Got Hope?

Subhanallah, I've just started to realize why Allah stresses on the importance of education. It's as though I've had an epiphany of some sort(My high school teachers would be so pleased). I am so grateful to be able to have the opportunity to go to college and expand my knowledge base. I've learned so much in the past month and a half that I'm eager to find out how much more learned I'll become by the time I graduate, inshallah. Along with two creative writing classes I'm taking a Middle Eastern Civilization class. Now I know most of you are thinking along the lines of "Why in the world would she take that class? She's been learning the history of Islam since she was 6", let me tell you that there is a lot more to Middle Eastern history(and Islamic civilization) than the Prophet's(PBUH)life and the reign of the four khalifahs. So much more. And it's this extra information that for the first time in my life has given me hope for the plight of the Muslims.

If you have been brought up the same way that I have(and I think you have in regards to this aspect)then you have undoubtedly been told about Islam's glorious years,a far off age when Muslims commanded the respect of civilizations around them, when government wasn't filled with corrupt officials, and these reminiscent statements are usually followed by a wistful and sad statement that Muslims today are weak. That Muslims are nearing their end. Let me tell you something; they are wrong.

Muslims throughout the ages have faced so much adversity that it makes our present problems seem like child's play. There were times that the survival of Islam was doubtful. Riots, wars, the assassinations of Omar, Uthman, Ali, and Hassan. The beheading of Hussein at the battle of Karbalah, by his own Muslims brethren I might add. Shall I continue?

Ever heard of the Crusades? It gets worse. At about the same time, the Mongols swept through the Middle East paving a path of absolute destruction; killing, burning, and pillaging. At Baghdad alone they killed between 80,000 to a million Muslims. In order to get a sense of how great a loss Baghdad symbolized, think of it as an older version of Washington D.C. The Mongols not only massacred the inhabitants of Baghdad, but they also burned and dumped thousand upon thousands of books. Libraries that had troves of knowledge in the Sciences, Mathematics, and Philosophy were in an instant destroyed. The entire political infrastructure of the Islamic empire was completely and utterly decimated. Can you imagine how bleak life may have seemed to the Muslims? Centuries of growth and knowledge destroyed. Their very survival seemed unlikely. Yet they did bounce back again. It took the Muslims 300 long and dark years to recover, but they DID recover. And were back on top in world politics.

Some people may ask why in the world I'm going on a rant about Mongols and Crusaders and it's for one reason; to impart hope. Muslims were not always as strong as portrayed; even in the Golden Age. Don't let people try to convince you that this is the end of Muslims. This is just the beginning. We are in no way near as bad of a situation like the Muslims back in the thirteenth century. Let's take time to thank God for sparing Muslims from a massacre that our 13th century Brothers and Sisters had to endure and let us forge on to the future with the hope, pain, and sweat that our predecessors put into ensuring the survival of Muslims.