If one looks at the general picture of the Muslim world today it is hard to find something positive on the horizon. There is political chaos and regional turmoil all over the Muslim world. Muslims seem to have lost control of their affairs. They feel frustrated and helpless. Many Muslim governments are persecuting their people in the name of Islam. Can Muslims hope for a better future under these circumstances?

Allah has blessed Muslims with plenty of natural resources. Yet, in particular they are dependent on non Muslims for most of their basic needs related to science, technology and medicine. The resources of Islamic Countries are being plundered and wasted on an unprecedented scale, while the majority population suffers extreme hardships. But interestingly for all this situation Muslims leaders generally tend to blame others for their problems. Common and ordinary Muslims blame their rulers. Others blame one another. There may be truth in all of this but what is lacking from Muslim discourse is an honest and intelligent diagnosis of problems facing the Muslims society and nation.

Representing almost a billion Muslims, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) an official organization of nearly 55 Muslim countries has created to discuss and resolve such problems but eventually it has become no more than a platform for passing resolutions upon resolutions of empty words with no actions.

For nearly more than 50 years (reviewing by counting latest years) Muslims from all around the globe lived individual lives (in their own little islands) while using the term Ummah (one nation) only in their discussions. Occasionally we seem some sort of cooperation on issues affecting Muslim lives but that is limited mostly to charity work. It is very clear that Muslims are not interested to develop a unifying plan to meet challenges and pave the ground for their new generation. What I believe that they appear to behave like millions of individual atoms without any strong bonds.

We become sad when we read the history of Muslim contribution to world civilization, it seems very recent that Muslims were on top of the world. They were pioneers and leaders in all areas of human endeavor. They invented new branches of science and mathematics. They not only laid the foundation of modern knowledge, but propelled it to new heights. In particular, their contribution to the world of medicine is legendary. So what happened? How did Muslims lose this crowning position of power in the world? And how did they lose leadership in science, mathematics and medicine? The history of how this loss occurred is heart wrenching. One way to tell this history is to describe the extraordinary achievements of past Muslims. This makes Muslims feel proud of their past glory, the stages of that glory when we talk or write about the history of Islam and science. We will not treat this as an end in itself but with an eye to figure out how to reclaim that past glory.

Will this long dark chapter in Muslim history ever end?