How Islam Shaped The Modern World

When the question is asked what are Islam’s contributions to civilization, often the focus is on scientific development, to the ancient world this is by far the most misleading standard for advancement and development. While Islam was certainly the most advanced civilization of the ancient world it’s social and moral development is what set it apart from the rest of the world.

Social and moral development in the ancient world had a far more significant impact on a society than scientific development, although still important in many ways, this is because ideology changed how the entire community behaved and lived their lives. Social development establishes how people are treated in a society and how that society views and treats those different from them, moral development drives social development because it defines the framework for how that society should live and spend it’s time and energy, this is very important when the backdrop in the ancient world was either living as hunter gatherers or a nomadic life.

As the world at large moved away from this Islam was instrumental in shaping the development of the entire world, it was a trade empire whose borders stretched from west Africa and southern Europe to China, it’s scientific advancements which surpassed the rest of the world where a direct result of changing communities and societies around the world and encouraging them to study nature and the world, this global effort would spread around the world from Europe to Asia to the Americas.

This book looks at what it is in Islam that encouraged this change in so many communities, it discusses the spirituality that shaped so many lives. 

Some of these societies where among the most primitive people on earth but in a short period of time they would set up large empires spanning multiple continents, this processes was seen numerous times in Islam’s history in different regions of the earth. From the Ummayids who first invaded Europe, to the African Mali Empire whose most famous ruler was the richest person in History, to the Ottomans who had one of the largest Empires on earth and one of the longest lasting family dynasties, all had simple beginnings but one thing in common that changed their societies in a short period of time.