Page 142 - The Vision of Islam

Modern Possibilities

intellectuals took no interest in anything beyond Arabic language
and literature. Later, when Europe discovered machine-power
and, in consequence, acquired industrial superiority, leadership in
thought passed from the Muslims to European nations. Intellectual
leadership always follows material advancement.
Western Europe, and in particular, Britain, retained this
leadership from the seventeenth century till the Second World
War (1939-1945). During this period European nations became the
academic focal point for all students all over the world. It took the
Second World War to shift the material leadership from Europe
to America. At present the U.S.A. is the accredited leader in world
thought. This can be inferred from the fact that the majority of the
books used in research in any field today are written by American
scholars.
There is ample evidence to prove, however, that the secret of
western leadership had a twofold basis: colonisation and cheap
fuel oil, the latter’s sources being astonishingly located in eastern
countries. Colonisation ended forever as a result of the conditions
that came into being after the Second World War. The foundations
of American leadership have likewise been badly shaken by the
circumstances of the latter part of the twentieth century. Two
happenings in 1973—The American defeat in the 10-year old
Vietnam war and the devaluation of the dollar—indicated that
the U.S.A. no longer had a monopoly over military and economic
affairs.
Another unpleasant fact—indeed, one of the greatest problems
of this modern age—has come to cast its shadow across the face
of America, namely, modern man’s loss of faith in the industrial
culture. This culture has failed to provide man with the real basis
of life; it has rather created many such complex problems as would
appear to have no solution. War, economic exploitation, pollution,
crime, the disruption of family life and other such problems are
the product of an industrial culture which fails lo provide solutions
in modern civilisation. It is this failure which has driven modern
man into scepticism. The general feeling now is that man needs a
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