Striving and the Search for Civilization

Striving and the Search for Civilization

I chose this title in contrast to the title commonly presented worldwide, “the Dialogue of Civilizations.” The truth is that what has already become clear shows that there is only one true civilization to clash or enter into dialogue. True civilization is the spiritual and moral civilization founded on what the prophets and successors brought, and it is one: “Indeed, this community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me.”^[140]

This spiritual and moral civilization is not limited to one people to the exclusion of others. Rather, it exists to varying degrees here and there across the earth, just as its opposite exists in those very same places and among those very same peoples who carry some part of it and act upon it.

Therefore, people need to search for this divine spiritual and moral civilization. Dialogue, in that case, becomes a search into what each side possesses of that spiritual and moral civilization, what the other side possesses of it, and how far each has strayed from it. God said: “Say: ‘Who provides for you from the heavens and the earth?’ Say: ‘God. Then surely either we or you are upon guidance or in manifest error.’”^[141]

If that search is objective and free from blind partisanship, the result will be reaching the true divine civilization, and consequently recognizing the rightful holder of divine authority and acknowledging his right. Then people will unite in obedience to God, the True, and upon the straight path that God desires.

Whoever seeks civilization must first understand that true civilization is rooted in morality and the spirit, or, in other words, in divine religion and moral values, rather than in land or nationality. Perhaps what has already been said makes this clear: one may speak of Islamic civilization, Christian civilization, and Jewish civilization, but not of Arab civilization, American civilization, or Roman civilization. The true Islamic civilization, the true Christian civilization, and the true Jewish civilization are those founded on what Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses, peace be upon them, and their successors brought. The true divine civilizations (Islamic, Christian, and Jewish) are not what the rulers of Muslims, Christians, and Jews brought or established, nor what the scholars who do not act on their knowledge prescribed. All of these are one, and they are the one true divine civilization that has been lost and obscured for the sake of tyrannical rulers and dysfunctional scholars. God said:

He has prescribed for you the religion that He enjoined upon Noah, that which We have revealed to you, and that which We enjoined upon Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Establish the religion and do not be divided concerning it. What you call the polytheists to is hard for them. God chooses for Himself whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns to Him.^[142]

Also, in light of what has been discussed, one inevitable conclusion follows. It must neither be overlooked nor deliberately ignored in dealing with those tyrants and dysfunctional scholars who do not want to hear the good word and do not want to search objectively for the true divine civilization. Worse still, they seek to distort that true divine civilization, spread a satanic perversion on this earth, mislead people, and turn them into followers of the Devil, may God curse him, in his refusal to prostrate to Adam, the vicegerent of God on His earth. I believe that the inevitable outcome with such people is a confrontation that cannot be avoided, because at that point it becomes the only path to spreading the divine civilization on this earth. This is what God’s prophets and messengers did, as has already been made clear in this book.

The conclusion, then, is that dialogue is not between civilizations. It is among the children of Adam in search of the true divine civilization. By the same token, conflict is not between civilizations either. It is between the true divine civilization and its opposite, or, if you will, between light and darkness. Conflict can also occur between one darkness and another.

Not everyone who clashes with darkness is light, for he too may be darkness. But everyone who clashes with the light is darkness. So we must search, so that we may know the light, and by it know the darknesses.