." and "the ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr". Moreover He taught them to "Seek knowledge even in China" (Utlub il 'ilma wa law fis-Sin). At that time the Chinese people used to worship Buddhism and the Arabs  considered them as primitive and uncivilized. But the Prophet still wanted the Muslims to learn knowledge from them.

During the zenith of Islamic civilization, private libraries were numberless; it was a fashion among the rich to have an ample collection of books. A physician refused the invitation of the sultan of Bokhara to come and live at his court, on the ground that he would need 400 camels to transport his library. Al-Waqidi, dying, left 600 boxes of books, each box so heavy that two men were needed to carry it;11 "princes like Sahib ibn Abbas in the tenth century might own as many books as could then be found in all the libraries of Europe combined." 12 Throughout his long life, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (1162–1231), poured forth so many volumes on science and philosophy that even to list them would fill a volume and empty the pen. Nowhere else in those eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries of our era was there so great a passion for books.

Islam reached then the summit of its cultural life. In a thousand mosques from Cordova to Samarkand scholars were as numerous as pillars, and made the cloisters tremble with their eloquence; the roads of the realm were disturbed by innumerable geographers, historians, and theologians seeking knowledge and wisdom; the courts of a hundred princes resounded with poetry and philosophical debate; and no man dared be a millionaire without supporting literature or art. The old cultures of the conquered were eagerly absorbed by the quick-witted Arabs; and the conquerors showed such tolerance that of the poets, scientists, and philosophers who now made Arabic the most learned and literary tongue in the world only a small minority were of Arab blood.(7)

In retrospect, Muhammad came to a people who lived in barbaric ignorance at the lowest level of culture and into a world in which the former religions had strayed far away from their origins and nearly lost their identity.  However, while the Western Europe was immersed in the "Dark Ages", Islam molded primitive Arabic tribes into an empire more vast than that of Rome at its peak, adorned its cities with flourishing architectures, universities and libraries, inventing soap, Arabic numerals, algebra(8), zero(9) , banking(10) , and many more of modern conveniences, and (during its centuries stay in Spain) triggered Europe's Renaissance and indirectly the discovery of America.  Moreover, it was Islam that introduced nationalism in the modern sense --a concept that, whatever its limitations may be, has brought about the social and economic developments throughout the world.  Were it not for the fear of excessively lengthening this article, we would have cited many more of borrowings one by one.  Up until the 15th century all the scientist of the world believed that the earth was the center of the universe and anyone who believed otherwise was considered an ignorant.  But contrary to this belief, the Holy Qur'an introduced that "The sun moves in a fixed place," (36:37) which discloses the stationary of the sun, and elsewhere it shows its movement around an axis: "And each star moves in its own heaven" (36:38).

Today, from the point of view of technological, scientific and political developments throughout the world, it is Europe and America that are the most advanced and renowned.  But in the Middle Ages, i.e., from 5th century to 15th century, these people were utterly savage, most ignorant and violent.  They were totally brutal, barbaric and uncivilized.  If you read about the "Dark Ages" in the history books, they are usually stigmatized as "barbarians".  In the Dark Ages, only few were able read or write, and even fewer bathed and none practiced hygiene.  Islam, on the other hand, promoted literacy and cleanliness.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, which is called "Renaissance Age" in the history books, a drastic and comprehensive changes took place in fundamentals of European culture and politics, bringing about the termination of the "Dark Ages" and embodying, for the first time, the concepts and the values of the modern world.  The Europeans attained all of those values that produced the Renaissance Age from the civilization of Islam.  During that period, the peoples of Europe acquired the sciences and the arts of the civilization from Islam, as the inhabitants of Andalusia practiced it.(11)   "Abdu"l-Baha, the Son of Bahaullah, writes, "a careful and thorough investigation of the historical record will establish the fact that the major part of the civilization of Europe is derived from Islam; for all the writings of Muslim scholars and divines and philosophers were gradually collected in Europe and were with the most painstaking care weighed and debated at academic gatherings and in the centers of learning, after which their valued contents would be put to use . . . Furthermore, the laws and principles current in all European countries are derived to a considerable degree and indeed virtually in their entirety from the works on jurisprudence and the legal decision of Muslim theologians."(12)

Abdu'l-Baha(13), shows how the totality of Europe's civilization --its constitutions, laws, principles, institutions, its sciences, philosophies, varied learning, its civilized manners and customs, its literature, art and industry, its organization, its discipline, its behavior, its commendable character traits, and even many of the words current in the French language, derives from the Arabs.  One by one, he investigates each of these elements in detail, even giving the period when each was brought over from Islam.  He describes as well the arrival of the Arabs in the West, in what is now Spain, and how in a short period time they established a well-developed civilization there, and to what a high degree of excellence their administrative system and scholarship attained, and how solidly founded and well regulated were their schools and colleges, where sciences and philosophy, arts and crafts, were taught; what a high level of leadership they achieved in the arts of civilization and how many were the children of Europe's leading families, who were sent to attend the schools of Cordova and Granada, Seville and Toledo to acquire the sciences and arts of civilized life.  He even writes that Cordoba was the first University founded in Europe while it was inside Arab territory, and in its halls multitudes of Christian scholars received instruction, among them being Gerbert who afterwards became Sylvester II, the brilliant Pope of Rome.(14)  The glory of Baghdad with its mosques and palaces, its temples of learning, its fragrant gardens, was reproduced in the lesser centers of the world of Islam: in Basra, in Bokhara, in Granada and Cordoba. It is written of the last-named city that at the height of its prosperity it contained more than 20,000 houses and more than a million inhabitants and that a man after sunset might walk in a straight line for ten miles along paved and illuminated streets --yet in Europe centuries later there was not a paved street in Paris nor a public lamp in London.

If one observes the matter justly, the fact that why Islam is called "the religion of peace" and how the Muslims were able to build such great civilizations, it can be summarized in the following holy words of the Qur'an:

There is no color or race prejudice in Islam --color is "a sign of God" (30:22; 35:27-28).  Speaking of being just, it says, "And they enjoin what is just, and forbid what is unjust, and speed on in good works. These are of the righteous."(3:110) And again: "that there may be among you a people who invite to the good, and enjoin the just, and forbid the wrong. These are they with whom it shall be well."(3:100) And further: "Verily, God enjoins justice and the doing of good ... and He forbids wickedness and oppression. He warns you that haply ye may be mindful."(16:92) It insists to observe treaties as sacred: "Ye who believe, be not false in your engagements, with your own knowledge.... Or if thou fear treachery from any people, throw back their treaty to them as thou fairly may, for God loves not the treacherous.... And if they lean to peace, lean thou also to it."(8:27, 60, 63). And yet again, of the civilizing of human behavior: "Make due allowances; and enjoin what is just, and withdraw from the ignorant."(7:198) And likewise: "...who master their anger, and forgive others! God loves the doers of good."(3:128) And again: "There is no righteousness in turning your faces toward the East or the West, but he is righteous who believeth in God, and the last day, and the angels, and the Scriptures, and the Prophets; who for the love of God disburses his wealth to his kindred, and to orphans, and the needy and the wayfarer, and those who ask, and for ransom; who observes prayer, and pays the legal alms, and who is of those who perform their covenant when they have covenanted, and are patient under ills and hardships, and in time of trouble: these are they who are just, and these are they who fear the Lord."(2:172) And yet further: "They prefer them before themselves, though poverty be their own lot."(59:9) You can see how these few sacred verses encompass the highest levels and innermost meanings of civilization and embody all the excellences of human character. (These quotes from the Qur'an were compiled by Abdu'l Baha).

So far the Teachings of Islam and its historical records are clear, but thereafter we also run so frequently into palpable lies, myths, legends and fabrications --at times half-truth and on occasions totally erroneous.  This is the truth: I am not bigoted and do not have any other purpose to defend Mohammad nor am I doing this for any advantage of spreading Islam.  I am neither Arab nor Caucasian, neither from East nor from the West, neither Muslim nor Christian.  I am an African-American Bahai, born and raised in Eritrea.  My only purpose is to rebuttal the disinformation that is carelessly spread by ignorant scribes; my purpose is to tell the truth and to dispel all the myths, legends and fabrications.  If people could only learn the lesson of mutual tolerance, understanding, and brotherly love, the unity of the world would soon be an established fact.

Let's be objective here, we should not be biased; let's try to be just, and we should see the events that lead Mohammad to order His followers to defend themselves objectively.  Imagine your child playing with a glass of poison that he is about to drink. Then you break in and hit the child's hand in order to save him.  We should take it in that way.  What objection, then, can be taken to Muhammad's actions?  Imagine if He and all His followers including their women and children surrender to these savage Arabs that were uncivilized as the wild beasts.  What do you think would happen?  However, to force and restrain them from their own destruction and, thus,  freeing them from their abyss of savagery and ignorance was the greatest generosity and mercy. Let's be fair in our judgment. Adib Taherzadeh when speaking about the swiftness of the rise of Islam to prominence makes a very striking comparison. He asks "Which task is more difficult and wonderful --to give life by means of a sword or by spiritual means? Which one is more skillful, the physician who heals his patients at once by giving them poison or the one who gradually brings relief by administering soothing drugs?"(15)  This means that Jesus healed the peoples of the world very slowly, but Muhammad healed the people world immediately.

A lie that is commonly disseminated by many people is the charge that Islam was spread by the sword.  The Muslims are usually quick to point out that the way Christianity was spread from the Church, ...from the church sanctioned slaughters of Charlemagne to the Spanish Inquisition, to the massacre and enslavement of the American Indians, it was worse than Islam; Ameer-'Ali states that "The followers of the "Prince of Peace" [i.e. Jesus] burnt and ravished, pillaged and murdered promiscuously old and young, male and female, without compunction, up to recent times..."  He points out that that Calvin burned Servetus for his opinions on the Trinity, and the Protestants applauded.(16)  We are told "When the Roman Emperor embraced Christianity, the population of the entire Roman Empire, including Egypt, was by decree forced to renounce all other religions and adopt Christianity; but it was not until after five hundred years of Muslim rule in Egypt that, as the result of peaceful conversion, the Muslims formed only 50 percent of the total population.  In Northern India...which has been under Muslim rule for six centuries...where there is a Hindu population of 41 million, against the Muslim population of 7 million, according to the Census of 1931, the Hindus and Muslims have lived together as fellow-citizens for centuries..." and they were never forced to accept Islam.(17)

Furthermore, during the war of Crusaders, what happened in Constantinople, for example, in the wake of the occupation of the city by the Crusaders, was barbaric, shameful and criminal in the highest degree. For almost a thousand years, this proud city of Constantine the Great had harbored and preserved priceless gems of art and the finest products of culture and learning.  Now that the Franks had triumphed Constantinople was delivered to unbridled pillage and total anarchy.  Nothing and no one was spared. All things, sacred and profane, were desecrated. Nuns were raped, churches were looted, drunken orgies were staged in the basilica of St. Sophia, libraries were ransacked, houses were wrecked.  The civilized Venetians knew the value of the precious objects they plundered and took them with care to their city, where one finds them today.  Others, uncivilized and ignorant, just trampled on icons and images, pictures and manuscripts.(18)

Moreover, throughout the Old Testament,(19) we read stories of how the righteous people of monotheist fought and won wars against the polytheists and/or atheists of the ancient times.  In fact, all religions have sanctioned some form of religious warfare to some extent. However, you only hear people criticizing Jihad.

The Qur'an clearly says, "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (2:257) and, elsewhere, it says, "What! wilt thou compel men to become believers? No soul can believe but by the permission of God..." (10:99-100).  Muhammad always enjoined clemency, when He sent out expeditions against hostile tribes: "...molest not the harmless, spare the weakness of the female sex; injure not the infant...or those who are ill...Abstain from demolishing the dwellings of the unresisting inhabitants; destroy not the means of their subsistence....".(20)  The conquered populations were given their choice of accepting Islam or paying a moderate capitation-tax (jizya) which incidentally released them from the military services compulsory for the Muslims and exempted them from the payment of the poor-rate (zakat), i.e., a tax on total annual income, also compulsory for the Muslims.  The non-Muslim subjects were called dhimmis, protected persons of other faiths (ahlu"dh-dhimma);(21) the second caliph even refers to them in his will and testament when he recommends them to his successor: "I commend to his care the dhimmis, who enjoy the protection of God and of the Prophet; let him see to it that the covenant with them is kept....".(22)   The many references to leading persons of other faiths at the Muslim courts, and the long history of Islamic polemical writing, are sufficient proof that non-Muslims flourished under Islamic rule.(23)

The outstanding features which distinguish Muhammad's system may be summarized under nine points:

1. Patriotism was a part of the Faith.

2. Only Muslims were obligated to serve in the army.  They did not pay taxes; but they were exhorted to voluntarily give  the tithe (zeka) and alms to the poor.  Minorities, such as Christians, Jews and Hindus, were not obligated to serve in the army; but they could voluntarily join the army under the banner of Islam.  Moreover, minorities enjoyed freedom and protection, but they must pay taxes.

3. There was one compulsory language(24) for all, the adoption of which was made a basic condition for citizenship in the Islamic empire.

4. There was no class distinction, and an equality of rights among all Muslims was established.

5. There was unity in ritual and religious tradition.

6. There was freedom of thought and reconciliation of science and religion.

7. There was a judicial system with its laws and courts of justice independent of the will of the Government.

8. True and real membership in the nation was assured to every citizen as in a modern democracy.

9. The State was ruled by a combination of theocracy and democracy.(25)

However, it is not very difficult to see how the civilization of Islam in today's world is declining and withering away from its historical achievements.  This religion seems to have reached the end of its road. During the course of history, it has accumulated large amounts of historical ballast.  Jihad in particular and Islam in general have moved a long way from their origin and they are burdened with irresponsible followers,  hideous  misdeeds and unrestrained craving for power.  The most fundamental Teaching of Islam is that Power belongs to God, and God alone.  The word Islam itself means to surrender your everything to the One True God.  Finally, we must be just in our judgment and give credit to whom it belongs and blame the irresponsible followers for their actions.  The current outbreak of fundamentalism, compounded by an upsurge of intolerance, fanaticism and terrorism, is not only undermining its unique historical achievements, but also responsible in the poisoning of the wells of tolerance.  Fanaticism is nothing but a perversion of religion and it is directly contrary to the humane teachings brought by the Founder of Islam.  The purpose of every religion has been to promote unity among all the peoples of the world, and to outlaw war and violence in human affairs.  Especially, in the light of current development of terrorist(26) attacks on innocent people that shock the world, many people started to ask if Islam really teaches violence against the unarmed innocent civilians.  It is because of these kind of people who do not want to be oil but sand in the machinery of society and their corrosive forces which is so rapidly destroying the meaning of Jihad and the reputation of Islam around the world that the fair name of Islam has been tarnished.  Consequently, people no longer see the "salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13) in this religion, but rather what Karl Marx calls it the "opium of the masses." (27)The purpose of this article has been to show that a withered flower does not give us the faintest idea of its appearance when it was young, mature, beautiful, and blossoming.

Dispassionately speaking, the power and might that have been realized in the world through Mohammad are unparalleled in the history of this world?  Has mankind ever seen a great Educator as this Glorious Being?  How marvelous the legacies were manifested through Him?  When the light of Muhammad shone forth in the midst of those savage Arabs, they became so radiant as to illumine the world.  The effects produced upon the minds of both peoples of East and West, and upon the prevailing standards of learning in the arts, mathematics, government, politics and other sciences; the establishment of the foundations of nation building; the realization of civilization and progress were all initiated by this illustrious Man, who, in the eyes of many of his kin, was nothing but an illiterate poor, who perfected and civilized not only the barbarous tribes of Arabia, but also, through the impulse He single-handedly initiated and by agencies created through the generative influence of His Teachings, Europeans were forced to shake off the shackles of ancient dogmas of the Dark Ages that were inhibiting them from progress, and were propelled into Renascence and many discoveries, including America.  All of these constitute that Mohammad was a great Educator and a Founder of great civilizations.

Salutations!

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End Notes:

1.  Genesis 17:20. For complete study of Biblical prophecies fulfilled in Islam, read: http://www.barnabasyohannes.com/BibleIslam.html

2.  In "The Life of Mahomet" pp. LXXXVI,  Sir William Muir, for instance, wrote that ". . . he, with consummate skill, devised a machinery, by the adaptive energy of which he gradually shaped the broken and disconnected masses of the Arab race into an harmonious whole, a body politic endowed with life and vigor . . . by unparalleled art and a rare supremacy of mind, he persuaded the whole of Arabia, Pagan, Jew, and Christian, to follow his steps with do I submission."  T. W. Arnold in "The Preaching of Islam" writes in the same vein: "The Arab tribes were thus impelled to give in their submission to the Prophet, not merely as the head of the strongest military force in Arabia, but as the exponent of a theory of social life that was making all others weak and ineffective.  Muhammad had succeeded in introducing into the anarchical society of his time a sentiment of national unity, a consciousness of rights and duties towards one another such as the Arabs had not felt before" (pp. 40-41).

3.  To the one frequently asked question "why did the Arabs, within such a short time, erupt from their homeland to challenge the might of the civilized world?", many reasons have been advanced, among them are the fervid desire to spread the new Faith, love of conquest and love of plunder. Even though, it was the combination of a number of factors that made the armies of Islam march into lands beyond the confines of their peninsula, however, according to many historical facts, it was to gain booty that motivated them the most.

4.    For example, when, after the passing of Muhammad, Musaylimah, the false prophet, rose up in Yamamah to claim the right of lordship over the 'Arabicians, it was Wahshi, the Abyssinian freed slave, who killed him during the battle, just as he had slain Hamzah. And having dispatched Musaylimah, Wahshi exclaimed: "In the days of ignorance I slew the best of men, and in the arms of Islam I slay the worst of men." See H. M. Balyuzi, "Muhammad and the Course of Islam", pp. 135.

5.   H. M. Balyuzi, "Muhammad and the Course of Islam", pp. 4.

6.  According to Catholic Encyclopedia, Charlemagne ("Charles the Great"),  is the name "given by later generations to Charles, King of the Franks, first sovereign of the Christian Empire of the West; born 2 April, 742; died at Aachen, 28 January, 814." Moreover, it says that "The Franks were a confederation formed in Western Germany of a certain number of ancient barbarian tribes who occupied the right shore of the Rhine from Mainz to the sea." Source http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03610c.htm

7.  Will Durant, “The Story of Civilization”, Volume  4, The Age of Faith pp. 237.  See also, Professor Philip Hitti, "The 'Arabs", pp.2.

8.  Algebra came from the Arabic word al-jabr, literally, the reduction. It came to English language in 1551. Look: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=algebra

9.  According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=zero, historically, zero came to Europe in 1604 from Arabic sifr to Medieval Latin zephirum to French or Italian zero.  All Roman Numerals do not have zero.  For example, if they want to write 10, they would write X, L for 50, C for 100, D for 500, M for 100 and so forth.  The ancient Geez Numerals also did not have zero.

10.  The word "bank" came from the Italian word "banko".  It means a table or a bench.  Since the Europeans saw the 'Arabs exchanging money on tables, they called the institution of exchanging money "bank".

11.  For a brief history of Andalusia, visit, http://www.andalucia.com/history/home.htm

12.  "The Secret of Divine Civilization", pp. 89-90.

13.  ibid; see also Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Volume  4, The Age of Faith,  p. 150-341

14.  For more information read, "The Secret of Divine Civilization" by Abdu'l-Baha, pp. 90-93.

15  "The Revelation of Baha'u'llah" v 2, p. 22.

16  "Spirit of Islam", pp. 180-181 and pp. 302 respectively.

17  Sir "Abdu"llah Suhrawardy, "Sayings of Muhammad", pp. 17-46

18.  See,  H. M. Balyuzi, "Muhammad and the Course of Islam" , pp. 348

19.  During the conquest of the land of Israel, for example, not even children and women were spared according to these records: Deuteronomy 2:34; 3:6; 7:2; 22:16-17; Joshua 6:21; 8:25-6; 10:35, 37, 39-42; 11:8, 11-13, 17, 21.  It is beyond the scope and purpose of this article to go into detail of other religion's killings and deviation from their teachings.

20.  Ameer-"Ali, "Spirit of Islam," pp.180

21.  The Imam "Ali said: "The blood of the dhimmi is as the blood of the Muslim." (Ameer-"Ali, "Spirit of Islam," pp. 268.)

22.  T. W. Arnold, "The Preaching of Islam," 3rd ed., pp. 57.

23. See Ibid., pp. 143.

24.  Balyuzi writes, "The peoples of Arabia had one great asset: their language, an important branch of the Semitic tree. Arabic was and remains a marvel. No one has ever been able to explain how this disparate group of people, whose past is buried in legend and myth, managed to develop such a poetic, mellifluous, highly expressive and extremely malleable language, endowed with vast potentialities." (H. M. Balyuzi, "Muhammad and the Course of Islam," pp. 8.)

25.  For further discussion on this particular topic of theocracy and democracy in Islam, read Professor de Santillana essay, "The Legacy of Islam," pp. 286-287

26.  In separating the killers from the heroes, the aspect of martyrdom, which best helps interpret the suicide missions of these terrorists, is an apparent contradiction with the Teachings of Islam.  The Qur'an's statement "make not your own hands contribute to (your) destruction" (2:195) and the Hadith (i.e. the authenticated saying of Muhammad) teaching that anyone who dies by suicide will eternally reenact in hell the means by which he died (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 2, Book 23, Number 446) have been interpreted as clear and unequivocal prohibition of suicide.  Therefore, suicide bombing, the killing of the innocent and the unarmed are very clear deviations from teachings of Islam.  Udo Schaefer describes "Terrorism: the syndrome of a disorganized, morally corrupt society which can no longer be understood in its functions and compulsions. In such a society people who are lost and disorientated who long for salvation and are driven to perverted self-presentation, who are blind to the realization that crimes degrade the purpose, want to realize the exalted ideas of liberating mankind and making mankind happy by the destructive means of hatred, envy, the desire to destroy and lust for power." (Udo Schaefer, The Imperishable Dominion, f. 249)

27.  "Critique of Hegel's "Philosophy of Right"," pp. 131.

For further and fuller studies on this subject, these are highly recommended writings:

For unbiased brief history of Islam, I highly recommend you to read "Some Answered Questions" by Abdul-Baha from your local library or online: http://www.ibiblio.org/Bahai/Texts/EN/SAQ/SAQ-7.html.  Moreover, for a comprehensive study that proves that religion is in fact the foundation of civilizations, you may find "The Secret of Divine Civilization" by the same author.

This article will throw more light on this subject of Jihad: http://bahai-library.org/theses/dying/dying4.islam.html