By Aftab Ahmad, New Age Islam
11 June 2014
Although the Quran is a religious scripture, it lays great stress on the utility of history. There are many verses in the Quran that narrate the history of previous nations. It narrates the life story of both kings and the common men and their fate. God says that He destroyed many nations after the nation of Noah because of their idol worship and social evils rampant among them. The Quran speaks of many nations, that of Saba, of Aad, of Samud, of Pharaoh, nation of Prophet Loth and many others that were destroyed due to their evil and immoral practices along with their idol worship. The Quran also says that God has saved their relics and remnants so that the future generations and nations could learn a lesson till the Day of Judgment. Quran says,
Fatabiru ya ulil Absar
“Learn a lesson, o beholder”.
God wants people to go around in the land and see the remnants of bygone nations and kings so that they can realise the transitoriness of life on earth and the fate of the nations so that they do not repeat the same mistakes. On many occasions, the Quran says:
“Say, go around on the earth and see what fate the sinners met”. (6:11)
In another verse God says:
“Haven’t they gone around and seen what fate those who lived before them have met”. (Muhammad: 10)
Therefore, God ordains people:
“So travel across countries and see what fate those who rejected (truth) met.”(3:137)
Thus the holy Quran lays great importance on archaeology because it preserves remnants, relics and monuments of the past nations so that the next generations may visit them and learn a lesson from them. Quran does not treat history as merely the tales of nation for entertainment.
Renowned Islamic scholar Prof. Muhammad Munawwar writes:
“The stories of the past related by the Quran are not just a stock for amusement. It is rather a school where the call Fatabiru (learn a lesson) keeps resounding perpetually.”
He further says,
“History is a record of the manifestation of human capabilities. Simultaneously, it is a whip of warning so that man’s endeavours continue to make him better every moment.”
However, the Arabs to whom the Quran was revealed first seem to have ignored Quran’s historical dimension of FATABIRU. In the name of preventing people from shirk (setting up partners with God) they have destroyed many landmarks of Islamic history in Arabia. Since Islam and the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) were born in Arabia, most of the relics, important monuments and buildings were situated in Saudi Arabia. These monuments and relics were a connecting link in the history of Islam in Arabia, like the place where the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born, the place where he was brought up by Halima, the wet nurse, the house of his first wife Hadhrat Khadija, the house of Hadhrat Abu Bakr and so on. All these and hundreds of other historical monuments have been destroyed by successive Arab governments during the last 90 years on pretext of preventing shirk. This way they have wiped out many Islamic landmarks of history that historically proved the presence and existence of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and other Islamic personalities on earth. That’s why a European author Robert Spencer wrote a book titled “Did Muhammad Exist?” He writes in his book:
"The full truth of whether a prophet named Muhammad lived in seventh-century Arabia, and if he did, what sort of a man he was, may never be known" (p. 216), but for too long, the topic of Islamic historiography has been confined to highly specialized academia, with the growing problem of Islamist intimidation.”
Going by the fact that the Arabs continue to destroy the remaining remnants of the Islamic past, in future there will not be a single historical proof of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his message on earth. The detractors of Islam may even say that Muhammad (pbuh) was a fictitious personality because they do not find any historical or academic proof of their existence in Makkah or Madinah.
By bulldozing the physical presence of Islam, the Saudis have done irreparable damage to Islam. There lack of historical sense has blinded them to the Qur'anic message of Fatabiru and to the importance of archaeology.
Aftab Ahmad is a columnist for New Age Islam. He has been studying the Holy Quran for some time.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-history/arabs-lack-historical-sense-done/d/87467