What is the civilization in islam? Why is islamic civilization important? What are the source of islamic civilization?
Numerous kinds of bombs, missiles, chemical and biological weapons and particularly the atomic bombs which annihilated hundreds of thousands of people in the last century was produced by “human intellect and science”.
Human intellect and science on the one hand develop medicines to cure illnesses, while on the other hand they produce narcotic drugs and harm generations.
Late Nurettin TOPÇU was our teacher. One day he asked us a question:
“- Kids!” he said, “Which people are/were more peaceful and happier, people of today or people of the past?
We answered: “Of course, people of today” When he asked why, we explained the reasons:
“Today’s people are able to cover certain distances in three hours, while it used to take 3 months in the past. In the old days, a woman used to wash the laundry in a washbowl and this would take half a day. But today, thanks to washing machine, this work is done effortlessly.”
The teacher objected to our answer and explained why people of past were more peaceful:
The pious believers observe the worlds through the eye of their heart without curtains. They read the pages of the universe. On the other hand, the miserable people who spent their lives in pursuit of their selfish desires cannot see the wisdom in the book of the universe as they close their sight by the fingers of heedlessness.
“- Progress of the machines have made the human soul confused. America dropped two atomic bombs in 1944 and turned two cities into burned coal. No one had the right to turn the soil into coal … No one had the right to slaughter women, children, the elderly, and the plants…
Isn’t that a monstrosity?
Is this humanity? Is this civilization? Is this progress?
The progress of industry has poisoned the soul of mankind.
In short, people were not so cruel in the past. In spite of the hardship they suffered, they were far more happier than the people of today. Because the iron claw of materialism that paralyzed human soul did not exist at the time…”
Today, because of the oppressors’ greed for oil, millions of people have been expelled from Syria, their homeland. Those who were not able to leave have become the targets of the bombs.
“This is the civilization, a monster that has only one tooth left.”
Today, the inventions produced by the development of industry were assumed to be the civilization and help is expected from machines, the soulless masses of iron. The immature selves relying upon the power of materialism are dragged into egoism, egocentrism, and selfishness that hold their peace and happiness above everything. Thus they constitute an example for the heedless ones described in the following verses:
Sheikh Sadi:
“A wise man takes lesson of wisdom even from jokes and tales. Although if you read to a heedless man one hundred chapters from the words of wisdom, he takes it as a tale.
Woe to every (kind of) scandal-monger and-backbiter, (1) Who piles up wealth and lays it by thinking that his wealth would make him last forever! (al-Humaza, 104: 1-3)
Moreover, there are many people act based on intellect and science but do not give up religion and belief.
The conclusion reached by the mathematician and philosopher Descartes (1594-1650), who is considered as the father of modern philosophy and rationalism, states that the divine revelation is the main source of the truth. He reached this conclusion through reasoning based on “the proof of existence”. Descartes states in his book titled “Méditations métaphysiques”:
“God is a perfect and faultless being who does not make mistakes and does not deceive. Accordingly, His knowledge is also faultless and correct. Because God is perfect, He does not make mistakes. Since He does not make mistakes, His knowledge is correct; Since He does not deceive, what He informs is also correct. If he says “I created the universe”, then this is correct. Therefore, it is the true knowledge of God who is the source of absolute knowledge.”
Paskal says the following in confirmation of the same view:
One of the magnificent sides of Allah’s mind-boggling art is the splendor that He exhibits in both the small worlds as little as atoms and the enormous worlds as large as the universe.
“There is a sound coming from the depth of our existence and telling us that we are immortals. This is the guiding sound of God manifesting itself in us.”
However, the philosophers like Descartes, Spinoza, Pascal, Kant etc. who reached the idea that God’s existence is a rational necessity were not able to develop these ideas. Because they were negatively conditioned from observing the principles of a false religion which had been altered by man and not knowing the true religion Islam adequately. In fact, unfortunately we have no evidence that these philosophers, who were respectful to the religions, were honored with the belief in the Unity of God which is the first and basic condition of the happiness in both this world and the Hereafter. Necip Fazil compares the state of these philosophers to:
“The people who docked at the pier of Islam but missed the last ship for they could not take one last step” (Necip Fazil KISAKÜREK, Batı Tefekkürü ve İslam Tasavvufu (Western Thought and Islamic Sufism) p. 51, Büyük Doğu Publishing, İstanbul, 2012)
Therefore, “intellect and science” are not the aims, but rather the means. The selfish and demonized civilization, a monster that has only one tooth left, has moved the intellect away from the revelation and the true belief and abused science and technology in the service of its base desires.
Allah Almighty has not bestowed the blessing of intellect to commit murder. He rather bestowed it to use for contemplation of the divine truths and in the service of the servants of Allah.
In an atom, there is a nucleus and electrons that rotate around it in an enormous speed. If this small world were to be enlarged, it would turn into systems like solar system in which planets are rotating around the stars. There is magnificence in both micro and macro cosmos.
Allah Almighty has not bestowed the blessing of speech to lie, ridicule, gossip, defame and to utter similar immoral nonsenses. Instead, this blessing has been bestowed upon us to read Allah’s words, to speak the truth, to advise each other what is right and good, patience and compassion, to command the right and forbid the wrong.
The greatest and most vital question in the school of world is about the issue of believing in the unseen.
Source: The Universe, The Qur’an And The Human, Osman Nuri Topbaş, Erkam Publications