Impact of Islamic civilization on European civilization in the field of faith and legislation
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Written by Dr. Ragheb Elsergany
Introduction
It is striking that in the sequence of civilizations the latter builds on
the former, and that there is no civilization that starts from scratch.
Therefore, Islamic civilization had the greatest impact on modern European civilization, which followed it. The impact of Islamic civilization on Europe covered many fields and dominated several aspects until it spread across all areas of life in Europe. This impact reached most activities and systems, mainly faith, science, language, literature, legislation, society, politics, and others.
Impact on Islamic civilization in the field of faith
Islam came with the faith of monotheism in the middle of a society and a world that was rife with polytheism and idolatry. Islam said that Allah is the only God and He was far above any physical characteristics or shortcomings. Islam liberated man from worshipping anyone but Allah, Exalted be He. Islam gave no room to any mediator or priest to act between man and Allah. As soon as the world, particularly during the era of European renaissance, knew this pure faith, “the followers of every religion started to provide explanation for polytheism, or aspects of polytheism and idolatry and their customs and traditions, which existed in their religious system. They used to distort it with their tongues and make an effort to express it and explain it in a way that is close to and similar to Islamic monotheism.”[1]
Ahmad Amin says: Trends showing the impact of Islam appeared among Christians. In the 8th Gregorian century/2nd and 3rd Hijiri centuries, a movement appeared in Septimania[2] calling for rejecting the making of confession before a priest on the basis that a priest had no right to this. The movement said that man should supplicate only Allah to forgive him for the sins he committed. Islam has allowed no room to priests, monks, or bishops. It is, therefore, normal that Islam has not allowed confession making.
Influenced by Islam, another movement also appeared calling for destroying pictures and religious statues. In the 8th and 9th Gregorian centuries, a Christian doctrine appeared and it rejected the glorification of pictures and statues. The Roman Emperor (Leo III) issued an order in (108 A.H/730 A.D) forbidding the glorification of pictures and statues and another order (112 A.H/730 A.D) considering doing this an act of idolatry, and so did Constantine V and Leo IV. There was also a Christian sect that explained the faith of trinity in a way that was similar to monotheism and denied the divinity of the Christ.[3]
Those who read about the religious history of Europe and the history of the Christian church can feel the rational impact of Islam on the trends of reformists and those who revolted against the dominating Episcopal system. But the great reformist call (by Luther) was, in spite of its weaknesses, the most outstanding manifestation of the impact of Islam and some of its beliefs as historians[4] admit. Islamic faith with its clarity and purity was, therefore, of a very great impact on many faiths of non-Muslims and led to the correction of a lot of concepts, which took a wrong turn with time, everywhere in the world.
Impact on European civilization in field of law and legislation
The contact Western students had with Islamic schools in Andalusia and elsewhere played a great role in transferring a set of fiqh and Shar’iah
rulings to their all languages. Europe was not adopting a perfect system or
fair laws at the time. During the Napoleon era in Egypt, the most famous books
of Al-Maliki school of fiqh were translated into French. The first of these was
(The book of Khalil) which was the nucleus of the French civil law. It was
similar to the rulings of Al-Maliki school of fiqh to a great extent.[5]
The prominent scholar Sedillot[6] says: “The Al-Maliki school in particular is the one that attracts our attention, owing to the contacts we have with the African Arabs. The French government asked Dr. Peyron to translate into French the book Al-Mukhtasar fi al-fiqh (The short compendium on fiqh) by Al-Khalil Ibn Isehaq Ibn Ya’qub who died in (776 A.H/1374 A.D).[7]
Islamic civilization had even made contributions to the laws of Europe itself. Writing about that in his book "The Outline of History", British historian (Wells[8]) says: “Europe is indebted to Islam for the bulk of its administrative and commercial laws.”[9]
[1] Abul-Hasan al-Nadwi: Maza khasar al-alam bi inhetat al-Muslimin (What has the world lost with the degradation of Muslims?) p 105
[2] Septimania is an old French province in southwestern France overlooking the Mediterranean
[3] Look: Ahmed Ameen: Doha Al-Islam (the Forenoon of Islam), 1/381-382
[4] Look: Abu Al-Hasan al-Nadwi: What has the world lost with the degradation of Muslims? P 106
[5] Mustafa al-Siba’i: Min raw’i hadaratna (From the wonders of our civilization) p 44
[6] Sedillot: (1223-1292 A.H/1808-1875) a French Orientalist, born and died in Paris. One of the Arabic works of Sedillot is his publication of the book Jamie al-mabadi wa al-ghayat fi al-alaat al-falakiyah (The collection of principles and objectives of astronomical devices) by Ali Al-Marrakeshi with a French translation.
[7] Sedillot: General history of Arabs, with translation by Adel Ze’atar p 395
[8] Wells: Herbert George Wells (1866-1946 A.D) a British man of letters, thinker, journalist, sociologist, and historian, considered to be one of the founders of scientific fiction literature.
[9] Quoting Muhammad Uthman Uthman: Muhammad fi al-adab al-alamiyah al-munsifah (Muhammad in the impartial international literature) p 76
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