ISLAM - Creator of the Modern Age by Maulana Waiduddin Khan - page 9

Islam Creator of the Modern Age
Preface
~ 9 ~
Historians have generally accepted that it was the
science, which reached Europe through the Arabs
(who were, of course, Muslims), which finally
brought about the Renaissance (or the first
awakening, to be more precise). Professor Hitti
writes that Arabic translations of books available in
different languages, as well as original works
prepared by the Arabs in Arabic after the
establishment of Bait al-Hikmah in Baghdad in 832,
were translated into Latin. “This stream was re-
diverted into Europe by the Arabs in Spain and
Sicily whence it helped create the Renaissance of
Europe.”
3
The question remains to be answered, however, as
to what brought about this mentality in the Arabs in
the first place, considering that they themselves had
been submerged in the same backwardness, which
prevailed throughout the entire world of that time.
There can be only one answer: the creed of
monotheism was the cause of this mental and
practical revolution. Other nations had polytheism,
while the Arabs, after the advent of Islam, had come
to be imbued with the spirit of monotheism. It was
this difference, which caused the divergence in their
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