The following verse of the Qur’an provides us with a lot of insight into a lot of things:

وَتِلْكَ ٱلْأَيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ ٱلنَّاسِ

… these days [of varying conditions] I alternate among the people … (Q.3:140)

In our times we find that some people claim that since many people want to immigrate to some countries, this is somehow a sign of the superior ways of the countries being immigrated to.

Civilizations have ups and downs; if one is up today, it will go down tomorrow (signs are visible) and another will come up. These are not proofs of being favored by God.

Rich economies

If a disbelieving civilization is going through riches and advancements, they will eventually suffer demise. Does this mean that those who are not prosperous are suffering destruction? Those going through severe financial hardships are doing so because of lack of adherence to what God has revealed. There are situations outside of individual hands and that is described by Q.42:30.[1]

Immigration to the West

A common objection raised is:

If Muslim societies are strong and resilient, why do Muslims move to the West?

The answer is simple and we shall ignore colonialism and modern day interference of the West in Muslim countries and elsewhere: migration follows economic opportunity, not civilizational superiority. People move toward regions experiencing temporary economic booms. In the 1960s–1990s, millions of Southern Europeans moved to France and Germany for factory jobs; today, many Muslims move to Western countries for similar reasons (employment, education, and stability) not because they believe Western civilization is inherently superior.

Following the same logic, millions of Christians migrate to Muslim-majority Gulf countries (UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman) for better opportunities, even though these societies are very different culturally and religiously. In fact, according to official Gulf statistics:

• The United Arab Emirates is about 52% non-Muslim immigrants, with roughly 1.2-1.3 million Christians (around 13%), mostly from the Philippines, India, Africa, and Europe. We are deliberately ignoring the populations of other non-Muslims here.

• Qatar is nearly 15% Christian, despite being a Muslim country.

• Kuwait hosts around 17% Christians, many in professional and skilled roles.

• Saudi Arabia, despite strict religious laws, has over 1.4 million Christians living and working there; far more than the number of Saudis living in the West.

Muslims make less than 10% of the US and UK populations combined whereas they make a lot more in the Gulf Muslim countries.

These numbers demonstrate that migration is economically driven and not a judgment of civilization, religion, or intelligence. People go where jobs are available, and currently the West and the Gulf both attract migrants for different economic reasons. Just as Muslims seek opportunities in the West, Christians and non-Muslims seek opportunities in Muslim- countries. Migration flows do not measure the value of a civilization; they measure where the current job markets happen to be strongest.

Sports

As your economy grows, so do your sports. For example, 100-meter race is dominated by people from the US and the Caribbean even though they are genetically of West African descent and at the same time, we do not see runners from West African countries there. It’s not genetic and purely boils down to the economies they live in.

When you do not need to worry about making money, you can dedicate more time and effort to a particular area of life. If you are a provincial swimming champion in a poor economy, you have a lot of things on your mind (consciously or subconsciously) and may not go further with swimming efforts to focus on education or work because you see that the best possible outcome would be to either become a swimming coach or lifeguard which may pay much less than other work.

Russian and Chinese examples

The West has been a settled superpower, and they have luxuries which other powers do not have. For instance, Russian achievements are largely militaristic in nature including their advancements in chemistry as they have spent most of their time under existential threats.

Chinese developments are also different in nature. They also produced a vaccine along with Russia but theirs was the traditional-style vaccine while the West came up with mRNA.[2] One would think that since mRNA vaccines have the potential to be cheaper due to faster development and less complex manufacturing once established, China would be the first to produce them but ground reality is different because of the position China is in. Since the West is a settled superpower, they have the luxury of research whereas China is on a different timeline in their growth. Research requires extensive costs which may fail and once/if China becomes a settled superpower, it will have similar luxuries as the West.

Unusual achievements

Due to advanced and higher economies, we find a westerner teaching piano to an octopus, for example. This is not related to race or genetics and is linked to the economy.

Take the example of Abbas b. Firnas (810–887 CE), a pioneering Andalusian polymath who is credited with attempting one of the earliest known human flights.

We do not find Arabs, North Africans, Iranians, or Pakistanis[3] claiming genetic superiority for the achievements when the Muslims were on top.[4]

The IQ argument[5]

Some of them quote statistics that the average IQ of Muslim countries is lower than that of Western countries. When a nation declines, its collective intellectual output also tends to decline just as IQ levels in Muslim societies were historically higher during periods when Muslims were at the peak of civilization.

Even if we assume IQ tests are accurate and conducted fairly in the native languages of all participants, this still does not validate sweeping claims about inherent intelligence differences among populations.[6]

IQ is not the same as practical intelligence.[7] Schooling, cultural exposure, and familiarity with test structures can artificially inflate scores. Remove these advantages and average IQ drops. A villager in a poor country may lack test-taking exposure yet still be far more capable in real-world survival scenarios.

For example, if an African villager and an American living in a high-rise are thrown in the middle of a desert, who would you bet will come out alive? Most would argue that the African villager would do much better.

Among the 100 biggest companies in Europe, none were formed in the last 40 years. European corporate growth has stagnated or declined. This raises a question: If Europeans are supposedly “high IQ,” why is their economic and civilizational output shrinking? Why is the continent facing existential crises (economic, cultural, demographic) and are on the verge of military destruction for the third time in just over a century?[8]

Since civilizations rise and fall, the decline we see today is simply another cycle, regardless of average IQ scores.

The increasing reliance on IVF pregnancies in Western societies brings additional complications. Over the next 50 years, Western populations may experience notable IQ declines even without any racial mixing.[9]

Muslim achievements and misleading averages

Muslims have demonstrated extraordinary intellectual capabilities across the world. For example the records for the highest A’s in O/A Levels are held by multiple Muslims while there are many others with significant and great achievements.[10]

Why averages can mislead

Muslims may have a larger number of extremely high-IQ individuals than the West. They may simultaneously have a larger number of very low-IQ individuals due to poverty, war, and lack of education. Western countries, by contrast, may cluster heavily around the average range.

Muslim IQ distribution could be wide and diverse, while Western IQ distribution could be narrow and concentrated – there are no statistics to prove or disprove this, but it shows that the average alone does not represent the true intellectual potential of the Muslim world. Averages hide extremes.

Western cultural norms emphasize “survival of the fittest”. Those who are not considered attractive, tall, intelligent, or socially desirable often reproduce less, and their bloodlines fade out. This may produce a seemingly better next generation, yet it simultaneously fuels an epidemic of loneliness, inceldom, and social isolation. This is not new, but it is intensifying.

By contrast, Islamic societies ensure that almost everyone marries and has children. As a result, Muslim populations include a full spectrum of individuals, tall, short, intelligent, average, attractive, and otherwise, mirroring natural human diversity.

This system promotes long-term societal survival. Even in popular imagination, when writers and directors depict a post-apocalyptic society, they often envision ultra-individualistic survivalist futures like the movie Mad Max among others whereas some Muslim societies are actually in such circumstances of war and chaos but still have tight-knit, family-based communities; even in such extreme hardships, Muslim societies function on these communal principles.

Conclusion

Civilizations rise and fall based on far more than test scores and migration patterns. Muslim societies continue producing both exceptional achievers and individuals facing adversity. Western societies, meanwhile, face demographic, cultural, and technological challenges, from genetic bottlenecks to shrinking marriage rates and existential economic stagnation.

If the Western civilization declines and becomes similar to the people they look down upon, their IQs and achievements will also decline significantly and rapidly much like the people they despise. Meanwhile, Muslim societies maintain a broad and diverse demographic base that ensures long-term resilience.

Ultimately, real intelligence is shaped by culture, environment, opportunity, and the cyclical fortunes of civilizations, not by temporary factors and biased, out of context statistics.

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References and footnotes

[1] And whatever strikes you of disaster – it is for what your hands have earned; but He pardons much (Q.42:30).

This is a very important verse. Things strike us that we do not like, we encounter pains and difficulties in this life, and these are compensation for our sins in this life and if we get compensated for our sins in this life, then punishment in the next life may be compensated against. If the sins are heavy and the compensation light, then it may be that we will be held accountable for them in the next life starting from the grave to the questioning of deeds, and eventually hell, for {the most wretched ones}. Knowing this, one would be very happy to get all one’s bad deeds compensated in this life rather than the next.

Any sort of pain or discomfort for a believer in this life is a means of erasure of sins whereas for the disbelievers, it is a call to reflect and repent.

Another important lesson that we learn from this verse is that sins and consequences are two separate things. The effects of someone’s sins harming someone else is not a transfer of sins. A person being a public nuisance may bring shame to his family, but the family is not punished for that person’s sins and what they face may either be a punishment of their own sins or a test from God (Q. 64:5-6).

Things that happen to us are due to our own doings because {they tasted the bad consequence of their affair (Q.64:5)}.

What about children who suffer from illnesses? This is a good question, and the answer is within this verse in these words: {those who disbelieved}. These people have a choice, and they chose wrong and similarly, {whatever strikes you of disaster – it is for what your hands have earned} is understood this way i.e., what happens to people is because of their own doings and this applies to those who are capable of making decisions. This would remove the children, the insane, and the sleeping person from these verses. If something bad happens to these people or they engage in harm, they are outside the scope of accountability due to their circumstances. If a sleeping person falls from his bed, no one says that he deserves it; similarly, the harm caused to them is not deserved because of their deeds nor are they accountable for what they do in these states. The harm that happens to them is a means of expiation for them (Q.5:45, Q.5:89, Q.5:95) or an elevation in rank which will benefit them in the Hereafter.

We know that the overall context of our life includes the next life as well (Q.95:5-8) and hence, a disadvantaged start with a brilliant ending is fair and a mercy from Allah (ﷻ) even if it appears harsh and unfair from the limited context of only this life – perspective needs to be broadened.

While understanding this, it needs to be reminded that the culprit of harm does not get away with his evil. If someone kills a cat for no reason and, as a result of his deeds, the next day, a robber robs this man’s house, this does not absolve the robber from what he did and he will be accountable to the law and be answerable to Allah (ﷻ).

What about rape victims and other horrifying abuse? Did they deserve it? It is understandable why this question may arise, but it is not a justified question. What we have discussed here are consequences of individual decisions; however, there are collective actions as well which Allah (ﷻ) informs us of in Q.30:41: {Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by [reason of] what the hands of people have earned so He may let them taste part of [the consequence of] what they have done that perhaps they will return [to righteousness]}. The larger scale corruption is also caused by the people, and this is done by society as a whole. There are countries where rape is common, there are others with high levels of immorality, some are sexually ‘liberated’, while many are into drugs and alcohol. These countries have either accepted these vices as personal freedoms or even virtues and that results in an unsafe and unhealthy culture. When night clubs become common, date rapes become common too. When immorality increases, gang rapes become the norm. Immorality in these societies has gone to such high extremes that any measure to stop the means is condemned by these same people as ‘victim blaming’. When a just and fair society is not sought and the systems are not implemented as instructed by our Lord, then the society becomes corrupted, and evil becomes common.

If an evil befalls someone, that is their own doing either individually themselves (Q.42:30) or collectively (Q.30:41).

[2] The primary difference between traditional vaccines and mRNA vaccines is how they “teach” your immune system to recognize a pathogen. Traditional vaccines introduce components of the actual virus, while mRNA vaccines provide genetic instructions for your body’s cells to produce a harmless viral protein, which then triggers an immune response.

[3] The Mughal Empire had the world’s largest GDP, peaking around 1700 under Emperor Aurangzeb when it accounted for approximately 25% of the global economy.

Why mention Pakistan instead of India? The history of South Asia is shaped not only by its geography but also by the civilizations that rose and fell across it. Among these, the Turkic, Afghan, and Persian dynasties that ruled much of India for nearly a thousand years left behind enduring institutions, languages, and values. While Hindu-majority India has tended to view these dynasties as foreign invaders (videshi hamla aawar), Pakistan has come to see itself as their intellectual and emotional heir. In this sense, Pakistan is not merely a geographical fragment of former Muslim India; it is the custodian of its cultural memory and civilizational continuity.

Geographical Continuity

The lands that make up modern Pakistan, Punjab, Sindh, Kashmir+, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were historically the frontier and heartland of Muslim India.

• The Ghaznavids (Turkic) ruled from Ghazni into Lahore.
• The Ghurids (Afghan/Tajik) entered Delhi through Punjab.
• The Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughals relied heavily on Punjab and Sindh as core provinces.
• Even the Durrani Afghans in the 18th century based their power on these regions.

Thus, Pakistan’s territory was not a peripheral zone but the gateway and backbone of Muslim rule in India.

Intellectual and Cultural Legacy

Muslim dynasties brought with them Persianate high culture, Islamic scholarship, and other traditions.

• Language: Persian was the language of administration and culture, later evolving into Urdu in Mughal India. Today, Urdu is Pakistan’s national language – a direct inheritance.
• Religion: The spread of Islam through Sufi saints in Punjab and Sindh created a cultural fabric still central to Pakistan’s identity.
• Institutions: Concepts of centralized monarchy, revenue administration (e.g., Sher Shah Suri’s reforms), and Mughal-style governance influenced Pakistan’s early statecraft after 1947.

In contrast, modern India emphasizes its Sanskritic and Hindu heritage, leaving the Persian-Islamic layers contested or marginalized.

Emotional Ownership

National memory reveals the starkest difference.

• In India, rulers like Mahmud of Ghazni, Muhammad Ghori, or Aurangzeb are remembered as “foreign invaders” who destroyed temples and imposed alien rule.
• In Pakistan, these same figures are celebrated as founders and defenders of Muslim power, often appearing in school curricula, monuments, and popular culture.

This divergence shows that the same dynasties that India distances itself from, Pakistan embraces as part of its own family history.

Values and Identity

The Muslim dynasties established Islam as not just a religion but a political identity in India.

• They fostered the idea of a distinct community bound by faith, Persianate culture, and governance.
• Pakistan inherited this framework explicitly in 1947 through the Two Nation Theory.
• The emphasis on Islamic governance, Urdu, and other heritage in Pakistan reflects this continuation.

Meanwhile, Hindu-majority India defined itself as secular yet leaned more toward its ancient Vedic and Hindu roots, rather than Muslim dynastic traditions.

Conclusion

Pakistan’s existence cannot be understood merely as a byproduct of creation in 1947. It is better seen as the modern heir to Muslim India; the geographic base, intellectual repository, and emotional custodian of the Turkic, Afghan, and Persian dynasties that once ruled the subcontinent. Where Hindu memory disowns them as outsiders, Pakistan claims them as forefathers. Thus, Pakistan is not just a territorial remainder of Muslim India; it is the living continuation of its identity, values, and civilizational story.

[4] The greatest scientific advances from the Muslim world | Muslim inventions | Science in the medieval Islamic world | List of inventions in the medieval Islamic world | The Scientific advancements in Islamic golden age

[5] IQ is heavily influenced by nutrition, schooling, urbanization, pollution, and GDP per capita. IQ scores rise when environments improve (Flynn effect), proving IQ is not fixed.

Moreover, when your economy improves, so do the average heights.

[6] IQ: can intelligence really be measured? | Why a high IQ doesn’t mean you’re smart | Obsession with IQ: A reliable sign of low intelligence?

[7] EQ (Emotional Intelligence) includes self-control, empathy, communication, understanding emotions, social awareness, conflict management. Higher EQ is linked to leadership, teamwork, success in business, mental health, relationships, influence and negotiation. Moreover, IQ does not account for knowledge of more than one language. Another drawback could be that, for instance, Lionel Messi may get 90 on an IQ score; however, what he does would be described as nothing less than genius.

[8] European demise was delayed due to the emergence of USA as the dominant power, and they rallied behind the USA who are/were geographically protected from existential threats.

[9] Why In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Hastens the Collapse of Civilization

[10] Arfa Karim | Qamar Muneer Akbar | Sitara Brooj Akbar | These accomplishments show that individual excellence cannot be captured by crude national IQ averages.