Rise and Decline of the Muslim Ummah

Histories of the Jews and the Muslims, being typically woven around divine revelation, provide a scholar ground for a thoughtful and perceptive comparative study of them. Though in the present day political climate, Jews and Muslims form two totally divergent people, yet striking similarities in their temporal histories are found and pointed out. In particular there is a strong parallelism regarding the two phases of rise and decline experienced by the two religious fraternities during the long course of their histories thus proving literally a tradition of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on this subject reproduced elsewhere in this monograph.The view of history in the Muslim mind is, and should be, a prophetic one. In the Qur'an over and over again the historic sequence is repeated - a warning, followed by either repentance or destruction, as God sends His messenger to one nation after another. The Qur'an provides a basis for the moral interpretation of history 'The course of history is a moral agency through which the morally superior elements rise to the top, while those who are morally inferior sink to the bottom'. That virtuous living, which is the outcome of a healthy religious faith, must inevitably lead to successABOUT THE AUTHORDr. Israr Ahmed, the founder of "Markazi Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Quran Lahore" Pakistan, completed his M.B.B.S. from King Edward Medical College in 1954. From 1952-53 he was Nazim-l-Ala of Islamic jamiat-l-Tulaba; and in 1954 he joined jamat-i-Islami. He, however, dissociated from it in 1957. During a brief stay at Karachi, he completed his M.A. in Islamic studies in 1965 from Karachi University. In 1972 he founded Markazi Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Quran and in 1975 Tanzeemi-lslami for establishing the 'Deen' through a truely revolutionary process. The Anjuman brings out two monthly magazines "Meesaque" and "Hikmat-iQuran".