Greek Civilization before Islam

Written by Dr. Ragheb Elsergany

Introduction

The world civilizations that had emerged before Islam varied; each contributed a share to the progress of humanity, but all of these civilizations were subordinated to desires and pleasures and, eventually, did wrong and were unfair. That is why they deserved the terrible collapse they underwent. After these civilizations emerged a sublime human civilization that inherited the best of these civilizations to produce a new civilization with a distinctive taste, color and smell, under which everybody lived in safety and happiness – that is, the civilization of Islam.

Greek civilization

The Greek (Hellenic) civilization is one of the world's oldest civilizations. The ancient Greeks excelled in the fields of philosophy, science, literature and arts. Scientists and men of letters emerged in the ancient Greek civilization and were the leaders of the world thought, such as Socrates[1], Plato[2], Aristotle[3], and others, who bore the burden of delivering some facts and establishing some standards within their community, through logical thinking and their research for the causes and consequences of the phenomena.

Declining Greek civilization

Despite the great status the Greek civilization had reached in the fields of philosophy and thought as well as unprecedented logical thinking, that civilization declined gradually. The manifestations of this decline are evident when we read some writings by the geniuses of Greece at the height of their civilization.

Plato's Utopia

As for the theory of Plato's Utopia; he believed that the Utopia was a virtuous city consisted of philosophers, and a class of soldiers, and a third class of workers and farmers. The philosophers are the only class that has the right to rule, while the other two classes have nothing to do with governance. For the second class, the soldiers, Plato puts a strict system that removes the individual's personality perfectly: no army member has right to property or forming families. They should not have wives or children. And women should be common among the soldiers and the children of these women do not know their parents and, therefore, they become citizens of the State. As for third class, farmers and workers, they have to work hard in this Utopia to serve the rulers and the military classes and they have no rights whatsoever. The patients have no room in Plato's city; the State should reject them away. This is the image of Plato's Utopia[4].

Aristotle's theory of slavery

Aristotle wonders if there is any one thus intended by nature to be a slave, and for whom such a condition is expedient and right. He answers in the affirmative, saying that some should rule and others be ruled; the superior must rule the inferior. By nature, as Aristotle holds, the slaves have strong bodies while the free men have reasonable minds and thoughts. Thus, the free man is more prepared for rule, on the basis of the principle that thought rules the body. Aristotle is opposed to the principle of equality in natural rights. He thinks that nature gives reason to some and gives ability to use the organs of the body to others. Nature makes the freemen's bodies different from that of the slaves, making the latter strong for servile labor, and the former upright yet useless for such services. So nature prepares the freemen for the civilian life only[5].

The nature of Greek thought

Will Durant describes the Greek thought, which is appreciated and seen by all as one of the doors of wisdom. Will Durant noted that the Greeks were not a good example of good character. In explanation, Will Durant argues that the superiority of their minds freed many of them from the moral traditions and made some individuals barely of any morals! So they did not favor anybody over themselves except their children, rarely felt the twinge of conscience, or thought to like their neighbors as they like themselves[6].
To the path of gradual decline of the Greek civilization can probably be added immersion in desires and pursuing of pleasures, which precipitated the collapse of their civilization. Sexual relationships have become free of constraints, which has bedeviled the lives of the adults. Moreover, philosophers overlooked the killing of children, on the grounds of reducing the population's pressure on the livelihood resources, thus leading to desolate cities and wasteful lands.
It can be argued that degradation of ethical constraints and tendency of individual selfishness precipitated the collapse of Greece. Menander depicted the Athenian life in his plays as revolving around trivialities, seduction and adultery. So collapse was natural[7].

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[1] Socrates: (469-399 BC) a Classical Greek philosopher and teacher, born and lived in Athens, and one of the early figures in reason, philosophy and logic.

[2] Plato: (427-347 BC) a Classical Greek philosopher and a teacher; one of the most important thinkers in the history of the Western culture, to the extent that the Western philosophy is nothing but footnotes to Plato. His most famous book is Republic.

[3] Aristotle: (384-322 BC) a Classical Greek philosopher (the first teacher), a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote in several fields, including logic, physics, poetry, biology, and government.

[4] Ahmad Shalaby: Mawsu`at al-Hadarah al-Islamiyyah (Encyclopedia of Islamic Civilization) 1/54.

[5]  Ghanim Muhammad Saleh: Al-Fikr al-Seyasi al-Qadim wa al-Wasit (Ancient and Medieval Political Thought), pp. 109, 110.

[6] Will Durant: The Story of Civilization, 7/93 (adapted).

[7] See Shawky Abu Khalil, Al-Hadarah al-`Arabiyah al-Islamiyah wa Mujaz `an al-Hadarat al-Sabiqah (Arab-Islamic Civilization and a Summary of Previous Civilizations), p. 86.