and nearer at hand: the civilizations of India and China, and others besides. The Roman and Persian empires, moreover, flanked the Arabian Peninsula to the north and to the south, while both Judaism and Christianity were thriving at its very heart. It was therefore not for lack of world civilizations and global cultures that that nascent mountain—during its formative stage—confined itself to the Book of Allah alone. The restriction was deliberate, the result of conscious, purposeful planning. This intention is betrayed by the Prophet’s anger ﷺ when he saw a sheet from the Torah in the hand of ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb—may Allah be pleased with him—and said: “By Allah, if Moses were alive among you today, he would have no choice but to follow me.”¹

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ wanted to fashion a generation pure of heart, pure of mind, pure in outlook, pure in feeling—a generation untainted by any influence other than the divine program embodied in the Noble Qur’an.

That generation therefore drank from that spring alone, and so attained its singular station in history. Then what happened?

The springs became muddied! Into the fountain from which subsequent generations drank were poured Greek philosophy and logic, Persian myths and imaginings, Jewish isrāʾīliyyāt, Christian theology, and the residue of many other civilizations and cultures. All of this mixed with Qur’anic exegesis and speculative theology, and with jurisprudence and legal theory as well. Every generation after that first one was nourished by this adulterated spring, and so that unique generation never reappeared.”

He then mentioned two additional factors and went on ⦗17⦘:

“Today we are living in a state of jāhiliyyah (pagan ignorance) equal to—or darker than—the jāhiliyyah that Islam first opposed. Everything around us is jāhiliyyah … people’s concepts and beliefs, their habits and customs, their sources…"