t Focal Center
of Revelation, and the blessings vouchsafed by the Divine Law--within a
brief interval gathered into the shelter of the principle of Divine
oneness. This brutish people then attained such a high degree of human
perfection and civilization that all their contemporaries marveled at
them. Those very peoples who had always mocked the Arabs and held them up
to ridicule as a breed devoid of judgment, now eagerly sought them out,
visiting their countries to acquire enlightenment and culture, technical
skills, statecraft, arts and sciences.

Observe the influence on material situations of that training which is
inculcated by the true Educator. Here were tribes so benighted and untamed
that during the period of the Jahiliyyih they would bury their
seven-year-old daughters alive--an act which even an animal, let alone a
human being, would hate and shrink from but which they in their extreme
degradation considered the ultimate expression of honor and devotion to
principle--and this darkened people, thanks to the manifest teachings of
that great Personage, advanced to such a degree that after they conquered
Egypt, Syria and its capital Damascus, Chaldea, Mesopotamia and Iran, they
came to administer single-handedly whatever matters were of major
importance in four main regions of the globe.

The Arabs then excelled all the peoples of the world in science and the
arts, in industry and invention, in philosophy, government and moral
character. And truly, the rise of this brutish and despicable element, in
such a short interval, to the supreme heights of human perfection, is the
greatest demonstration of the rightfulness of the Lord Muhammad's
Prophethood.

In the early ages of Islam the peoples of Europe acquired the sciences and
arts of civilization from Islam as practiced by the inhabitants of
Andalusia. A careful and thorough investigation of the historical record
will establish the fact that the major part of the civilization of Europe
is derived from Islam; for all the writings of Muslim scholars and divines
and philosophers were gradually collected in Europe and were with the most
painstaking care weighed and debated at academic gatherings and in the
centers of learning, after which their valued contents would be put to
use. Today, numerous copies of the works of Muslim scholars which are not
to be found in Islamic countries, are available in the libraries of
Europe. Furthermore, the laws and principles current