Islam and the Future of Human Civilization

Transcription

1 Islam and the Future of Human Civilization Osman Bakar, PhD Chair Professor and Director Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies (SOASCIS) Universiti Brunei Darussalam A public lecture in conjunction with the launching of the author s book Islamic Civilization and the Modern World: Thematic Essays at IAIS Malaysia on 20 th December 2014

2 What is Islam? Islam the objective truth and reality that is mentioned in the last verse of the Quran to have been revealed (5:3) Islam as described by God Himself in the Quran; not bounded by space and time; not exhausted by all of its interpretations that have been made throughout its history; it outlasts and survives us; it is greater than all of us; Islam that serves as our ideals; it guides but also judges us; it is the criterion of truth and falsehood, of good and evil; Islam that will be a religion of the future: a corollary of Islam as the last divinely revealed religion;

3 Islam the revealed religion as subjectively realized, either individually or collectively Islam as understood and practiced by Muslims; Subjective realizations of the same truths can be many and diverse without they necessarily contradicting each other; Interpretations may come and go; schools of thought may come and go; The best understanding and the best practice of the objective Islam is that of the Prophet;

4 The gulf between the ideal and objective Islam and the humanly realized Islam The Prophet is the walking Qur an; The Prophet is the perfect role model (uswah hasanah) for believers for all times; The Prophet is the perfect embodiment of the ummah: he defines the ummatic identity; the best of his ummah is of his generation; In the life and thought of the Prophet the objective Islam and the realized Islam coincide;

5 In the lives and thoughts of other individuals the gulf between the objective Islam and the realized Islam varies; Spiritually and morally speaking, the gulf between the ummah of the Prophet s generation and the ummah of subsequent generations appears to be progressively widening; The role and duty of the ummah of each generation is to live as close as possible to the ummatic ideals as exemplified by the ummah of the Prophet s generation;

6 REMINDER: No individual or group can claim the exclusive right to be the representative, the spokesperson, or the defender of Islam; only the whole ummah can; URGENT CALL: Whether as parts of or as the whole ummah let us undertake a self-appraisal in the light of the Prophet s ummatic ideals so that we can hope to shape the future of human civilization; as believers in God s last message to humanity Muslims have more rights than anybody else and also more responsibilities to play the role of the main shapers of future human civilization;

7 Why talk about human civilization and not Islamic civilization? The two concepts are equivalent if we understand them; The word Islamic has both universal and particular meanings; the universal meaning implies that the ummah built a civilization not just for itself but rather for the whole of mankind; Classical Islamic civilization was witness to a societal partnership among Muslims, Jews and Christians in the construction of a common civilization, albeit under the intellectual and political leadership of Islam; the role of Islamic universalism, not Islamic particularism;

8 To emphasize the point that the Muslim mind could be as universal as realities or situations demand it to be; The Muslim mind ought to understand that the future of Islamic civilization is closely intertwined with the future of the rest of human civilizations; The Muslim mind ought to be concerned with contemporary human civilizations in the light of the civilizational teachings of Islam;

9 To emphasize the point that the messages contained in the objective Islam are meant for the whole of humanity; Three main groups of recipients of the Quranic messages: believers; people of the book; the human family as a whole; Inviting humanity to the message of the Quran: implications; difficulties and challenges;

10 Why talk about Islam and the future of human civilization? To impress upon the contemporary world that Islam in the past made many significant contributions to the creation of a lasting universal human civilization; To impress upon both Muslims and non-muslims that Islam can play an important role in the construction of a common human civilization in the future;

11 The future of human civilization: the main challenging issues and Islam s responses The future of planet Earth as man s only planetary home; The fall of man: where is the limit?: the meaning of human; The future challenge of diversity and pluralism: how to live together in a pluralistic world; The future challenge of science and technology: the place and role of spirituality and ethics; The challenge of societal disequilibrium: the place and role of the divine Shari ah;

12 Conclusion The need for tajdid and ijtihad: their universal meanings and significance for the future of human civilization

13 THANK YOU!