3. Historical Experience Shaping How West Views Islam

The book “Islam at Crossroads” by Muhammad Asad deals with the fall of the Muslim world. It laments the imitation of the West which is in its spirit (materialistic) diametrically opposite to the Islamic spirit (spiritual and harmony between subtle and mundane). It argues that the imitation of the West can only be at the cost of Islam, the two being incompatible. It discusses the attitude the Muslims must adopt towards the West. It further argues that the practical aspect of the spirit of Islam lies in the Sunnah of the Prophet, which has been shunned for the visible impossibility of implementing its seemingly trivial aspects in life, the weakening of these foundations has weakened the cultural structure. It argues that adherence to Sunnah and the conscious acknowledgment of that exercise will bring the Ummah out of its lethargy.

The Book can be divided into the following parts:

1. Islamic Foundations are Moral in Nature [Click to Open]
2. The Spirit of the West is Practical Utility and Dynamic Expansion alone [Click to Open]
3. Historical Experiences [Click to Open]
4. Western Education and its Imitation [Click to Open]
5. Westernization is the reason for the onslaught on Hadith and Sunnah [Click to Open]
6. Sunnah and its Spirit [Click to Open]
7. Conclusion [Click to Open]

After discussing the spiritual incompatibility between Islam and the West, Asad moves on to draw from Historical experiences which he argues are deeply tinged by a strange animosity against Islam.

1. He argues that this is Europe’s inheritance from Greeks and Romans who divided the world into civilized vs barbarians.
   1. The contempt of non-European races and nations is one of the standing features of Western civilization.
   2. In this hate Islam is treated differently. Western attitude is not of indifferent dislike but of deep-rooted and fanatic aversion; not only intellectual but emotional.
   3. Orientalist scholars could not treat Islam as an object of research but as an accused standing before judges, with some playing the role of public prosecutor bent on securing a conviction, others like a counsel of defense who, being convinced that his client is guilty, only half-heartedly plead for mitigating circumstances.
   4. This leads to distortion of presentation of Islam which isn’t limited to one or two European countries.
   5. Orientalists are not a special race but part of the whole. It is the representation of the European mind.
2. Beginning of European Civilization coincides with Crusades. The crusades decided Europe’s attitude towards Islam for centuries to come for they fell in Europe’s childhood.
   1. Crusades made for the first time in history Europe conceive itself as unity – a unity against the world of Islam. Modern Europe born out of spirit of Crusades.
   2. Crusades were not just any other wars, their evil wasn’t restricted to weapons. They were an Intellectual Evil Poisoning the European Mind against the Muslim world through a deliberate misrepresentation.
3. Enthusiasm of crusades was followed by extermination of the Muslim element in Spain. The destruction of Spain took centuries. This long duration deepened Europe’s anti-Islamic feeling into permanency.
4. Third event was the fall of Constantinople to the “barbarians” which has cultural and political significance.
5. Hatred grew with time and hardened into custom.
   1. It entered popular proverbs.
   2. During Reformation when sects stood in arms against each other, hatred of Islam remained common to them all.
   3. When religion began to vanish from European life, hatred for Islam remained.
6. Europe isn’t embracing Islam but moving further away from it:
   1. Western Civilization can move towards Islam only after a series of terrible social and mental cataclysms that would shatter the present culture, so that there is a change to make it ready to accept a religious explanation of life.
   2. West’s denunciation of a religious orientation of thought is increasing in force. West’s scientific inclinations make it averse to religion.
   3. In future Europe may move towards pantheistic agnosticism, in which soul and matter and all else is one, which isn’t moving towards God but elevation of materialism to a more refined intellectual level.
7. Europe’s active hostility towards Islam hasn’t ended. It shows decline because the fear of Islam has declined. The mental attitude hasn’t changed at all.
8. The rise of Muslim missions, Christian mysticism, Buddhist Missions, Yoga etc is mainly due to European fascination with an “exotic” creed. The romantically inclined Europeans may be an exception, some are earnest seekers as well. These exceptions are small in comparison to conversions to materialist social creeds like those of Marxism or Fascism.

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