WHY AND HOW WERE MUSLIMS MADE TO LAG BEHIND? (I)

_{We see that in every age of history millions of people bearing various different lineages of blood, speaking a variety of languages and, attached to different customs and traditions have established an empire, gathering around one belief or one idea, paying no attention to such differences.}

_{Chronologically, we come across the greatest, the most beautiful of the empires or states established as such during the Middle Ages. We know that great masses of people of various races became one single ummat and established an Islamic state, and then an Islamic empire, based upon the Islamic religion, the one and only undefiled, unchanged religion. The basis that kept this state and empire on its feet was the principles of Islam, such as studiousness, justice, goodness and reverence, which were commanded by Allâhu ta’âlâ. The power that took the Ottoman Turks from the riverside of Sakarya to the gates of Vienna in a short time was the lightsome way, the progressive way of the soul and body: the Islamic faith, to which Sultan ’Uthman and his children held so fast. Since there is no racism in Islam, each Muslim is a brother to another.}

_{If the Turanian Huns, who went to force open the gates of France, the only fortress of Christian Europe, with a seven hundred thousand strong army under the command of Attila [d. 168 years before the Hegira] had gone there after having been honoured with Islam and had taken Islamic morals and the Islamic spirit with them, would not Western Christians, who had become disgusted with the oppression of priests and the tyranny of kings, have embraced them, like the Christians of Damascus, who admired the justice, the mercy in Hadrat ’Umar’s army, and embraced Islam willingly? And what would have been the religious make-up of today’s Europe?}