The Lessons From History

by Israr Ahmed

The substance of this book is based on the ideas published by Dr. Israr Ahmad in 1993 in the columns of the Urdu daily Nawa-e-Waqt. The series of write-ups continued for a few months and were widely read with interest. The entire material, after slight editing, was published in a book form in October 1993 under the title Sabiqa aur Maujuda Musalman Ummatun ka Mazi, Haal, aur Mustaqbil, and has since gone through many re-prints. Dr. Ahmed Afzaal rendered these ideas into English and part of it was serialized in 1995-96. For putting it into a compact book, he further revised the entire material, added his own sub-titles, and made it more authentic by giving quotations from the Old and New Testaments. Indeed, he took great pains to make the citations of quite a few historical events and landmarks, particularly of early Jewish history, more authentic by giving dates and references from reliable sources. Moreover, he suggested a much more telling title for the book — Lessons from History — and the sub-title — Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Two Muslim Communities — puts in a capsule form the whole spectrum of ideas covered in the book. Dr. Israr Ahmad, as a true believer, is absolutely convinced of the indivisibility and essential identity of the Messages of all prophets. All Scriptures stem from and are parts of a single Source, the Mother of Books and the Hidden Book. According to the Qur’an, Prophethood is indeed an indivisible one cannot believe in some and not in others without giving the lie to the very source of Revelation. From the very beginning of the prophetic career, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was himself absolutely convinced of the Divine character of the earlier revealed documents and the Divine Messenger ship of the bearers of those documents. This is why he recognized without a moment of hesitation that Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other Old and New Testament religious personalities had been genuine prophets like himself. Thus, the true followers of Moses were, according to the Qur’an, also Muslims as were the true followers of Prophet Jesus, until they deviated from the Right Path and adopted certain beliefs central to their creeds. The most important of these are the Jewish claim to election and equally exclusivist claims to truth adopted by Christians. For the committed and convinced Muslim, neither the flow of history itself nor the study and interpretation of it can be considered apart from the realm of the sacred and the workings of the Divine. God as Creator is also the Maker of history; His Hand controls every moment in time, every historical event. History is the arena in which His Will is made manifest, His Dominion is expressed, and His Commitment to the fulfillment of its Divinely ordained rules is evidenced. And yet, in the Islamic understanding, it is not God alone who is responsible for the historical process. Histories of the Jews and the Muslims, being typically woven around Divine Revelation, should provide a Muslim scholar ground for a thoughtful and perceptive comparative study of them. Though in the present-day political climate, Jews and Muslims form two totally divergent peoples, yet striking similarities in their temporal histories are found and pointed out in this book. In particular, there is a strong parallelism regarding the two phases of rise and decline experienced by the two religious fraternities during the long course of their histories thus proving literally a tradition of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) on this subject reproduced in this book.

Genres: Islam

134 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 25, 2019

About the author

Dr. Israr Ahmed, (1932-2010) was a Pakistan-based Muslim religious figure who has been described as well-known among Muslims in Pakistan, India, the Middle East, and North America. Born in East Punjab, (now part of Haryana) in India, the second son of a government servant, he is the founder of the Tanzeem-e-islami, an off-shoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
He has spent the "last forty years" actively engaged in "reviving the Qur'an-centered Islamic perennial philosophy and world-view" with "the ultimate objective of establishing a true Islamic State, or the System of Khilafah." Ahmed is skeptical of the efficacy of "parliamentary politics of give-and-take" in establishing an "Islamic politico-socio-economic system" as implementing this system is a "revolutionary process".

Courtesy : http://www.drisrarahmed.com

Reviews

[farah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first book by Dr. Israr Ahmad, May Allaah have Mercy upon him. what an experience.
It was realities upon realities. I learned so much, from historical insights to present day reflections. The narrative was very powerful, i felt like i was reading a movie.

P.S. I would definitely recommend reading it with your sisters, the discussions it sparks are totally worth it! 😛

[Mahnoor Asif · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The more you know about the past the better prepared you are for the future.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

Dr. Israr is one of my favorite religious scholars. He does the perfect analysis and has a very deep proficiency in topics of history.

Lessons from history gave a perfect analysis of Jewish and Muslim history. The rise and fall of both. The causes and consequences behind the rise and fall. He describes the parallelism of Jewish and Muslim history.

Also, it explains the history of Christianity. And their part in Muslim and Jewish history.

Dr. Israr Ahmed also mentioned the prophecies regarding Muslim's and Jews' futures. He gave a detailed account of the fact that why we are Muslim besides having everything dependent on the West.

[HASSAN BASHIR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Israr Ahmed is my fav islamic scholar and go to person (his vids), a wonderful personality who lived his life exactly the way he preached; with simplicity.

Most of the content in this book is what already knew from his own lectures but still it's a short book and must read for all the muslim youth in order to truly understand why muslims are suffering currently and how Islam isn't responsible instead the only way for salvation.

[Hassaan Bukhari · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
- George Santayana

Dr. Israr despite telling a detailed and brief history of 4000 years has also done a very good analysis on it. Comparison of the parallelism of the history of two communities was done perfectly by the scholar and well put. A must recommended short read if you are looking for a brief Abraham religious history. I literally finished the book within few hours.

[Khalid Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great effort from an historical point of view. The analysis seems compelling. An interesting read for the Muslims of sub continent.

[Abdul Aziz Muhammad · Rating 5 out of 5]

وہ زمانے میں معزز تھے مسلماں ہو کر
اور تم خوار ہوئے تارک قرآں ہو کر

قوم مذہب سے ہے مذہب جو نہیں تم بھی نہیں
جذب باہم جو نہیں محفل انجم بھی نہیں

قوت عشق سے ہر پست کو بالا کر دے
دہر میں اسم محمد سے اجالا کر دے

کی محمد سے وفا تو نے تو ہم تیرے ہیں
یہ جہاں چیز ہے کیا لوح و قلم تیرے ہیں