Islamabad, August 01, 2021 (PPI-OT):“The western historians view spread of Islam through sword or forced conversions rather Islam spread in the world through da’wah, trade, character, intermarriage, migration, Islam’s emphasis on justice and unity, and the universality of Islam”, observed renowned historian Prof. Dr. Aslam Syed on Saturday while responding to a question on spread of Islam in the world.
He emphasised that a historian should not take the events in their literal or superficial value. All that looks is not real. He reiterated that the “absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence”. We need to look the world as it is and not as we want to see it, he remarked.
The primary role of Islam’s characteristic emphasis on justice and unity, and the universality of Islam remained in the widespread acceptance of Islam as a religion. The complexity of the spread of Islam, which is one of the most transformative processes in human history – comparable in scale and intricacy to Christianization or secularization and which certainly cannot be oversimplified in a slogan such as “Islam was spread by the sword,” Dr. Syed elaborated during a Webinar on the “Weekends of Discourse in History on every weekend” here on Sunday.
This was the sixth session of the Webinar exclusively dedicated to early period of the Muslim history. The Webinar was arranged by the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Centre of Excellence, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad which was online attended by over 1000 participants ranging from students, teachers and researchers to have greater insights into the valuable views of the guest speaker.
Responding to a question on tribal and feudal nature of Muslim societies, Dr. Syed was of the view that the Arab Muslim societies and other Muslims have cultural affinities, though every society has preserved its distinguishing characteristics. Islamic culture inherited an Arab culture born in the desert, simple but by no means simplistic. It has an oral tradition based on the transmission of culture through poetry and narrative. However, it has been the written record that has had the greatest impact on civilization. Islamic civilization is based on the value of education, which both the Qur’an and the Prophet stressed, he said.
“The study of history held a particular fascination for Arab Muslims imbued with a sense of mission. Indeed Islam is a religion for all peoples and all times, and because the Qur’an states that God created the universe and caused it to be inhabited by men and women and peoples and tribes so that they may know each other, there was a quest for discovery and knowledge. As a result Muslims recorded their own history and that of others. But they added insight to facts and gave to events, people, and places a philosophical dimension expressed in the universal history written by al-Tabari (838-923),” Dr Syed recalled.
Prof Dr. Aslam Syed has been currently serving Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr Universitat, Bochum, Germany. He remained Chairman, Department of History, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad and served the NIHCR as its Director. Replying a question on religion and politics in history, Dr. Syed opined that both religion and politics have one common goal: that is to acquire political power and use it to fulfill their aims.
“However, to achieve these objectives, their methods are different. Religion mobilizes religious sensibilities of people in order to get their support to capture power; while politics uses intrigue, diplomacy, and makes attempt to win public opinion either democratically, if the system allows it, or usurps power if the society is under-developed and backward,” Dr Syed commented.
Therefore, he said, in power struggle, both politics and religion make attempts to undermine each other. If religion holds political authority, its ambition is to exploit it to fulfill a divine mission. It claims that it derives authority from divinity and therefore its mission is holy, motivated to reform society under the spiritual guidance. Politics, on the contrary, bereft of any value, directs its policy on the needs and requirements of society whereupon, it obliges to change laws and system of government accordingly, Dr Syed concluded.
The NIHCR Director Dr Sajid Mahood Awan moderated the Webinar by introducing the participants and presenting their questions to Dr Syed for answering. He said that this inclusive activity would be taken up every week for the benefit of students in general and capacity-building of the teachers and researchers in particular.
For more information, contact:
National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research (NIHCR)
Quaid-e-Azam University, New Campus, Shadara Road,
Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-2896153-54/102
Fax: +92-51-2896152
Email: dirnihcr@gmail.com, nihcr@yahoo.com
Website: www.nihcr.edu.pk