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
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;
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;
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;
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;
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;
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;
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;
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;
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;
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;
Conclusion The need for tajdid and ijtihad: their universal meanings and significance for the future of human civilization
THANK YOU!