Yes, I agree and you are correct. There was an Arab ( generic ) culture before Islam and there is an Arab North African culture that is outside Islam. There are Arabs ( Chaldeans, Levantine Christians, Coptic Christians, Ibadis, Druze, Yazidis, Alawites ) who are Arabs (or Arabic speaking); but not Muslims. Arabs though bonded by a generic Arabic language and common script are highly diverse in other ways in terms of dialect, dress, cuisine, religious sects, tribal affiliations and generally culture. A Gulf Arab is very different from a Levantine Arab.
For the Arabs Islam was a great unifier, ending the earlier tribal conflicts based on the perceived supremacy of pagan deities of individual tribes. Arabs became the leaders of the world from the 7th Century to the 13th Century because they observed the directive of our Prophet ( PBUH ) to seek knowledge wherever it was available. Their minds were open which is why they translated documents from India, Greece, Persia, Rome, China and built libraries such as in Baghdad and Timbuktu. They also set up universities such as Al Hazar and Cordoba.
Arab culture regressed after two cataclysmic events. The sack of Baghdad by the Mongols (1258 C.E.) and the destruction of the Moorish presence in Spain by the Spanish Christian
Reconquista ( 1482).
In the 220 odd years between these events, the Arabs suffered a huge population depletion from massacres at the hands of the Mongols, deaths due to plague and pandemics, forced conversions, enslavement and expulsions by the Christians in much of Europe especially Spain, and Portugal, and heavy losses defending themselves from Crusades.
The Arabs regressed to a tribal status pretty much the way they were before the advent of Islam. Their famous centers of civilization and academic excellence , that bred scholars like Ibn Sina, Ghazali, Ibn Rushed, and Maimonides ( an Arab speaking Jew ).were gone forever.
Yes, I agree. The advent of Islam was a remarkable catalyst in unifying the Oghuz Turkic tribes into a one entity that resisted the Mongols and the Crusaders and founded the Ottoman Empire.
Likewise, Islam was a huge factor in uniting the different factions in old Persia, and like the Turks the Persians were able to provide a robust resistance to the Mongol occupation.
Much before the Mongol onslaught the Persian culture had joined the Turko Afghan culture in a synthesis that proved resilient and vibrant. Farsi speaking Turko Afghans conquered most of Northern and North Western India.
Actually here is where I will differ. The advent of Islam in India via Arab traders, conversions through the efforts the Sufi
mashaiks and the
aulia , the presence of the Muslim led ruling alliances for 1000 years changed the Indian subcontinent forever. Muslims brought into India all the scientific knowledge of the European and Chinese civilizations ( via translated documents ) that an insular pre-Islamic India would never have acquired. The good part is that this knowledge was retained and developed in India, while much of it was lost in the rest of the Islamic world due to Mongol and Crusader invasions. Merely retaining this treasury of knowledge in the various
madarsas,
kutubkhanas,
Dar-ul-
ulooms was a feat .
Muslims brought both the art of war ( gun powder, chain mail armor, steel swords, compound bow, canons, small arms, cavalry, metallurgy) ;and peace ( stitched clothing, cuisine, polo, painting, lithograph, textile dyeing, and printing, silk, hydraulics and lift irrigation , architecture, brassware,etc.,) to name a few. Muslims learned Sanskrit, and translated a very large number of documents into Farsi including the religious Hindu epics such as
Mahabharata,
Gita, and
Ramayana. Muslims compiled the first biological study of India's environment meticulously documenting the Indian fauna and flora. These are jusr a few of the contributions that Muslims brought to the Indian heritage.
Answers to the above:
Allah ( SWT) gives no added or worldly benefits to people living in an "Islamic" state merely because they live in an "Islamic" state . We haven't even defined what an "Islamic" state is.
"Added or worldly benefits" of a people ( any people Muslim or other ), are granted to them because of collective patriotism, nationalism and service above self to their nations. Thus people comprising a nation with a sense of nationalism whether Muslim, Christian or whatever will prosper. Their fate (
taqdeer) will be determined by their effort
(
tadbeer) . A so-called "Islamic state" ridden with corruption, nepotism and selfish desire of groups to loot their fellow countrymen for personal will never prosper. This axiom holds true for all peoples, Our ally China is an atheistic state but the basic values of honesty and nationalism have been restored after a "century of humiliation". The results are there to see.
There doesn't necessarily have to be a conflict between Faith and Nationalism.
Faith and piety guarantees an individual bondage with the Creator for the life hereafter. Basic values common to all major faiths ( or even secular nationalism), such as honesty when applied to the benefit of a nation eventually delivers worldly benefits.
We got more than we ever dreamed we would get when the first few hundred
muhajirun fled to Yathrib along with the Prophet ( PBUH ).
Few of those would have believed, that the Faith they carried in their hearts would spread from that dusty oasis village to every corner of the planet; growing from a few hundred followers to 1.8 billion believers today.
Few would have imagined the military power the Almighty would grant them in every era, as they adapted from age to age, from wooden bows to firearms, to aircraft, missiles, and finally nuclear weapons. Islam has been around for only 1440 years (roughly) . Where did 5000 years of humiliation come from?
@peagle
Now can we discuss Pakistani Nationalism and why we should be Pakistanis first ?
