On why the Islamic world fell into backwardness, and the key to future success.

Addressing a meeting of the Indonesian Islamic Society of Brisbane (IISB) in Australia on 7th September Heru Sriwidodo Sari, founder of the Trainer Muslim Indonesia Association, worried that many parents today regarded their children’s school textbooks as being more worthy of mastering than the Quran, more likely to bring success for their children later in life.

Heru said this was wrong-headed, and that for seven hundred years after the time of Muhammad the Muslim world dominated world culture and learning while at the same time the European peoples had not advanced, precisely because people held fast to Quranic study and principles.

Heru Sriwidodo Sari.

After this period of dominance, and likely near-coinciding with what is called “the great divergence” – when northern/western Europe began streaking ahead of the Arab and Asian worlds in scientific, technological, and economic achievements – Heru says Muslims neglected the Quran and herein lay the seeds of their failure until today.

In order to achieve success in this life and the next Heru said only seven verses of the Al Fatihah chapter of the Quran were necessary to be learned and repeated every time one prayed, these being:

In the name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful:

Praise be to God, the Lord of the Universe.

The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Master of the Day of Judgment.

You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help

Guide us to the straight path;

The path of those whom You have favoured, not of those who have deserved Your anger, nor of those who stray.

This could be formulated or summarised into the following, by some uncertain process:

• vision
• potential
• opportunity
• motivation
• mission
• strategy
• action

Reading the above verses would bring understanding, visualisation of goals, and obedience to God, the keys to success, Heru said. beritasore.com