The current state of Islam
Centuries have weighed heavily on the Arabs, and their civilization has long since been consigned to history. Yet, we do not say that they have completely died out. Their religion and language, which they introduced into the world, are now more widespread than they were in their prime. Arabic is the common language from Marrakesh to India, and Islam is still making progress.
Geographers estimate the number of Muslims in the world at 110 million, but this number, which was established when we were ignorant of the spread of Islam in China and Central Africa, is less than In fact, today the Qur’an is taught, except in the Arabian Peninsula, in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Asia Minor, Persia, a significant part of Russia, Africa, China, and India. The Qur’an has also been taught in Madagascar and South Africa, and has been known in the Malay Islands. It was taught to the people of Java and Sumatra, and it has advanced to New Guinea and entered America with African Negroes.
The amazing ease with which the Qur’an spread throughout the world is completely comprehensive. Wherever a Muslim goes, he leaves his religion behind him. The number of followers of the Prophet reached many millions in the countries that the Arabs entered for the purpose of trade, not as conquerors, such as some parts of China, Central Africa, and Russia. These millions embraced Islam voluntarily, not by force. It is not unheard of that necessity dictated sending armies with these Arab merchant missionaries to help them. The scope of Islam expanded after these people established it wherever it was. Islam was not eradicated after it had been firmly established in Russia for several centuries. Today, fifty million Muslims live in India. Protestant missionaries have not succeeded in any Christianization in India, despite its government’s support for them. We do not know the exact number of Muslims in Africa, but contemporary pioneers, the more they delve into it, the more they find tribes preaching Islam. Now Islam is civilizing African peoples, wherever they are, demonstrating its good work everywhere.
Monsieur J. Duval was right when he said: “Among the virtues of Islam are the elimination of idols and monuments from the world, the prohibition of human sacrifices and cannibalism, the preservation of women’s rights, the restriction and regulation of polygamy without achieving absolute truth, the strengthening of family ties and the making of slaves a member of them, the opening of many easy doors for their emancipation, the refinement of public natures and the elevation of their level through prayer and zakat, the sheltering of strangers, the cultivation of feelings of justice and benevolence, the teaching of guardians that they have the same duties as their subjects, and the establishment of society on organized foundations. If injustice is found in most cases, as in any other place, there is in divine justice what mitigates its impact, for in the hope of the afterlife, where there is happiness and good reward, there is support for the victims of time or injustice. These are some of the virtues that indicate everywhere the spread of Islam among uncivilized societies.”
Islam is making amazing progress in China, and its most brilliant victory is being achieved in China, where European missionaries were forced to admit defeat. We have seen that the number of Muhammad’s followers in China is twenty million, and that in the city of Beijing alone there are one hundred thousand Muslims.
Professor Wasiliev said: “Islam entered the kingdom of the Son of Heaven just as Buddhism entered it , and Islam will take the place of the Shakyamuni religion, and the Muslims of China have no doubt about it. This matter is of great importance. If such an event should occur and China, which contains at least a third of humanity, embraces the religion of Islam, the political relations of the ancient world will be greatly changed, and the religion of Mohammed, which then extends from Gibraltar to the Pacific Ocean, will once again threaten Christianity.”
The book has been completed, and to summarize it in a few words, we say: The nations that surpassed the Arabs in civilization are extremely few, and we do not remember a nation, like the Arabs, that achieved as many great innovations in a short time as they did, and the Arabs established one of the most powerful religions that have prevailed in the world, they established a religion whose influence is still more vital than that of any other religion, and they established, from the political point of view, one of the greatest states that history has known, and they civilized Europe in culture and morals, so the races that rose to the heights of the Arabs and sank to the depths of their decline are rare, and no race has appeared, like the Arabs, that is fit to be a prominent example of the influence of the factors that dominate the rise of states, their greatness and their decline.
