Has Western Civilization Brought Any Comfort?
Abu-Alwafa
The Humanity’s Need to the Cultural Role of Our Muslim Nation
By Prof. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
In the very beginning, we are to stress the fact that a nation that once
reached the peak of civilization can create a new one, making use of the
bright side of the Western scientific advancement, placing it in a frame of
human and spiritual values and making it conform with the Divine
legislation. In this way, the defects of the contemporary civilization will
be eradicated.
The whole world now has been immersed completely in a dream-like wonder of
the Western technological advancement that has leveled the space and time
for man. It has made life easy for him to the extent that most of his needs
are now fulfilled once he presses a small button. What’s more, he may even
dispense with buttons in many occasions; upon entering his house, a door
opens itself. Such automatic faucets and escalators are few examples of
assortment of luxury and comfort the Western civilization has offered man.
Man has also invaded the outer space, explored the moon and brought some of
its stones and rocks for laboratory work. This mammoth scientific
advancement could never be imagined before. Such achievements are all
alluded to in the verse: "And He createth that which ye know not." (An-Nahl:
8)
Man Reaps Wretchedness from this Civilization
Now comes the very important question: Has this scientific advancement that
has enabled man to travel to the moon brought him happiness?
Our bitter reality denotes that the answer is in the negative. This pure
materialistic Western concept of knowledge granted man just only physical
comfort, not the spiritual one. Yes, man succeeded in achieving many
state-of-the-art technologies but failed to have peace of mind. This has led
to a sort of disparity between man's outer appearance and his inner self.
His life, though decorated and colorful, is shallow from within.
It has become a common matter to hear cries of distress, fear, sorrow and
despair from people of the so-called developed world. With all the means of
comfort they have, they lack spiritual calmness.
No wonder then to see psychiatrists in those countries always having a busy
schedule, with throng of clients bringing in their complaints of moral
corruption, worry, family disintegration, lack of social stability and
solidarity. All this culminated in the high rates of crime to the extent
that led to spreading fear and horror among people.
The cause of all these ailments is the absolute freedom granted man under
the umbrella of the Western civilization. This has corrupted man’s inner
nature and failed to satiate his unfulfilled needs. The more one fulfills
his desire, the more he yearns for extra luxuries. The West fails to realize
that there is no absolute freedom in the universe. All planets and stars
move in certain orbits. Ships and planes go in certain ways that if struck
by a tiny change, it may lead to a fatal catastrophe.
Man is not the only victim of this so-called civilization; it has taken its
toll on the environment as well. Pollution, nuclear and chemical wastes are
in abundance endangering the living species on earth. What adds insult to
injury is this genetic engineering, which, instead of addressing man’s woes,
has brought about more dangers. Mad cow is just a beginning.
An Arab poet says:
Still in the days to come,
More surprising is the outcome.
These are but the natural results of man's own work, when he gives himself
loose rein and thinks of himself as being the sole controller of the
universe and forgets that he is no more than a creature and that he has to
surrender to the laws of his Lord in order to prosper.
Why Do People Suffer?
People’s woes stem from the fact that they have forgotten their Lord and
thus He causes them to forget themselves. Now, they lack the fuel that makes
them lead life and look to their future through a dim perspective. They are
like a living corpse walking on earth.
Many scholars, philosophers, instructors, men of letters and politicians
have warned against the dangerous effect of this materialistic Western
civilization on man.
Among those erudite scholars is Alexis Carrel and René Dubois, a noble prize
winner.
The well known American philosopher John Dewey says: "A civilization that
allows science to destroy the existing values with no capacity to create new
ones is a self-destructive civilization."
The contemporary British thinker and renowned historian Arnold Toynbee is
quoted as saying that the solution to the problems of the Western society
lies in giving the religion high priority for them to gain salvation.
The American intellectual, John Steinbeck, sent to his friend Adlai
Stevenson that reads: “The problem of America lies in its luxury and the
many things it has. With all those things, it has no spiritual vocation to
offer. We are in a dire need to something that will awakens us from our
slumber. We have really overcome nature but still unable to overcome our own
selves.”
The German poet Brochert expressed the problem of these new generations
being brought up under the umbrella of this new civilization and said: “Our
generation is shallow from within. We really lack religion, comfort and
tranquility. Our love is physical and the gloom of youth fades away in us.
Our generation knows no limits, no borders and no protection.”
Among the politicians who showed concern in this regard is the well-known
American Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, who wrote a book entitled
“War or Peace” that included a chapter “Our Spiritual Need”. In this
chapter, he addressed many things that America lacks. He wrote: “The problem
is not one of material things, for we have the state-of-the-art materials.
What we really need is strong sound faith, for without it all our materials
do not worth a tinker’s cuss. Such deficiency that arises out of lack of
faith cannot be compensated for by politicians, diplomats, scholars or
anyone else.”
He further wrote: “Before his demise President Wilson wrote: ‘All in all,
our civilization cannot keep on this way unless it regains spirituality.’”
Science Cannot Bring Happiness to Man
People are now complaining of being wretched and miserable. They feel that
life is purposeless. With all these technologies and unprecedented
scientific discoveries, people are still unable to gain happiness. These
forms of sciences fail to remove people’s wretchedness, misfortune and
triviality. Great scientists have always reiterated that science cannot act
as a savior for mankind.
Sayings of Great Scientists
Among those scientists is Alexis Carrel, the Noble prize winner in science
and the author of “Man; That Unknown Being” in which he put Western
civilization to criticism based on scientific criteria.
Alexis Carrel wrote: “Modern civilization is on the horns of dilemma, for it
does not really suit us. Such a civilization was established on the images
of scientific discoveries, people’s lusts, fake ideas, theories and wishes.
In spite of the fact that it is we who established it, it is not suitable
for us.”
In another place, he wrote: “Man is to be librated from the chains of this
universe. It was scientists and astronomers who placed man in such chains.
Though being immense, the world of matter is still limited for man.”
Finally, Carrel wrote: “It is now time for man to get out of these shackles;
man needs to revive himself. This is not a matter of laying down a program,
for a program is no more than a new chain that imprisons our future inside
the bars of our mind.”
The well-known American psychologist Dr. Henry Link writes:
“Science does not have remedies for complicated life problems. Science is
not the source of happiness, for more scientific advancement means more
complicated life. Unless these free sciences are unified and placed in the
frame of clear facts of life, they will inevitably lead to decay in minds
and total collapse. It is faith only that can play this important role.”
The West Is Far Remote From Religion
In addition to all the above, science, in the West, emerged while being
separated from religion or even as an enemy to religion. The church adopted
a hostile stance towards science and scientific discoveries. Scientists, in
their turn, also perceived religion as a threat, so they kept it at their
arm’s length; they would not even mention Allah’s name in their writings.
It was for that reason that all scientific studies looked to universal laws
as emerging from nature and not as being Divine. None of those scientists
even said to his students that such and such is a divine creation. Instead,
they were of the say that all surrounding phenomena are created by nature.
In fact, the entire universe witnesses to the fact that it is Almighty Allah
Who has created everything. Almighty Allah says: “Our Lord is He Who gave
unto everything its nature, then guided it aright.” (Ta Ha: 50)
The West uses the modern technologies for harmful as well as beneficial
things, in good and evil. The World War I and World War II pose as evidence
of the great destruction the Western civilization can inflict on the
humanity. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are another living evidence.
How can we say, after all this, that the West is still able to grant
happiness to the world. How to expect those who are shallow from within to
be saviors? How to think that those who are wretched will give happiness to
us? Indeed, those who have nothing can give nothing.
AnonMoos
> Has Western Civilization Brought Any Comfort? By Prof. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
It has its good points and its bad points -- but since you Sunni
Muslims seem to regard worldly success and power as a necessary
feature of truth in religion, methinks your attitude displays a strong
taint of "sour grapes". Meanwhile, I'm not about to listen to
anything that a petty pro-suicide-terrorist hate bigot like Qaradawi
says. Let Qaradawi stop trying to legitimize and justify vile
loathesome despicable immoral criminal suicide terrorism crimes --
which achieve nothing and have no goal other than to nihilistically
kill civilians for the sole and exclusive purpose of killing civilians --
and _then_ I might consider that he has something to say which is
worth listening to!
--
المتبرجة خير
من إرهابي منتحر
Murderers are not martyrs! http://symbolictruth.fateback.com/
Sunny
"Abu-Alwafa" <almared...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:PQ8Rb.6066$Ur.352707@localhost...
>
> How can we say, after all this, that the West is still able to grant
> happiness to the world. How to expect those who are shallow from within to
> be saviors? How to think that those who are wretched will give happiness
to
> us? Indeed, those who have nothing can give nothing.
Anything is better than your mindless, chanting, murderous "sect" Islam
Labirinti
<almared...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Has Western Civilization Brought Any Comfort?
>The Humanity’s Need to the Cultural Role of Our Muslim Nation
Among the innumerable useful inventions brought by the Western
Civilisation, there are the electricity and the lamps, the telephone,
the cars and the medicines. There are also: the democracy, justice and
freedom.
If you do not like these western inventions, you have simply to
renounce to them. If you are consistent with yourself, do not use
western inventions. Your path is to go back along the history... and
to climb on the trees with the chimps.
Logos
gioca...@libero.it
Remove A B C
jackkincaid
>
There is no 'Muslim nation', only Muslims, and civilisation is unitary
- there is one civilisation of which we are all part, if we choose to
be (civilisation, unlike religion, is our birthright).
What he calls 'western' civilisation has brought sufficient 'comfort'
for this particular Muslim to exercise his right to free speech - in
the English language - to allow him to use the internet, via a
computer, running on electricty, in his comfortable, air conditioned,
centrally heated home in the 'western' world, with his car in the
drive - with its internal combustion engine - and his job that relies
on the modern capitalist economy, the nation state, democracy and a
respect for man-made law and order - every part of which is 'western'
in origin.
For anyone, let's say a Muslim person, to live without any of the
achievements of the democratic world, western or far eastern, he would
have to live a bedouin lifestyle in the Arabian desert, eating only
Arabian food, speaking only Arabic, with no access to any ideas or
technology dreamed of in the last thousand years.
Every Muslim I have ever known regards such a life as primitive. We
don't - we Europeans don't. We regard it as something noble; an honest
attempt to live a non-hypocritical life. But very few Arabs, or
Muslims, see it that way. They want everything the world, especially
the western world, has to offer.
But still some of them hypocritically complain about the meal after
they've had their fill.
>
> How can we say, after all this, that the West is still able to grant
> happiness to the world.
It is not the purpose of the 'west' to make you happy. That's your
job. We may suggest that fundamentalist religious belief never made
anyone happy, and that your best shot at happiness is to become an
atheist, but that's up to you.
Roger Dodger
Yes it has.
Not only has it brought comfort, it has brought life to many who
would otherwise, due to health conditions, find only death and
suffering.
> In the very beginning, we are to stress the fact that a nation that once
> reached the peak of civilization can create a new one, making use of the
> bright side of the Western scientific advancement
There is no other side.
> The whole world now has been immersed completely in a dream-like wonder of
> the Western technological advancement that has leveled the space and time
> for man. It has made life easy for him to the extent that most of his needs
> are now fulfilled once he presses a small button.
What planet are you on?
Most people, even middle class Americans, still have to get out of
bed, go to work, prepare their meals, clean their houses, and all
that. None of this "press a button" nonsense. Maybe in the depths
of Starvistan, it may seem that Americans just "press a button",
but they have to work and eat just like everyone else.
Not to mention shit, shower, shave, and shop.
The difference is that modern technology makes it easier for the
common people to educate themselves, and work with their minds,
not their bodies like a beast of burden.
> What?s more, he may even
> dispense with buttons in many occasions; upon entering his house, a door
> opens itself. Such automatic faucets and escalators
And heart pacemakers.
> are few examples of
> assortment of luxury and comfort the Western civilization has offered man.
And antibiotics.
And cortisone.
And insulin.
And CPR.
And childhood immunizations.
Shall I stop here?
> Man has also invaded the outer space,
Invaded. I guess he first invaded Africa, then Eurasia, then the
Americas, then Australia, then Antarctica.
> explored the moon and brought some of
> its stones and rocks for laboratory work. This mammoth scientific
> advancement could never be imagined before. Such achievements are all
> alluded to in the verse: "And He createth that which ye know not." (An-Nahl:
> 8)
Man needs science, not more Mystical garbage. Despite all science,
there is a good portion of humanity, even in America, under religious
bondage. Science has never made man feel guilty for what he is.
Religion has.
> Our bitter reality denotes that the answer is in the negative. This pure
> materialistic Western concept of knowledge granted man just only physical
> comfort, not the spiritual one.
The happiest people I have known are humanistic atheists. Much
of the lingering fears and guilts in WestCiv are the remnants of
religion. People need to work to free themselves from this.
> It has become a common matter to hear cries of distress, fear, sorrow and
> despair from people of the so-called developed world. With all the means of
> comfort they have, they lack spiritual calmness.
Much of the "spiritual calmness" of the undeveloped world is the
passivity of malnutrition and disease, if not outright starvation.
Plus political oppression from corrupt military dictators and
theocrats.
> No wonder then to see psychiatrists in those countries always having a busy
> schedule, with throng of clients bringing in their complaints of moral
> corruption, worry, family disintegration, lack of social stability and
> solidarity. All this culminated in the high rates of crime to the extent
> that led to spreading fear and horror among people.
Better scientific psychiatrists than mumbo-jumbo witchdoctors
known as priests, ministers, rabbis, brahmins - and imams.
I know that in hospitals, the patients that complain the most are
the ones in the best health. They have the strength to complain.
The patients at death's door are peaceful, calm, serene. The same
principle applies across civilizations. The average Bangladeshi
has not the energy for anomie. Frankly, I think many Americans
and other Westerners don't know how good they have it - but that's
their problem, and some day they may be more grateful.
> The cause of all these ailments is the absolute freedom granted man under
> the umbrella of the Western civilization. This has corrupted man?s inner
> nature and failed to satiate his unfulfilled needs. The more one fulfills
> his desire, the more he yearns for extra luxuries. The West fails to realize
> that there is no absolute freedom in the universe. All planets and stars
> move in certain orbits. Ships and planes go in certain ways that if struck
> by a tiny change, it may lead to a fatal catastrophe.
>
> Man is not the only victim of this so-called civilization; it has taken its
> toll on the environment as well. Pollution, nuclear and chemical wastes are
> in abundance endangering the living species on earth.
In geologic history, there have been catastrophic all-natural mass
extinctions that dwarf any of Man's misdeeds. One of the first was
the mass poisoning causes by photosynthetic organisms pumping oxygen
into the atmosphere. That wasn't pollution?
Whether it was or not, Mankind and all other modern oxygen-breathing
animals owe their existence to that event.
> What adds insult to
> injury is this genetic engineering, which, instead of addressing man?s woes,
> has brought about more dangers. Mad cow is just a beginning.
So you think the world was better off with smallpox killing
millions of children?
> Many scholars, philosophers, instructors, men of letters and politicians
> have warned against the dangerous effect of this materialistic Western
> civilization on man.
Many of them idiots, or rich feudal lords fearful of the now-
empowered middle classes.
> Science Cannot Bring Happiness to Man
No, not happiness. Just life, health, and freedom. People can choose
to be unhappy, or be victims of circumstances beyond their control,
or both. Science gives people - individuals - a better chance, a
fighting chance. The alternative is Ignorance, superstition, and
mysticism.
> The West Is Far Remote From Religion
What has religion ever done for Humanity?
> In addition to all the above, science, in the West, emerged while being
> separated from religion or even as an enemy to religion.
Which is probably why science, in the West, emerged at all. Science
chained to mysticism does not flourish. It withers and dies.
> It was for that reason that all scientific studies looked to universal laws
> as emerging from nature and not as being Divine. None of those scientists
> even said to his students that such and such is a divine creation.
It matters not who created "such and such".
> Instead,
> they were of the say that all surrounding phenomena are created by nature.
Nature is what science studies. Not God, or the gods. The Big Bang
happened, and that was that. The Big Bang never needed a creator, or
any causal agent - the theory works better *without* one.
> In fact, the entire universe witnesses to the fact that it is Almighty Allah
> Who has created everything. Almighty Allah says: ?Our Lord is He Who gave
> unto everything its nature, then guided it aright.? (Ta Ha: 50)
A scientist can choose to believe that, or not. A scientist can
believe that Allah, Yahweh, or Jehavah created the Universe.
But the minute such beliefs interfere with the scientific method,
the scientist stops being a scientist.
> The West uses the modern technologies for harmful as well as beneficial
> things, in good and evil. The World War I and World War II pose as evidence
> of the great destruction the Western civilization can inflict on the
> humanity.
Both World Wars were caused by anti-Western ideas that took
hold in Western nations.
> Hiroshima and Nagasaki are another living evidence.
And what about Pearl Harbor and the Rape of Nanking?
And what about the Nazi Blitzkrieg?
Phaedrine
theov...@another.com (jackkincaid) wrote:
> "Abu-Alwafa" <almared...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:<PQ8Rb.6066$Ur.352707@localhost>...
> > Has Western Civilization Brought Any Comfort?
> > The Humanity?s Need to the Cultural Role of Our Muslim Nation
> >
> There is no 'Muslim nation', only Muslims.......
Muslim Nation. Hmmmmmm. Is that anything like Alien Nation?
The Department of Defense
"Phaedrine" <Phaedrine_...@spamenot.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Phaedrine_Stonebridge...@news-60.giganews.com...
moreover synonymous to an abomination