Just Three Cultures

Just three cultures produced the greatest innovations, and the greatest advancements, that we have seen to the human condition. 

And because out of many, those three must have some commonality about them. 

For the Greeks democracy was only for the free male, non servile classes, whilst those who did not fit that descriptive were born to serve and were never free. 

And you will never find any history about that underclass that propped up the Greek City-States. *1

The Industrial Revolution followed on from the age of conquest, and empire, that saw the British Monarch granting exclusive licences to essentially exploit anything and everything that could be had elsewhere. As a self-reenforcing system this meant that your wealth was dependent both operationally and “legally” on your support for the Monarch. 

This is saw great wealth accumulated by a certain class of people. 

Both of the above two cultures produced classes of people who had the leisure time to think deeply about the World and our place within it, and then to experiment. 

After all that endeavour costs time, effort and money. And of itself does not produce any wealth. 

Indeed industry is born of innovation, but innovation is rarely had when you focus on healthy cash flows. *2

The anomaly then is the Islamic culture, that is completely at odds with exploitative behaviour. So much so that the Most Gracious and His Messenger make war upon those who guarantee themselves a profit, and forego any commensurate risk. *3

What is it then about Muslim culture that saw them have so much leisure time and opportunity to innovate, deliberate and think so deeply about all things. 

For sure the Quran has been, and can continue to be, a phenomenal spur towards the advancement of Mankind, wholesale. And The Most Gracious has Himself promised to collect it, to protect it and to explain it. 

However something else must also be at play within early Muslim culture that caused it to excel and innovate in Science, Technology, and related areas. 

Adam Smith in his seminal work “The Wealth of Nations” argued that free trade makes everyone wealthier precisely because it makes everything all the more affordable. *4

The fundamental building block of Muslim society is the family, but the primary endeavour of each individual that occupies him five times a day is the SALAAT. It is this necessity to come together as a collective and to pray that made us, and can make us again, all wealthier. And this is not in regards of Akhira. 

If you are unsure about this then read and contemplate the last few verses of S Jumaa’. 

When the Most Gracious says that He is the best of providers, what He is actually saying is that by heeding His words He will literally make us all wealthier. 

And is not the best way of doing such a thing by making all things all the more affordable?

Recall then the companion of the Messenger (saw) who whilst sojourned, isolating himself in the Mosque with the Most Gracious, during the last ten Itikaaf days and night of blessed Ramadan. 

He heard of a brothers need and ran hastily from his preoccupation worshiping our Creator in order to fulfil that need. 

He did so because he recalled the Messenger’s (saw) words that to fulfil the needs of a brother is better than Itikaaf. 

When you have a society of people that each care deeply for one another, then the Most Gracious makes you all by return wealthier. 

The coming together five times a day not only allows for us to fulfil each others’ needs but also is the basis for collaborative and generative work. 

And it is this wealth that allowed our forbears to innovate, and think deeply about our cosmos and our place within it.

Creating within us brilliant thinkers whose light of knowledge still illuminates our way and the way of our Messenger (saw). That we too can again create a society that excels in all things. 

*KNOWLEDGE is sought through study and contemplation. Not lectures, nor this above*

*1 if no history were ever written about them, then that implies that they never once revolted, being so oppressed that they could not. 

*2 look at the story for the invention of the locomotive. 

*3 see v277-280 Al-Baqara. 

The essential defining characteristic of Ribaa’ is that it is accumulating wealth in a risk free manner. 

The third pillar of Islam, Zakat is so constructed that it is against the accumulation of wealth. 

*4 that when free trade occurs, then each Nation is free to excel in that which it does best, and then bring those things to a common marketplace.