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| Director General | Education | Sciences | Culture | CPID | Cooperation | Secretariat of GC & EC | | Home | Contact |
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Activating the Culture of Dialogue through Civilization
Dr. Mohamed El Kettani(*)
As we study history, our focus should perhaps be on the civilizational rationale of what nations have achieved through interaction and through a give-and-take process conducted in the spirit of tolerance and coexistence. The importance of this interaction in the history of Islam is strongly visible. By analysing the manifestations of this interaction between Muslims and other nations at all levels, many facts become clear and many allegations born out of fanaticism against Islam and its history fall away. Two phenomena are worthy of note in this respect:
First: The temporal policy has often exploited religion in the worst possible manner, whether in the Islamic world or the Christian one. Faith was used to inflame hostility and promote exclusion and isolation at most phases of history. Thus, the Islamic and the Christian worlds often found themselves caught up in a continuous ebb-and-flow of confrontations.
Second: In times of peace, the people-to-people relations were often in total contrast with expansionist policies. The image reflected was one of coexistence and harmony as opposed to clash and military confrontation. Nothing marred the serenity of this coexistence except phases of tension where states settled scores and where the deadliest weapon used was religion.
Whether in the East or West, people considered wars a state of exception while states considered them their raison d'être. Peoples interacted with each other through a realistic approach, that of the correlation or reciprocity of interests.
Trade knew no boundaries and the exchange of goods never ceased, nor did the two-way flow of knowledge, technology, inventions and arts which transcended political and religious conflict, as we shall see in a while.
Mention should be made of the fact that Muslims never used religion as a pretext for introversion and fanaticism but under some exceptional circumstances. The temporal policy was highly instrumental in adjusting creeds to its own interests through mobilization and exhortation. But in normal circumstances, Muslims considered difference in faith a matter of course in the life of mankind, finding inspiration for their civilizational vision in the divine saying: “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you.”(1) The call to Islam started with three principles: “universality”, “rationality” and the “respect of plurality”.
The pillar represented by the first principle, the universality of Islam relied on a denominator common to all humanity, namely reason and instinct, so that this Islamic discourse could be general and capable of encompassing all national specificties. Islam, in defining its faith and Charia, relied exclusively on universal values such as faith in supra-sensorial truths and unconditional monotheism, acknowledging all god-sent religions, and believing in the resurrection of all mankind on the Day of Reckoning. As for Charia, the message of Islam was built around general rules which take body in legitimate objectives such as the preservation of life, religion, reason, property and honour, to which are added accessory aspects that complete and enhance them.
Islam leaves all definitions and secondary rulings to new developments, to the ijtihad of Muslim scholars, following an approach that strives for balance between the openness of jurisprudence and the respect of conditions contained in text-bassed and reason-based mechanisms.
The second principle, the rationality of the Islamic discourse, refers to a general human faculty, one that recognises humanity as the source of all knowledge, and the reason of our accountability and responsibility, namely the faculty of reason. There can be no knowledge and no accountability in the absence of reason and the application of the mind.
This principle is what gives credence and support to the first principle. For the third principle, acknowledging difference as an intrinsic aspect of human nature, Islam not only respects this difference, but considers it a source of enrichment and wealth for culture and civilization, and even a field where human beings compete for excellence and virtue.
Let us go back to the history of the Islamic civilization and the culture of Islam. We will be able to perceive the effectiveness of these principles and their manifestations through the civilizational and cultural interaction between Muslims and non Muslims, and between Islam and the religions of the rest of the world. We will start with the interaction of the Islamic civilization with eastern civilizations and its endeavour to select from the latter everything that is beneficial and that does not clash with its own values.
Two essential points deserve mention here. The first one pertains to understanding the Prophet's Tradition which represents the source and the reference par excellence for understanding the message of Islam and its civilizational and cultural project. Many understood that Prophet Mohammed Ibn Abdullah (PBUH) was the carrier of a divine message that he did his utmost to deliver to all mankind, that the motivation of this message was purely spiritual, that he was not as preoccupied by founding a political and social system that would guarantee the application of Islamic precepts, as he was by the mission of spreading the message of monotheism and virtue. Some believed that there was no association between religion and state in Islam, and considered that proof of this could be found in the Prophet's biography itself(2).
But by perusing the modern books of Hadith and Sunnah, (i.e. Saheehs, Musnads and compendiums), we will be amazed at the richness of the Hadith literature proving that the Prophet (PBUH) had, from the day he migrated to Medinah, founded an Islamic state with its military, juridical and diplomatic apparatuses, a state that entertained relations with other peoples of the Book, Christians and Jews alike and with neighbouring countries, and that displayed all signs of sovereignty at all levels. The moment the Prophet (PBUH) passed away, the companions hastened to convene in Saqeefa in order to appoint the first caliph to succeed the Prophet (PBUH), being conscious of the importance of ensuring the State's continuity by consolidating its existence, reinforcing its sovereignty and taking the message of Islam beyond the frontiers of this new-born state.
This means that the civilizational interaction of Islam with other civilizations should be seen as having started during the Prophet's time in Medinah, and through the bases set by the Quran for inter-religious dialogue. Our second point is that Islam did not invent the laws and decrees that were revealed in the Quran. It was preceded by other divine books and known doctrines, as well as by economic, social and civilizational systems of previous nations of which the importance cannot be denied, especially in the field of civil rights. Islam completed some, created others, corrected the beliefs that had been distorted and abrogated through its own Charia all the radicalism and extremism that negated moderation and temperance.
If Islam dealt with laws and civil rights in this manner, what about the matters where experience is the reference and where the bases are practices that have proven their efficiency in serving the interests of the people(3).
We find that the Prophet (PBUH) set a distinction between what is revealed to him for the purposes of onward transmission and the worldly matters which are governed by experience and testing. In a hadith about pollinating palm trees, the Prophet (PBUH) said: “If I tell you something about God, take it because I would never lie about God. But if I tell something out of my own opinion, I am just a human being,” or as in another version: “You know your worldly affairs better than I do.”(4)
After clarifying these two points, let us move to the Prophet's era since these times represent the reference in the application of the Charia and the embodiment of Islamic values in the management of the social affairs of Medinah. We are hard put to find something that prohibits benefiting from what was then common and known among Arabs and other nations in the way of worldly life matters based on useful experience, whether in agriculture, trade, economy, health or the military field, barring all matters expressly prohibited by the Charia and discouraged by the Prophet's sunnah. This shows that Islam does not inherently require that the Muslim break away from his reality or reject the manifestations of the civilizations surrounding him or the experience of other nations and their scientific experiments. In fact, the sunnah represents the best reference exhorting the Muslim to espouse his times and embrace the components of these times except where explicitly proscribed by the Charia(5).
If we look at medical expertise for example, we will find that Islam did not oppose the adoption of everything that medicine had previously proven to be beneficial even when the physicians were not Muslims. In Ibn Dawoud's 'Sunan', Saad Ibn Waqqas is reported to have said: “I fell sick and the Prophet came to visit me. He put his hands on my chest and said: You suffer from the heart, let Al Hareth Ibn Abi Kalda, brother of Thaqeef, come. He is a physician.” Al Hareth was from Taef and had not converted to Islam. In fact, the Prophet (PBUH) used to refer all sick Muslims to this renowned physician.
Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, reported that when the Prophet suffered his final sickness, Arab and Persian physicians used to visit him and that he sought treatment from those of them whom he trusted(6).
On benefiting from the personal experience and knowledge of desert roads of guides who were not necessarily Muslims, the biographical collections of the Prophet's companions contain accounts of guides whom the Prophet (PBUH) employed to cross the desert on the way from Mekkah to Medinah, or in some of his battles. These guides, who had not converted to Islam, included Tubay' Al Humairy, Ibn Hareth Al Hadhli, Thabit Ibn Addahhak, and Jameel Al Ashja'i. All of them were used by the Prophet (PBUH) in his movements or some of his battles as experts on desert routes and had not converted to Islam at the time of their employ(7).
In the 'Sunan' of Ibn Dawoud, in the chapter praising some of the practises or traditions of the People of the Book, Ibn Abbas says that “The People of the book used to let their hair hang down over their foreheads while the infidels of Quraysh used to part their hair. The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) liked the ways of the People of the Book in matters where there was no specific command. He let his hair hang over his forehead, and later on parted it.”(8) In Lissan Al Arab by Ibn Mandhour, the Prophet (PBUH) arrived in Medinah to find the People of the Book wearing their hair hanging over their foreheads and the pagans parting it. The Prophet wore his air hanging over his forehead and later on parted it. Parting the hair came last. Letting the hair flow down meant no shaping and no braiding of the hair whilst parting it meant letting it fall on both sides of the head using either a comb or some other accoutrement.
In agriculture, Al Bukhari reports in his Saheeh that the Prophet (PBUH) left the lands of Khaybar to the Jews after conquering them because he considered that the Jews who had ample experience in farming were better qualified to care for the land than the Muslims, on condition that the harvest be divided in half between Muslims and Jews(9).
In terms of respecting the religious legacy of the People of the Book, it is reported that the Jews approached the Prophet (PBUH) after the conquest of Khaybar asking him to return to them several copies of the Torah. He ordered that these be handed over to them and they were grateful and impressed by this stance, knowing that when the Romans defeated them in Jerusalem in 70 AD, they either burnt or stamped over all the holy books(10).
In communication, the Prophet ordered some of his companions such as Zayd Ibn Abi Thabit to learn foreign languages. He did learn Hebrew and Syriac and served as a scribe for the Prophet, writing his letters and reading the messages that reached him(11). In the same vein, Al Qalqashandi's “Subh Al A'sha” states that a scribe need to learn the language of those he has to address or write to, as should the magistrate who had to arbitrate between non-Arab opponents.
In the military field, it was proven that the Prophet (PBUH) tasked some of his companions with learning warfare techniques in order to be on a par with the enemy. Some of these companions were Orwa Ibn Masuud and Ghailan Ibn Salam whom he dispatched to Jurash in Jordan to learn the warfare techniques of testudo and catapults(12).
These examples serve to underline that Muslims are requested to seek knowledge, skills and expertise irrespective of their source. Abu Nu'aim narrates that Anas Ibn Malek reported that the Prophet (PBUH) said: “Knowledge is the quest of the Muslim. He shall seek it wherever he can find it.”
Through the ages, Muslims have continued to build human civilization in their quest to acquire knowledge and draw benefits from universal knowledge and from skills and know-how, with no restraint whatsoever imposed by religious teachings. The scholar Al Andalusi Al Maliki Abu Abdullah Mohammed Ibn Yousuf, alias Abu Al Mawwaq (897AH) said: “Trustworthy scholars have confirmed that we were not warned to avoid all that non-Muslims brought unless the Charia explicitly proscribed it or the rules of Fiqh urged against it. What Non-Muslims have practiced as desired, allowed or accepted in our Charia should not be avoided on the pretext that its source is non-Muslim.”(13)
The Rightly-Guided Caliphs followed the Prophet's example in seeking to draw benefit from the medical, industrial, military and administrative expertise of Persian, Indian and Roman civilizations. Omar Ibn Al Khattab derived the systems of cabinets from the Persians and maintained transactions in Persian dirhams and dinars. He put an end to barter and added the phrase “La Ilah Illa Allah” to Khosroes’ coins.
In the Umayyad and Abbasid eras, civilizational interaction reached its widest scope. Dialogue and interaction with the peoples, civilizations and cultures of advanced countries reached their apogee. This interaction covered the systems and methods of governance, economic and commercial life, the translation of ancient sciences into Arabic and studying, authenticating, completing and innovating in these sciences. Dialogue continued on matters of faith among the scholars and clerics of both sides, which brought about a total harmony between Muslims and the inhabitants of conquered countries, in the spirit of co-existence and tolerance that orientalists acknowledged in their historical and civilizational studies. Thanks to this, the Islamic civilization became richer and more creative; achieving wealth that Westerners could only copy and embrace once they took knowledge of it.
Through this civilizational coexistence under the Umayyad and Abbasid reigns, Muslims were influenced by the architecture and building arts they encountered in developed countries. They embraced the social, economic and commercial lifestyles prevalent at the time. Caliphs even endeavoured to pave the way for this interaction by securing roads between the East and the West and in Central Asia. Trade exchanges flourished and goods and commodities travelled through safe routes from the farthest reaches of China to Andalusia and Morocco. The impact on Muslims of the trading styles prevalent in former empires became clear through the professional traders' societies for investment, and the use of bonds which replaced coins. Muslims also maintained the system of Mukos and taxes, and the Byzantine and Muslim currencies were exchanged in all markets.
Durant says that a new civilization emerged after the first Crusade war. The proponents of this civilization settled in Syria and Palestine from the end of the 11th century AD. Christians wore oriental dress, donned the Arab head gear and the caftan. Muslim traders moved freely within Christian lands. When Christians fell sick, they sought Muslim doctors who were allowed to perform their rites of worship and educate their children in lands other than their homeland(14).
The image of today's Muslims as they import the industrial and technological products of the West almost mirrors that of the West importing industrial and agricultural goods from the East up to the 12th century AD. At that time, silks, brocades, sugar, spices, plants, crops, gems, dyes, cosmetics and perfumes flowed into Europe's markets from where they went to adorn the houses of the wealthy and the new bourgeoisie. Europe learnt from Muslims the processes of refining sugar and the manufacturing of glass coated in metal which came to replace the mirrors made out of bronze(15).
Nothing in the Islamic legislation or in the collective customs and traditions called for closing the door in the face of Ahl Dhimma, or barring them from working or making a living within Muslim societies on an equal footing with Muslims. In fact, they continued to practice professions that enabled them to amass fortunes. They were bankers, traders, or doctors or owned farms and plantations. Some professions became the specialty of Jews in Muslim societies, such as banking, money changing, jewellery making, tailoring and shoemaking. Other professions were practiced almost exclusively by Christians, such as the science of medicine and the art of scriveners.
What is most amazing is that this tolerance which prevailed within Muslim societies towards non-Muslims reached great proportions. Non-Muslim administrators and workers operated in large numbers within the Islamic State in the central government and in provinces, including posts at the command of armies, as viziers and administrators of public treasuries. This proves beyond doubt that the Muslim rulers and caliphs considered merit and qualification in practical fields a key criterion in appointing people to certain practical tasks. However, the expansion of non-Muslim influence over the State's general affairs at some points in history often led to adverse reactions against these Christian and other administrators.
In Muslim Andalusia, the social and civilizational integration of Muslims, Jews and Christians and other ethnic groups and sects over eight centuries reached unprecedented levels. Mohammed Kurd Ali (1953AD) quotes the orientalist Sedillot (1875AD) as saying that Muslims made a holiday of Sundays just like Christians whom they also allowed to preach. The Umayyad caliphs relied on Slavic mercenaries in their armies and allowed all non-Muslims to worship in their own way. When a conflict arose between a Muslim and a Christian soldier, justice was often in favour of the Christian one(16).
The same situation was observed in the Orient where Christians maintained their churches and rebuilt those that had been destroyed during the conquests. The caliphs left the care and management of churches and synagogues to the priests and rabbis. Christians sought justice in Islamic courts when differences arose between them, confident in the equity of the Islamic justice system(17).
Fire worshippers and pagans were treated in a similar way despite the fact that they were not people of the Book. When the Crusaders invaded Palestine, Muslims endeavoured, despite being the target of the attacks, to protect the Jews from the Crusading hordes as these Jews were part of ahl dhimma.
Social integration developed till it reached unprecedented scopes. Muslims began to imitate the Christians in dress, in keeping harnessed horses and speaking in their language while Christians began to cover their women with veils and emulate the Muslims in dress and customs. Renaud relates in his book “The History of the Muslim Conquests in Europe” how Christians were so impressed by the good treatment they received from Muslims that they became sensitive to the feelings of Muslims and began to circumcise their children and to refrain from eating pork. Marriages between Muslims and Spaniard, Portuguese and Castellan women became common, giving birth to generations of Muslims of mixed descent. Arabic became the language of the State and of institutions, and even of the Church in certain cases(18).
Another researcher reports that the kings of Andalusia never balked at embracing any artefact of civilization, aspect of architecture or fact of science and learning that emerged, influenced by the Christians in the most exciting of these innovations. Even the prohibited statues were introduced into the houses of princes and dignitaries for decoration purposes as Muslims had kept most of the statues they had found in Andalusia either for moralistic purposes or others.
One of their poets says about a statue in the city of Xativa(19) :
A wondrous remnant of times Roman
Standing witness to its builder's skill
I see nothing in it but a reminder
Of successive nations that named it a statue
A unique chisel that carved truthfully
Truly it has chiselled days and nations away
Like a preacher that has stood long
Speaking of the days of Aad and Iram
To those who understand: behold a solid stone speaking to us
In words more passionate and eloquent than a preacher's
As for cultural exchanges which symbolize civilizational interaction, they were manifest in the nature itself of the Islamic culture's openness to other cultures. German Orientalist George Jacobs (1937AD) maintains that at no time in history was culture the product of the mentality of one people. According to him, it is a combination of several elements of a group of peoples and cultures, and that scientific research should not be approached in a radical nationalistic or religious way, but should instead grow within a universal context(20).
Following the Islamic conquests, the Arabic language spread in a very noticeable way. This was probably owed to the fact that Arabic was the language of the faith and the Charia. Converting to and totally embracing Islam was dependent upon knowing this language and arabisation quickly spread to the conquered lands. In addition to the important religious factor behind the spread of Arabic, the integration of Arabs within the social circles of conquered lands, which happened in fast successive waves, also played an important role in achieving Arabisation and the spread of the Arabic language, without for that matter totally annihilating the original languages of the conquered lands.
Another aspect of cultural integration was that Muslim conquerors copied and adopted the knowledge and sciences of the conquered nations, subsequently developing them with experiments, applications and rectification. They did not burn libraries despite their solid faith in Allah's book and the sunnah of His Prophet, knowing well that books in these libraries may contain what is against their beliefs and their culture. Instead, they were careful to take possession of these books. In fact, some Abbasid caliphs accepted to ransom some of the Roman prisoners against books. Such civilised behaviour helped non-Arab nations appreciate the new civilizational values, be amenable to Islam and embrace it, either out of conviction or because it guaranteed the respect of their faith within a context of co-existence and mutual interests.
This unequivocal stance vis-à-vis the adoption of the sciences and knowledge of previous nations, clearly refutes the fabricated story related by the Christian Syriac historian Ibn Al Ibri about Omar Ibn Al Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, whereby he ordered the burning of the Alexandria library after he conquered Egypt. This story was taken up by some anti-Islam Western historians without verifying its veracity, while some other Westerners did refute it.
In the same vein, education, as well as translation from foreign languages played a critical role in cultural interaction. These activities were mostly carried out by Christians and Assyrians in the Abbasid era. The mingling of Arabs and non-Arabs in markets and administrations, by founding families through marriage and concubinage, and through acquiring slaves also favoured the spread of the Arabic language and at the same time, its influence by other languages and its borrowing of foreign words. This gave rise to dialects and hybrid languages which borrowed heavily from Arabic and other languages. Thus, linguistic interaction was one of the strongest aspects of civilizational interaction between Muslims and other nations in the East and the West. One of such instances was the noticeable influence of Arabic on Persian and on Spanish during the Arab reign of Andalusia, which influence cannot be addressed in detail here.
The historian Al Masoudi (346AH) wrote that the Abbasid caliph Abu Jaafar Al Mansur (158AH) was the first caliph to order the translation of books from Persian into Arabic, such as Kalila wa Dimna and Kitab As-Sind wa Al Hind. He also ordered the translation of Aristotle's books on logic, Ptoleme's Almajest, Euclid's book on geometry, and many other ancient books from Greek, Roman, Pahlavi and Syriac. These books were then placed at the disposal of people to read and benefit from them. He was also the first to have ordered readings on dogmas and to seek debates and opinions. This accounts for the fact that after his time, Zoroastrians felt free to proclaim their beliefs and the Manichee, Dayssani and other sects proclaimed their opinions confident of their freedom of belief. This also explains why the Abbasid caliph Al Mahdi Al Abbas (169AH) encouraged Muslim scholastic philosophers (Ilm Al-Kalam) to engage in debates with them. He was also the first to instruct these Kalam scholars to engage in research and theorizing, to compile the letters written in reply to these atheists and to provide arguments and evidence in answer to the disbelievers. It should also be mentioned that reactions to the spread of atheism differed from one caliph to another and as circumstances dictated. At times tolerance and dialogue were the basis of interaction, while at others it was repression and the persecution of atheists, although tolerance prevailed much more.
There is no doubt that the Islamic civilization completed the scientific endeavours that were then in process and enriched with its own research all the disciplines of Greek science such as mathematics, geometry, astronomy, land surve, mineralogy, biology, chemistry and medicine. Caliphs built astronomy observatories, scientific laboratories and libraries. In the midst of such academic effervescence emerged great scholars and brilliant minds, poets, historians and philosophers. The content transferred from Latin played a tremendous role in the emergence of modern Western civilization, in contrast to the state of the Byzantine civilization. Therefore, the Islamic civilization is considered an important station in the march of civilizations from the eastern Greek world and Middle Ages Europe.
Through some documented examples, we have seen how Muslims were influenced by the ancient Persian, Indian, Greek and Roman civilizations in various fields. This also applied to their influence by the scientific trends themselves which grew and expanded thanks to the Islamic movement of sciences. We have also seen how they responded to the values of Islam while opening up to ancient sciences within a framework that is in harmony with the faith of Islam and its moral values. We need to ponder now the impact of the Islamic civilization on the West within the context of this positive interaction of civilizations, which impact made of Muslims the masters of the West at a certain stage in the march of human civilization.
This undeniable distinction of Muslims in these experimental sciences could not have been achieved in the absence of an experimental approach. Orientalist Von Gunebaun says that Arab scholars were a strong source of inspiration in the Middle Ages. The West not only aspired to acquire the products generated by Muslims, they were actually able to grasp them through vast translation endeavours and adopted the interpretations produced by the Muslims of these sciences. In the 14th century, the University of Paris accepted to introduce the study of Aristotle only if it came along with the interpretations of Averroes(21). He goes on to say that no field of human experience was left untouched by Islam or where the wealth of Western traditions was not thus enhanced, including food, beverage, drugs and medication, weapons, shields and their adornments, industrial, commercial and maritime arts, then tastes and artistic subjects, without forgetting the many terms used in astronomy and mathematics. To list the full extent of Islam's contribution to all this would take pages and pages and still not give it justice(22).
As we close this review of the aspects of civilizational interaction which show how the West was influenced by the Islamic civilization, culture and sciences, we would like to give two examples dating back to the Middle Ages and to the early stirrings of the European Renaissance. These two examples are intimately linked to the social and spiritual life of Europeans and relate to the impact of Islamic law and of Arab and Islamic literature.
The first aspect is related to the Frankish students who used to travel from their countries to Cordoba or Granada in pursuit of knowledge and who were very keen on translating Islamic fiqh books into their languages. The purpose was to enable their countries to benefit from them as the laws which were at that time in force in their countries were inferior to the Islamic ones, especially in the fifth century of the hegira.
In an article on civil rights in the ancient world, the researcher Said Murad Al Ghazi concludes that what the Europeans derived from Islamic Fiqh was what came to be known later as the new Roman law, for how indeed could a Roman law re-emerge in a new form after its total disappearance if it had not been influenced in form and content by new foreign or borrowed elements(23). The direct influence of Islamic law was most apparent in Andalusia where the co-existence of Muslims, Christians and Jews reached its most profound levels with Muslim judges ruling over all and the Islamic Charia serving as the reference.
As for the second aspect which is related to literature, suffice it to point out that the most famous Italian work of literature during the modern renaissance era, namely Dante Allighieri's Divine Comedy (1321AD), a work considered the pride and masterpiece of this era's literature, had in fact been inspired by the story of the Nightly Journey and Ascension as written by Mohieddine Ibn Arabi Al Hatimi (1240AD). The Divine Comedy followed the same lines as the original work although it was largely expanded by the Italian poet to make room for Christian beliefs and poetic imagination. The Spanish orientalist A. Placios (1871AD) even wrote about this obvious influence in his study of comedy titled The Ascension of Mohamed(24).
In German literature, no mention can be made of the greatest temporary poet J. Wolfgang Goethe (1832) without mentioning his renowned poetry compilation “West-östlicher Divan.” This book shows clearly the strong impact of the Noble Quran and the life of the Prophet (PBUH) had on this author. This influence made his poems and plays stand out by their admiration of Islam and its great Book. In this divan, he describes as a folly on the part of man to be so arbitrary about any aspect witnessed in life.
He also announces that if Islam meant submission to God, then we all live and die as Muslims(25).
In Russian literature, Pushkin (1837AD) is considered the greatest poet in the history of Russian literature. He developed a passion for the Quran after reading a Russian and French translation of its meanings, and tried to emulate it in his prolific poems. A Russian critic wrote in his book “Pushkin and the East” that Pushkin was in admiration of the Quran not only in religious and spiritual terms, but also in the philosophical, social and Islamic ones. This explains the keen interest that this poet took in this great religious and historical text with its artistic and cultural features(26). Pushkin produced his poem Imitations of the Koran in several parts, which represented a new development in nationalistic Russian poetry in terms of form, content, ideas, musicality and tempo.
It is only natural after all these rich civilizational interactions through centuries and centuries, that we wonder about the destiny of such positive cultural and civilizational interaction between East and West which occurred within a context of tolerance, openness and intellectual freedom during the golden age of the Islamic State.
All historians unfortunately concur in that such fruitful interaction between East and West began to dwindle and to display signs contrary to its former positive spirit after the West achieved progress and reclaimed the reins of power from Muslims. The Islamic and Christian worlds have started to grow apart, not in time and space, but in terms of coexistence and cultural exchanges, influenced by anti-Muslim and anti-Islam religious sentiments. Since Europe's Christians rallied around Pope Urban II at Clermont in France in 1095AD in a collective mobilization to wage the Crusade Wars and reclaim Al Quds from those he called the infidels, a new page was turned in the history of the relationship between the East and the West, one of military and political confrontation between the Islamic and Christians states. Over the three centuries of this confrontation which waned at times and surged at others, all mutually beneficial relations ceased to exist. By necessity, only commercial and diplomatic relations were maintained and were highly volatile at that. In fact, Europeans were the only beneficiaries of the Crusade Wars and were at the same time responsible for the atrocities of these wars.
However, humanity's contemporary history stands out by a long-lasting progress in communication and openness and by the strong impact of civilization's modern developments. Peoples and nations are now convinced of the inevitability of communication, cooperation and of the dialogue of cultures and civilizations. A new page has been turned in the history of relations between Islam and Christianity, a page that we are living as we follow the progress of some of its praiseworthy endeavours. This relationship is dictated by the need for cooperation between Muslims and Christians as a way of confronting the spiritual deterioration of man. The impact of such deterioration has intensified within the context of a materialistic civilization which has stripped Man of his spiritual armour. Muslims and Christians, having the greatest following today, perhaps carry the largest share of responsibility in halting this deterioration. This entails that they lay the bridges of fruitful cooperation between them, of a sustained and objective dialogue among their cultural elite, to at least preserve the dream of living in a world of peace and tolerance.
(*) Member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, member of the Moroccan royal cabinet and former dean of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at the University of Abdelmalek Essaadi in Tetouan, Morocco.
(1) Al-Hujurat: 13.
(2) One of these was Sheikh Ali Abdelrazik in his book Islam and the Rules of Governance which appeared in 1925 in Cairo. The book caused great intellectual turmoil in Egypt and elsewhere in reaction to its claim that Islam was a religion and not a state. Many books and articles responded to this claim.
(3) Cf. 'Hujjat Al islam Al Baligha' by Imam Shah Walli Allah Dahlawi who died in 1176, in the chapter on the differences between the religion of our Prophet (PBUH) and Judaism and Christianity, page 122, Dar Ath-Thurat, Beirut.
(4) Cf. more examples of this in Sheikh Abdelhay El Kettani's book 'Attarateeb Al Idariyya', Dar Al Kitab Al Arabi, Beirut.
(5) Hujjat Allah Al Baligha, Dahlawi, Dar Al Thurat, vol 1, page 124.
(6) Attarateeb Al Idariyya, El Kettani, vol 1, page 457.
(7) Ibid, page 348.
(8) Sunan Abi Dawoud, vol 2/789, authenticated by Zuheir Ash-Shaweesh.
(9) Fath Al Bari on Saheeh Al Bukhari, vol 5/12, Al Matba'a Al Bahiyya
(10) Islam and the Arab Civilization: Muhammed Kurd Ali, vol 1/214.
(11) Attarateeb Al Idariyya: El Kettani, vol 1/203.
(12) Ibid, 1/376.
(13) Cf. his book: “Sunan Al Muhtadine fe Maqamat Addine”.
(14) Will Durant, “The Story of Civilization”.
(15) Impact of the Orient on the West, page 109. German orientalist George Jacob.
(16) Islam and the Arab Civilization, Mohammed Kurd Ali, vol 1/221.
(17) Ibid.
(18) Article: 'Past and Present of Andalusia' by Mohammed Kurdi Ali, Magazine of the Academy of Arabic Language, Damascus, Vol 2, page 167, 1922AD.
(19) Poet Abu Amer Al Biriani, cf. ibid, page 234.
(20) Cf. 'Impact of the East in the West', page 169.
(21) Cf. 'The Civilization of Islam' by Gustave E. Von Gunebaum, translated by Abdulaziz Taoufiq Jared, revised by Abdulhamid Al Abbadi, page 432. Editions of the Egyptian Book Authority, Cairo, 1994.
(22) Ibid, page 432.
(23) Cf. 'Islamic Legislation and Man-Made Legal Systems' by Dr Adel Mostafa Bassiouni, published by the Egyptian Book Authority, Cairo 1978, page 79 and after. A study of Murad Al Ghazi published in the magazine of the Arab Language Academy in Damascus, 1922, pp 118-119. The researcher was a member of Ottoman Magazine and a lecturer at the Law Institute of Istanbul.
(24) Comparative Literature, Dr Ghnaimi Hilal, Anglo-Egyptian Library, Cairo, 1962AD, page 49 and after.
(25) Cf. The Orient and Islam in Goethe's Writings, Abdulrahman Sedqi, page 25.
(26) Cf. Pushkin and the Quran, Malek Saqour, Al Awael Press, 2000, page 165.
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