The Prophet said: “My generation is the best, then the succeeding one, then the one after that, and thereafter a decline will set in which will last a thousand years.”1 So it has proved. The decline in moral and spiritual values began as the Prophet had indicated, and as the neglect of these values proceeded it began to undermine other values also, as was inevitable. But the process was a gradual one and was slowed down by frequent regional revivals and efforts at reform. The revolution ushered in by Islam was so comprehensive, so all-pervading, so broad-based and went down so deep that even a prolonged period of decline did not make the ill results visible to an outside observer till more than half of it had elapsed. Besides, when Islamic values were weakened and undermined at the centre, they were often revived and strengthened and furnished evidence of vigour in outlying parts of the vast Muslim domains. The Prophet had furnished the assurance: “Allah will raise up among my people, at the commencement of each century, one who will revive the Faith for them.” Down the corridor of the centuries this succession of divinely inspired teachers and guides has served to keep the torch aloft and shining.
The values seriously affected during the period of decline were those which were most sensitive to exposure to case and comfort and to a high standard of living. A prolonged period of prosperity blunted the edge of the finer and more delicate moral and spiritual perceptions, though it also brought into relief those qualities the exercise of which was aided and facilitated by the ready availability of means and resources.
Various causes have been cited for the decline, but the root cause was the neglect of the Quran and the ignoring of the primacy of values that the Quran had sought to establish. “The Messenger will say: My Lord, my people indeed treated this Quran as a thing discarded” (25:31).
1 Bukhari IV, Sect.: Ar-Raqaq, Ch.: On eschewing worldly splendour.