Introduction
Islam is the youngest and second largest adherent, after Christianity, the world, and the monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Islam has significantly impacted many civilizations and countries throughout the earth. Opinions about Islam’s positive and negative influence on them differ in many respects. Historically, this religion has led civilizations to wars and held them together. Regarding the unifying function of Islam, it is worth turning to the history of Arab countries. Islam not only played a unifying and civilizing role in the destinies of the Arabs, it, along with other factors, but also led to the emergence of a gigantic Islamic world. The arguments revealed below will prove that Islam unified the Arab civilizations.
Historical Evidence of a Unifying Role of Islam in Early Arab Civilizations
Before the adoption of Islam, the Arabs were dominated by pagan beliefs, but foreign religions strongly influenced them. Christian and Judaic communities coexisted peacefully alongside the Arab population in the north and south of Arabia. Even before the advent of Islam, Arab preachers came up with the idea of monotheism. One of them was the prophet Mohammed, who laid the religious foundations of Islamic civilization. The Quran, the holy book of Islam, contains Allah’s revelations to Muhammad. They trace the influence of Christianity and Judaism, although the prophet himself believed that these religions only preceded Islam, with its incomparably more complete revelations.
The Dogmas of Islam and Their Usage in Governance and Everyday Life
The dogma of the Qur’an is quite simple, and it rests on the five pillars of faith. A Muslim must believe in the one god, Allah. His messenger Muhammad read a prayer five times daily, fasted, and gave alms. The Kaaba temple, according to Muslims, is a petrified angel who should come to life on the day of the Last Judgment. The ideas of Islam are permeated with fatalism – the belief in predestination. Fatalism has become extremely strong in the mass consciousness of Muslims; therefore, objectively, the ethics of Islam, unlike Confucian, Catholic, or even more so Protestant, downplays the role of the active principle in a person and does not orient him to the active transformation of the world.
Reflections on the Unifying Role of Islam Nowadays
The socio-economic significance of the teachings of Muhammad lay in the fact that ideas were borrowed from other religions that, in the specific historical conditions of Arabia at the beginning of the seventh century, were necessary for its peoples, namely: overcoming poverty and inter-tribal strife, uniting disparate tribes under the banner of faith in one God. Islamic institutions are challenging to assess unambiguously from the point of view of economic growth. On the one hand, Islam is characterized by authoritarianism in politics and religious fanaticism, which can adversely affect entrepreneurship and the inability to quickly accumulate and efficiently distribute capital due to the ban on charging interest. However, on the other hand, due to the existence of regulation of economic relations, the favorable ground is created for long-term investments, social responsibility, and motivation failures due to property stratification are smoothed out.
Conclusion
Thus, the main arguments in favor of the fact that Islam played a unifying role in the Arab countries are historical evidence, the features of the Islamic government, and the modern look of these civilizations. Islam played a massive role in the formation of Arab civilizations. It largely determined the modern look of the Arab countries because it remains their dominant religion. It is worth noting that Islam has positively impacted other parts of the world, such as Africa and Central Asia. Although the tenets of Islam do not suit every person and state, it has proven its effectiveness historically on the example of the above countries.