Scholars Discuss Quran’s Role in Building New Islamic Civilization
The forum, titled “Role of Quran in Civilization Building”, was held at the Imam Khomeini (RA) Mosalla (prayer hall) here in the Iranian capital on Tuesday night.
Algerian Quran scholar and thinker Nureddin Abu Lahya, who was the first speaker, said the utmost purpose of the Quran is creating civilization and that a major part of the Quran’s verses are about previous civilizations and their fate.
He said the current civilization in the Muslim world is a Muslim civilization not an Islamic one, because it has been built based on people’s thoughts and actions not based on Quranic teachings.
The scholar added that an Islamic civilization has two main features, namely Tawheed (monotheism) and justice.
He also said that today’s democracy cannot represent the civilization that the Quran seeks to create because Islamic civilization must be based on truth and sincerity.
A former Iranian cultural attaché in Lebanon was the next speaker.
Mohammad Ali Mirzaei said the Quran is the only and best path to building a human civilization.
Before being a book of Fiqh, the Quran is a book of civilization building, he stated.
Mirzaei regretted that Muslims have failed to use the Quran in civilization building, adding that many of the Muslim world’s problems today are rooted in Muslims’ being away from the Holy Book.
Seyed Hossein Esmati, a Quranic expert with the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO), also addressed the forum.
He agreed with Abu Lahya that the civilization in the Muslim world is Muslims’ civilization rather than an Islamic one.
Esmati also said that sciences that help us better understand the Quran should be employed in building a new Islamic civilization.
They include anthropology, psychology, and Sociology of Phenomenology, he went on to say.
