Summary of the article:
Maulana Maududi argues that the rise and fall of nations follows a recurring divine pattern in history: no civilization remains permanently dominant, and no decline remains permanent forever. Throughout history—from the Pharaohs, Persians, Greeks, and Romans to the Muslims and other world powers—every nation that reached the height of power eventually declined when arrogance, oppression, moral corruption, and rebellion against divine guidance overtook them. He explains that Allah grants nations respite even after wrongdoing, sometimes for centuries, allowing them to continue flourishing outwardly, but this respite is itself part of a divine law. When a nation persists in injustice and becomes blinded by pride, Allah’s grip comes not merely through external attack but through internal corruption: its judgment weakens, its own systems begin turning against it, and the very forces that once produced its greatness become the means of its destruction. Maulana Maududi illustrates this principle through earlier nations, especially the stories of Pharaoh and Bani Israel, showing how power was transferred from one people to another depending on their moral and spiritual condition. He then argues that the modern West appears to be entering the downward phase of this historical cycle. Despite its extraordinary scientific, political, and industrial achievements, Western civilization has, in his view, become morally and spiritually diseased. Its excessive nationalism, materialism, social breakdown, declining family structure, and internal rivalries are pushing it toward self-destruction, while modern technological and military developments have made possible a scale of devastation unprecedented in history. Thus, Maulana Maududi concludes that the decline of the West, if it comes, will emerge largely through forces generated by the civilization itself rather than through an outside conqueror.
Section 1: The Illusion of Permanent Power — A Law of History
When one observes the astonishing achievements of the Western nations in the fields of politics, commerce, industry, craftsmanship, and the sciences and arts, the heart and mind become deeply overwhelmed with awe and fear. One begins to imagine that perhaps the progress of these nations is everlasting, that their domination and supremacy over the world has been permanently decreed, that they have been granted a perpetual lease over the governance of the inhabited earth and mastery over the elements, and that their power has become established upon such solid foundations that no force can uproot them.
Such assumptions have been made in every age regarding all nations that were dominant in their own times. The Pharaohs of Egypt, the peoples of 'Ād and Thamūd of Arabia, the Chaldeans of Iraq, the emperors of Persia, the world-conquering victors of Greece, the universal rulers of Rome, the globe-spanning Muslim warriors, and the devastating armies of the Tatars—all have displayed similar spectacles of might and supremacy upon the stage of this earthly world. Whenever the turn of any of these powers arrived, it dazzled the world with its accomplishments and feats. Every nation, when it rose, spread itself across the world in the same manner. In the same way it proclaimed the drums of its grandeur and authority throughout the four corners of the earth.
Likewise, the world, astonished and captivated, imagined that their power was everlasting. Yet when their appointed term ended and the True Sovereign, the One whose power alone is eternal, decreed their decline, they fell so completely that many disappeared entirely from the face of existence. Even where traces of some remained, it was only in such a way that they became subjects of those whom they had once ruled, slaves of those who had once been their slaves, and conquered by those whom they themselves had conquered:
قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ سُنَنٌ فَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَانْظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الْمُكَذِّبِينَ
"Many ways of life have passed before you. So travel through the earth and see what was the end of those who denied the truth." (Āl 'Imrān 3:137)
The system of the universe has been established in such a way that nowhere within it is there permanence or stillness. There is continuous movement, change, and circulation which permits nothing to remain in one state forever. Alongside every creation there exists decay; with every spring comes autumn; with every ascent comes decline—and likewise the reverse.
A tiny seed today drifts aimlessly in the air; tomorrow it gains stability in the earth and grows into a mighty tree; the day after tomorrow it dries up and returns to dust, while the nurturing forces of nature abandon it and begin nourishing another seed. Such are the rises and falls of life.
When human beings witness one of these conditions persisting for a long period, they imagine it to be permanent. If decline continues, they think decline will endure forever. If ascent continues, they assume ascent will never end. Yet the only difference here is one of sooner and later. Permanence belongs to no condition:
وَتِلْكَ الْأَيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ النَّاسِ
"These are the changing days which We rotate among people." (Āl 'Imrān 3:140)
The affairs of the world revolve in a kind of cyclical motion. Birth and death, youth and old age, strength and weakness, spring and autumn, flourishing and withering—all are different aspects of this same cycle. Within this rotation every thing experiences, in turn, an age of fortune in which it grows, spreads, displays strength and power, and manifests beauty and splendor until it reaches the utmost limit of its development. Then another age arrives in which it diminishes, fades, becomes afflicted with weakness and frailty, and ultimately is destroyed by the very forces that once brought it into being.
This is the Sunnah of Allah among His creation, and just as it applies to all things in the world, so too does it apply to human beings, whether considered individually or collectively as nations. Humiliation and honor, hardship and ease, decline and advancement, and all other such conditions are distributed among different peoples according to this cyclical motion. Every nation experiences these turns in succession. None is entirely deprived of them, nor is any single condition granted permanence, whether that condition be prosperity or adversity:
سُنَّةَ اللهِ فِي الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِنْ قَبْلُ وَلَنْ تَجِدَ لِسُنَّةِ اللهِ تَبْدِيلًا
"This is the way of Allah with those who passed before, and you will never find any change in the way of Allah." (Al‑Aḥzāb 33:62)
Section 2: How Nations Fall — The Divine Pattern of Rise, Rebellion, and Ruin
Across every corner of the earth we find the remains of nations that came before us. They left behind such monuments of civilization, culture, craftsmanship, engineering, and artistry that one realizes they were in no way inferior to today's advanced and dominant nations. Indeed, in relation to their own contemporaries they were often even more powerful:
كَانُوا أَشَدَّ مِنْهُمْ قُوَّةً وَأَثَارُوا الْأَرْضَ وَعَمَرُوهَا أَكْثَرَ مِمَّا عَمَرُوهَا
"They were mightier in strength than these people. They cultivated and developed the earth more extensively than these have done." (Al‑Rūm 30:9)
But what became of them in the end? Seeing prosperity before them, they were deceived by it. The abundance of blessings cast them into arrogance. Prosperity became a trial for them. Intoxicated by power and dominion, they became tyrannical and oppressive. Through their own actions they began to wrong themselves:
وَاتَّبَعَ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مَا أُتْرِفُوا فِيهِ وَكَانُوا مُجْرِمِينَ
"The wrongdoers pursued only the luxuries with which they had been provided in abundance, and they became criminals." (Hūd 11:116)
Despite their rebellion, Allah granted them respite:
وَكَأَيِّنْ مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ أَمْلَيْتُ لَهَا وَهِيَ ظَالِمَةٌ
"How many towns were there that were oppressive, yet I granted them respite." (Al‑Ḥajj 22:48)
And this respite was no ordinary delay. Some nations were allowed to continue for centuries:
وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِمَّا تَعُدُّونَ
"Indeed, a single day with your Lord is like a thousand years according to your reckoning." (Al‑Ḥajj 22:47)
Yet every extension of time became for them a fresh trial. They imagined that God had become incapable of overcoming their schemes, and that sovereignty over the world now belonged not to God but to themselves. At last the Divine Wrath flared forth. The gaze of Divine favor turned away from them. The age of prosperity gave way to the age of decline.
They devised schemes, and Allah also devised a scheme—but the scheme of Allah was beyond their perception, let alone their ability to resist:
وَمَكَرُوا مَكْرًا وَمَكَرْنَا مَكْرًا وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
"They plotted a scheme, and We devised a scheme while they were unaware." (Al‑Naml 27:50)
The scheme of God does not approach openly from the outside. It penetrates from within the human being—from the depths of the mind and heart—and carries out its work there. It attacks human intellect, consciousness, discernment, thought, and perception. It blinds the eyes within the chest. It does not make people blind in sight, but blind in understanding:
فَإِنَّهَا لَا تَعْمَى الْأَبْصَارُ وَلَكِنْ تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتِي فِي الصُّدُورِ
"For truly it is not the eyes that become blind, but the hearts within the breasts that become blind." (Al‑Ḥajj 22:46)
And when the eyes of the heart are blinded, every strategy a people devise for their own improvement turns against them. Every step they take toward what they believe to be success instead carries them toward destruction. All of their powers rebel against them, and their own hands tighten around their throats:
فَانْظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ مَكْرِهِمْ أَنَّا دَمَّرْنَاهُمْ وَقَوْمَهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
"See then what became of their plotting: We utterly destroyed them and all their people." (Al‑Naml 27:51)
A complete picture of this rise and fall can be seen in the story of Pharaoh and the Children of Israel. When the people of Egypt reached the heights of worldly advancement, they committed themselves to tyranny and rebellion. Pharaoh claimed divinity and subjected the weak nation of the Children of Israel—who had settled there during the time of Prophet Yūsuf عليه السلام—to unbearable oppression and cruelty.
When Pharaoh and his people exceeded all limits in rebellion, Allah willed to humble them and to elevate that very weak nation whom they had considered insignificant. Thus the promise of Allah was fulfilled. Prophet Mūsā عليه السلام was born among that oppressed people. He was raised within Pharaoh's own household, by Pharaoh's own hands, and appointed with the mission of liberating his people from Egyptian bondage.
Mūsā عليه السلام first sought to advise Pharaoh gently, but Pharaoh would not desist. Warnings from Allah came repeatedly upon Pharaoh and his people. Famine followed famine, storms followed storms, blood appeared, swarms of locusts devoured their crops, lice and frogs afflicted them severely, yet their arrogance did not diminish:
فَاسْتَكْبَرُوا وَكَانُوا قَوْمًا مُجْرِمِينَ
"They persisted in arrogance, and they were indeed a criminal people." (Al‑A'rāf 7:133)
When every proof had been exhausted one after another, the Divine punishment was finally decreed. By Allah's command, Prophet Mūsā عليه السلام departed from Egypt with his people. Pharaoh and his armies were drowned in the sea, and Egypt's power was shattered so completely that it could not recover for centuries:
فَأَخَذْنَاهُ وَجُنُودَهُ فَنَبَذْنَاهُمْ فِي الْيَمِّ فَانْظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الظَّالِمِينَ
"So We seized him and his armies and cast them into the sea. See then what was the end of the wrongdoers." (Al‑Qaṣaṣ 28:40)
Then came the turn of the Children of Israel. After overthrowing Egypt, the True Sovereign of the universe granted governance of the earth to the nation that had once been humiliated and oppressed:
وَأَوْرَثْنَا الْقَوْمَ الَّذِينَ كَانُوا يُسْتَضْعَفُونَ مَشَارِقَ الْأَرْضِ وَمَغَارِبَهَا الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ الْحُسْنَى عَلَى بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ بِمَا صَبَرُوا
"And We made those who had been oppressed inherit the eastern and western parts of the land which We had blessed. Thus the gracious promise of your Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel because they remained steadfast." (Al‑A'rāf 7:137)
And Allah granted them superiority over the nations:
وَأَنِّي فَضَّلْتُكُمْ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ
"And I granted you superiority over all peoples." (Al‑Baqarah 2:47)
Yet this honor and inheritance of the earth were conditional upon righteous conduct. Prophet Mūsā عليه السلام had already informed them that they would indeed be granted succession upon the earth, but that Allah would also observe how they acted:
كَيْفَ تَعْمَلُونَ
(Al‑A'rāf 7:129)
And this condition was not unique to the Children of Israel alone. Every nation granted authority upon the earth is subject to the same condition:
ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ خَلَائِفَ فِي الْأَرْضِ مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ لِنَنْظُرَ كَيْفَ تَعْمَلُونَ
"Then We made you successors upon the earth after them so that We may observe how you act." (Yūnus 10:14)
But when the Children of Israel rebelled against their Lord, distorted His words, exchanged truth for falsehood, adopted bribery, dishonesty, lying, and treachery, became greedy, cowardly, and pleasure-seeking, murdered their prophets عليهم السلام, opposed those who called toward truth, turned away from righteous leaders, and followed corrupt leaders, then the Lord of the Worlds withdrew His favor from them.
The inheritance of the earth was taken away from them. They were trampled under the tyrannical empires of Iraq, Greece, and Rome. They were driven from their homes and scattered from land to land in humiliation and disgrace. Authority was stripped from them. For two thousand years they remained trapped beneath Divine retribution, unable to find any secure place of honor in the world.
وَضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الذِّلَّةُ وَالْمَسْكَنَةُ وَبَاءُوا بِغَضَبٍ مِنَ اللهِ
"Humiliation and misery were imposed upon them, and they incurred the wrath of Allah." (Al‑Baqarah 2:61)
Section 3: The Two Devils Destroying the West — Race Extinction and Nationalism:
Today we witness once more the repetition of this Divine pattern before our eyes. The same consequences of evil deeds that overtook previous nations have now overtaken the Western nations. Every warning possible has already been given to them. The calamities of world war, economic crises, widespread unemployment, the spread of destructive diseases, and the collapse of family systems—these are all clear signs from which they could have learned the consequences of oppression, rebellion, self-worship, and forgetfulness of truth, if only they possessed insight.
Yet they refuse to learn from these signs. They persist stubbornly in turning away from the truth. Their vision does not reach the root cause of the disease. They see only its outward symptoms and devote all their energies to treating those symptoms alone. Consequently, the more they attempt remedies, the worse the disease becomes.
Now circumstances indicate that the era of warnings and proofs is nearing its end, and that the time of the final judgment is drawing close.
Divine power has unleashed upon the Western nations two mighty devils that are dragging them toward ruin and destruction:
• One is the devil of race extinction. • The other is the devil of nationalism.
The first devil dominates their individuals, while the second dominates their nations and empires. The first has corrupted the minds of their men and women. Through their own hands it is causing the extinction of their future generations. It inspires methods of birth prevention, encourages abortion, praises sterilization through which people destroy the very seed of reproduction, and hardens hearts to such a degree that parents themselves destroy their own children.
In short, this devil is gradually leading them toward collective suicide.
The second devil has deprived their political strategists and military commanders of sound judgment and wise planning. It fills them with selfishness, rivalry, hatred, chauvinism, greed, and ambition. It divides them into hostile and antagonistic blocs, making them taste one another's power—which itself is a form of Divine punishment:
أَوْ يَلْبِسَكُمْ شِيَعًا وَيُذِيقَ بَعْضَكُمْ بَأْسَ بَعْضٍ
"Or He may divide you into factions and make some of you taste the might of others." (Al‑An'ām 6:65)
This second devil is preparing them for a massive collective suicide—not gradual this time, but sudden. It has amassed stores of explosives throughout the world and established centers of danger everywhere. It now waits only for the appointed moment. The instant that moment arrives, it will ignite one of these powder magazines, and then in the blink of an eye there will descend a destruction before which all the destructions of previous nations will appear insignificant.
What I am saying is no exaggeration. The preparations being made in Europe, America, and Japan for the coming war are themselves causing people of insight among those nations to tremble. They are becoming horrified merely by imagining the consequences of such a war.
Recently, Sir Gel Newman, formerly a member of the American military staff, wrote an article about the future war. He stated that the coming conflict would not merely be a battle of armies but rather a massacre in which even women and children would not be spared.
Scientific intellect, he explained, has transferred warfare from soldiers to chemical compounds and lifeless machines incapable of distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants. Future wars will not be fought in battlefields and fortresses but in cities and towns, because according to modern theories the true strength of a nation lies not in its armies but in its populations, commercial centers, and industrial infrastructure.
Aircraft will rain down many kinds of bombs carrying incendiary substances, poisonous gases, and disease-causing germs capable of annihilating hundreds of thousands within moments. One category of bombs, known as "Lewisite bombs," is said to possess enough destructive power that a single shell could tear apart even the largest buildings in London.
Editorical note: Later, even more destructive weapons such as atomic and hydrogen bombs were invented, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrated only a small sample of their horrors. End of note.
One poisonous gas called "Green Cross Gas" creates the sensation of drowning. Another called "Yellow Cross Gas" acts like snake venom, producing effects similar to those caused by a snakebite. There are twelve additional poisonous gases of this kind, almost invisible, whose effects initially go unnoticed and only become apparent once treatment is impossible.
One particular gas spreads high in the atmosphere and instantly blinds any pilot whose aircraft passes through it. Experts estimated that if certain poisonous gases were released in a quantity of merely one ton over the city of Paris, the entire city could be annihilated within an hour, requiring no more than one hundred aircraft to carry out the attack.
Editorial note: It should be remembered that this article was written in November 1933, when aerial bombardment represented the height of military technology. Today missiles and many other weapons exist capable of striking targets hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away. End of note.
Recently an electrically explosive shell was invented weighing only one kilogram, yet capable upon impact of generating heat of three thousand degrees Fahrenheit and igniting fires impossible to extinguish. Water serves as fuel for these flames rather than suppressing them, and science has still discovered no means of putting them out.
The idea is that such bombs would be dropped upon the great markets of cities so that fire would spread from one end to the other. Then, when people fled in panic and confusion, aircraft would release poisonous gas bombs to complete the destruction.
From these inventions military experts concluded that a handful of aircraft could reduce even the largest and most secure capitals of the world to ruins within two hours. Populations numbering in the millions could be poisoned so thoroughly that they would go to sleep healthy at night and not a single one would awaken alive in the morning.
Poisonous substances could contaminate a nation's water supplies, destroy livestock and animals, and ruin farms and orchards. No effective defense has yet been devised against such attacks except that both warring sides should launch identical attacks against one another until both are destroyed.
This is only a brief account of the preparations for the coming war. If you wish to know the details, consult the book What Would Be the Character of a New War, published by the Geneva Inter‑Parliamentary Union after formal investigations.
Reading it will enable you to understand how Western civilization has prepared the means of its own destruction with its own hands. Its remaining lifespan now extends only until the declaration of war.
Editorical Note: What happened by 1945 during the Second World War can be partially witnessed in the destruction of Nagasaki. For further detail, one may consult Lord Russell's Scourge of the Swastika, which illustrates how a godless civilization can transform an entire nation into beasts far worse than wolves.End of note.
The day two major empires enter into war against one another, understand that on that very day God's decree for the destruction of Western civilization will have been issued. Once two great powers enter the battlefield, nothing can prevent the conflict from becoming global, and once war becomes global, destruction too will become global:
ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ لِيُذِيقَهُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي عَمِلُوا لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ
"Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people's own hands have earned, so that He may let them taste some of what they have done, that perhaps they may return." (Al‑Rūm 30:41)
Section 4: What Comes After — The Next Inheritance of the Earth:
In any case, it now appears near that a new arrangement of inheritance upon the earth will be established, and that the oppressors and transgressors will be cast down so that another nation—most likely from among the oppressed and weak—may be elevated to stewardship over the earth. It remains to be seen upon whom the Divine choice shall fall this time.
We possess no means of knowing which nation will next be raised. Sovereignty belongs to Allah alone. He takes it from whomsoever He wills and grants it to whomsoever He wills:
قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتَنْزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّنْ تَشَاءُ
"Say: O Allah, Master of all sovereignty, You grant dominion to whom You will and You take dominion away from whom You will." (Āl 'Imrān 3:26)
Yet even in this matter Allah has established a law, which He has explained in His Noble Book: when He removes a nation because of its wicked conduct, He raises in its place another nation that is not similarly corrupt and rebellious:
وَإِنْ تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُمْ
"If you turn away, He will replace you with another people, and they will not be like you." (Muḥammad 47:38)
For this reason, it outwardly appears that those weak and psychologically defeated nations of today which imitate Western civilization, and which adopt not the remaining virtues of European peoples but rather their vices—the very qualities responsible for Divine displeasure—have little hope of attaining success or honor in the coming transformation.
(Tarjumān al‑Qur'ān, Jumādā al‑Ākhirah 1352 AH – August 1933 CE)