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In the past few of my articles, I have written extensively, with concrete historical proofs that 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 first thrust from some foundational interpretation of religion. We've also identified the destructive forces that characterize the collapse and fall of civilizations are the consequence of refusal to answer to the expectation of a new age that is brought by a new Messenger of God. In other words, each great civilizations of the past fell into chaos and declined into confusion after refusing to follow the instructions of the a new Messenger of God.
In the introduction of his book, "Guns, Germs and Steel", Yali (an aborigine of Papua New Guinea) asks Jared Diamond (a white man), "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?"
This is the question of civilization. The short answer is because the white people have been civilized by modern religion(s) while the aborigines of Papua New Guinea had no religion or their religion was too old or forgotten.
There are two large tribal groups living in the Southwestern part of Ethiopia called Omo and Afar. Both have an identical tradition for becoming engaged. When an Omo young man decides to get married, tradition dictates that he must present to his intended bride a severed genitalia of a man whom he has personally killed. If another man brings her more than one, she would marry the latter. She, in turn, suspends the gift by a string so that, as she grinds grain, it bumps against her forehead with each stroke, thus assuring, in some mysterious fashion, her future fertility.
As can be attested by many historians, the northern part of Abyssinia (today occupied by Ethiopia and Eritrea) is "one of the world's oldest and richest cultural traditions".(1) The Persian religious figure Mani (c. 210–276 AD) listed "Aksum [Northern Ethiopian city] with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his time."(2) The only difference is because the Northern part of Ethiopia was influenced by Judaism and Christianity while the Southern part was not. Even in the last two centuries, the South still lagged behind while the north progressed.
Another mighty proof of historical evidence is the history of pre-Islamic Arabs. During the pre-Islamic Era in the 'Arabian Peninsula, the 'Arab tribes were very backward and primitive in terms of superstition, savagery and barbarism. The practice of ritual cannibalism and the making of jewelries and talisman from human body parts was rampant.(3) Folly believing that women were a curse from their gods, these savage 'Arabs used to bury their infant daughters alive. In doing so, they take a great pleasure as if it was something to be proud of. Even in the animal world, you would not expect the parents to kill their own baby, let alone burry it alive. As it can be confermed from the Qu'ran, During that time, whenever an 'Arab man hears that his wife has given birth to a daughter, he becomes so saddened: "his face darkens and he is filled with inward grief! He hides himself from his people because of the evil news he has been informed of! Shall he keep her with dishonor and shame, or bury her in the earth? Certainly evil is their decision?" (see Qur'an 16: 58-59).(4) Thus many of the men would kill both the mother and the daughter if the mother gives birth to a girl. Furthermore, if a man was to marry as many as a thousand women, it was acceptable. Most of them had at least ten wives. You can imagine how the inevitable hatred and enmity that developed in such a large families between the wives and the children. After the spread of Islam, the Moslems led the world with their unchallenged ascendancy in all fields of sciences.
There are many other historical evidences where people that refused to progress into a new Revelation lagged behind those who accepted the New Revelation. We can bring many other historical facts that support our assertion. The history of those ancient times shows the prevalence of such customs as worshiping stars, trees, witchcrafts, voodoo, services of genii, and controlling of spirits; avoiding strangers, prohibit the touching of others, even though they were of the same race, country and religion(ancient Indians); the enjoyments of the tearing into pieces of humans by savage animals or by savage men in spectacle sports (pre-Christian Romans); the burning of the living and the dead together (ancient Indians); the burning of human beings alive (ancient Greece); the burial of human being alive (ancient Chinese); cannibalism (islands of Pacific); the practice and belief of violating chaste women in the cult of goddess of Beauty (some tribes of ancient Africa); the practice the of the offering of a severed private parts of a man as gifts (ancient southern Ethiopians); the drinking of oxen's blood and urines and make the ablution of the face therewith (ancient Persians and southern Ethiopians); the burying of infant girls alive (ancient pre-Islamic Arabs); head hunting (pre-Christian Europeans); the belief in reincarnation, transmigration of souls, transformation of embodiments (ancient Chinese, Indians); and many similar unspeakable practices too gory and too numerous to mention one by one.
There is no doubt, in the ancient of days, that the Greek and Egyptian philosophers and the Persian and Chaldean philosophers, who were in those days, the source of sciences and learning, could not deliver their own people, their neighbors and their colonies from these filth of corrupt beliefs, nor purify them from these filth of shameful practices. On the contrary, philosophers have been, defenders of such beliefs and shameful practices. They were even eager, sometimes at the risk of their own lives, to present them as alternative lifestyles or to preserve them from any changes, transformation, removal or abolishment. Only the Prophets of the one true God were able to deliver races and societies from these filth of corrupt beliefs and able to purify them from these shameful practices. By virtue of their creative powers, the Prophets of God alone were able to extricate these people from the morass into which they had sunk, by transforming their outlooks, ennobling their cultures, redirecting their energies, and cultivating their minds and souls. Once the ground is fertilized, then learning and sciences flourish and great thinkers are produced --such as Amadeus Mozart, Sir Isaac Newton, Karl Marx etc.
Even in our modern day and age, we can readily see the influence of religion in our social groupings. Indeed, each social grouping has a form of religious foundation. For example, the national flag parallels to the cross; the national anthem parallels to the religious hymn; the recital of pledge of allegiance parallels to the Lord's Prayer. Even in the modern world, where the tie of the state and religion is not so strong, there exists some form of reinterpreted irreligion-religion that must act as a substitute. In Nazi Germany, the civil theology was based upon a nationalist and racist mythology. Marxism is a civil religion with a civil theology that also sees itself as leading the world towards social salvation. In United States it is `capitalism' and 'democracy' that are the key doctrines of civil theology, which is essentially a mythology. The substitutes for saints in communism are Karl Marx, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, and Joseph Stalin. For capitalism, they are George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. When one community becomes very devout to their religion, they try to spread it all over the world by different means. When one community is not so strong in religion, they try to spread their ideologies (such as communism or capitalism) across the world by different means.
Indeed, the initial inspiration behind all civilizations in the history of the world is driven from some foundational interpretation of religion. It is undisputable fact and also most fascinating to learn that each major world religions --Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam-- has given birth to great civilizations. These historic civilizations all have certain things in common.
Each, in its turn, absorbed and unified hundreds of warring ethnic groups into a spiritual brotherhood. Each later declined and decayed, to become more a source of conflict than of cooperation. This cyclic rise and fall of civilizations --deriving their initial impulse from religion-- has largely shaped the history of modern world. For example, the Hebrew culture derived from Judaism, fertilized the philosophy of ancient Greece and left a code of law that became the basis for every modern legal system. When the Roman Empire collapsed, Christianity rose from its rubble, founded the new world of the West and institutionalized a spirit of charity and philanthropy that still survive to this day. As the Western Europe sank into the Dark Ages, Islam molded primitive Arab tribes into an empire more vast than that of Rome at its peak, adorned its cities with flourishing architectures, universities and libraries, invented soap, algebra, zero, banking, Arabic numerals, and hundreds of modern conveniences, and (during its centuries stay in Spain) triggered Europe's Renaissance and the discovery of America. Moreover, it was Islam that introduced nationalism in the modern sense -a concept that, whatever its limitations, has spurred social and economic developments throughout the world.
Moreover, it was Zoroastrian religion that made the Persians the first most civilized people in the known world. As attested by the annals of the world's most illustrious historians, the first government to be established on earth, the foremost empire to be organized among the nations, was Persia's throne and diadem. Aside from that which is a matter of record in Persian histories, according to the Bible, Persia is also a place where Abraham and Daniel, the two great prophets of God, lived. Moreover, it is also stated in the Old Testament that in the time of Cyrus, called in Iranian works Bahman son of Isfandíyár, the three hundred and sixty divisions of the Persian Empire extended from the inner confines of India and China to the farthermost reaches of Yemen and Abyssinia.(5) Zoroastrian priests, (also called "Magi" or "wise men from East"), were also mentioned in Daniel --Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who served as wise-men/advisors in the royal court of Babylon, with Daniel in charge of them all.(6) The magi are also known in the New Testament. They were the three wise men who came from the East to bring gifts to Jesus Christ, the Babe in the manger. They were the first to recognize Jesus as a King of Kings. Thus, they invented the art of giving Christmas presents.(7) Miriam Webster Dictionary defines “Magi”, “A caste of priests and sages among the ancient Persians.”(8)
In ancient days, the Egyptian and the Greek people were the most advanced. One can ask: 'since did they not worship God the way He wants to be worshipped how did they become so civilized?' But, since they could not comprehend the concept of God, other than through idols they worshiped, nevertheless, they were the only people close to God and His ways than any other society at that time. However, when Moses came to Egypt, the people of Egypt refused to accept Him. Despite many warnings of impending catastrophe, they refused to accept the oneness of God. Thus, due to their failure to recognize Mosses and accept the oneness of God, they perished into an ocean of ignorance. Therefore, the meaning of the Pharaoh's and his armies perishing into the ocean of the Red Sea is an allegory of their decline into ignorance. Right after they failed to recognize Mosses, they started to decline and all their knowledge went into oblivion. Similarly, the decline of Greek civilization can also be linked with the coming of Jesus and the decline of Europe into 'Dark Ages' can be linked with the coming of Mohammad. In fact, all declines of civilization are directly or indirectly linked with the coming of a Messenger of God.
In the times of the Buddha and Krishna, the civilization in Asia and in the East was very much higher than in the West and ideas and thoughts of the Eastern peoples were much in advance of, and nearer to the teachings of, God than those of the West. But as time passed superstitions started to creep into the religions and ideals of the East, and, from many differing causes, the ideals and characters of the Eastern peoples had gone down and down, lower and lower, while the Western peoples, first triggered by the civilization of Islam, they had been constantly advancing and struggling towards the Light of civilization. Similarly, as superstition, fundamentalism and fanaticism started to creep into Islamic civilization, the civilization of the West became much higher than that of the East, and the ideas and thoughts of the people of the West were much nearer to the teachings of God than those of the East.
Briefly, each of these religious systems arose from the teaching of a single remarkable individual. Thus, Mosses became the central figure of Judaism, Jesus of Christianity, Muhammad of Islam, Krishna of Hinduism, Buddha of Buddhism and Zoroaster of Zoroastrianism. Moreover, these spiritual beings displayed uncanny similarities. Each claim to drive His influence and authority directly from God. Each was known for saintly character and intuitive knowledge. Each was bitterly opposed by the civil and religious authorities of His time. Each attracted a small community of followers who (often after centuries of struggle) triumphed over persecutions to establish the given faith as a major force in society. Each taught the same spiritual basic concept regarding belief in God, life after death, prayer, self-discipline, ethical principles, such as the Golden rule, and the like. Each, however, modified the previous religion's social laws and regulations according to the needs of the changed time. Each reaffirmed the divine origin of the previous religions, and each promised that God would send future Messengers with new fuller revelations.
Looking back in the history of humanity, we find ample evidences of savagery turned into great civilizations by the Prophets of God. For example, at the time of the coming of Jesus, the Romans use to love gruesome brutality and violence. Spontaneous atrocities and deliberate systematic terror have long marked their conquests. The Romans cultivated an image of ruthless barbarities as a calculated strategy to demoralize future victims. A Roman or Greek emperor could sleep with one hundred women, girls, and boys at the same time.(9) The Romans had excelled in such practices. Out of these barbaric people, Jesus has transformed many of them and made them saints. They traveled the world to build schools, hospitals, orphanages, etc. No organization could compare with the humanitarian works they have done. A simple mention of the most main features of their contribution to the expantion of education would suffice to fill a volume and empty the pen. Who built our first schools? What would happen to the world if there was no education?
Mohammad also have transformed the most savage Arabs to the most civilized people in the world. 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.
All religions provide an answer to questions concerning aims and values of what is the purpose of our physical reality? What is man? What is the purpose of his existence? To which goal is he striving? They all give objective values according to which man should live? What are they? The answer to the question of man’s origin, nature and destiny has always been an essential elements of religion. The teachings of all religions claim that man has both his origin and his destiny in God. He has been created for eternal life, perfected with free choice, he is the citizen of two worlds, the one immanent, the other transcendent. The teaching concerning the individual’s responsibility for his own life is as much a component of all revealed religions as the catalogue of virtues which prescribe how his life is to be lived.
The most remarkable parallels among these religions are found in their prophecies concerning the 'Last Days'. Each faith anticipates a culmination of human histories when the earth, as a result of fierce tribulations, will be transformed into paradise and the 'Kingdome of God on earth'(10) in which the nations 'shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore'(11) The various religions will be gathered under 'one fold and one shepherd'(12) and 'the earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.'(13) Substantially identical in prophecies abound not only in the Old and New Testaments but in the scriptures of all the world's historic faiths.
These sample prophecies, with one voice, foretell the appearance of one World Reformer or Divine Teacher destined to initiate the promised changes. The central hope of every faith revolves around the coming of such a spiritual Leader often identified as the return of the founder of the religion embodying the prophecy. In Judaism the Promised One is known as the Lord of Hosts; in Christianity, as the Second Coming of Christ; in Islam, as the return of Christ, Mahdi or the Twelfth Imam; in Hinduism, as the Return of Krishna; in Buddhism, as the Fifth Buddha; and in Zoroastrianism, as the promised Shah Bahram.
Simply stated, the histories, teachings and prophesies of these great religions offer parallels far too numerous and too remarkable to be explained as mere coincidence. How can these seemingly arbitrary pattern repeat itself, age after age, in movements so widely separated by time and thinly spread by geography and culture? Does this not suggest the possibility that all of them (not merely one or two) are truly divine in origin, that their founders were each inspired by one merciful God as agents of one fast civilizing process guiding humanity towards maturity? Would it not follow that their latter-day prophecies, foreshadowing the radical transformation of society through the influence of a promised redeemer, all point to the same mysterious Figure?
From all these factual historical records of all civilizations, we have proven the fact that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of [all] knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."(14) Indeed, fools have been falsifying historical events with lies and deceptions devoid of the slightest credibility. We have been barraged with blatant lies, fabrications, exaggerations that are out of all proportion, written without a single shred of historical proofs or convincing arguments, let alone critical analysis of them. These kinds of hateful critiques that have their origins in fanaticism, ignorance, and/or emanate from intense hostility. It is this kinds of critiques that distorts, twists and disfigures the facts by simply pointing to the quotes out of their historical contexts that triggered me to write these articles that are based on historical facts.(15) Because of these ignorant and irresponsible people, in a place where the followers of the two religions are equally divided, it is easy for wars of words to be turned into wars of swords. Their lies become even more clear with this simple question: Where is the civilization that was not triggered by religion? They could not produce an answer to this simple question even if they all combine to assist one another. These critics of religion have so far presented no dogmatic or historical research or evidence about the subject they claim to have knowledge of. We are left with mere mentions of few civilizations followed by pure speculations to why these civilizations were more advanced than the others. One who tries to write history from a point of mere speculation is not worthy of writing history.
End Notes:
1. Commissioned by The Universal House of Justice, 'Century of Light', p. 105
2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#Prehistory
3. In one event, where the Moslems were routed, a
semblance of an altar was set up, round which the women gathered to sing and
play their instruments, shouting encouragement to their warriors. Hind, the wife
of Abu-Sufyan, whose hatred of the Muslims was overwhelming, was one of these
women; she had lived for this day to see her father, her uncle, and her brother,
who were killed by the Muslims in a previous war, avenged. Hamzah, in order to
protect the Prophet, entered into the thick of the battle, had broken into the
heart of the enemy's formations. Now Wahshi, the Ethiopian slave of Jubayr,
found his chance, took an aim and hurled his javelin at the towering figure
standing nearby. It struck Hamzah in the loins. He wavered and fell, and Wahshi,
as he himself used to say in later years, rushed forward, pulled out his javelin
from the body of the dying Hamzah and ran away to freedom. Mohammed fought
bravely, received many wounds, and was carried half un-conscious from the field.
The Muslims left the battlefield. The victorious women of Quraysh now went onto
the battlefield to ravish the bodies of the slain. They sliced off organs, tore
open abdomens, and made bracelets and necklaces of noses, ears, livers and
genitals. Hind made anklets and bracelets for herself from Hamza's skin, nails,
and bones. She tried to eat Hamzah's liver, but found it hard to chew. After
swallowing its juice, she spitted it out. She is still remembered as 'Hind, the
Eater of Liver'. --( H.M. Balyuzi, ‘Muhammad and the Course of Islam’, p. 76;
see also Will Durant, ‘The Story of Civilization’, Volume 4, 'The Age of Faith'
pp. 169).
4. Furthermore in the same surah (chapter), it is important to note that the Qur'an clearly warns to the evildoers who burry their infant daughters alive that they will be held accountable in the Day of Judgment "...when the female (infant) buried alive - is questioned, for what crime she was killed." (81:8-9). Moreover, Prophet Muhammad gave glad tidings to fathers of daughters, "Whosoever has a daughter and he does not bury her alive, does not insult her, and does not favor his son over her, Allah will enter him into Paradise." Therefore, in contrast to the period before and after Islam, Islam gave respect and status to women.
5. See Abdu'l-Baha's "The Secret
of Divine Civilization", pp. 7. See also 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:2;
Esther 1:1; 8:9; Isaiah 45:1, 14; 49:12.
6. 2
Chronicles 36: 22-23; Ezra 1:2; Ester 1:1; 8:9; Isaiah 45:1,14 49:12;
Daniel. 2:48
7. Read
Matthew 2:1,2.
8
We
are told that Hitler's fascination with Iran made him sent few scholars to
research in the Iranian's ancient history.
Somehow he named his party Arian nation—Iran means noble people—and
the Nazi's symbol, the swastika, became very similar to the symbol used the
ancient
Zoroastrian religion.
9 See Edward Gibbon's "The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire", (Everyman's Library) [Box set] (Hardcover), on the
section: "Roman Empire 192-192
A.D." pp. 105.
10 Mat. 6:10
11. Isaiah
2:4.
12. John
10:16
13. Isaiah
11:9
14. Proverbs 1:17, 9:10; see also Qur'an 53:25.
Furthermore, the people without religion have been without progress
"knowledge" of sciences and technologies. The peoples of Papua New Guinea,
for instance, which until
recent years were called
cannibal islands, remained uncivilized because they
never had religion or lost it after a lapse of many years. Similarly,
there are evidences of cannibalism in the history of Native Americans up until
13th century according to this Discovery Documentary Report. (DVD: 'CANNIBALISM: The Last Taboo';
See also 'Cannibalism, Headhunting
and Human Sacrifice in North America' by George Franklin & Feldman; 'Eat Thy
Neighbour: A History of Cannibalism' by Daniel Diehl & Mark P. Donnelly). Moreover, many of the savagery and barbarism in African continent, such as
cannibalism, devil worship, and human sacrifice, was eradicated because of
Christian and Muslim missionaries. For further reading: L.E. Elliott-Binns,
"Religion in the Victorian Era" (London: Lutterworth Press,
1936); Edward Blyden, "Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race" (Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1967[1887]) ; "Times" (London), 8
Oct. 1887, p. 7; 31 Oct. 1887, p. 13; 17 Nov. 1887, p. 13; 31 Oct. 1887, pp. 9
& 13; Thomas Prasch, “Which God for Africa: The Islamic-Christian
Missionary Debate in Late-Victorian England,” Victorian Studies 22 (Autumn
1989): 51-73.
15.
In Geneva in 1977 and in Kingston, Jamaica in 1979, the
World Council of Churches produced ‘Guidelines’ for the dealings of the
churches with people of other religions, in which the churches’ traditional
attitude was abandoned and the churches were called upon not to be guided by
ecclesiastical ‘triumphalism’, by ‘condescension towards our fellow human
beings’, by ‘an aggressive Christian militancy’, nor by ‘prejudice’,
or ‘stereotyping’. Dialogue with members of other religions should be
conducted, instead, in a spirit of humility, repentance and integrity: ‘Primary
importance’ should be paid to the ‘self-understanding’ of the other faith
community. ‘One of the functions of dialogue is to allow participants to
describe and witness to their faith in their own terms . . . It is out of a
reciprocal willingness to listen and learn that significant dialogue grows.’
In a dialogue ‘on the basis of a mutual trust and a respect for the integrity
of each participant’s identity’, we are told, ‘Christians actively respond
to the commandment to “love God and your neighbor as yourself” ‘, that ‘Dialogue
can be recognized as a welcome way of obedience to the commandment of the
Decalogue: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
‘The Guidelines warn against the danger ‘of interpreting a living faith not
in its own terms but in terms of another faith or ideology. This is illegitimate
on the principles of both scholarship and dialogue’. For more
information, read "Guidelines on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths
and Ideologies", Geneva, 1979. The selected quotes are from the Guidelines:
Part I, B 14, p. 9.; 97. Part II, C 18, p. 11.; 98. Part III, 4, p. 18.