Islam Rediscovered
21. Islam in History
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The solution to this problem, as laid down in Islam,
is to refrain from setting oneself on a collision
course with the rulers. If any evil is found in them,
the course to adopt is to give advice, privately, at
the individual level, and to avoid all public
condemnation or armed clashes. This sage counsel
was given by Islam, so that the basic task of
propagating and consolidating the religion might
continue unhampered in non-political fields.
The manner of working of the traditionists gives us
a good historical example. The gigantic task of the
compilation of the traditions in the first phase of
Islam lasted from the time of the Umayyad empire
till that of the Abbasid empire. Without doubt, the
rot had set in in the Muslim rulers. But the Islamic
scholars of this period did not launch any
movement against them. Remaining aloof from
politics, they continued to serve the cause of the
hadith
. It is the result of this wise policy on their part
that today we possess in compiled form the
precious treasure of the Prophet’s traditions. If the
traditions of those days had opted to set themselves
up against these Muslim rulers, they would have
met the same fate as that of Abdullah ibn Zubayr,
