Fashion trends have undergone a massive change in the last few decades. Today, where sleeveless and skin tight clothing might be in, there studying history is currently perceived to be unfashionable.

What the youth of today questions, but is completely unable to answer, is “why do we need to study History?” and also, “ why is the study of History important to modern life?” While many people might let go off these questions, I consider them worthwhile and therefore we must go on to introspect them in greater detail. By studying History, we learn about our existence through the learning and analyses of the past, our religion, our culture and traditions. Its History that teaches Muslims about the sanctity of Eid-UL- Adha and the Christians about Thanksgiving.

Its through History that we learn about the sacrifices made by past leaders. History has enough written material on the fearless leadership rendered by George Washington for the American people and by Mohammed Ali Jinnah for the Muslims of South Asia. Both became the founding leaders of the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan respectively. It is history that teaches the youngsters of today’s Pakistan that secularism was the main ideology that Mr. Jinnah, i.e. the Quaid-E-Azam has breathed and planned for Pakistan and the rest, as they say is History.

Mr. Jinnah never jeopardise the cause of South Asian Muslims as their rights and their cause was the foremost agenda of his long and illustrious political career. This fact is correctly proven by his fourteen points of 1930, the Pakistan resolution of 1940 and much before that, his joint membership of the Hindu National Congress and the All India Muslim League and his early work as a highly qualified hard-working barrister (which made him popular as the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity). They say that politics is a gentleman’s game. It truly is and Jinnah is a classic example of this much too trumpeted-cum-misunderstood saying. What History teaches us, is that Jinnah was a politician of a high calibre and he never resorted to any incorrect or corrupt means to achieve what he wanted to—all the allegations against him being more than partially irrelevant.

George Washington’s case was not all that different. His fearless leadership in wartime and during the American independence movement made him the first president of what is now the sole superpower of the world.

History has explained us many good things and contains solutions to most of the problems that modern human society is dealing with. There have been many more leaders who stood up for the rights of their own people and defiantly battled all the odds in their way and Turkey’s Mustafa Kemal Attaturk being one of them. Since the abolition of the Islamic caliphate, Mustafa Kemal laid down the foundations of modern Turkey on purely secularist grounds. Initially, he faced a lot of hostile criticism from all sections of the Muslim world, including the Arabs. However, this leader had the courage to defy them all and continue on with his reform agenda with all the Western support that he had. Kemal’s rule did not only modernise Turkey, but also teaches us that how can a Muslim country remain essentially secular and progress oriented. What I mean to say here is that today, Turkey is unarguably the most developed and progressive Muslim country, no matter whatever you say about the political secularism prevalent in that country. A study of Turkish History in the post-caliphate era would actually provide us solutions to many of the problems faced by Muslim countries today, but unfortunately we fail to learn those solutions (or adequately address our problems and issues in that case) because we have never given History, and for that matter any other social science subject the importance and status that they deserve. A detailed, free and impartial study of History is not encouraged at High school level in Muslim societies, leave aside universities. Turkey’s growth and rise as both, a Muslim and a secular country has been due to many factors out of which, the country’s geographic location being the first and foremost. Turkey is a land divided between Asia and Europe.

Western and Arab cultures kind of converge in Turkey because on its south, it shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Syria, while in the north it shares its borders with Greece. The Turkish people have done a brilliant job at proactively mixing the two cultures in order to establish their own secular identity and to get the best out of both, the European culture and traditions as well as Muslim/Arab heritage. Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and many others have failed to learn or reap anything from Turkey’s success. However, there has been one Muslim country that has truly learnt from the Turkish experience, Malaysia. What Mustafa Kemal was for Turkey, Mahatir Mohammed was for Malaysia. Today, both are credited for making their respective countries economic powerhouses which have seen exponential growth along with social and political progress on secular grounds for the past many decades. Others have failed to learn from them because of the fact that an analytical study of History has generally never been encouraged.

Here we must look into as to why analytical studies of History are never undertaken at educational institutions. Although it is only us who can be blamed for our own short comings, even the West has had a role to play in this. On our part, theocratic rulers like the House of Saud and rulers like Saddam Hussein and Zia UL Haq had never allowed a free and introspective study of History as it was. The latter’s fidgeting with Pakistan Studies does give us some clues about how the study of History has been harmed in Pakistan. By imposing a really screwed version of Pakistan’s History and Geography, forcedly knitted together as Pakistan Studies, Pakistan’s third military president just made sure that students lost more and more interest for studying and also, fields like journalism and policy planning were not too free and open in those days, thus youngsters were never attracted towards these fields, which require good knowledge of History and social sciences.

Until recent times, the media and research sectors have never been allowed a free and fair functioning, the judiciary not being indifferent. Here it must be pointed out that the three social forces stated above could have led to formation and propagation of secularism in Muslim societies and politics. This has been the case actually because History and social sciences have not been objectively studied. Those sectors and functional prerequisites that require knowledge and academic qualifications in History and Social science subjects have not been allowed to freely function, but instead have been like tools in the hands of the rulers and the bureaucracy. The rulers and the bureaucrats use these very tools to deceive, betray and fool the masses. This has been going on and on, although current circumstances have given us some encouraging signals.

A study of History is important, because a study of History allows us to learn about different opinions and perspectives given in by writers and intellectuals (from various backgrounds) on the same leader and/or stuff related to the past. A well balanced study of History that incorporates all the different points of views, opinions and perspectives through a wide range of reading, learning, understanding and debate would surely help in developing secularist values on a social level. Such a beautiful study of History would definitely allow us to actually apply what we have learnt in order to solve our problems and proceed with flying colours.

History as a means of improving our social life, understanding and standing.

A sound knowledge of History is extremely essential when it comes to developing a good understanding of the international human society. At times it happens that to fully understand certain contexts of modern politics and society, knowledge of History is essential. Why have the intellectuals (like Noam Chomsky) always ended up giving concrete predictions and analyses of events happening in the Middle East? This has been the case because all these people, for example Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky, Najmuddin A. Shaikh,etc. have not only worked in the Middle East, with the Arabs for over two decades, but also have they attained strong in-depth knowledge about the region’s recent and distant History. Those who have studied the History of the Middle East from a neutral position (the other two being one each of Wahabi Islam and Zionism) know that America’s interests in the Middle East developed over a period of more than a century. America’s role in the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate, the split of the Muslim empire into separate countries in the Middle East and the rise of Mustafa Kemal Attaturk in Turkey are witnesses of this fact. Oil and Israel came into the equation much later. After the first World War, what happened was that the British and the Americans wanted to establish their hold over the world and the foremost challenge posed to them was the Ottoman Caliphate and they had a golden chance of overpowering the caliphate once the War to end all wars was over. That is actually the point in History where the Americans had defined and demarcated their futuristic interests in the Middle East and it was this mindset (of pursuing their own goals, come what may) that determined their support for Zionist Israel in the heart of the Arab world. Students of History, international law, journalism and other humanities would be knowing these facts well and this is why professionals belonging to these fields often gel in with concrete points and brilliant analysis.

History helps us understand social life in a much better way. The generations that came and went by in the last few centuries have been intellectually ruled by Germans and the British. Some of the world’s finest intellectuals were Germans or Britons, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Einstein and Fritz Haber being among the few. A study of the works of Sociologists such as Marx, Weber and Anthony Giddens, would lead us to many solid conclusions regarding labour trends, female subjugation and a host of other issues that confront the modern society, but have their roots in History.

Consider Max Weber’s Social Action theory. Weber had clearly stated in the early years of the last century that the human society would proceed in the direction where actions of individuals would take it. This has actually happened. The waves of modern day globalisation has not only made much of the Western society materialistic, but is also fuelling a dangerous gap between the rich and the poor and the haves and have nots. Weber’s social action theory advocates that social actions, i.e. performance and progress of a society basically depend upon deeds of the individuals. Where is our society heading towards and from where did it start? History tells us that the current social setup has its stronger roots in the World order that came into existence after the Second World War. History proves Weber’s social action thesis correct. Actions of masses brought about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the apartheid in South Africa, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. History has been teaching us all these and many more prolific lessons derived from the past. However, we would only learn from them if we bother to go through the weighty documentations, books, magazines, etc. which lay on the racks and shelves of libraries and book stores.


The point that should be put forward now is that yes, History has the capacity of solving many of our social problems which are different from developing a secular outlook. If studied in combination with other social science subjects, History can be a catalyst between the growing misconceptions between the Muslim world and the West. Both have quite a few things common in their History. Firstly, the Renaissance of Europe was fuelled by and through Spain. It was Spain, and not Italy (as perceived) where the foundations for Europe’s rebirth of learning were laid. It is said that hundreds of European scientists had actually had their research, learning and education from places like Egypt’s Al-Azhar and those large, well equipped and lavish libraries of Cordoba, Madrid and Barcelona. Europeans were astonished to see the levels of progress and development made by the Muslims when Spain fell to the forces of Queen Isabella in 1492.

Europe and the Islamic world have a lot of traditional and cultural heritage in common. The French, British and Portuguese ruled large belts of Muslim inhabited lands (which were then their colonies) and that’s how the Muslims of South Asia learnt English!

Studying History shall be rendered necessary. An often repeated statement is that History teaches us about the mistakes committed in the past and tells us how not to repeat them. Consider the following cases. History tells us that in the last one hundred years, the biggest mistake committed by the Japanese was to attack Pearl Harbour during the Second World War because that led to the active participation of the United States in the Second World War. Four years later, the Americans ended the War by nuking two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What actually happens is that due to immense bureaucratic control of the education system and sections of the mass media, people are generally shielded away from what is happening in real life. Same is the case with History. The ruling classes never allow a free and impartial study of History at school or college level, university being a totally different thing. Because of one sided (or perhaps lop sided) study of history, the youngsters never effectively learn how to differentiate between right and wrong, truth and false and news analysis and propaganda. Surely there would be a handful of people known to the others as nerds or geniuses who, like me would develop a taste of good-facts-cum analyses based reading and understanding and would develop a taste of studying history. But then again, how many are they in numbers? Very few.


What history builds into an individual.

History builds two very important personality/character cults in individuals who study History as a subject or otherwise. It builds into individuals the ability to assess evidence and the ability to assess conflicting perspectives. Those who study History would surely turn out to be high-quality professionals, just because they have the ability to assess and evaluate evidences, investigations and various forms and outcomes of research in a highly intricate and diverse manner. This is all so because humanities subjects, including History are very much studies, analysis and research oriented and as the end products vary from person to person and from research to research, conflicting perspectives arise and this allows students to classify evidences and relevant details according to their specific need, requirements and intellectual capabilities. Thus something that is decisive evidence for me might just be a casual pass away for the other. Also, debates and public interaction with people and fellow students allows oneself to broaden their spectrum of knowledge and would surely provide you with more opportunities of learning and practicing what you learn.

A relatively translucent and neutral study of History is only possible when all the concerned conflicting perspectives are broadly studied and understood. Students of History learn to assess conflicting perspectives. This helps them in later life with their professional work, considering the fact that students of History usually take up a career in humanities. A correct assessment of conflicting perspectives is a major part of the work of lawyers, human rights activists, social scientists and journalists. Without adequate and neutral analyses of all the conflicting perspectives available, journalists, social scientists, lawyers, etc. can never do justice with their jobs and duties.

Study of History is essential for the mental, social and economic progress and development of the human society. History is as important as a subject as is Economics, Accounting, Physics and Chemistry. However, the importance of this subject has been grossly ignored and misunderstood all over the Muslim world. Without studying our own History, we as Muslims can never move ahead as a society. The study of History shall be encouraged at all educational levels starting from higher secondary education.