The other two great civilizations with which the Arabs came...

The other two great civilizations with which the Arabs came into close contact were those of the Iranians and the Hindus. The Hindus never de­veloped an interest in history. There is little indication of the Iranians possessing any notable historical literature at the time of the Muslim conquest.[^6] It is, therefore, more likely that the Arabs developed a sense of history as a result of the 's mission. Indeed, all indications point in this direction; hence they need exploration.

It should be remembered that Islam itself claims to work in the context of history. It fulfils the previous missions of the prophets who had come before Muhammad.[^7] It seeks to abrogate the excrescences that came to disfigure truth in the course of time, because the generations that had gone before had failed to preserve the earlier revelations.[^8] Prophets had come in various societies at different times and had preached the same essential truth, but there had grown up errors and misunderstandings, some deliberate and perverse and others as the result of folly, and divine revelation had become clouded.

Now this basic belief shows a consciousness of history. It is concerned with the past, the present, and even the future. The future comes in because Muhammad being the last of the prophets[^9] and the bearer of a message of transcendent impor­tance, his mission will remain effective throughout the future. This conception of religion is not concerned with the present only.

It does not look upon the present as merely transient, nor upon the past as the sum total of merely so many transient and insignificant presents. This is borne out by the fact that the Qur'an draws attention repeatedly to the misdeeds of previous peoples and their destruction as the result of these misdoings.[^10] The warning is implicit in the narrative itself, but it is also given explicitly on many oc­casions.

If the past produced all those disastrous results, or if, conversely, virtuous deeds in the past were fruitful in producing good results, there is a relationship between the past, the present, and the future which is significant in fashioning human life. History, in this manner, achieves great importance in understanding life. There is another aspect of Islam that has an important bearing upon history. Muhammad has 4 unique place in history.

According to the Muslim belief, Muhammad stands, as if it were, on the watershed of time.