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It was noted earlier that from times immemorial, their
neighbors had regarded the Arabs as a primitive people.
Byzantine Greeks, who prided themselves as heirs to
the great Roman Empire and the Zoroastrian Persians
arrogant beyond belief, because of their vast empire,
stretching from modern Turkey to the Chenab River
in India (all but unbroken, were the neighbors. Both
were so incomparably ahead of the ragged Arabs in
all areas of human achievement that they regarded
the Arabs to be only slightly better than the wild
asses of the Arabian Desert.
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The Prophet and his Islam raised the Arabs from this
lowly and despised status to mastery of the world.
In an incredibly short span of 50 years, they were
ruling over the largest empire that the world had
ever seen. The Prophet also laid an overwhelming emphasis
on the acquisition of 'Ilm' (knowledge); with the
result that within two generations, the Arabs also
reached dizzying heights in the fields of Medicine,
Chemistry, Astronomy and Metallurgy (to name a few).
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Indeed,
the Arabs had much to be grateful for, to their
Prophet, but his greatest gift to them was undoubtedly
the path of pure monotheism on which he guided them.
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How
can God share his power with a partner and yet remain
All-powerful, the Arabs were asked. Can there be a
limit to God's power - area wise or function wise?
Should there be a deity for particular village and
another for the next? Should a childless woman pray
to Goddess X for a child and Goddess Y for its wellbeing?
Does God have children? Does God have a form that
one can imagine, or color, shape features and other
human attributes?
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The Arabs may be illiterates but they were not idiots.
They could readily see that an all powerful entity
can not be expected to specialize in one particular
aspect, like for instance victory in war but have
nothing to do with other aspects of human endeavor,
like say, a good date crop! They found the concept
of hierarchy amongst Gods utterly ridiculous. They
found the ideas of gods indulging in love play and
adultery or even rape (like the Greek gods on Mt.
Olympus) not only was revolting but also at complete
odds with the Majesty of God.
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With the incomparable sermons of the Prophet to guide
them, it soon became obvious to them that there can
be only ONE GOD, Powerful, Everywhere, over all things
and at all times. The Prophet led them into realizing
for themselves that this indeed was the only logical
and self-evident deduction possible if one is to start
with the premise that God is ALL powerful. This concept,
which is at once so simple to grasp and yet so elegant,
is TAUHEED, the most fundamental principal of Islam;
its very quintessence.
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