Whilst the Western world has
managed to achieve phenomenal development since the industrial revolution the
Muslim world on the other hand lags far behind. The Muslim world is represented
by an underdeveloped infrastructure, poverty, unemployment and nothing in the
way of technological development. At the same time the Muslim world possesses
some of the world’s largest reserves of key mineral resources. The Muslim world
single handedly possesses 74% of the world's oil reserves - the world's most
important commodity.
The economies of the Muslim
world are characterised by imports rather than exports, in some of the most
basic commodities, Pakistan imports food staples although it produces over $30 billion
in agricultural products annually. The Middle East, though rich in oil, imports
large amounts of refined products every year due to its lack of oil refineries.
Many Muslim nations are
characterised with economies geared around single commodities therefore lacking
the diversification that would lead to a wide skills base. The oil rich Middle
East and the mineral rich African nations are characterised with such
economies.
The Muslim world has
attempted export led growth strategies with disastrous consequences. The
concentration on exports through single commodities has led to most of the
population remaining unemployed and in poverty.
Muslim history and
industrial development
Contrast this with Islamic
economic history which is steeped in industrial development. The dominance of
the desert and scant water resources in the Middle East led to many
agricultural developments. The early industrial use of tidal power, wind power
and petroleum led to the earliest large factory complexes (tiraz).[1] Water came to
be an important commodity due to the climatic conditions and this created the
motive to make the best use of the few rivers and streams that straddled the
Middle East.
Muslim engineers perfected
the use of watermills and invented horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled
water mills. This led to the emergence of a variety of industrial mills
including gristmills, hullers, paper mills, sawmills, ship mills, stamp mills,
steel mills, sugar mills, tide mills, and windmills. By the 11th century, every
province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial mills in operation,
from al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia.
Muslim engineer's perfected
water turbines and made an earth shattering breakthrough in the 12th
century. Al-Jazari through his works managed to invent the crankshaft, and
created rotary motion through the use of rods and cylinders. He was the first
to incorporate it into a machine. The British Empire used this understanding
and utilized steam and then coal to drive pistons and then eventually to
generate rotary (motion) to move machines. This eventually led to the
development of automobiles due primarily to the development of the combustion
engine; this is where the burning of fuel in an engine acts on the pistons
causing the movement of the solid parts, eventually moving the automobile.
As many lands came under the
fold of the Islamic civilisation, urbanisation led to a number of developments.
The Arabian Desert had scant water springs making most of the region
uninhabitable; this was overcome by Muslim engineers developing canals from the
Euphrates and Tigris. The swamps around Baghdad were drained, freeing the city
of Malaria. Muslim engineers perfected the waterwheel and constructed elaborate
underground water channels called qanats. This led to the development
of advanced domestic water systems with sewers, public baths, drinking
fountains, piped drinking water supplies and widespread private and public
toilets and bathing facilities.
Such advances made it
possible for many industrial tasks that were previously driven by manual labour
in the ancient Islamic world to be mechanized and be driven by machines
instead. This shows Islam is not at odds with science as presented by some.
Historically Islam was the catalyst that drove Muslim interest in science.
Islam and the motivation for
industrial development
Allah (swt) very clearly
outlined the aims of the Khilafah state. Internally Allah (swt) obliged the
implementation of the Shari'ah rules of Islam, whilst externally dawah and the
propagation of Islam is the aim. Islam obliged the Ameer to take care of the
affairs of the Ummah as he would be held accountable.
The Messenger of Allah (saw):
"Each
one of you is a Shepard and will be held accountable for his flock."
[Bukhari]
Throughout numerous ayah's
of the Qur'an Allah (swt) obliged the Ummah to propagate Islam to the wider
world, take mankind from the darkness to the light while in other verses Allah (swt)
characterised the Muslim Ummah as the best Ummah due to having such
characteristics.
"Alif.
Lam. Ra. This is a book which we have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that you
might bring mankind out of darkness into the light by the permission of their
Lord - to the path of the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy." [Ibrahim: 1]
The propagation of Islam is
achieved through projecting an image of strength globally, so that those who
have designs on the Ummah should consider the existence of its deterrent force
so powerful as to render success in an attack too doubtful to be worthwhile.
Also Allah (swt) mentioned in the Qur'an.
"And
prepare against them what force you can and horses tied at the frontier, to
frighten thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them,
whom you do not know (but) Allah knows them; and whatever thing you will spend
in Allah's way, it will be paid back to you fully and you shall not be dealt
with unjustly." [Al-Anfal: 60]
All of this makes it
essential for the Khilafah to field an advanced military and have a strong
manufacturing base which not only acts as a deterrent but generates economic
activity.
Industrialisation and
economic growth
The Industrial revolution is
considered by historians as a major turning point in global history, rapid
change at the time to almost every aspect of European society was influenced in
some way by the industrial revolution. Industry on its own became an important
pillar of economic life. Until the mid 1700's industry was limited to manual
labour in factories. Then the British Empire began using steam to drive pistons
up and down and then eventually to generate rotary (motion) to move machines,
which sparked the industrial revolution, as mechanical factories started to
gradually replace the manual ones. Production increased twenty fold and the
mechanised factory became one of the pillars of economic life.
Industrialisation allowed
previously labour intensive tasks to be replaced by machines that could mass
produce at a rapid rate compared to manual labourer. The need to fuel industry
led to the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of
refined coal. The need to transport coal from the mining fields to refining
plants led to the development of railways. The development of railways
eventually led to the development of the combustion engine. In this way the
European landscape changed from being driven by agriculture to manufacturing,
the aristocracy found their influence wane and replaced by the merchants and
industrialists.
Whilst the initial
development and rise of Europe was driven by the industrial revolution, today
the consumption driven models of economic growth dominate the economic scene
and have proven to be unsustainable. The consumption driven economies of the
Western world driven by debt and the need to live and spend beyond ones means
has created a situation where the economic crash has become the normal state of
affairs. Since the first depression of the 1870's Western economies have
experienced the regular crash, depression, recession, bust and disaster. The
Western world has moved away from industrial led development and is today
driven by large service sectors - which itself are dominated by finance. The
global credit crunch crisis has proven to all that capitalist economic growth
is unsustainable.
An industrial vision for the
Muslim world
Industrial development has 3
common characteristics and some geographic specific characteristics.
1. To industrialise, raw
materials and minerals are necessary. It is primarily heavy industry that will
convert minerals into useful materials. The need to refine, coke and extract
the right minerals from crude oil, coal and iron leads to the development of
refineries and heavy industries.
2. The refineries, complexes
and plants are then needed that convert raw materials into steel and cement as
well as materials that will be turned into finished products.
3. Technical knowledge is then
needed with regards to the processes to achieve this. For this the Western
world invests billions into research and development to ensure they remain on
the cutting edge of technological development.
There is a fourth issue and most probably the most
important that allows all of the above to occur - namely the motive.
Industrialisation requires the masses to contribute extensively to the process,
it needs to be funded and may require great sacrifice to kick start the
process. Colonialism and superiority is what drove the British Empire to
industrialise, whilst civil war and independence led to US industrialisation,
whilst the aims of communism allowed the Soviet Union to become a super power.
The Muslim world attempted socialism in the 1950's,
aside from a few large projects the Islamic world remained where it was prior
to the experiment. The export led strategies of South East Asia were attempted
in Indonesia, the Sub Continent and many of the African nations and further
indebted these nations causing much misery and poverty. Today the Muslim
economies are largely commodity and service based without hardly any
established industry. We see that whilst the Western Capitalist world has
predominantly service based economies, this was achieved after the
establishment of an industrial base.
The Muslim world today does not lack the mineral
resources necessary to industrialise, in fact the Muslim world has been blessed
with large reserves of some of the world's most important minerals. The Muslim
world today possesses 74% of the world’s oil reserves, more than the rest of the
world combined, it pumps out 42% of the world’s oil, has 54% of the worlds
natural gas reserves, pumps 30% of the worlds gas and possesses the world’s
largest oil and gas field.
The Muslim lands in no way lack the raw materials
necessary to industrialise. Across the Muslim world there has been some
industrial development however the lack of a comprehensive direction for the
Muslim economies has resulted in very little in the way of industrial
development relative to the raw materials.
Today the path to industrialise is not monopolized
by the West, in the last 100 years a number of nations have been able to
industrialise very rapidly due to the blueprint to industrialise being
available for all. It took Britain nearly 100 years to industrialise, it took
Germany and the US nearly 60 years to industrialise. It took Japan nearly 50
years, whilst today China has managed to industrialise in less than 30 years,
India is still industrialising.
The Islamic world can very easily catch up with the
technological developments of the developed world by making better use of the
resources present in the Islamic lands. Any lack of technical knowledge can be
overcome by purchasing the technology from abroad rather than waiting years to
attain the technical expertise.
The Islamic model of economic development creates a
stable economy and economic growth as Islamic economic development is built
upon the real economy through the production of goods and services. By removing
the role of dubious financial asset markets in the economy, there remains the
real economy where trade, investment, salaries and wealth is generated and
circulated. This creates the much needed stability absent in free market
economies as speculation has been effectively removed.
The importance of industrial
development
The capitalist models of
industrial development via the exploitation of comparative advantage, export
led growth and consumption driven economies have all been shown to be
unsustainable, they have been discredited and are in decline.
The development of industry
is critical for a number of reasons. A manufacturing industry is critical for
ones global standing as it deters any foreign aggressor who may have designs on
a nation. For this reason all of the world's powers developed military
industries in order to achieve such aims. A nations defence capabilities also
give global power projection capabilities. Military industries are also
important because they are at the heart of technological innovation. Common
items such as the internet, the Teflon non-stick frying pan, plasma TV, Radio,
personal computers and aeroplanes were all developed from military industries.
Hence having an industrial
base allows a nation to have an independent economy as it is able to produce
most of its key goods, it also stimulates the economy and economic activity.
Having an industrially driven economy does not mean having a closed economy,
however industrial development allows for independent domestic development.
Industrial development
provides a strong foundation for wealth creation and has a number of much wider
impacts absent with other models. Industrial development:
§ Allows for the development
of national infrastructure, the need for roads, transport and big projects such
as the creation of dams creates employment and stimulates other developments
such as the construction of housing and offices, retail complexes and railways,
trams, motorways and canals.
§ Industrial development
stimulates wealth creation. Each stage of industry, mining, refining,
manufacturing and sales adds value and creates wealth for the economy.
§ Industrial development
allows for the creation of consumer industries. Technology from heavy industry
generally trickles down to industries which are considered the lower end of the
industrial ladder such as textiles, plastics and food production. The creation
of such sectors means more jobs are created.
§ Industrial development
allows for the development of military industries which are at the cutting edge
of technological development. An industrial base allows for the mass production
of arms, missiles, ships and weapons of mass destruction,. thereby creating a
strong deterrent for any nation that has designs on domination of another
nation. Military industries also require a large labour force.
§ Industrial development
allows a nation to become self sufficient whereby wealth is generated
domestically with little or no reliance from abroad. It also means jobs
generally are not lost as jobs will always be created as goods are all made
domestically.
§ Industrial development
allows for the export of goods which bring in additional revenue for any state.
§ Industrial development
fundamentally leads to scientific and technological development as engineers, scientists
and specialists look for better, and more efficient ways to refine, extract and
manufacture goods.
Conclusions
Islam has very clearly laid
out the path the Islamic world needs to tread. It made the da’wah - propagation
of Islam the basis of the Islamic foreign policy. The Muslim world needs to
abandon models of development advocated by the West who themselves never
developed upon such models. The Muslim world has all the resources necessary
and a large population to achieve such aims. Whilst the American century is
coming to the end, the 21st century may very likely be a new Islamic
century Insha’Allah.
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