The Meaning of Civilisation ---------------------------- Page 1
We have said that the civilisation (hadhara) is a collection of concepts
about life, and that either it is a spiritual divine one (deeniyya) or manmade.
An example of the spiritual divine civilisation is the Islamic
civilisation, and an example of the man-made are the Indian civilisation
and Western civilisation. The existence of these civilisations is a definite
matter and an incontestable established fact. Likewise is the difference
between them, such that none but the liar can deny it. The source of
the divine civilisation, according to its people, is revelation; the source of
the man-made civilisation is the people who agreed on it.
This alone
suffices is enough for distinction and difference. Even if there appears
a type of meeting in some of the concepts, this is not an agreement or
a common matter. This is because civilisation, when it is adopted, must
be adopted together with the basis from which it emanated or the basis
it is built upon. So if the basis between two civilisations is different, the
agreement between some of their concepts, or the existence of similarity between some of their concepts about life, is worth no attention. This
is because the concept is a branch from its basis (asl), and it cannot be
adopted except with its basis. Both the Islamic civilisation and the
Western civilisation allow eating fish, wearing wool, private property,
delegating the woman, accounting the ruler and taking medicine.
However, these and their like are not considered of the Islamic
civilisation unless they are adopted based upon being revelation from
Allah to Muhammad i.e. upon their being Shar'a, whereas they are
adopted in the Capitalist civilisation based upon their being of interest
(maslaha) or their being ameliorated by their minds. If the Muslim
adopts them based upon their interest (maslaha)or the rational
amelioration, it is not considered adopting from Islam.
The difference between civilisations is a matter of fact without any
possibility to deny it. What concerns us is the difference between the
Islamic civilisation and others, in particular the Western civilisation, and
what results from this difference or is built upon it, such as the issues of
dialogue (al-hiwar), the clash (as-sira'a), the possibility of founding one
universal civilisation, the forms and types of clash and will the clash
cease, hide or will there be a victory for one civilisation over others?
What is meant by religious dialogue between religions in view of those
who call for it, and what is the correct position regarding it? What is
the difference between religions and civilisations etc?
Religions are of two types: A deen (religion) from which a civilisation
emerges i.e. it has a collection of concepts about life, like the Islamic
deen, and a religion from which no civilisation emerges - and there is no
collection of concepts therein - like the Christian religion. Though it
has ideals like 'Do not steal and do not commit zina', however, it has
no collection of concepts covering all aspects of life. Hence, the
Christian religion is an appropriate example of a religion from which
no civilisation emanates.
The Capitalist civilisation does not emanate from the Christian religion;
even if it came about in countries where the majority of their
populations are Christians. So the dialogue or clash or partnership
between Islam and Christianity differs from the dialogue or clash
between it and the Capitalist civilisation. <<<<1
Clash Of Civilisations
