A HISTORY OF INTELLECTUAL PERVERSION

set in amongst later generations and they deviated from the path of monotheism and justice. God’s messengers—the Quran has mentioned twenty-six by name—continued to come for several thousand years. The corpus of Hadith informs us that about one hundred thousand messengers came to the world. In this way a long period elapsed between Adam and Jesus, when God’s messengers continued to come to the world in almost every generation. But each time only a few individuals believed in them. The majority continued to reject these prophets in every age. The Reasons for Perversion What were the reasons for this continued transgression? There were two main reasons; one, political absolutism; another, ignorance about the world of nature. In ancient times, the system of monarchy prevailed. The kings of those days had adopted an easy strategy for the consolidation of their empire, and that was to apply a complete curb on intellectual freedom. As a result, science could not make any progress in the days of old. The same was the case with religion. The policy adopted by these kings was not to allow their subjects to follow any religion other than that approved of by the king. Superstitious religion served their purpose only too well. Therefore, not only did they themselves embrace superstitious religion, but they also compelled their subjects to adhere to it. People were denied the right to think freely and opt for any religion other than the official one. This policy of the kings produced the evil of religious persecution. History shows that religious persecution has continued from time immemorial in one form or another. The other main factor in this connection was ignorance. In ancient times, man knew too little about the world and its phenomena. Political absolutism had placed an almost total ban on scientific research. Therefore, all kinds of superstitions regarding natural phenomena made inroads unchecked. It was generally held that the sun, the moon and the stars, etc. possessed supernatural powers. Similarly it was believed that the sea, the mountains and other such natural phenomena were endowed with some extraordinary, mysterious power and exercised decisive control over human destiny. The end of religious persecution and flourishing of scientific temper was the direct result of Islamic revolution. Islam paved the way for scientific investigation, and allowed individuals to choose an ideology for their lives and practice accordingly out of free will. o