1. ISLAM: CREATOR OF THE MODERN AGE

~ 13 ~ 1. ISLAM: CREATOR OF THE MODERN AGE The year was 1965 and I was on a visit to Lucknow. There I met a highly educated non-Muslim, who not only did not believe in religion, but who also considered religious discussions quite meaningless. In the course of the conversation, he put this question to me: “If Islam had never come into being, would there have been anything seriously lacking in world history?” I spontaneously replied, “Yes. There would have been the same shortcomings as existed before the advent of Islam.” My answer silenced him. Then he had to concede that from the historical standpoint, all that would generally come under the heading of progress had not existed in the pre-Islamic era. All this had come to the world only after the emergence of Islam. He still had his doubts, however, as to how all progress was related to the historical event, which is called Islam, or the Islamic revolution. It is this historical question, which this book endeavours to place in its proper perspective by making a thorough investigation of the connection